Today I made tuna fish salad for lunch. It was delicious. I left my lunchbox on my desk at work (at the contract job). Guess when I’m scheduled to be back on site? Monday. I think I have to make a trip to that office tomorrow to get my lunchbox. Can you imagine a container with residual tuna fish after a few days? Yeck.
Last night we went to a brilliant twist on the Richmond Symphony Pops. Normally on Saturday nights the public radio station in Richmond airs Page Wilson’s Out of the Blue Radio Review which he calls (Page, that is) “pure-bred American mongrel music”. He usually manages to make that work and we quite often listen. He plays folk, blues, bluegrass and nearly anything of those genres that might ordinarily not get any airtime (at least not in Richmond). Last night it was the 8th anniversary of the Out of the Blue show and the Richmond Symphony Pops and Page Wilson (with his band Reckless Abandon) shared the stage. In addition, the Jackie Frost trio and Terry Garland performed.
We thoroughly enjoyed it. This time up the conductor was the Music Director, Mark Russell Smith, and just like Eckart Preu (the Associate Conductor that we’ve seen several times this year) he doesn’t let anyone forget just how much fun he has conducting and while the symphony was quiet how much he loves music. The Symphony played 3 movements from Rodeo (again, love that Aaron Copland) and a little Bartok with a tiny bit of Gershwin and Schumann thrown in. The three “pure-bred mongrel” groups performed original compositions. An excellent two hours of music.
On a completely different tact, today we bought a food sealer and vacuum sealed some beef tenderloin steaks. We also sealed a few chicken breasts, a pound of ground beef and some breakfast sausage. We ended up making our own bags for the tenderloin and I don’t know what was more fun–watching the packages get shrunk down or making our own bags. We are kitchen gadget geeks.
I’ve been in a reading quandary lately. I finished Tracks (the story of Robyn Davidson walking across a large chunk of Australia) weeks ago and haven’t really felt like reading anything since. I have gotten all caught up on the magazines and even finished one of the Harper’s before the better half even started it.
I mentioned this problem to the better half and he suggested that I read one or some of the books from his Educator Classics library. He finally has a full set of these children’s classics after scouring eBay and other online sites. I’ve decided that given the choice between The Chekhov Omnibus or The Swiss Family Robinson (the Chekhov was next in my pile) that the castaways have to be next. I figure I’ve lived a goodly amount of time so far without having read Chekhov and I can go a little bit longer.
Mr. Thoss, it must suck to still have your mother stepping into your fights.
I suppose there’s some credence to the whole “in like a lion out like a lamb” thing. The wind is gusting at about 20 mph. I’m feeling a bit like Dorothy.
Speaking of Dorothy, here’s an embarrassing story for you: When I was little I insisted that everyone call me Dorothy. I called my sister Toto and my parents Uncle Henry and Auntie Em. I remember clearly being in a grocery store and not responding until my mother said “Dorothy”. No history of mental illness–no sir.
The past week or so has brought many a new tune into the house. Here’s a list and my opinion of each:
Thievery Corporation-Mirror Conspiracy: I had to look them up on the internet so that I could label them. Everything needs a label don’t you think? Heh. They are billed as trip-hop. We guessed a cross with trance and jazz. If you like Mono or Hooverphonic then you’ll probably like this CD. I have listened to it at least 8 times since getting it a few days ago.
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra-Rainbow Body: I heard the track Blue Cathedral a long time ago on Performance Today or another NPR show. I loved it and recently got the CD. The bonus? Appalachian Spring is also on here. A weird piece of symmetry is that there is a Barber piece on here as well and, as you may have guessed, I tend to not punch that track in.
Slide Hampton-Jazz with a Twist/Explosion! The Sound of Slide Hampton: The better-half had this on his wish list for awhile and we finally bought it. I can’t get enough. Cool and hip and very good. Makes me want to have a cocktail.
Melissa Etheridge-Lucky: Her song Tuesday Morning made me stop what I was doing and sit down and try not to shed a tear. She rocks.
Indigo Girls-All That We Let In: I can’t decide on this album which I realize is nearly blasphemy considering how much I like the Girls. Maybe this one needs a longer rotation in the car than I’ve given it.
John Kerry swept Super Tuesday and this morning there is nary a trace of his local office in the building.
Speaking of leaving this building we’re moving out as well. You may ask how we could leave a building where some of the time there’s no soap in the bathrooms, the elevators sometimes don’t work, the HVAC works only on the Hot setting, our parking space gets taken a lot and our neighbors yell down the hallway. It will be hard to do but I’m sure we’ll muddle through somehow.
The extra good news about the new location is that it is about 15 minutes from our house (and hardly anything is 15 minutes from our house). And, we’ll have our own bathroom. No soap? No problem, I’ll go to the store and get some.
I found the Shizzolator on lordleiter and immediately had to see what my site would look like…hehe.
Over the weekend we spent lots of time completing the demolition in the basement and garage. We needed to get the shelving unit out of the girl’s side of the garage (yes, we have a boy’s side and a girl’s side) because it was up against the wall that B-Dry needs to work on next week.
The interesting thing about the shelving unit is that it was put together with pegs. We can only assume that the shelving unit was a kit because who would make all those pegs by hand and ensure that they fit the appropriate openings? Certainly not the people who owned our house before us. Those people wired an extension cord into the house’s electrical system. Yes, you heard me correctly–an extension cord went up through a hole in our bathroom closet to an electric box in our attic. Not very bright those folks.
The basement was mostly prepped before B-Dry even came out for the consultation but we did finish removing trim and disconnected the old decrepit electric baseboard heaters. There’s nothing as satisfying as swinging one of these around a room that you’ve come to loathe. I can hardly wait to take on the ugliness that is our kitchen.
The only things we have to do before the work begins is to take the door that separates the garage and the basement down and unhook the washer and dryer. It should take us about an hour to do that next Wednesday night.
I’m a little excited that the basement is finally going to be dry.
As you may know, The Niece is originally from China. My sister and her husband brought her home over a year ago. The Niece is going to be 2 this month. She has lived here in A-Mur-ica for most of her life.
Here’s the news flash: She speaks English.
I can’t imagine the questions my sister gets if I’m still getting the “Does she speak English?” question.
