Is the Glass Half Full?

Tonight we’re headed to the better-half’s mother’s for dinner. She was adamant the other day when she talked to him about having us over. Frankly, we try not to go over there for dinner. The house is a shitstorm and we usually end up having to straighten up, cook the food and then clean up. Plus there’s the handful of other chores we’re assigned while we’re there and then there’s the listening to her grump about everything under the sun. A little ray of sunshine, my MIL.

For the record, we don’t mind it if she comes to our house or if we go out for dinner. It’s the having dinner at her house thing that bugs us.

But, the better-half’s birthday was yesterday and so we’re going. I’m trying hard to move past the fact that while she talked to him yesterday not once did she utter the words, “happy birthday to my only child who does 10,000 things for me on a regular basis”. She also couldn’t get a card into the mail. I just hate it when she blows off his birthday…like she’s done for the past several years.

When I got home this afternoon there was a bag of charcoal sitting next to the front door so we’ll remember to take it with us. I guess the better-half will be cooking part of our meal. And, I’ll feel compelled to clean up the kitchen.

We have a sick bet that we’ll be doing none of that and will go out to eat because his mother couldn’t get it together.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 1 Comment

Heroes in a Half-Shell

My hotmail account is my trash email. I use it when placing online orders and I have a few newsletters that go to that account. The rest of the mail I get is spam. Some days I get better spam than others and so I present the Spam of the Day:

Seriously, don’t you wonder what a mutant dick looks like? Does it have an opposable thumb? Or am I thinking of this wrong and it can create a new weather system or turn objects into fire or ice or steal someone else’s mutant gift?

Posted in Thinking | 2 Comments

The Problem With Summer Vacation

This morning, when I got to work and realized the big fun of the day was to read a course about Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, I just wanted to turn around and get back in my car. The sky is a wonderful blue, there’s a breeze and the temperature is hot. What should I be doing? Laying in a hammock reading a good book. I’m so far from that right now and there’s nothing but hours and hours of time stretching out before I can even consider loafing in the backyard. Bummer.

Posted in Thinking | Comments Off

Loose Ends

As requested, here’s a picture of our garden. I had to get out there early this morning with PJs on and my bed head spike because soon there will be too much sun.

What you are seeing: Corn, squash, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, peppers and our fence that’s keeping the critters out.

The final grading happened late Friday and yesterday. We’re now ready for concrete and the fence. The better-half and I have to get in today to scrub it and get the water in balance.

He’s a picture of calm this morning which is a far cry from yesterday morning when he was desperately trying to tell us he was thirsty.

And, I almost forgot. We found a bench.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 3 Comments

Summer Summer Summertime, time to sit back and unwind

Today is the first Friday of our summer work hours. That means nearly everyone is off today. I, however, am not and I have the whole second floor to myself.

I have a morning meeting and then I think I’m coming down with the croup and will have to go home. Life is hard.

The supercalifragilisticexpialidocious news is The Niece is spending the night tonight. We haven’t had a sleepover in months. I’m not sure what we’ll do but there’s always something fun going on when she spends the night.

Update! The power went off in parts of Richmond so I was forced to go home. Forced! Let the weekend begin.

Posted in Thinking | 1 Comment

Kicked Long And Hard To The Curb

Once upon a time, I used MusicMatch to download and purchase music. I actually gave them $20 and used their product for quite some time. Happily used it. But then I got pissed off. Really ticked. Because of the bad stuff that started to happen with MusicMatch–endlessly having it to tell it to buzz off, hanging of PC, way more time than necessary to transfer songs and nasty remnant software that prevented my PC from shutting off.

Instead of using a tool, it turned out the tool was using me. And, by that I mean, any tool that takes too long to work correctly and accurately Every Single Time, is using me. And, boys and girls, that doesn’t get to happen. So, I moved on to other options for music purchase and only used MusicMatch because I had to because of the MP3 player I have (Windows Media Player just didn’t do what I wanted). I hated having to rely on a product I hated, but I needed to rock out to my music.

Then I upgraded the firmware on my player and MusicMatch turned into a shrieking harridan of software. I could start a music transfer and go do something for an hour. When I’d get back to the PC the transfer still hadn’t started up. I downloaded the free upgrade to MusicMatch and it stopped working at all. Nada. A month went by and the new music began piling up. Something had to give.

The better-half found a very fine product that I will use as long as my Dell DJ lives. In fact it works so well that the first few times I transferred music I thought something was wrong and broken. It turns out the software transfers files so quickly that I just couldn’t believe it could get the work done that fast. The product? Deubox Explorer by Red Chair Software. I kind of have a crush on Deubox.

Last night we gathered around the PC and I kicked MusicMatch to the curb. It felt like the scene in Office Space when they take the fax machine out to the field and beat it.

Posted in Listening | 1 Comment

Quite the Turnout

Today is Primary day in Virginia. I was talking with a co-worker who lives in the Newport News area and she said at 6:30 this morning she was only the sixth voter. I can’t wait to tell her that at 4:30 this afternoon I was only the nineteenth voter at our little voting precinct. Banner voter turnout today.

Speaking of not turning out, why would pool guys not show up on a beautiful sunny day? No good reason that I can think of. What I’d like to say, “Get out here and finish this project before I get crazy on your ass.” What I will really say, “better-half, please handle this.”

Posted in General Spleen Venting | Comments Off

Dump Truck, Beer, Porch

Yesterday the guy bringing dirt for the patio area around the pool (we have to build up some of the surface since we have a gentle slop in the yard), made a lot of trips back and forth from the dirt pile to our house. Around 6:30 he was making a drop and saw us walking around our garden. We were holding beers and dump truck guy told us that was no fair that he still had work to do.

Last night around 10 when he finished the last load, the three of us drank beer and chatted for about a half hour. I gave him extra points for picking the Foster’s over the Bud. I think I got extra points from him for being a native Mechanicsville girl. I guess it’s hard to find people anymore who are actually from this area.

Dump truck guy is a pretty interesting guy who used to be in the technology business and had a bad experience with his business partner who was located in Connecticut. All eerily similar to the bad experience the better-half had with his partner some years ago, who was also from Connecticut.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 3 Comments

Can You Dig It

I downloaded Blonde Redhead’s Misery is a Butterfly a few days ago from 3hive and it just gets better and better with every listen. You really should go over there and get the song. The guys at 3hive won’t steer you wrong.

While I’m on the recommending kick, Betty Hutton, where have you been all my life?

Posted in Listening | 1 Comment

She Grew Up With The Children Of The Stars

Last night we went on a quest to find a bench for our front yard. We want one that will hold up to the elements, is comfortable, but isn’t a gazillion dollars. We didn’t see one in a handful of stores. While it’s true that home building supply stores have benches, we don’t want one of those metal and wooden slat models. I don’t really care for those and have never sat on one that made me want to stay seated. And, I don’t like spending money on something that I know I won’t use.

We were also looking for a couple of other items and that was a near bust too. I decided the other night, while struggling to get a piece of corn bread out of our small baking dish, that we needed a mini-spatula. We found one that had a smiling egg on it. I picked it up just to show the better-half how horrifying it was. We didn’t buy it and didn’t find another non-smiling spatula that fit the bill.

After being thwarted on nearly all the shopping fronts, we went to dinner at a familiar place in the Fan (excellent fried oysters last night). We ended up at a corner table off the bar with a good vantage point of the street. I watched a guy bounce a soccer ball off his head and then he practiced some fancy footwork. The weird thing was he was pretty dressed up for knocking a soccer ball around and he was standing on the sidewalk in front of his apartment. I guess he was getting primed for the World Cup?

The boys in the apartment above soccer boy were out on their balcony with a radio, a guitar and the most massive grill fire I’ve seen in awhile. There’s nothing like hanging out with a bunch of strangers in a bar watching the lucky break twenty-somethings get. There’s no reason why the apartment building didn’t catch on fire. The flames were a good 5 feet above the grill and shooting out 3-5 feet from the front of the grill. I can only imagine how much lighter fluid went on that grill.

While we were waiting for our food, a freak named David walked into the bar, struck up a conversation with a lone woman, who very gracefully exited the situation, and bought a beer. He paid for the beer and then a few seconds later asked again how much the beer was. By then the bartender had caught on that David was either very drunk or very high. I’m not exactly sure what happened next, but David left without drinking his beer and then did a little performance out front (some weird interpretive dance) and then stumbled out of sight.

Who says Richmond isn’t any fun?

Posted in Watching | Comments Off