Two weeks ago I was wearing shorts. Two weeks ago it was Winter. This morning there’s snow on the ground. This morning it’s Spring. Weather in Virginia is like that. That snow is sure to be gone double-quick since the forecast is for 54.
This, my friends, is some good cheese. Naturally, if we get to choose, we choose Goat.
Friday night we went on a real, gosh-darn date. We went to an excellent performance by Christine Lavin and then went out to dinner. At one time I thought the best thing I’d ever seen at a concert was Chris Isaak’s disco ball suit. Then I thought it was Leon Redbone making shadow puppets. Now the penultimate of all is Christine Lavin twirling batons–twirling batons with glo-sticks on the ends with all of the lights off in the theater.
We were back in the car around 9:30. In this town, you have to put on your thinking cap to come up with a place that will be still serving dinner around 10. We decided to go to Six Burner and, man, what a good idea that was. Since it was St. Patrick’s we each started with a pint of Guinness. I think we would have started with that any time; the Irish connection was just coincidence. The better-half switched to a Black and Tan (Guinness and Harp) and I had a second Guinness. He ordered oysters on the half shell and, now, I’ve eaten raw oysters. They were outstanding and we wished the plate was never-ending. I ordered calamari and they were exceptional. Then the better-half had rockfish over gnocchi with a mixture of sausage and garlic and spinach. I had scallops over white beans and mushrooms. By the time we left there was only one couple at a booth near the window but the bar was full of young folks smoking and drinking.
I’m a bit of a sci-fi nut. I’ll seek out good science fiction movies and bad ones with equal interest. I’m pretty excited that Seattle has a Science Fiction museum. I can’t wait to visit.
Last night I told the better-half that I’ll have to quit thinking about Battlestar Galatica moving to a ground show instead of a space show (at least that’s where the show left off in the season-ender) because I’ll just drive myself nuts until October. For the love of the gods, how can they move to a ground-based story?
The other night the better-half threw in a reference to the Mission of the Darians episode from Space 1999. I didn’t even skip a beat and agreed we could recycle the cat for his proteins.
I’m looking forward to Doctor Who starting up on the Sci-Fi Channel. I’ve never seen any of the old shows and was surprised to learn it is one of the longest running, if not the longest running, science fiction shows in history.
We’re going to the Pacific Northwest in May. We’re flying into Seattle and staying there a few days, then going over into Canada and thanks to a suggestion from a co-worker we’re driving into the middle of Washington to check out Leavenworth. As you can tell, our plans are pretty sketchy. In fact, the co-worker (who is from there and has family still there) gave me a hard time about our lack of any plans today. He and his family have booked their flight for their July trip. He told me he wanted to give me a little motivation.
If you’ve been to the area and have any suggestions, please post a comment. I’d really like to hear what you have to say. We’ve been making notes and want to pack as much as we can into the week we’ll be gone. I’m actually going to take off 7 days but the 7th day will be a day of recovery back at the home front.
My cube is setup such that if people want to they can see my computer screen. Which means whenever the unit’s co-manager walks back from the bathroom to her office, she can technically spy on me to see if I’m working. Fortunately for me she walks so heavily that I can hear her coming and going and I switch to something work-related. Not that I’m always goofing off. Lately, though, I’m in a spot with both of my courses where I’m not actively working on them. They are in other hands and so I’ve been doing homework or reading websites. And, besides, she’s not my supervisor. I still hate to look like a goof-off, even though I am quite good at it.
The other day at lunch, a co-worker and I were talking about this manager and her crazy rules about short lunches (or better yet no lunches), time spent in group discussion, spending every available minute working, etc. When I told this co-worker that I always feel guilty when this manager walks by, my co-worker said she used to feel that way but then she got over it and is unconcerned about taking out the Washington Post, People or whatever and getting in a good read.
I figure if I’m out of line or not producing then either a co-worker will get on my case or my supervisor will. Since all of my team members have a bad attitude about authority and my supervisor spends plenty of time on the internet, I think I need to get over the guilt. My work gets done well within established timeframes so really I don’t know why I’m so sensitive.
This morning I got out of bed at 7 because the 7 o’clock crows descended on the yard. I don’t know what brings them at that time of day, but they are faithful. Since we’ve been sleeping with the windows open, there’s no hope of me pretending like I don’t hear the incessant caw-caw-caw. I got out of bed and the better-half looked over at me. I smiled and said, “Nice of you to come to bed”. He’s notorious for falling asleep in the recliner and then coming to bed around 4 or 5 am. He said, “Thanks for that hair”. I went into the bathroom and started to laugh. I told him I had cartoon hair. Imagine if Marge Simpson landed on her head and then spun like a top. She’d still have high hair but the hair would be every which way. I need a haircut.
Yesterday we participated in a bowl-a-thon for Junior Achievement. Our team had 5 bowlers and we were all pretty bad. We had a lot of fun and I suppose when you have no talent you should have fun. The team next to ours was drinking. I consider myself a good little drinker but they were throwing back the beer and cocktails as if it was their last afternoon on Earth. It was Noon. One guy somehow managed to throw his ball up into the ceiling. The ceiling tile was ajar and we all jumped at the sound of that ball landing on the lane. He was also fairly curse-ridden which just isn’t cool when that many families are around. Save it for midnight bowling, jerk.
A few weeks ago my MP3 player had to be completely reset again and I decided an upgrade of the firmware was in order. When you upgrade the firmware, all of the contents go away. I had over well over 2000 songs on my player and so I’ve been spending weekend mornings ripping songs off CDs, creating playlists and loading the player. Tedious.
There were three people at the office today. I was the only one upstairs. Therefore, no poop on the bathroom floor today. I never thought I’d hope for days like that, but now I do.
I watched two young women film what I assume was a class project. The building directly across the street from my office is a deep red color with electric blue and white accents. One of the women was dressed in a bright yellow jacket, black leggings and red shoes. She was wearing a white iPod. The photog took lots of video of the subject dancing around in front of the red wall. And, lots of close-ups of the iPod. Because, you know, no one knows what that thing looks like.
To the young man driving a F-150 (I’m from Mechanicsville, I know makes of pick ups) exiting Rite-Aid at Broad and Belvidere-I don’t care how much you think you’re owed the right to pull out in front of me you have two choices. Wait your turn or hit me. My insurance is better than yours. Seriously, he revved his engine at me and rolled back and forth while we waited at the light. I was already way too close to the Lexus in front of me to consider letting him in. If he had asked, I probably would have figured out how to let him in. As it was, he had to kiss my FAT ASS.
Today it is above 80. All the flowering trees are flowering. And, I’m sneezing. Nothing like getting a jump start on the allergy season.
About 30 minutes ago I went into the upstairs bathroom. I never know how long meetings are going to last and hate to have to get up in the middle of one so I usually go prior to meetings.
I saw a small brown object on the bathroom floor and assumed it was a dead beetle. It was directly in my path so I kicked it with my left foot. That wasn’t a beetle it was a tiny turd and I ended up making it so much worse. I immediately threw a paper towel down on the floor and used the sole of my left shoe to clean up the mess. I took care of my own business and then wiped my shoe off again. Then, I washed my hands under really hot water. I’ve been in a wide-eyed mortified pose since that trip to the bathroom.
I’m having a princess and the pea problem with my shoe. I can just feel that residual poo eating its way through the sole of my shoe and making quick work of my sock. I’m feeling all icky. I need to take a shower.
I should tell you there are less than 10 people in my building and some of them are out today. I can’t decide if it is better not knowing who did it or if it would make me feel better knowing the identity of the offender.
I stumbled across a mighty, mighty fine music site dedicated to soul. You know, I love the soul. I’ve already ordered the Soul Sides CD and am anxiously waiting for it to arrive in my mailbox. Lots of the songs posted are from vinyl and I think that pop, crackle and hiss adds to the whole listening experience.
Currently enjoying:
Eddie Fisher-Jeremiah Pucket
Retta Young-You Beat Me To the Punch
Chuck Jackson-Take Off Your Makeup
