Damaged fingerprints? Really?

Every day brings us a step closer to moving to England! Friday I had my biometrics appointment. They digitally scanned my digits (fingers) and my face. One interesting tidbit I learned is that two of my fingerprints were damaged such that they had to take several scans of each before an acceptable scan was made. The reason: typing on computer keyboards. That's right. The girl scanning my fingerprints in asked if I worked on a computer all day, and when I replied that I did, she said that she could tell because I had several damaged fingerprints. Who knew? So weird.

Today DH and I made major progress towards getting the house ready (and thus ourselves) for someone else to occupy. We cleaned out the garage. Three trips to the dump and some serious dust induced sneezing later, the garage looks like a room. It's pretty impressive. There is still a lot of stuff in there that I need to get rid of (old paint cans, for example) but we're significantly closer to having a tidy garage.

For those keeping score:

The garage - about 75% complete
The basement - about 50% complete.
The deck - about 75% complete
The yard - about 50% complete
The interior of the house - about 0% complete.

I did pack two boxes of books that we intend to ship over with us. That leaves 6 bookshelves full of books that I need to sort for storage and selling. There's still major paper records sorting and shredding that needs to be done, furniture that needs to be figured out (ship, store, donate, or sell), clothing that needs to be sorted through, linens and things that need to be sorted...

Oh, the list goes on and on.

Packing? What packing?

Ugh. The beat drums steadily on as DH and I try and get ready for this move. DH went for his biometrics appointment Saturday, and I guess the whole package will be sent off to the British consulate in NYC sometime this week. After that, the waiting game begins...

In the meantime we worked hard on the yard yesterday - trying to get it into somewhat reasonable shape. We had someone come by to look at the deck so that we could get some help getting the railings installed.... that's one summer project we're not going to be able to finish. Otherwise we mowed, weeded, and generally spruced up the yard.

Today we're working our way through 4!! years worth of papers that we've never bothered to sort through. Insane! The shredder has been working overtime.... even jamming to a complete stop for like 5 minutes until DH got all the junk out of it. We're not even close to done with that yet!

I guess during this week we'll concentrate on getting that kind of stuff done. Once it goes out in to the trash/recycling, we'll have a cleaner slate to start again from.

Oh, and just to top it all off, Henry had a dental cleaning on Friday. Poor guy had to have two teeth pulled, poor little guy. He just can't catch a break. They took the cats' blood for submission to the lab in Kansas for rabies testing for them to get into the UK, so there's that. Now Eliza got loose poopies again (just started yesterday). She got out into the yard for like 1 minute yesterday, and then the loose poopies started again last night. Coincidence? DH thinks so, I think not. Ugh.

And so it begins...

Finally, we've started making progress towards "The Great Move."

1) The first big step in truly making the move was telling my Gramma. It's been a month now (almost) since my PopPop passed away, and she asked us to come down this weekend to take her to the cemetery. We did that and spent most of the weekend down there, gauging whether enough time had passed that it was okay to tell her. We told her over dinner Saturday night, and amazingly, she was excited about it. No worries at all.. in fact she's already planning her trip over with Ray's Gramma! I'm so relieved!

2) Ray finished his visa application - at least the 98% of it. The visa fee (a whopping $400! Luckily he's getting reimbursed!) for some reason didn't go through (maybe their credit card processing system was down?). Anyway, once that goes through - the official visa paperwork is started and the real countdown to Ray's departure begins!

3) We've started cleaning out our stuff. Tonight we worked on the basement - at least 1/3 of it. We sorting stuff out into trash, keep, and sell. So far, the sell pile is a lot smaller than I thought, the trash pile is about the size I thought, and the keep pile is actually pretty small. Also, we've discovered how many picture frames we have that we never used (I think we got them all as wedding gifts) and how much kitchenalia I have that I don't use.

That's the beginning of the beginning.... I can't wait for the end of the beginning!

One drama departs, another drama arrives...

I can't win for losing! Just as I've settled my mind about the whole dream job affair (and yes, I am still very much settled) Henry-cat goes and gets sick. He started pooping all over the den - including on the leather couch! - and acting all sick and malaised.

Turns out he has a bacterial infection in his GI system, poor little guy. They gave him a shot of antibiotics, and we were given drops to help clear the infection. We've got him secluded in the blue room - again! If it's not one thing it's another with these cats. He also needs to have his teeth cleaned this month, and we have to do the blood titer so we can all go to England together.

In better news, DH got his work orders today - so we can finally start the process of getting visas, biometrics, etc. Don't know yet what his "start date" will be. Haven't made any other major decisions yet either, though.

Decisions - always better when they're made for you?

Life has been a whirlwind lately - what with DH's pending move to England, my job hopes with my dream office, not knowing what parts of our DC life to close out and what parts to hang onto - the mountains of decisions to be made felt stifling and dizzying.

One decision, however, might be out of my hands, and I'm not displeased about that. I was offered an interview for the job I applied to in February (finally). Being a resourceful type, I tried to find out who my competition was. And I think that I have identified a true competitor. If my speculation and research are in fact correct, then there's really no chance for me in the position because the other person is simply much better qualified in all respects.

And I'm okay with that. If it had been someone more marginally qualified - or not really more qualified at all! - I might have felt more slighted. But right now, I am kind of waiting for the inevitable to happen. This person will most likely be offered the position, and probably to great strategic advantage, as other changes in the office are rumored to be in the works, which might open up even better possibilities.

One decision likely taken out of my hands, and a decision I can hardly argue with. In fact, if I'm right on the person, I might think a bit less of the office if they didn't choose that person. Now there's no wondering about how to work it out with DH's relocation and my dreams... it's off to England I go in August/September without second thoughts!

Provided I'm right about everything I'm speculating about - who the person is, that they are offered and accept the job, yada yada yada.

Austen-intense weekend

I can't believe it, but I've spent more than 7 hours today immersed in the world of Jane Austen.

This afternoon I spent 5+ hours watching CC's Pride and Prejudice DVDs that she so graciously lent to me. I just finished reading the book last week, and I also watched the Keira Knightly version Friday night. There's simply no contest - the 1995 version of P&P is far, far superior in cast, story development, characters, etc. I loved watching this even more after having read the book. I enjoyed recognizing Mr Darcy's complete 180 with respect to his behavior after Lizzy turns down his first proposal - it's just wonderful. The KK version is dreadful; KK is a bad Lizzy Bennet (she's just not right), Mr Darcy is okay, but he's no Colin Firth, Mr. Bingley is acceptable, as is Caroline, but really, the story was overly modernized and changed some pivotal scenes (why were Lizzy and Mr Darcy out in the rain when he proposed the first time? Ridiculous).

Tonight I watched the conclusion of the Masterpiece Theater version of Sense and Sensibility. This time I've seen Hollywood's take on the story first (with my absolute favorite - Emma Thompson - as Elinor) and I love, love, love that movie.

I knew that my opinion of this MT version (also written by Andrew Davies, who did my favored P&P) would hinge on one scene - when Edward reveals that Robert married Lucy. When I watch the ET version, her breaking into tears triggers a full-on sobfest for me. Unfortunately, the MT version just didn't live up to it. Although I was more sad for Marianne when Willoughby's deception is revealed (and he confronts Elinor? I'll have to read the book to see if that happens in the original text - and the duel with Brandon too!) I was cold to Edward's confession to Elinor. Their relationship just didn't seem solidly established to me.

Maybe I'm overly influenced by the first version I'm exposed to - in which case my opinions probably hold no water. I've watched both versions of Emma (Hollywood's with Gwyneth Paltrow and MT's with Kate Beckinsale) and I'm fairly neutral on them. I don't really like the underlying story as much, I think. I've got that book too, though so we'll see what I think after reading that.

Gotta get through Sense & Sensibility first, though.

Thank you and goodbye, faithful companion

I sold my 1995 Saturn SL1 "George" today. He had been a reliable and faithful friend for the past 10 years (I bought him in 1998) during which time I put about 110k on him. He'd started to develop the shakes while accelerating and at higher speeds, and since he had served his purpose as an emergency back-up for the Bug this winter, it was time to send him to a new home.

The people who bought him were a couple of young folks. The girl had just relocated from Florida and needed a car to get her from her home to the Metro and back; she was accompanied by her uncle (who was probably our age) who liked to tinker with cars. In fact, he was restoring a Mercedes turbo-diesel from the 80s, and had already converted another Merc diesel to run on veggie oil. Since George had some issues and needed some work to be perfect, I felt that it was a good match and let him go for a bit less than I had hoped. It's okay though, because he's gone now, to a good home I think. That's all I could have hoped for.

Thanks George! For all the times we've had, all the miles we've driven, it's been swell.

DH is mad I didn't take my St John bumper sticker off the trunk lid. Oh well.

Thanks for the sign, Pop-Pop

PopPop passed away very peacefully on Saturday afternoon, less than a week since I'd last been down there. My Gramma was there with him, and she said the last thing he said to her was "Can you please turn the fan on?" Interesting.

DH and I of course went straight down there to be with my Gramma. We came home yesterday evening, and I had an interesting experience.

When my PopPop and I last spoke, we made a little deal. I promised him that I would look after Gramma if, when he passed, when he saw my mother, he would tell her I said hello and that I loved her. It was a deal - happily when I last spoke with him he was still pretty mentally sharp, so that was good.

Anyway, on that last trip I had brought a whole bunch of pictures in my suitcase in preparation for things. Last night, DH emptied the suitcase and put the unzipped, empty suitcase up on a small chair. Eliza, for some reason, couldn't resist the suitcase, and kept pawing and yanking at it, finally bringing the whole thing down crashing on her. She wasn't hurt, but when I got the suitcase and brought it right side up, a picture slipped out of the pocket.

It was a picture of my mother on her 30th birthday, about a month before she died, and my PopPop was right behind her.

I took it as a sign that he had fulfilled his promise to me. Thanks PopPop!

Blimey, we're 'aving to consider it!

I love Top Gear, love Britcoms old and new, love London, and appreciate the maritime history the English are so proud of.

And I just might be a part of it for a couple of years.

DH has received a formal offer (with all the details) for a position in northern England (Yorkshire - I'm still learning these regions). It's one of those too-good-to-pass-up opportunities, but it's going to take an awful lot of work to get us in the place we need to be before we hop the pond. Among the things we're considering:

- Selling the house (especially in this market - what timing!)
- Selling almost all our stuff (90% of the crap we own we're not attached to, and the 10% we are we'll either ship over or store somehow)
- Dealing with the cats? Shipping them over might be expensive, stressful, and difficult to arrange, but we'd probably do it anyway
- What about my Bug? Selling DH's car is a no brainer, and I'm going to try and sell George the Saturn this weekend. But my beloved Bug! Oh what to do?
- Helping Gmom. Not much more to say about that.

Oy vey! So much, so much!

Circle of Life

Photo courtesy of Brian Vallelunga - PopPop Thanksgiving 2007

Well, it's been a rough week, and a rougher weekend. PopPop's condition is deteriorating quickly, which may be a blessing for him, but rough for all those who love him.

I spent all of last week down there with them, which was an absolute blessing. While he was still healthy and out of pain we got to talk about a lot of things - old stories of his, me thanking him for everything he'd done, etc. I had some real quality time alone with him. My aunt and cousins are going down in the next few weeks, and I really hope that there's enough time left for them to have their time alone with him as well. Before leaving last night, I realized that it was likely the last time I would see him alive. I told him goodbye in just the way I wanted to, and he said goodbye to me, so there's some small consolation there.

I was going to write more about the events of this past weekend, but I think that I've said the most important bit.

What I've cooked this weekend

My entire weekend can be summarized by what I cooked. I'm going down to Delaware Tuesday to be with my grandparents, and this is what I'll bring:

- Turkey meatloaf with carrots, parsnips, and green peppers (4 mini sized ones)
- Chicken meatballs with parsley
- Baked Macaroni and Cheese
- Sweet Potato Casserole
- Pork Shepherds pie (2)
- 4.5 Blueberry waffles (we had some for breakfast ourselves)

That's just what I've cooked so far. I'm planning on also making a spinach lasagna and some other kind of baked pasta. I may have run out of cooking steam for the baked pasta, though. We'll see. I also made fish cakes for dinner for DH and me, and made falafel patties up, ready for frying, for tomorrow night's dinner.

Besides all that I've cooked, Trader Joes has been a godsend for a couple of low-sodium, low-chemical, ready-made meals. I'm bringing their frozen cod fishsticks, chicken nuggets, and from Whole Foods I got low-sodium pre-made steak fries and sweet potato fries. I'm also bringing some frozen veggies, dark chocolate truffles from TJs, and some jarred sauces for quick meals to make there.

I'm still exhausted. My gramma has an appointment with a hospice worker tomorrow.

I should post about my PopPop's actual diagnosis. It's metastatic melanoma. Basically it's a melanoma skin cancer (which he had removed in winter 2006/2007) that metastasized to the internal organs (his lungs, liver, etc). This is basically Stage IV for the disease, and, depending on when diagnosed, means a 6-12 month remaining life span. It's an extremely aggressive cancer, there's only one (very rough) chemo treatment approved by the FDA for it, and it's the same disease that killed my mother.

As if I needed any more stress...

So here's the story:

1) DH has been offered a job in England. No idea what we're going to do about that.
2) I still haven't heard about the job I applied for in my dream office. It's been over two weeks at this point
3) My grandfather (my favorite living relative) has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. It's likely metastatic melanoma that has spread to his lungs, liver, etc. I'm in Delaware now with my grandparents, as the doctor has said that he is not supposed to be left alone, and my grandmother isn't able to get out to the store and whatnot because of that.

Yikes. I think I really need that vacation now!

I'll update as time permits. We'll be home again for the weekend, since the cats will need some looking after and my sister is able to come down to hold fort.

Guest blogger: DH

So this post is because I wanted you all to know that Wifey is an absolute sissy. It comes time to change her bandage on her 5 (not 6) stitches - not that she'd know because she's afraid to look - and she is bawling like a baby. Tears in her eyes and everything! So we get the original bandage off and out come the waterworks - "I don't want to look!", "I'm scared!", etc. So long story short, I have to do the whole thing myself - clean off the area, apply the Neosporin-stuff, and put on the new band-aid. All the while, she is standing there crying like a little girl while I work on her hand.

Wimp.

Six stitches!

That's right.. six stitches have taken up temporary residence in my left hand. This morning I dropped a bottle of Torani syrup right onto my shotglass full of espresso, breaking the shotglass and causing me to drop my hand right onto the broken glass.

I screamed bloody murder for DH. Unfortunately he had just gotten into the shower, and while he did hear me, he thought my muffled screams were simply me saying goodbye, as I do every morning. I ran upstairs, clutching a paper towel to my bleeding wound, and banged on the bathroom door while yelling. Poor thing only got 1/4 of a shower this morning.

We spent nearly 3 hours in the Germantown Emergency Room waiting for someone to look at my hand. I guess the good thing to come of all this is that I now know that there is an emergency room (outpatient only) right around the corner from us. Wish I had known that before I cut my hand.

At least it was my left hand that was injured. No pain to report as of yet, but I've just bought a big bottle of ibuprofen in preparation. DH has some left over hydrocodone (I believe it is the generic version of Percoset) if I can't sleep for the pain tonight.

First time I've ever had injury-related stitches. That's cool.

Stuff, stuff, and more stuff

What a fun-filled weekend. Yesterday I accomplished grocery shopping (bought lots and lots of veggies at WF)! I've been watching WAY too much BBC America, including "How Clean is your House" (hmm, not very) and "You are what you eat" (hence lots of new veggie friends in our life!). I've bought rutabagas, bok choy, some weird Odwalla-like green drink that has spirulina and broccoli in it (along with mango, banana, and apple juices), red and green cabbages, and beans and lentils. I've tried to incorporate two vegetarian dinners (well, at least no meat as the main protein, I'm not diligent about checking the ingredients I'm using) into my weekly menus. I've even bought tofu!

Last week I tried a roasted red pepper pasta sauce with roasted red pepper and silken tofu. It wasn't all that great; the blandness of the tofu overroad the taste of the red peppers. Maybe it needed more garlic or a higher red pepper to tofu ratio. It wasn't bad, just bland. Last night I made mushroom quesadillas, with mushrooms, diced jalapeno peppers, onions, and cheese (Tillamook, which is vegetarian cheese), guacamole and sour cream, and whole wheat tortillas. They were excellent; mostly because I didn't follow the recipe too closely (I have a new vegetarian cookbook that's 5 ingredient easy vegetarian meals - sometimes the recipes need more than 5 ingredients to sing). I spiced the filling up with some cumin and chili powder! Major yums!

I really need some easy non-soup bean and lentil recipes. I am going to try a Spanish lentil rice recipe later this week. We'll see how it goes. I also bought an immersion blender for homemade smoothies. I'm not sure how often I'll use it, but maybe I'll get lots of ideas now that I have it.

On the topic of food, this morning I made crepes for breakfast with chocolate and banana filling. It reminded me of the crepes I had when I was in Paris - except the crepe was a little crispier than I remembered my Parisian crepe to be. C'est la vie. They were still so yummy - I swear I was having foodgasms. Tonight I am making stuffed peppers with a black bean and corn stuffing. This recipe is from my new America's Test Kitchen cookbook. That's the cookbook that's given me my new fantastic pan-fried salmon cakes recipe which I am desperately in love with. We'll see how this one goes.

In other interesting news... I've also fallen in love with the UK version of "Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares." I just find the stories very compelling, and the insights very interesting.

Today I washed my car! Yes... it's only 45 degrees outside, but my poor car was so, so dirty I couldn't stand it. I was almost in tears every time I looked at it. Now it's all shiny and new looking, and I'm very happy. The cleanliness should last another 2 days, I figure.

And in still more news... just when we thought it was safe to clean out the room DH's father was staying in, DH's brother (yes, the one with the new baby and wife who hates me and didn't invite me to the baby shower or have DH as one of his brother's groomsmen in her 6 bridesmaid/5 groomsmen wedding) called to ask if he could stay with us for 4 weeks while doing some work in Rockville for his company. "No" is of course not an option. He's a smoker, though, so I am going to require him not to smoke anywhere near the house (I don't want nasty cigarette butts in my flower beds or lawn). Nevertheless, I acknowledge that the house is going to smell like cigarettes when he's here. I'll have to find a good solution to that. So that's something to be annoyed about.

Finally, the job posting for the office in which I desperately want to work closed on Thursday. So we'll see if I can clear the technical hurdle (which I think that I can) and then on to the true test: does that deputy director want to hire me? Argh. So frustrating.

Tonight I am going to settle down and watch the third and final part of the BBC/A&E version of "Pride and Prejudice," so that should be a nice way to close out the day.

It was a truly remarkable weekend!

New member of the Jane Austen Club

The past two Sundays I have been watching the 1995 joint A&E/BBC production of "Pride and Prejudice" and I am completely in love with it. I had heard about it online, where people raved about Colin Firth's "Mr Darcy," and while I don't find myself completely bowled over by any of the actors in their parts, I'm completely sucked in to the story.

Now, some of you might have read that instead of watching the Super Bowl, I was watching Sense and Sensibility (Kate Winslet/Emma Thompson version), another Austen movie I adore. I also realized that I have watched the 1940s version of Pride and Prejudice with Greer Garson.

This 1995 version of P&P has completely captured me, though, and I'm not sure how. The final part of the series (it has been shown in three parts on PBS's Masterpiece Classics) airs next Sunday. I'm just not sure I can wait that long, despite knowing exactly how the story ends.

I should probably put those books on my "to read" list ASAP!

Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day, I made a Shrimp and Scallop Fra Diavolo, baked Valentine's day colored M&M chocolate chip cookies for DH to enjoy during "Lost," and planted a garden with 7 different herbs.

That's right, I said planted a garden.

DH got me an Aerogarden for Valentine's Day. It was a total surprise, a nice one. I joked that the message that it sent me though was "get in the kitchen and cook me something!"

Too funny.

Now in 4-6 weeks I'll have fresh herbs, just in time to plant my real garden outside!

D'ja vote?

So today is the "Potomac Primary," the "Chesapeake Primary," the "Chesapeake Challenge," or whatever catchy little alliterative phrase one wants to use to describe the fact that MD, VA, and DC happen to be holding their Presidential primaries on the same day. Amazingly enough, the people who, quite frankly, are most affected by changes in administration (Feds, military folk, etc) who dominate this area are actually going to be a little bit relevant in the national political process. Whodathunkit?

Hope you voted today DC metropolitan area residents! Unless, like me, you are a registered Libertarian (or Green, or independent like DH, no open primary in MD!)

To all you voters - I laughed at the little sticker that you wore to work today.

Money money money

So I finished my fed and state taxes this weekend. It's not unusual that I get Feds done early; I generally file using TurboTax online and voila.. it's done. However, I always wait until the last minute (literally!) to do state taxes. This year I pulled myself together and filed both on the same day. In 12 days I should have an extra $4400 in my savings account.

That should be just enough to cover the railings for the deck and some of the bathroom upgrades.

Now that we've filed our 2007 taxes, we now know how much we're eligible for Bushy-boy's last minute payoff to the American people. We didn't hit their income limit for married couples, so in May we'll get another $1200! Woohoo! We're rolling in it!

That will cover maybe another 1/5 of the bathroom reno, provided we get it started sometime in the next few months. We might actually be one of the 10% of Americans who actually plow their "rebate" (i.e. mafia-like payoff) back into the economy. Of course we would have done it anyway, so...

We're rolling in something 'round here... now that the Chesapeake primaries are next Tuesday. :)

If I had only been paying attention to the time...

It's been a crazy couple of days commuting by MARC train. The past couple of mornings my normal train has been pretty severely delayed, and then there was last night.

I typically leave my desk at 5:15 to catch the 5:24 out of Silver Spring. This is calibrated to my computer display time, and typically means that I am getting to the station right as the train is entering it.

Last night the trains were delayed in and out of Union Station because of an accident affecting another line. No big deal, really. Unfortunately I was working on another job application and missed my 5:15 departure time. I can leave as late as 5:17, but then I have to run to catch the light that makes the difference between missing and catching my train. It was 5:22. Poop. I checked the MARC website and saw that the train two trains before mine was running 35-45 minutes late, which means that it is actually running 45-55 minutes late. I decided to go ahead and try and make it.

Just as I was crossing Colesville Rd, I saw a train pull away from the station. Rats! I had just missed it. If I had left at my normal time, I am certain I would have caught it. No worries, though, I thought. If they are at least running, it's unlikely that my train was too far behind.

I made it to the platform and saw people waiting for the express train to WV. I can't ride that particular train because it doesn't stop at my station. It only makes one stop before the "outer stations" (beyond Germantown). It comes about 5-10 minutes after the train I "missed" and leaves.

Shortly after the express train leaves Silver Spring (again, maybe 5-10 minutes) my "normal" train comes through. It's running only 15 minutes behind schedule, which is nice. I jump on and sit back for the ride home.

We get to Gaithersburg station, the stop immediately preceeding my own, and minutes after pulling out of the station we come to a halt. Hmmmm. The conductor comes on the loudspeaker and tells us "They think that there may have been an incident, and the police are on the way to check it out." This is not good news. About 15-10 minutes later we get an update "There has been a serious injury incident and we're going to be here for a while." In the meantime, those of us in the first car see a police car drive up with lights flashing, shining a spotlight in the general direction of our wheels/the tracks. You get the idea, as we all did. Ick.

Another 20 minutes goes by, we see fire engines and ambulances and whatnot all pass by. I go to pull out my cell to call DH and let him know I'm going to be really late and crap, the battery is dead. Luckily, there is an awesome camraderie on the train when stuff like this happens and the woman sitting next to me lets me use her phone to call home. Anyway, we get to chatting, and it's perhaps another 20 minutes (we've been sitting in the same spot for over an hour at this point - I could have walked to my car by now!) before they let us know that they are going to move the train back to Gaithersburg station to allow us to get off.

To make a long story short, I borrow another cell phone once we get off the train (this time from the woman who has a lime green Beetle at my train station!) and call DH to ask him to pick me up. I finally get home around 8:00, and I can hear the trains running again very shortly thereafter.

The moral of the story is that I need to try and leave on time and I need to make sure that my cell phone is alawys charged!. The train I missed made it through no problem, and it was the express train that hit the person in Gaithersburg (talked with a coworker who was on the train, apparently the conductor announced what had happened in a very shaky voice to the folks on that train).

Still... it's better than driving the Beltway.

Thank you New York!

Just a couple of months ago I was begging the Giants to beat the New England Patriots for the sake of the last thing Dolphin-related that gives me any happiness - their unmatched record of going through the entire season and post-season undefeated. Needless to say they failed to live up to my prayers, and I berated them.

Tonight, I'm thanking them. I don't care that the sportscasters and journalists and all those jokers are saying that this New England team is miles away better than the 1972 Dolphins ever were. I don't care that New England has technically won more games this season (18) than the 1972 Dolphins did in theirs (17).

The recordbooks only show one thing:

2007 New England Patriots: 18-1
1972 Miami Dolphins: 17-0

Wooohooo! Giants. Thank you!

Mixed emotions - and lots of them

Well, there's no need to restate what I've been saying for years now; my current job is shot and I'm desperate for a job in my dream office.

That door appears to have opened oh, so slightly today.

I got an email from one of my colleagues in my dream office today that they just posted a job announcement for a new position in that office. I was stupefied on several levels: I had been reviewing job postings practically hourly and hadn't seen anything advertised for that office, I thought that one of the division chiefs or indeed the deputy in that office would have notified me directly (to be fair, the div. chief I thought would have been in touch is traditionally off on Fridays), and I hadn't heard about the posting before it actually got put out there (I thought I would have gotten a "heads up - we're going to be posting something!"). The job position itself gives absolutely no hint that it's in the office it's in - it's very cryptic in that regard. Is that intentional? Is that an oversight? Am I overanalyzing this to death?

All that aside, when I read the posting I was even more puzzled. The position, as described, is highly administrative. Managing budget submissions, planning documents, grants and contract administration, etc. It was also posted at a grade level one step above where I am currently. That ordinarily wouldn't have been a problem, except that it's a bit strange technically. They advertise that they are looking for someone that has a year's experience at a GS*12 level, for this Band-IV position. I have been in Band*III (which is supposed to be a GS*11/12 equivalent) since October 2006, when my office moved to the payband system. However, I was in the PMF program, and technically converted in July to a GS*12 equivalent. Will HR consider 1+ years at Band*III enough for a Band*IV job? I know this is getting into the weeds, but it's a very real question for me. After July'08 this is a total non-issue, but before then I wonder whether it will come up.

So - will I have the opportunity to do foreign affairs work alongside the duties of the position? Will I even qualify technically for the position (I should actually know that answer soon enough, as I've got the same problem for the other job I recently applied for)? Big questions, no idea what the answers are.

The nice thing is that the person who sent me the post was completely convinced that I was perfect for the position and said that he had no doubt that I would be running the office in no time. Which is nice. I don't actually want to run the office - I like the staff level work and that's what I want to do.

So I guess I throw my hat into the ring and wait and see whether it gets tap-danced all over. It's been a total roller-coaster of emotions today, though, I gotta tell you.

It's just one of those .... months?

Ugh. It has been one of those months. You know, when whatever you do, however you try to turn things around, regardless of how you try to stay upbeat and positive about the future, the reality of the day to day grind just beats you into submission.

My office is broken. Communication has completely broken down, the new leadership and their "people" don't trust the staff that has been there for any period of time, and they are making judgements indiscriminately. It makes those of us who actually perform at a high level and are effective at our jobs completely discouraged. It certainly doesn't encourage loyalty or any kind of respect, and before long, they are going to have to realize that they can't do it all alone. I look forward to that day - hopefully it's the day I'm walking out the door.

DH is having similar frustrations at work, not so much leadership-oriented, but just in trying to get people to respond to his inquiries about advertised positions within the company. So that's annoying.

It makes you just want to ask - What the heck is wrong with people? How hard is it - once someone makes the transition from petulant teenager to mature adult - to treat people with a modicum of respect? You don't have to like them, or even respect their abilities, but you do have to respect them as humans.

On a side, slightly ironic note, DH and I have been invited to my in-laws house next weekend to visit with them because DH's brother, his wife, and their new baby are going to be there. I think I'll pass... I'm coming down with something, I've got something else to do, and I just don't think we'll be able to make it. Or something.

That's it! I can't take it any more!

So today DH and I set about the long delayed, much needed task of recaulking the bathtub in our bedroom. We'd redone it once before, but somehow the anti-mildew properties of the caulk were just not working. So we scraped it all out, cleaned the area, shoved new caulk in the spot, and have to wait until tomorrow morning before we can use the shower.

Our master bath is in very sorry shape. I peeled all the wallpaper and ceiling border off the walls, as well as a gold-painted chair rail, so the walls are a hole-y mess. The color scheme is almond and the lighting is crap, so everything looks dingy.

So, even though we had planned not to do any major home renos this year, we've decided that we have to do the bathroom. Thing is, unlike the kitchen, we at least have another bathroom we can use in the interim. So it can't possibly be as inconvenient and frustrating as the kitchen remodel, right.

At least we now have something to do for the next few weekends - find a bathroom designer who can fit all the stuff I want (separate whirlpool tub and shower, namely) into the 8.5' X 7.5' space.

Crap.

Cutest picture you'll see of two Bugs today

Sarah and I in our "matching" VW Bug Convertibles.


Too bad about the dog poo on her tire.

Happy happy joy joy

I love having a few small things to be happy about on an otherwise dismal Monday.

#1 - Today when I got back to my car after work it was warm enough to drive home with the top DOWN! I was so excited - even though there was too much traffic to pick up any speed, and the windscreen was home in the garage so my hair was blowing all over the place, it was completely awesome.

#2 - I've discovered two new funny shows on Adult Swim: "Metalocalypse" and "Lucy, Daughter of the Devil." Too funny, and both shows are from/by/with some of the folks I know and love from "Home Movies."

#3 - Last night's Simpsons poked fun at my rediscovered love - newspapers! Plus "Wiggum for President!"

Organizing and scheduling

Feelin' a bit ambitious today, DH and I established a calendar with regular chores assigned to one or both of us. I'm hoping that by having one of us responsible on a regular basis for some aspect of housecleaning, whether it be vacuuming the bedroom or the living room, taking out the cat litter and trash, or dusting the den and dining room, we'll clean the house more often.

Considering that we're hosting a little shindig next Sunday, today seemed like as good a day as any to start.

Today
My chores: Clean the kitchen (everything but the floors), vacuum the living room (which DH did for me today... while I was cleaning the kitchen).
DH's chores: Clean the kitchen floors; vacuum the master bedroom, upstairs hallway, and stairs;
Joint chores: Laundry

I've also scheduled when we're supposed to clean out the basement, change the air filters in the heater, and other big project type things. Pretty ambitious, I know.

I predict we'll adhere to the chores calendar for about 2 months.

Rediscovering newsprint

I'm definitely part of the e-generation. I don't text very often, nor do I IM all my friends, but I get the majority of my news from websites and TV, rarely reading a physical newspaper.

Last night DH had CNN and MSNBC on, watching the results of the Iowa caucuses. I generally can't stand politics anyway, since I live with the results of politician's decisions everyday at work, but in particular I can't stand the tone and tenor of the mainstream media's coverage of politics. The screechy voices, the ridiculous cliches and analogies and transparent pandering and biases. It makes me want to jump off a cliff or stab my eardrums out with a pencil.

This morning, I was interested in learning about what happened in Iowa without the annoying TV over-dramatization and hullabaloo. So I picked up a Washington Post before getting on the train this morning to read their coverage. It had been so long since I had bought a physical newspaper that I didn't even realize that the price had increased from 35 to 50 cents a paper.

During my 30 minute train ride I only managed to get through about 3-4 actual pages of the first section - but it was such a refreshing change. No loud screaming, no endless commentary disguised as a question, no crosstalk or interruption or immediate reinterpretation of what was said. Just an in-depth observational review of the events. It was actually a peaceful moment in politics. I felt more educated and informed about what had happened, what it meant, and what the ramifications were likely to be. Exactly what a newspaper should do.

I doubt that I can become a daily paper reader - I can't stand the newsprint on my fingers, and there's rarely enough news that I care to read in depth that doesn't get captured ably enough by the Economist. But for all the proclamations that the old fashioned newspaper is dead, well, I just rediscovered their value.

Go ahead, read a paper at least once a week. But remember, except on Sunday, it'll cost you two quarters now.

WooHoo

So, this post may make no sense because I've just had three glasses of delicious Cava from Trader Joe's celebrating my father-in-law's last day here! He retires from his DC job tomorrow, and it's the last night he'll be here!

Woot!

He's given us all kinds of warning, like he might take a job in the area again or some such thing, but I have hope that we're actually free! I don't know what we're free from, but I feel free.

That may be the Cava talking.

Anyway, I think that my top priorities, in no particular order, now that he's not going to be here and I'm not expected to be Betty Crocker and have dinner on the table by 6:30 anymore, will be:

* experiment with more alternative foods (beans, veggies, etc)
* maybe start exercising again (since I won't have to worry about making dinner as soon as I get home from work)
* maybe going to more work-related happy hours

I see big things happening. BIG!

P.S. I forgot to write the other reason why I had a little to drink tonight. Try and make sense of this: I am being nominated for an award based on the work that I did for my dream office while I was working there on detail - but I still can't seem to get a permanent job in that office. Does that make any sense whatsoever? They'll nominate me for an award... but no job? Does that make anyone else's head hurt? I can't figure it out?

They might be .... JERKS!

Stupid Giants.

Last night DH and I went to see the One Man Star Wars Trilogy at the Woolly Mammoth Theater. Before the show we had dinner at Rasika, which was literally right next door.

First dinner: AMAZING. The flavors were varied and complex, the setting was lovely, the service was solid, and timing was perfection. We had an eggplant appetizer, which was sublime. It was like a little eggplant club sandwich, with eggplant as the bread, potatoes as the stuff inside, and flavored with olive oil, peanuts and peanut oil, and I think Kaffir Lime leaves. Simply delicious - with hints of spice and sweetness and textures of crunchy, chewy, and silky smooth.

For dinner DH had a lovely Tandoori Chicken Tikka, which was good on its own. It was paired with a minty cucumber yoghurt sauce that just made it out of this world. Yummy yummy yummy. I actually liked what he got a touch more than mine, which was Lamb Roganjosh. Spicy, tomatoey, and tangy, it was solid, but not quite as nuanced as the other dishes had been. An order of garlic naan (lovely as well) and a date and toffee pudding dessert (also sublime) rounded out the meal. Portions were good - no stupid large serving that made you feel like exploding. The only low spot was the quality of the coffee, which was standard New Jersey diner crud. I know that even the best restaurants usually fail on this point, though, so I can't be too particular.

My one bad idea was drinking a glass of Valpolicella with my meal. My dish was quite spicy, and the wine had a lot of peppery notes. Not the best pairing. The wine itself was good, but I should have chosen something else.

Anyway, on to the show. We got to dinner shortly after 6, left the restaurant just at 7:45, and the show started at 8:00. Perfect timing! Absolutely perfect. The show itself was crazy funny.. somehow conveying the full story, the classic lines, the most unusual characters, and a few well placed comments in a little more than an hour. The guy was basically a lonely 10 year old acting out his favorite movies, and being paid to travel the world and perform his private personal show. Isn't life grand? DH's favorite bit was his portrayal of Jabba the Hut (which was seriously funny) and my favorite was his exaggeration of Luke's general whininess. I'm really really anxious to catch his One Man Lord of the Rings.

All of this wonderfulness, despite the fact that DH was on Day 1 of the flu. Today he thinks he may be near death. If he had ruined my night out, he'd have been a lot closer.

Stupid Giants.

Go Giants!

Today I am the biggest NY Giants fan in the world. Here's hoping that they beat New England and the '72 Dolphins keep their record as the only team to have an undefeated season!

Have you seen the Dolphins lately? That record is all I've got.

DH and I are going to the Woolly Mammoth theater tonight to see the One Man Star Wars Trilogy. Should be interesting... but now that I know that the NE-NY game is tonight, it's going to be really stressful not knowing what's going on!

Go Giants!

And now for something completely different (and hilarious and awesome)

So remember I promised you that my gifts to DH were hilarious and awesome. Here they are:

Gift #1 - The impulsive, but completely awesome gift.


A radio-controlled sailboat that really sails. It's almost as tall as I am!

Gift #2 - The hilarious


A model Porsche Cayman S

Since I won't allow him to have either of these in real life, he can enjoy model-sized versions of the real thing until such time as he can afford the real thing.

Merry Christmas!

Am I really that bad?

You know, I've made it perfectly clear that I'm not personally interested in having kids. No biggie.. I don't make it a practice to go around telling people not to have kids or whatever. My values, my life, ... your values, your life. As long as your values don't interfere with my life, all is good with the world.

I knew that DH's brother's wife was none too fond of me, and was probably a little hostile because of my personal no-child policy. Fine, the feeling wasn't not mutual. I didn't say anything when she excluded DH from his brother's wedding (when there were 6 bridesmaids and only 5 ushers!), I didn't say anything when she made not too subtly snide comments at family functions.

Now, I'm done. DH and I had been discussing a number of gifts we might have given celebrating their first kid - including a discussion of whether to fund a 529 with about $1k. I was going to stop and get a couple of bottles of champagne, buy a baby gift, whatever, since it's DH's nephew and all that. I had felt bad because I thought that it was unlikely she was able to have her baby shower before the boy was born since he was born 6 weeks premature.

I find out tonight that she had a baby shower a couple of months - MONTHS - ago. I've heard nary a word or invitation. Now, mind you, I wouldn't have gone. But I would have sent a card and a gift and whatnot. I am aware of my social graces and obligations. Frankly, I'm just insulted.

Here's your picture frame, your ornament, and have a nice life. Sorry kid that you had to have such a$$holes for parents. Clearly they've enough friends and family to care for you, so missing your only uncle on your father's side isn't much of a loss.

Don't get me wrong, I know this isn't about all me and yada yada yada. At this point, it's more about a lack of respect for your husband's family. Taken on it's own, it's not that big of a deal. Taken in the context of previous actions, and it's clear that we're not an important part of their lives. C'est la vie.

It sucks that I ranted like this right before Christmas.

Finished!

Phew. I have never been so happy to be finished Christmas shopping in my life. We've got everyone covered, I'm happy with what we've bought, and now we can just sit back and relax.

Except for the part where we're not going to be home for the next two days, but that's the holidays for you.

I bought something planned for DH, and something very impulsive and spur of the moment. I can't believe it... I don't usually go overboard for him ever, but I just had to do it. Update in a couple of days on what they are... I think they're both hilarious and awesome.

Definitely making next weekend a 4-day weekend though. I can't bear the thought of having no time off.

I'm an aunt... again

Yeah... because I did such a good job the first time around (snerk)

Anyway, in perhaps one of the most inconsiderate, inconvenient, attention-seeking moves ever, DH's brother's wife is apparently having her baby tonight. It completely throws all of our plans for this weekend and the holiday into turmoil. We've gotten a surprise invitation to their house for Christmas Eve, which we more or less have to accept at this point because there's no WAY I'm making a separate trip to Philly just to see this kid. (A boy, in the grand tradition of DH's family).

I mean, on the one hand I guess I should be grateful because we can get the "come see the baby" visit and Christmas knocked out in a single fell swoop. So there's that.

On the other hand, the nice dream DH and I had of spending Christmas Eve alone at home in front of the fire is gone. Blerg.

When God closes a door...

... he opens a window, right?

I got home tonight feeling pretty low. I'm finally starting to realize that this job I want in my dream office is simply not going to materialize. It's a demoralizing, frustrating, depressing realization, but it's something that I need to come to terms with. Long story short, I had a meeting with them today (acting in a consulting role) and I realized that the critical leadership link just simply isn't that into me. Well, not enough to make it happen, anyway.

So, struggling with that realization on the train ride home, I made a decision that my New Year's Resolution was going to be to find a new job. Seriously.

I got home and DH said he had some news for me. I hadn't shared how bad my day had been, so I just listened. Apparently, the program he is working for is likely going to need to shed some people (I guess it's being restructured) so "maybe we'll have the opportunity to move sooner than later." (a job change for him was going to be a catalyst to get us to move).

Turns out, he's interested in a 3 year position in England. He was interested in that position before, but the timing just wasn't right. Now it seems that things are coming together, and this might just be the right time to take advantage of an overseas assignment.

Pretty interesting stuff. It really turned my mood around, I can tell you that. Even if this England thing doesn't pan out (and a WHOLE lot of stuff would have to fall in place for it to happen) it's encouraging to see things start to evolve in our lives again.

Change is good.

My scary new obsession

So, the writers are striking, there's nothing worth watching on TV, and it's wintertime, when I am least disposed to spend anytime outdoors.

Luckily, I have discovered a new obsession. It is a BBC TV show (currently in production) called "Top Gear."

DH and I have Comcast Digital Cable, which means that BBC America is one of the channels available to us. Now, the BBC is renouned for its superior programming. We've watched the original "The Office" and the new "Robin Hood" on BBCA, as well as old favorites of mine like "Bargain Hunt." I caught a snippet of "Top Gear for the first time a couple of months ago when the three hosts were trying to buy a car for less than $1000 in Miami. I must have seen the same clip of one of the hosts being told he would be murdered if he ventured beyond a certain street at least five times before actually catching the whole program. I was only semi-hooked, though. That is, until I saw the episode in which they turned a car into a Space Shuttle. Watching that episode with DH is what really got both of us completely obsessed with the show.

All I can say is that I was not a car enthusiast (other than the deep and passionate love I have for my Bug) before watching this show, but I have certainly become a bit of one. I'm in love with the Bugatti Veyron (watching the show where Captain Slow gets it up to 250+ MPH was amazing). I have been introduced to the beauty of Alfa Romeos. Of course, I don't have the budget to support any of this love.

There's something else about the show, though. Cinematically, it's beautifully and dramatically filmed. We've just recently watched the episode where the three hosts (Jeremy, James, and Richard) crossed Africa, and some of the vistas were amazing! Likewise their drive through Northern Italy, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. As someone who can appreciate the beauty of imagery, this show is simply a gourmet feast of it.

Plus, the challenges and general "cocking" about is immensely entertaining. British humor is so wonderful.

It doesn't hurt that Richard, aka "the Hamster," is the most adorable British guy since I don't know who. Yummy!

I thought weekends were supposed to be easy

What an unbelievable day. If it weren't for bad luck - I would seriously not have had any luck at all.

The day opened with me having a dentist appointment at 10:15am. My dentist is in Damascus - which is 10 miles away, but takes nearly 25 minutes to get there because most of the drive is on a slow, congested two lane road. I was quite excited to be driving the Bug more than 3 miles to the train station and, since it wasn't supposed to rain or precipitate or whatever it is going to do tonight, took it up to the dentist. Most of the drive I'm wondering why I go to a dentist that is so far away and resolve to find a new one.

I pull into a parking space, noticing a rather large pothole and larger sewer grate to the right behind my car. I get out of the car and am simultaneously trying to hold my coat, close my key (it's one of those switchblade keys) and then lock the car. Suddenly I bobbled my key and watched it make its inevitable series of bounces right down into the sewer. Not only that, but after the 6 foot drop down, it bounces right into the 3 foot diameter pipe (that was horizontal - I think it's a storm drain for the parking lot.

I couldn't believe it. My key was out of sight, out of reach, and I was 25 minutes from home.

I went inside my dentist's office (all of whom are watching me bend over the sewer grate) and tell the receptionist that a) I am here for my 10:15 appointment and b) I've just lost my car key in the sewer. Her response: Gosh, that happens at least once every couple of weeks.

I call DH to bring me my spare key (while I am in for my cleaning). I'm just in shock, really. I know one of those remote keys is like $200 to replace and I am dreading DH's reaction when he sees me.

To make a long story short, DH did get to the dentist office, and he and the dentist managed to lift the grate off (although it was really, really, heavy.) There was a little set of stairs built in to allow people to get down there - and my dentist went right down... crawled into the drainage pipe (the key bounced like 4 feet into the pipe!), climbed out and handed me my key. Needless to say, I thanked him profusely.

I obviously can't change dentists now. But I think I might park somewhere different next time.

The rest of the day could only have gone up from there, but it didn't much. I spent 80% of the day driving around God's creation looking for a nice frame to have engraved for my boss, dodging crazy people in mall and shopping center parking lot...

Oy vey. I'm staying home tomorrow in fear of what will befall me if I didn't

Best. News. Evar!

Okay, maybe not the best news, or even the second best news (winning a 300M+ Powerball would be the best news, getting my dream job would be second best,... you get the picture). But whatever, this is pretty f*%king awesome news.

My father-in-law. is. RETIRING!

As of Jan 3rd we're free! No more father-in-law living with us. The house will be ours and ours alone. We can have loud sex at 7:00 in the evening if we feel like it. We can eat dinner at 8:30 if we feel like it. No more trying to be concerned about the heat being high enough or the air conditioning being low enough.

We're finally free!

I'm waiting until tomorrow to shout it from the rooftops, but just know that I am beyond ecstatic right now!

Stupid Maryland

I couldn't believe it. This morning when I left for work there wasn't even 1/2 inch of snow on the ground. Yet, people were absolutely nuts! I slide once, and then almost had some guy coming down a hill slide into me (he spun a 360 right behind me as I passed by). MontCo, with their ridiculous tax revenue, couldn't even manage to salt or sand the roads before rush hour, so despite driving around for 40 minutes, I never got any farther than 1/4 mile away from the house.

It's just 1:00 now, and we have nearly two inches of snow. All I can say is that it's pathetic that a virtual dusting paralyzes this region!

By the way - thank God I kept my Saturn. If someone had almost slide into my beloved Bug, well I just don't know what I would have done.


Edited to add: Ooooh. It's 3:00 and we're up to a whopping 2.5 inches. I can't even imagine what kind of mess tonight's rush hour is going to be.

Electric Youth

Two stories I've read over the past few days have got me thinkin'...

The first was the log of the Bumfuzzle - a 34 ft catamaran that two people my age sailed around the world (a true circumnavigation). It was a married couple, 28 years old when they started their 4 year trek in 2003. They had had exactly one sailing lesson (probably similar to what DH and I did in Captiva this past year) when they took money they earned from commodities trading in Chicago and bought themselves a boat. Interestingly enough, their style of cruising made them the pariah of the "cruising" set - apparently a bunch of 60 year olds who feel they are the authority on how one should cruise around the world. Now I don't necessarily think that all of these guys' decisions and preferences would parallel my own (McDonalds and Pizza Hut and Taco Bell are not my preferred cuisine) but they had some serious guts to just go out there and do it.

One of the things I found most admirable was their utter lack of preconception (or rather, whatever preconception they had, they didn't allow it to limit them in their travels). Reading their logs and being somewhat aware of some of the dangers they faced (PIRATES! no, seriously) I don't think that I could have been as cavalier as they were. But the operative word in that sentence is COULD. When I was in college and studied abroad for a year, I did a whole lot of things during that year that wisdom and hindsight would probably keep me from doing again. But the thing is, it was exactly those times when I threw caution to the wind that I had the most fun. These guys did exactly that with the dire warnings of where they should and should not go (these people were in freakin' Sudan for a while! And Yemen! And Bali, three months after the nightclub bombing there!) The life they led (with the exception of their preferred cuisine) was simply enviable. I can only wish that when DH and I are able to cast off lines, that we are half as bold as they are and have 1/4 the fun.

Their next adventure is in a restored 1958 VW Bus driving from North to South America! Go them I say. I wish I had gotten some dough commodities trading so that I could live life free and easy!

The second story isn't quite as admirable - it is a story of a couple aged 23-25 who basically lived the high life by stealing identities of their neighbors and opening credit cards in their names. Again, it was story of another bold young couple, living it up throwing caution to the wind. Of course, this second story was totally funded with illicit gains, but it was still interesting to read.

Although, pathetic that with all the money they seemed to gather, they still shopped at Ikea.

Inspired by "the fire"

I don't need much of an inspiration to learn - and tonight Jeffro has provided the perfect inspiration. He posted a video on his blog that shows pictures associated with all of the things mentioned in Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire." I watched the video - natch - and didn't realize that despite being a pretty big history buff, I didn't know like 20-30 of the references once the song was over.

So... here are the ones I didn't know, starting from the beginning (super-obvious ones, like "Brooklyn's got a winning team" I don't include, because I can deduce the reference (Brooklyn won the World Series in '55)

#1 Johnnie Ray: partially deaf, teen idol musician who was considered a precursor to jazz and rock music
#2 Walter Winchell: journalist who began the whole trend of invading public figures' private lives
#3 Panmunjeom: location where the armistice of the Korean War was signed
#4 Marciano: Rocky Marciano, heavyweight boxing champion (could have probably guessed from the picture)
#5 Santayana: George Santayana, Writer who wrote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
#6 Malenkov: Soviet politician and buddy of Stalin's. Led the Soviet Union for a short time after Stalin's death and was opposed to nuclear armament
#7 Campanella: Roy Campanella, baseball player who was one of the first to break through the color barrier (move from the Negro to the Major League)
#8 Roy Cohn: lawyer involved with McCarthyism and the Rosenberg affair
#9 Peyton Place: A novel that is famous for revealing the sordid underbelly of small town life (I kind of knew it, but wasn't 100% certain)
#10 Pasternak: Boris Pasternak, author of Dr Zhivago (can't believe I didn't know that one!)
#11 Zhou Enlai: Former leader of China
#12 California baseball: I can only assume he's talking about the move of the Brooklyn Dodgers to LA
#13 Starkweather homicide: Charles Starkweather, a Midwest serial killer who inspired Natural Born Killers
#14 Space monkey: Literally, monkeys who were sent into space before humans were. (That's awful! I knew about the Soviet dogs sent into space, but didn't know about the monkeys!)
#15 Edsel is a no-go: I knew it was a car, but I didn't know its significance was that it was a spectacular failure.
#16 Syngman Rhee: First leader of South Korea
#17 payola: The illegal practice of paying to have a song played on the radio (without announcing such)
#18 Belgians in the Congo: The Congo Crisis, when Congo declared independence from Belgium and Mobuto rose to power
#19 Stranger in a Strange Land: Apparently the most famous science-fiction novel ever about a human raised by Martians on Mars (weird)
#20 Liston beats Patterson: Apparently a famous boxing match where Sonny Liston knocked out Floyd Patterson.
#21 British politician sex: Just what it sounds like. Apparently the then Secretary of War got randy with a showgirl, who subsequently lied about it to the House of Commons. Nice!
#22 Bernie Goetz: A NYC subway passenger who shot four guys who were trying to rob him. Got the nickname "subway vigilante."

22 references out of about 120+ total. I'm pretty darn proud.

P.S. Frick! I should have known that there was a Wikipedia entry for the song itself explaining all of the references. All that work searching one by one and I could have just linked to this page. So much for being smart. I didn't realize the significance of the "Studebaker" reference and the Rockefeller reference, but I remember the needles on the shore as a proud EXJersey girl

The problem with not being millionaires

Can't you hear it calling me?

You know, being millionaires would make life so much easier.

I believe that I am very susceptible to SAD - seasonal affective disorder. Basically, as soon as the sun starts setting at 430pm and the weather dips and stays below 65 degrees, I get unhappy. I was born a warm-weather girl, and start shriveling up inside when I can't romp in the sun.

So about this time every year I start dreaming about "quick" trips to my favorite island paradise or other warm-weather destination. My dreamy side starts thinking about spending days in the warm sun, snorkeling gorgeous coral reefs and chasing iguanas out of my pool. My schemer side starts thinking of ways to make it work - flights, places to stay, car rentals, etc.

Then my friggin' practical side kicks in and starts mental adding machine how much it would all cost. $600 for flights, $1200-1400 for even the cheapest accommodations, $450 for a week's Jeep rental, then another $500 at least for food, fun, and miscellaneous expenses.

$3k - just about what we just spent for Henry's new haircut. Sigh.

Ahhh. A night of guilty pleasure

DH and I took my grandparents back to Delaware today. I guess we were all feeling ol' Ben Franklin's timeless piece of wisdom "Both guests and fish stink after three days."

I am happy to be planning the ultimate in relaxing evenings. I'm going to reopen at least one of the three bottles of red wine leftover from last night, build a marvelous fire in the fireplace, and settle in to watch one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies: The Family Man.

Longtime blog readers may recall that I first posted about this movie on November 26, 2005. Shame of it is, I've watched it probably twice more since then. And, rather than just coming upon it and watching it through, I'm actually planning to watch it tonight, indeed planning an entire evening around it.

Well.... at least I'm consistent.

Thanks for Thanksgiving!

13 people, 5 bottles of wine, 3 crazy grandparents, 2 cats, and a totally denuded turkey.

It was a real fun Thanksgiving - thanks for being a part of it!

Eliza says she's thankful that the dishes are done!

Calgon... take me away

Well, having family visit is about as stressful as one might expect. Interestingly, my grandma isn't much of an issue; she constantly is cleaning and trying to do little things around the house, but that's not too bad or out of control.

It's been tough on my grandfather though. He's like 80% deaf, bored, and I think depressed. I don't think that he can hear what most things are going on around him, but sees people laughing and chatting, and doesn't know why. Of course, he's of the generation and personality-type that would never admit to it, much less go to a doctor for help. I'm encouraging my grandmother to speak with his doctor, but beyond that there's not much I can do. Try and keep him as engaged as possible when we're home, but beyond that I don't know what to do.

I'm the kind of person who just wants to fix stuff - to the point of trying to micromanage problems out of existence. I know logically that there is nothing that I can do to fix this, but it's having a emotional toll on me.

Luckily the holidays happen only once a year. It's the most wonderful time of the year.

It's beginning to look a lot like Thanksgiving

So major Thanksgiving milestone crossed off the list today... I bought the turkey! A 12 pound Butterball. For the past couple of years, I've been buying fresh heritage birds from Whole Foods, but after reading an article in this month's Cooks Illustrated, I learned that I was doing it all wrong.

#1 - You're not supposed to buy a fresh turkey from the store. Federal regulations mean that the bird can be as close to freezing - even partially frozen - and still labeled "fresh." Ice crystals form in the meat, breaking it apart and destroying the flavor. In this case, frozen is actually fresher. (thanks also to Alton Brown for this little factoid, but Cook's Illustrated had it too)

#2 - Integral to turkey flavor are two components: fat and salt. Although the Cooks Illustrated article preferred a certain brand of kosher turkey, I couldn't find it in any of my grocery stores (I hit 3 different ones). So I bought one from their merely "recommended" category, rather than the "highly recommended."

#3 - I am philosophically opposed to the factory farmed and bred livestock industry (indeed, the whole tenor of the agricultural sector in this country has us eating lower quality food, albeit for cheap), which made it difficult to buy such an obvious industrial bird. I got over it for just one day.

#4 - The reason that the bird is so reliably flavorful is because it is injected with salt and chemicals to bind the salt to the meat. Again, I'm not really a fan of having my food industrially flavored. I got over it for just one day.

It's tough being an American, adhering to American mores, when I've lived and traveled in parts of Europe that are deeply wedded to traditional agricultural practices. Then I remember that it is Europe that brought us Creuzfeld Jakob Syndrome (better known as Mad Cow disease), is currently recovering from foot and mouth disease, and is now dealing with bird flu. So the paragons are not infallible.

But what I wouldn't give for some true French Brie... unpasturized of course. And true Italian prosciutto, or Spanish Jamon.

Is having a clean house really worth the effort

I have been cleaning nonstop today (well, virtually. We did go to the grocery store; no we haven't bought our turkey yet). DH and I have:

- Steam-cleaned the carpets in all but two bedrooms (the rug doctors you can rent from the grocery store, IMHO do a better job than the guy we hired three years+ ago to do it for 10x the price)

- Re-set up the blue room (this will be my grandma's room, so it had to be spit spot perfect). We rearranged the bed, added a dresser and mirror, and took out the chest of drawers and desk.

- Cleaned the kitchen. Actually, this is still in progress; I am going to clean the ovens sometime, but it takes 4 hours, so I hesitate to do it tonight.

- Rearranged the linen closet. If my grandma saw it the way it was, she'd be doing it herself.

- Cleaned the two guest bathrooms. Again, this is still in progress.

I still have a huge! to-do list. I want to sharpen my knives, chop some wood, clean the fireplace, dust the den, etc...

I hope you people appreciate this!!! :)

Guilty pleasure... revealed

I've revealed my guilty pleasures before - at least in terms of movies (Family Man, 50 First Dates, etc). Jeffro has been quite open about his guilty pleasure: the Goo Goo Dolls.

This morning, I realized that I hadn't admitted to perhaps the most shameful guilty pleasure I have.

Celine Dion.

I know, I know. But before you throw assorted rotten fruit and vegetables at me, let me explain.

Woman's got a voice. She's undeniably confident. She's pretty clearly happy with her life. She's a powerful woman, much in the model of an Oprah or a Condi Rice. She has fun and laughs and seems to be approachable.

I saw her on the Today show this morning, laughing and chatting with the gang there, and I just loved her. Sure, some of her schtick is corny, but considering where she came from (a family of like 14 kids or something ridiculous like that) and what she's become purely through her singing talent, I think it's pretty darn admirable.

There. I've said it. The truth will set you free.

The "Power of Love" is a great song.

All cats... all the time

I just realized that my last five or so blogposts have been about my cats - well, Henry specifically. This one is no different, except that it has to do with Eliza.

We let the cats outside for a brief time this afternoon - Henry on a leash, because I didn't want him getting his surgery site in dirt or anything. Eliza went about her normal routine of chomping on some grass.

Suddenly, she darted about ten feet and pounced on a bird. She didn't quite know what to do, but she kept trying to get at it with her mouth, in addition to pouncing. I yelled at DH to get the cat - because I had Henry still with the leash on the deck and didn't want him getting into trouble while I was trying to get the bird away from Eliza. DH ran over and picked Eliza up and brought her into the house.

The poor little bird sat stunned, but alive, on the ground. I got DH a pair of workgloves, so that he could move the poor little sparrow from the open yard into the bushes, where he could recover without getting picked off by a hawk. DH picked him up, and away the little bird flew over the fence and into the trees (although he almost hit the fence on his flight over it).

I was rather surprised that Eliza had any hunting skills left, considering she such a lazy, fat cat. Of course, if she really had skills and wasn't just curious, that little bird would probably have been dead.

Free: One cat to good home.

I love my little kitty, but he's driving me up the wall. Henry found a way to tear his lampshade collar (made out of a material similar to hospital gowns or something like that), shimmy it off (not over his head, but down his body like he was taking off a skirt), and then bite and break two stitches that are holding his little surgical site (there are 6 others still holding). We've brought him to the vet both yesterday and today for check-ups due to his badness, and while he's okay and doesn't need to have the stitches replaced, he can't be permitted to get to any more.

On top of that, he's lost some weight and developed a heart murmur. He's only eating half of what he should be to maintain his weight, and in general he's just being a royal chore. The stress of taking care of him is definitely affecting DH and me - we're snapping randomly at each other about the dumbest things.

I love the little stinker, though. He's sweet when he's not being a troublemaker. I'm just so anxious for this episode to be behind us.

Weekends... I've had better

Ugh. I'm so depressed. I gave myself a three-day weekend, taking a much deserved Friday off and planning to completely veg the days away.

Vegging out and destressing are not options when you have a cat recovering from surgery, I've discovered. I spent most of the day concerned about him not eating, not drinking, and not going to the bathroom. He finally managed to eat some food (after I started force feeding him with a syringe) and go to the bathroom late Friday night, after which I slept in until nearly noon on Saturday.

Saturday ended up being more of the same, trying to get him to eat, drink, and eliminate. It's turned into a near obsession, with us falling over ourselves to cater to his whims. Add on top of that my father spending the night between DC-area jobs (he didn't get to our place until nearly 130am) and it was a sleepless night. Henry thought that the best way to get our attention was to bang himself into the door repeatedly at 4am. Sadly, he was right. I probably spent an hour or so sleeping on the bed in that room (well, not really sleeping) while the nocturnal cat walked all over me, pounced on whatever part of my body I moved, and rubbed his head on my and purred loudly into my ear.

Sunday was a capstone day; DH's grandmother had called on Friday night, concerned that no one was going to host Thanksgiving and that she might not have anywhere to go. I had planned to coordinate with my grandparents this weekend, and they expressed a preference to come to visit DC for the weekend. So that's that. Despite my vow last year never to host Thanksgiving again, I'm hosting again this year. So for the next two weekends it will now be non-stop work to get the house in order for guests on the holiday.

Wanna come?

Henry is an internet star!

Normally leaving Henry home alone in his condition would make me a total nervous wreck. Is he peeing? Is he eating? Is he in pain or suffering?

DH was a genius and set up a little system with the camera in his Mac Powerbook that took a picture of Henry every minute and organized them into little photo albums for each hour. It gave both of us great peace of mind to be able to see Henry sleeping or looking out the window. There were quite a few times when I laughed out loud at whatever the camera had captured.

Anyway Henry is doing okay. He's sitting here next to me with his giant doughnut collar off, resting atop a pillow. With the collar off he can finally curl up into a tight little ball like he likes to.

I'll try and take some better quality pics of him soon and post them for posterity.

He's back!

We've got Henry back home! He has had his whole butt area shaved - which is pretty funny - and he's got some gnarly looking stitches in his delicate area, but most important is he's home.

Poor little guy has to wear one of those awful lampshade collars for two weeks until they take his stitches out. He's constantly licking the collar (which looks more like he got his head stuck in a country-quilted doughnut than a lampshade); hopefully he'll get used to it soon.

We've got his room all set up for him - except he doesn't like being secluded in there by himself, so he keeps knocking against the door. I let him sit downstairs with DH for a while watching Stephen Colbert. He seems happy.

Oh yeah - poor thing's got an opiate-based pain patch on his side. So he's probably just as high as he is happy to be home.

Spoke too soon...

Sad news folks... Henry is back in the hospital tonight with another urinary blockage. He's going to have the surgery tomorrow that will hopefully prevent this from happening again, but we're pretty upset nonetheless.

We'd noticed he was straining this morning, and DH came home at lunch to see whether he was able to make a little pee chunk in his litter. By the time DH got home from work tonight, Henry was still eating, but not peeing, so we called the vet and they had us bring him right in.

I'm sad because the poor little guy has been through so much in the last two weeks, and now he'll be healing for yet another two. I should be happy, because it's a problem that can be fixed and he'll live a normal lifespan (maybe another 7-10 years).

I'm glad we caught it before the problem did any damage to his kidneys. He's at our local vet tonight, rather than up in Urbana, so we don't have to drive all the way up there.

Quick update: the vet called at about 10pm, letting us know that Henry probably wasn't blocked, but rather suffering from urinary tract spasms that kept him from urinating. She asked if we wanted to continue with medical treatment - but we said that we were likely going to opt for the surgery anyway, so keep the surgery on schedule for tomorrow. Poor little kitty!

I've got good news and bad news...

I'm the kind of person who always wants to know the bad news first.

Bad News:

Hours logged at work on Saturday: 7.5
Hours logged at work on Sunday: 7.5

Good News:

Henry seems to have turned the corner recovering from his drama. He's acting playful again, peeing well, and is sleeping in our bed again.

So there's that to be happy about.

A big project is due at the Department of Commerce on Wednesday... so here's hoping that Wednesday marks the end of crazy working hours for me.

Henry's home!

Yeah! Henry is back at home. We picked him up last night from the animal hospital and was he ever happy to be home. He kinda smells a little different - Eliza has been sniffing him and then hissing, but once Henry gets his old smell back I am sure she'll calm down.

Henry is on three meds - one antibiotic, one anti-spasm, and Prevacid. I think the Prevacid makes his pee-pee less acidic and therefore less prone to forming crystals.

He seems pretty happy. I wish he was eating a little more (although he ate a whole bunch of ham tonight.) Also I wish we saw him drinking more - we bought distilled water to keep him from having too much magnesium. We fully intend to spoil him rotten.

Our bank account is going to need more time to heal than Henry. Total vet bill came to $1200. Plus his follow up appointment next week. Plus the surgery we're likely to have done to avoid any future $1200 surprises.

Kitty update redux!

So DH and I drove up to Urbana tonight to visit Henry in the hospital. He seems to be doing much better. The catheter was taken out this morning, and they want to keep him for another 24 hours to ensure that he is peeing without problem and to monitor his hydration and appetite. We brought him some food from home that we know he likes, and he chowed into it right away - well until he decided he wanted more love from us.

The good news is that we'll likely bring him home tomorrow after work. The bad news is that we'll have a healthy vet bill to pay then too.

Oh well.. you gotta do what you gotta do.

Kitty update!

Henry gettin' high on some Greek oregano in the Herb garden

So DH and I took a nice ride in the NBC up to the animal hospital to visit lil' Henry - who's there until at least tomorrow! He looks so small and helpless in the little cage with all these tubes running around him and whatnot (the catheter in his pee-pee and an IV in his little shaved front leg). We visited for about 30 minutes, talked with the vet on duty about his condition (who advocated for the surgery), and gave Henry some lovin'.

He's got a little "Use Caution" sticker on his lil' ID card. Apparently he's been jumping at people who get close to his lil' cage and bit a couple of them (including last night's vet twice!). He's got a lampshade on his neck to keep him from getting to his catheter.

On the way home I was pretty teary, which is not an unusual state for me. I asked DH if he was upset (he said hardly a word the whole way home, which isn't a terribly unusual state for him) and he said "yes." Thank God we were at a stoplight or I would have crashed the NBC. It killed me.

I think both of us were more upset today, seeing him stuck in the cage and not being able to take him home, then last night. I don't think either of us realized we weren't going to be able to take him home right after they unblocked the obstruction.

Oy! What a finish to the weekend.

Oh Henry what a night...

Lil Henry loving his tree

I've barely had any sleep, so if this post is less than coherent I'm sure you'll understand...

Last night DH and I had a really fun time at Mykonos Grill with Jeffro and CC (holy cow is that fish roe appetizer and spanakopita good!). We went upstairs, getting ready for bed, when we noticed that our little boy cat Henry was making lots of trips in and out of his litter box, then licking his little red rocket after not making any pee.

Sadly, this is a classic sign of a problem lots of male cats have: a blocked urethra due to crystals in his urine. And it's an emergency; if he doesn't get unblocked quickly, he dies.

So off to the emergency vet we go (these things always happen at midnight on a Saturday night!). Henry has been to the emergency vet in Rockville, but our experience there was so traumatic (lots of people in the waiting room, lots of drama and stress) that we decided to take him to the Greenbriar Hospital in Urbana. It was certainly less busy - there was only one woman in the waiting area when we got there, and she left shortly thereafter - but it was no less trying. There was only one vet and one tech on staff and they were dealing with some rough cases.

Happily they got Henry unblocked and he's resting comfortably recuperating from his ordeal. We got home at about 4:45am (I wish they had told us they would need to keep him for up to 24 hours before we waited 3 hours to make sure he was okay) and hopefully we'll be able to pick him up today.

Poor little kitty. Poor other animals in the hospital.

Finally! A little relief...

The past ten days or so I have been working ridiculous hours - I worked 9 hours on Columbus Day, and the past two nights I haven't gotten home until well after the clock struck 9pm.

Today - at least for one day - it ends. I may just be able to catch an early train home.

That doesn't mean that tomorrow won't change things, and I'll have to work late again, but today I'll get home at the very least on time.

Hooray!

The end of an era... for now

I'm so sad.

This morning was the second morning that I drove to the train station without my NBC's top down.

The first was Friday, which I thought might have been a temporary fluke. It was about 52 degrees... a little too chilly for even the heated seats to compensate for.

This morning it was 46 degrees. The afternoons are warm enough to get the top down, like when I am driving home, and the weekends too. But I have to start admitting that winter is coming, reluctantly like CC, and in the immortal words of Dwight Schrute: "[a] convertible is a ridiculous choice in this climate."

At least it's German with decent gas mileage.

Lazy weekends are the best weekends of all...

The last three weekends (at least) have been nonstop action for DH and me, so this weekend we decided that all we wanted to do was veg out... which we have more or less successfully done.

We went to a happy hour birthday celebration for two coworkers of mine Friday night, which was a little drama. I had my first (and probably last) Appletini (I totally got it just because of Zach Braff's character on Scrubs). It tasted way too sweet... like a Sour Apple Blow Pop. Meh. I like my G&Ts better.

I washed the NBC yesterday. It was a little chilly, but I had a lot of dead bugs on my hood that I just had to wash off. I told my dad that I wanted some high-end car wash stuff for Christmas, and he laughed. Considering that I've washed the NBC more times in 4 months than I have the Saturn in 9 years, I don't see what's so funny.

DH is finally finishing up the last section of the deck! That's pretty exciting!

Finally, I've been playing "Viva Caligula" on the Adult Swim website. It's sick - but it's pretty funny. Those darn commercials worked on me!

Nuts and networks

Here's a post about two completely unrelated topics...

This afternoon while driving home from the train station I almost had an incident. It was about 6:00pm and the wind had just started to kick up out of the west. The top of the NBC was down, and the trees started to blow violently above me, with leaves fluttering everywhere. Suddenly, I heard a loud 'bang' as if something small and hard had hit my car - MY CAR, MY BELOVED CAR. I looked up, and no sooner had I directed my gaze skyward when I felt a sharp hit on my exposed arm.

An acorn had fallen or been blown out of the tree and onto me. With the top down, I was unprotected from these falling projectiles.

I was snapped out of a momentary trance by the sound of another acorn hit - this time it hit the windshield. I panicked! What if these little things were like hailstones? Could they possibly dent my beloved car? Thankfully the light changed and I quickly drove away from those horrible trees. I inspected the car carefully when I got home to ensure that there were no visible dents.

On a completely unrelated topic, I was asked to start up a Facebook profile by a girl I had met in Italy several years ago, which I did and promptly paid no further attention to. But then, DH started a Facebook profile to keep in touch with some guys who had left his work and gone elsewhere. Now I find myself with 6 "friends" and part of 4 networks and 1 group. Tonight I reconnected with a girl I met in college who I had been fairly good friends with.

It's interesting, because I'm not usually an early adopter of these new-fangled intertube things... the Myspaces and the Friendsters and whatnots. I kinda like the Facebook thing, though. I might actually try and use it for its intended purpose.

The challenge with it, of course, is that not many people who are my age know or use Facebook, so I don't know how far I'll be able to take it as compared to, say, a 24 year old who grew up with this kind of stuff. It's interesting... but I realize I am turning into the kind of person I made fun of as a kid... you know, the one who couldn't set the VCR clock.

Young people these days wouldn't even understand that comment.

This is what I raced home for?

Today - Columbus Day - is supposed to be a Federal Holiday! Not for me it wasn't! I drove - DROVE - my little Bug down to Silver Spring in the hope that it would be a short day and I wouldn't have to worry about catching the train.

It certainly wasn't an auspicious beginning; I walked into the lobby of our building only to discover that the power was out, only one elevator was working, and when I got to our floor, there was no air conditioning, no computers, not even any lights. Ridiculous. This was at 9am. The power did come on about an hour later, and instead of leaving around 2 as I had hoped, I didn't end up getting out of the office until 7pm! Not cool.

The way things were going, I was worried I wouldn't make it home in time for "How I met your Mother" and "Heroes." HIMYM was pretty funny - Danica McKellar is so cute. Heroes was less than I expected, very boring and lots of unnecessary repetition and filler. I'm not over it yet, but I'm close... so very close!

What an educational weekend!

DH and I visited the Annapolis Sailboat Show Saturday and learned some very valuable lessons:

1. A LOT of people go to these boat shows, and most of them are rude and inconsiderate.
2. I really like small sailboats.
3. There is a HUGE difference between a 27 and a 31 foot sailboat. HUGE!
4. Boats are not ridiculously expensive to buy, they are ridiculously expensive to equip, operate, maintain, and house.
5. It's great to be short when you are interested in sailing.
6. I am very intimidated by anything longer than 33 feet.

Also, Happy Birthday DH!

My feet are resilient!

Destination: Catoctin Mountain
Circuit: Falls Nature Trail to Hog Mountain Trail to Hog Rock to Blue Ridge Overlook trail to Thurmont Vista Train to Wolf Rock to Chimney Rock and back to the Visitor Center.
Start time: 12:00pm
End time: 5:30pm
Distance walked: ~8 miles
Highest elevation: 1610 feet
Starting elevation: 930 feet
Shoes: Brand new Vasque Hiking Boot
Socks: Inner layer: silk liner socks, Outer layer: Smartwool medium cushion

Day after condition: Well, I'm wearing three-inch heels today without any discomfort, my blister is nothing but a little pink spot on the back of my heel, and I haven't felt any muscle soreness despite the fact that I'm terribly out of shape and haven't hiked that far I think ever.

Nice. And I wasn't even wearing Himalayan Walking shoes.