Even Without A Watch

Posted on August 6, 2008 by Frog

I’ve managed to survive two meetings today. The first was a simple conference call that I have once a week and the other was a WebEx meeting. So much easier than going somewhere to be a passive listener. It’s just as easy to sit at my desk and be a passive listener.

Lunch was a disaster. I had a frozen meal which contained bits of beef, pineapple and rice. It didn’t seem like a bad idea at the start but I’m not sure the meat was beef. I ended up throwing most of it away and eating a bag of pretzels from the machine. If you see a meal combo like this in the grocery freezer case, avoid it.

I’m so antsy for my school-centric blog to begin but we were asked not to start them yet so I’m posting a bunch of links to sites so I’ll remember them (yes, already bookmarked). These are awesome sites. That may be overstating but if you are in the field I’m in these are actually very awesome sites.

Engaged Learning

Work Literacy

Learning Circuits blog

Posted in Eating, Generic Thoughts | Tagged | 1 Comment

Arrrrgggghhh

Posted on August 6, 2008 by Frog

No, it’s not talk like a pirate day. It’s I forgot to wear a watch and earrings day. How does this even happen? Oh, because I was out of my routine this morning.

The better-half got up right after I did and ended up taking a bite of cereal only to find the milk had gone south. He always makes a big show of sniffing the milk before he pours but due to the fact he was up around 6am this morning he wasn’t quite functioning at a normal level. And so he ate a bite of sour milk. As he was spitting in the kitchen sink, I was all “cool, let me smell your cereal bowl” and sure enough, sour. So we’ve both started our day off with a bit of arrrggghhh.

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Switched

Posted on August 5, 2008 by Frog

As you can see we’ve switched over to WordPress. And! The BEST NEWS YET! The better-half was able to grab all the pictures and other empheria floating about. Yay!

I’m not so sure about the layout and color yet but will work on that as the weeks and months move forward.

As a thank you to the better-half, I present Bushrod Washington:

Posted in Generic Thoughts, Listening | Tagged | Comments Off

Sunday Preserves

Posted on August 4, 2008 by Frog

Well yesterday was Sunday and you know that means time for canning here at F&G. We whipped up the Sweet and Sour Caponata from the Silver Spoon cookbook and then processed it in the hot water canner like we’d do for tomatoes. Hopefully we didn’t cook up a batch of botulism…never made caponata before but it should be plenty acidic with all the tomatoes and vinegar. We had just a wee bit leftover and will eat that tonight–the sample bites we tried yesterday were quite good.

We also had some green beans. Not nearly as small and tender as the gazillion other jars we made but still they turned out quite nice. We’ll be eating green beans quite a bit later this year. We grew contender beans (as I coulda been) on the advice of the MIL and I have to admit she was right. The beans are great.

The better-half just picked the last of the sweet corn and pulled up the plants. The garden is starting to get sparse. Just green beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and a watermelon. We’re planning on doing a little fall/winter gardening this year and will have to get that set up after vacation.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned but the lettuce we grew in a pot under our backyard maple (for speckled shade) is nearly finished. I was afraid the lettuce would be bitter but it’s been quite nice so far. I think the saving grace was that it wasn’t in full sun and it hasn’t been too brutally hot.

Posted in Eating, Gardening | 1 Comment

Thinking of Switching

Posted on August 2, 2008 by Frog

We’re thinking of switching to WordPress instead of Movable Type. We have a test site running to see how we like the usability and ease. The better-half exported the site over to WordPress and all of the images I’ve posted did not come along. Weird. The few YouTube videos I’ve put up came along but not pictures. I can’t decide if that’s a big deal or not. I’m leaning to not a big deal. If we can’t figure out how to drag those photos over, I know I’m not going through 5 years of entries to relink images. Too much time and effort.

So far WordPress seems easier than Movable Type but definitely taken from a similar page. And, I haven’t become annoyed yet. MT annoys me nearly every day with menus that won’t go away, the Status pull-down misbehaves, the preview feature sucks, etc.

I feel like I need to really up my knowledge on the WP system as we’ll be keeping blogs for school beginning in a few short weeks. Somehow I’ve become the resident techno-geek for one of my professors so she may expect me to be able to answer questions and I’d like to be able to.

Speaking of technology, I don’t think I’ve mentioned how excited I am to attend this conference at VaTech:
ECVA conference

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 4 Comments

The Dark Forces Gathered

Posted on August 1, 2008 by Frog

Fuck me.

It won’t be until sometime on Monday before the windows get fixed. Damn that lawnmower and damn that gravel and damn, damn, damn.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 3 Comments

What I find is pleasing and I’m feeling fine

Posted on August 1, 2008 by Frog

Things are looking up or at least they are right now. Dark forces could be gathering so I don’t want to appear too joyful. I’ve been given permission to move out of my noisy cave office to one down the hall with a window. Thank the maker. I will not miss the constant rumbling tossed with the occasional crescendo.

Class ended last night and our presentation was awesome. The professor was pretty darn excited about our work. I can say we rocked the cmap.

After class, the better-half and I met at Cafe Rustica and enjoyed another amazing meal there. I think it is becoming one of our favorites. Both times we’ve eaten at the bar and I like eating at the bar. The folks who work there are awesome.

Only one more week before vacation and I’m so ready. This weekend we attempted to arrange for three different activities including having The Niece spend the night and all of the activities fell through so the world is our oyster. I’m sure grass-cutting, gardening and swimming will be involved. I hope I can behave myself and not create a BIG project. I need to enjoy a few days of quiet.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 1 Comment

Canning

Posted on July 30, 2008 by Frog

Sunday we spent most of the day putting up corn and tomatoes. I had planned on writing a longish entry with step-by-step pictures but since today is Wednesday and we did this on Sunday and I have a raging headache today, it’s not going to happen.

We grew Silver Queen and some damn yellow corn that neither of us can remember the name. We have maybe another dozen ears out in the garden and then we’re done. The corn has been outstanding this year. We’ve eaten enjoyed many ears and as I mentioned, we canned some. The leftovers went into the freezer.

We also had a small wave of tomatoes come in so I roasted some of our anaheims to make salsa. We ended up with one jalapeno out of the garden just in time for the salsa making. A tiny habanero from last year went into the mix too. With all of those peppers, surprisingly not too hot, but certainly not bland.

We had leftover tomatoes after making the salsa and were able to can two pints. A little extra leftover went into making tomato juice which I’m sure will be lovely with the pepper vodka we infused.

This week has been busy. My last night of class is tomorrow and then we’re headed to Cafe Rustica for dinner. Then, somehow, I’m going to manage to last yet another week before vacation. I feel like I could sleep for a week.

Posted in Eating, Gardening | 2 Comments

Now I gotta get up early every morning*

Posted on July 26, 2008 by Frog

So what do you do in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep? Me? I get up to work on a school project. I was zipping right along until I ran into what I hope is server maintenance on the school library and not some freakish plot to ruin my research abilities.

We’re using a cmap to show relationships between many parts of human resource development. I’m working on training and development and have several articles I need to review before I make them resources on our map. If I can get that part done, I feel like I’m mostly done with my portion of the map. Of course, I have to make some notes about why I chose certain connections and resources so I can tell people about it, but that part will be easy.

Since I’m the consummate multi-tasker, I’m also transforming CDs into digital media while I’m working. John McLaughlin’s Passion Grace & Fire is running through the process right now.

*I’m pretty sure the Gap Band will be converted in the next week or so.

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Off

Posted on July 25, 2008 by Frog

I’m taking a day of sick leave today because I’m, drum roll please, sick of work. That joke never gets old.

I’m sick of work and have a major project due for class next week. It’s a group project and all of us have left it to the last minute/last week. So, I’ll be hammering out my part so we can discuss amongst ourselves before we have to present on Thursday. The summer session is already coming to a close. I’ve really enjoyed this class and have made Marvin Weisbord my new hero.

I don’t have much today so I present my latest t-shirt. Today is the first day I’ve worn it and I have to say it’s very comfortable and the funny.

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