| Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 |
| 11:58 am |
natural gas LOL??? go figure
Maybe I'm just in a silly mood. Maybe it is exhaustion from touching up gardens and planting for 2 1/2 days. But, I'm laughing at a news article about the possibility of drilling for natural gas in upstate New York. Not that the subject matter is funny (I'm not THAT far gone) but the process to get it out of the ground is called fracking. Now imagine a longish article with quotes from the governor, environmentalists and geologists but think of fracking as the Battlestar Galatica curse word and you can get a sense of my amusement. For anyone who cares seriously about the subject there is a shale formation under New York, Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania that might hold 1,300 trillion cubic feet of natural gas (currently 20 trillion cubic feet are produced in the US to give scale here). On the gardening topic, I just unearthed a garden that was covered in a ton of leaves that had blown in over it. Every once in awhile I get the urge to plant things there. Every time I do I either underestimate how shady it is and/or the deer eat it. I'm hoping I'm smarter on what to plant but I can't shake the feeling that I've laid out a deer buffet tastefully decorated with pine bark. They lasted overnight in the driveway so maybe, just maybe. |
| Friday, July 31st, 2009 |
| 3:14 am |
my brain... give me back my brain
So, I felt like unwinding with some TV tonight and A was doing robot stuff so I didn't want to watch anything recorded without him. I felt the best thing on was A&E Biography on Guns and Roses. Whatever; it didn't take too many brain cells. Then they did a special on Red Hot Chili Peppers and they were such truly screwed up individuals that I was fascinated. Then they did Nirvana. I set a recording so I could go to bed but I *couldn't* stop. It was a great episode as well. Now it is 3 AM. I've hit that sweet spot where I'm not tired. At 4:00 they have an episode on Jon Stewart. D$%#@* you A&E!!!!! So if someone asks me what I did for my birthday (before our date tonight) I'll have to sigh and say A&E Biography. I'm such a geek. |
| Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 |
| 11:59 am |
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| Saturday, June 27th, 2009 |
| 12:39 am |
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| Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 |
| 10:21 pm |
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| Saturday, June 13th, 2009 |
| 9:00 am |
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| Monday, June 1st, 2009 |
| 10:15 pm |
Amazon has groceries... evil... but so good
I still remember the first time I shopped for books at Amazon. It was like stepping into the the best library ever but oh so much more convenient. I went into this mellow joy of "look! they have that, too!" It was a shopping daze that hit something primordial in me. Then I choked when I saw the price of what was in my cart. I just had a similar experience. Now they sell groceries. Groceries are the one thing I let myself really splurge on right now. After all, it is cheaper than eating out, right? And it's not stuff that will sit there, it is food that my family will eat and make us happy. Except Amazon sells things in Costco quantities. I really limit myself going to Costco because I'm an impulse shopper. But, I just did it again. For instance, I've been trying to add seeds and bran into my diet. I'm bored with wheat bran and flax seeds. I just bought 5 pounds of hemp seeds. FIVE POUNDS. Seeds are dense, right? At least I'm Amazon Prime so the shipping will be free. Sigh. What have I done? Anyone want Eggo's? I think I have 12 boxes coming. I bet this will stop being William's favorite food. I can't wait to see what shows up in the mail. |
| Monday, May 4th, 2009 |
| 9:43 am |
coffee with a conscience
A coffee roaster in Brattleboro, VT that I love is offering coffee from a company in Rwanda that was created after the genocide. I figure it is a way to really help support the rebuilding of that country. They also say it tastes fabulous. More here http://www.mochajoes.com/roasters/news. They say it tastes great and I've never been disappointed when they give a rave review. It's not a bargain, though. |
| Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 |
| 8:47 pm |
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| Monday, March 23rd, 2009 |
| 3:38 pm |
Party with the big rat!
So, we decided to do a birthday party for William at Chuck E. Cheese yesterday. Some people thought I had taken leave of my senses. I wanted him to have a party with his friends before he heads off to a new school and the kids LOVED it. It was OK during the party portion but we stayed too long. By the time we left I was drained down to the essence of my being. Which led me to a theory. What if the Chuck was founded by soul sucking vampires? It is the perfect cover. Parents think it is just the loud noises and bright lights that bring them to their knees. The kids get hyped up and give off energy like light bulbs. The parents take no notice when they nap longer than usual because they know they ran around like crazy. Hey, you never know. If nothing else it could be the premise of a short story. |
| Friday, February 6th, 2009 |
| 6:00 pm |
sometimes you just shouldn't look
So, my niece and her new husband moved in to our house recently. They are immigrating from the UK. Since Steve doesn't have a work permit, he is going to fix things around our house for cash. I figured he should start in the master bathroom which we haven't been using because we knew it was leaking. I had ripped open the ceiling in the room below and run the water so I knew there was no plumbing issue. I figured it was a matter of replacing a couple of broken tiles and re-caulking the shower edge. ( Foolish, foolish me )The good news is that I won't have to stare at 50s yellow (which is really pea soup colored) any more. The bad news is was one of the only rooms we updated and completely finished and this is going to suck up money I was going to use to start up a home based business. The really, really good news is I have a very nice undocumented worker helping us out because otherwise I can not imagine how much it would cost to gut a bathroom. Ah, the joys of home ownership... the Great American Joke... er, I mean Dream. |
| Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 |
| 11:15 pm |
Freaky car things
Wednesday when I was driving back from William's school I heard what I thought was my exhaust pipe breaking very near the manifold. I had to drive him to school two more times while driving what sounded like I was driving a lawn mower. Very embarrassing. Particularly after I either startled my neighbor or her dog while I was driving up my street (she jumped big time before she waved). We took it into the garage tonight. Luckily the mechanic wanted to put it on the lift right away to see if he needed to order any parts. Turns out that my spark plug came loose and my engine shot it out. The exhaust has been coming out the spark plug hole. My mechanic has never seen this before. This really, really worries me. We can not afford a car right now. Please send happy, happy thoughts towards my car. It sucks to be a SITCOM... single income, two children, oppressive mortgage.. I'm sure a bunch of you relate. |
| 10:41 pm |
Random Thoughts
Perspective We're off to a wedding tomorrow so I was got cash tonight at an ATM in the Miata. When I got out of the car I had trouble walking it was so icy (I knew that was trouble but thought one of my wheels was on pavement). I was annoyed that at 10:00 at night that I had to wait for three people to get cash. I am so very, very happy that there was a line because it took two very kind people to push my roller skate out of that parking spot. Curses I hope none of you are big fans of the TV series, Bones. I just wanted to let you know that there will not be a season 5. You see I know that because not too long ago I was introduced to the show and I have now officially watched all of the back episodes (yay Hulu and Netflix). I am the doom that ends well written shows. Dexter will be next, BTW. |
| Sunday, January 4th, 2009 |
| 1:50 pm |
interesting news items
So, everyone in the family is deathly ill although William and I are on the mend so I guess we are only mostly dead. I tend to veg on the web when I don't have much energy. I came across two items that caught my eye. ( for more )There. So, now I feel like I've done a service instead of just wasting my time on the Internet. |
| Monday, December 29th, 2008 |
| 8:54 am |
Princess Buttercup, RIP
We had a crazy holiday schedule. Friday night, we came in from Maine and Saturday morning we left for DC. Buttercup greeted us at the door when we came in. She has been losing weight like crazy and we've been worried about her. I lifted her and she felt like a kitten in my arms. It was 10:00 on a Friday. I intended to take her to the vet first thing on Monday. She didn't greet us at the door last night. I slept downstairs and she didn't come join me. We searched everywhere in the house but couldn't find her. We just found her, curled up in a pile of leaves on the back porch by the back door. She must have gotten out when we unloading the car. She never tries to leave the house. I don't know if she froze to death or whether whatever she had finally took her. I'm going to miss that neurotic bundle of fur. The house already seems more empty without her. If only we had looked for her when we loading the car on Saturday. I thought she was just hiding because we were rushing around. Goodbye, Buttercup, we'll miss you. |
| Friday, December 12th, 2008 |
| 9:03 pm |
maybe I've overloaded on Xmas music...
... but this one song is bugging me. It starts with it is the most wonderful time of the year. It has this one line about telling scary ghost stories. What kind of Christmas tradition is that?!!! I realize it is hard to be a lyricist but come on... ghost stories? Certainly something else fit the music. I just read a great article about the genius simplicity of sleigh ride with fitting 'jing-a-ling, ring-ting-ting-a-ling to an instrumental song that was already popular ( http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/1541/28). Speaking of Christmas, must get back to wrapping. Cheers! |
| Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 |
| 4:07 pm |
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| Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 |
| 4:20 pm |
Arghhhhh.....
.... I HATE cleaning the house. Hate it, hate it, hate it. But I have people coming over so I have to do it. But I HATE it. I think I would rather do bills than clean right now. |
| 2:13 pm |
happy dance of joy
Awhile ago our espresso maker died. Then last week our grinder died. A sad tale of woe. Tea doesn't cut it when you really want a cup of coffee. I tried instant (left over from a recipe). That sucked but less than I expected. Dunkin Donuts was too expensive (because of the other crap I was tempted to buy) and I don't always leave the house (I refused to leave just for a up of Joe). Finally I tried a mort and pestle. It worked although the coffee was too weak. It was a pain in the neck. Chewing on the beans was interesting but not satisfying. Now I know there are these new fangled conveniences called grocery stores but I didn't need to go to the store and I'm, well, lazy (and on a mission from God). Friday, the new grinder and espresso maker came in. I actually did a little coffee dance I was so happy. They were both highly rated on Amazon. They were, of course, more than I wanted to spend. A thinks we an open a coffee shop now. I think we averaged five decaf espresso's (decaf coffee ground to espresso size) a day since then. Life is good. |
| Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 |
| 12:15 am |
four more years
I went to vote at 10:00 and I couldn't get a parking spot at the fire station. There was actually a line. This was in a period where people could not be fashionably late to work or break early for lunch (key time at DMV BTW). I can't wait to see what percentage of people turned out to vote. I hope it is record breaking because we will be a stronger country if more vote. I'm glad that Obama won handily instead of getting into the contesting turmoil I expected. Especially when I read that two Europeans were found in Ohio that did early voting (one student from the UK and one resident of Rome, Italy). This was not a clean election. I hope in four years we find some way to make it more difficult for irregularities to happen. I wish that people were more up in arms over this topic. Democracy does not happen if you do not have a clean election. Yes, as long as it isn't close; it doesn't matter. But, guys, wake up for 2012 and try to STAMP out corruption. It isn't cool. ( don't read if you are hoorah over Obama )I hope I'm a pessimist. |
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