Because she’s my friend

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Frog

A friend on Facebook sent me a private message today asking me if she could give her boss my email so he could ask me if I wanted to apply for a part-time job with that organization. I don’t know her boss, but someone else suggested my name to replace the current position holder.

Allow me to be perfectly clear on this point. This is the organization that cancelled the grant that funded my old job. This is the organization that I left as a contractor and that I’ve had a love/hate relationship with since 1998 (mostly hate, honestly). When I told another friend about it, she said why would you give the requester permission. I replied with a snark–something about how smug I’d feel when officially turning them down–but the truth is I gave my friend permission because her boss asked her to get in touch. I didn’t want to make it weird for her and for her to have to smooth over a conversation with her boss about how there’s no way in Hell that I’d ever work with them again.

In fact, this organization could be standing in a lake of fire and I wouldn’t do a thing to put the fire out. I’d flip the bird and walk away. That’s the organization as a whole. Now, the friend who sent me a message on Facebook? I’d throw her a rope. And, the person who is leaving the part-time job? She’d get a rope too.

So part of me wanted to and did the right thing and the other part of me wanted to feel smug and superior. I knew from the moment we heard the grant was going to be revoked that I’d never work with that organization again. I actually knew it way before that time, but the idea was cemented then. I do think how funny it is that almost two years ago no one from the organization really approached me to find out if I was interested in joining them. It’s also funny now that they are in a bind, I’m one of the first people they think of. I guess I left a good impression. Apparently, they never knew my solution for them standing in a lake of fire.

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Annapolis Weekend

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Frog

This weekend we went to Annapolis to celebrate our seventeenth anniversary. We were able to purchase tickets to see this band on Saturday night (our actual anniversary). So we went fancy-pants on Friday night and had a great meal at Osteria 177. From the super-talented bartender to the fabulous waitress to the outstanding food, we couldn’t ask for a nicer dinner out.

On Saturday we wandered around town and had to stop for this:

While we enjoyed the Guinness, we ate fried oysters, fried corned beef poppers and crab cakes. The crab cakes weren’t fried so I can’t say that it was a total fry throw-down. But, it was close to that.

As we wandered around town, the better-half tried really hard to get a picture of the capital building. Like most cities that are from olden times (ha), all of the power lines are above ground. It was really difficult to get a shot that wasn’t a riot of electricity:

We finally came at the capital from a different direction and he got off a pretty good shot:

We decided that Annapolis is a high-speed collision between Williamsburg and Boston. There are tiny little colonial houses shoved in right next to large brick buildings. This is the view from our hotel room:

And, the house I called the scaly house. There’s one that’s similar in Austin right near the capital area there too. I really like the texture and the use of stained glass:

We went down to the harbor area a couple of times just to sit and look at the water. What is it about harbors that bring out every tacky t-shirt/ice cream/candy place?

The weather was sunny, cool and breezy but it was nice enough to wander all over the place on foot. The car was taken by the valet when we got there and returned to us this morning. There was no need to use it and the roads are built for horse and buggy so it was fine with me not to have to worry about parking or driving. No sooner did we get home than we saw snow flakes and now I think there’s a mix of rain and sleet. I’m glad the craptastic winter weather that won’t go away waited until we got home.

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The wisdom of Stevie Nicks

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Frog

From an interview with Stevie Nicks at SXSW:

Nicks: It worked. It always worked. So, our boys never went anywhere without us. And we were always invited to the party. But it was because we demanded that from the very beginning. ‘Cause you know, you can’t just, like, be a wimp and then a year and a half or two years later decide to not be a wimp anymore. Because people will always treat you like a wimp once they have decided that’s what you are. So you can never, ever be that. You have to be strong and tough and intelligent and smart and kind of plan out what you’re going to say and know who you are. So that people will get that right away. Because then they’re always going to be great to you. And they’re always going to treat you with respect. And that’s what you want, because then they listen to you. And then they listen to your songs. And then they give you a chance. Otherwise, you get nowhere.

The Source

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MEEE–OOOO–WWW. Hiss. Whine.

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Frog

As you know we have a feral cat population in our backyard. Some may argue that they really aren’t that feral, but they certainly aren’t cuddly house cats either. Our population is down from, at its highest, 15 to 6. I don’t count all the males who show up whenever a female smells so good. Because they aren’t one of the regulars. Yes. There are 6 cats that routinely show up with their paws out and their mouths open. It drives me nuts and we’re going to have to sort this problem out at some point.

The first step is this: There are three females sitting in humane traps in the garage right now. The better-half found a clinic that isn’t quite as stringent on the rules as the SPCA. Tomorrow the three girls go to have their tubes cut and then there will be no more kittens at our house. ThankyewJesus. We’re holding out hope that the lone unfixed male will be dumb enough to get in the last trap, but really, he won’t be bringing any of his offspring home. His name was once Dumbbubba so maybe we do have some hope.

Last night when we set the first trap, one of the longest lived females who has already been spayed stepped right into the trap. She spent last night and all of today in the dog kennel we still have in the garage from when Lucy bit the SPCA worker. She was not happy about that turn of events, but we didn’t want to keep trapping her. She had food, water and a litter box. I don’t think she used any of it. She high-tailed it out of the garage after we caught the last female.

Maybe she’ll get so mad that she’ll find another kind-hearted couple to mooch off of for the rest of her days. Yeah. Right.

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Pasties, Juggling and a Fan Dance

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Frog

Last night we went to a a restaurant we like very much and sat at the bar. The place was packed and we had no reservations. We only intended to have a drink and some appetizers so sitting at the bar was perfect. This restaurant is much more than a pour some beers and uncork the wine bottles kind of place. They are part of the city’s new craft cocktail scene, but not in a hipster bartender way. I liked my drink at Heritage a few weeks ago, but coiffed mustaches, vests and bow ties and showy work with the boston shaker is not my thing. I asked the bartender if she could recommend an after dinner drink and she pointed me to two options. I picked the one with bourbon and sambuca. Yes. The two flavors were meant to be together. Oh my lord. So good.

After our snacks and drinks, we walked down the street to the theater. The Richmond Symphony started playing at 8pm and all was tightly zipped up there. Just a few security folks standing around in the lobby. We walked past the Carpenter Center entrance down to the sign that said “Performance Tonight: Gottwald Playhouse”. We picked up our tickets at Will Call and then went to stand in line. People were in high spirits in our line. It was not like going to the symphony. I like our symphony, but this was not the symphony crowd. For one thing EVERYONE in line was a minimum of 30 years younger than the people sitting in the big theater a lobby over. (Really, Richmond. If you want that awesome group of people to keep bringing great music to the community do something about including the 40 and younger crowd because the geriatric crowd is getting smaller every year.)

Where was I? Oh yeah, the line. Friendly, consuming beverages and dressed in everything from Oxford shirts to bowler hats to fishnets. We were in line for Those Freaking Weirdos Present Rule Britannia Burlesque Show. Yes. We saw women in pasties. We saw a guy juggle and an incredible fan dance that brought the house down. All right next door to the octogenarians listening to Mendelssohn and Barber and some other dead composer (as you know Barber is not my favorite). I think when the first woman stripped down to sparkly nothingness I clapped the loudest because of that very dichotomy.

But, the fan dance? Look up Lily Liqueur on the tubes. Holy crap she was good.

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It feels like Friday

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Frog

I finally left work on time today. This week has been insane with too many meetings and no down time. I got a call at some point this afternoon that a local wine shop had a box of wine bottles for me. I stopped by there on my way home to pick it up. Actually, this is a lie. Basically nothing is on my way home, so I looped through downtown, picked up the box of wine and then went home.

What? You don’t get phone calls in the middle of the afternoon telling you to come get a box of wine? Well. You should. The place I stopped by sells wine and they make pasta and sauces. It is basically nirvana for me. I ended up buying two bags of frozen ravioli. We’ll be having one of them for dinner tomorrow. Oh the decision…mushroom or caprese.

Now, how did I work it so they’d call me about picking up a box full of wine bottles? We went to a wine dinner on Monday and we ordered some of the wines we tasted. The guy who explained the wine to us works for a wholesaler. The guy who called me was at the wine dinner as the middle man. It is a pretty awesome thing. The restaurant is normally closed on Mondays and so occasionally they get together with their wine wholesalers and a local retail shop and whammo! dinner and wine is served.

The funny thing is we had so much going on after work tonight that the box of wine is still in the garage. I’m sure one of those bottles will be lovely with the ravioli tomorrow.

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Why We Can’t Have Anything Nice

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Frog

Simon just entered my office and started to hack while standing on my treadmill. The treadmill has been thrown up on multiple times so I pushed him off of it. He took it out to the hallway and spewed like a drunken college student.

So. Aren’t you glad you came here this morning to read that?

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 2 Comments

Getting into the Swing

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Frog

During the time I was laid off and I was finishing school, we decided it was time to make a big change in our lives. We had so much fun in the small town where the graduate school was located that we thought it might not be such a bad idea to find employment there. I did interview in that town and was one of two finalists. The other person got the job. Sad. But, I kept looking at employment there or in another town or city other than where we currently live (outskirts of Richmond, VA). None of that worked out.

Instead some consulting firm found me on Monster and now I’m working through my conversion time period at the non-profit in Richmond. I like the folks there and I think it’s going to work out…one month down with two to go.

We’ve decided that we should re-embrace our roots. I’m not talking about the outskirts. Jeez Louise, yesterday the local news was on for two minutes and two horrible stories were on about our county. Both involving violence of the worst sort (seriously, a woman axed her young blind, cancer survivor son and then set him and the house on fire) and there was at least one confederate flag spotted in the background. I’m not going to turn this into a rant on how effing sick I am of seeing those flags but JESUSGOD THE SOUTH IS NOT GOING TO RISE AGAIN SO SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP ALREADY. Also, dumbasses, take your meds because clearly there are some issues going on out here.

Whew, where was I? Oh yeah, embracing our roots.

We had friends who had a long layover on Saturday and so we drove around so one of them (he lived here awhile) could reconnect with some of the neighborhoods and monuments. We had lunch down near Richmond’s canal walk. It was a good visit and it was neat to hear him talk about what had changed since he moved out of town ages ago (we’ve known each other for almost 20 years so it’s hard for me to even think about when he left town because I’ve known people I met as a fully-fledged adult for 20 years!?!). After visiting with our friends and after the walk along the river on Sunday, we decided to make a list of all the “very Richmond” things there are to do and we are going to do them. Dagnabbit!

We didn’t list out food festivals because we’re already pretty good about that and we left off going to concerts/plays because we’re already pretty good about that too. I’m talking about things like renewing our membership to the art museum, participating in the First Friday activities (also art), going to see our farm team play baseball and other things.

If we’re going to stay, we should be involved (and yes, I really did embed that video down there).

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Somewhere down the crazy river

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Frog

We went for a walk today along the river. You knew Richmond was at the fall line of the James River right?

We saw the city from south of the river:

I told the better-half that that’s about as far south of Richmond I’d want to be. It’s an inside joke, but it’s true. I rarely cross the river and head into southside.

There was a group of trees growing right out of the rock. The better-half climbed up the hill and took this picture:

When I was a young teen my family used to go hang out on the rocks a little bit south of Belle Isle (Pony Pasture to be precise) and we foolishly rode some of the rapids. Foolish because the James is not very deep through here and full of boulders (the river was less than 5′ today). Hello head trauma.

There were several tags like this on the pedestrian bridge that connects Richmond to the island. If there’s a good piece of graffiti, the better-half will take a picture of it. Doesn’t the poor thing look a little apprehensive?

Still crazy about this song even after all this time…

Posted in Listening, Watching | 2 Comments

Idle hands

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Frog

There’s a problem with the network at the office and so most if us are sitting idle. One co-worker is taking care of personal phone calls. I’m noodling around on my phone.

The thing is when this stuff happens no one is allowed to go home. I realize the system could come back up in a minute or it could be hours…it has already been nearly two hours of downtime. So while I get that we need to be here, it is hard to do nothing. And I mean nothing because all of our files are stored on servers.

So short of starting Angry Birds over from the beginning, what’s a girl to do?

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