Red Nose

Ten Things I've Done This Week

Here's a random sampling of what I've been up to in the last week.

1. I discovered Instagram. This is the result of seeing a reference to it on a forum I frequent, and now voila! I have an account and I've shared pictures and I've followed friends and friends have followed me. Ah, the wonders of the iPhone! (On the other hand, I signed up for Pinterest a while ago, but have yet to create a single pinboard. Someday I will sit down and make an effort to figure it out.)

2. I was once again struck with the variety of music we own. Here's a shot (one my Instagrams!) that shows a tiny bit of the entire collection.

The CDs that are facing out are: Frank Zappa, Broadway the Hard Way; Charles Mingus, Pithecanthropus Erectus; Jerry Garcia, Garcia; Yma Sumac, Mambo!; Van Morrison, Days Like This; Mountain, Twin Peaks; Herbie Hancock, Headhunters; Roy Orbison, Greatest Hits; Rick James, The Ultimate Collection. The top shelf, which you can't see here, features Hildegard of Bingen, The Beatles, and Steeleye Span. We rock!

3. I undecorated, putting our wee tree back in its box until next year, although we might go back to a real tree next year. Then again, that's what I said last year and the year before that!

4. I made Snickerdoodles.

5. Joe and I went to the Caps game last Friday night. We have a favorite beer vendor, our buddy Ron. He's a big old teddy bear of a man who always gives me a big old hug when he sees me. I always enjoy seeing Ron; I think he's a good luck charm.

6. I had my performance review. I fully met expectations. The more I go through this yearly exercise, the more I think it's a huge crock of crap.

7. I renewed my driver's license. I got the renewal notice in November and promptly ignored it. Late last week I realized with a start that I had been ignoring it, and it was going to expire on my birthday, and I couldn't get there on a weekday, and the MVA was closed today for the holiday, and that left Saturday. It was as crowded and boring and time consuming as I thought it would be, but I had my iPhone (Angry Birds! Scrabble! Collapse!) and my Kindle, so it wasn't a total loss. I won't have to do that again for five years!

8. I watched a lot of football and hockey. At least I won't have worry about having to choose between the Saints and the Packers. Go Ravens!!

9. Joe and I went to eat at a new place to us: Comet Ping Pong. It has really really really good pizza! My only quibble is that the restrooms are hard to spot -- there are no signs on them and you kinda have to know where they are. The hostess actually showed me, so I filed that info away for the next time we go. We are splurging for our birthdays this coming week and going to a very fancy DC joint called Birch and Barley for dinner. Joe is looking forward to the vast array of artisanal beers; I am looking forward to dessert.

10. I finally beat Level 11 of the Smugglers' Plane game of Angry Birds Rio. Three stars in each level, and only a few consultations with the walkthroughs online! I'm so proud.

Ten Things About The Hurricane

So the hurricane happened; here are ten things about it.

1. SonnyeBoy came home! If there was anything good about having a hurricane, that was it! He had texted us that he would likely show up on Friday, but he surprised us and showed up on Thursday. When he knocked on the door Thursday evening, Joe said, "Oh, it's probably just someone selling something. Don't answer it." So naturally I answered it, and it was SonnyeBoy!

2. We got periodic updates on the Ocean City conditions from my nephew, who rode out the storm. The ocean came all the way up to the dune line, but did not breach it. Whew!

3. Joe got let out of work at 5:00. He reported that the mall was packed the entire day and that people actually complained when the store closed early. Because hello, HURRICANE! What is wrong with people???

4. We ran out of milk.

5. The power went out at 3:17 am Sunday morning, during the worst of the storm. (The power came back on at about 3:30 this morning.)

6. Luckily, we had several working flashlights and a battery-powered radio. And a candle for the bathroom.

7. It's annoying to read in the dark with a flashlight. How come it was exciting and fun when I was a kid?

8. The extent of our hurricane preparations were to buy batteries for the battery-powered radio and stock up on groceries (except for milk).

9. Because the power was out in our neighborhood, we headed out for lunch. Once we got back, SonnyeBoy packed up his clothes and his cat and headed home to Ocean City. After he left, Joe and I went back out to get some dinner. Then we forgot to get milk.

10. We suffered no real damage, just a lot of leaves down in the yard. We'll get a report on the Ocean City house soon; but I think we dodged a bullet there too.

Ten Memories About My Pop

Today is my Pop's birthday -- he would be 103 years old if he were alive.

My father was funny, mean, loving, alcoholic, smart, reserved, generous... I guess you could say he was complex.

I have good and bad memories of him, but since it's his birthday today, I'll share ten good ones:

• He used to sing to my younger sister and me -- prison songs and old blues, mostly.
• He told us stories too. Some were old folk tales like "The Three Billy Goats Gruff". Some he made up, like "The Chocolate Mouse, the Vanilla Mouse, and the Peppermint Mouse" and "Willoughby and the Fox". I suppose he might not have made them up, but I've never seen any versions of them.

Pop as a skinny young man. Dig the sexy bathing suit!

• He quoted extensively from W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, and Marx Brothers movies. I never knew it until I actually saw the movies and heard my Pop's lines coming out of their mouths.
• He loved TV Westerns, especially Bonanza and Gunsmoke. He'd always let us watch The Wonderful World of Disney, but the TV was his come 9:00 Sunday night.

Pop in our back yard, probably in the early 50s

• He rooted for the Washington Senators and the Redskins. He also liked golf (he hit his first hole in one when he was in his 70s!), bowling, and boxing; but he didn't care about basketball at all.
• He invented a leprechaun, Old Hickory, who lived under the kitchen table and was always getting into some kind of mischief.

Pop loved to surf fish -- here he is with the catch of the day

• He taught me to parallel park the day of my driving test. He also gave me a tire iron for Christmas, because he was sick of having to change my flat tires with the lousy jackhandle that came with the car.
• He took us fishing every year at the beach. He'd rent a motoboat and we'd go out into the bay, drop our hand lines into the water, and wait. One year he didn't put any sunscreen on his legs and the tops of his thighs got terribly sunburned. That night, he went to put some Solarcaine spray on the sunburn, but he grabbed my mom's hairspray instead.Ouch! His thighs turned purple from him having to scrub the lacquer off. From then on, he said he had the bee's knees.

Here's Pop on our patio, probably in the 70s. How about those legs? Or the dress shoes and socks with shorts?

• When I was angsting over whether to go off to the circus (my mother was dreadfully opposed to it), he said, "You should go. You can always come home." So I did go, and then I did come home.
• He paid for my private high school education, my college education, my first car, my wedding, and the closing costs on our first condo.

Happy birthday, Pop!

 

 

Ten Things About A Day 31 Years Ago

Joe and I tied the knot 31 years ago today! Here are ten things about that day.

1. It was an absolutely beautiful June day -- warm, sunny, and dry, just like my mom ordered.

2. The same priest who baptized me performed our wedding Mass.

3. We got married in this church.

4. The Silo Inn, where we had our wedding reception, was once called Martin's Dairy. My Pop would drive us out there (in the middle of nowhere!) for ice cream on summer Sunday afternoons. Now it's a Roots organic market.

5. Our wedding cake was chocolate. Mom was horrified!

6. My Mom decided that the "theme" of the wedding was "A Country Wedding." My theme was "Fun."

7. Our MC's name was Moe. He wore a brown polyester tux and kept the drinks flowing.

8. The wedding was at 10:00 am, because there was another wedding scheduled for 2:00 pm. This schedule caused some consternation among some of our guests, but when they realized that the church was not air conditioned, they got over it.

9. I had this idea that Pop and I would walk down the aisle in a slow and stately manner wherein I would nod and smile at the assembled throng of wedding guests. Nope.

10. My dress was cotton eyelet, simple and elegant. I avoided the cream puffs of the era. Joe's tux was the traditional morning suit, simple and elegant. He avoided the polyester pastels of the era. Whew!

The Past Week in Ten Bullet Points

Hey there. It's been a long week. Let me sum up in my favorite form, the bulleted list.

• I went to a dinner for Joe, who made the President's Club at his retail establishment. The management treated all of the honorees (and a few assorted other folks and management sorts) to dinner at Olive Garden. The honorees also got a goody bag with a new name tag, business cards, and a certificate for a day off. Yay Joe! Of course, then the management went and started cutting associates' hours. Pushme, pullyou; so it goes.


• Hockey. Oh, hockey! My Caps lost their second round series. I was sad, because it's another series of broken dreams, and yet not too sad, because I saved a couple hundred bucks on playoff tickets. Then the Flyers got swept by the Bruins, which made me feel marginally better.


• I watched Friday Night Lights, which continues to be my favorite show on television. Julie, Julie, Julie! You fell for that TA's tired old "I don't feel married" line!! This cannot end well. On the other hand, Mindy! You go!!


• I made another batch of pralines, which turned out much better this time. As part of my rigorous culinary quality control process, I ate several. I continue to test them to ensure that they don't suddenly go bad. So far, so good.


• I also made a loaf of Sally Lunn bread. It did not rise very much at all -- I think I may have killed off the yeast with too-hot water -- but it is quite tasty nonetheless. I'm thinking it would make a quite yummy French toast.


• I caught up with Camelot and the Borgias, and continued watching Game of Thrones. I am having a lot of fun with these costume dramas. I think someone should do a mashup of all three -- Game of Borgelot? Camethronegias? Hmm?


• I got up 5:30 this morning to make an 8:30 meeting at a different building. I did this because we all got an email stating that "some people" had commented to senior management that early meetings were a hardship because of commutes and so on -- but that "the expectation" was that we would be on time. In other words, "Tough! Suck it up!" so I sucked it up and got to the meeting over a half-hour early, only to find that the meeting had been delayed until 9:00. The things I do for these people! Geez! So I had a bagel.


• Angry Birds. Lots of Angry Birds.


• I had a lovely Mother's Day. Joe gave me a very sweet card. After all, he was instrumental in making me a mother! We went out for breakfast, and the restaurant served a lovely chocolate-dipped strawberry to all of the mothers. We saw Thor in the afternoon. SonnyeBoy called later in the day, and that made my Mother's Day pretty much perfect.


• So, yeah -- we saw Thor. It was very entertaining and I liked it a lot! I have decided that Chris Hemsworth shall play Sidewall Sam in the movie version of Girl Clown. Heh. (I'm sorry, every time I say or write Thor, I'm reminded of the old joke about the orgy of the gods. The gods gather and have this big huge orgy that goes on for days. Finally, three days in, Thor shows up. Everyone's passed out from all the orgying and ignores him. He gets a little bent out of shape at this and hollers "Wake up, you all! I'm Thor!" And one of the lesser goddesses replies, "You're Thor? I'm so thor I can't pith!" Ba da BING!)

 

Ten Good Things

I've been feeling a little down in the dumps over the work situation, partly because I'm no longer a manager in the New World of Work. It's not really a demotion because there's no loss of grade or pay, but it feels a little demotion-ish.

So I thought I better think of some good things. Here are ten.

1. My final performance review with my boss was very good. In the New World of Work, my boss is taking on a new assignment, so I guess she's really my former boss. I got a bit emotional and I HATE getting emo at work, but I held it together until the very end when we gave each other a hug. Damn. But it was still good.

2. This recipe for chocolate sauce sounds really good and pretty easy. I am going to buy some good vanilla ice cream this weekend and pour this sauce over it.

3. There was a promise of spring in the air today, despite freezing rain earlier in the week and colder temperatures forecast for the weekend. Spring is very good, very good indeed.

4. Hugs. Hugs are good.

5. Watching A Hard Day's Night and remembering how much fun it was to see it for the first time, in Ocean City, when I was 12. My Pop let me and my sister go see it instead of riding the rides on the Boardwalk. What an adventure! So good!

6. The Ovie the Spy commercial for SportsCenter is all kinds of good. Look! He's even wearing his skates!

7. Jon Stewart is extra-special good, especially when he calls out Fox News.

8. Sugar cookies. Good. Yes.

9. You know that time when you're sort of waking up and you're really, really comfortable and perfectly warm? It's nice, and also? Good.

10. Life. Life is good.

What I Would Do

This morning on the radio I heard about the Winklevoss twins, who sued Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their idea and turning it into Facebook. They were awarded $65 million in cash and stock, and now they're saying "Oh no, that's not enough."

Can I tell ya something? If a judge handed me that kind of cash, I would say "Thank you very much" and maybe tear up a little bit.

Then I would take a one hundred dollar bill and wipe my teary eyes with it.

Other things I would do with hundred dollar bills?

I would hire a minion to walk in front of me strewing them like rose petals.

I would use them as tissues to blot the shine from my glowing cheeks.

I would fold them into interesting origami shapes.

I would light Joe's cigars with them.

I would weave them into nice placemats.

I would roll one up and tuck it jauntily behind my ear.

I would floss my teeth with them.

I would use them as coasters.

And finally? I would fill up my bathtub with them and lie in the money.

Lie. In. The. Money.

Guilty As Charged

So... that last post kinda took a turn, didn't it? Sorry about that. Let me lighten the mood and address today's prompt for Holidailies: Guilty Pleasures.

Ah, yes! I have a whole collection of guilty pleasures. In fact, I keep them all in a curio cabinet; when I feel the urge to indulge, I simply open the cabinet and select one to polish up.

Here are ten guilty pleasures:

1. Hershey bars, preferably with almonds. I know! Hershey bars are practically not chocolate at all! They are pedestrian and mass produced and waxy and I. LOVE. THEM.
2. The ballroom dancing competitions on PBS. NOT the ersatz ballroom dancing of Dancing with the Stars -- the real thing. These people are serious. My God, I swear they could hold a full martini glass and never spill a drop, even during the Quickstep.
3. Historical dramas (or hysterical dramas, as we like to call them). You know... The Tudors, The Pillars of the Earth, The Other Boleyn Girl -- that kinda crap. I eat it up with a spoon.
4. A good hockey fight. Ohhhh yeeeah.
5. Hot dogs. (With some bright yellow mustard, please!)
6. Tabatha's Salon Takeover. She is such a bitch, but she is always right!
7. Every Hammer Dracula movie with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
8. Sitting on my ass watching TV all damn day.
9. Oh God, disco music. (I have just lost every shred of hippie cred that I ever had.)
10. Going braless. It's unseemly, but boy is it comfy. (For me, anyway!)

Thirty Days of Truth 5

Day 5: Something You Hope to Do in Your Life

Oh, there are so many things! Fly to the moon on gossamer wings...

Okay, here are ten things I would like to do in my life, in no particular order:

• Hold a grandchild or two (no pressure, SonnyeBoy, take your time).
• Spend Christmas at the Awahnee Hotel in Yosemite.
• See the Capitals raise the Stanley Cup.
• Buy the world a Coke.
• Live at the beach.
• Finish and publish The Sequel.
• Go to Ireland for a good long vacation.
• See the Northern Lights again.
• Get a good night's sleep for the rest of my life.
• Retire.

Well, there's a beef stew in the crockpot. I'd best go give it a stir.

Ten Things That Make For A Wonderful Weekend

There's so much about this weekend that was wonderful, I'll simply list them out.

1. The weather has been perfect. Cool nights, warm days, cloudless skies of brilliant blue -- I could not have ordered better.

2. Joe had three days off in a row -- Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It's really a treat to have him with me all weekend.

3. I slept way late Saturday morning, quite deliberately. I finally woke to the aroma of fresh coffee -- nothin' better than that!

4. Except, maybe, coming downstairs to find a plate of pancakes all made and waiting for me.

5. You know, I never thought I'd ever list grocery shopping as something wonderful, but we have a brandy new Harris Teeter close to us and it is, in a word, wonderful, at least as far as grocery stores go.

6. Although my Caps stunk up the ice in the season opener Friday night in Atlanta, they made up for it in the home opener Saturday night by putting the smackdown on the Devils and winning 7-2. Thanks boys!

7. SonnyeBoy celebrated his 29th birthday on Saturday. He sent me the following text message: What were you doing 29 years ago at this time? And I responded: Counting your fingers and toes after I ALMOST DIED. Hey, I have to keep the guilt alive, don't I?

8. I made Mom's chocolate chip cookies and only burned one dozen out of five! For me, that spells success! And yes, I did lick the beaters.

9. The Redskins beat the Packers in overtime! For once, we came back to win instead of our opponent coming back to win. We now have a winning record. (Will it continue? Time will tell.) Hail!

10. I saved the best for last. My good friend, the lovely and talented Bev, was in town for the weekend to attend a wedding. Her husband and his siblings hosted a get-together for their DC-area friends at a local sports bar/seafood house. It was so much fun! I have followed Bev since I started journaling back in 2002; she had already been doing daily entries for several years. But we started conversing through guestbooks and comments and realized that we were kindred spirits. We finally met in person in 2005 and it was like we'd already known each other for years. Her husband Walt is a peach; the rest of the folks were friendly and fun; suffice it to say that it was the perfect end to a perfect weekend.

Onward to the workweek!