Thursday, March 26, 2009

Milk in the batter, milk in the batter!

We are back from Oregon! Jeez, what a good visit we had. I feel well-rested and happy, and I wish that I got to see the Schluetermetz' more often, because then I think I would feel this way more often. Here's the highlights:

Thursday: lots of flying. 3 hour layover in San Francisco, during which time we thought it would be really fun if Drew happened to be performing something clownish at the airport. No such luck. Arrived at the Schluetermetz' around dinnertime, visited, and went to bed.

Friday: lounging around day, and Jen and Brad had gotten a babysitter for the evening, so the four of us went out for dinner and hit the town. None of us knew what to do with ourselves, because we're all so much out of the habit of 'hitting the town.' We ended up having some Thai food (that Schlueter lied about the spiciness of) and then going to a bar called, I believe the Downtown Lounge, which, after we had been there a little while, revealed itself to be a kind of David Lynch-type place. It was kind of dark, with red fake leather booths and furniture, and red and gold curtains hanging up, and the lead singer for the band there was super tall and wore a beret, and there was a one-armed woman dancing (and basically having sex with the creepy dude she was dancing with), and a woman in a wheelchair, and then an Asian woman walking around selling very vivid-colored flowers. And the band took like an hour and a half to do a stupid soundcheck, and they were annoying me, and they had a setup of congas and chimes that they never even fucking used (at least during the first 4 songs, after which we departed). If I had congas and chimes, they would be in every song, you can be assured.

Satuday, Sunday
- Head to the beach house in Waldport, OR. Crazy weather. It would be sunny for 20 minutes, then hail for 10, then be cloudy for 20, and then sunny again. I got in the water up to my knees. It was cold. Jeannie was afraid that if I went in any more I would lose control of my body and be swept out to sea, and then they would all die trying to rescue me. There was a seal in the water not too far from me. We flew kites, which was pretty awesome. Jeannie was a good first-time kite flyer. We made big dinners of lasagna and falafel, drank some, and had heated games of hearts. We also played a childrens' version of hearts that Henry had, and during one of those games, Schlueter played the Jinx card after I had lead the 7 of Clovers. On like the second trick. You probably don't know what that means, but it infuriated me, you can be assured.

Monday - Drove home from the beach, Schlueter made a big dinner of roasted vegetables and goat cheese and pasta (that turned everybody's [or at least mine and Jeannie's and Schlueter's] poop red for the next day or so), and good ol' J. Schmor came over and joined us. We chatted and drank and it was good to see him. He reminded of of the fact that I once bought him a Seal CD. I vaguely remember this and I am ashamed of it, but I think I only bought it because he said he liked it.

Tuesday - Hungover. I used to associate hangovers with sitting in the House of Brown listening to Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day.' I now associate them with leaving the Schluetermetz house. It seems that every time that I have to drive away from there I am feeling hungover. Our plan for the day was to visit Anna and Chris in Corvallis (which we did, and it was good to see them and hear about their cross-country adventures [see Sockiboos or Wine for Truth for details of their trip], and they treated us to a tasty pizza lunch and walk around Corvallis) and then drive up to Salem and try and find a fun Cob house that Jeannie's former boss built out of mud and hay and earthen-type shit back in his hippie days. Unfortunately, we got a flat tire on the way up to Corvallis, and the car felt a little funky after that, and I wanted to do as little driving in it as possible, so we had to skip the Cob House detour. So anyway, we flew out of Portland at around 11pm, and had a layover in Chicago from 4am to 8am, then arrived in Baltimore at around noon, and then I left for work at around 2pm. So it was a long day, but fortunately I was able to sleep pretty well on the flights and in O'Hare Airport, so it wasn't too bad.

You are now at least somewhat up to date. I hope this pleases you.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Getting Away From It All

Have I mentioned that the J-Dog and I are going on vacation this week? Well, if I haven't, we are. We're going to Oregon on Thursday, to visit our good friends the Schluetermetz', formerly of Ohio. Jesus H. Christo I am looking forward to this trip. Visits with the Schluetermetz' have, in the past, acted as psychic enemas of a sort, cleaning out a lot of the mental bullshit and recharging my emotional batteries. And thus, I am very much looking forward to this visit, as the ol' mental bowels seem to be experiencing some blockage. And the emotional batteries are in desperate need of recharging. And, after eavesdropping on a public conversation on Facebook today, I have learned that there is an outside chance that Uncle Rico Riley might show up, which would put a smile on my face that would last all week long.

I haven't been to Oregon since I think around 2000 or 2001, and am looking forward to getting back and seeing a little bit of that beautiful area, although I'm sure it'll probably be raining the whole time. It's ok. Rain I can handle.

So for the past week, we've been looking at houses, and thinking about houses, and there was this one particular place that Jeannie and I had been thinking about, and Jeannie had been drawing up some ideas for floorplans and stuff (this is what she does), and we went over on Wednesday night and walked around the neighborhood, and we've seriously been putting A LOT of thought in about this place. Cause it's not perfect, but it had some good things going for it. And then on Friday we found out that there had been a fire on the back porch and part of the house, well, burned up a little bit. Which doesn't take the house out of the running, because the part that burned was a part that we probably would've wanted to change anyway, but it does add a definite "What the F@#$?" aspect to our house hunting experience, thus far.

Seriously cant wait to get out of here.

Jeannie and I both had trouble sleeping last night. Could've been the falafel (we made a bunch and I'm having some leftovers right now - it's delicious!) we had for dinner, or the beer I had, and I'm guessing that Jeannie was kept awake by thoughts of houses, because when I got up at 5:45 this morning, she was in the living room working with floorplans on the computer. I ended up having at some point some weird dreams about people from high school.

House hunting is strange. It's not easy, and it has definitely taken effort to try to remember to enjoy the process. I'm thankful that we're looking at a time that's a relatively low-stress time for buyers, and I'm thankful that I'm looking with someone who cares very much about houses, and cares very much about how they work, and is able to see the potential (or lack thereof) in things.

Friday, March 13, 2009

J-Dog Fun Fact #1

My wife keeps a rolled-up orange towel by her pillow, and calls it "Waylon." Waylon's exact purpose is unknown (by me), but apparently has something to do with a heating pad and the ability to apply the heating pad to areas of her head at the proper angle and pressure.

Huh.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Shorn

Shotgun Willie

A few weeks ago I heard a Willie Nelson song called "Shotgun Willie" on an episode of LOST (I'll just go ahead and link to it over there in the music player). Ever since, it's been kinda stuck in my head, haunting me. I'm a sucker for country songs with stabby horns and chill 70's beats. And anyway, this song, and the fact that some of LOST is now set in the 70's, and my big shaggy beard have started me thinking about the 70's. I think I would've liked them had I been around in them longer. They seem kinda sad and dreary and dominated by different tones of brown, all of which I enjoy. In my head I picture the seventies as being constantly October and constantly raining.

I decided today to shave the beard. I think that during the shaving process I'm going to pause to mimic the different facial hair styles of several historical U.S. presidents (most notably a Chester A. Arthur) but I'll probably settle on a good ol' Al Swearingen for a few days before going back to my usual sexy stubble. Wouldn't mind trying out a Rollie Fingers, either.

Not too much else. I went to the gym today for the first time in a long time. For most of the winter I've just been running around the neighborhood and not making official gym visits, but I think I'll start up again, as it felt pretty good. I tend to be able to run longer at the gym because it's not so goddamned cold (or hot, depending on whatever temperaturely-annoying season it happens to be). Also worked on some music last night and came up with absolutely zilch. I'm feeling pretty creatively dead recently. Empty. Blank.

Looking at more houses this weekend. Let's hope they're not, overall, as shitty as the last bunch.