I’m not a huge Beatles fan. I mean I like them and know a lot of words to their songs and can sing along, but I’m not obsessed. Today is the 25th anniversary of the shooting of John Lennon. I find it oddly strange that I clearly remember that happening. I’m not supposed to remember things that are a quarter century old.
I do find it strange that the anniversary of Pearl Harbor and the death of John Lennon have so far gotten about the same amount of coverage.
It looks like we’re about to lose power here at the homestead. Lots of brown-outs. The better-half came home early today to finish re-wiring the generator so we can use it more than with an extension cord. Hopefully, he’ll get done in time. Yes, procrastination is King around here. I’m off to gather wood so we’ll have one source of heat no matter what.
* Updated at 6:40pm *
I think we have about 3 inches of snow and the roads are slushy. We’re due for a little more icy rain which makes it a tad scary as far as power goes. The better-half is still wiring in breakers for the generator. The trees are full and leaning over but oddly enough the brown outs have stopped. I guess me running around collecting wood, blowing up the aerobed in case we had to sleep in the family room next to the fire, drawing some emergency water and all that jazz has once again stopped the power from going out. It never fails that as soon as we get prepared the weather stands up straight and quits slouching like a petulant teen. It is a terrible responsibility, but it seems as soon as we slack off, all hell breaks loose. So, I spent my afternoon off racing about when I should have had the luxury to lay about and read my new book.
I love this time of the year. Go into a store, find something you like and buy it. When the clerk says “nice gift” tell him with a sincere smile, “yes, I’m going to enjoy it”. Then laugh all the way home. Seriously, gifts for other people are purchased online.
The other night I was watching teevee and saw a disgusting commercial not once but many times. I’d like to let the marketing hacks, who came up with the commercial, know that I have no memory of what they were shilling because I’m so disgusted. The scene is a twenty something making cookies and gossiping and then she flashbacks into being a little girl sitting in the same place making cookies. The disgusting part is how she’s licking her fingers and smacking her lips as she puts cookies on a plate. Touching the cookies after licking every last one of her fingers. Whatever warmth I was supposed to feel was sucked away with the icing. Yikes.
Was it a big one? was the question I asked The Niece earlier this afternoon. The Niece spent the night last night and although my sister said The Niece had made her daily poop deposit, I was unconvinced. And, for a good reason. There must be something about spending the night here that brings out the poop. At least The Niece is mostly self-sufficient now and handles things on her own. I did have to do a check behind last night before bed. The better-half got to do it for the session that inspired my “big one” question.
We stuffed ourselves silly on Christmas specials last night and The Niece helped us turn on our window lights for the very first time ever. She was pretty pleased to be helping us on such a momentous occasion. This morning we made Christmas decorations out of old cards, construction paper and glitter glue. I’ve never used glitter glue before but I have to say it rocks the casbah. I may start gluing everything with glitter glue.
Weird weather update: yesterday it was cold, windy and rainy. Today it is mild, sunny and windy. Tomorrow? Snow 3-5″ predicted. Welcome to central Virginia.
I promised the better-half that I’d spend this afternoon after work cleaning the house and doing laundry if he went to the grocery store on the way home. I called him when I got home and told him I had already taken the sheets off the guest bed and would be throwing them in the wash toot-sweet.
Then, I had to put a bill in the bill place on my desk and, well, the internet siren called. Then the cat sat down by my feet and purred and looked incredibly cute. Now, I must drag out The Machine of Death and Misery and vacuum. He’ll be so disappointed that I’ve shattered our quiet time. Little does he realize that I must use The Machine of Death and Misery now because I got out of going to the grocery store this week.
We need to buy 8 lights to light every window in our house for the upcoming holiday. I got a wild hair and stopped by Garden Ridge on the way home today. It was a wild hair because I said I wasn’t going to go into that store until after January. I can only describe the Christmas area as a shit storm. I ended up abandoning my cart and getting the heck out of there after searching through all the lights. If there are window lights there, I’m not sure where they are. There were tons of tack-tack-tacky decorations though.
Today I received an holiday newsletter from a cat. Someone I work with brought in holiday newsletters from her cat. And, the thing is the letter was totally serious. The cat is having an annual holiday party, in case you are interested.
Today I walked over to the Student Services Center and registered for a graduate level course. I haven’t been in school in fifteen years. Because I took a class at the university during the summer session of 1988, I was still in the system with a different name and my parent’s old pre-911 address. I had to get all sorts of things worked out. The man at the registration desk kidded me about having only taken one class. He wondered why I didn’t take all my undergraduate classes at the school. At least he said “Oh you got a B” loud enough so everyone knew I didn’t flunk that particular class.
The class only meets once a week at night for 2 hours and 40 minutes. It sure will be interesting to see what school is like for me at this stage of my life.
The pipes here at the homestead have been running a little slowly. We thought something was stuck in the drain of the garage sink, but not so. We opened the cleanout plug outside and water gushed upwards which meant septic tank issues. So, we started digging a hole in the front yard. After some poking around we found the access door to the tank.
This is not something you expect to see when the shovel is flying.
What everyone should throw into the septic tank hole:
As we rigged up a chain to open the septic tank access door, I said, “I know it’s going to be gross, but I can’t wait to see it”.
After getting the entire tank pumped (and having to dig out the other access door), we learned that the clog is actually at the distribution box. Guess who gets to pay to have a backhoe dig out the front yard?
Found this site and wonderful pop song by reading Wordridden. As The Niece was here spreading the love yesterday, I felt it was appropriate to link.
The highlights of dinner tomorrow at Chez Frog and Goat:
Marinated Mussels and Roasted Red Bell Peppers served on sourdough crusty bread as an appetizer.
Roast Leg of Veal with Wild Mushroom Sauce and Walnuts as the entree.
Cranberry-Walnut Tart for dessert.
The appetizer and entree recipes are from The Wine Lover’s Cookbook by Sid Goldstein.
The dessert is from Food & Wine 2000.
We closed at noon today but the director let us go at 11. I was waiting in line to buy the mussels at the time I should have been walking out of the building. Always a good sign when the fish monger is busy and lots of customers are the repeat customer variety. And, by repeat customer, I mean they are all so chummy that the customer and counter person are trading suggestions for good reads.
*Updated 11/25 for photos.
