Since I have other things to do with my time then watch hour after hour of a casket and people streaming by like they do when viewing the Crown Jewels (at least you can go through that line as often as you’d like), I’ve decided to treat you to my butt-kicking mix tape from last night.
We listened to our Ray Charles cd “Greatest Hits, vol. 2″ last night and then I asked the better-half what else he wanted to listen to and he said “something jazz”.
Oh, it’s cryin’ time again, you’re gonna leave me
I can see that far away look in your eyes
I can tell by the way you hold me darlin’. Yeah now
That it won’t be long before it’s cryin’ time
Thanks Ray Charles.
I’ve been taking online courses to get a better understanding of UNIX so that I can help the better-half with a project he’s developing. I’ve been fairly pleased so far with the courses from the BIGNAME Learning Center (BIGNAME rhymes with bun). However, as the courses get more difficult (I’m in the midst of learning the Korn Shell); I’m taking more notes and feeling more and more lost. Which is really frustrating when you are trying to learn a complex concept.
Today I went mental because the practice session was wrong. Wrong based on the examples and lessons already taught and, as it turns out, wrong in the real-world as well.
Take note BIGNAME Learning Center: check your freakin’ work before deploying. A basic tenet in damn near everything–and vitally important in training. I write training materials. I should know.
I have to admit that I’m a bit annoyed by the little tag that sticks out of a Hershey Kiss. I, finally, got one today that just said Kisses. I’m sick of the ones that say “I Love You” or “I Think You’re Neat” or whatever hoo-ha. These are little lumps of chocolate not affirmations or valentine candy. I don’t need my chocolate to send me messages. I’m perfectly happy loving the chocolate without getting any reciprocal action from it.
Aside from the uncooperative weather (when did partly cloudy equal mist and rain), we had a great time on Saturday. It was great seeing everyone and it is interesting to take an objective look at how friendships survive.
Background: the 2 families who visited on Saturday–the mothers in the families were my friends/roommates from college.
One of the women I see pretty often. The other one lives in Arizona so we only see her once a year at most. But it had been 2 years since we last saw her. I asked the better-half if he wonders what drew us to each other all those years ago. I think we all hold the same truths to be self-evident but we come at them in very different ways.
As you know, we’re having a cookout on Saturday afternoon. It starts at 4–please, just stop on by.
I went to one grocery store this morning for supplies and totally forgot to go over and look in their prepared food area. I was going to buy some interesting side dishes. Since I’ve been home, I’ve pumped myself up that I don’t need “no stinkin’ prepared dishes”. I had already planned to make slaw and cucumber salad so I’ll whip up something else as well. I’m thinking no to the potato salad but I’m not sure. I need to get it figured out before I go back out to the other grocery store. The store where they sell the demon alcohol. Mwahaha.
Yesterday when I got home from work I saw a turtle laying eggs. I’ve never seen that in real life and I’m not sure why she picked the edge of our driveway to do it, but in 10 weeks or so I’ll have to check out the spot to see if we need to sheppard baby turtles out of harm’s way.
While I was watching the turtle lay her eggs, the usual band of deer headed past. I couldn’t get a picture of them though. They stay just enough in the woods that our camera can’t reach them. Of course, the zoom lens on our camera means I can take pictures of things as far away as the end of my arm.
I really do have a few interests other than food but food is high on my list. This weekend will be filled with food. Since I used to consider Thursdays the beginning of my weekend while in school, I’m counting today as the start of my Weekend of Food™.
I met my friend J. today for lunch. We went to Chipotle. She said she needs to go on a diet. I said we can get started on that task after I hoover down this burrito. She said how about after dessert. We went to Gelati Celesti for ice cream. I think there was enough chocolate in my milkshake to tie me over until Monday.
Yesterday on the way home I had two people wave to me. One guy (on a bike) got a return wave and the other guy got a nod of the head. I don’t know them but I guess there’s still enough rural where we live that you don’t have to know people to wave at them.
When I was a teen we had a house in Lewisetta across the street from where my grandparents lived year-round. Everyone, so it seemed, waved to everyone else in the Northern Neck. We knew we had passed into the Northern Neck when the hand waving started. Usually though it was pretty subtle. People just lifted their hand off the steering wheel–not the waving usually associated with royalty.
Last night I made Balsamic Roasted Brussel Sprouts to serve with the mac and cheese and pork chops. I got the recipe off the grub report. The sprouts were pretty awesome. I didn’t have a pound of brussel sprouts so I kind of eye-balled the amounts of the rest of the ingredients. I also think 435 as an oven temperature is a typo because who cooks at that kooky temperature. I set the oven for 425.
I’m not going to spend too much time speaking of the kitty funeral from yesterday but I do want to say there many tears shed and we were glum for the rest of the evening. We buried him with his food bowl (it was his favorite thing on earth), some cat food (for his journey to the other side), a sprig of the wisteria (he liked to sit under it), a flower (he liked to sniff stuff) and a brick from the retaining wall is his marker. He loved, loved, loved to sit on the retaining wall.
