Productive 4th!

So admittedly I haven't been extremely productive - house-work wise - for the past several weekends. However, today I did get a good bit of needed work done.

My number one priority was cleaning out my front garden of weeds and dead tulip stems and getting a little color back into it. I went up to my favorite nursery first thing this morning (Home Depot had jack for selection) and bought three flats of impatiens (not my favorite, but good value since the season is almost over). I then got home and weeded and planted the impatiens in the front garden; the whole ordeal took about 3 hours! Anyway, the front garden looks like a showcase now rather than an embarrassment, and I can plant something more permanent (a perennial or something) in the fall when the impatiens poop out.

Next I needed to get a wireless router. With my new roommate (who is working out like gangbusters - I'm so happy about that) we needed internet access in two rooms for two computers. The wireless router we did have is sitting on a ship in Antwerp right now, so I just went out and bought a cheap one that I can easily resell in a couple of months. While at Best Buy, I found what I've been looking all over for - Seasons One and Two of The Venture Bros! I'm totally excited! It's one of the funniest shows I've ever seen.

For the remainder of the day I'll try and figure out what I am going to do with the side garden, which is completely overrun with weeds and choked plants, and the other side of the front garden, which is bare because I yanked those four bushes out. Then I have to hit the backyard!

Last night I caught the last 3/4s of Jane Austen's Persuasion and Jane Austen's Regretson Masterpiece Classics on WETA last night. They're rerunning the absolutely fantastic BBC/A&E version of Pride and Prejudice next weekend, so catch it if you can. I'm still hoping to see Persuasion in its entirety.

Change is in the air...

So after 2-3 completely miserable weeks, I sense that things are starting to turn around.

My neighbors are home from their vacation. This sounds like such a small thing, but they are the only people who know that I am here alone, and it is so comforting that they're back and watching out for me. Mrs. George (not her real name) came over soon after they got home with Cosmos in hand and we drank and chatted for nearly 2 hours. It's been a real weight off my shoulders.

The second bit o' news is that I've decided to get a roommate. It's nearly a perfect situation; she's a 19 year old college student who is managing our neighborhood pool. She just wanted a place to stay a couple of nights a week (maybe 3-4) to save her a 3-4 hour daily commute from her parents' place. She's going to be nice and low maintenance, take care of my cats when I visit DH in England (no kennel needed - yea!), and just having someone else in the house is going to give me that little additional bit of peace of mind. I'm quite happy with the situation.

Eliza is getting better, I'm starting to get a little braver, and I'm sleeping more (still not great) so my mental state isn't as fragile. I've got a loose date when I am going to fly and see DH (mini-mental countdown started) and once he gets the house situation sorted out and our stuff moved in, I think I'll really feel better about things.

All that being said, I'm still keeping that big breaker bar beside my bed. And checking the basement for spiderwebs every couple of days.

Losing it...

This is my 500th post, and I wish it was more upbeat.

I think that I am slowly but surely losing it. I had hoped to get a lot of rest this weekend, but it seems like the Gods are conspiring against this. Saturday night I managed to fall asleep around 1am. Shortly thereafter, a car alarm went off across the street. I woke up thinking that it was the house alarm going off again, and grabbed the giant torque wrench/breaker bar thing next to the bed and went out into the hallway. Once I realized it wasn't the house alarm, I looked out my window and saw the car alarm going off. Regardless, I wasn't able to calm down for some time.

Sunday night, again going to bed with the best intentions, I was awoken by Eliza's strange behavior. She had been acting weird most of the afternoon, but around 1am she was crying loudly, running into the litter box, and I saw a little bloody-looking pool of liquid. She had been having diarhhea that afternoon, but this had clearly taken a turn for the worse, so off to the emergency vet 25 minutes away to have her looked at. I got home around 4am. She's fine, but needless to say, didn't get a lot of sleep last night either.

I think that I am going to end up like one of those Hollywood celebrities who checks into the hospital for "exhaustion."

Multi-media weekend

Last night, after imbibing some wine (Sav Blanc from NZ always a winner) I watched Stranger than Fiction from the Comcast On Demand menu. It was actually a really cute and clever movie with Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson (love her!), Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Gyllenhall.

Well, I should say I watched 98% of it. For some reason the cable crashed right at the very end of the movie, and I had to wait until the cable came back this morning to see the complete ending. It was very frustrating.

Before ordering that up, I watched the new episodes of The Venture Bros and Metalocalypse on the Adult Swim website. It's not quite as good as watching it on TV, but I'm also never able to stay awake to watch them Sunday nights either. Both were strong episodes, although I thought that Metalocalypse was particularly good.

Finally, today I drove out to the Eastern Shore for a family reunion. It was a nice enough drive; I have a really fun triangle sunburn on my chest from where my V-neck shirt exposed my skin. I've been listening to my Dethklok CD fairly regularly lately, so I decided to peruse our CD collection for some more CDs to enjoy on the ride. I listened to a fairly wide variety of music: Metallica's Black Album, No Doubt's Return to Saturn, Alanis Morrissette's Jagged Little Pill (sang myself hoarse!), and Def Leppard's Hysteria. I had U2's Joshua Tree, but I didn't feel in the mood for it. If I had had Achtung Baby, I probably would have sang myself hoarse a second time (I love that album). I had been looking for Motley Crue or Nirvana, but I couldn't find them before I left.

Tonight I'm looking forward to a little more wine and the BBC's version of Robin Hood.

Taking care of myself

So it's no great secret that two weeks into my separation from DH (physical, not emotional or marital) and I'm not really doing so hot. The burglar alarm going off last Sunday really did a number on my psyche, and I don't think that I've slept more than 20 hours all week.

Gradually I've been looking for ways to ease the fear. I'm leaving lights on all over the house, which has helped a little. I had considered sleeping pills, but DH suggested the much more enjoyable solution of a little wine before bed. I didn't have any drinkable wine in the house, so tonight I decided to take some steps towards taking better care of myself.

After chatting with DH on the phone, I called and ordered some Indian take out. Before picking up my order, I stopped at a local beer/wine store and grabbed a bottle of red and a bottle of white. Montgomery County selection absolutely sucks ass; I found one bottle of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and a bottle of California Pinot Noir. I'm about halfway through the Sav Blanc and I think that I'm going to sleep just fine tonight.

I hope, anyway.

Remind me why I'm not in England right now

I don't seem to be having an awful lot of luck lately - at least with respect to dealing with living by myself. Yesterday's false alarm may have permanently scarred my psyche, preventing me from sleeping through the night without being terrified of it going off and worse, confusing me with the "boy who cried wolf" scenario.

Next I woke up this morning to the news that a major water main had broken in MontCo and we were being asked to conserve and boil water. The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, whom I get my water from, has offered this helpful map for residents wondering whether they are included in the "boil water" orders:




I live in the little red area north of the gridlines. In fact, I think there are a whole lot of people affected by the "boil water" order who couldn't find themselves on this map. I can't zoom in on my street or anything. Stupidest map ever!

Finally we had more storms roll through today. This isn't a big deal, we've been pretty lucky with respect to trees and whatnot. But today, of course, I forgot to close my upstairs windows (I turned the air off last night in anticipation of the cooler weather this week). Wet carpets everywhere.

This plan of waiting until October to join DH isn't looking too great in the light of day. What was I thinking?

False alarm freak-out

I know that having the burglar alarm is a good thing, but jeebus did my blood pressure go through the roof this morning.

This morning around 10:30am, I was in my bedroom working on my bank account, when the house alarm went off. I didn't recognize what it was for like 30 seconds, and when I did it didn't really register that something might be wrong. I ran downstairs to shut off the alarm, and saw Henry walking away from his chair. No big deal, I thought, maybe one of the cats got into the basement.

But then I looked at the basement door, and it was locked and I hadn't opened it for like three days.

The phone rang (I knew it to be the alarm company) so I ran back upstairs, chasing Henry in front of me, to answer. The alarm company said that the basement motion detector had set off the alarm, and since I knew that the basement door was locked and both cats were in the bedroom, I had no idea what was going on. Being alone, I asked that they go ahead and send out the police. I locked my bedroom door, and waited for the police to show up, basically with my heart racing and crying a little.

DH happened to be on the computer in England about this time, so I quickly dashed off a message to him. I was convinced that I could hear sounds in the basement now, so I called 911 (the police called to check it out, and they said that if I heard anything I should call 911 right away). Anyway, to make a long story short, the police got here, I waited outside while they checked out the basement, and they came out a short while later telling me that there was no evidence that anything had happened to set off the alarm.

Then what the heck set it off? I called the security company to ask for help in case there was something wrong with the motion detector. The girl on the other end suggested that I check it out for spider webs and ants; apparently they set off basement detectors all the time. Sure enough, there was a spiderweb over the cover and a little thing (maybe a spider's meal?) hanging right in front of the detector. I cleared it all off, and the girl recommended that I get some kind of bug repellent in the area to keep it from happening again.

All I can say is that I'm really glad that this didn't happen at 3am in the morning. And my heart has finally calmed down from all the excitement.

On living alone...

Tonight is really the first night since DH left last Thursday that I don't have anything else to concentrate on besides myself. Since he left I've been preoccupied with getting our household goods packed and ready for shipping - no small feat. The movers came and left yesterday, and the remainder of the afternoon and evening was spent working from home and working on the house - getting the disarray caused by the initial shipment into some semblance of order.

I really hadn't taken the time to adjust to the fact of being on my own. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it requires one to establish a new routine, make sure that I prioritize taking care of myself as much as I prioritized taking care of DH, make sure that all the little jobs that DH usually covered (scooping kitty poop, taking out the trash, doing the dishes, killing spiders) were not neglected.

I'm getting there. I made myself a nice dinner tonight, ensured that I had something marinating for tomorrow night, did some weeding in the garden, let the kitties run around outside for a while. All good, healthy things.

It's a shame it's summertime and TV sucks butt, though. Oh well, there still lots of housework that needs to be done.

Really hon? Really?

This is for you, Jeffro.

You can see more pics DH took walking and driving around Harrogate at his little web album.

Aren't they cute

This just in from DH near his workplace near Harrogate, England. Watch for the little guy running away at the speed of light near the beginning of the video.

Here I go again on my own

So DH is gone now. I dropped him off at Dulles tonight, waited in line with him while he checked in (over an hour!), said goodbye at the security line, and drove home by way of White's Ferry. All in all, it was pretty emotional, but I toughed it out. And the drive home really helped - that route takes me through some really nice farm and countryside, and it was a nice, relaxing trip.

There's no shortage of tasks ahead of me. Pack-up is Tuesday morning; I have to have everything sorted out that I want to ship to England and ready to move before then. Sincerely daunting task, considering that we spent the last three days prepping DH's suitcases and were still throwing random stuff into them at the last minute.

I've got the kitties and I'm sure that we'll all get by okay. I do look forward to having a countdown both for my first trip to England to visit Ray as well as my final move date. Uncertainty is not my friend.

This is it...

So this is it. My last <24 hours with DH. His flight (United to Heathrow, then Leeds) leaves tomorrow at 630. We have to be at the airport around 4 I think (I'd better check that). Then he's gone, and my first chance to see him won't likely be until the end of July - 7-8 weeks from now.

On top of that, pack-up is Tuesday, so between DH leaving and then I have to get all the stuff that we're shipping sorted and organized somehow.

I think I am going to have a very busy, stressful weekend.

Please send more wine!

Twice in six months...

I can't believe it. I go years, years, without visiting an emergency room, and now I've been twice in six months.

DH and I were working in the backyard, trimming some trees that were hanging over the back fence. Suddenly I stepped on a unsecured bit of landscape edging and it swung up and hit me in the left eye - right smack in the middle of my left eyebrow. Blood was everywhere, my glasses (which likely saved my eye) were flung off somewhere, and for the first moment, I was convinced that my lens had shattered and buried itself in my eye. DH freaked out when he saw me drop to the ground clutching my eye - apparently he thought that I was going to be holding my eyeball in my hand or something.

Anyway, to make a long story short, since it was a pretty big gash so close to my eye, off to the emergency room we went. Two and a half hours later - no stitches, no corneal abrasion. Still, better safe than sorry. It was a pretty ugly cut, right in the middle of my eyebrow. My glasses... well they are intact, but they are bent out of shape crazy. Another trip to the eye doctor for me.

I just know that it is going to scar, and then no eyebrow hair will grow, and I'll have a little bald spot right in the middle of my eyebrown. Awful.

DH is feeling really confident after this episode, leaving me alone in four days.

What kind a day is it when...

... you can't tell if the dark spot on your knee is a bruise or dirt?

It's been a long day, on the heels of yet a longer day. DH and I drove up to Jersey yesterday to visit with his Gmom before he leaves, and to visit my girlfriend and her husband in celebration of his graduation from Rutgers! We left the house around 9am and didn't walk in the door until after 1am. It was a mega-long day and I did all the driving. Poor Beetle.

Despite not getting home until this morning, somehow I woke up bright and early this morning (well.... 8am). I popped right on the computer and posted DH's car on Craigslist. Since it was a manual transmission, and wasn't going to be bargain-basement priced, I figured that it might take a week to sell.

Boy was I wrong. 12 hours later and someone was driving off with the keys, title, and tags in exchange for hard cash. Very nice.

Of course, now that means that DH will have to drive the Beetle around for the next week or so until he leaves. I probably should have thought my cunning plan through a little better.

I'm not going to complain

Trust me, I want to. Work has been ridiculous lately; I've spent the better part of the last week working on a single task. Frustrating. I just realized that I've scheduled a very important meeting for myself the same date and time DH needs to go to the airport to fly to England. There is a mountain of stuff to do before we pack and ship; then I'll be living on my own for an indeterminate amount of time, since I don't yet know when I'm going to fly over to join DH.

Good news is that the cats are good to go - well, 5 months from now anyway. Their rabies antibody tests came back and so 6 months from April 25th they're eligible to enter the UK under the PETS scheme.

DH leaves in less than two weeks. Cats can't leave for 5 months. Brilliant

I don't think that I'm mentally ready to deal with everything I know I'm going to have to face in the next couple months.

Please send wine.

A couple more thoughts....

Not that there has been any drastic change over the last 24 hours, but I just wanted to share.

1) We've already had our visa applications approved and visas issued. We should have our passports back from the British Consulate in NYC tomorrow afternoon. That was fast.

2) If you haven't yet, you must read this article in the Washington Post about the racism - latent and blatant - that Obama campaign volunteers have faced canvassing for him. It's shocking that in this day and age there are still those folks out there, that with all the information readily available via the internet and other sources that easily disputable misinformation and lies still pervade. But then again, maybe it isn't that shocking after all.

I disagree with just about every Obama position he holds. But at the same time, I still want to see him win. If he wins, I believe he could be another Kennedy. Now, if you really look at what Kennedy's presidency was actually like, it was a near disaster - Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis - the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war, etc. The era that followed - the Civil Rights and Student Movements of the late 60s, the feminist revolution, the change in culture that happened after his presidency... that's what I hope for. When Kennedy was elected it marked the first time a Catholic was President, and that was considered a major thing. Breaking barriers as a society - through electing Presidents - sends the message to those holding social progress back - those outright racists described in the article - that they are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem, and their anachronistic views and values have been overcome. I think that this country took some steps backwards when it re-elected W - sending the message that the hard-core conservative Christian right, more concerned with keeping gays from marrying and teens from having sex than solving the very real social problems of pollution and poverty, and promoting government policies that rejected science in favor of religion in a country established on the principle of keeping religion out of government. Electing Obama I think would be a drastic swing of the pendulum in the opposite direction.

It's not the first guy on the beach who wins the war - it's the wave behind him.

Random thoughts...

So I've been getting a little lackadaisical with the whole blogging thing. There's not much new to really write about. Work is still insane, England-move plans are still creeping along, the house is still in need of major work, yada yada yada.

The only things of note are:

1) The British Consulate confirmed acceptance of our visa applications and noted that processing would likely take 5 business days.

2) This weekend I paid $45 to fill up the Beetle! It wasn't even on empty - or even close to it. 3/4 empty, maybe. I only got about 24 mpg last tank, but I blame that on my lead foot.

3) I nearly forgot our wedding anniversary was Sunday. We didn't do anything in particular... just more housework. We've been married seven years; there's just no point in marking the occasion every year.

4) I had my first Five Guys burger and fries last week. Since they only cook their burgers well-done, it started out behind the potential curve. It was alright, a little wet and messy (I had cheese, grilled onions and mushrooms, pickle, mustard and ketchup). The fries were decent enough, not really crisp enough for my taste, although I did like the malt vinegar. Definitely not the second coming in terms of burgers.

That's all. I didn't say they were exciting things of note.

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.