New Stairs

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Frog

When we bought our house there was commercial grade (I guess that’s the proper term) carpet in the upstairs and on our back stairway. We had the same carpet at an office way back when.

We had flooring work done prior to moving in and the carpet we chose for a couple of rooms upstairs ended at the top of the back stairs. So for awhile there was the nice new carpet hanging over the top step and then the ugly blue crap continuing to horrible vinyl.

When we redid the bathroom downstairs we went ahead and had the flooring in that part of the house replaced so out went the vinyl. One night after a few drinks, the oppression of the ugly blue carpet on the stairs became too much to bear so beginning around 10pm we tore out all the carpeting.

Then we lived with builder-grade, soft pine stairs for over a year–they still had wallboard compound on them, splotches of stain and splinters. The carpet from our bedroom hung over the top step and I hated that look. In fact, it weighed upon my soul. Late last year we created a contract with each other of things we were going to get done this year. Those stairs were on the list.

Here they are before:

Here they are after:

As you know, I can’t take a picture to save my life and the lighting in this stairwell is unflattering to say the least. It also doesn’t help that today has been gloomy so I couldn’t even rely on sun coming in the back door (it’s going to rain again tomorrow–grrrr). I hope you can tell there’s a 1000% improvement. And, best of all no carpeting hanging over the stair…there’s actually a transition now.

Posted in House Proud | 2 Comments

Not at work, again

Posted on December 3, 2009 by Frog

Last week I was off the entire week. We were supposed to have work done at the house during that time. For whatever lame excuse, we did not. It’s happening today and tomorrow. We’re both home this morning but I’ll be “supervising” on my own later today and tomorrow.

I told my supervisor on Monday that I needed to be home on Friday and that I’d work like usual, but that Thursday afternoon I needed to cover being at home. I told her I felt really bad about being off one week and then coming in on Monday and telling her I needed more time later in the week. Damn that work ethic. She responded with the question of whether I’d taken my community leave yet (we get 16 hours a year for community service).

I have not taken that time because, honestly, I’m not a huge doer of community service and usually if I am doing something like that I do it outside of work. She told me to take that leave for both days and not worry about it and if I wanted to take another day in between now and winter break to hurry up and decide which day. She said she has no worries about where I am with my work unlike others in my unit. It was actually worse than that. She named names and rolled her eyes at how late this other person is with her courses.

I let off a really quick laugh and said I probably wouldn’t take any more between now and winter break because I have a pilot out of town next week and the week after will be cleaning up the text after the pilot. Also, that’s the week we have our holiday luncheon and as much as I hate going to it, there’s always something freaky to experience.

So, with my free time this morning I ran some errands. I went by the Studley post office instead of the one that officially services my house because there is never, ever a line at the Studley post office and the postmistress is quite nice. And, I get to write Studley several times and snort like an eight year old.

Then I picked up a prescription and I dropped a bag of clothes at Goodwill (I’m counting that as community service for today). I grabbed a couple of things from the grocery store and headed home.

There are saw and hammering noises coming from downstairs. The cat has evidently gotten used to work being done this fall and he’s wandering about.

I think I mentioned that we replaced our heating and air conditioning system at the end of September. Yesterday we got our first electric bill since the system was installed and running on a consistent basis. Last year we used 2025 kWH in November. This year we used 1447 kWH. That’s pretty awesome.

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Soup and Sandwich Night

Posted on November 30, 2009 by Frog

It is not only raining (again) but the wind is blowing and it is cold. I just had to tromp out to the garden to cover up the cold frames because the automatic mechanism is still in the garage. This is not, despite what it looks like, a nag on the better-half. It’s just that we have had other stuff going on so slapping the plexiglass sheets down at night is what we do and ordinarily it isn’t a big deal but it was very dark when I got home because I actually worked late today (the horrors!) and cold and rainy and because of the 9 inches of rain we’ve already had this month, there’s serious mud in the garden. And. Just because I didn’t use enough ands in that sentence, I’m going to speckle some more around. And.

I worked late because I observed a pilot training today and we always debrief afterward. This is a good part of the pilot because the writer, trainer and observers of the course get to talk about what worked or didn’t and if a trainee misbehaves we get to talk about that too. We had an energy suck in the room today and the trainer handled her pretty well.

Anyway, I had to sit next to a co-worker that I’m not fond of mainly because she’s a lazy sack of shit (look it up in the dictionary AND there she is). She and I took a MEd class together. My first one and her last one. I worked in a group with her and she lied to the professors and lied to us and didn’t do her work. AND! The bonus is that I also have to be nice to her since I work with her, but still lazy sack o’shit. And! She brings up that class all the time like we bonded. Um no.

So, tonight I will be whipping up a batch of soup that uses two honeycrisp apples that I bought for The Niece when she spent the night recently but she didn’t eat. It also has butternut squash and some sour cream or yogurt whichever I happen to have. Soup and sandwiches will make up for having to sit next to that person today and for the icky wet I just had to endure in the garden.

The sandwiches may or may not include a slice of the country pate we made over the recent holiday. We used the Bourdain recipe from the Les Halles cookbook. The butcher was happy to see us because we bought all kinds of nasty bits.

Posted in Eating, Gardening | 2 Comments

I like vanilla, cuz it’s the finest of the flavors

Posted on November 28, 2009 by Frog

Our tape measure is missing. Actually, it’s the tape measure my roommate and I bought for the Historic Preservation class that’s missing. It’s been missing for weeks. She and I bought it more than 20 years ago. There’s some attachment on my part. I’m getting ticked off about it.

I also have to go back to work on Monday. Then 3 weeks until break. Thank the maker. I have a plan, like the Cylons. I have to admit to watching the BSG, The Plan DVD lately. Lame. My plan is better.

I’m out of Southern Tier beer. Sad. It’s really awesome beer. It rivals the Stone brew. Have I talked about beer enough on Saturday night for you to know what I’m doing?

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Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on November 26, 2009 by Frog

She’s supposed to be a turkey chilling on her nest:

Posted in Thinking | 1 Comment

Randomly

Posted on November 24, 2009 by Frog

I’m not at work today. I wasn’t at work yesterday either and my calendar reminder for this week came up and reminded me to “thank the Lord that I’m off this week”.

We were having lunch yesterday and saw a guy get tossed. Apparently something went down a day or so ago and he’s been banned from the restaurant until he talks to one of the long-time waitresses who doesn’t get back to work until Wednesday. I’d love to know that story. I had a steak and cheese and drank my weight in iced tea. So good.

I had a can of Campbell’s Select Harvest Light Maryland-Style Crab Soup today for lunch on the recommendation of a long-term friend of the mother of the better-half’s long-term friend. I really think if the word crab appears in the title of the soup that crab should be an ingredient. I think what they meant to call the soup was “A Crab Skittered Past The Factory Soup”, but the marketing department decided that wouldn’t sell. Truth be told there was some crab in the soup if you looked very carefully. Mostly it was tomato and potato soup. It was OK but I won’t be seeking it out again.

Today I primed the piece of furniture that we’ve been working on in fits and starts for awhile. It was a Hoosier knock-off that my sister had and she gave it to us when she revamped her kitchen. The cabinet will eventually be red on the outside and khaki on the inside. The khaki is done and now the primer is drying. Maybe by the end of the year we’ll have the piece finished. It will eventually end up in our study as a bar.

I think a shout-out is necessary for Becoming. She’s a PhD today. Congratulations.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 1 Comment

OMG!

Posted on November 20, 2009 by Frog

Close Encounters of the Redneck Kind from Marc Bullard on Vimeo.

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Christmas Songs

Posted on November 19, 2009 by Frog

I’m not quite ready for Christmas yet…didn’t it seem like the holly and trees and stuff went out before Halloween this year?

If you are looking for something that’s not quite traditional in the song department, WOXY has their Christmas mixer running.

Posted in Listening | 2 Comments

The Light Was Just Right

Posted on November 19, 2009 by Frog

A woman at work asked me to go over to the local Firestone shop this morning so she could drop her car off to be inspected. I agreed and as I was sitting in the car waiting for her to come out of the shop, I had the window down and was watching the sun light up the shopping mall.

It’s now cloudy and rainy but shortly before 8 this morning the sun was breaking through the clouds and it was balmy. Actually, it was quite nice sitting there. The light reminded me of Florida in the fall. I don’t know if it’s always true down there but nearly every time I’ve been in Florida in the fall, I’ve noticed that the sky starts off cloudy and then the sunlight breaks through. So, there are grey skies, blue peaking through and then the sunlight.

In my case I was staring at JC Penney’s and the nearly denuded trees. I’m sure if I were in Florida, I’d still be looking at a mall, but all the trees would have leaves and the shrubs wouldn’t be cast in brilliant late fall reds.

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All Quiet on the Eastern Front

Posted on November 18, 2009 by Frog

Wow, nothing since last Friday and that entry wasn’t much on original content. Oops.

We had dinner last night at Bouchon. I indulged in sweetbreads and mussels. The better-half had country pate and leg of lamb. Our friend got the steak. We ate like kings. I also had a martini with Lillet. I’m going to have to pick some up next time I’m in a sweet booze store. Quite tasty.

I also think we’re going to attempt to make a country pate. The better-half has ordered it twice recently and both times it’s been damn fine. It always makes me happy to see cornichons on a plate, but the pate has been very nice too.

I’ve been working on a course at work–turning it from instructor-led to elearning and I’ve been highly unmotivated about it. Some days it feels like I’d rather have my finger nails pulled out then to write more than 50 words. I finished it today and did the fist pump at about 3:45 this afternoon. Tomorrow I need to read it through, fix any errors and then send it off to be read by the subject matter expert. Then, I’m off to the next course.

A funny thing happened today when a co-worker was helping me come up with things that were wrong answers to an interaction I was working on and she kept mentioning that I should ask so-and-so if that was what such and such policy said. Every time I said, yep, that’s still correct. Because so-and-so hasn’t done dick with policy in years. I’ve been the one keeping up with it. Nice that people still don’t trust me to know the policy surrounding the work they love. I’m still a square peg in a round hole.

Whatever. I made a batch of cookies when I got home and that put things right.

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