Driving home from Mamma Lucia's Italian restaurant tonight, we passed one of last open fields in this part of the county. It was almost full dark, a fingernail moon glowing in the dark blue sky, the humidity hanging almost visibly in the air, still hot even at nine o'clock. Rising from the long grass in the field were hundreds of lightning bugs, pricking the darkness with pinpoints of light. The sight brought back a vivid... Read more →
It's Friday; how about doing Friday's Feast? Okay! Appetizer What's the funniest dream you can remember having? Hmm. Funny ha-ha or funny peculiar? Most of mine are funny peculiar, in that they involve me getting stuck in very odd circumstances. In these dreams, I generally end up thinking "This must be a dream" -- and then I wake up and have to pee. Soup If you were a dog, what breed would you be, and... Read more →
I spent yesterday in Chicago at a meeting. Yeah. Flew out of Baltimore yesterday morning, walked the obligatory five miles in O'Hare plus the additional 5,000 miles to the CTA station, took the CTA into the Loop, walked eight blocks in the rain, attended the meeting, walked five blocks back to the station, took the CTA back to O'Hare, walked the 5,005 miles to my gate, pondered, ate a salad in the food court, read... Read more →
I've been having a lot of trouble with my knee lately -- a deep, constant aching. It's not horrible pain and doesn't interfere with my walking, but it hurts enough to be on my mind all the time. After three weeks of putting up with it, I went to the doctor (a miracle!). He poked and prodded and bent and unbent and measured and observed and decided it could be either: a tear in the... Read more →
Previously on The Saga of the Unpaid Electric Bill... Your intrepid heroine gets the shocking (heh) news that the juice is about to dry up, navigates the dangerous voice mail maze, extends the due date for great turning off of the electricity, registers on the Electric Company web site, and valiantly attempts to sign up for online bill payment. Right? Right. Okay then. I thought I'd try to sign up for online bill payment one... Read more →
Well. I started the day by casually opening the mail from the electric company that's been sitting on the kitchen table for three days only to find that what I thought was going to be a routine budget billing advertisement was, in actuality, a Turn-Off Notice. As in, we are turning off your electricity because you have not paid your bill. Gave me quite a turn, it did, because, dammit, I paid the goddamn bill.... Read more →
I drive by the headquarters for Discovery Communications every day -- this week, I noticed that something new has been added. I saw the tail fin first, then the side fins, and sure enough, there was Mr. Bitey's scary head sticking out of the back of the building. Sure enough -- Shark Week is coming up on the Discovery Channel, so what better way to advertise it than to have a big old great white... Read more →
You know, I can really do without these goddamn menopausal mood swings. I mean, I had a rather productive day, all things considered. But on the way home I descended into a funk -- which I am totally pinning on menopause despite my regimen of horse pee hormones -- that started when I dropped a nickel down the elevator shaft in the garage and lasted until I finally broke through the traffic jams and Louis... Read more →
I hope their road-building skills are better than their spelling skills. Read more →
Yesterday I gave a presentation to a group of folks from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. In case you don't feel like following the link, the network is an agency of the Treasury Department that combats crimes like money laundering and terrorist financing. Pretty heavy stuff, eh? And I, the former circus clown, got to tell them about teamwork. Yes! It was so. cool. And I don't use random periods lightly, so please believe me... Read more →