The Place Was A Dump

Posted on August 29, 2006 by Frog

So, the house we decided to try this year because it had such a nice water view turned out to be a huge dump. The only nice thing about it was the view. Honestly, I have never seen a house in such shabby condition and we’ve been coming here since the early 1990s and have stayed in many houses/apartments. As soon as we walked into the house our hearts sank. We spent the first night in a funk. The next day and a half we spent more than half of all conversation discussing how horrible the house was. Then the AC died. The realty company rep came out and managed to get it running. We went to the beach. We got back and the AC was dead again. It was after hours. The realty company rep came back and frankly told us the house was a dump and they were planning on having a serious talk to the owner about renovations. We weren’t the first people to have issues in that house. He asked us to give him a 10 minute headstart and then we could come over to the office and pick another house.

I think we were packed and out of that dump in an hour. This morning we went back over to finish our quick cleanup–gathering up the trash and the recycling. The realty people are already working out cutting us a check to reimburse us between the cost of the craptastic house and the marvelous house we’re now in (yes, bigger, better equiped house and we’re paying less). We have a view of the lighthouse and excellent breezes come in on the front porch. The bed is really pretty comfortable and I’m happy to say there are plenty of comfortable places to sit in this new house (there were none in the craptastic house–seriously, not one comfortable place to sit).

We took some pictures of the less flattering pieces of the craptastic house and a small video. I’ll have to edit those when we get back home and I’ll post.

The house we’re in now is part of a four house compound. One extended family owns all four houses and takes good care of them. We’ve stayed in one of the smaller ones for years and have always wondered what this house we’re in now was like on the inside. It’s how I would set up a beach house. These owners care about hospitality and you can tell they enjoy coming down and vacationing here too.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 2 Comments

Beginning Saturday

Posted on August 25, 2006 by Frog

We’re leaving early Saturday morning. I suspect entries will be sparse but since we’re able to see the water this year (a new thing for us) expect some photos.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 2 Comments

Hack, Ack

Posted on August 24, 2006 by Frog

This morning I was sitting in a doctor’s office and there was a woman who hacked, hacked, hacked instead of getting up and getting a drink of water. She hacked so much that my throat got dry and I got up to get a drink of water. From the pitcher on the other side of the small, tiny room we were forced to sit in.

And, before you say, “what do you expect, you were at the doctor’s.” I should tell you we were there for mammograms not curing the creeping crud. Hack, hack, hack is what I expect at the GP’s office. Perhaps, she was hack, hack, hacking because she was wearing these. Wearing those shoes would make me hack something up too.

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I’d be cuter without gum in my braces

Posted on August 23, 2006 by Frog

At work today, I was feeling very much like this:

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 3 Comments

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Posted on August 22, 2006 by Frog

After work we dropped off the better-half’s truck at the shop for some routine maintenance. We stopped by a Target so I could buy a book bag for school. Guess which one I found a)thin and flimsy b)covered in cartoon faces or c)solid, good construction.

The better-half looked over at me and said, “I’m seeing a schoolgirl.” And then he sort of leered. Ah, inappropriate lusting in the housewares aisle.

After we found the book bag and shared the inappropriate lusting, we walked around the store to drink in the madness that is “back to school”. School supplies on the floor, microwave oven boxes jumbled about, wandering zombies, etc. One woman wearing a sheath dress and sporting a HORRIFIC hair cut/color was reaming an employee a new one about the price of lamps. We couldn’t get out of that aisle fast enough.

Just take a deep breath. Inhale, exhale.

Posted in Thinking | 1 Comment

Kaboom

Posted on August 22, 2006 by Frog

I received my new Dell laptop battery in the mail yesterday. Dell provided a return address label and instructions to put the old battery in the box and cover the old label with the return address label. The beauty is I can drop the battery box into any mailbox.

If I understand correctly, and there’s every chance I don’t, the problem with the batteries is that little filings from the manufacturing process could sneak through to the lithium ion power center and cause the battery to burst into flames. It seems to me that any serious jostling could send those filings into the danger zone.

If you hear about a mailbox fire on Main Street in Richmond today, you’ll know that it was my battery that burst into flames as I tossed it into the mailbox.

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Canning

Posted on August 20, 2006 by Frog

How I’m spending my Sunday:

The better-half said he’d help with skinning the tomatoes. He cranked up the BTUs.

We canned a lucky, thirteen regular quart jars and one recycled spaghetti sauce jar. I threw some fresh basil in some of the jars and one jar has roasted tomatoes, garlic and fresh oregano.

Posted in Eating | 2 Comments

Damn, Those Belgians Made My Day

Posted on August 18, 2006 by Frog

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Pulling My Chain

Posted on August 17, 2006 by Frog

Earlier today a co-worker came to my desk and told me that the slacker, annoying woman we took the grad school class with had received a B. I had a little freak-out session. Then the co-worker started to laugh. She was just pulling my chain. Slacker, annoying woman had every excuse in the book during class and during our group project. Her excuses enabled her to get a three-month extension on her final paper. Slacker, annoying woman turned her paper in on the last day of her extension with an addendum to her paper saying “excuse, excuse, excuse”. The co-worker and I are just sure she’s going to skate right through and get a B in the class. Which, naturally, annoys the living shitola out of us. Everyone else in class managed to get their work done and deal with personal and work stuff.

As it happens, while walking back from lunch, my lunch group ran into the co-worker and slacker, annoying woman and their supervisor. We chatted with them for awhile in front of their building. Since our Mexican restaurant closed without notice, we’ve all been experiencing withdrawals. The co-worker told me this morning, after yanking my chain, that she had been to another Mexican restaurant and asked them if they would ever make mini-chimichangas. She said the waiter didn’t speak English very well and it seemed like he thought she was asking for something else–if you think about it with your dirty mind, you’ll know what she thought he thought she was asking for. (Was that confusing enough?)

As we were turning to leave, slacker, annoying woman asked me if I was ready for school to start. I told her I was and then she said she was too–her attempt at sarcasm was lost on me. The supervisor and I exchanged a couple of statements about a course we’re working on and then the lunch group and I turned to leave. I rolled my eyes about the slacker, annoying woman and one of my co-workers did an exact imitation of slacker, annoying woman’s laugh and that made my day. I’ll do most anything to avoid taking another class with slacker, annoying woman.

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The Mary Jane Boys

Posted on August 14, 2006 by Frog

We got to Wolf Trap last night well after the gates opened and the lawn wasn’t packed to the gills. We breathed a sigh of relief and unpacked our blanket and set up for what we thought was going to be a relaxing night (Marc Broussard opened, then Umphrey’s McGee played a long set and then Bela Fleck wrapped it up). Little did we know one of the bands was a Phish/Grateful Dead wannabe and we’d be inundated with dreadlocked, sweaty, unwashed twenty year old boys. I know some twenty year olds are men, but these were still boys. But, I get ahead of myself.

A foursome planted themselves right smack in front of us and proceeded to unwrap their picnic. I could tell there was something not quite right with at least some of the foursome when the “wine” guy shows his bottles as if they were something special. I think the words were “on special” at the grocery store. Now, before you think I’m a wine snob, I’m not. I recognized those wines as grocery store material because it’s the stuff we drink. I don’t pretend that they are anything special. Then, I was treated to the ParisHilton of the group’s teeny, tiny left nipple. She was wearing a halter top and had a regrettably small breast and because of her regrettably small breast there was nothing to help hold the halter top close. If I have to look at a woman’s naked nipple, I’d prefer that the breast be luscious.

Because her breast was so regrettably small, I checked out the rest of her and decided she leads an unhealthy lifestyle. She didn’t eat a thing even though the other three in her group did. She drank wine and a Diet Coke. Know how you can tell if someone is healthy by looking at their hair? She had horrible hair-dry, limp, nothing resembling a shine. The girl clearly needed to introduce some food into her diet.

When it started to get dark, the cigarettes came out. There’s no smoking on the lawn and it bugs the crap out of me when lots and lots of people ignore that fact. We sat in a sea of cigarettes. The sweet booze everyone was drinking also started to take hold and people got louder and more obnoxious. Then, inevitably, the sweet smell of marijuana started to make its appearance. I remarked to the better-half this morning that I hate being surrounded by cigarette smoke but the passing of the bong doesn’t really bother me.

The better-half and I haven’t been around that much marijuana since forever. I had a friend in college who smoked a lot and the better-half lived upstairs from Grand Central Marijuana when we first met. Grand Central moved to Idaho and since that time we occasionally get a whiff at concerts.

At one point, a staff member told the twenty year old boys to quit smoking and they got loud and puffed up; strutting about like little roosters. I figured they were lucky Johnny Law didn’t show up and ask them about the other stuff they were smoking.

We left during the encore because the boys were so damn obnoxious by that time. Marc Broussard was pretty good and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones were amazing. Umphrey’s, not so much.

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