Frog and Goat

This morning I was flipping channels when I should have been enthralled with a morning news show. I’ve been checking out our movie channels to find some movies worthy of taping and taking with us to the beach. I usually take a tape in case it rains and we’re stuck in the house. Last year we watched Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

I came across Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman. I was appalled and intrigued at the same time. How could a movie full of schmaltz like the first Jack Frost spawn something like Jack Frost 2? Then I realized that there must be two Jack Frost movies. Then I wondered how lame have things gotten in Hollywood, anyway?

My friend A (who lives in Arizona but hails from Virginia) had some family tragedies this past week. Her parents were visiting when her mother learned her father had passed away. A’s parents decided to head home early. They were in a car accident in New Mexico on the way home and my friend A’s mother was killed. Her father has some broken bones, not to mention his broken heart. From what I can gather, a drunk/high person was headed the wrong way on the road and ran several people off the road. Then my friend’s mother swerved to avoid a head-on with the dumbass and was hit by another car swerving as well.

We’re headed to Arlington tomorrow to attend the funeral.

I didn’t know A’s parents very well but I’ve had some contact with them over the 18 years (wow! has it been that long?) that I’ve known A. I have spent the night at their house. Her parents were very nice. They raised a great daughter and it is shame that their life together had to end this way. It pisses me off too. I can only assume that the person responsible will be found and dealt with. If not in this lifetime, then in the next.

I realize today is the first sunny day we’ve had in a week, but I’m still grumpy about the weather. I wish whatever pressure system is hanging out would move on. Go away; you aren’t wanted. My head has hurt everyday this week in varying degrees. It doesn’t matter if I take the Allegra or not because it isn’t an allergy thing. It is a sinus thing. Oh bother.

I thought I’d update anyone who is interested in the state of our basement since we had B-Dry come out and do their thing in March.

We’re very pleased with how dry the basement is. We are still running the dehumidifier in the basement and the garage, though. This is mainly because we crack the outside door in the basement to let the cat come and go. We usually dump that dehumidifier every week to every two weeks. Before B-Dry we ran the thing on High Fan and on a fairly high sensitivity and we dumped every day. Now we’re running on Low Fan and on a low sensitivity. The air doesn’t feel moist down there and the musty smell is gone.

The garage only had one wall treated and our garage doors are old and drafty. We probably change that dehumidifier every 5 days. I wish that I had more concrete numbers to show but the point is that the moisture problem is done with.

Lately our temperatures and our humidity have been very high. Today I think the actual temperature was 87 but it felt like 99. That’s a pretty typical summer day here in Virginia and for me to be able to say the basement is pretty comfortable is saying a lot. Remember we do not have air conditioning down there so the only thing taking moisture out of the air is our dehumidifier. There’s just not a lot of moisture to remove because the system is working.

Today the better-half had something to return to Tuesday Morning (if you don’t have a Tuesday Morning in your area, it is a store that sells household goods for 50-80% off) before the time expired on returns. What was he returning? Something he purchased for his mother’s birthday. We got it home and it didn’t work. Have I mentioned that nearly everything we do for her ends up this way?

The store has been closed for the last few weeks for restocking and we were worried they wouldn’t open in time for the item to be returned. Although, honestly, they would have either given us our money back or I was prepared to make a scene. While the better-half went through the process of getting his money back, I wandered around. I couldn’t really tell what “new treasures” were there since it looked like the same old stuff piled on top of the same old stuff.

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Yesterday we drove through the rain, a lot more than what I consider to be a 30% chance of rain, to Lexington. My sister had called us and said that it was beautiful in Lexington. After I hung up with her, I wondered if the weather was great or if they were just so excited about being away from home (together) since bringing home the Niece. As it turns out, as soon as we got over Afton Mountain, the rain stopped. It wasn’t beautiful but it was dry.

We found the B&B and checked-in. When we got back outside, with the innkeeper in tow (our room’s entrance was outside and upstairs), my sister and brother-in-law were sitting in rockers on the porch. The innkeeper told them we’d meet them around on our side of the connecting door. The innkeeper showed us to the room and then beat it when he realized that my sister and I should not be allowed out together. Honestly, I don’t know what happened to the guy after I couldn’t get the connecting door to open because I thought my sister was pulling on the handle and I was laughing hard. He opened the door and I think he vanished into thin air.

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You start with a big box of these:

And you do this to them:

Then you admire your work:

This morning I took the car to the oil change place and when I walked into the lounge area I noticed a 20-something woman looking like she was getting over last night and a man in his 50s wearing a pair of green chinos that really should not be worn anymore especially with a tie and wingtips. Man, those pants should only be used on the weekends when you are working around the house. I assessed the scene for a split second and greedily took a seat near the door. I say greedily because you never know when you’ll have to bolt out of there.

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Yesterday I stopped by a produce stand on the way home and bought 2 ichiban eggplants, 4 ears of sweet corn and a 25lb box of #3 tomatoes. Total cost? $6. Eating canned tomatoes in the middle of winter? Really tasty. (You didn’t think I was going to throw that lame “priceless” in there, did you?)

I pulled back the husks of two ears of corn and de-silked them. Then I wrapped a slice of bacon around the ear and tied the husks back around. We grilled them and they were really good, if a little singed. We decided to try again tomorrow by soaking the ears in salted water and then wrapping the bacon around and cooking on a cooler fire.

A good thing, I guess: last night when I was throwing the corn silk in our totally and completely lame compost pile, I noticed a piece of cabbage I threw away a month or so ago has sprouted with a baby cabbage. I can’t get jack in the way of vegetables to grow in the sunniest part of the yard, but the compost pile at the edge of the woods grows cabbage. Go figure.

I’m a little food-centric lately, aren’t I?

Another good thing: mailing the reminder of our vacation rental money. We’re a month away from the beach. Weeeeeee!

Mary Chapin Carpenter has a new song out called “My Heaven” and in it she sings about her own personal heaven. Since hearing her perform this song, I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to have in my personal heaven. Here’s an incomplete list in no particular order of importance:

-the chance to talk to my mother
-BBQ
-finding surprising music and good food (like the time we ate at the Green Mesquite and heard WST)
-flying without the aid of a plane
-driving a convertible Jaguar really fast and for a really long time
-the ability and opportunity to sing standards in a smoky bar (I wouldn’t care about second hand smoke because I’d already be dead)
-walking on the moon
-a limitless supply of vodka tonics and good solid draft beer
-a bowl of perfectly popped, buttered and salted popcorn whenever I wanted it
-the opportunity to know what sex is like for the opposite sex
-the chance to pee standing up (I want the freedom to whip it out and write my initials in the snow)
-the ability to right small wrongs on a whim (like making people say thank you when you hold the door open for them)
-snorkeling all afternoon without getting tired or too wrinkly

What does your version of heaven look like?