Sinister Minister

Posted on August 13, 2006 by Frog

Tonight we’re going to the Bela Fleck concert at Wolf Trap. I can only hope this show will be as good as the Gipsy Kings but not as crowded. I’m not really up for having people sit in my lap.

Last night we headed out to the West End which is a good 30 minute+ trip for us. We had two destinations in mind. The first stop was The Fresh Market. We’ve become addicted to the caramel corn there. It is a perfect blend of sweet and salt.

Then we went to a little grocery attached to a large and well-liked pharmacy. I don’t particularly care for the pharmacy but people in that area sing its praises. Locally owned, pharmacy items, gift items all rolled into one store. Anyway, we went to the grocery because I read in a local rag that they had a great international selection of meats. In preparation for buying some gyro meat I made Tzatziki. I strained the yogurt. I cut up one of our monstrous cucumbers. Everything was ready for gyros. Only the store was a complete lie. The store exists. The store is like a corner grocery in the city. There was NOTHING SPECIAL about it and now I feel like calling out the writer of the article and firing pistols at 20 yards.

We ended up going back to Mechanicsville, stopping at the regular grocery store and getting a few things for our picnic tonight. Bad drivers were everywhere. When did it become OK to drive without lights on at night, cross two lanes of traffic to take an exit, tailgate and cut people off, speed up and then slam on brakes–all in the space of 2 miles of driving?

While in the grocery store we ran into a Snopes family and then a woman who walked past several aisles all while not looking where she was going. I guess she figured ramming the cart into someone or something would finally give her a clue about where she was.

Posted in Listening | Comments Off

The Land of Race Car Ya-Yas

Posted on August 10, 2006 by Frog

I was cutting grass this afternoon when the lawn mower ran out of gas. I actually turned it off just before it sputtered out. I walked back to the garage, grabbed the gas can, walked across the yard and filled up. Then I took the can back to the edge of the house because, frankly, I’d wasted enough time with the back and forth and decided that I really needed a pit crew.

When I got done with the cutting, the putting away of the lawn mower and gas can, I grabbed a Coke (have had a low-grade headache all day and am hoping the caffeine will finally kill it). When I got upstairs, I paused in the better-half’s office and told him that my pit crew was worthless. He asked me what happened and I described how I pulled into the pit and no one was around. I had to run across the track and get my own gas. He laughed and said I should fire that pit crew because they were no damn good.

This, my friends, is the secret to my marriage. Insanity runs deep.

Posted in Thinking | 1 Comment

New Math

Posted on August 10, 2006 by Frog

Self-important elected official: Eric Cantor sending unsolicited emails to people who live in his district.

Spam: Unsolicited email

Add those two together and what do you get? A jackass who sends spam.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | Comments Off

Tuning Out the Crazies

Posted on August 9, 2006 by Frog

I’m not sure what was wrong with everyone on my way home today but there was some crazy driving action going on in the city. The interstate was fine. Perhaps yesterday’s monsoon forced everyone to behave on the roads so today everyone freaked.

When everyone else is acting like a jackass on four wheels, I tend to chill way out. I looked at the way the light was in the sky and checked out some of the trees along the road. It looks like the end of summer is sneaking up on us. Just little clues…height of the sun, leaves a little less dark green. Things like that.

I was a mellow fellow until I was less than five minutes from my house. I’ve taken a dislike to Dan Robert’s A Moment in Time (a locally produced historical segment played on our public radio station–I think it is also syndicated). I used to love listening to the stories but now I’m over it.

As some of you may know, 2007 is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. I’m getting pretty tired of Jamestown appearing everywhere and I’m really bummed that the standard VA license plate is a Jamestown plate so I have to have one on my car. Anyway, Dan Roberts started talking about Jamestown. My chill stopped and I slammed the radio off. Jamestown, 400 years, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Posted in Thinking | Comments Off

Crabby Patty

Posted on August 7, 2006 by Frog

This morning I was ready to bite the heads off my co-workers and spit the bits of hair and brains out onto the street. For the first hour and a half at work, I was thwarted with every task I tried to complete. First the supervisor wasn’t there (she called from the beach) and well, frankly, I needed to talk to her about something she said she was going to do but didn’t. Then the big boss denied me a request. A request that would allow me to do some work. I know, not allowed. Then the big boss emailed me to ask if I had briefed everyone on a new way that we’re going to have to account for our time spent developing courses. I felt like saying that would be hard to do since until reading this very email I wasn’t sure which method we were going to use to account for time (I developed two different methods). Instead I replied that I’d write up instructions on how to use the database and send them to her and we could proceed from there. Someone else hollered out my name for some help about something that I don’t even remember doing except that it interrupted me and grrrr.

I did what anyone who doesn’t want to spend a half hour flossing co-worker head bits out of her teeth would do. I chatted with a friend via email. A much better way to spend a half hour.

At lunch one of the co-workers who was asked to write a grad school recommendation asked me if I got hers in the mail. I told her no but that I had asked four people for recommendations in case someone said they couldn’t do it or the mail was delayed. I thanked her for taking the time but that I needed to go ahead and mail the application. She looked either very guilty (like she had lied the whole time about sending it to me) or very embarrassed that she didn’t get me the recommendation in a timely fashion. Either way, I’m so over it. I only asked four people to write recommendations because I was sick of waiting on hers.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 1 Comment

Splashes, I Hear Splashes

Posted on August 6, 2006 by Frog

Yesterday some friends came over to take a dip in the pool and eat burgers. They brought their three boys ranging in age from 12 to 6. From the moment they got in the pool to the time they left to make the drive home, there was mayhem. Beautiful mayhem. I congratulated the boys for making splash marks on the fence and concrete that we’ve never seen before. At some point, it looked like a wave pool out there. That exuberance is one of the reasons we got the pool. There’s supposed to be insane amounts of fun coupled with quiet, lazy floating.

Posted in Thinking | 2 Comments

For Crying Out Loud

Posted on August 3, 2006 by Frog

I know it is hotter than hot everywhere but I am sick of it. Sick. Of. It.

I haven’t been in the pool since the weekend. The water was 91 degrees on Sunday down from 95 on Saturday. How is that refreshing?

Posted in General Spleen Venting | Comments Off

To offer advice and say how I should be

Posted on August 1, 2006 by Frog

Perhaps I have mentioned that I’m working on a project at work with another group of people than the usual group. I really like what I’m working on and I’m totally serious about doing a good job on this project so that I will get to work on others like it.

Naturally, some of the people in the group of people I work with on a daily basis are unhappy that I have to keep going over to the other building. I also detect a bit of nose-out-of-joint when I put on my headphones and tune everyone out while I crank through work. They are so used to me hanging out and chatting about any old thing. While I do enjoy their company, I have disliked that I don’t have enough to do. My motto is The More Work The Better. This new project fits the bill completely. I just need to decide if it’s worth the trouble to tell my work mates that they need to get over it or if I should just let the situation work itself out.

Speaking of walking over to another building…I basically take the same route to the other building every time I make the trip. I think it’s very interesting how the mind filters out everything and I focus mainly on not stepping on dog poop. The other day, though, I realized there are tons of details that I’ve never noticed and that I really should start paying more attention.
Did you know the library building is covered in satellite dishes?
Did you know that guy on Floyd is already drinking beer by 9am?
Did you know that house is a B&B?
Did you know there’s a black and white cat that scoots into a small hole in the lattice work around that front porch?

Posted in Thinking | 1 Comment

Cucumbers and More Cucumbers

Posted on July 30, 2006 by Frog

We planted two cucumber plants and the better-half isn’t overly fond of cucumbers. Naturally the two cucumber plants are the most prolific cucumber plants in the history of cucumber plants. I took some to work in hopes that everyone would be thrilled to have watermelon-sized cucumbers. I got rid of most of them.

Today the better-half made a jerk marinade and put it over some chicken. We love jerk chicken–full of spice and a touch of heat. The heat comes courtesy of our first jalapeño pepper. Luckily that plant is away from the cucumber plants that threaten to take over the world.

To use up some of the monstrous cucumbers, I made a cucumber sauce for the chicken. We’ve never tried the sauce but wherever I found the recipe said it went well with jerk spices. I also made a Vietnamese cucumber soup to go with the chicken tonight. If the sauce and soup are horrible, it doesn’t really matter because there are 2 more cucumbers sitting on the counter and I haven’t even been out to the garden today to pick more.

Posted in Eating | 3 Comments

Like Rabbits, Isn’t Really All That It’s Cracked Up To Be

Posted on July 27, 2006 by Frog

Last night I was talking to my mother on the phone, she’s leaving for a week long trip to Guatemala tomorrow, and I noticed two rabbits running around the front yard. As I sat down to talk and watch, one of the rabbits pounded the other on the head. It took me no time at all to realize that some loving was about to happen. Sure enough, as soon as the female rabbit quit smacking the male on his head, she let him know foreplay was over. Of course, the amount of time it took him to do his thing seemed rather short and depressing. I guess the phrase about sex and rabbits is more about frequency instead of duration.

Posted in Watching | Comments Off