Tiring

Posted on June 24, 2018 by Frog

Locking up children, racial profiling and whatever new fresh hell this awful president comes up with next is not how we make America great again. Because, honestly, America was already pretty great. A confederate sympathizer is running against one of our senators this fall. It really is 2018, right? We’re supposed to be living in the future or at least for the future. Quit looking back because the only path is forward.

Last night we went over to a friend’s place to celebrate her birthday. She put in a lot of work to get the party started in her backyard–twinkly lights, lots of cold beverages, some crazy good potatoes (seriously good potato bites), etc.

Not one person talked about politics. Not one person talked about hate. It was just a few pockets of people meeting each other for the first time or hanging out with people whom we’ve known for years. That is what living in 2018 is like. That’s the real world.

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Peaches

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Frog

We bought some unripe peaches a couple of weeks ago. Last night we made the base and today the better-half ran it through our ice cream maker. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a star.

Peach ice cream!

This is the first time in 4 or 5 years that we’ve made ice cream and I think this is going to be our thing this summer. Because, holy cats.

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Even when you know it’s coming

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Frog

A friend died over the weekend. He was in organ rejection after surviving for a year on his third set of transplanted lungs. He has two small children. That third set of lungs let him meet his youngest and watch him grow. That’s the best thing ever.

___Updated 6/3/18____
We went to my friend’s life celebration yesterday and the church was bursting to capacity. We were all dressed in the most colorful outfits. One of the guys who spoke said something about wearing colors that could be seen from space. My friend had a thing for the brightest colors to match his brilliant personality. There were some sad bits but there was a lot of laughter too. Lots of laughter. I think my friend would have been pleased.

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On Turning 50

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Frog

I turned 50 in April and had my colonoscopy today. People say the 4 liters of Colon Blow you have to drink tastes nasty. I disagree. It’s not the taste, but the texture. Like a cold glass of snot. Over and over again. I slept through the procedure and commented that was a great nap because it was the kind of nap that hits you hard. Afterwards, we went out for breakfast and listened to a misogynistic boomer at the next table over. What an asshole (see what I did there).

One of the nurses at Colonoscopy R Us used to work at my place of employment. For such a small organization, I run into either present or past employees all the time. On Saturday, we ran into two co-workers. We are small but kind of legion.

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Two Big Things

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Frog

We started the month with my sister’s wedding. It snowed a little bit at the beginning of April here in Virginia because OF COURSE. It makes for a good story about how cold it was at the reception.

We spent yesterday in Tappahannock at a memorial service for an uncle. There was a bagpiper, some heartfelt words and a dumping of ashes in the river. And, then good times and seafood. It was a pretty good way to spend a Saturday even though it sounds bad–a memorial service is supposed to be sad, right? It doesn’t have to be.

Tappahannock

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Short Ribs

Posted on March 24, 2018 by Frog

I cooked short ribs in the slow cooker today. They may not look like much now, but tomorrow they will be transformed into deliciousness.

As it turns out, that lizard brain memory of roast beef is well realized by short ribs.

The recipe I use recommends letting the ribs sit overnight. This is partly to get rid of the excess fat. Because they are some fatty fat fat. The other reason is the flavor deepens. I’m all for that.

The result:

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Snow in March

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Frog

It is actively snowing here. I feel like we’re getting more than anticipated, but I didn’t bring my laptop home from work because I’m sure I’ll be headed in tomorrow. We’ve been in a cold spell and it seems like we don’t actually see the sun all that much. I’m not imagining things because our solar panels made 635kw hours in January, 465kw hours in February and only 269kw hours so far in March. Compare that with 2017 data: January-378 (wow, January was worse), February-646 and a total of 875 for March.

We finally managed to get all of the briars we clipped a few weeks ago shipped out with the garbage. I’m sure the sanitation guys will be happy next week when we don’t have a supercan full of blackberry canes. I’m still waiting for some of the scratches to heal. It was wicked.

Speaking of scratches, the Lucy cat has to take a trip to the vet tomorrow. May everyone involved survive.

Snow update: 3/21/18 it snowed and didn’t really stick around. But, holy cow, more snow is called for this weekend.

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Squeaking in under the wire

Posted on February 25, 2018 by Frog

This may be short but it counts as an entry for February. It seems impossible to have sunshine on the weekend. What’s up with that, February?

A friend of the better-half stopped by today to show us his new car. He’s been saving and planning for this car for 12 years. It is part of Subaru’s 50th anniversary celebration and only 500 of this model are available this year. It is striking and cool. So much so the Subaru nut from down the street had to pull over and chat about the car. He took pictures to send to a friend.

We went to see Black Panther last week and I hope history remembers how spectacular that movie is. Beautifully shot, well acted, good direction and great dialogue. The story held together too.

We went after the blackberry bramble at the corner of our lot yesterday with such vehemence that I’m sore and we have multiple scratches on our arms and legs. The earlier icy snow did the bramble no favors and now the thicket looks like an odd collection of a couple of evergreens, a sparse forsythia with some spiky sticks jutting out. No berries this year but also no need to constantly trim the mess.

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Long Weekend

Posted on January 21, 2018 by Frog

We arrived in NYC on Friday afternoon. Saturday morning we heard from our pet sitter, who had just brushed Lucy, and we have been replaced. She is a ho for a brushing. Lucy, not the pet sitter.

We saw our first Broadway play:

Visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Michelangelo exhibit. We also saw the David Hockney and the Adolf de Meyer exhibits too.

Then we decided there were too many people and went outside to enjoy the sunshine until a family decided to feed pigeons right next to us. For reals, you may as well ask a rat to sit on your lap.

Upon reflection, we realized our museum does a darn good job. For instance, the Rodin exhibit held no real interest for us because we’d already seen it. And I have no interest in broken limestone and marble pieces of ancient art(tifacts) because A) we have been to the British Museum and B) our museum has a ton of that stuff. If you’ve seen one broken medallion, you’ve seen them all. And the art world just fainted.

We dragged ourselves over to the Museum of Natural History to hang out in the planetarium. Again, packed with people but some very cute kids and their enthusiasm helped with our seriously tired aspect. The Neil deGrass Tyson narrated film about the dark universe was very well done. I finished reading his Astrophysics for People in a Hurry Saturday morning so our timing was perfect.

In order to walk out of Central Park and over to the Museum/Planaterium we had to ask a NYPD officer for permission to get through the barriers because it was Women’s March weekend.

It helps that the government shut down and one of the shithole Trump towers was nearby. How I hate him. Rage on sisters.

I haven’t mentioned the food yet but yes, please may I have another. Pizza from Patsy’s. Sage filled crispy polenta at breakfast and German wursts are just a few of the items so far.

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Not missing this month

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Frog

I’m not missing this month for posting. Ha! There will be at least one post in January. Actually, I already know there will be another one. Is the suspense killing you?

This isn’t exactly January news, but we learned how easy it is to make Shephard’s pie and I swear that dish needs to be on the regular menu around here. So easy and so delicious. It’s great after being frozen too. So, not only good for a couple of dinners, but also a couple of lunches. For the win.

We also made what my family calls Chicken Divan the other night without some of the items called for in the recipe and it still turned out great. I’m pretty sure everyone agrees that casseroles are the solution to days of frigid temperatures. We’re going to make a pizza quiche tonight for dinner and I can hardly wait.

In other news, there’s a new person starting on my team tomorrow and I’m a wee bit excited about it. No lie, on the day she was offered the position, we saw each other at a not-exactly-mainstream show at The National. Through the grapevine, I learned that this sighting of me at the show made her get off the fence and accept our offer. It pays to be weird sometimes.

Teaser for the other post in January. We’re taking a long weekend in the next couple of weeks. There will at least be some photos posted. Some may question why we are going in the dead of winter and my answer is Because.

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