Frog and Goat

Sunday we spent most of the day putting up corn and tomatoes. I had planned on writing a longish entry with step-by-step pictures but since today is Wednesday and we did this on Sunday and I have a raging headache today, it’s not going to happen.

We grew Silver Queen and some damn yellow corn that neither of us can remember the name. We have maybe another dozen ears out in the garden and then we’re done. The corn has been outstanding this year. We’ve eaten enjoyed many ears and as I mentioned, we canned some. The leftovers went into the freezer.

We also had a small wave of tomatoes come in so I roasted some of our anaheims to make salsa. We ended up with one jalapeno out of the garden just in time for the salsa making. A tiny habanero from last year went into the mix too. With all of those peppers, surprisingly not too hot, but certainly not bland.

We had leftover tomatoes after making the salsa and were able to can two pints. A little extra leftover went into making tomato juice which I’m sure will be lovely with the pepper vodka we infused.

This week has been busy. My last night of class is tomorrow and then we’re headed to Cafe Rustica for dinner. Then, somehow, I’m going to manage to last yet another week before vacation. I feel like I could sleep for a week.

So what do you do in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep? Me? I get up to work on a school project. I was zipping right along until I ran into what I hope is server maintenance on the school library and not some freakish plot to ruin my research abilities.

We’re using a cmap to show relationships between many parts of human resource development. I’m working on training and development and have several articles I need to review before I make them resources on our map. If I can get that part done, I feel like I’m mostly done with my portion of the map. Of course, I have to make some notes about why I chose certain connections and resources so I can tell people about it, but that part will be easy.

Since I’m the consummate multi-tasker, I’m also transforming CDs into digital media while I’m working. John McLaughlin’s Passion Grace & Fire is running through the process right now.

*I’m pretty sure the Gap Band will be converted in the next week or so.

I’m taking a day of sick leave today because I’m, drum roll please, sick of work. That joke never gets old.

I’m sick of work and have a major project due for class next week. It’s a group project and all of us have left it to the last minute/last week. So, I’ll be hammering out my part so we can discuss amongst ourselves before we have to present on Thursday. The summer session is already coming to a close. I’ve really enjoyed this class and have made Marvin Weisbord my new hero.

I don’t have much today so I present my latest t-shirt. Today is the first day I’ve worn it and I have to say it’s very comfortable and the funny.

I need to learn meditation or I need to start drinking at work. Remember old movies when the cranky guy would open his desk drawer and pull out a fifth? Then he and his cronies would toast their miserable lives, smoke cigarettes and everything would be OK for the next ten minutes? Sounds real good except for the next ten minutes when I’d doze off and wake up coughing up a lung and feeling like shit. So I’d end up with the same result only without the warm feeling of booze.

You say it’s only 8:30 how can it be bad already? Oh, my friends, it not only can be bad but it is bad. The noise in my office ceiling. The debate I had in my head about pulling out my MP3 player–to pull it out and listen to it or keep it hiding in my bag. I decided that since the woman down the hall had her wallet stolen out of her bag that the MP3 player is at risk whether it’s on my desk or in my bag. I have hidden the player behind my screen and speakers. At least it will be harder to steal. My plastic Jesus that normally sits on my PC to protect and offer beneficence was laying on my desk. I don’t know how come he was so far from his perch or why nearly everything on my desk had been moved around–overzealous cleaning crew? Did they actually use my phone over the weekend because it was totally not in the right place. Do I even care?

Then there is the knowledge that I’ve reached a career plateau which includes a structural plateau and a content plateau. Lucky for me I haven’t reached a life plateau yet.

On a positive note, I managed not to kill Control Freak over the weekend when she drew the conclusion that because we don’t subscribe to the daily paper that we don’t read. Yeah, I don’t read the local paper that is taking a bigger and bigger nose dive every day with lackadaisical writing and weak content. But I do read complex, tough things every single day. For my job and for school. But, the Control Freak is always right. Right out of her mind.

Seriously, where is that bottle?

It’s been two years since the ice cream maker died. The other night after The Niece, Lil’ Elvis and their parents were over for a swim, we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick up some things. One of those things was a Cuisinart ice cream maker.

We’re having our friend the Control Freak over this afternoon. She has someone from France staying with her and so they are coming to hang out at the pool. We decided to make things that are southern and regional for dinner. We’re going to smoke a chicken and slather it in BBQ sauce and we’re making peach ice cream. The ice cream maker is downstairs churning right now.

Work has been a nightmare lately. It’s a soul-suck.

Anyway, the other day I had to watch this video because I knew it would make me feel better.

But then there was this version and I swear how can you be grumpy after watching it?

There are chickens just back from the shore, for crying out loud.

Saturday night I made a salad out of some yellow grape tomatoes friends gave us, one of our own tomatoes, one of our own anaheim peppers that I roasted on the stovetop, red onion, basil, goat cheese and salt and pepper. It was great–fresh tasting with some heat from the pepper but balanced by the goat cheese.

Sunday night I blanched some of our freshly picked green beans and then cooled them down immediately. To the green beans I added a tomato and some salt and pepper. Right before serving I added a little bit of a vinaigrette I made using an orange muscat vinegar and olive oil. That was a fine green bean salad. We also had corn on the cob from the garden. I melted some butter and added cumin and black pepper to it. The corn was wonderful with the melted butter. Vegetables right from the garden are so much tastier.

Yesterday was a terrible, rotten, no good day and it is representative of why I need to get the heck out of Dodge. The better-half made spaghetti with bacon, chorizo and loads of garlic. It was delicious and just the comfort food I needed.

We’ve been listening to stream captures tonight and we’re at the point where we’ve been listening to the Electric Croude from 7/6/08. I had planned to come into the house to take care of some processes running on our laptops (we’re digitizing our CD collection, oy vey) when George Maida started playing selections from the Talking Heads.

As someone with this hanging on her wall:

you know I had to sit in my chair and jam.

OK, He only has 192 more days in office. Would it be possible to keep him locked up for those next few months?
I really think he becomes a bigger buffoon as every day passes.

Tonight after class the better-half and I went to Cafe Rustica which is between 4th and 5th on Main. It was really outstanding. We sat at the bar and when the woman behind the bar saw us she asked us if we’d been in before. We hadn’t but we told her she looked familiar. We placed our order for the cheese plate with flights of complementing beverages and then I stared at her as she worked. I turned to the better-half and said I know where we know her. He and I said at the same time, “Bamboo”.

When she got back to us we told her it was Bamboo and she nodded her head in remembrance. It’s been awhile since we hung out there but evidently we were there enough to make an impression. I love the Bamboo.

Thanks to her excellent memory of all bars and restaurants in the Fan, she helped us remember the name of the Paradise bar. We’ve been trying to come up with that name for over a year. She also reminded us of Not Betty’s. A long dead but much beloved bar. Truth be told we only went there a few times–it’s prime was when I was either not allowed out of the house or was in college out of town.

Anyway, the cheese plate was outstanding. There was a goat cheese, a blue cheese and an irish porter. We sipped wine, beer and port with the cheeses. Excellent.

For dinner I ordered the polenta with fresh, chef-grown vegetables. Oh my gawd. I died and went to heaven. The better-half ordered the keftas and really enjoyed. We’ve decided we have to grind our own beef at least once. Those patties were outstanding.

We were too full to order dessert but before we left we exchanged names with the woman behind the bar and told her we’d see her soon. That’s a fact, Jack.