This is what the better-half bought for me today:
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He Loves Me, Yeah, Yeah
Posted in Thinking
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In A Mood
Today at lunch the elder stateswoman in our lunch group sat down at the restaurant table, noticed that Ed Bradley had died (she saw the news feed on one of the many teevees) and then was completely paralyzed by the teevee. The waitress asked her for her drink order and she didn’t even pay attention. Someone else ordered for her. We settled in, had some general conversation, the waitress came back and we ordered. The paralyzed woman had to be snapped out of it to order. I snarkily wondered if she had ever slept with Ed. Yes, brilliant journalist who blazed a trail. But, we’re at lunch, order your food because we don’t have all day. And, once you’ve read the news feed on CNN you have the news because they REPEAT over and over again.
A little while later, after she snapped out of it, she told a story about 60 Minutes calling her office years ago and asking to confirm/deny something or other and she was snippy to the producer who called. So it wasn’t a stretch for me to wonder if she had snogged Ed.
Towards the end of lunch she looked at us and said, “You all are probably too young to remember Jessica Savitch.” The youngest member of our lunch group is in her mid-20s. Perhaps she didn’t know who Jessica Savitch was but those of us in our mid-to-late 30s and the 50 year-old certainly did. Frankly, I drifted off a bit until the wise old lady couldn’t remember the exact details of how Savitch died. So I chimed in with “car accident, canal”.
Maybe we aren’t all too young to remember. Maybe the condescending tone needs to stop. Maybe I need a few days off.
Posted in General Spleen Venting
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Democrat Snacks
Last night on my way home from class, I was all alone on 64 cursing at my radio. The news that Virginians decided to amend the state constitution to take away rights ticked me off.
Today has been a better day. It started with a co-worker bringing in snacks to celebrate the various Democrat victories. Then we watched Dubya flub his way through a news conference. At one point, we all agreed he should have just run away from the podium; getting out while he still could. And if this doesn’t warm your heart, nothing will: I called the better-half and left him a message about Rumsfeld getting the boot and not more than two minutes later the better-half left me a very similar message. Beautiful isn’t it?
Posted in Eating
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Just Grumpy
Today was fraught with annoyances as you know–including me wondering how to tell another co-worker to “step off”. I got home and had a list of things to do but the yard guy was here and he’s doing an amazing job but damn get it done and go away. He was here all weekend (showing up before 9 one morning) and he’s here every afternoon when I get home. He’s like our new best friend.
Why the yard guy? Having the septic tank dug up, having tons of trees knocked over and having the pool installed thrashed the yard. Never mind the real big problems we had before all that stuff was done. Drainage? How about right towards the house. Morons built this house. Anyway, we’re getting the yard graded, seeded, etc. And, it looks great and it will be awesome in the spring–regular grass seed near the house and an orchard blend towards the woods so critters can munch. No matter how good it ends up looking, I will not have a lawn. I will have a yard. A lawn sounds rather frou-frou.
I’m a whiny brat and just want him to be done so I can go back to not speaking to anyone when I get home and just doing my thing. My curmudgeon style is being cramped and grrr.
The better-half is the champion because he’s off to get Chinese and bring it home. The restaurant is having problems with their phone so he’s going to order once he gets there, wait for it and drive it back here. He’s good to his whiny brat.
Girls Just Want to Flush
Today is the third day without plumbing in our office building. The landlord is letting us use the bathroom in the apartment behind our building. There’s been no sign of anyone working on the problem this morning. I seriously hope the problem doesn’t include getting permission to dig up the sewer system because who knows when the city will let that happen.
I got my hair cut this weekend and instead of the really short cut I usually get I left it a little longer because of the chilly weather. I think it looks pretty darn good. A woman I work with came in and said, “You got your hair cut”. Then she gave me a funny look. Gee thanks for your well wishes and BITE ME. I don’t care if you like my hair cut or not. Later when I was fishing out my headphones and MP3 player she gave the same look–just more than a little disapproving.
This is the same person who seems to have a serious problem with me doing work for another unit. Guess a bug crawled in and won’t crawl back out.
Update on the plumbing situation: We may be without plumbing all week. The one-two punch of bitchy co-workers and no plumbing had me walking out the door a half hour early today.
Posted in Generic Thoughts
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Been Quiet About The Food
I haven’t talked much about food lately and unless you’ve been checking out the House Proud section, you may think I haven’t been talking about anything lately.
So here I go about the food.
At the end of last week I made a delicious mushroom and bleu cheese polenta using a recipe from Real Simple (the magazine that’s not that simple any more) as my guide. I improvised a little. The results were pretty awesome and we ate the dish one night as a main dish and the second night as a side dish. I had to respond quickly to the fact that when a box of polenta says instant polenta it means it. The recipe called for instant polenta and then lots of cooking time. Maybe there are different definitions of instant? I had laid out all my ingredients so there was no problem.
Last night I made a mushroom risotto while the better-half grilled chicken that had been rubbed with a cajun blend we whip up. The subtle mushroomy creaminess of the risotto and the fieriness of the chicken complimented each other nicely.
For tonight’s dinner, I have two small freezer bags of beef (when we buy a tenderloin from BJ’s we slice steaks and then we take the ends and whatever can’t become steak and pop them into freezer bags for stews or kabobs), a parsnip and a turnip. I think a hearty stew is just the thing.
It really works
The new faucet arrived and has been installed. It actually works! The only things left to do in the bathroom are a bit of paint touch-up and the installation of molding around the base of the cabinet.
Action shot:
Profile shot:
Posted in House Proud
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Nearly An Emergency
Tonight I was refilling the mini-refrigerator we have in the garage. We like to call it the Beverator. Anyway, I put two Strongbow ciders in and lamented that we only have eight left.
Clearly, this is nearly an Emergency. We can’t get this elixir here and the only person I know who has ready access is my sister in Florida. I think I need to check to see when we’re going to see each other next.
For the sisterly camaraderie, of course.
Posted in Eating
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Almost, but not quite
Yesterday we installed the bathroom cabinet and the new counter top.
I painted the old cabinet a dark chocolate color and we installed new hardware. We also installed new drawer glide brackets because the old ones were shot. No one will notice that fix but at least we’re confident the drawers won’t fall in.
The mirror that was in the room was the kind that was glued directly to the wall. When we ripped that out we had to replace the piece of sheet rock because of the severity of the glue damage. It turned out pretty well. It’s obvious that a professional didn’t do it, but it’s better than many home improvement projects I’ve seen. It’s also better than most of the fixes this house received in between when the original owners moved out and we moved in.
The counter top, back and side splash pieces went in relatively easily. We were nervous about breaking the pieces but with a little teamwork the process was actually pretty easy.
You can tell from this picture what didn’t fit. We’re working on that issue (and by we, I mean the better-half is ordering another part).
In addition to the work done in the bathroom we had new flooring installed. We originally thought we could do that work ourselves, but when we chose the flooring (duraceramic) we were told the grout was tricky. When we found out the install price, we signed them up. It would have taken us a lot longer to get anything close to these results. We did spend most of a day stripping out the old flooring and then nailing or pulling out a gazillion staples.
Here’s the floor in the back hallway as it runs into the bathroom. The kitchen is to the right, the laundry closet (with new doors that need to be painted) to the left. The garage is off to the left. Behind me is the door to the outside and a back stairwell.
It looks pretty close to ceramic but it is vinyl.
The remaining items are to paint the walls and the laundry room doors, rip the nasty carpet off the stairwell and then upgrade the stair treads, install new lights and replace the outside door and the door to the garage. We hope that most of those items will be done by the end of the year.
2006 has been the year of home improvements. I’d like 2007 to be the year to enjoy all the hard work.
Posted in House Proud
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Tool. Bag.
From the Seattle Times:
Cheney indicated the Bush administration doesn’t regard waterboarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. “It’s a no-brainer for me,” Cheney said.
Posted in General Spleen Venting
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