Monday, February 28, 2011

A Proposal

Come on over.

We'll drink beer and put on an Aretha Franklin album, LOUD, in the living room.

Hang out.

You can sleep on a comfy air mattress in a 30% completed room with a mopped floor.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Dentist McGillicuddy

A woman introduces a man at a party and says, "This is my husband, Dentist McGillicuddy."

A woman introduces a man at a party and says, "This is my dentist, McGillicuddy."

Which is funnier?

Last night we watched the movie "Shutter Island". It held my attention but was dumb. Leonardo DiCaprio should never play any character with any sort of accent (and yet it seems that EVERY character he plays has some sort of stupid, unnecessary accent), and should never play any character over the age of 18.

The laptop that Jeannie's brother gave us before Christmas died yesterday. I have narrowed the problem down to two particular chips on the motherboard, and am contemplating buying the chips on e-bay for 10 bucks and attempting the fix myself, even though I've never done any sort of electronics repair. Yesterday, though, I was successful at taking the laptop apart twice and putting it back together with only one screw left over. Should I do it? Soldering would be required.

Tonight we met with a landscape designer and I feel slightly overwhelmed.

Josh Ritter has re-released his album The Animal Years with a bonus disc where he plays the whole thing solo acoustic. What a good album. I haven't listened to the bonus disc yet, and I'm sure it won't be as good as the original album, but still a pretty cool thing to do.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

The upswing

I just took a nap that made me feel like I took a fistful of roofies. But hell, I was tired and I needed a nap.

All of the things that I wrote about in the last post that were giving the J-Dog and I a tough time have become things of the past: we are scheduled to clear on our renovation loan on Monday, we've chosen and bought a hallway light fixture, and the visit from Jeannie's Dad and Bro is over, and turned out not so bad. In addition, our taxes have been filed, and we should be getting a snazzy refund that will take some of the sting out of our car purchase.

Yesterday I had a day-long training session out at the Ellicott City store, and it was boring and pretty dumb, but at the end of the day I got to stop in at the CSC offices, since I was so close. Nice to see the CSC peeps, since I've been out of the loop lately.

Ugh. My head is muddled. I'm having a difficult time writing this right now.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Blurgh. Or Blargh.

The Jeanners and I are both a bit grumpy and discombobulated today. Apprehensions about the people at the title company not getting our renovation loan shit in order in time to close by the end of the month (which is when we need to close by), frustrations choosing hallway lighting, and an impending visit from Jeannie's Dad and older brother that we're both a little anxious about. Things just don't seem to be smooth or easy today. An uphill day.

It's windy as hell here. If you know me well, you know I don't like wind.

Tonight I dumped a good amount of pasta on my shirt while attempting to eat it. The pasta. Not my shirt. I was attempting to eat pasta and instead dumped it on my shirt.

Yesterday was a beautiful day and I heard 'Where the Streets Have No Name' on the radio while driving home from the liquor store with the sunroof open. It doesn't get much better than that. Especially since it was followed up by Prince's 'Let's Go Crazy.' Also, it got up to 65 degrees inside our house, which is the warmest it's been in several months.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Reality

Two facts that I have always known, but that over the last day or so have sunk into my gut to a level where I realized that, although I knew them (the facts), I did not necessarily TRULY KNOW THEM:

1. Bert and Ernie are puppets. They are not real people. The rest of the muppets and sesame street casts always seemed like puppets, but for some reason those two never did.

2. The word 'spankin' ('If you keep that up, you're gonna get a spankin!') is not a word. It's a bastardized version of 'spanking.'

Monday, February 14, 2011

Jobs.

I have realized over the last week or so that I like Michelle Obama. Since we've been sans TV for awhile, I'd never really seen her speak much or anything, but I've caught a few things here and there online and at work during the last few days, and I have cast my vote. Pro Michelle.

Today I was thinking about the different jobs I've had. I can't remember why. This is what I remember: It was about 2pm, and I had just gotten out of the shower. I was sitting on the edge of the bed (in the dining room), putting on my shoes, and sunlight was coming in through the blinds. It was windy and I could hear thr trees outside blowing in the wind, and I could see the shadows of their branches moving around in the room. Anyway, here's the list of jobs I remember:

1. ticket-taker at high school hockey games.
2. worked for a lawn-care company, mowing lawns.
3. worked for a sod company for 1 day and then quit.
4. grocery store. Started smoking regularly while I worked there.
5. worked for a contractor for a few weeks, maybe a month.
6. worked on the Goldenrod Showboat. 75 performances of Hello, Dolly!.
7. Scenic carpenter at Stages St. Louis.
8. Auditorium Manager at Truman. I still have nightmares about this job.
9. Power Plant. Many jobs at the power plant. Laborer, Coal Gang (bulldozer driver, tugboat worker, and a cushy job sitting at a computer and operating belts), Plant Oeprating Engineer. I still have nightmares about this job.
10. The Nobes. After 8 years of working there, I have finally started to make what I made when I started at the power plant.


Had an inventory at work last night. Relatively uneventful. I got home around 3am and then worked this afternoon at 3. Unfortunately I have to go in tomorrow at 7, and I should really be in bed right now, but I needed a little while to wind down, aka drink a gin and tonic and eat most of a baguette with a ton of butter.

Had a tasty dinner for jeannie's birthday at The Hellmand, a place where we had never been but was nice and cute and good food. I got her a manure fork for her birthday, which is what she had asked for. A manure fork is pretty much the same thing as pitchfork, but ergonomically designed specifically for picking up and throwing ("pitching") feces, I guess.

Highlight of the week, probably: got an e-mail from the Beej on Friday night - "Are you working tomorrow" - Saturday morning at work he magically comes strolling through the door and we get to catch up a little bit. He was in town for a lightning visit in order to take care of in-law familial obligations with his ladyfriend. Always good to catch up with the Beej. Just thinking about getting to see him makes me happy inside my head.

Monday, February 07, 2011

Guitaw Hummin'

My poop for the last couple of days has looked and smelled remarkably like what it was in its former life: rice and cream of broccoli soup and corn and peas.

Sorry about that. I needed an intro. Something to get me started when I don't have much to write about and what I really want to write about (the house and what we've been doing with it over the last couple of days) I've decided that I don't want to write about anymore because I've become a little obsessed and it's the only thing I seem to be able to think or write about. Like somebody who's obsessed with their job or their kids or their new girlfriend or something, and there ain't much more boring than that. So I'm going to try and not write about that very much anymore.

Which leaves a big nagging hole in the "topics to write about" area. There's always poop. There will always be poop. So there might be even more writing about my poop than usual in here over the next, oh, 5 years or so.

What else is there? The Jeanners has a birthday coming up. Card and present purchased, baked goods baking will commence over the next day or so. Her birthday's on Saturday, and unfortunately I have to work during the first part of the day, so that kinda sucks a little but not too bad. We'll do something fun that night. Maybe watch a 'Thirtysomething' AND a 'Mad About You.'

The Jeanners and I looked over our finances the other day, and the past few months have been one big fiesta of money-spending (especially with the new (used) car purchase, which was in our price range but definitely at the very tip top of our price range), so we have decided to make a conscious effort to save some dough. Our usual method of saving money is just getting our paychecks, buying whatever we want or need during the month and then whatever's left over goes into savings. That has worked pretty well up until now (we don't really have expensive tastes), but with all the money we've been putting into Mr. X (I think I'm going to start saying
'Mr. X' instead of 'house' now) and the money we spent on the car, it seems like a good idea to make a bit more of an effort.

Starting to reread Kerouac's Desolation Angels. Definitely one of my favorite books.

Some things that I've always wanted to write in here but have never found the right context in which to insert them:

1. Every time I cook with garlic (which is about 2 or 3 days a week), I think of Drew H.

2. Along the line of human development, I'm guessing there was a year in which human comfort and the level of negative human impact were relatively balanced. That is, at some point human comfort started costing the earth a whole lot to maintain, and I'm wondering when was the last time that it didn't cost the earth a whole lot to maintain, but comfort levels were still relatively (within the context of all of human history) high. Just before the industrial revolution? Is that the type of lifestyle we should be shooting for in order to minimize our impact on the planet? Or is there a futuristic, high-tech solution?

3. I have bunions. I think it is karma for publicly making fun of a former girlfriend's fucked up feet. Although, in my defense, I only made fun of her feet long after we had broken up, and to people that didn't necessarily know who she was.

Lately I've been wishing I had time to really put some serious work into recording, but then when I do scrape together an evening to head down to the basement, the stuff I record is boring and well-trod and pedestrian. Ugh.

Today I am off to Lowe's in Hunt Valley and Second Chance. Every time I go to Second Chance I think to myself, "I'd skin awhile and cry awhile." Which if you're a This American Life buff you might get but if you're not then you just think I'm stupid. I'm guessing that 99% of the four people that read this think I'm stupid.