12.19.07
Knee-jerk reactions to politics are much more satifying than actually thinking about it.
Oh my god, y’all. I am just so busy the past couple days I haven’t had a chance to post anything. The good news is not much has happened, so you didn’t miss anything. I’ve been rushing around getting all sorts of last minute things done, presents purchased, cards sent out, and packing. It’s a lot of work, don’tcha know! But it’s 90% done and the last of it will be done in a couple of hours.
Last night we put in the final load of laundry and went out to cheese dip, which is our practice before a trip. FOILED! Cheese dip was closed for a private function. So we had to go to the Glenwood instead, which turned out to be okay because I had the wild boar chili which was dee-licious. It’s super smoky in there, though, that is the only drawback to that place.
I would just like to quickly mention my displeasure at Curt Schilling’s endorsement of McCain. Come ON. Curt, you are a damn fine baseball player. But you have terrible taste in politics. Please keep it on the diamond.
In other political news, Hillary really is a nice person even though she won’t (can’t?) cry; Huckabee is the second coming of Jesus; Guiliani’s social liberality is shooting himself in the foot ’cause it ain’t enough for a Republican just to be fiscally conservative, they have to be all-around conservative; and John Edwards has decided to let the others fight each other to the death and then climb up their dead bodies to get to the top. Good times!
Dice and I are off to tonight Aberdeen, Scotland for the December Commercio-Religious Holiday. We shall be back anon. I will have intarweb access while I’m there so it’s possible you will find a post from across the pond. Don’t hold your breath, though.
Happy Holidays!
12.17.07
Hats, shopping and miracles this magical DCRH season.
Friday night the Handitards employed The Hat for our dinner location. A while back we wrote the names of our favorite top 20 or so restaurants on cards, and when we are at a loose end and can’t decide on dinner we put the cards in a hat and pick one. Fritti came out, so that’s where we went. And the first rule of Hat Club is: no vetoes. Otherwise it’s useless. Anyway, the truth is that I wanted to go to Fritti in the first place so I was pleased, and we had a really tasty dinner. Ray had a friend visiting from out of town so we had to take her out and show ‘er a good time. Which we did.
Saturday Dice and I did some DCRH shopping in midtown, and then headed over to Decatur to a specialty shop they have on Ponce. While we were there we decided to stop at Brick Store for lunch, which was the perfect choice because it was a rainy, cold and raw day. I love a good Brick Store lunch. After that we went to Publix and got some various essentials we’ll need until we leave. Then we went home where I made Grandma’s blonde brownie recipe. Michael cooked up a fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes, mac ‘n’ cheese, lima beans and squash, and oh my goodness was it good! With my blonde brownies for dessert. We ate so much that Dice and I had to go home immediately after dinner in order to succumb to food coma. We were both fast asleep by 10 pm that night.
Sunday it had stopped raining but it was bitterly cold out with blustery wind. I had given myself Saturday off from running because I had run five days in a row already, then if I run Sunday through Wednesday that will be four days in a row and thus, my running schedule will be more even before leaving for vacation. So I had to run on Sunday but I put it off until the afternoon and spent the morning watching bad TV instead. After running I cleaned the house and wrote some of my Happy Holiday cards, and after that we watched TV for the rest of the evening. Dice had a lazy day, and then he fell asleep on the couch around 8 pm, so he went to bed. Heh. He got more sleep this weekend than I’ve had in the past month.
We got all of our laundry done this weekend and cleaned the house, so now all we have to do is pack. My second least favorite travel-related task. My least favorite task is unpacking, but packing is a close second. However, one thing that is usually a source of high anxiety for me has been relieved this magical holiday season. We usually have to board the cats at the vet when we go to Scotland for the December Commercio-Religious Holiday, because all of our friends also go out of town and they can’t go longer than, possibly, up to 4 days without human supervision. Which dampens my enjoyment of our vacation when I think of the poor kitties sitting in a 1-foot square cage for nine days. It’s just cruel! But this year Ray & Michael and K&M are all staying home and will watch our house and our kitties for us. Yay! It is a DCRH miracle!
12.14.07
I call shenanigans!
Wow, It is 8,000 degrees in my office right now. I wish I could blame it on the terrible, wasteful powers-that-be cranking the heat up. But I can only blame it on the plain ol’ sun, which is shining with ferocity through my windows.
Today my floor had a holiday Nibble ‘n’ Mingle, which I planned and organized with the help of a small planning committee. I’m sorry to say that I hijacked the planning of it about 6 weeks ago. I had heard that another dept was planning it, and they had fairly stalled, so I took the reins. Someone had to, and I’m willing to do it. And it turned out beautifully, there was plenty of food, lots of people came, we met others from our floor and we even had door prizes. Everyone appeared to be pleased. I am pleased if they are. All that said, I’m glad it’s over. It wasn’t so much of an onerous task, but it was enough work to make a noticeable difference when it’s over.
This weekend was originally going to be super busy, and now has suddenly opened wide. That is a good thing considering all the preparations I need to make for my fourth frickin’ trip to Europe in ONE YEAR. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can hear you all saying, “poor baby.” And yeah, one the one hand, wheeee! And yet on the other hand, that’s a lot of trans-Atlantic flights in one year’s time. The trips would have been more special if they had been spaced out a little better. But, such is life. No doubt later in life I will look back from my house arrest with longing for the Year of the Four Trips.
Anyway. I had a trip to the Atlanta History Center planned with some of my favorite former co-workers at the WE, but we called it off due to the ebola virus from which two members of our group are suffering. Then the Handitards and the Canadians were supposed to go ice skating tomorrow afternoon at Centennial Park, but it’s really much too warm to ice skate and it’s also supposed to rain, so that idea was nixed. Longtime readers will remember that we were supposed to go ice skating last year, but it was 70 degrees out and raining then, too! So instead I think we will get some last-minute gift shopping done, clean the house, and hopefully get the majority of our packing done.
So, the Mitchell Report was pretty scathing, and yet I feel that it could have been so much worse. For those of you not paying attention, former senator Mitchell spent the last 22 months investigating alleged steroid use in Major League Baseball. Using the testimony of two first-hand witnesses he outed dozens of major league players for steroid abuse. And by “first-hand witness” I mean that the witness testifies that he personally injected the player in question with steroids. Now, everyone’s first reaction to this whole thing is: “Duh!” and I concur. Look at photos of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens et. al. 15 years ago. They weighed 50 pounds less. They performed markedly worse. It was obvious to everyone, even without the report. Then the report goes on to say that we should not punish these players. And that’s where I differ. Really? Marian Jones has her medals taken away, Floyd Landis gets booted from the Tour de France and his life ruined, but Roger Clemens gets to go to the Hall of Fame? Outrageous! Doping is doping is doping. Just the same way that cheating is cheating is cheating. I realize that none of these players ever actually tested positive for steroids, but to suggest that only light punishment be exacted is an insult to the integrity of baseball. Yeah, I like it when they hit ‘em out of the park, who doesn’t? But that’s not what baseball is about. And baseball is, if nothing else, a sport with integrity. Otherwise, you might as well re-qualify it as “entertainment” and show it along with wrestling on the Spike channel.
I am hoping that this report is a wake-up call to the baseball industry. Considering how much I love the sport, it would pain me to not be able to watch it anymore. But I don’t want to watch it if I know that all the players are jacked up on Human Growth Hormone. And that really sums up my feeling on the matter. Let us hope that Bud Selig takes this information and makes some changes. Since that is unlikely, let us hope that our fine governmental entities will take the reins and levy some repercussions on those proven to have broken the law.
And thus ends my serious thought for the day. Have a lovely weekend!
12.13.07
There’s not much about me that’s proper. Especially this post.
No time for a proper post today. The computer guy sat in my office and chatted for over an hour, which took up any free time I might have had for non-work. What is it with me and computer guys?
Yay for Thursday! More specifically, yay for the END of Thursday! I have a lot of stuff to do this weekend, for which I will plan tomorrow. Tomorrow I will talk about the Mitchell report. But for now: off to the gym!
12.12.07
All the meat that’s fit to eat.
Oh, the meat. Today we all went to a special holiday luncheon at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian restaurant that specializes in large hunks of meat on a skewer. There is a fabulously well-appointed salad bar, with almost every kind of delicious greenery and cheeses and other stuff, which you fill your plate with as soon as you arrive. Then all sorts of different waiters come by with huge hunks of meat on fantastically long skewers. They tell you what kind of meat they have, ask you politely if you want some, and slice off a chunk and put it on your plate. And oh! It is delicious! Bits of filet mignon, lamb, chicken, parmesan-crusted pork, and more. Just a couple bites of each. The waiters continue to come around the table, so you can get more if you are still hungry, or ask them to stop if you are done. It’s convenient for a large group because everyone gets as much or as little as they want. Assuming you aren’t a vegetarian; although the salad bar was good enough for a very satisfying meal.
The good news is that I have exemplary self-control. I had a lot of salad-type veggies, several different kinds of meat but just a bite or two of each, and I skipped dessert. Truthfully, just going out for fancy meat lunch was enough of a treat for me. So I am not full, but I am satisfied, and I don’t feel disgustingly full nor do I feel the need to spend an extra 8 hours on the treadmill this evening. Go me!
NPR had an interesting piece on the UN global warming conference this morning. They profiled the newly elected prime minister of Australia. He’s so new that he took office about a week ago, and the first thing he did was to sign the Kyoto treaty and then jet off to Bali for the UN conference. He’s basically a personification of the reaction from the Australian people to their debilitating drought. I should say, it’s more than debilitating, “they” (in this case “they” is my Australian brother-in-law who told me this last DCRH) say that Australia will be completely out of water in less than three years, which is more like a devastating drought; so the election of this guy is a reflection of the Australian populace’s concern over how global warming is affecting them. He said in a speech (and I’m quoting loosely from what I remember from the radio this morning, so this is not in any way meant to be taken as literal quote) that his conservative goal is to reduce emissions by 60% by 2050. Heck yeah! While I bemoan the idea that even the most radical politician still wants 43 years in which to reduce by only 60%, still: heck yeah, I’ll take it!
12.11.07
All the news that’s fit to print.
In baseball news, there’s a new Japanese player being courted by various teams. How much fun will it be to yell this guy’s name when you’re rooting for your team? Heh. Yes, I am 12.
In TV news, anyone who is a fan of the show Extras will be interested in the series finale this Sunday on HBO. They decided not to do a third season. For those of you who haven’t heard of this show, it’s a project by Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant of The Office (original British version) fame. They did two seasons of The Office and two seasons of Extras. Apparently that’s as long as their attention span lasts. Since it’s damn funny stuff, we let them get away with it. I wonder what they’ll come up with next?
In impending global destruction news, in case you haven’t heard the United Nations has been having a conference this week on global warming, and are thinking about coming up with a pact between all industrialized nations, and the European Union in particular, to cut emissions by 25-40 per cent by the year 2020. The Bush administration doesn’t agree, of COURSE. This New York Times article sums up the conference pretty nicely, including my favorite quote: “‘Logic requires that we listen to the science,’ Stavros Dimas, the European Union’s environment commissioner, said today. ‘I would expect others to follow that logic.’” Yeah, I’m a big fan of logic. Also, did anyone watch Gore’s thank you speech for the Nobel Peace Prize over the weekend? I thought the import of the speech was solid, but I was personally disappointed to hear some grammatical errors. Al Gore is highly educated and quite intelligent as well, he usually doesn’t make grammatical errors, or at least not the simplistic ones he made during this particular speech (and no, I can’t remember what they are; I didn’t say I was smart, did I?). I guess hobnobbing with those Hollywood types took his Strunk & White out of the bathroom and replaced it with Entertainment Weekly.
What? Don’t tell me I’m the ONLY one who reads Elements of Style in the bathroom?
In food news, last night I had Amy’s brand frozen lasagna for dinner. It was less cheesy than most any other brand, and also it was extremely salty. This is surprising considering Amy’s has always been known for being very healthy as well as tasteless. It tasted like they jumped on the saline bandwagon and just pumped a load of salt into it instead of using flavorful ingredients. Plus, the lack of cheese guarantees the Amy’s brand goes to the bottom of the frozen lasagna list. It’s not bad, but there are much better brands out there. Other Amy’s foods are well worth it, though; very tasty and low in calories as well. My particular favorite is the palaak paneer, which comes with beans and rice and is wicked good.
In blackmail news, very grainy and bad quality proof that Dice drank a giant Piss Light on Saturday night:
That’s all I have for today, folks. Stay tuned for meat tomorrow!
12.10.07
Weekend recap with a cherry on top.
I had a pretty good weekend. Busy as always, which is fine with me. Friday night we went to the Vortex in Little Five Points, which was nice since we hadn’t been there in months and we were all craving a good burger. And tots. Can’t forget the tater tots. Saturday Dice had to work so he left me at home all day to do stuff around the house, and run an 8-mile loop with Ray over to the baseball stadium and back. It’s a good route, and the weather is warm so we didn’t freeze our extremities off. Saturday night we had a birthday party to go to, where they did a scavenger hunt. The Handitards were the judges for the 4 teams participating in the scavenger hunt, and as payment for our services we got pizza and a good time. Also that evening we watched the Mayweather Vs. Hatton boxing fight, which was a really entertaining bout. Of course, by the time it came on we were all three sheets to the wind, so we thought the fight was frickin’ spectacular. Three of us were rooting for Hatton so we were disappointed when he got knocked down. Oh well! Sunday we had brunch at Murphy’s with the Canadians which was delicious despite the longer than usual wait to get in. Then grocery shopping and errands rounded out our weekend.
It’s freakishly warm here in the Southeast. Yesterday it was about 75 degrees, today is even warmer than that. The weather people say it’ll be this warm for the next couple of days as well! I’m not complaining, it’s really nice not to be cold all the time.
This week begins the round of holiday lunch treats. Wednesday the other office on campus with whom we are affiliated is going to a Brazilian place, which as we all know is meat, meat and more meat followed by meat. Friday the floor our office is located on is having a floor-wide holiday snack hour, which I am organizing along with a small committee. Next Tuesday is our own departmental lunch outing. And after that? Off to Scotland. So much to do, in so little time!
Last night we got takeout from Figo, which is kind of a lower-range pasta place where you order your meal at the counter, but then you sit down and they bring it out to you. So it’s not fast food, but it’s not really dining out, either. Anyway, we never go there to eat, we just get takeout. It’s cheap, but I’ve noticed that lately the servings have been tiny. They only charge about $8 for a serving of pasta, but it’s so small that I could easily eat three servings. To be fair, though, I would be happy if they would simply double the size. But the way it is now, to get a decent, and still dissatisfying, meal I would have to purchase two entrees, at which point I would be spending $16, which is more than at many sit-down restaurants! We’re not talking gourmet food here, folks, we’re talking plain pasta with sauce. Last night all I wanted was a big bowl of pasta. Instead I paid $8 for 5 ravioli. It was unacceptable, but more than that, it was disappointing.
12.07.07
OMG, you are SO unsmart.
My internal temperature is at the mercy of whatever it is that I’m drinking. Assuming that the climate control in my office building stays on an even keel (which isn’t true, but we’ll assume it for the purposes of the experiment) when I’m having my coffee in the morning I overheat and take a layer off. Then I fill up my 44-ounce big gulp with ice and water, and drink that for the rest of the day. At which point I freeze, my fingers turn blue, and when I’m not typing I sit on my hands hoping that some heat from my butt will transfer over to my fingers so that they’ll warm up enough to type some more. When it’s just too cold, such as a day like today when I am wearing a skirt and thus have fewer layers to keep my lower extremities warm, I have hot tea instead of a big gulp full of ice water. Which makes me overheated again. There is no middle ground. On the whole, I prefer to be overheated than freezing cold.
Some TV musings. Last night we watched the fall finale of Heroes. Grumble. Stupid writers strike forces suspenseful shows to get more suspenseful! Although they’ve been advertising a lot about how two heroes are going to die, there was no indication that any of the three possible deaths are in fact permanent deaths. Considering you can just give anyone Clare’s blood and they’ll heal right up, no matter what the injury is. So we shall see who is actually dead, who is only temporarily dead, and who is buried alive. Can Adam actually die of starvation? I assume he can at least go into a coma of starvation, which would be the same thing for our purposes unless someone finds him. The best part about it is that Sylar has all of his evil powers back, which means that although I don’t like him, the balance of tension and evil are restored, which was definitely the highlight of last season. Anywho.
The Amazing Race has been pretty good this season. Not as good as other seasons but much better than the (few) bad seasons. (The family 4-person team season was by far the worst season of any reality show at any time.) I think it’s funny how Nate and Jennifer bicker and talk about how they hate each other and try to bring each other down instead of supporting each other. Because really, I’m sure that a lot of people fight like that in real life. I’ve been known to yell at Dice in an, umm, not so supportive way from time to time when he really pisses me off. I’m sure he wishes painful death upon me when he’s upset at me. Everyone has their way of reacting to a partner’s fatal flaw. That said, I’m predicting break-up for those two if not by the end of the show, then immediately afterwards. Also: thank frickin’ goodness the blondes were eliminated. They were an affront to gorgeous and smart women everywhere, being unsmart, unsympathetic, and unpretty all at the same time.
So, the weekend. I think Dice and I might go on date night tonight, although we haven’t really discussed it and might opt in favor of a Handitard night instead. Tomorrow Ray and I plan to run our 8-mile loop over to Turner Stadium and back, which is a nice run when the wind isn’t blowing cold enough to freeze you mid-motion. Tomorrow night our neighbor is having a mysterious birthday extravaganza, at which she assures me all I have to do is judge other people and drink, so I should be good to go. Sunday brings brunch with the Canadians and probably some rest and relaxation. Should be a busy and productive weekend. Have a good one!
12.06.07
I hate presents.
Went out to lunch with my paypal today. We went to El Torero, which is a pretty good Mexican place up Briarcliff Road. I really like their cheese dip, although it’s sort of third on my list behind cheese dip and Taqueria del Sol. My one complaint is that we ordered it spicy with jalapenos, and it was far from spicy. It was extremely un-spicy, actually. But it was still cheesy and my taco salad was pretty good. Sad, though, that today’s lunch was the highlight of my week.
I’m about at the end of my rope, grammar-wise. It feels like the term “there are” no longer exists in the English language. Is it really THAT difficult to remember that you are talking about more than one thing? REALLY? Every. Single. Person. In. The. World. has forgotten one of the simplest rules of grammar. From our elected officials on down. Is the phrase, “there’s a lot of people here” really THAT much easier to say than “there are a lot of people here”? Grrrrr. They have rules for a REASON, people!
I’m really not over this but I will stop talking about it, at least. Instead I will think about things I will be doing this weekend. Running, parties, brunch, and other possibilities.
Plus, I need to start thinking about shopping for the DCRH. I only purchase gifts for people whom I will be face to face with on the morning of the DCRH. I would really rather that no presents be exchanged in any way, but since I am one person who will never win a fight against human generosity, I have no choice but to give gifts to people whom I’m sure will give me gifts. If you remember, one reason why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday is because it’s not about gift giving or receiving. My attitude is not bah humbug on some mythical Spirit of the Season. Rather it has more to do with the level of expectation from everyone. Everyone expects you to spend hundreds of dollars on gifts, otherwise you obviously don’t love them. Which is complete ridiculosity. I tell Dice every day that I love him, and he certainly wouldn’t be more convinced if I gave him a watch during a pre-determined, prescribed gift-giving time period. If the Spirit of the Season is supposed to be about peace, love and goodwill, why isn’t the focus on, umm, peace, love and goodwill? Why is the focus on Toys ‘R’ Us instead? You get my point. I would rather someone gave me a heartfelt card, saying something special, than some chatchke dustcatcher that I will never use and probably throw out or recycle anyway.
So, those of you who know me in real life (I guess I’m supposed to type “IRL” instead but I’m too old for that), don’t get me a gift. Instead, make a date for dinner with me. I would so much rather have a nice chat over food and wine. I wouldn’t even talk about myself. Much.
12.05.07
I’m a good girl who reads good litrachure.
Is it Wednesday already? This week is flying by. Not really much going on. Since we didn’t go to trivia last night it was a regular gym, home, shower, dinner, sleepy-time scenario. I did manage to knock out about 9 miles on the treadmill to make up for Monday’s poor showing, though, which is good.
In other news, there is no other news. As usual, when I’m being a good girl I have little to talk about. Both because there’s no action in my life, and also because I am in essence boring. This is something I am learning to grapple with as I get older. Also, it tends to be an indication that I really want to go out for cheese dip. No! Must be a good girl!
I am about halfway through The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope. I’m enjoying it very much. When first published it didn’t do so well, but after a while “they” (who I guess are both the public and the experts in this case) generally agreed that it’s one of the best novels he ever wrote. So far, I must concur. The action centers around Sir Felix Carbury who has gambled away his entire inheritance and so must marry an heiress or die of starvation. Unfortunately he is hampered by a complete lack of any kind of feeling. Pretty much he likes to drink, gamble and hunt, and otherwise he couldn’t care less. And yet, without money, he can’t do any of those fun things he likes. Dilemma! Or, if you prefer: dilemna! Can’t we all relate?
