September 2007 Archives

The Internet and I have been feuding. For a variety of reasons, mostly having to do with crappy service, John and I discontinued our Comcast high speed Internet last week. The switch to dialup has not been exactly smooth. First of all, wow is dialup slow! I’m practically chiseling cuneiform into clay tablets over here. Second, a quick memo to the fine people at Verizon – if the login code you want me to use is two digits forward slash username, but your instructions tell me it is three digits forward slash username, well that’s bound to cause problems, isn’t it? We did not start off on the right foot. Your customer service guy was very friendly, even if I did have to battle a crappy connection to India and wait on hold for a ridiculous amount of time. Way to gear all of your customer service to broadband and FIOS customers – which, by the way, I’d be happy to be – if only you offered it in my neighborhood.

Anyway, it all seems to be sorted out now, provided I don’t go insane while waiting for a graphics-intensive page to load. I’m sure we will eventually cave and go back to Comcast since we have no other high-speed options, but we’re going to hold out as long as we can. Until then, I’ll be over here standing on principle, dodging dinosaurs and cavemen, tapping my foot and waiting for stuff to download. So, back to the posting!

The Internet may not be great, but at I still have television. The new TV shows are starting to pop-up. So far, I have checked out Journeyman, the Bionic Woman, and Reaper. Journeyman is about a reporter in San Francisco who suddenly finds himself shifting through time involuntarily. It was ok. I’ll give it a couple more episodes to develop, because it features Lucius Vorenus from Rome and the story has promise. Reaper’s premise is that this kid turns 21 and finds out that his parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born. Now he has to go start collecting souls of bad guys who have escaped from hell, or the devil will take one of his parents. It was funny and clever, and I’m definitely going to watch it again. Of course, I usually like Kevin Smith directed stuff. This Bionic Woman is not the slightly hippie leaning show I remember from the ‘70’s. It’s much darker and more action oriented. It definitely shows promise.

Have you found any new shows you like? Or hate?

My little Honda Civic, which I love, is closing in on 100,000 miles. It has been a steady, sturdy, reliable car so far, requiring little more than oil changes, new tires, and new brakes. I still like the way it looks. I still enjoy driving it. And yet…the minor inconveniences are starting. Neither of the alarm remotes works anymore. The automatic door lock on the passenger door is broken. It makes an ominous creaking noise if you take a curve or corner too fast. John insists that creak is just the car getting older, but it makes me nervous. The engine doesn’t run as quietly as it once did, and on top of that added noise, mystery rattles make an appearance from time to time. Every once in a while, it sort of hiccups between gears, which makes me wonder if the transmission is starting to go. But like I said, it has been a great car so far.

Lately, John and I have been talking about getting a new car. I have a long drive every day, and as John points out, I won’t love the car very much the first time it breaks down and strands me on the side of the highway. Part of me feels like it is dumb to get rid of a car before it breaks down – I mean, it’s working fine right now. Part of me feels like it is smart to get rid of a car before it breaks down. I mean, we all know it will someday! Part of me is sentimentally attached to this car. Part of me likes not having to make a car payment every month. We can afford it, but not having to spend that money is better.

So I guess you could say I’m conflicted.

Then there’s the problem of what car to get. I like cars like these:

Volvo C30

Honda CRV

Honda Civic coupe

Porsche Boxster

Ok, fine, so the Boxster is a complete fantasy that a) I can’t afford. Hell, I probably can’t even afford the insurance on it. and b) far too impractical for me to buy even if I could afford it. But I do like the other cars. Another Civic coupe would be acceptable. I think those new Volvo hatchbacks are really cute and they aren’t planning on selling a ton of them, so I’d have a car that wasn’t like everyone else’s, and I just plain like the shape of the CRV. It may be too much of an SUV for me though, in reality.

John wants to get a hybrid, and I know he’s right. I drive a lot, so we probably would make up the extra expense with savings in fuel costs. I do care about the environment, and none of the cars above get spectacular gas mileage. Oh, my current Honda isn’t bad, but it’s no hybrid. He’s specifically interested in a:

Toyota Prius

Or

Honda Civic Hybrid

because they have the best gas mileage and yet are still decent sized cars. It’s kind of funny, because you would expect him to be whining about not getting a sedan – the man loves to drive, and drive fast – but no, he’s fine with the idea. The design of the Prius is probably closer to the type of car I like than the boring Civic sedan, however, my brother’s girlfriend has one and it beeps at you A LOT. I think that might get on my nerves. You don’t have to tell me when I’m in reverse. I know when I am in reverse, because I am not a moron. Plus, I already know Hondas to be quality cars. Of course, I think my mom is closing in on 300,000 miles on her Toyota, so I’d say that’s a pretty good mark of quality too.

For now, I think I’ll probably waffle indecisively for a while until either my car breaks down and I get pissed off enough to take action, or I start to feel better about one of my options. Maybe take a couple of test drives. Perhaps if I try that new Volvo C30, I will hate it, and then not want one any more. And I could take a Prius out for a spin and fall madly in love. We'll see.

Last night the challenge on Top Chef was to create something fabulous using the basic ingredients of chicken, onions and russet potatoes. I think the idea was that by focusing on simple ingredients they could really showcase their technical skills for the judges. The chefs came up with some interesting dishes, but none of them made what seemed to be the most obvious choice to me - roasted chicken and potatoes. I suppose it might not be gourmet enough, but they were cooking for French chefs, and you can make a lovely French roasted chicken. It got me to thinking about this Dijon mustard/herbes de Provence crusted roast chicken with chunks of onions and potatoes that I used to make. It was really, really good.

They can do a lot in the fake meat arena these days. They've made a lot of progress just since I went vegetarian six years ago, and now you can get decent fake bacon and "steak" strips for cheesesteak subs and stir fries, fake turkey for sandwiches, and veggie burgers, of course. But there is no vegetarian substitute for a nice roasted chicken.

I'm not giving up on vegetarianism or anything, and for the most part, I don't miss eating meat, poultry or seafood. I guess I could toss some potatoes with mustard and olive oil and herbes de Provence and roast them, but I don't think it will be quite the same.

The technology won.

I live 27 miles from my office. On the weekends I can make it down to that general area in 25 minutes, but during the week it is a different story. It frequently takes me an hour or longer, and one of the ways I keep my cool while I'm sitting in traffic is by listening to morning radio. This morning, out of nowhere, my car radio just started refusing to tune in to most stations. All of my favorites were fuzzy and switching back and forth to other nearby frequencies. It only lasted for the half of my drive that is closest to Frederick, and I've heard that occasionally they do something at Fort Detrick that messes up people's garage door frequencies, so I'm wondering what they were up to this morning. Either that, or aliens are on their way.

Whatever it was, the problem was solved by this evening. Still for a little while there, the only station I could get was Mix 107.3, and I cannot stand that stupid, smug Jack Diamond morning show. It was like being trapped in a mobile version of hell. And naturally, the one time I would have been ok with stop and go traffic so I could try to dig the neglected tape box out from where it is wedged under the passenger seat, I didn't get any. Luckily by the time I hit Clarksburg the radio came back. It was still weird, and annoying.

But technology wasn't done messing with me yet. We have a great IT department at my company - staffed with really friendly and helpful guys who are not even a little bit condescending when I call up with whatever stupid problem I'm having at the time. However, today they were doing something that resulted in an email I really needed to receive getting quarantined, and while they notified me of the quarantine, I couldn't go retrieve the email for some reason. And then my computer lost the ability to save. That's right, when I went to save the changes I was making to my document, my stupid computer froze. At first I just thought it was Word acting up (I'm always ready to judge Microsoft like that) but then I cut and paste in to Notepad, and that wouldn't save either. I ended up printing out my all the stuff I was working on and leaving everything open on my desktop. Hopefully there will be no restarting or power surges overnight ,and the problem will have resolved itself by the morning. John pointed out that I could have pasted the copy in to an email and sent it to myself. I wish I'd thought of that, but, well, I didn't.

At least I made it home without any more incidents. And tomorrow is another day.

I don't know what the hell is going on with my body this week. My hair, which has always been dry, dry like the Sahara, has suddenly decided to start getting greasy at the roots. Oh sure, the ends are still dry (and frizzy - let's not forget frizzy!), but by the end of the day, the rest of my hair is just gross. I went and bought new shampoo tonight, which had better help. Otherwise I have no idea how to handle this. I've never ever had oily hair before in my life.

On top of that, I have an enormous, glowing, Rudolph-like zit on the left side of my nose, another one perched comfortably right where my glasses sit on my ear, and a third one that appears to be lurking on the other side of my nose. Oh yes, and there's one on my back too. Nice. I generally don't have trouble with my skin, but you'd think I'd just gotten a job at McDonalds or something. I have not been eating fried foods, or dipping myself in vats of oil.

Do you suppose I could be going through some sort of second puberty? I wouldn't mind hitting a growth spurt - after all, shooting up an inch or two would make me instantly thinner - but it seems unlikely to happen at age 36.

One of the unexpected joys of marriage, in my opinion, is finding new ways to say I love you to each other. John and I had been together for seven years before we got married, and I didn’t think life post-wedding would be all that different than it was pre-wedding, but I was wrong. Our relationship really has deepened and grown since we got married. I suppose there’s a chance it would have happened even if we hadn’t gotten married, just as a natural extension of being together for so long, but at the same time, there’s a feeling of “we’re in this together” that only came about after our wedding. It’s nice.

Well today John did what may be the most romantic thing he’s ever done for me. I was feeling oppressed by the man (sometimes work just gets me down), my sister-in-law (sometimes she’s just bitchy) and Comcast (apparently my only option for high-speed Internet, which sucks, because they suck) and still tired from yesterday’s overexertion/heat exhaustion extravaganza. And then I came home to discover that he had cleaned three of our four bathrooms. We don’t bother with the one in the basement because we never use it. The sink is cracked, and the toilet clogs if you think about using it.

Screw diamond jewelry, roses, and boxes of candy. Nothing makes my heart beat faster than a man who’ll clean a bathroom.

I love you John, and thank you for doing something you know I hate so much.

I ran a 5k today with my friend Becky and her friends. Then I went and helped my mom do some gardening, followed by a quick stop by my mother-in-law’s house, where one of the world’s most useless real estate agents was having an open house. Gosh, the basement smells musty? Well, did the people you recommended to clean the place actually clean it? Because then it shouldn’t smell musty.

Anyway, I spent most of the afternoon feeling like crap, leading to the realization that I’m not very good at running outdoors. Becky’s going to stop inviting me to races if I don’t quit sucking out there, but I really don’t do well outside. Even in the nice air conditioned gym, I try to grab the treadmill that is under the fan. I seem to have trouble pacing myself outside, and I struggle on hills. This morning I got way too hot and had to stop and walk for a bit, although we did end well, picking back up and running the last half mile. We finished in something like 35:50, which isn’t the worst time ever, but it wasn’t great either. I’m sure without me along Becky would have been finished way earlier. Between the running and the gardening – digging holes, planting bushes, and lugging around 40 pound bags of mulch – I was completely worn out.

Two bottles of water, a bottle of Gatorade, a glass of lemonade and a glass of water later, I found myself sitting on the couch feeling dehydrated, head-achy and lousy. Clearly I need to work on building up my stamina. It would be nice to be able to run faster, but first I need to get less wimpy. I’m thinking I might work on some sort of training program and focus on getting ready for a Thanksgiving Day 10k. Hopefully that’s far enough away for me to make some real progress on gaining more endurance.

Hi!

So, I don't really have much of an explanation for why I've been quiet lately, unless "I've been feeling contrary and haven't had much of anything that is of any interest to anyone to say" counts as an explanation. I think maybe I need a vacation, since I'm feeling burned out on just about everything in my life. But it's not all doom and gloom.

In the last week I:

• worked a lot. No surprise there.

• saw Superbad. It was so funny that John actually did the laugh so hard his shoulders were shaking, but he couldn't make any noise thing multiple times. It is chock full of teenage boy humor, which apparently is right up my alley.

• bought new running shoes. I cannot say enough nice things about the people at Fleet Feet. I am by no means a serious runner with my 12 to15 miles per week, and yet they are as nice to me and as encouraging to me and spend as much time with me as if I was a marathon runner.

• discovered that four weeks of careful portion control, getting 100% back in to my exercise routine, and generally being sore, tired and hungry ALL the time has resulted in me gaining five more pounds. I admit I had a brief fling with chocolate chip cookies and sour cream and cheddar potato chips this weekend, but not five pounds worth! I am seriously pissed off at my body right now, but all I can really do is keep at it.

• read a bunch of books. I am now caught up with everyone else from seven years ago and have read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. It was interesting and amusing, although naturally I do not share his disdain for vegetarians. I say a good chef can create inspired gourmet food without having to depend on meat, poultry or fish. I do enjoy opinionated writers, even if I don't always agree with them. I also read the last S.M. Stirling book on my list, Conquistador. I liked it. Rather than being a post-apocalyptic tale, this one had people choosing to build a new society through a gate into an alternate Earth. Similar themes, but without as much death and mayhem. He draws such nice strong characters, and keeps the story moving along nicely. It almost makes me wish there was a wormhole in my basement! Plus the book had a twist ending. I do love me a good twist. I also read a new book by Jennifer Fallon, Warlord. She's more of a fantasy author, but I find I'm liking her storytelling more and more with each new book she writes. This one was third in a series, and of course I ended up buying it in hardcover, because I was impatient to know what happened next.

• discovered this site in yet more work related internet surfing. I know, I'm probably the last person on the planet to find it, right? Well, whatever, it's a cool site and I like it. One of the first posts I read was about a short story collection called Wastelands, Stories of the Apocalypse. How could I not like the site?

• and a whole bunch of other crap that would bore you to tears, if I haven't already.

I have no deep thoughts to share tonight. Just wanted to get back on the blogging horse and actually write something for a change. Perhaps I'll try for something more inspired tomorrow.