July 2008 Archives

No, not Seamus. He’s just perfect exactly the way he is. It's me. I live 27 miles from my office. I live even farther than that from my mom, from most of my friends, from the good stores, from my favorite Indian restaurant. I drive a lot. That, along with my environmental worries, is why I bought a hybrid last fall. And just in time too, since I hear it is quite difficult to get your hands on one now.

However, I have never even come close to getting the kind of miles per gallon that they claimed I would get when I bought the car. Don’t get me wrong, the mileage I get is good, and better than I got with my non-hybrid Civic, but it is not the spectacular MPG that one might expect. “No big deal,” I always said, “there are more reasons than just MPG to buy a hybrid.”

Of course, the problem had very little to do with the car or marketing claims (although I do think they exaggerate a bit) and a lot to do with the fact that I’m a speeder. Yep, I drive fast. Way faster than I should. Well, I generally don’t get to speed in the mornings, since that is when I spend my quality time sitting in traffic on 270. But I typically stay later at work or go to the gym, which means that there is more open road available on the drive home. However, everyone says that driving slower helps improve your fuel efficiency (pesky rules of physics), so I’ve been trying – really trying very hard – to stick to the speed limit lately.

And what do you know…it makes a pretty big difference. This is DC though, so you can’t ever go exactly the speed limit. Certainly not on the highway, but I’ve slowed down considerably. There are even benefits that go beyond using less gas/saving money. For example, I don’t have to worry about getting pulled over for speeding. That’s a nice change of pace. And I find I’m calmer behind the wheel. Since I’m trying to be courteous to the other drivers, I’ve moved out of the left lane to do my slower driving. I just cruise along at my previously determined appropriate speed, paying attention to what I’m doing (ok, perhaps paying a little bit too much attention, as watching the MPG indicator zoom up and down can get hypnotic), and not worrying about the jackasses who drive slow in the left lane and make everyone crazy. And by leaving the left lane, I’m also generally out of the way of the people who want to go 90 mph. That’s not to say that I don’t occasionally zip around someone who is going ridiculously slowly – for example, the guy who pulled in to my lane today and then dropped his speed for no reason. I thought maybe he needed to get over for an exit ramp or something, but no, he was just a moron.

And I definitely backslide from time to time. Driving slow is not as easy as you might think. I’ll look down and realize I’m going much faster than I mean to be, or I’ll see the MPG number start to drop. I’ll keep trying to make a permanent change to my driving behavior. I have no idea if it will take or not, but I’m giving it a shot.

Perfectly tart, a little bit sweet, deliciously refreshing on a steamy July afternoon. And dead easy to make too.

Lemonade recipe
¾ cup to 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like your lemonade)
1 cup water
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (roughly 6 large lemons)
3 to 4 cups cold water

Heat the sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan over medium/low heat until the sugar dissolves in to the water, set aside to cool.

Juice the lemons until you get 1 cup of juice. Pour the lemon juice into a pitcher. I don’t like a lot of pulp, so I pour mine through a strainer.

Add the sugar water mixture (also called simple syrup) to the lemon juice, and then add the 3 to 4 cups cold water. Stick in the fridge to chill, and then enjoy!

I am waging a losing battle against ants. They are invading my kitchen, and peculiarly, my foyer. The kitchen I understand. There’s nothing for them to eat in the foyer though. We don’t have an overwhelming number of ants, but there always seem to be one or two lurking about on the kitchen counter, just waiting for us to drop something or leave a crumb behind. Yes, even the ants are offering a silent, antennaed commentary on my housekeeping skills.

My fear, of course, is that these ants are just advance scouts for the waiting horde, which will descend on my house and make me utterly miserable. I am generally “Miss Hippie Peace and Love don’t kill anything” but I have been giving killing off these ants all I’ve got. We’ve put out ant baits. Multiple different kinds and brands of ant baits, actually. One with “two kinds of foods ants eat” and one with “quick kill formula” and a third that “targets the queen.” None of these seem to have had even the slightest effect on the ants. We’ll get a brief reprieve, and then they return. I even let John spray some nasty, horrible smelling, packed with stuff that is bad for you ant spray, a product which I am completely and totally opposed to, and it made no difference! Now I just smoosh them whenever I see them. Unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion the ants have us outnumbered, and I have no idea what we’re going to try next. Please don’t tell the ants.

Anyone with ant-killing ninja skills, please apply in the comments.

One of the things I’ve learned since we bought our house is how much I enjoy gardening. Sure, it’s hot and messy and sometimes a drought comes and kills off your azaleas, but overall, it is fun and deeply satisfying. Part of the reason I never knew I liked gardening was that my mom hated it. So once I discovered my love of working in the garden, I told her I’d be more than happy to help her with her garden.

Way back on the 4th of July, I went down and to wrestle her small back garden into shape. It went fine. I weeded, I trimmed, I dealt with choking vines and out of control forsythia bushes and everyone was happy by the afternoon. Aside from a small mulch over buying incident (apparently I just cannot get mulch quantities right) it was a complete success. Until later that night when I realized my left arm had been the victim of a vicious bug attack.

Or what I thought was a vicious bug attack. There appeared to be a string of bites going up my arm, clumping together, and culminating in one huge bite. The big bite got swollen and hot and painful. The little ones itched and burned. Then they all started oozing clear liquid. It was all very painful and disgusting, and you had better believe I did a lot of bitching and moaning. I was putting one of those cortisone creams on it, but that wasn’t doing anything. Then I stumbled across my knight in shining pink armor tucked away under the sink in the upstairs bathroom – Caladryl. Caladryl made an enormous difference. I love Caladryl.

By Sunday I thought I had recovered enough to stop using it, which was a complete mistake because all the nastiness came roaring back. It was at this point that John finally took a close look at the arm I had been so dramatically and piteously waving in his direction and came up with a different diagnosis. Dr. John thinks I have poison ivy, poison oak or sumac. Now, when I was kid, I was hideously, horribly allergic to poison ivy. I’d get it, it would spread, and soon my eyes would practically swell shut. That hasn’t happened, but this also isn’t going away. The battle for the supremacy of my left arm continues. Caladryl and I will fight the good fight, but does anyone know how long it takes to get over poison ivy/oak/sumac?

A while back I wrote about Torchwood and how much I was enjoying it. Then my life got busy and got very behind on my TV watching. But recently I got my priorities in order and got back to watching TV as is right and proper. Well, I finally saw Torchwood Season 2, and wow, was I disappointed. There were a few good episodes, but some of them just didn’t even make sense. They did have the guy who played Spike on Buffy on for a few episodes. It’s always nice to see him.

There was a good one about Gwen’s wedding, and another good one that showed how Jack, Owen, Ianto and Tosh each came to join Torchwood, but overall, Season 2 was not as good as season 1. And the finale! I actually sat on the couch feeling pissed off about the finale after we finished watching it. They killed off characters I liked, and they tried to have this grandiose plot, but they just didn’t quite pull it off. The writers were trying to build up to it all season, but they left the hints and back story too vague, and then the payoff just wasn’t believable. Supposedly there is going to be a shorter third season. I guess I’ll watch to see how they do without two of the characters, but I’m feeling skeptical. They will definitely have to win back over.

On a brighter note, I watched all of Season 1 of Heroes over the last few weeks, and I totally loved it! I kind of always suspected that I’d like that show, but John never wanted to watch it. He thinks superpowers are stupid. I, on the other hand, spent my childhood longing for special powers and think they are cool, so Heroes is right up my alley. The writing isn’t perfect, but it is pretty darn good, and unlike the plotting on Torchwood recently, they keep many threads going and weave them together seamlessly in the end. I hope Season 2 doesn’t let me down!

The only open question for me is, what sort of super power is best? There are a couple of characters who can absorb other people's powers. One by murdering them, and one just by being near them. That's probably the most useful one, provided you meet people with cool powers. Flying would be cool. I'm not sure how much use I'd get from being a firestarter. Shapeshifter would be awesome. What sort of super power do you think is best?

At 11:03 this morning, I had this conversation with a coworker: “Well, if we left right now, I bet we could find a bar somewhere that’s open.” “Yeah, or maybe a crack dealer,” he replied.

We might have been having a slightly stressful morning. My day eventually calmed down, but it sure got off to a crappy start. However, I keep looking for the positive. Positive fact #1 is that I have a four day weekend coming up, and not a minute too soon.

And now for the fun. They are having the equivalent of a Spirit Week at my office in July, with one goofy event planned for each Thursday. I was never one for Spirit crap in school – in fact, I’m not sure if we ever had a Spirit Week in school – but I do try to participate in this stuff at work. We all work really hard, and I support the people trying to bring some fun into our jobs. Anyway, while I’ll probably skip Red White and Blue Thursday, I am willing to go all out for Crazy Hat Thursday. I’ve started doing some research, and I’m leaning towards an animal themed hat, like the ones seen here. But which animal hat? The mooing cow? The shark? The gator? Or perhaps the flamingo? The penguin is out of stock, alas. Maybe I should go a completely different route. Please feel free to nominate your favorite crazy hat in the comments.