05.14.08
There are no deep song lyrics about cleaning the house. Go figure.
Yes, I know, I’m a very bad blogger. I let real life get in the way sometimes. I know that the blog is MUCH more important, but sometimes, well, yeah, it’s not more important. Ever.
Anyway. It’s not like all that much has happened to tell you all about anyway. Today my in-laws are arriving for a visit from Scotland, and for the past several days I’ve done nothing but clean, shop, clean, run errands, clean and more cleaning. We did nothing over the weekend. Oh, Friday night we went to Midway, and it was fine. I ordered the wrong thing, but that was my fault. For reals. I ordered beef on weck, and while it was a fine beef on weck, since it’s been a long time since I’ve had it I forgot that it’s mostly rare meat. I should have remembered and gotten something else. But the tater tots were perfectly crispy! I made sure to order them extra crispy. The others at my table didn’t do so, even though I told them to, and their tots were soggy. Yay me! Also Sunday morning we went to F1 at a new venue which turned out to be nicer, but with smaller TVs. Hey, any place that’s willing to open and serve food at 7:30 am on a Sunday is fine with me!
Otherwise, nothing. Except you could lick any surface in my house and come away with clean tongue. I’m glad that visiting time is finally here so that I can a. stop stressing; and b. stop cleaning.
The Canadians moved into their new house over the weekend, which just happens to be right across the street from us. Our block is now referred to as The Commune. And thus it is christened.
05.09.08
Musings about Ikea, and weekend plans.
The longing for Thai food continues, a symptom of my own discipline as well as lack of decent Thai places. Although I should say that I’ve only had delicious foodstuffs at East Atlanta Thai & Sushi. Seriously, I’ve had stirfries of every combination there, usually with tofu, and it’s always been superb. Not as perfect as Taste of Thai, but then nothing is. Now the sushi they have, well, I’ve never tried it so I can’t comment. Perhaps Michael would weigh in on that issue.
Last night 3/4s of the Handitards (minus Ray) borrowed M&K’s circa 1985 Dodge Caravan and went to Ikea to buy packaged, pre-assembled furniture on the cheap. I had expected to get certain things which they didn’t have, so I spent much less than I had budgeted for. But that’s okay because I’m sure I’ll find what I want at Target this weekend and spend even more because I’ll be distracted by all the other stuff they have there as well. Damn you, Target!
Here’s a philosophical question: why does it always smell like cinnamon in Ikea? Every floor, throughout the entire showroom, downstairs, even the Help-Yourself Furniture section, it all smells like cinnamon! Drives ya crazy if you haven’t had dinner yet!
Speaking of dinner, tonight the same 3/4s of the Handitards are thinking about trying out Midway, a new establishment in the EAV. I’m super excited about this given that I haven’t been out to eat in a while. Actually, technically, we went out to eat on Tuesday for trivia night, but since we were engaged in an activity, and all I had was a small green salad, I’m not counting it. Without that, it’s been two weeks since I’ve gone out for bad food. That’s a long time, y’all! For me, an eternity.
One (or, to be precise, four) of the items we bought last night are new bookshelves. This weekend will consist mostly of assembling said bookshelves and then loading said bookshelves up with books from the leaning tower(s) of boxes. Other time this weekend will consist of going to Target for couch covers, assuming (and I’m hoping!) they have such items. I’ve decided that the only way to be consistently clean when you have three cats is to have covers on your various sitting paraphernalia in the living room. Renting a steam cleaner every six weeks is not only costly but laborious. With covers, just take ‘em off and throw ‘em in the washing machine. And lastly, we do have F1 on Sunday morning, which is good because it’ll get us up and out, so we can finish all of our weekend tasks.
It seems that Weaver, our oldest cat, has finally lost all of his sight. We think he’s about 15 years old. One eye has been dead since Dice adopted him 13 years ago, and the other has been growing cataracts pretty steadily for the past two years. All this week Weaver’s been vaguely and yet vociferously upset at night time, as though he can’t understand why we’re so quiet. When he walks around the house now he kind of heads towards a wall, smells it, then turns one way or another. I’ve spent a good 10 minutes every morning this week directing him towards his food bowl. He either doesn’t get it, or gets distracted by other smells, because he invariably meanders off in other directions soon after I think he’s on the right track. It’s sad, and yet, entertaining. Poor guy.
05.08.08
The question is, when DON’T I want Thai food?
Tonight we have to go to Ikea to pick up some much-needed furniture. When my aunt died a couple of years ago I inherited her book collection (among other things). Last year I went up to Rhode Island and packed it up and shipped it down to my house here in Atlanta. Guess where those books have been all this time? Yep. Still packed up in boxes, taking up room in the guest room, all for lack of enough bookcases. Well, I’m gosh darn sick of it. Plus, I love books and the thought of them sitting there unloved, hidden away in boxes is hard to bear. We also need some other odds and ends, which Ikea is so good at.
Last night we watched Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations when he went to Malaysia. It pretty much convinced me that I don’t want to go to Malaysia. Partly because I would have to listen to Dice say “malay-cee-ah” like a fag all the time. And partly because, although Anthony looked like he was having a good time, I’m just not that interested in indigenous cultures that still live off the land. I mean, I moved to the city for a reason. I don’t like to go camping, unless it involves a hotel. And while Malaysia has a city and some modern culture, it’s clear that the most interesting thing to do is venture deep into the jungle and stay a couple days with some ancient tribe. No thanks. And the final nail in the coffin is that the food doesn’t seem nearly as interesting as those cuisines in its vicinity like that from Thailand. And for the record, yes, I’ve eaten at Malaysian restaurants, most notably Penang out on Buford Highway. It reminded me of Thai’s bastard cousin. Still good, mind you, just not as good as Thai.
Now I really want Thai food. Sigh.
05.07.08
We’re Number 1!
Last night we made it to trivia to much fanfare and success. Okay, there was no fanfare or success, but we did make it there and we played a decent game. Our teammates were smart but not over the top, mind-dwarfingly smart. We came in fourth, which means we were the Number One Losers. Hey, at least we were first at something! Although the Thinking Man has my favorite grilled cheese sandwich in town, I ignored its siren call and had the green salad instead. After the two servings of cake and ice cream I had on Saturday, I do not need to be obeying any food-related siren calls. Unless spinach and cucumbers are calling me. Which, let’s face it, would never happen.
I did get to watch part of the Braves-Padres game while we were there. When we arrived the Braves were down 1-0. When we left, they were up 5-1. The Braves appear to be holding their own lately, which pleases me almost as much as Boston being back on top of the AL East. I like baseball so much more when my teams are winning, heh.
05.06.08
TV makes a comeback. Sort of.
Yeah, I would have been sleeping if I could have. Alas, it wasn’t in the cards. Again, I wish I were independently wealthy so that I can pay for landscaping AND a tempur-pedic bed. Unfortunately, since that’s not the case, I need to choose one and I’ve already chosen landscaping. Because now the yard looks perty and there’s no guarantee that I’ll sleep better even with a latex mattress.
I’m more and more addicted to Top Chef these days. I watched past seasons only intermittently, and by that I mean I caught an episode here and there. This is the first season when I’ve watched every episode and gotten involved. Last Wednesday I was sad to see Mark go, mostly because he really was the nicest person on the show. I get that it’s about being driven and competitive, but he did manage to get himself on the show in the first place, and he put up with a lot of crap from other people, most notably Ryan, and never lost his sense of humor. Plus, he was kind of a space cadet, but in a funny way. My next favorite is Richard, however, and the only reason why is because I think he demonstrates the most creativity combined with technical ability. Next, I like Stephanie, because she is also highly creative and accomplished, just to a slightly lesser extent than Richard. I hate, hate and loathe Lisa. I despise Lisa first and foremost because she is dirty, like, I don’t think she ever showers, she always looks greasy and unwashed. But also because her attitude sucks donkey nuts. She’s very bitter and harsh, and at times, she will even ignore the rules of a particular challenge just because she doesn’t feel like following it. Almost every challenge includes a snippet from her saying she has no experience with/desire to cook that particular thing, and how pissed she is about having to do it. Yeah, that’s not going to get you far. If only she had gone instead of Mark.
TV has not fully recovered from the writer’s strike, and won’t until next season. Unsurprisingly, the crappy shows manage to pump out new episodes because, well, they don’t bother much about quality. Some, we watch just to watch something on TV, and otherwise we made do with previously run or DVD shows. One of my favorite shows, Criminal Minds, is a pretty crappy one and has had new episodes out for several weeks now. I recognize that it’s almost complete bollock, and yet, I’m entertained by it. Is that the mark of a successful show? In my mind, no. And yet, still watching. We also have the first season finale of Dexter banked on the DVR for watching at the next available TV-watching time period, which I’m very excited about. And we’re almost all the way through the first season of The Wire, which we check out of the library on weekends.
In other news, it looks like we might have hooked up with another trivia team. This team appears to be more established, which is a good thing. Our own trivia team fell apart when I lost interest in organizing it. This is my organizing downfall, you know. I don’t mind organizing the initial group, but I lose interest with on-going situations. Anyway, if we don’t go tonight we’ll have to wait three weeks due to other obligations. I’ll have to let you know tomorrow whether we get off our lazy butts to go or not. Suspense!
05.05.08
Monday is not the problem. The problem is Sunday. Which you pay for on Monday.
And another Monday delivers its weekly punch in the neck. Thank you, world! My own Monday consists mostly of surviving the feedback from last evening, during which I watched almost the entire 6-hour Pride and Prejudice and washed it all down with about a bottle and a half of sauvingon blanc. Dice is never allowed to leave me alone again.
Otherwise my weekend was pretty darn good-tastic. Friday evening Dice went to beer club and I hung out with the other half of the Handitards at their house. I really didn’t feel like going anywhere, and I really needed to be low-key. So that worked out. Saturday we spent most of the afternoon getting K&M’s house ready and decorating for K’s surprise 50th birthday party. You’d never know the guy is 50, he certainly doesn’t look like it. At any rate, he was surprised and we had a mighty fine party, complete with cake decorated to look like a can of PBR. ‘Cause the man loves his PBR. And all other beers, for that matter. Sunday we mostly did little things around the house, went grocery shopping and watched some episodes of The Wire, to which we are now addicted. In the evening, Dice and Ray went to the Kanye West show (they got the tickets for his birthday; my present was that I didn’t have to go with him) and I stayed home and, um, entertained myself as described above.
So, it’s Cinco de Mayo! How exciting! Normally I would celebrate at cheese dip, but the thought of alcohol right now makes me nauseous. It’s not like I need a reason to go to cheese dip on any given evening, after all. If you all go out, though, have a marg for me. I’ll be sleeping.
05.02.08
My American Life.
Happy belated May Day! Am I the only person who used to make May poles in elementary school for May Day? Probably. Damn boonies.
I am so glad it’s Friday. What a long week it’s been. Work has been very busy, or I’ve just gotten slower in my old age. Both are possible, and likely. However, I’m happy to report that I’ve been very good on the health front this week, we did not go out for dinner at all, and have not since last Saturday. I even managed to drop three pounds through no fault of my own. Yesterday I did go to Taqueria for lunch but I only had two tiny tacos, and no one ordered cheese dip so my lunch was completely within the realm of acceptable bad food/caloric intake. Go me! Of course, this means I’ll probably eat all the bad food this weekend.
Last night Dice and I met up with Tim and Robin to see the This American Life live feed movie thingie. It was at the Regal movie theater up Rt 85, but it was a live feed, whereby Ira Glass did basically his normal stage show from the NYU auditorium in New York, and it was broadcast live to a couple hundred theaters all over the country. The one other difference is that this format allowed him to show clips from the Showtime TV show of This American Life, which basically added a new dimension to the stage show I’ve seen him do twice before. It was fabulous, entertaining, funny, ironic, depressing and, as always, intelligent. Plus we got to see Ira up close and personal, whereas both times when I’ve seen him live my seats were always at the back of the auditorium.
This weekend will be part work, part play. Tonight is all about play, considering it’s Friday, it’s 80 degrees and sunny outside, and I’ve been a good girl all week. Later this weekend we’ll head to Ikea to spend hundreds of dollars on furniture we should have been purchasing as we needed it, but instead now will have to get in one fell swoop to prepare for some house guests in a couple of weeks. Mostly bookshelves for the boxes of books which I inherited from my Aunt Sandy that have been sitting in the guest room for over a year. So, first purchase the bookshelves, then laboriously unpack and shelve hundreds of books. Good times!
