Frog and Goat

Quick bit of insanity

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Frog

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned that we’re totally cutting back on the garden this year and plan on ripping out part of the deer fence so we reclaim what is basically yard or field, or a big mess, whatever.

I took a picture of the garden the other weekend from my office. It does not do justice to how big it is, but short of standing on the porch roof and leaning way around the house or flying like a pixie this is the best I can do.

In the above photo, the blue lines show the existing lines of the fence. The red lines show where we’re going to cut the garden in 2. It looks basically the same in the picture because there is no perspective. We’re keeping the asparagus, the raspberries, the blackberries, grapes and a garden plot in the fence. The red arrow points out our version of a raised bed/aka the garden plot. There’s nothing raised about it, but we are hoping that the boards will help with the gd weeds. We built a little bench out of leftover cinder blocks and a board that was once part of the cold frames we had out there (those were also recycled to outline my garden plot).

When I think about it, I will walk out there with a camera and show you how significant the garden is from the ground and how much smaller it will be this summer. We can’t cope with the weeds without polluting the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed with the smackdown and that’s not how it works around here. And, every year we’ve had that garden it has been a complete letdown. If it wasn’t the weeds:

it was the tomato blight

it was the freaking squash bugs from hell

it was whatever else happens when you build on an ancient burial ground

I hate weeding, but should be able to handle that little plot. I’ll show those weeds!

I’m seriously thinking of plucking a few of the tiny little bean plants that sprouted in our compost pile and moving them to my garden plot. Those dried beans were ancient when I pitched them…who knew they were just waiting for some compost to start growing?

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Fried and Frazzled

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Frog

The better-half has performed a remote desktop support call to me TWICE this week. That’s embarrassing. But, it’s the damn HTML and CSS that’s killing me. I am turning in my class project tomorrow. There are flaws but those will be cleaned up after the evaluation segment. Of course that all depends on whether I’m still alive at that point because my head is very close to exploding from either the crap I really don’t understand or the MFing pollen.

I hope I’ve learned something this week (doubtful) because I need to burn rubber next week in dumping content for the course I’m being paid to work on into HTML. Jeez Louise. At least the content was approved and folks are happy about my progress. HA! Wait another week and a half and that may not be true.

So here I am fried and frazzled. Turns out the AV Club had just what I needed:

Punch Brothers cover The Cars

Posted in Generic Thoughts, Listening | 2 Comments

Out like a lamb?

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Frog

March came in with a ton of wind and now it’s leaving with it too. Go figure with the moody months. Also, sick of itchy eyes, but I really want to sit outside this afternoon and read my HTML book. I’m just about at the point where I’m going to need to know more about that then instructional methods and content and I feel so far behind. Perhaps I’ll pop a claritin and brave the pollen encrusted wind.

In other news:

I changed out the lawn mower battery by myself and am proud to say the mower now starts. Girl power.

I’m sick of stores not opening until 10. I had an early doctor’s appointment and a bunch of errands I wanted to run. I only did two things because the stores don’t open until 10. I was home by then. Perhaps, I need to get better about hanging out in coffee shops to kill time.

When I got home, I noticed an unfamiliar van driving around the neighborhood. Turns out the Jehovah Witnesses were out in force. The better-half has their propaganda on his desk as if it were mail just for him.

I turned in the content document for review yesterday. Hopefully, I’ll get some good feedback. Although, at this point, I just want some feedback.

Asked the other professor for feedback on my project before I begin the major push. He said it would be done by yesterday. Still waiting.

The first asparagus are coming up.

Woke up last night to use the bathroom and could hear the better-half rocking out to something. Turns out some Alan Parsons and Elton John were recently played on Spotify. Busted.

Finished a graphic novel yesterday. I can see why people are drawn to comics (no pun intended).

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In the World

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Frog

Friday night we went to Pasture for our anniversary. It’s a newish place on a forgotten block of Grace downtown. I like that there are pockets of the city coming back. Pasture serves small plates and we ordered seven of them to share. Sounds like a lot but it was the perfect amount. We also ended up with a free drink due to a misunderstanding and, as it turns out, we were both mad for it and will be making it in the near future. Prosecco, St. Germain and grapefruit juice. I’m not supposed to eat grapefruit because it interrupts the effectiveness of a drug I take, but the hell with it. This is a drink that would be perfect on a warm summer night.

Friday afternoon a friend emailed me and asked if we wanted to go out to dinner on Saturday. We had an excellent time at Arcadia down in Shockoe Bottom. A wise restaurant that closes at 10pm but we didn’t know that until about 9:50! Once again, we’ve closed a place, but probably for the first time in 15 years. For those of you not familiar with Shockoe Bottom, it has lots of clubs, young people running amok and, sadly, recent violence. Fancy pants restaurants should close up before the running amok happens. I’m sure it keeps their bathrooms cleaner.

Today we went to see The Hunger Games. It’s probably been two (or three) years since we’ve been to the movies. And, with all the gosh darn ads and people getting up to go out of the theater, it might be another two years. Jeez, take a piss before the show starts and shut up already.

I read the trilogy at Christmas and liked the story well enough. The better-half was pleased with the movie even though he had no expectations. There was one significant change that I was sad to see because I think that part of the story was, in the book, integral to understanding how the world of Panem works. Oh well, it will be interesting to see how things go in the other movies…see, it probably will be another two years.

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Baby Come As You Are

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Frog

I bought these shoes today while shopping for bras* at Target:

When I was a teen, I would have killed for these shoes or a pair of Chucks. In fact, I once begged and was denied so I took what cash I had and went to the Dollar General and bought knock-offs. How sad is that? The shoes today were $35. Can you imagine how cheap they were in 1984? I’m no economist, but I’m thinking they were probably $15? Whatever.

We also had to drink powdered milk because regular milk was too expensive. Now, I know that some families have to do that stuff because they live at the poverty level. My parents did not earn a dollar an hour. They just like to play the game, CheapAssBastards. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?

*I think I’ve found replacements for the raggedy-ass bras that I purchased from Lands’ End years ago. Lands’ End doesn’t even sell that stuff any more that’s old those bras are. Anyway, I’ve tried other brands. But because I’m a delicate flower, I haven’t been able to find ones I like. I think I finally have in the Barely There line.

Posted in Thinking | 3 Comments

It’s that time of year or wherein I ramble

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Frog

It’s a bit early, I suppose, but I’m in the throes of the sprint to the end of the semester. I am writing two courses and have to defend myself in April. One of the courses I’m working on is for use by the university’s faculty/staff. And, if that’s not enough pressure, it’s also the thing that I’m going to use to help defend myself. Am I babbling? Probably.

One course is just that…3 credits, peers will review my work, we’ll all come up with evaluation plans for our courses and then we get a grade. I’m assuming the professor will get around to finally looking at my work. He hasn’t said a thing since late February and something like 4 submissions ago. Did I mention that I’m learning Dreamweaver too so I can produce the course? I’m so confused about containers, tags, divs, blah-the-freakin-blah.

The course for faculty/staff is my job this semester and it happens to be the last of my credit hours. I won’t actually finish this one until after I graduate. Funny how that stuff works. I have to have a pretty serious demo ready the third week in April which is also the week I talk to my committee about letting me graduate. I have no idea how to prepare for that hour-long meeting. I suppose I should find out what sorts of questions will be asked so I have a clue. I have a feeling they’ll review my design document (which my professor was THRILLED* with a few weeks ago) and then talk about what decisions I’ve made in relationship to content and instructional strategies. Who the hell knows. I haven’t even met two of the professors on my committee–although one is that professor I mentioned above that hasn’t given me feedback in a month. I think I’ll skip asking him about that.

So, what else is new? I ordered a handmade bracelet for Niece1′s birthday and the maker is MIA. I’ve filed a complaint and am in the process of getting my money back. A new gift is on its way to the niece now. She was very sweet about not getting a gift to unwrap at her party. That kid is a good one. I think we should keep her.

Tonight we’re going to a restaurant that just opened in town. It’s run by a guy who is kind-of famous. He’s had restaurants in several cities which get amazing reviews, but he never stays anywhere very long. I hope by going on a Tuesday night we’ll not have a problem with getting a table. Can you guess that I’m not fond of standing around waiting?

Later this week it’s our sixteenth anniversary. The better-half is also a good one and I think I’ll keep him too.

*The caps on THRILLED are necessary because she was very pleased with the whole package. It seems crazy that she’d be that happy about it, but she was.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 2 Comments

DIY’d

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Frog

Early Saturday evening the better-half asked if I wanted to go to Lowe’s to buy a new shower door. Um yeah, let me put on some shoes.

We have had a problem with the shower door since we’ve lived in the house. It leaks and as you’ll see in one of the pictures below, the wood trim is ruined. Fixing the trim is a project for another day. Soon. Just like installing a new tub and kicking the always-broken-very-disgusting-jetted-tub-that-wasn’t-installed-correctly-to-begin-with-and-is-really-just-a-breeding-ground-for-creatures-from-the-black-lagoon-when-the-jets-run to the curb. I digress, but that tub sucks and I know you’ve heard it before, but I really hate that tub. It is useless.

While at Lowe’s we discovered we could install a by-pass door instead of the craptastic and quite useless hinged door model. Wow. What a concept. The by-pass door is designed to NOT leak. We purchased a Kohler and it has some sort of coating on the inside of the glass so it doesn’t get funky. I’m thinking of buying a shower squeegee so we can wipe it down frequently.

I will say that Kohler designed their shower door kit wisely. The parts were laid out well. They were all marked and we didn’t have to sort the thousands of screws, bolts and thingys. Their installation instructions were clear and written in English with accurate drawings. Nicely done. And, you know what I mean about written in English, right? Not written in some other language and translated by machine into what turns into some hackneyed version of English. Which is generally amusing, but not really something I have time for when we’re trying to install something so it doesn’t leak.

Before:

It is very hard to take pictures in our bathroom. The room is long but narrow and the above is about as good of a shot as I could get of the door.

Mid-point:

You can see that we’re in the midst of cleaning the other caulk off the horrible shower surround. Next house: tile in the shower, not plastic. I’ve complained for years that I could never get the shower clean because the dimwits who spruced the house up before we bought it caulked over mold and mildew. We chipped out all the old caulk and I cleaned as well as I could. Even though it isn’t perfect at least there aren’t huge ribbons of black funk.

Finished door:

That little tag on the outside of the shower base? Should have been removed when it was installed. We were finally able to get it off of there. Mineral spirits not only breaks down old caulk, it also makes tags very easy to remove.

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In Praise of the Bar

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Frog

While we were in Florida last weekend, we spent some time in bars. This sounds like it could be the opening of a bad joke, but it’s not. It’s not even the opening to a sordid story. Bars are simply beautiful places. My musical boyfriend agrees:

I’ve talked before about how much I love a pint glass. The pint glass is engineered to feel great in your hand and it doesn’t matter if there’s water or beer in the glass. Of course, it’s best with a hoppy beer in it, but to each his own. I think I’ve also mentioned that one of our favorite restaurants is owned by a woman who used to bar-tend at several places in town. When we first went to the favorite restaurant, the three of us (owner, better-half and I) tried to figure out how we knew each other. It came down to one of the best bars in town. When we eat at that favorite restaurant, we almost always sit at the bar. If the owner isn’t there, then we tend to choose a table. But if she’s there, we sit at the bar so we can talk with her.

I’m not much on talking to people I don’t know. (Although, as an aside, yesterday I had a pretty good conversation with some random woman at the grocery store cheese counter–stinky cheese brings people together.) Put me on a bar stool and I’m chatty. It’s not just the hoppy beer that does that to me. Although, it sure helps. There’s something about people who choose to sit at the bar. You are automatically more attuned to what’s going on in the bar because bartenders tend to treat those on bar stools like they are members of the club. You can usually ignore the television because you are too close to it to comfortably watch it and you get to check everyone else out in the mirror behind the bar. I also believe you get food faster if you are at the bar. Club membership has its privileges.

I once worked with a woman who was a recovering (recovered!) alcoholic. She and I frequented a bar at lunch just so we could eat their delicious quiche and salad special. We sat at the bar every time. And you know why? The bar stool is the perfect equalizer. It’s a great spot to sit if you are introverted and like to people watch AND it’s the perfect spot if you are an extrovert and love to chat everyone up. To top it off, you always get served iced tea in a pint glass. See? Nirvana.

While in Florida, we hung out in bars. Sometimes it was way too early in the day, but it’s five o’clock somewhere, right? The bars we went to ranged from the family-style neighborhood restaurant with the expansive patio and a tremendous amount of memorabilia hanging off every surface (not that fake AppleTuesday’s crap) to the slick modern bar down near the intracoastal. Hanging out in a bar whether it’s too early or too late in the day isn’t about getting lit. It’s about the way a bar makes you feel–comfortable, cozy, happy and a member of a much bigger family. So you see, the bar is a beautiful place.

Posted in Thinking | 1 Comment