Whither World Cup?

Posted on May 9, 2007 by Frog

I swung by World Cup (which is the coffee shop of choice) today only to find it shuttered. I knew there was a new business moving in at some point but I didn’t realize I wouldn’t get to have my last coffee or last muffin. Following on yesterday’s work news, I was seriously glum about the best coffee shop in the world being closed.

I called the better-half as soon as I got to my desk. He asked me about the place that went into the coffee shop that used to house the Italian brothers. I told him I didn’t feel like going to the God-loving coffee shop this morning. Really, it turned into a Christian coffee shop. Who knew Jesus drank coffee. Think He took it black?

The place where I like to buy whole bean coffee doesn’t open until 9 or 9:30 so while they are also nearby, I didn’t want to wait that long to get coffee. And, yes, there’s a Starbuck’s over in the library but it just wasn’t something I felt like doing. I just wanted one last cup of World Cup with their awesome music and equally stellar baristas.

Instead, I put on the headphones and listened to some country music. Too bad there’s not a song about crying in your coffee.

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Choking Like A One Man Dustbowl

Posted on May 8, 2007 by Frog

It is entirely possible I won’t have a job in July. The joys of working on a grant-funded project. The good news is I have an ass-load of leave that I need to burn through. The bad news is I’ll need to figure out how to pay for the classes I need to finish my graduate degree. The good news is everyone I work with has a wicked sense of humor and we’ve already moved into gallows humor.

Other good news, I take a final this afternoon and then my association with that class I hate is over.

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Fan Upgrade

Posted on May 7, 2007 by Frog

About a month ago, we removed the old ceiling fan in our bedroom. Technically, there was nothing wrong with it except for a serious case of the non-descript.

See (kind of ugly):

The better-half did his magical electrical mojo and made 2 more holes in the ceiling so we could move the ceiling fan closer to our bed and put up lights. It is pretty hard to find ceiling lights that don’t suck. I’m not sure why but the ceiling lights at the Home Depot in my town look like something your grandmother’s grandmother would have put in when electricity finally came to town. If you don’t want track or pendant lights or ugly lights, don’t bother going there.

Of course, we had to be different and we wanted a Hunter ceiling fan with no light kit, in a nickel finish. Those are damn hard to find. We ended up ordering one from an internet company. We also ordered the fan for our screened porch–which, by the way, is nearly and finally done. The internet company was a bit sluggish–something about the Hunter fan not being easy to get–and finally the fans came in today. Before I got home, the better-half installed the one in our bedroom.

Posted in House Proud | 1 Comment

Pip, Pip and a Cheerio

Posted on May 3, 2007 by Frog

So, the Queen is in Richmond. Traffic is snarled and there are many state troopers hanging out on Interstate 64. I was listening to public radio on the way home and they interrupted the Rockettes story to bring us live coverage. There was some generic blah, blah, blah going on and then! the Queen! must have loomed into view because there was much clapping and then some hooting. Then some more clapping and more hooting. I do not know what it is about the people in this region but they all think they are in the studio audience of the Arsenio Hall show whenever someone famous shows up. I snapped off the radio.

Does anyone else miss the ability to snap off the radio or teevee when you disagree with or are disgusted by something? Now it’s all soft buttons.

My sister and brother-in-law leave in 8 days to travel to China to pick up the new Niece (yes, I need to figure out a pseudonym for her). We get to hang out with The Niece for two weekends. We’re pretty excited about the babysitting duties and are thinking of things to do together. Unfortunately, she won’t be able to swim while she’s here as the pool water is still a cool 70 degrees. And, I refuse to go to the Children’s Museum as I, personally, find it lame and kind of grubby.

And, for lame and grubby, we can just stay home.

Posted in Thinking | 1 Comment

And our figurehead is not what she seems

Posted on May 1, 2007 by Frog

You may have heard that the Queen of England is dropping by Virginia to help celebrate Jamestown’s 400th anniversary. I personally will be glad when the Jamestown hype stops…I’ve heard the new exhibits are great but I can’t get out of my head the memories of countless field trips there during the late 70s and early 80s. The coolest part of those field trips was watching the glass blowers and chewing pack after pack of gum on the bus. Mixing multiple flavors of Bubble Yum was the best part because the resulting glob in your mouth was always turned into a horrible shade of puke.

Anyway, the Queen is coming to our fair city and as a result the Governor has graciously granted state workers 8 hours of recognition leave. I believe those state workers who are actually in buildings around the Capitol building will have off tomorrow to lessen the traffic snarl. We’re also getting those hours of recognition leave. I’ve never had a particular affinity for royalty but today I’m thinking the Queen is alright and she should hurry back to Richmond any time she’d like. We’ll be sure to greet her with open arms.

Now I need to figure out which day I’m going to take off.

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Yesterday

Posted on April 29, 2007 by Frog

Yesterday I turned a year older and I think when people ask me how old I am, I may have to tell them I’m the first and only 39 because I think it is silly to say 39 again–like 40 won’t come if you don’t mention its name. Whatever. Next year I’ll be 40 so effing what.

We didn’t have any big plans but we did buy tickets to go to the Best of the Wurst cook-off and we planned to recycle electronic equipment–hot times I tell you. We did neither. Instead the lawn guy showed up with a power spreader and we borrowed it for a few hours. So I got to ride around on one of these:

and spread fertilizer/weed killer/crap I’m not real interested in continuing to put down.

We’re following the grass guy’s instructions this year to get the grass to grow on our former wasteland and then I think once the grass is healthy and established we’ll backslide and just make sure something green is growing out there. I like to garden but I don’t want to be responsible for one of those perfect lawns. We have a yard not a lawn and definitely not one of those golf course look-a-likes.

After the power spreader was picked up and more instructions given, we went to the fish monger and got an awesome piece of tuna and drove by the Wurst festival only to think it looked lame from the road and high-tailed it to the grocery store. Where, upon entering the store, found the biggest bottleneck of zombies. It was an amazing display of clueless, shopping zombies. The better-half had the cart and I turned around to give him a smile because it is rare to see so many stupefied shoppers in their native environment like that.

The Niece and her mother stopped by late in the afternoon and gave me a coffee mug that says “Aunt, like mom only cooler.” Heh. I liked the mug a lot. We hung out with them for a little while and then continued with our low-key birthday celebration.

The better-half made an encrusted tuna dish (encrusted with mustard, poppy and sesame seeds–then seared and sliced thinly) served over fava beans, roasted red pepper, corn and bacon. Delicious. He also made a rice pilaf from scratch. We had raspberries and macaroons for dessert.

Posted in Thinking | 1 Comment

As Requested, Liz

Posted on April 27, 2007 by Frog

Here are two shots of our new dining room rug. It makes the room a little more formal–although it already had the formal thing going on. We use our dining room nearly every night for dinner–which may seem weird.

Here’s a close-up:

And, here’s a longer shot–our dining room isn’t that big so it is hard to take a picture of the whole room. The thing in the lower right-hand corner is an old cobbler tool…I don’t know the “real” name but cobblers would put the leather shoe on this form and cobble away. We use it as a door-stop.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 4 Comments

On the Chime

Posted on April 27, 2007 by Frog

We ordered a dining room rug a couple of weeks ago and the better-half got a call yesterday saying the rug would be delivered between 10 & 2 today. As the clock downstairs struck 2, the better-half dialed the phone to find out where the rug is since it isn’t here. I started to laugh when I heard the numbers being dialed. That’s something I would do…raise the riot-act flag at the stroke of 2.

Now the better-half is explaining where we live. Honestly, in this day and age, there’s no excuse–hook up the GPS, look up the directions on Google or Mapquest, just get your ass here and quit screwing the customer over. Thanks UPS Freight.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 1 Comment

Wednesday Nights Are Mine Again

Posted on April 26, 2007 by Frog

My Wednesday night class wrapped up last night and in addition to getting our papers back we also found out our final grades. Usually that takes a week or more after the class ends, but this professor had it going on. Now, if my other (dreaded) class could just hurry up and get over, I’d be very happy.

Today is my last day at work this week as I’m taking of tomorrow. I am not quite sure what I’m going to do but I know getting up at 6am is not one of those things. The car needs an oil change so I’m sure I’ll be seeing the guys at the J-Lube. What a crazy life I live.

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He Brought The Sexy Back

Posted on April 22, 2007 by Frog

Yesterday I was locked away in my room working on a paper but I cheated and had all the windows open. Yes, one of the nicest Saturdays this year and I was writing a paper. It stinks.

For most of the day one of the male turkeys around here gobbled and called to the hens. It’s time to make baby turkeys and that male had the need to spread his love around. A serious need.

The funny thing? We have two different flocks and the males hovering around the flocks strut and call and beg the hens and the hens pay absolutely no attention. They keep scratching the ground and eating the seed we put out. I start to feel bad for the males and all the trouble they go to for a little play.

Here’s one of the boys:

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 1 Comment