Crack me up

My son is bored. I have 'his' laptop. So he flipped through the satellite channels till he found The Magnificent Seven. We are now watching that on AMC, and when a commercial comes on, he flips over to CSI...his favorite show. So, I think that means he likes TM7. Which cracks me up. Most of those actors are dead, or criminally aged now, and the acting is pretty humorous, plus he just eyerolled & asked why no one in old movies bleeds when they are shot...but we're still watching.

Now, he just arrived in the living room with a quarter moon of gouda cheese in his hand. To munch on.

I love this kid.

Four hours of work

(a.k.a. what is NOT going on my weekly report to the boss about my time usage)

• Kicked two feet of snow out of the way of the distance (outdoor) bookdrop so that I could open and empty it. They didn't plow the lane to drive up to it, and piled snow in front of the door. Idiots. I hate the bookdrop more than any other part of my job. And what did I retrieve? Three of our items and 10 donated trashy paperbacks.
• Found out that the labels we use to indicate that an item is new had a typo. The whole batch is ruined. Nice.
• Realized I forgot my lunch at home.
• Got drawn into a rant by CT. Sigh.
• Was attacked by my eye. Called doctor for a referral to my eye doctor. Called my eye doctor for appointment.
• Ate a Tootsie Roll
• Another staff member asked me about an email I forwarded to her yesterday about filling holds from other libraries. I explained: politics. Turf. Grr.
• Looked for new labels to replace the stupid ones. Considered redesigning. Decided against it.
• General email stuff.
• Ranted to Beast via Meebo about my eye and other stuff.
• Realized my eyes feel just fine again right now (well, right then).
• Redid most of a document I worked on last week because I'd done it all backwards. My boss checked it over and was still confused, because I'd REDONE part of it backwards. But the colors are pretty. (and it's fixed now)
• Talked to Box Lady about Large Print books.
• Forwarded document to our system tech, and waited for the stupid questions to ensue.
• Cataloged 8 DVDs. One of them is The Jazz Singer. It arrived with about 15 postcard-type things, 4 or 5 booklets that reprint a bunch of period reviews and such, and a reproduction of a telegram. In other words, a bunch of JUNK. Grumbled to people about that.
• Ate another Tootsie Roll.
• Put in Rx eyedrops. Sting, a little itchiness, but generally still fine.
• Received reply from tech. Only one really retarded question. Since he cc'd to my boss, she came down from her office and dared me to call him a dork in my reply. I said I would. We answered his other questions, and I (naturally) explained the obvious to him without using the words "dork" "asshat" "blind" "fool" or "kill." Am quite proud of myself, and I'm getting an AWESOME-funny new password so it's ok. So far he hasn't answered me back. But he will. I've complete faith in him. [Update 3:20--yup, I was right, and now my blood pressure is sky high. He is a fucktard.]
• Ate another Tootsie Roll (so much for that "not eating junk" thing...)
• Discussed the budget cuts that must be made this year, and the rest of the impact the dismal economy is causing. Havoc, much? Oh, it's only just begun, my friends.
• Ranted briefly at Beast some more.
• General email. One of the lists I'm on is having a long discussion under the subject "turkey parthenogenesis." Cracked up. Catalogers are weird.
• Realized I haven't eaten lunch.
• Realized I'm cold. My hands are ice blocks as I type this. Quite unusual--the library is normally warm in the winter.

I'm going to lunch. Maybe I'll catalog 8 more things this afternoon. That'll help. I've got about 250 things to go before I'm all caught up. ha ha ha ha ha {choke}

From Thursday a.m.

Beast and I had a lovely chat Thursday morning. He was at work, I was "getting ready to leave for work" (i.e., eating breakfast [i.e. goofing around on the computer before RACING through the rest of the preparations])

[07:20] Psalm23: I just discovered that they now make pancakes in a spray can
[07:20] Psalm23: OK, just the batter (and there's music on that site--beware)
[07:22] Beast: great - instead of mainlining whipped cream, you can do pancake batter instead.
[07:22] Psalm23: but it's ORGANIC
[07:22] Psalm23: rofl
[07:23] Beast: available at [local chain], meijer and [another local chain]!
[07:23] Psalm23: "dicalcium phosphate" don't we grow that around here?
[07:23] Beast: yeah, i saw that. organic compressed crap in a can. the CANS, so organic, too.
[07:24] Psalm23: yes
[07:24] Psalm23: very eco friendly
[07:24] Psalm23: (I may buy one just as a giggle)
[07:25] Beast: yeah - and after making fun of it, we'll probly like it.....
[07:25] Psalm23: we can make fun of liking it!
[07:25] Psalm23: Oooh, I'll take it to Amy's on Saturday!
[07:25] Beast: you're doing organic breakfast?
[07:26] Psalm23: who says we can't have pancakes or waffles for lunch??
[07:27] Beast: it WOULD save on the mess of mixing the batter
[07:27] Beast: how much does a can cost, do u know?
[07:27] Psalm23: no dishes to wash
[07:27] Psalm23: just eat off the griddle!
[07:27] Psalm23: I'd guess at about $5
[07:28] Beast: just the opposite of sticking your tongue on a frozen pole, eh?
[07:28] Psalm23: oooh, the can is RECYCLABLE!!!
[07:28] Psalm23: I'm not sure where to find it in the store, though.
[07:28] Psalm23: Near the milk/eggs?
[07:28] Psalm23: Near the Bisquick?
[07:29] Beast: in the refrigerator section....
[07:30] Psalm23: ok, I really should go finish getting ready for work
[07:30] Beast: Banana and Nutella Pancakes with Hot Buttered Rum Sauce
[07:30] Psalm23: oooooh, lovely
[07:30] Beast: recipe on the web site
[07:30] Psalm23: see, now THAT's not breakfast
[07:30] Psalm23: and kinda messy, too
[07:31] Beast: Christmas Tree – You can make a simple Christmas tree shaped pancake – add M&Ms for the ornaments and a Hershey's Kiss star.
[07:31] Psalm23: CREAM CHEESE FROSTING!!!!!
[07:31] Beast: copied off the site, again
[07:32] Psalm23: yeah, I'm there [on the site] too
[07:32] Beast: snowy pancakes....
[07:32] Psalm23: I'm totally LMAO
[07:32] Beast: probly developed by some schmuck in [the town where we live]
[07:32] Psalm23: Nope: San Francisco I googled their phone
[07:33] Psalm23: AIMED at [the town where we live], no doubt
[07:33] Psalm23: I will be looking for these......
[07:33] Beast: "I didn't have any mixing bowls left, so I opened up an old can of WD-40, stuffed some batter inside, and voila!"
[07:33] Beast: (inventor on Martha Stewart Live)
[07:34] Psalm23: oh, it totally gets better
[07:34] Psalm23: The phone number used to belong to a company called Periodic Tables: a cabinetry business [helps here to know that Beast is a chemist]
[07:35] Beast: lmao
[07:35] Psalm23: They apparently diversified!!
[07:35] Beast: i LIKE that
[07:35] Beast: well, you have to use the tables for SOMETHING
[07:35] Psalm23: rofl

We crack ourselves up. The rest of the joke, however, is that I bought a couple of cans and took them to Amy's yesterday...and the pancakes aren't half bad.

Bulleted

Mood: sleepy
Hair: probably a mess due to the two-hour nap in the recliner
Eyes: tried, dry and not fun
Listening to: Football (Eagles @ Vikings)

Since I have few coherent, lengthy thoughts, I'm throwing what I do have at the blog. Cuz I can. Y'know?

• Beast ran the sound and light at church today, so he had to be present at both services. He called after he arrived for first service to warn us (me) that the roads were dangerously icy, especially in our subdivision. They were insanely bad, but we all made it there and back safe and sound. About half an hour ago--5 p.m. or thereabouts--the road crew came around and salted our streets for the first time today. Nice. Thanks, guys, for being right on top of that.



• Worship this morning was the first time I've been 'at church' on Sunday since...uh...Thanksgiving? And I would manage to pick today: the first week of every month is Communion Sunday, so that lengthens the service, plus today was a baptism, which means more time. I don't begrudge the time usually, but I was awfully antsy today. And then, suddenly, as the pastor held the baby and swept water onto her head, I couldn't stop crying. I didn't leave, but I really wanted to for a minute or two. Nathanael would be two now. (And no, the mom did not breastfeed in public this morning: the baby slept through the entire service.)



• None of the teams I want to see in the Super Bowl are winning this year. Our big three main teams--Packers, Browns, Broncos--are out of the running already because they didn't make the playoffs. (Denver fired Mike Shanahan--WTF?) This weekend's games were either two teams we cared nothing about or the 'wrong' team won, not that we care that much. The one that is going on now isn't boding well for the team we sort of want to win. Next week doesn't look a lot better. The Super Bowl could be a giant Who Cares? on February 1. I may end up cheering like a girl: for the best-looking team/quarterback/coach. Oh, well, thank God for the ads!!



• I haven't decided what my 2009 Word of the Year should be. That's why it hasn't been changed in the sidebar. Maybe I'll pick one tomorrow, once the holidays are really over and school has restarted. Stay tuned.



• BIG HUGE THANKS to Betsy for passing the word on Jango!!!! I frickin' LOVE it!! And it's free. Why was I spending money on Launchcast?? 'Course, now that LC is going, Jango will probably start charging too.



• Speaking of technology, Meebo--the IM consolidator I use--recently added Facebook to the IM sites it supports. MySpace, too, if anyone cares. I can now log in to Meebo and chat with anyone who is logged into Yahoo!, Gmail, or Facebook, or looking at any of my blogs. It's not perfect, but when it works, Meebo is one of my favorite things evah.



• We had Greek burgers last night, courtesy of DinnerByDesign. They were excellent. I need to start eating better, and less, and get back on a regular scheduled meal schedule instead of snacking on junk all day every day. Then there is the whole exercise thing. Ugh. I can't tell you how much I hate pointless tasks with no immediate payoff.... Apparently, there are no WiiFit games to be had, so I'm stuck with Sports for now.



• Anybody got a good lead on a job for Sparky? Yeah, this is the perfect time of year to be looking, right? And the perfect time in the economic cycle, too.



• Speaking of which, I'm already 100% ready to eliminate the word "economy" from the language. I'm tired of hearing it, saying it, discussing it, blaming it, worrying about it, prognosticating about it. It's only going to become more omnipresent, I know, so it's not a good sign that I'm so fed up with the subject.



• We were going to take the tree down today and put away all of our Christmas stuff...but changed our (my) mind when we remembered that it's still 'officially' Christmas until January 6, Warren's birthday. So I'm not sure when we'll pack it up. Sometime this week, I guess, maybe in pieces.



• Everyone gets back to our regular schedules tomorrow: it's a full work and school week for all of us. Yuck.

I think that's enough. I should probably get myself sorted out for dinner and maybe work on the Christmas card filing.

---

Urban Word:

Presponse: To respond to a question before it is finished, often confusing the asker.

The whole concept of presponses confuses Beast. He'd rather finish one thought and spoken sentence before moving on to the next thought and speaker.

Day off

Mood: OK
Hair: Who knows? I haven't looked yet
Eyes: Fine
Listening to: Sparky getting out of bed noise

I took today off work. It's Beast's birthday. I asked for it off last month some time. The only problem is that something came up at work for Beast and he's at the airport right now on his way to ... MEXICO! Yeah, the high here today is supposed to be 34F; where he's headed the temperature will be in the low 80s by the time he arrives. Next time, I'm dropping everything and going with him! Jeez, I even speak the language!

Instead, I'm having last week's birthday cake for breakfast and spending the day reading, blogging and catching up on selfish interests. Maybe I'll even do some online Xmas shopping and shipping. After all, we got Christmas presents from my sister over the weekend (extenuating circs--don't scream).

Don't feel too sorry for me: I got a wonderful massage yesterday, along with accomplishing everything on my to-do list. Things are going well, in spite of several occasional speed bumps that keep me honest. I'll miss Beast this week, but he'll be home soon, hopefully without any intestinal virus, and we can start planning for Thanksgiving weekend in earnest.

---

Urban Word:

Song Binging: To binge on a song or artist.
The act of repeatedly and obsessively listening to a particular song or artist over a relatively short period of time. Periods of song binging are followed by extended periods of skipping the certain track or artist, leaving them unplayed.

One thing I won't be doing today is song-binging. I think I've outgrown that, though I may 'music binge' for part of the day.

me me me

Mood: Good
Hair: I love barrettes! I also wonder just exactly how I'm not bald considering the amount of hair I dusted and vacuumed up in the bathroom today!
Eyes: Going south again
Listening to: A/C. Yes. It's THAT WARM!

I made jambalaya tonight. Technically, I made it in July, but I cooked it tonight for Sparky and me. And for dessert, we had yummy home-cooked cinnamon rolls.

I found something out about just how out of shape I am: while shelving yesterday (i.e., crawling around and bending and twisting) I managed to annoy my inner thigh muscles so much that I can't walk today. I literally have had to back down the stairs this evening because walking forward hurts that much! My old lady walk is on the way to perfection! Of course, today is laundry day...the washer & dryer are in the basement. The bedrooms are on the second floor. LOTS of stairs in between.

I have no idea what I'm doing tomorrow with the youth group after highway cleanup. I also can't find the file with contact info & permission slips that we collected two weeks ago. Organization is somehow only my strong suit at work!

It dawned on me today that I have pretty much thrown in the towel on updating family medical info. I need a chart.

Sparky picked up Brisingr today, his copy which he ordered in July or something from the local bookstore. It was released at midnight today. I'm reading a kids book too, among other things I'm reading. In fact, I think I'm going to go read now. That doesn't hurt my legs!

---

Urban Word:

Destinesia: When you get to where you were intending to go, you forget why you were going there in the first place. Not to be confused with being stoned, destinesia often occurs during working hours, and is the cause of much frustration.
Today was definitely Destinesia Day for me: I was so focused on the getting somewhere that once I arrived, if I didn't have a list of what I came for, I might as well not have bothered.

In a rut much?

Mood: Good
Hair: Clean, curled, and actually looking good
Eyes: Pretty ok so far
Listening to: Angelique Kidjo's "Agossi" just ended and Solas' "Nil Na La" just began (which was then followed by Konono No.1's "Lufuala Ndonga" and UB40's "Red, Red Wine" and [omg omg omg LOVE this song!] Howard Jones' "I Must Go"). AWESOME MIX!!

I keep eating badly. That's one very deep rut.

But the biggest one is that when I get to work I have to open the windows on my PC in precisely the right order or it totally messes up my workflow. Reading left to right across the Start Bar:

- IE : Meebo (shrunk and open on the left side of my screen at (almost) all times)
- A second IE window with the following tabs (in this order): Yahoo!Music, the Launchcast player window, Connexion (and right now, Blogger, but usually our catalog)
- Word : My task list for the week, which I email to my boss on Tuesday morning before creating a new one
- Millennium (two windows: Java and the actual database)
- Notepad : for random stuff to be handled as I find it (right now it's got the YouTube URL for Cindy McCain's idiot comment about Palin's "foreign policy experience")
- Any other programs that are needed open after this: e.g., Excel, incoming emails, etc.

Outlook is open, but only shows in the widget window until I click to inspect it.

The kicker: if these are out of order, I completely can't manage.

Unfortunately, I don't always remember to open things in this order, so I often have to log out of something and start again. Anyone know of a way to move the programs around on the start bar like you can do with the IE tabs, without downloading crap?

---

Urban Word:

meatatarian: A person who eats meat virtually to the exclusion of vegetables. The meatatarian often claims to be conserving veggies for those who would actually eat them, and keeps the veggies out of the waste stream, helping the environment, or keeping produce costs down.

While not an extreme meatatarian, I have moments; for instance, this morning's 'need' for a bacon/egg/cheese bagel from McD's.

Calm

We are a bit becalmed here. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not necessarily a good thing either. It just is.

I'm trying to keep the rantiness to a minimum. I'm trying to find the positive spin on things. It helps that I'm going on a (work-related) road trip on Friday, and that I am only working four hours tomorrow--and in the process of working that out, I have maneuvered a "screw you" move on Schedule Nazi. See what happens when you take so much comp-time? You lose. Bitch.

[There are reasons I'm particularly blunt about her right now. I'm not going into them. It's just more of the same shit.]

The road trip will entail 8 hours on the road and a 6-hour meeting. It doesn't sound fun, but it will be spent in good company, and that is worth a lot more than sleep.

Another positive thing is that I emailed a friend with whom I haven't 'talked' in months. It's not like we don't work less than 1/4 mile away from each other.... However, we are both so swamped with end-of-the-school-year (and family) stuff that setting a time to get together is proving to be a challenge. We're into July at this point.

Speaking of school.... Well, I'll just say that a) kids are stupid, and b) sending kids to public schools nowadays is a bit scarier than it was in the 70s and 80s. I'll go into detail, perhaps, this weekend. It's not about Sparky, though.

My family (of origin) sux, by the way. I've about reached my last nerve with them. Just...go 'way. This is probably the healthiest feeling I've had about them in awhile. I don't feel particularly guilty about feeling this way, though I do feel badly about Mom.

Monday night, we watched Dirty Jobs; last night we watched Deadliest Catch; tonight we're watching Survivorman and Mythbusters. Network TV? Only on Thursdays.

I caught up my reading lists last night while watching people fight on crab boats. It took awhile; I'd let it slide for quite a awhile.

And who knew--those feathers Native Americans wore in their hair? Served a purpose besides vanity and decor. I *heart* Les Stroud.

---

Urban Word:

refrigerator blindness: Selective loss of visual acuity in association with common foraging of the refrigerator [or freezer]. Predominantly seen in children and males.

Ten minutes ago, Sparky stood in front of the fridge and asked if there were anymore bagels in the freezer up here. A severe case of refrigerator blindess has obviously hit him.

Photolog

We're trying hard to socialize Ruka. Here he is sitting on my shoulder. We hold him on our laps and he scurries up to our shoulders as soon as we let go. He's only just gotten there in this photo. How do I know? Cuz he's facing away from me. As soon as he gets his balance, he turns around....
And faces the back. If he can't see you, he's invisible. Right? It took him about a minute to wind himself up in my hair and start climbing my scalp. Yes. Really. Fortunately, his nails are short. (OMG--I'm getting jowls! Fuck!!)
Peekaboo!
And my hair is weird and ridge-y because I had headphones on for awhile when it was still wet. It's actually in a braid, not that you can tell at this late point in the day...I think it was close to 10 p.m. when these were taken.

---

Meanwhile ... this is my kitchen, as of this morning. Here's the rest of it, or at least the island (you can see a bit of it at the right in the top photo):
Neat freaks, are you passing out now? We have mail, food, paint rags, hats, a dead plant, four live roses, napkins, knives, a toaster oven, napkins, paper towels, bananas, and 3 large silver serving platters in a welter of disorganization. I feel like this is a shoot for one of the I Spy books.

In any case, I'm off to wipe down the stove with Clorox wipes so I can use it for cooking. Yes, 'tis true: I'm going to make dinner from scratch tonight: mac-n-cheese, from memory!

Then I will be driving Sparky back to town for an anime thing at the library. Right now, he's probably finishing up his test for his driving permit. You've all been warned!

This post = my reward for getting almost everything on my list done today, and not spending the morning doing memes.

Fasting

It's supposed to be good for the soul. Some people swear it's also good for our physical health to fast once in awhile.

It used to be really easy for me to fast. I could easily go without eating for a day.

It has gotten harder to do over the years, which in itself is probably why I should do it more often. The difficulty isn't in the spiritual sense (though this year is particularly hard) so much as in the physical sense. There are just so many different times in my life that I eat out of habit--rather than hunger--and today has really been an exercise in noting those times: while on the computer, while watching TV, when bored, while running errands.... There really is NO reason to eat while doing ANY of those things.

I'm really looking forward to Easter breakfast this year, even if it is just a piece of buttered toast! Maybe I'll splurge and put some honey on it too.

So wrong, so funny

Where my mind is today: Cadbury Creme Eggs.

Oddments

• Work today was...annoying. I spent over an hour trying to a) download an ebook onto this here laptop, and then b) transfer it to my MP3 player. I was, eventually, successful on a), but failed dramatically at b). And now my laptop is snubbing my Zen. This came about after an abbreviated attempt at doing just this thing last Sunday. So, the upshot is that I have two downloaded books on my laptop, and no way to transfer them to the Zen...and I've lost the manual for the Zen here at home somewhere.



• The highlight of the day is that we got our copy of OJ's tell-all, the money going to the Goldman family. [This, by the way, was not the book I downloaded!] I *totally love* the cover layout. There's a tiny little "If" inside the first I of the title itself.



• What I should be doing right now: figuring out how to use the church website software. I've had the instruction manual for ten days now; it's less than a foot from my left elbow. I can't seem to make myself start.



• I also should be prepping for mentoring on Saturday. --sigh--
  
  
• My RSS feed for the local paper informed me this morning that there was a flight-for-life rescue going on about halfway between my house and work about an hour after I arrived today. I have since found out that a teenager blew a stop sign, and drove out in front of a motorcyclist who plowed into his car at highway speed. The motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the hospital later in the afternoon. When that kid got up this morning, he was 17 and carefree; two hours later, he's got blood on his hands, and his life has changed forever.



• That sort of put the rest of my evening into perspective.



• There are some really scary people who use my library. I just wanted to remind you all of that fact. There are also some really ICKY people. I wonder if wearing a radiation suit while working in public would scare away the nice, normal people. Yeah. Probably so.



• We had shrimp arrabiata for dinner. I laugh whenever I say "arrabiata" because of Eddie Izzard. If you don't know why, it will only confuse you more when I say that Darth Vader has never been funnier than when ordering penne al'arrabiata at the Death Star canteen.



• I have "new hair" again. OK, it's the same old hair I had Monday, but it's slightly redder, a little shorter, and it smells really good. You'll have to trust me on this.



• I love Meebo. I am currently IMing my sweetie (who is in the city next to the capital of a state that looks a lot like an obese, left square-bracket) from my webpage--this very one--because his StooPid company software won't let him use Yahoo or Gmail to IM "normal." He's telling me about the oddballs in the hotel restaurant last night, including a woman who announced to the entire restaurant and bar that she sleeps naked on silk sheets.



• When I travel, no one does anything remotely bizarre like this in my vicinity. Or maybe I just don't notice? Probably the latter. Is that because the people with whom I travel ARE the most bizarre people in any given situation? No. That can't be it, can it?



• My eyes...don't hurt...! But they are dry and tired and itchy. So I think I'm done here now.



• Besides, I just had to do a hard reboot of the laptop to finish this post after it froze up during the uploading of the OJ book cover.



• So, yeah, I'm off to bath, then sleep. In pajamas. In my bed, made up with decidedly NON-silk sheets.

Weekend Update

pace SNL

Saturday: dietician visit for Sparky's Way High cholesterol. Nothing new here (for me). We'll see if he listened. In the event, after we left he came with me to work. I was supposed to be there by 10. At 10:20, after 40 minutes of screaming at each other in the car, I finally arrived. He slammed out of the car, sans phone, going for a walk, hoping he got "hit by a car on the way!" Frankly, at that point, that was not something I would have been averse to. Yeah, great motherhood moments...

Eventually, he calmed down enough to return to the library, I calmed down enough to not talk to him like he was a dipshit (even if he is sometimes), and we worked things out.

I worked till 6:30, well after everyone else had left, trying to get some cataloging time in. Crazy Cat Lady has been gone for a couple of weeks and I had to cover a lot of her hours Saturday.

Had a good meal Sat. night (I love Dinner by Design!). So tired I could barely keep my eyes open through eating, and went to bed semi-early.

Sunday morning we had church--interesting service (Beast was, at one point, drafted into acting the voice part of a drunken teenager in a skit)--followed by a brunch (during which I 'rested my eyes' a lot), and then packing up the extra food to bring home with us.

The afternoon was spent cleaning, organizing and prepping for the first youth group meeting of the fall, which meant anywhere from 6 to 18 kids ages 11-17, along with their parents (briefly) and some other leaders. I think we ended up with 10 kids. Teenagers are noisy -- am I the first to notice that?

We had fun. Here's proof:No, it wasn't The Rapture. We don't really "do" rapture in PC(USA). Creative chalk usage...that's all!

Overall the meeting went well. There is one thing we need to iron out, and quick, but nothing the kids are doing wrong. This is adult problem-solving time. The kids are simply fabulous.

And now, today, I need to finish some of my Clerkly duties, and finish the cards for the capital campaign. I also need to hit the grocery store, and do some dishes, call the eye doctor, call church, maybe stop by.... My life = spurts of mayhem and long stretches of daily dullness. [wouldn't have it any other way]

What's for supper?

I was just reading one of my favorite language blogs, probably the most accessible one in my blogroll, Separated by a Common Language. I love the posts where she tackles food, and she comes through again in a post about corn today, linking to this pizza menu from Dial-a-Pizza somewhere near Liverpool. If you are hungry, this may cure any desire for pizza for awhile (and I can vouch for the whole corn-on-a-pizza thing--my relatives add tuna to that deliciousness...gaaack). I also wonder what the connection between some of the named-for-states pizzas on the menu is.

What is cracking me up is that one of the ingredients listed for Chicago style pizza is "doner" meat. Uhhh, had I not read today's post from Language Hat, I not only would not have known what that meant, but I would have been pretty damn grossed out! And why is Chicago America's Home of the Doner?? By the way, REAL Chicago style pizza = not available in England. I've never seen a thick-crust/pan pizza there, and if I did I'm not sure I'd eat it. Not sure I'd even eat a "Chicago-style" pizza anywhere else in THIS country actually. I love me some deep-dish 'za, though.

And as for prices on that menu--figure on multiplying by 1.5 or so to 'translate' it into American. So, it's a little pricy, this joint, at least compared to what we pay here ($18.75 for a 3-topping deep dish pizza, delivered...not that I have that memorized or anything because we order the same thing every Sunday night from the same place...hah). However, we can't get chicken tikka kebab from our pizza place. That's sorta depressing. Oh, well, at least they deliver to Crank...if not cranks.{snort}

Fair time

We're goin' to the fair tonight. I'm taking Sparky and Z., paying their entrance fee and then scooting them away from me with MUCHO cash and instructions to make the money last more than 90 minutes. Preferably around 3 hours as I'm staffing the library information booth in the exhibit hall for that long. Beast is staying home.

It's currently 93, according to this site. This one says 88. And the weather pixie at the top of my blog says 86.

Whatever. It's hot. Yay. Hot temps, fried food, animals, midway--here we go!!

Past the halfway point...

...just barely.

We are in Lynchburg, VA, tonight, taking a slow pace up from eastern Tennessee to Gettysburg and then across just under the Great Lakes until we pass them and eventually arrive home.

Things to note:

• My niece, Elizabeth, is awesomely organized! And now also married, to a wonderfully calm, appreciative, happy, sensible, and sensitive man. My female relatives--with one notable exception--do pick TERRIFIC men to marry.
• The Great Smoky Mountains are beautiful. So are the Appalachians. Why am I so freakin' surprised at this??
• My niece, Katherine, is annoying as hell. Several people wanted to smack her upside the face on Friday and/or Saturday.
• On the other hand, my nephew, James, is a very charming man. Like the Smokies, why am I so freakin' surprised?
• We love our Garmin.
• Gatlinburg, TN, is hell on earth. Do whatever you can do to avoid it, unless you like PlasticLand. Sorry, people of Gatlinburg. Just....really. Gag.
• Bristol Motor Speedway is rather amazing in a completely indescribable way.
• Appomattox Court House requires more than half an hour to appreciate, but when you arrived at 4:30 that's all you get. And when it's 98 degrees in the full sun, that's probably about all you want anyway.
• Cracker Barrel--ugh. Never. Again. Don't let me forget!!
• Abingdon, VA, has issues. Not sure exactly what they are, or why, but the whole town seems completely out of sorts for some reason. Not bad, mean, unkind, intentionally "slow" or whatever, just...issues. At least, this week.
• Where are all the black people in the South?? Seriously.
• Lynchburg, VA, also has issues. One is dead (Jerry Falwell), the other is his scourge on the city for the forseeable future (Liberty University).
• This is important: EVERYONE SHOULD GO TO THE BOOKER T. WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT. Awesome, even in 95 degree heat and in spite of having no real services available. Northerners--like us--especially should visit. Wake up: pre-war South was not all about Scarlett O'Hara. (duh)
• Western Virginia is gorgeous. Lousy drivers, great scenery. It's a decent trade-off.
• There are a LOT of churches in this part of the country. A LOT.
• I can't understand English in eastern Tennessee. Oy. I need a universal translator.
• I haven't read a book all week. I haven't read anything except travel information since...uh...Thursday? This is a surprise.
• Sparky has weird feet.
• Courtyards (by Marriott) have pretty awesome lobbies. Holiday Inns have pretty nice bedding. Jameson Inns have pretty fabulous staff (what few there may be).
• We are still trying to figure out how someone tipped their sedan over on its side while driving up a paved, two-lane road in Great Smokies National Park. Really. It looked like perhaps they went over the verge (on the inside of a curve) and it just...tipped over. Is this a new way to entertain visitors? It wasn't that steep of a verge. Weird, and ... no, just weird.
• Never, ever, wear new shoes at a wedding, especially if standing for the whole ceremony, and even more important to remember if standing on a slate floor.
• We've only had two or three 'Deliverance' moments.
• Blueberry/raspberry/chocolate cookies are amazingly GOOD.
• Any ideas for what I can do with a used, slighly stained bridesmaid lilac-colored bridesmaid dress?
• We never did see any fireworks on the holiday. Oh, well.
• Some of the backroads today caused Sparky to say, "Can we go back to that hill again? I think I left my intestines there."
• After twenty years of off-and-on searching, I've finally found out the secret to those "wedding mints" I love so much: cream cheese and lots and lots of sugar (and food coloring and a pretty mold). Yay.
• The southeastern part of the country is lovely, but I don't think I could live here year-round.
• We've 'only' taken 200 photos so far. :-)

And to sum up: Spidey-Pig, Spidey-Pig, does whatever a Spidey-Pig can....

Lunch

Right now: black pepper encrusted potato chips, YoCrunch with a little bit o' Butterfinger candy bar...and crow.

Yum.

Note to self, et al.: "Old enough to know better" doesn't actually exist.

So far...

...today I've found my missing-for-a-week watch, and made about 10 nights' worth of meals at Dinner by Design.

Now I'm off to work.

[Update from the eye doctor: my eyes have gotten still worse. Somewhere along the line I was told that would stop by now. Sigh...so it's new glasses for me, and no Lasik: one must have had no changes in vision for at least 2 years to be considered for this. Since I am headed for bifocals--they insist, against my protestations--sometime in the next couple of years, I'm right out of the hunt. Not that I want people messing with my eyes with lasers anyhow!]

Explanation

I'm constantly whining--well, not really, but it feels like it--about how I loathe cooking. So the avatar today is a little weird, n'est ce pas?

The deal is that I'm going to Dinner by Design at 10 this morning and making 12 meals. Normally, I do 6 meals at a time, since they are supposed to be 6 servings each; that works out to 12 for us (theoretically, but keep in mind I live with a teenager!) and they somehow can last for as long as three weeks in 'real time.' [Don't ask--I don't know either!] However, when I looked at the calendar for the next few weeks...months...I decided making twice as much at once might be a really good idea. Our schedule is just a little busy from now till mid-July. Yoicks.

Premade food, ahoy. Somehow, I think I will be at the DbD place for a little more than my usual hour today. Hope I have room in the freezer for everything when I come home....

Awake, alone

I just got home from work.

I'm really tired, with a headache that developed just before we closed down for the night. It's rainy, windy, and generally unpleasant outside, leading to an uncomfortable drive home (is this puddle frozen? is that idiot going to turn his brights down?) compounded by the headache.

Both boys are asleep in their beds. I should go there too. Soon. Today was just a weird day, though I did manage to get quite a lot done:

• Updated all the monthly statistics and lists and ran the list for the monthly budget. Also updated my work blog with the monthly stats.
• Installed Meebo at work (and at home this morning). My login is the same as my Gmail, if anyone cares.... Not sure if it works, as not that many people are on my {{gag}} Buddy List
• Created a new Google Alert about Monday's situation. We've made it as far as Utah in the news so far. Groan. I also talked to the staff-member who was involved for a few minutes about the whole thing.
• Cataloged about 60 books, CDs, and books on CD and tape
• Found a new-to-me toy on Connexion which will strip fields exported into our database. I know, sounds thrilling, but it will save me some work.
• Ate a Crunchwrap for lunch and a chicken breast (leftover from dinner earlier this week) for supper. And several candy hearts. And too many Munchkins. [...and how odd is it that Googling the link for that brought up two hits for Dunkin Donuts in Pakistan and India before the official Dunkin Donuts website?]
• Read lots of email, replied to some, wrote some, but it was generally a slow mail day. That's ok: one of the emails was from a Known Asshole, so some of us who received that email had a brief but good time bashing him around among ourselves.

Amazingly enough, writing this post has cured my headache. Or maybe it's just that my neck is at an impossible angle as I type and my nerve cells are all numb. I'm not complaining.

I'm off to do a Sudoku (killer-style) and then to bed. Beast should have the whole bed warmed up by now. Heh.

PS--Tomorrow is Spa Day for me. Yay. I'm so ready for a massage and whatever-else-is-on-the-schedule. I don't even care, as long as I walk out of there all noodly.