Wednesday, April 28, 2010

We Will Soon Be Able To Bake Large Things

The oven has never worked at this place. We've checked a few things here and there to try and figure out what was wrong with it, but haven't ever really done much about it. We've been able to bake things (biscuits, pizzas) in small batches in our toaster oven, so it hasn't been a big deal. Nonetheless, we want our oven to fucking work, so the other night, after some helpful advice from the Jeanners' pappy (an engineer and all-around handy guy), we got serious about it and went out and bought a multimeter, and yesterday after work I spent about 5 hours fooling around with the range and trying to diagnose the problem. And finally I found the problem, and (if I hadn't knocked the igniter off of our counter and broken it and had to order a new one for $50), it's a simple, cheap fix. So hopefully in two days when the parts arrive we'll fix it up real good and bake a lasagna or a turkey or something like that.

The other night it rained super hard and we discovered that our roof is leaking in two spots. One is a pretty simple fix that we should be able to take care of this weekend, and the other is a bit more complicated -- replacing the flashing around our chimney. We should be able to handle it, but it saddens me because I feel like I was getting motivated and gaining momentum about getting the bedroom fixed up, and dealing with the leaks will throw a monkey-wrench into my plans. Monkey-wrenches in my plans knock me out of sorts and make me temporarily depressed.

I'm off work today, waiting for the waterproofing guys to arrive so they can do some more (free!) work on the basement. Also fixin' to cook up a large breakfast with lots of eggs and biscuits. And fake sausage and juice. If the grass is dry enough later on I'll cut the grass. Maybe do a little work on the bedroom closet.

Wow, what a boring post! Sorry, it's what's going on. Looking forward to our trip to the Lou! I decided yesterday that I'm gonna take the Jeanners on a dinner date when we get there...

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Into the Boudoir

The J-Dog and I are starting to work on the bedroom, which is pretty exciting. The bathroom isn't finished yet, but it's at a decent stopping point, and hashing out the details of the bathroom really brings the major work to a halt, and we'd really like to move into the bedroom sometime this summer. So -- onward and upward.

The last couple of nights, I watched a fairly lengthy 10 part interview with David Foster Wallace on the Youtubes, and I realized who he reminds me of: Schmor. A very self-conscious, socially uncomfortable, straight Schmor. But anyway, while listening to him in the interview, I got the same sort of feeling that I used to get while listening to Schmor, both in and out of class: that you are listening to someone very intelligent and interesting speak about things about which they have thought and felt deeply. And at the same time, they're completely down to earth, funny, dirty, and conversational.

I'm feeling a bit down this evening. Bored. Tired. I think I'll kick back with a G&T and some reading and sit in the living room with loud tunes on. I'm off work tomorrow, and planning on doing some work in the bedroom. Pulling down plaster, which is pretty shitty, indeed. But it will be good to get it done.

What else has been going on? Anything? Hmmm. We're heading to St. Louis in a couple of weeks for a visit, which we're looking forward to. My boss brought his kids to work today for "bring your kids to work" day, and they were pretty damned cute. I ate lunch with them. He has a 10-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son. We chatted about Justin Bieber and Avatar. I told the daughter that I think Justin Bieber needs a haircut and she said that's why she likes him. Ha!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Lost in the Supermarket

A lazy Saturday night tonight. The jeanners is on the phone with her friend, the Geners. I've got some tunes on, up pretty loud. Listening to a little bit of the Clash, some Beck, and some Coldplay. So far. Now a little Bowie action.

Not too much new or exciting going on. Had work today, which was fine, middle-of-the-month boring. But fine. I've worked a little bit on some music over the last week or so, with no decent results. It's been a little depressing, actually, the lack of any inspiration or results. I'm going back and forth between "go down and work on some tunes a little bit every day, even if there are no results" and "take a break, give it some time, and put in the work when you feel excited." Not sure which is the right direction to pursue, but I'm leaning toward the "putting in a little effort every day" option.

Finished up the DFW interview book. It made me look forward to eventually reading the last novel he was working on, "The Pale King," which I was initially not too excited about. Unfinished posthumous things usually leave me feeling a little bit cheated. But now I just feel like really diving into some DFW language for a little while longer.

TOMORROW: A tasty breakfast of eggs and fake sausage, biscuits, juice. I'll spend the day working in the bathroom, trying to get some inset shelves to work out, and the Jeanners is going to put in some more quality time on the garden, and will also be giving me direction on the bathroom work. She actually cares how things look. Silly girl.

I would like to say that I know very little about trees and flowers. However, I really like the azaleas that are blooming in the yard. They make me happy. You are all hereby invited to come sit on the porch with me and enjoy the azaleas.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

No Sleep 'til Brooklyn

I did not sleep well last night for several reasons. And I think that talking about those reasons will fill you in on everything that's going on right now:

1) I bought some fake hot dogs from Trader Joe's yesterday. They are actually called veggie protein links. They are Satan's food. The gas that they gave me sucked for a variety of reasons: A) There was lots of it. B) It stank bad. C) It hurt my tummy. D) Every fart I cut made me feel like I was pooping in my underwear.

It's strange though, because I'm craving hot dogs so bad right now that I have the package of veggie protein links in front of me on the table, and I want to cook some up and eat them -- despite the fact that I know they taste like the vaguest approximation of a hotdog, and despite the fact that as recently as 3 hours ago I sat on the toilet and vowed to never ever eat them again. Satan's food.

2) There is a position that will be opening up at my place of employment in the near future, and it is a position that I have expressed interest in before, and I fear that the long-term future of the position I currently hold is in jeopardy. So this morning I went up to work and told my (relatively new) boss that I was interested. We'll see if anything happens with it. It would be a lateral move for me, and it might involve a pay cut, and there are other people interested in the job, so there are lots of proverbial shoes that are still waiting to proverbially drop.

So I was thinking about that a lot last night.

3) I received in the mail yesterday a notice from the Circuit Court for Baltimore City Jury Commissioner that on April 1st I failed to report for jury duty and that they were going to fine me a thousand dollars and put me in jail for 60 days. OK, actually it said that those things were the maximum penalty for not showing up for jury duty, and it turns out that all I had to do was call today and reschedule my jury duty (July 14th. Bastille Day!), but nonetheless it helped keep me awake last night. As I said to the J-Dog, I wouldn't be able to make it in prison.

4) I got this book yesterday, about DFW. And it kept me awake because I was both thinking about it as I was in bed and also reading it during my numerous I-think-I-might-have-just-pooped-in-my-PJ's-and-I'd-better-go-check bathroom trips.



That's all. That's the stuff that was going on last night. And I really didn't mind it too much, because I'm off work today and I can nap if I want to, and because the Jeanners was having trouble sleeping, too, so we would chat briefly and hold hands while we both laid awake.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Climate Mood Swings

So it was like 90 degrees here a few days ago. Then we had a storm and it dropped down to like 40-50 degrees. Now today it was a pleasant 75ish. Delightful.

When it was cold, the jeanners and I decided to have a fire, because 1) I love fireplaces and I've wanted to have one the entire time we've been here 2) The soil in our future garden needs many pounds of wood ash dumped on it so it will get some nutrients and grow tomatoes as big as, well, big tomatoes, and 3) we have lots of bundled up sticks from the Great Tree Felling of '10 that we want to get rid of. The fire looked sort of like this:



But not really because it was actually much darker in the room (except for the fire part).

Today on the delightfully sunny, pleasant day, the Jeanners and I were finally able to rent a tiller and turn up the soil for our future garden. Jeannie's pretty damned excited. She's been waiting for a garden of her own for a long time. Using the tiller was hard work, but it went pretty well. I was very impressed with the J-Dog's tilling. I thought the tiller would throw her around a little bit, but she was totally manhandling that thing around. She's tough like that. This picture, however, makes it look like the tiller is about to take off down the street and she's trying to stop it. She wouldn't let me post it on Facebook:



Last night we had tickets to go see David Sedaris down at the Meyerhoff Symphony hall. He was reading from a bunch of his stuff. It was pretty good. Neither of us are slobbering fans, but we enjoy listening to him when he's on the radio, and last night's event was kind of like listening to him on the radio but you could see him. Oh, and in person he's allowed to say FREAKY MUTHAFOCKA. He also talked about how if you die at home alone with your dog, your dog will wait a few hours and then eat your face.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Red Snapper

Ugh, my belly's too full, full of biscuits that I accidentally burnt. I think our toaster oven's on crack, because lately its baking/toasting times have been less than predictable. Oh well, added adventure to the day. Anyway, my belly's full of biscuits and eggs and fake sausage and it's uncomfortable.

I have spent the day mostly working outside. I fired up the lawnmower and trimmer for the first time and cut the grass this morning. Not too bad, about 45 minutes to cut it and 45 minutes to trim, then 15 minutes to sweep up. I would like to take this opportunity to point out that "lawnmower" was one of the first words I ever learned to say. I could say it before I could even say my sisters' names, "Peggy" and "Patty."
Then this afternoon I've been finishing cutting up the remaining branches from the Great Tree Felling of '10, and raking the last of our autumn leaves into the compost bin that the J-Dog built:




Red Snapper, by the way, is the latest nickname that I've given the J-Dog. Monday night I was super tired from staying up too late on Sunday night (more on that later) and I was laying in bed, and the Jeanners was sitting in the living room and I was kind of deliriously joking with her that I was going to start calling her Red Snapper because she gets angry and turns red and starts snapping at me. Most of that is untrue (except for the snapping part), however. I don't think Red Snapper is going to stick as a nickname, but I've been enjoying it the last few days.

Sunday night I was up too late because I bought some concert tickets for Midlake down in DC and after I got off work, Abbey and Brian G and myself drove down and caught the show. It was really pretty damned good, although I have no idea how they make any money because there's 7 guys in the band and the club they were playing was pretty small. The keyboardist looked kind of like PKP. The drums on their albums are sometimes a little boring, but I thought the drummer rocked during the show, especially the song "Core of Nature," during which I almost shit my pants because it built up to such a stirring conclusion. Anyway, I didn't get home until after 1am (and I rushed into the house and made a little bit of a racket because I had to poop so bad (I thought I was going to poop in my pants for real after dropping Abbey off), so after I pooped I didn't get to bed until around 1:30. And then I had to get up at 5:45 for work in the morning. So I was tired, which eventually led to the delirious Red Snapper comments later that night, etc, etc.

My typing has really deteriorated. I hope it's because I've got the laptop at an awkward angle on my lap and not because I've had a stroke.

The biscuits are slowly making their way in a southerly direction, and I'm afraid I must go now.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Spring and All.

I've never been one who really notices spring very much. It has always seemed like such a short season; there's snow on the ground and then it gets a little warmer for a few days and then it's a hundred degrees and Jeannie and I are walking around in our underwear all the time. But this year has been different, probably because we had so much snow, and the house was so cold all the time, and winter seemed so long. This year spring seems especially deep and fragrant and lush, and is beginning to feel warm. It's pretty freakin' wonderful.

For the past couple of days, when Jeannie gets home from work we've been sitting on the front porch, soaking up the sunshine and talking. Resting, relaxing. This evening the J-Dog fell asleep out there as the sun was starting to set. Again, pretty freakin' wonderful.

I've got almost all the branches cut up from the Great Tree Felling of '10. Maybe a day or two more of cutting and bundling up branches after work. This weekend we're gonna try to rent a tiller to start the garden, although I think it's gonna be tough because everybody and their mother is going to be trying to rent a tiller.

Tonight on Twitter (!) I found out that Midlake is going to be playing in DC on Sunday, and I had no Sunday night plans, and tickets were cheap, and I'm making a conscious effort to see more live music, so after wok I'm gonna drive on down and catch the show with Brian G. Should be a good time.