An amusing, though glassless, Saturday

When I woke up this morning, I had the glass calling me. Apparently once again it was non-existent glass. Although I left the house on time and went to White Horse and Anderson, I found nothing. Well no Depression glass anyway. Apparently people are really clearing out right now, but just clearing out junk. I went to two tables today in Anderson where guys told me "If you see anything you want, just take it." I did find a French Press exactly like the one I have, so I got that for free. The guy who had it told me it was "one of those coffee grinder things". Hmmm. Obviously, it has not been used since he had it. From the filth encrusting it, I certainly hope not anyway.

Redneck marketing. This woman had stuffed the plasicated crocogators on her table with little dolls. I thought that was pretty amusing.

While coming back from Anderson, Donnie and I had the big conFab about who was bringing what tomorrow for the game. He's bringing vegetarian chili for me, which I thought was very nice. I'm making guacamole. I make great guacamole. I wasn't going to make it because I didn't know if anyone would eat it or not, but Donnie said it should be fine.

When I left there, I stopped in and saw the friendly antique man on exit #39 on the way home. I didn't find anything I really wanted (or really wanted to pay for) there either. The quest continued as I went out Poinsett to the new antique place I have been trying to get in since Christmas. They were open! Yay~! Apparently the guy had been out of the country. But they handle Fine Antiques: very nice paintings, European furniture, etc. Some pieces were very nice, and some just had Very Nice prices. When I found two Luminarc bowls (circa 1986 or so) for $70 each (or a pair for $120), I figured I had wandered out of my price range for good. You can buy those bowls at Goodwills everywhere for about a dollar. I did stop at both the Goodwill and Salvation Army thrift stores on the way back, but came up empty. Oh well, the hunt is half the fun anyway.

I went home for a bit of a lie down, and checked in with Russ and Billy about the vet trip. They were getting ready to go, and Billy said that Russ just didn't want to wait for anyone, he just wanted to go on. I can understand that. He spent some time with Oliver today.

Dinner

We agreed to meet up for dinner at 6, and Billy told me just to make the arrangements, which was fine. I called Miss Kat to talk to her. She chose Joe's Crab Shack for some reason. I had eaten there twice before. They have good food, but it's noisy and the servers spend half the time dancing. There is a very elaborate, embarrassing and noisy birthday ritual that kids apparently love. So there is one about every 15 minutes. For the adults there is a full bar, provided you can convince a dancing waitress to bring you a drink.

I have to say the food we had was very good. The coconut shrimp I tried were tasty, and the "great balls of fire" crab balls appetizer with jalapenos was telish. The crabby nachos I had for an entree were excellent. The crab stuff was very rich and cheesy, but kept from being cloying by a nice balance of black beans, salsa, and other fixings. It was as loud, noisy, and birthday-y as I remember, however. The waitresses alternated doing the Marcarena with a 50's version of the Hokey Pokey for the numerous birthdays. Yeah. Straight people. (I did notice that most of the waitresses were suspiciously pretty and vapid, but small-busted, which made me wonder if they were hiring Hooters rejects. Could the chains be related?) Then we got the check. I was drinking root beer, since they had IBC. I figured this was fountain soda, but oh no. They charged me $2.50 each for three sodas. Yeah I was pretty over that. But of course this trip wasn't about the dining experience. It was about being there for Russ and Billy when they needed us there. And the food was pretty good, even if it was kind of like eating in a skating rink.

The movie

After dinner, we were going to see a movie. Russ and Billy wanted to go see Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. This is the kind of movie I would never have gone to see on my own. I thought it was horror, and I've had a phobia about werewolves since I was a kid. There were werewolves and vampires, but it was actually a cheesy fantasy-type thing.

The vampire (I'm sure it was spelled vampyre in the script)princess was having an affair with the super-werewolf half-blood. The vampires kept the half-bloods in service to them, treating them like dirt and making them live in filthy damp dungeons under the castle when they weren't tied to the outside of it to protect the vampires while they slept. They had special collars on them that kept them from changing.

I just couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to get into it after the first half hour or so. I spent a good amount of time counting the ways they were ignoring the evil overlord list, asking myself questions, and counting plot holes.

First of all, this castle was filthy and wet all the time. Anytime a character hit a wall, landed on a rock, etc, there was a great splash of wet nastiness. So I start thinking, "OK, if I had an entire race that was subservient to me, would I not give a few of them buckets and rags and have them clean up a little bit? Or dig some kind of drainage system?" People like me should not watch these kinds of movies.

Later on, we see the vampire princess meets with her lover, the werewolf super-dude, and they make mad passionate love on a parapet of the castle under the moonlight. I'm sure it was supposed to be very romantic, but they had no blanket or anything, and I'm thinking, "That stone has to be awfully cold. Also, how long has it been since he had a bath? Or brushed his teeth?" Remember, he lives in a dank dungeon under the castle, with no toilet, sink or shower. He had visible smears of dirt on his body. Plus, you just know he had dog breath.

When the affair is discovered, the princess is of course locked in her room. There were dramatic close-ups of her distress. And I'm sitting there thinking they're going to have to let her out at some point to get her lips re-injected. She had these huge bee-stung, obviously collagen injected lips. To the point that I found it distracting. I'm thinking "They have collagen injections, but no maids?"

The male lead was an odd-looking guy. In his dramatic moments, he had these strange "Jack Nicholson-in-The-Shining" bug-eyes. This was distracting at first, but as the movie progressed, and the dampness and filth generally ran wild (along with blood, of course) they solved the problem by taking his shirt off and having a lot of damp filthy hair hang in his face all the time.

I kept my observations to myself (until after the movie anyway), and found the movie suitably distracting, on whatever level. And that was what we were there for after all. There was a small child only one seat over from me. I was agog. I would have been scared to death by something like that as a child, and there were some pretty racy scenes, particularly in the beginning (I found it amusing that they showed him taking her doggy-style, I have to say). I figured the child would be crying and stuff, but he actually fell asleep. In THX-surround, no less. I think that pretty much says it all.

I went back to the house and visited with Russ for a bit. We talked some about Oliver. Billy got a bit upset when he came in and Oliver's food bowl was gone (Ben had been de-Olivering the house that afternoon), but generally they are OK.

Russ and I made plans to go up to Barnyard Flea Market in Duncan in the morning. That will be fun!

A post in which I coordinate an adventure and entertain a guest*

I paid today for those two weeks of peace when my boss was out of town. He gave me the write-offs back at 3:30 today. Even Harry Houdini himself couldn't have gotten them through corporate in two hours. So I did what I could.

I was headed home to clean when Justin called. He wanted to go shopping, but didn't know what for. I headed on to the house to start straightening up a bit, and he showed up there. It turned out that Justin was looking more for novelty than an actual shopping goal. We ended up going downtown. Mass General has (finally!!) started staying open until 9pm. We strolled through there, and through a little art gallery downtown, then had dinner at Cantinflas. Sadly, they had taken my favorite thing off the menu, a mushroom burrito that was great. But they still had their fabulous guacamole, and I had a Mexican-fusion Caesar salad with grilled portobellos and black beans that was quite good.

We dropped by Coffee Underground for some hot chocolate, since for some reason I was craving it (I have been put off, because I usually burn the fuck out of my mouth - like every time I drink it). While there, we spotted this odd-looking guy. He was obviously quite proud of his physique, but was wearing a skin-tight sweater that was doing his tummy no favors, very tight black pegged pants, and fabulous shoes. He still had the size sticker on the sweater. I double-dog dared Justin to go peel it off and he did! He talked to the guy first, but still.

By this time, Jay had called and was getting close to town. We headed back to the house and watched a bit of Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte while we waited.

It was so good to see Jay. That man and I just really work together. SO well. I have done my best to talk him into moving back to Greenville, but no dice.

He ended up not staying the night. On the one hand, I wanted him to, but on the other hand I was a bit glad because the last two guys who have stayed over had made it a crappy night's sleep for yours truly. He said the dogs were acting up. They stay in a pen, but I'm sure Jinx would have been way pissed.

I put in a movie and drifted off to dreamland, well satisfied.

A post in which I see an old friend, VD is dreaded, and I receive sad news

I had lunch with Kimberly today. I hadn't seen her in so long. We used to get together with some old co-workers once a month, but one woman's daughter showed her ass, so we got out of the habit of it. It was that woman that always sparked the monthly get-together. Kim and I used to be really close. She has spent Christmas at the house with Dick, Eve, and the gang back when everyone was still speaking to each other. I have met her parents too,and helped her move twice. I used to do laundry at her house when I lived on Earl St, and she did my wash for too long after I moved into my new house. We spent a lot of time together back in the day. She went to Hendersonville and Asheville with me to indulge my glass obsession when I first started collecting. She's a good friend.

We kind of caught up on each other's lives, what has been going on, etc. Of course I was doing most of the talking (act surprised). She's married now to a really nice guy who has been good for her, and has a very important job where she travels a lot. We've both come a long way since we met, but I guess that's the way life goes. It was really great to see her.

Mom called today. She's bringing her posse to Greenville to see a play on Valentine's Day. Those of you who are regular readers know that I face VD with the enthusiasm which most reserve to greet stubborn tile grout mildew. But it's upon us again. At least I have something to do this year. With Mom and her friends coming I figured I would just have a girl's night out and no harm no foul. For some reason, it didn't register that they were all going to be with their sweet babboos, since they are all paired up now. So we were going to be 9, with me as the odd one out. As usual. I really just couldn't bear the thoughts of it.

I ran through people in my mind with a) no sweet babboo; b) hopefully no plans; c) enough self-esteem not to be offended or depressed by my assumption that they might be free; and d) enough affection for me to be subjected to this (I enjoy my Mom's friends, but not every person relishes the prospect of dinner with the Hot Flash Posse, and on VD no less). I could come up with only one name. Justin. I called him and begged him to go with me. Luckily, he hadn't made other plans, and agreed. God Bless Justin. I am most thankful for him and his acquiescence. I think having to sit at a table with four geriatric couples who all managed to hook up while I am still dateless might well have been more than my fragile psyche could bear. Justin's sweet babboo (conveniently enough for me) is in California training to be deployed overseas. So that worked out.

I called around and ended up getting reservations at Travinia. Early. They are taking in a show after dinner. I begged off of the Buddy Holly look-alike show. Glad they're going to enjoy that, but no thanks. I do like seeing Mom and the gals, but since they are bringing the menfolk, I guess they'll be doing couple stuff. It is VD weekend, after all.

Jay comes tomorrow night, and I'm looking forward to that. I really like him. I am way pissed that his ex made him move to Atlanta before they broke up. I could spend some serious time with him, but of course now that he's in Atlanta he won't even think about moving back. Still, I really enjoy seeing him when he comes to town.

There was jack nothing on TV tonight. Even TCM was running a Woody Allen (bleah) film festival. I suppose that's the kind of thing I should like, but I have never cared for his movies. The endless chatter about and parade of neuroses makes me just want to snatch that man up, shake him good, and slap him a few times. So I got on line to chat for a bit.

I was talking on Bear411 when I heard from Billy. He and Russ have at last come to the place where they can let poor little Oliver go. Oliver was a rescue Pomeranian that Russ and Billy got for a friend and agreed to board for a bit. By the time the friend was ready to take him, Russ had fallen in love with him and couldn't let him go. He is a funny little dog. He has a lot of health problems (most likely from being in-bred), but there is nothing wrong with his brain. He has them both wrapped around his little paw. But his health has been steadily declining for the last year or so, and he's in pretty bad shape now. He has problems walking, and breathing, he has an enlarged heart, and congestive heart failure. He is a sweet little dog, but it's just time to let him go. Still, they are going to be devastated. I'll be spending Saturday afternoon and evening doing whatever they need to help them feel better.

Just because

Just a picture of my gorgeous baby angel niece Ava. Mom sent it to me this week.

A post in which I once again avoid the temptation of the Chinese Buffet

So much for quiet days while my boss is out of town. Everyone was in an uproar today over a company we filed suit on that was affiliated with one our vendors. Not that we had any way to know this ahead of time, mind you. Oops. Vendors are like gold in the computer industry because to create their own scarcity and keep prices up, they limit production. That means that a) that laptop you paid $600 for probably costs them about $40 to produce; and b) they "award" supply of limited merchandise to vendors they like, or that bend over backwards to accommodate their sometimes ridiculous demands. (The computer industry is one of the few that still operates on a "supply-side" economic model. They have just elected not to produce all the market will bear.) So we had a real tempest in a teapot today, involving the CEO of our company, the CEO of their company, a law firm, our Canadian office, my boss (still off-site), and yours truly right in the middle of it. Joy.

And of course this would happen on a Wednesday, when I had reports to do as well.

By the time I got off work, I had a huge headache, and I was starving. I had brought a light lunch today as part of my attempts to watch what I eat more carefully. On the way home, I went right on over to the China Buffet on Congaree, the one with the addictive coconut shrimp. As I was pulling in though, I thought that a) I was going to erase any good I did at lunch today; b) I really didn't need to spend the money; c) I really didn't need the extra calories; d) I had fried rice at home in the fridge that I just killed myself making last night; e) I was going out to lunch with my friend Kimberly tomorrow anyway; and f) I had also bought salad to eat for dinner this week. No just regular salad, but extra-healthy gourmet salad from Publix with baby spring greens, walnuts, and blueberries. So I pulled out of the parking lot and went home.

What is it about Chinese food that drives me to distraction? Those coconut shrimp are just the sum of everything your body is programmed by evolution to desire: a symphony of fatty, salty crunch drenched with a decadent sweet and savory sauce. Same for sweet and sour whatever. And spring rolls. Exquisite little mouthfuls of tender-crisp vegetables with a hint of garlic, black pepper and five-spice, nestled in pillows of tender crispy wrapper. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

But I ate salad for dinner, with some cheese I needed to finish up on cheese toast, and a treat for dessert. I had those Anastasia Coconut Patties in the house. So I probably didn't save any calories (well not many anyway), but at least I didn't spend the money.

I was really worn out. All I really wanted to do was go to bed. I was nodding off while I was watching The Merry Widow (the 1952 version, with Lana Turner). I knew no housework was getting done tonight. I signed on to Bear411 and chatted a bit as I got ready for bed. I did get asked out by a guy who I met as Michael and I were breaking up. He was really nice to me at the time, but when I got to know him better afterwards, he was kind of a blow-hard. He has an incredible penis - one of the most beautiful I have ever seen in real life; but he's a top too, and with the abrasive personality on top of that, well, he's just not someone I want to go out with again. Not to date anyway. Plus he wanted to do something tonight, and I was just too tired to really think about that.

Justin called out of the blue, and I talked to him for a few minutes before we got interrupted by an incoming call on his end. I just went on to bed. I was bushed.

A post in which I have cooked a ton of Chinese Vegetables

And trashed my kitchen in the process!

Scenes of devastation.

The kitchen, part 2. Note the huge bowl of fried rice. I have already put two containers of vegetables in the freezer at this point.

I haven't done this in a while. I used to do it more when Michael lived here, just because it took so much food, it seemed like, to keep something in the fridge.

I had a good day at work today. My boss is out of the office until Thursday, so things are fairly quiet. I heard from my friend Jay in Atlanta, and he'll be coming to stay Friday night, so that will be really nice. Although that means I have straighten up the house some.

We had free lunch at work today, which for me meant a cheese sandwich, since they were having hamburgers and hot dogs. You don't really think about how meat-centric our food is until you quit eating it. To go with that, there was nachos with plasti-cheeze and some fairly tasteless cole slaw. They had cookies at first, but as usual they ran out. By the time I ate lunch they were serving some kind of thawed out little tiny cheesecakes that looked much better than they tasted. I must admit, the plasti-cheeze they use is pretty tasty, petroleum-based or not. I just tried not to think about what bizarre chemicals I was ingesting. Free lunch is free lunch, after all.

I knew I had to cook tonight, so I jetted out the door on the dot. Interestingly, traffic co-operated, and I was home in record time. I ran through the store for tofu, peas, and another onion before I got home. I also picked up some tater wedges for dinner. Mmmmmmm. And like a $1.20. You can't beat that.

I put my bok choy in to soak (they're always gritty), and put my tofu in towels to press and drain. I scarfed dinner, since I was starving, and went on in the kitchen. I started to realize I was in trouble when I got everything out. I had:

2lbs tofu
1 savoy cabbage as large as a small bathroom garbage can
10 baby bok choy
2 large white onions
1 lb green peas
1/2 lb baby carrots
2 cans bamboo shoots
4 ribs of celery
a bit of garlic

And that wasn't counting spices, etc. I started washing and chopping vegetables. You have to have everything chopped before you start stir-frying because it goes very fast. I knew I would have to do the veggies in batches. Well I knew I was in trouble when I ran out of big bowls. I finally finished chopping the rest of the cabbage and piled it on a towel. The chopping took about an hour.

Then I started cooking. And cooking. And cooking. I knew I had to get out my big chrome bowl to mix everything in, but by the time I got done with the vegetables, I knew I had too many to make fried rice with. I put about 2/3 of them in the freezer before I even stir-fried the rice.

The cooking took about an hour, and would have taken less time if I had been able to get my pan hot enough. You just can't get an electric stove hot enough to stir fry correctly.

So I got everything mixed and put away in the fridge, then was faced with the huge mess. I finished cleaning up around 9:30. I was pretty damn tired. But I have lunches for the rest of the week, and two containers of frozen Chinese veggies in the fridge. They won't be like stir fry when you thaw them, because you can't really freeze stir fry, but they'll be fine mixed with soba or something like that.

A post in which I am surprisingly virtuous*

Well in one respect anyway.

I didn't go to the Chinese buffet.

But I did go see a buddy at lunch today.

I went to two grocery stores, getting the ingredients together to make stir-fry tomorrow. I had to go to the Asian market, since that is the only place in town that carries baby bok choy. They also had gorgeous and huge savoy cabbages. The ones at Publix were kind of weedy looking.

By the time I got home it was almost 7 and I was starving. I had actually thought I might go on and cook tonight, but reality intervened. I ate a salad and some cheese and crackers for dinner, with strawberries and chocolate sauce for dessert. Strawberries were on sale, and I had a bottle of chocolate sauce in the fridge that needed to be used up. I don't know how long it had been in there.

I changed the sheets, did a bit of laundry, and cooked my rice for tomorrow. I've decided to make fried rice instead of just a stir fry, and that is one of the main secrets to good fried rice that isn't gummy. Make sure your rice is thoroughly chilled. It changes the way the starch reacts or something.

While I was doing all this and cleaning up, I watched some lesbians get help with their chronically aggressive boxer on It's Me Or The Dog. Then Marty came on TCM. I had never seen it, but it really spoke to me. I could identify with Ernest Borgnine's chronically lonely character. He had plenty of friends, but no one special in his life. The movie also directly confronted the problems of being less than beautiful in a society that values appearance to excess. It was also interesting to me to see the cultural differences. He was under a lot of overt pressure to get married. I had heard about the pressure to conform in the 50's (the movie was released in 1955), but seeing it actually played out was enlightening. There is still plenty of pressure to pair up, but it's more covert now. The movie did have a happy ending though, which I liked. I finished cleaning up after the pity party, and went on to bed.

Happy Chinese New Year - Welcome to the Year of the Ox!

Like I don't have enough bull in my life....

OK that was bad.

Seriously, Chinese New Year is today, and this begins the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac. Which suits me fine, because frankly I have enough wily, crafty rats in my life already.

According to Wikipedia, the Ox is sensible, down to earth, modest, a natural leader, and not afraid of hard work. That sounds like just what we need right now. A little return to common sense and hard work.

Good fortune to you and yours, Happy Chinese New Year, and lets hope our new president embodies the calm, practical ox.

So I'm wondering if I can justifiably go eat Chinese food tonight like I did last year...

A post in which there is much shopping*

And even more talking of the shit.

Even though I was in relatively early last night, after spending the evening at Miss Kat's I was kind of drug out today. Even after sleeping half the day yesterday. I had partied out two nights in a row, and apparently I am getting too old for that stuff.

What finally propelled me out of bed today was that I wanted cinnamon buns. I hadn't gone to the grocery store last night as I had intended (on the way home from Miss Kat's - yeah right, that was gonna happen), so I got up and went to the BiLo. They had the exact same kind that James made. Cora was working this morning, so I got to make her laugh before I left. She's my favorite checker. I got home and popped them in the oven, and they just smelled like heaven, but mine weren't as good as James's. I cooked them too long, and you have to leave them a bit under-done and gooey for them to be really good. Live and learn. I really don't need to make these a regular part of my diet though. To go with them, I brewed up a cup of my new coffee. Hawaiian something-or-other that is supposed to be like Kona. It didn't make it. After tasting it, I know why it was on sale 2-for-1 at the BiLo. Anyway.

After the munching, I fooled around online for a bit and put a load of laundry in. I ended up going for a quick visit to see a friend, after which I was sleepy again. I was supposed to call Michael as soon as I got mobile today, but I decided I had to lie down for a bit before I could go anywhere. I lay down until about noon, then got up and ate some lunch. I still felt drug out. But I went ahead an called Michael, who was out industriously exercising. That made me feel even more like a slug.

We agreed that I would get cleaned up and head his way, and we'd do the thrift store loop through Easley, Anderson, and those places down there. I took a 5-hour energy and got in the shower. I hooked up the GPS and started out that way. Eventually, the 5-hour kicked in and I started to feel remotely human.

Sean went with us shopping, which was nice. I enjoy knowing that I'm not the biggest ho in the room occasionally. We first stopped off at Big Lots. Apparently it was my week for amusing brand names:

Well, for a lack of creativity, I thought this was precious. Who could resist "Good Time Precious" cookies?

We made the rounds, smoking and shooting the shit in the car in between. It's always good to see Michael and spend some time with him, and I like Sean too. He hasn't heard all our stories yet.

I found a Sharon cake plate at one Goodwill, and figured I had gotten my find for the day. I had kept meaning to pick one up at the flea market in December to put Miss Helen's pound cake on for her, and then ended up without one. I got it for $3.50, and book on it is $10. Once again, caveat here that it is crystal, and you practically can't give that away now. But it's pretty, has no chips, and I think it will be interesting to Miss Helen.

Sharon "Cabbage Rose" cake plate in crystal by Federal Glass Company, circa 1935-1939

But I wasn't done. I found a blue Bubble plate at the last Goodwill we went in. I initially thought it was the more rare $6 size, but it isn't. It's the $2.50 size, which is fine. I gave 90 cents for it. It was worth that just for the excitement of finding it there.

"Bubble" 6 3/4" bread and butter plate in Sapphire Blue by Anchor Hocking, circa 1934-1965.

It was a lovely day, and we had a very good time. After the shopping, we went by the house to pick up Joe, who had been studying all day. We all went out for Mexican at a place called Los Amigos that was very good. Then it was back to the house for more conversation. Every time I come over, Joe has stomach problems, so he ended up going upstairs to lie down, but he felt better after a while and came back down. For some reason, we got stuck on telling hospital stories last night, but we found it amusing. Apparently we are old enough now to start telling stories about our medical problems.

Eventually, it got to be that time. So I plugged in the GPS and toddled off home. It was a great weekend, but I didn't get much done as far as chores go. I guess they'll still be there when I get to them.

Next weekend the Steelers are in the Super Bowl!! WOOHOO!!

A post in which I persoinfy sloth

I woke up this morning at 10am. I can't remember the time I slept that late. I was worn out from not having slept Thursday night (I kept waking up thinking about hanging curtains) (I know, I need a life). Plus all the visiting Friday night. I dragged blearily out of bed, unable to resist the Call of the Glass. The non-existent glass, it seems. Had there been any, my rival collectors no doubt snatched it up before I got there at 10:30am, a real heiress hour for the flea market. I was so out of it I didn't buy any fruit or anything. And I have to cook something for lunches this week. I'm leaning towards a stir-fry, but I need some 5-spice powder to do what I want. I want to do a kind of vegetable chop suey.

Anyway, after I left, I had the beat of the Mexican base in my ears, which invokes a Pavlovian response that makes me have to have nachos. I went by the Mexican place near my house, but they weren't open yet. So I went on to the Chinese buffet, which amazingly WAS open at 11:10am.

After consuming enough to keep a Chinese family of five in sustenance for a week, I went back to the house and crashed. I watched some Family Guy, and went back to sleep. I woke up at 3PM!! That goes beyond heiress hours and just smacks right up against Marie Antoinette hours. Thank God I didn't have to give birth while a bunch of nobles watched.

I stirred and put in a load of laundry. I watched figure-skating and tried to purpose a bit. My old friend Michael S called and we made plans to go shopping tomorrow. That should be fun. I haven't seen him since before Christmas.

I had made plans to go to Miss Kat's tonight, so I had to start getting ready. I was supposed to eat before I came, but I ended up just grabbing a pizza on the way over there. They now use canned mushrooms at Little Caesars. The horror! I mean I know they need to save money, but let's not descend to the level of barbarians! It took me a half hour to get to Miss Kat's. The slow people were out in force, despite the fact that it was Saturday night. I stopped to get cigarettes, and there were like four people in line in front of me. All of whom were counting out handfuls of change to buy stuff. There was a pregnant girl in line behind me, so I let her in front of me. Then her baby daddy came in. Oh my heavenly GOD! He was BEAUTIFUL. And her such a plain, wan little thing. I was thinking "Girl, if I was you I'd have FIVE of his babies up in me. You have hit the lottery! Go home and be GOOD to that man. I would keep him DNA FREE!" But of course I couldn't say any of that. So I just stood there and drooled quietly until it was my turn.

So anyway, after leaving there, I ran by Little Caesar's to pick up my pizza. Of course there was a line. So I'm standing in line behind this rather average-looking little suburban housewife type, wearing her quilted mau-vay vest (circa 1986). At first I don't notice because of the light color of the vest, but then I hone in with horror. This woman's shoulders are covered in dandruff. I don't mean a few flakes. I'm talking the flea Aspen. I'm talking the snows of Kilimanjaro in miniature. My first thought was 'How long has she been wearing that jacket??' I mean how long does it take to get that much dandruff on something like that? Or does it like stick on there? I started to make myself sick, so I just had to think about something else. I moved, as usual when I'm waiting at this store, to contemplate the two RIP plaques they have hanging near the cash register, both for relatively young women. Were they gunned down in the course of robberies? Did they die of some sort of illness? It never seens appropriate to ask.

Miss Kat and dana have a new dog! Miss Kat was so distraught over losing Chase before Christmas. It did my heart good to see here with a new baby. And he is the sweetest thing. A boxer they rescued. He has a face like those alien things in The Fifth Element, but he is just the best natured dog ever. And he adores Miss Kat. He went to sleep at her feet. Of course for a dog from a neglect background, he has died and gone to heaven. dana treats dogs like people. And spoiled people at that.

Lori, Nicole, and Jim were there. We had a great visit, with much laughter, but things broke up pretty early. dana had worked and been up at 5:30am this morning. Plus they just keep earlier hours in general. I figured it wouldn't hurt me to rest up before my day out with Michael anyway. So I came home, emptied the refrigerator into my gullet, and went to bed. I had been meaning to watch the A&E version of Emma, so I put it in and drifted off to Edwardian dreamland. Where oh where is my Mr. Knightly?

Those ^&%$#@!! curtains are finished and hung!

Work was pretty calm today. I am caught up for the moment, and my boss was so behind from being out of town that he just stayed in his office with no time to get creative today. And good for me.

After work it was off to Spartanburg to hang curtains. But since James wasn't getting off work until later, Justin and I headed out for supper and a bit of shopping. We had some Mexican food, and dropped by Ross's Dress For Less. They had some of those wonderful Anastasia Coconut Patties, and I got a box. They didn't have any plain ones, but they had almond flavor, which, it turns out, is pretty damn good.

We spotted a bear guy outside of the pet store, and I was like, "Oh, I'm sure he's a straight redneck guy." He then proceeded to hit on Justin at the pet store. Yeah, he needs another frickin boyfriend.

We also went to Aldi, because Justin had never been there and wanted to go. Many of the near-brand names were funny, but my favorite is below:

Could they have found a more suggestive name for these bars? And can you see a redneck guy pulling one of these out of his lunch box at the job site?

In retrospect, I should have taken a picture of the fake Chex, called "Corn Squares". That was pretty funny as well.

By the time we got back to the house, it was time to go to James's for the main event. I went over and hung the curtains. But he had re-arranged the bedroom (his current beau is moving in), and there was no way to install the tie-back hooks and show them tied back. But they're getting ready to move to a different, larger apartment anyway. If you don't sew, they just look like nothing. But these puppies were a bitch to turn out. I'd never make it as a Guatemalan. But of course if I was a Guatemalan, I'd be harvesting bananas. Or I'd at least have a serger.

The curtains en situ.

A closer view of the attached valance. And showing the piping, where I finally got the stripes to match up in the middle.

James said he was very relieved that I matched up the stripes. He said he wondered if I would, since he made such a big deal out of how they didn't have to be perfect. Obviously he has had limited dealings with Virgos. I was very glad to have it done.

That done, we had a nice visit, smoked, talked and laughed. James made cinnamon buns, and they were wonderful. I really didn't need to know how good those are. I previously shunned all baked products from a tube, and was no doubt the healthier for it. Cinnamon buns are such a bitch to make from scratch that they were effectively not in my diet. No more, sadly. Just what I needed.

Lunch with Lisa

I had forgotten that Dick and Eve were keeping Ava this weekend. I remembered when Eve called me to ask for a good sushi place for Lisa and Carl to eat lunch. I got Lisa on the phone, and just told her to come on down to Sushi-Masa and have lunch with me. Which they did. I had forgotten that Carl's boyfriend (this guy from whom he is inseparable) and his wife Inga were coming with them for a weekend getaway to Asheville. We all had lunch, and the food was good as always. Lisa and I tag-teamed telling stories about when we were kids. It was a nice lunch, and good to see her.

It was also good to get out of the office for a while. Another high-stress day. Since my portfolio doubled this Fall, the cases are starting to cycle through now. Lots of documents to assemble, lots of affidavits to complete, and still my regular job to keep up with. I finally gave up on the last report my boss is wanting me to learn. I just can't figure it out on my own. I emailed him and told me he was going to have to train me a bit.

Because I wasted so much time on that, I don't have all the write-offs done yet. I was trying to have them all done before he got back. But it will be a week before he looks at them anyway. I've decided. I'm not begging him three times a day to finish them this month. He'll either do it or not. And if they don't get processed on month end, well then they don't. I'm not running the gamut of corporate red tape like OJ Simpson through an airport because he has procrastinated until the last minute yet again. I'm giving up ownership of that. I will do them if I can, but if I can't then I can't.

I called around before I left work and found tie back rings to go on the curtains, because I knew they had to be finished tonight. Terry called and said he wanted to come visit for a bit tonight. He found me hard at it when he got to the house. He's having a rough time. He has a MRSI (Medication Resistant Staph Infection) in his neck, and it's all swollen up like a goiter. If they can't get it to respond to strong antibiotics they're going to have to cut it out! We visited for a bit, but then I had to get back for work.

After much measuring and swearing, I got the valance seams in. That is the most important seam, because if it isn't right, the lines on the plaid won't match up. I finally got both seams in, and did a "test hang" of the curtains on a broomstick. They look pretty good. They're not perfect. But no one will ever look at them as closely as I have, and once they are up, hanging hides little mistakes. So I'm fairly pleased with them.

I sewed on the tie-back rings while watching more of The Presidents on The History Channel. They have already added a partial new chapter about Barak Obama. I thought that was pretty cool. That final job done, I folded them all up and got them ready to take with me tomorrow. I'm going to Spartanburg after work to hang them. I'm pretty stoked about that, actually. I love showing something you've sewn to someone who doesn't sew. It's like cooking for someone who doesn't cook. It's like magic to them. You have taken fabric and actually made something useful out of it. LOL

A hard day

I had a really crappy, really busy day at work today. I'm having a bunch of new clients dumped in my lap while I'm trying to get write-offs finished, and learn a new report for my boss. I'm having to try to do it on my own since he's out of town, and that's very stressful. In addition, I had the regular Wednesday reports to do today. That always makes Wednesday my tough day. I spent the last call of the day getting varicose veins in my neck yelling at a recalcitrant Asian woman as well. Just not a good way to end a tough day.

I left the office with relief. I had planned on finishing the curtains tonight, since I didn't want to leave it to the last thing, but there was just no way that was happening tonight.

I did go to buy pull-back loops though, at the little linens place near my house. Nothing. They had blenders and incense (?), but no sewing notions. I walked up to Kmart to find they don't even carry thread now. I was trying to talk myself out of going out to eat again, so while I was in Kmart, I picked up a couple of treats: some Quakes (which I adore), and some of those new Nabisco Cakesters, which I have been avoiding like the plague lo these many months. And Oh my heavenly God are they GOOD! And I so didn't need to know that.

I got home and got my mail, to discover that my 401k had lost $14,000.00 in the 4th quarter last year. Yeah, that pretty much topped off a perfect day. I deposited myself on the couch for a quiet nosh. And watched The Presidents. And went to bed. It was a long day.

A pleasant evening

I watched part of the inauguration at lunch today on the big-screen TV and cried some. I am so profoundly glad that Barak Obama was sworn in with no mishaps. While I was trying to watch, people in the break room kept talking to me though, which was kind of distracting. One guy was asking me a bunch of questions, and another was making disparaging remarks about how much the inauguration was costing (because, yeah, really usually it' so cheap - I'm rolling my eyes now because I couldn't then). I saw the start of the progression down Pennsylvania Avenue, but I didn't get to see him get out and walk. I was really glad to hear that he did. To me, that is an example of courage to the whole nation. He has called on the nation to be courageous, and he's walking the walk. Literally. And good for him.

When I got off work tonight, I was going to go straight home and cook. I had planned to use some leftovers to make and enchilada casserole. But on the way home Billy called. He and Russ wanted to go for sushi, so I told them I'd meet them at Sushi-Masa for dinner. I hadn't seen them since the Solstice party on the 10th. Plus, I really didn't feel like going home. I felt like celebrating.

We met at the restaurant and ate and caught up. They were trying to talk me into going to the bear thing this weekend, but I don't think I'm going. The restaurant is very expensive, very noisy, and I don't think the food is all that good. Plus it's frequented by a bunch of young, hip, skinny people. The last time I was there I felt very uncomfortable and out of place. Afterwards they are all going to a play. It's a gay-themed play, and I guess I ought to go, but it's one of those tear-jerker ones that I just don't relish.

So I'm not going, but I'm going to feel guilty about it. But feeling guilty is a lot cheaper than going and not enjoying it. I just don't have the money for obligations right now, after spending all that money last week.

It was good to see Russ and Billy, and I enjoyed the visit.

By the time I got home, it time to go to bed. It's been so cold lately that all I want to do when I get home is go to bed!

It's OVER!!

Bush is officially Out Of Office as of noon. Thank you sweet Lord Jesus that I lived to see it. I'm so glad that man is going back to Texas that I'd ride him there on a bike if I had to. May he pull a Richard Nixon and exit the public sphere. And may Jeb not run. Hopefully this is the end of the dynasty. Amen.

I am SO HAPPY!!!!

A fairly relaxed Monday

My boss is out of town until Friday. That always keys things down a bit. I was up at 5:00, surprisingly, since I had been up a bit late at the game last night. I had coffee and cigs on the porch in the absolute peace of early morning.

When I got to work, I just didn't feel like doing anything. But of course there were things that had to be done. I didn't do much, though, that didn't have to be done.

This afternoon everyone was all geared up about the snow we're supposed to maybe be getting, but I didn't smell it when I left. I did go by the grocery store, but I went by the Publix downtown to get enchilada sauce. Fortunately I had already gotten my bread and milk yesterday. I was trying to decide what to eat for supper. I have some Mexican veggies in the fridge, but I've decided to make them into enchilada casserole. I didn't really want fast food. I was really craving a Caesar salad, and they had the kits on sale for $1.49. You just can't beat that.

They had a "racial triumph" marathon on TCM last night, and I caught the end of A Patch of Blue. I read the book in high school without ever having heard of it before, and it blew me away. I love Sidney Poitier in the movie. Shelly Winters was great too. After that I saw The History Channel was running their "The Presidents" shows in honor of the inauguration. I was hoping they were running them all in a marathon, which they do sometimes, but they stopped them at 9pm to air a tour of the White House with Laura Bush. It was interesting, but I had to turn it off because I needed to go to sleep. I was feeling croupy in my chest today, and hoping that I was just hoarse after yelling at the game yesterday, but I could use some rest either way.

Crooner has done an about-face for some reason. I don't know if he's figured out that I came to get him from the vets or what, but he's decided he loves me more than ever now. He was all snuggling on the couch tonight, and got in the bed with me too. We went to sleep with him purring. Of course that could just be the allure of flannel sheets in chilly weather. He doesn't have the stank breaf any more, I'm happy to report.

The Super Bowl cometh*

I got up this morning determined to finish those curtains. I evened up the bottom seams first so that the pattern would line up. Plus since that was the easy part, I figured it would raise my morale for finishing up the tops. Since I had ripped the fabric on one, I had to take the top of the other one apart to do them both the same way. I got the first one all fixed, then realized I had turned the seam allowance the wrong way and had to take it all out. In the process ripped the fabric again. The fabric is a fairly thin synthetic and just wasn't getting along with the seam ripper. That meant I had to increase the seam allowance on it to hide the tears. That is OK, but since I had no idea how long the window was, I was trying to keep them as long as possible. I ended up using about an extra 4" of fabric to hide my mistakes. With the usual 2" seam allowance, and doubled, that means I lost 12" of fabric, which I was upset about. But there was nothing to be done.

Then I laid them side by side to compare, and realized that the pattern wasn't matching. I had to run an extra fold in the second curtain so it would match the first when it was done. It took me about three hours to finish them up, and man was I glad to run that last seam!! Which of course promptly puckered. So I had to pick out half of it to fix the pucker, since it was going to be right at the top, at eye level. All that remained was to decide how long to make the valances. I decided I just wasn't going to guestimate it (as I had been told to do) and have the length turn out looking weird. They are too pretty, and I've worked too hard on them. I called James and told him I couldn't finish until he sent me the measurements on the window.

That done, I folded them up and put them aside. I had a lot of stuff to do to get ready for the week since I had been sewing all weekend. A friend called, and came by for a visit, but I had a lot to do, and eventually I had to send him home. I ran errands, straightened up the house a bit, and did laundry. In the process, I had not eaten anything but a pack of Pop-Tarts and a glass of water, so my blood sugar got screwed up. By the time I got home from the grocery store and ate something, I felt pretty bad. But I had to get up for the game.

The playoff game was tonight - the last one, and the one that would determine whether or not the Steelers would go to the Bowl. I decided to take the copycat buffalo (fake) chicken pizzas I make. I took a 5-Hour Energy and headed on out. I stopped by the home on the way and took some chocolate covered cherries to BB. The nurse there was like "Whose jersey do you have on? You better be rooting for the Steelers!" I explained that I had on a Chicago Bears jersey because that was the only football jersey I owned, and that of course I was rooting for the Steelers. Her beaming smile followed me out the door.

The pizzas went over very well. Pretty much everyone ate some, despite the fact that they were all on Atkins for the New Year's diet. Donnie took a bite and hit me, they were so good. And Rick declared them the best pizza he had ever eaten. You can't ask for better than that.

The game was good despite a lot of fumbles, some pretty questionable ref calls, and one guy getting hurt. You never like to see that happen. But the final touch-down by the Steelers was sweet, and they won the game. Kimbley and Laura were suitably jubilant. And it will be an awesome Super Bowl this year since they are so invested in the game.

A day of service which I really just didn't plan

I ate everything that wasn't nailed down today. When I got up pancakes seemed like a good idea for some reason. So I made some and devoured them. Since I was up early, I slept for a bit longer.

It was REALLY cold this morning. I really shouldn't have gone to the flea market, but I just couldn't resist. When I got in the car, the temp said 32. When I got to White Horse, a mile away, it said 27. That's really cold for down here. The rednecks had a lot better sense than I did, and prudently stayed home. There were a few die-hards there, but in general there was nothing much to look at.

I knew that JB and Rick were coming to finish the trees today. I have this puritanical thing where I can't just lay around inside if someone is doing work around me. It makes me feel idle and worthless. So I decided to get to work on James's curtains. He gave me the fabric about a month ago, but it was in the midst of all the holiday stuff, and I really didn't have a chance to do anything on them. I have the LOCK project I need to get going on too, so I really needed to get this smaller job done first. So I got to work.

JB and Rick came. And finished. And left. And still I worked. Curtains aren't that hard. The problem is that James has never sewed a stitch, and things that seen really easy to the uninitiated can be really hard to actually do. First, tailored things are actually harder, because you can hide a lot of mistakes in lace, or ruffles, or lining, or various fal de rals. Second, the fabric he chose was plaid. Geometric patterns are very difficult to work with, because if you are the least bit off, it shows. Third, he told me he couldn't decide which side of the fabric he liked better, so he wanted them to be reversible. That really should have been where I drew the line, because that made everything else exponentially more difficult. I had already refused to do button tabs at the top ( 1. I don't do buttonholes. 2. That makes them look like they came from the JC Penny catalogue). There wasn't enough fabric to just double them. That means every seam and every seam allowance shows. There isn't any place to hide a mistake. Next, he wanted the favored side to be piped with the seam allowance from the other side. Which is fine, but ditto on the no mistakes thing. Basically, that means that what would be the back on normal curtains is the front of these. That also means the seams will show, and my seams are never straight. Lastly, he wanted a reversible attached valance. That isn't terribly hard in and of itself, but I had no measurements on the window to tell me how long to make said valance.

I got to work, and cut the fabric down to size. I lucked out because there was about a 12" drop on the pattern, but I only had to cut off about 4" on each side to make the patterns line up. Then I started sewing. Since the curtains were to be un-lined, I double-turned all the seam allowances, and that went pretty well on the first piece. On the second piece I tried to get fancy and save myself a step, and ended up having to take a seam out because I did it in the wrong order (they had to be done in a certain order for all the seam allowances to be pretty all the way around). When I went to take the seam out, I ripped the fabric. I decided to work on the bottom seam, which was going to be less complicated ( the top seam allowance had to be done backwards for the offset fabric to show when the valance was flipped over). I got the bottom seams done, laid them side by side, and the bottom seam allowances didn't match. Worse, that threw the pattern off, so it didn't match up where the curtains met.

By this time, I had been sewing all day (stopping only to scarf down half a pizza, and burning the &^%$#!! out of my mouth in the process), and was running out of time because I had to get ready to go to Kimbley's birthday party tonight. I was frustrated and tired of looking at them. I went ahead and made some tie-backs from the 4" scraps I cut off earlier to raise my spirits. Making tie-backs is my favorite part of making curtains. Then I got ready and went to dinner. Running late, of course, but I made it on time.

We went to Bonefish Grill on Woodruff. It's a pretty expensive place, and I ordered the wrong thing. I got a mahi mahi piccata that had no lemon in it (hello!), which I just don't get. The drinks were good - but for $7 apiece, they fucking ought to have been. The recommended appetizer I had was wonderful. Some of the people got dessert, and I have to say the creme brulee was excellent. But then it's really hard to screw up creme brulee. I ate everything on the table. I don't know what was going on. I just was ravenous. I ate a salad, half an appetizer, finished Jennifer's soup, my entree, finished JB's calamari (which was excellent), and finished half of Jennifer's creme brulee. I felt like a total pig.

A really bad pic from the restaurant. Kimbley is eating to the left, so she's probably just as glad you can't really see her.

Another bad pic of the other end of the table.

I lucked out as far as seating goes. I got to sit beside Kimbley. Then when Jennifer and Christina came in, Christina sat on my other side. She is as charming as she is lovely. They are both really sweet, and I enjoyed eating dinner with them. Still, the service was incredibly slow, and by the time we had been there for three hours I was really ready to go.

We repaired to Amy and Aaron's place for a game night. I hadn't been there before. We played a really cool video trivia game in between the guys trying to set the deck on fire. It was the boys against the girls, and with one game each Donnie and Mark went home. Aaron and Chris were on a team with me at that point, which meant that I got all the girl questions from after that. But we did well, and ended up coming from behind to deliver a trouncing. Aaron and Chis were very appreciative and supportive. They are really nice guys, both of them. I seem to be making all these straight friends lately. Amy and Aaron were both really nice and hospitable to me, and I enjoyed the visit very much. I'd like to get to know them better.

It was a very nice evening, but I didn't make it to bed until 2:30. I was really glad to hit the sheets.

A productive but expensive day

Since I had to take the cat food and water up before I went to bed last night (Crooner couldn't eat or drink after Midnight), Jinx spent a good portion of the night dancing the Watusi on my back in stiletto claws. Every time I got up, she would run to the cat bowl place, and look at me like "EXCUSE me - there's no FOOD out here!" I had to be up early to drop Crooner at the vet and get to work on time anyway.

I got to work to find that a) my boss has already left the office until next Friday; and b) he didn't clean out his in-box before he left, so rushing to get those write-offs in yesterday was a waste of stress. Oh well. I had a fairly relaxed day today. It's always a lot more quiet when he's on the road.

After work I picked Crooner up and paid the ($280!!) bill, declining to have a biopsy done on the growth they took out of his mouth. I just can't do it right now. I figure for $280 he should have come back looking like the fucking Cheshire Cat, but he just looked like Crooner. Except he wouldn't speak to me. He spent the evening hiding under the bed. I can't say that I blame him. He had been anesthetized, had the teeth cleaned, the gums scraped, a growth removed, and been micro-chipped. It was a rough day for him.

I stopped after getting him and picked up a pizza on the way home. I'm broke, but there was just no way I was eating leftovers on a Friday night.

I got home to find the yard looking pretty good. For my yard. Rick and JB did really nice work, and had cleaned up all the brush. There's only one tree left for them to take down. So yes, $600 is a big chunk of change, but it really needed to be done. That is one less thing I have to worry about. I paid them half the money I owe, and talked and smoked with them for a bit before they left. They are both really nice guys.

I clicked on TCM, watched the end of Watch on the Rhine, and let Bette Davis rip my heart out again over dinner. After that, The Children's Hour came on. I had never seen that one, and wanted to especially since it is so important a movie for gay people. The movie was very good, and it was one of the best things I've seen Shirley McClain do. Audrey Hepburn of course ripped my heart out again with those big doe eyes. James Garner was pretty good too.

I was particularly surprised with how much young Shirley McClain favors Renee Zellweger. The resemblance was just striking. They say that all good-looking people look very similar, or conform more closely to the standard. I guess it's true.

So the movies were very good, but tragic. Feeling that my cinema creds had been bolstered, I went on to bed.

Even more purposin = a long busy day

I was up at 5:30 this morning, so decided since I had the extra time anyway, I would make some coffee and get geared up. Good thing I did.

I got to work and started working like a demon on write-offs, trying to get them in before my boss is gone next week. I was hoping to get them approved before he left, since when he returns the last week of the month I'll have to beg all week. I am way tired of that. I didn't get them all finished though.

I left on my lunch hour to meet Rick and JD at the house. They are going to start working on taking out trees tomorrow. There are some scrub trees, one of which is broken, on the side of the house that really need to be taken out. While they are doing that anyway, I'm having them take out the red buds beside the driveway, since they are diseased and dying, and the purple plum beside my front walk. I had a long debate with myself over that one.

Michael and I had a big fight the day he put that tree out. We had tickets for the Peace Center, and I was trying to finish about a hundred enchiladas. I asked him to go ahead and get ready so I didn't have to worry about that. For some reason (the tree had been in a pot in the back yard for weeks) he decided to take that moment to set it out. And not where I had intended for it to go. It was too close to the house. Plus, I had wanted to put the ashes of my dog Cleo out under the tree, so it would be kind of like a marker for her, and didn't have time to go find the ashes right that moment. But he insisted, and I didn't have time to argue with him. So he set it out way too close to the house. Last year, it dumped slimy plums all over the walk. The squirrels were eating them, but I don't think people can. Anyway, it made a huge mess, and I was tracking all these plums into the house. Plus I kept having to cut it away from the house, it blocked the satellite signal, etc. It just has to go.

So anyway, they're coming to do that tomorrow, and it's costing me $600.00(!!), but the yard service wanted $800+, and since the trees are around power lines, I guess that's as cheap as it's going to get.

I don't seem to be happy if I have any money in my savings account for some reason.

Anyway, I ate lunch at my desk and worked like a demon all afternoon too but still wasn't able to finish write-offs. One of my agencies didn't get my work list to me.

About time to get off work, BB called. I have custody of her while Dick and Eve are at the Shot Show. She needed incontinence pads and Diet Coke. Buying incontinence pads was an experience. I had never done that before. I first tried with the baby diapers, but surprisingly the baby diapers and the adult diapers are on two different sides of the store. That made no sense to me, but whatever. I found all kinds of diapers, but no pads, initially. I eventually found them, and then they didn't have the drinks BB wanted. But I found some that would work. I was standing in line thinking that I was buying the soda and the pads to soak it up with at the same time, and kind of felt the irony there. Then this guy waiting in the line gave me an impromptu lecture on the evils of aspartame. I told him this was for my 92 year old grandmother in the nursing home, and if that's what she wanted I was going to get it for her. I took it all over there. She was very sweet about thanking me.

By this time I was ravenous. I went to the China Buffet and ate 87 pounds of food before going home to collapse. I didn't feel so great, and I have to be up early in the morning to take Crooner to the vet. He gets his teeth done tomorrow.

Purposin' after work

After doing incredible amounts of work today, I checked out our new work out facility at the office before I left. It is time. I am in terrible shape and need to lose some weight. Since it is after the first of the year, and a Wednesday, I figured there would be a bunch of people up there, but surprisingly the place was deserted. I need to go by HR tomorrow to sign the waivers for the company, but it is way past time for me to Shift My Ass.

I realized this morning that it was about time to get my oil changed, so I stopped and did that at a place near the office on the way out. They close at 6pm, and I pissed them off by getting there just before they closed, and apparently it was some kind of problem that I paid with a debit card, but I got it done. On the way out I filled up with gas. I picked my prescriptions up from the pharmacy, or one of them anyway. The insurance company has decided I'm running a racket or something on hay fever medicine and that I can't have my refill until next week. It's pissy, but I guess some people would be thrilled to have pissy insurance to deal with. I went by the grocery store and picked up odds and ends after that.

I'm trying to get stuff done up since I have a fairly busy weekend coming up. Kimbley's birthday is Monday, but they are doing her birthday dinner on Saturday, and the next playoff game for the Steelers is on Sunday. I'm thinking I will take a pizza this week since there was so much dip left over last week.

A lazy evening*

I didn't really feel like doing much tonight, so I didn't.

Jerimiah came by for a bit. It had been a while since I've seen him, but despite protestations, he didn't seem inclined to stay and visit. I'm thinking at this point that he really comes over here for one reason. He is a purty thing, but he's too young for me anyway, so I guess its just as well.

I have been craving some companionship though. I love my friends, but I really am kind of tired of being the 5th wheel or the odd one out all the time. It would be nice to have someone to have dinner with, or watch movies on the sofa. But then I guess that's what everyone wants.

A decent Monday

Work was work. I did manage to start scaling some of the "things to scan" pile on my desk today. I also worked some on that (*&^&%#!! insurance stuff. Today was our "holiday luncheon" at work. The company decided not to have the holiday parties this year, citing the expenditure, so the departments were given a set amount of funds to have a meal for their employees. My department chose to have barbecue. That means I get a plate of beans and cole slaw. Meh. I'm used to it. And I did have a packed lunch there if I wanted it. I wish I was like Robert, and the smell of the barbecue made me sick. I thought it smelled delicious. Terry, who sits behind me, was trying to talk me into eating some of it. I gave it some serious thought, but didn't. They also had little banana pudding cups that were full of chemicals, but tasty. Terry was telling me how glad she was that they didn't have "big chunks of banana" in it. She likes the banana flavoring better than real bananas. Typical. God forbid there should be any vegetable or fruit in a meal - particularly a celebratory meal.

When I got home I decided to cook since I needed lunches for the rest of the week. I was going to make the sour cream stuff, but I had a pound of cream cheese dip left from the game, so I just melted that into a bechemel sauce to go on my pasta. I had cooked fake chicken with onions and mushroom to go into it too, and folded in steamed green peas when I got done. It turned out pretty good, but I didn't salt it enough. It could have used some more tomatoes and garlic for flavoring too. But for using up leftover dip, it was pretty damn good.

I listened to Return of the Jedi with half an ear while I was cooking.

Fran called while I was cleaning up, which I discourage. But I talked to her for a bit about a problem she's having with some of our accounts anyway. She swore not to make a habit of using my personal cell number.

An excessively butch day

Of course, I didn't know it was going to be at first.

After the party last night, I got a rather slow start. It was wet outside from all the rain last night (how we can be on a damn drought status is beyond me, my ass is mildewing), and so thoughts of the flea market were less than inviting. There probably wouldn't be anyone there anyway. So I signed on, made a cup of coffee, and worked on the blog for a bit. I talked to Robert on the phone. I put a load of laundry in. The next thing I knew, it was 11:30, and I was supposed to be at Kimbley and Laura's at 4. With dip. Or something.

I started making calls to determine what to bring, where to bring it, etc. I called Miss Kat for her lovely cream cheese dip recipe. Lately, my criterion for any recipe is that it must start with a pound of cream cheese. Plus I just couldn't resist making dip that would look great in one of my Depression Glass bowls. I am now apparently following Justin's model and making food that best fits my attractive dishes. I got cleaned up and went to the store. I was running a bit behind on time from where I wanted to be, but it was OK if I wasn't there for the kickoff.

Then the problems started.

When I took a shower, I noticed the water was tepid. I decided it was from just having washed dishes, and maybe the water heater was still heating water back up. By the time I got back from the store and started on dip, the water wasn't any hotter. I decided to give it more time. I was in denial at this point. I have a quick-recovery water heater, and never have tepid water for long.

Then my dip wouldn't set up. My fault, I hadn't followed the recipe correctly. I had to go back to the store. It's now 3:30pm. As I'm running into the BiLo, I run into Kimberly and Danny, whom I haven't seen in months. I had to just say hi and bye and run off.

I got back to the house, and started trying to fix the dip. I finally got it semi-acceptable as to texture, plated, and garnished. Yeah I know. Not exactly registering on the Richter Scale for masculinity at this point.

My football dip, in a Windsor Diamond pink "boat"-shaped bowl. As soon as I saw this bowl, I thought "Hmmmmm, Superbowl party..."

By this time, I could deny it no longer. The &^%$#@!! pilot light was out on the water heater again. I've been down this road before. This water heater seems to have issues with keeping the pilot light lit for some reason. The last time it was out I didn't know what was wrong. I called a plumber, who charged me $110.00(!!) to come out and light it. I knew at the time I needed to get online and figure out how to do that, but it's one of those things you just put off. So now I was in the soup.

Cursing enough to surely earn me a few more years in purgatory at the very least, I went out into the backyard with the tools and started crawling around in the mud. I have an outside water heater, in a little hut next to my back door. It seemed like a great space-saving idea for a smaller house when I bought the house. I called Donnie, since he used to work for a bathroom and lighting placed, but no dice. I got online and found lovely yet completely un-helpful advertisements for self-lighting pilot lights.

Eventually, I got the cabinet apart and found the instructions helpfully printed on the side of the water heater. I got it re-lit. But by the time I got the cabinet back together and got to the party I was an hour late. But it was OK. Football games last forever.

Left to right: Kimbley James, Matt, and Rick (his head is just above the lamp) watching the game. Kimbely and Laura have a great party house.

Same order, but JB is in the foreground.

We all had a great time watching the game. They have outside speakers set up on their patio, and you can see the TV through the window, so even when you're outside you don't miss anything.

I'm not usually a huge sports person, but watching the game with other people (especially other people who can explain the parts I don't understand) makes it a lot more fun. I usually only watch the Superbowl. The Steelers may make it to the bowl this year. This was a playoff game, and there is another one next weekend, which I am also invited to watch. Apparently the game next weekend is going to be a real knuckle-biter. The Steelers have beaten that team twice, but with difficulty, and they are reportedly playing very well right now. Anyway, it should be a good game to watch.

With all this football and home repair, I sure did feel butch today. I drank beer while I watched the game too. Football and beer just kind of go together. Plus Kimbely and Laura were trying to clean out the beer since they start back on Atkins tomorrow. They kind of cleaned out their fridge of all the frozen snack-type game food today.

So the game wound up around 8. And I headed on home, where thankfully I had hot water. I cleaned up the cream cheese slung all over the kitchen and turned in. It's a school night.

Dan'l and Jim's Solstice Party*

I got up this morning and had Indian red tea, which I had been looking forward to for a couple of days. I then went to the flea market, excited that I had a bit of room cleared out from the glass re-org this week. Because I went primed to find something, of course I didn't. Since I struck out at White Horse, I went on down to Anderson. There was little Depression Glass, but lots of depression-era cookware, my secondary thing. I found two Glasbake casserole dishes, one a 1.5 quart in excellent condition that I bought from a very nice Mennonite lady for $3. The other probably 1 quart (I don't have a book on the kitchenware) that was very cute. It had a chip on one handle, but I only paid $2 for it. I rejected two Sapphire Blue Fire King pie plates (one a pie plate/casserole lid) just because I had them already.

Glasbake 1.5 quart casserole by McKee Glass, circa 1917-1953

By the time I got home from the flea market, I was starving. I ate some lunch and fooled around on the computer for a while, doing a fairly extensive husband search for the tri-state area on Bear411. No dice. I took a wee nappie.

Eventually I decided I had procrastinated long enough, and started getting ready. I was going to take another artichoke dip to the party tonight, and hadn't even gotten the stuff from the store. It was 4pm, and I was supposed to be ready at 6. About the time I started panicking, an unexpected friend showed up for an impromptu visit. While a very pleasant interlude, it put me even further behind the 8-ball on time.

After he left, I literally ran through the grocery store, ran home, and jumped in the shower. I put my dip together, straightened up the house, and got ready in an hour and seven minutes. Russ and Billy were then 30 minutes late picking me up. But at least I was ready when they got here.

We got to the party and I threw the dip in the oven and commenced to socialize. All my favorites were there. Karen and I hung out for a bit. I managed to call her husband by the wrong name, despite knowing them for years. Names are just my bane. Kimbely and Laura were there. Of course I adore them. It's always good to see Dan'l and Jim, but they were too busy hosting to spend much time talking to any one person.

The view from one corner of the porch. I'm talking to Karen. The gorgeous Scot, Simon, is holding forth with his back to me, which I just really didn't mind a bit.

I eventually went inside and took the dip out of the oven. I was a bit worried that it wouldn't be eaten. It was going slowly at first, and it came out a bit late in the party. Not to worry. When I went to pick up my dish before we left, it was clean. I asked Jim if they had thrown the rest away, and he told me that it had been devoured. Three different people asked me for the recipe. Donnie took one bite, stomped like Mr Ed, picked up a frying pan, swung it at me, and yelled "FUCK YOU!" LOL

I wandered back out to the cool people section, and Nicole joined me n the porch swing. We were swinging, chatting, and generally just having a lovely time when it happened. THE FREAKING SWING BROKE! Other than being startled and embarrassed half to death though, no damage was done. Except to the swing. And Nicole's nerves. Thank goodness it broke on Nicole's side and not mine!

The broken swing. Note the left side of the swing (the right in this picture) is the one on the ground.

The offending eye-bolt, obligingly held for the camera by the beloved and talented Laura. Apparently this bolt just pulled out of the rafter it was screwed into.

In all seriousness, though, the swing should have been eye-bolted through a rafter with a nut and washer on the other side. It's a wonder it stayed in as long as it did. Nicole, bless her heart, was mortified. Billy didn't help. When Nicole said "That swing is supposed to hold a lot of weight!" Billy quipped, "It did... For a while." He is so hateful. I love him.

Russ on the porch as the party was winding down.

The party started winding down then. It was as if everyone knew the crash of the porch swing was the climax. Plus it was getting late and the party had started at 5pm. People were ready to go. We left about quarter after 12.

For some reason though, Russ and I had the munchies, despite all the food we had eaten at the party. He started talking about waffles, and then all I could think about was waffles. We detoured into the Awful Waffle for a pecan waffle, extra crispy.

They have a dollar menu now at the Waffle House!! Who knew?

My extra-crispy pecan waffle, about a minute after it hit the table.

My extra-crispy pecan waffle about 5 minutes after it hit the table.

I hadn't wanted to leave the party really when we left. I had double-pantsed in expectation of the cold weather, and was quite happy and toasty on the porch, but Russ and Billy were freezing. I had also been in the midst of a 5-hour energy that hadn't yet worn off. But 5 minutes after opening my jaws like a yawning anaconda and shoving an entire pecan waffle down my gullet, all I could think about was my comfy bed. We rode the rest of the way home in drowsy silence through the drizzly, misty streets. I was really glad I wasn't driving. I would have had a hard time keeping my eyes open, much less keeping alert. I'm like a puppy. Get my tummy full, and I'm ready for the zzzzz's.