I can't EVEN stand it!

I know I haven't posted in a really, really long time, but I have good excuses. I've been busy researching CAT software (computer-aided transcription) for the last few weeks, and it's taken up a lot of time, but mostly it's taken up a lot of my brain. So this so-called CAT software is something that was originally created for steno machine users (y'know, the little court reporting machine you see on TV), but now they have updated a lot of the software so that it supports voice recognition as an input rather than steno type.

There's not a lot of info about these companies and the software they have, only because out of the billions of Americans out there, only a select few are court reporters, and out of those select few, only a more select few are voice writers (ones, like me, who use voice as the method of court reporting). So these are pretty small, specialized companies, and finding an objective viewpoint about the various programs out there is very tough, because each person that uses a certain program is only using that program, and there's no comparing and contrasting with other programs because they've never used them.

Anyway, I'm getting off the subject. The reason I titled this post "I can't EVEN stand it!" is because in order to be able to purchase and use a CAT software program, I needed to upgrade, if you will, my work computer. And, oh shit, I did! I purchased (well, Jay and I purchased - I mean, it's all from the joint checking account) a Toshiba Satellite with I-don't-even-know-what specs (something like 2 GB of something and 2 GB of something else and 4, count them, 4 USB ports), and HELL, it's orange! I'm not kidding! I somehow picked a computer that was customizable, and when I was online and picking out the specs I want, they let me have an orange computer for free (it's usually an extra $35)!

I guess the reason I'm so excited about it is because I'm writing this post as I sit on the couch in our living room. Hell! I have wireless Internet! I don't know how computers work, but sheesh, I'm sitting here watching some basketball with Jay and typing a blog entry! I can't even stand it!!

Can you tell that I've never really had technology comforts such as a good laptop or wireless Internet? I feel guilty! Is life this good? Weeee!

Also, we somehow acquired a huge effing TV today. Bucka wha?? I guess Jay's old boss was back in town, and he had a huge effing TV that he was trying to sell/give away because he couldn't move it halfway across the country. He was going to give it a buddy of his, but that buddy was moving to LA and couldn't take it. So Jay's old boss called up Jay and asked if he wanted a huge effing TV, Jay said, "Well... I guess...?" And now we have a TV that weighs 150 pounds and is HUGE. Okay, it's not as huge as the TV my parents have (they have a fancy, fancy flat-screen thing), but it's one of those fancy HD TVs that came out before the flat-screens came out. It's a monster. Rrrroar.

Again, anyway, I've been typing this blog entry piecemeal over the past 45 minutes, because we were watching the Celtics game, and during that, Jay would check his fantasy basketball scores... on my new computer!... and now he's watching some other games whilst checking his fantasty basketball scores... on my new computer! I can't even stand it!!

So tomorrow I should be receiving a 30-day trial version of one CAT software program, which I shall put ... on my new computer! For those who care or are interested, there is a difference between simple voice-recognition software and a full-fledged CAT software package. I had a tough time understanding that concept...

So a primer on what my job is: I talk into a mask. I sit in the courtroom during court proceedings and repeat what everyone says into my mask and identify speakers and note when nonverbal things happen, such as "Court confers with clerk" or "Witness points" or something. My mask has a microphone in it. I have a Marantz tape recorder that uses cassette tapes, and I plug a mixer with room mikes (placed at counsel table, at the judge's bench, at the witness stand, at sidebar, etc.) into it along with my mask. So I end up having a cassette tape (that I have to flip every 45 minutes - a big distraction during murder trials, I tell you) with two tracks: my voice from a mask and the room tracks. In the meantime, I take notes in a notebook about what time the proceedings start and stops, if the defendant is present, who counsel is, and any weird names/words I don't know that I have to ask someone about. (I hate that part of my job!)

When a transcript is ordered, I then find my notes, figure out what tape has that proceeding on it, pop the tape into my transcriber (which is a tape player with a foot pedal that I can play, rewind, or fast forward with), and listen to the tape and type what I hear. I can type about 15 pages an hour. Then when I'm finished typing, I proofread the transcript to the tape. Then I print it. Then I proofread the printout and make corrections as needed.

If I buy the CAT software, what will happen is that I will have my computer in the courtroom. I'll have my mask and my room mikes hooked up to the computer (somehow). I will open the CAT software, and the software will utilize a speech-recognition engine (like Dragon NaturallySpeaking or ViaVoice) and bring it into a 'realtime' screen where I can see the text, it gets formatted as it goes (through voice commands and 'macros'), and there's an audio recording attached to the file.

That will hopefully take out the typing component of my job, which takes the most time (I mean, 15 pages an hour? Come on!! I takes me months to type a 5-day trial!) If I can just go in and correct the text and proof it and pring and proof again, it'll save so much time. And I AM SO EXCITED about it! I am so excited about the challenge of learning a whole new aspect of my job!

All right. My post is already too long. I'm just super excited that I'm typing it from my couch, and I'm getting excited that I'm talking (or typing, I should say) about the CAT software. Am I a geek or what?

<-----------------------------GEEK

More homebrewing

Yes, it's been quite a while since beer has been brewed in the Bailey household. Oh, but won't things change soon... won't they...

Jay lended me a hand last Sunday in brewing a batch of IPA. We got the recipe out of the one and only recipe book I own, and we wanted an IPA, because we both enjoy the IPAs, and the book only had three IPA recipes, and two of them were for all-grain brewing (which I don't know how to do - I like the cans of malt extract syrup or the bags of dried malt extract), so that left us with the Taken Liberties Ale. We went to the homebrew store in the afternoon and we started to brew later on in the evening. I hadn't read the instructions, but there was a lot of waiting involved, which isn't always the case with brewing a batch of beer. So it took a little longer than expected, but it all turned out fine.

The most exciting part was dry-hopping the beer. I'd never done that before. Usually you put hops in while the beer is boiling, and the longer you let them boil, the more bitter the beer will be. The hops you add later on in the boil (like during the last 5 minutes) are "finishing hops," which means that the beer will smell and taste like hops, but those finishing hops won't actually contribute much to actual bitterness. (Kind of confusing; I'm still trying to figure out the difference between hop flavor and bitterness.) But when you dry-hop your beer, you just put in more hops once the beer's been fermenting for 4 or so days, and I guess that contributes more to the hop flavor and aroma of the beer. And it being an IPA, you might as well have some of that, you know?

And today I am going to brew yet another batch. We went to the homebrew store yesterday after much deliberation. They were holding a 'teach your friend to homebrew day' event, which probably isn't much different than any other event that might be named anything else, because mostly it consists of 7 people in the back parking lot drinking and brewing all-grain beer. Jay was concerned that we'd be outcasts because we don't really know anybody, and all those people probably already know each other, but I was saying that we'll just go, look around the store, and if there's a friendly soul that starts chit-chatting, we'll go out to the parking lot and shoot the you-know-what.

So we ended up chatting with some different people, we met some nice folks, specifically an older gentleman who just retired from teaching math for 35 years. We went around and checked out all the different set-ups for all-grain brewing, which I think are specifically designed to intimidate amatuer homebrewers like me. Jay and I decided one day we'll try doing the all-grain thing... one day... But I ended up purchasing a beer kit that they put together, which is around $30 and comes with all the ingredients for a batch. I decided on a dark wheat beer that they call "Deep Winter Wheat," which should be pretty tasty, I hope.

So off I go to do some brewing. Hopefully we'll do a few more batches in the coming weeks so we can have a nice stockpile of tasty homebrew to keep us going, because as we all know, that's what keeps the Baileys going: beer. Specifically, homebrewed beer. Mmm. So tasty.

And brewing beer makes the house smell so nice. At least Jay and I think so.

Life change!

So Thursday was Jay's last day of work, and now he fancies himself a "domestic goddess," even though he's male. He went grocery shopping yesterday, picked up some veggies, came home, grilled the veggies for a grilled veggie salad for dinner, picked up the house a bit. Then Matt came over to watch the C's game.

On my way home from work, I smelled something burning, saw some smoke coming from under my hood, and then my power steering went and I had strange lights coming on in my dashboard. And I was in the third lane on the Pike in stand-still traffic. I freaked out, tried to cut people off as I frantically headed towards the Watertown exit, and no one would let me in. Massholes! I'm not one to cut people off on highways - I put my blinker on and patiently wait until an opening comes up. I hate when people just cut out in front of you and you have to slam your brakes on. Anyway, I had to cut off a Mac truck. Luckily I was able to get off the exit and head into Watertown (there's no sharp turns, so the fact that my power steering went was sort of okay). I stopped at the first gas station I could find that had a garage bay, barely made the turn into the lot, and asked the guy if they fix cars. Right across the street was their service station, and it was open till 7:00!

So Jay and Matt had to come pick me up while they worked on my car. I guess a belt snapped because the water pump was leaking hot coolant on it, and then some pulley thing locked up. ?? Whatever. It's just funny that that happened the day after Jay quit, because now we can handle being down to one car!

We'll keep you up to date on how Jay's handling his new role as househusband. He's doing great so far!

More gardening classes, and more news

More gardening class notes: I skipped my last gardening class because I was pretty busy with work. You might remember I was disappointed with the first class because everything was pretty much over my head, seeing as how I don't actually have a garden yet, and most of the stuff (okay, all of it) was geared towards people who have established gardens and who actually know stuff about, you know, plants. Anyway, I was optimistic, sort of, about the most recent class. And it was pretty much a lot of the same stuff as Class No. 1 (which makes me wonder what they covered in the class I missed - maybe that was the one where they actually taught you how to create a garden?). So I figure I'll ride it out, take some notes about all the different ways to kill insects and pests, and yes, even chippies and squirries, and then I'll buy a book about basic gardening, most likely one of those Dummy how-to books. Or maybe I should bite the bullet and say, "Hey, I don't know what the frig you're talking about, 'cuz I don't have a garden."

Anyway, Jay and I are charting some new territory in our lives. We've been thinking and thinking about exactly where it is we want to end up, so Jay's decided that he wants to go back to grad school, so he gave his two-weeks notice last Tuesday at his job! Weee! It's strange that we're so excited about one of us being unemployed, but I'm super, super happy that he'll get a chance to hunker down, research grad progams, get his portfolio together, and just chill out for a while. It'll be nice to actually have one person be home to take care of some of the stuff we have so much trouble with, like managing how to get one of our cars in the shop or taking Abe to the vet or making phone calls to doctors or dentists or whatever. With two people working full time, it is super, super difficult to get those little things done.

So both of us are SUPER excited! If you see Jay, tell him congrats :)

Hi! I'm in a good mood!

Well, here I am posting, and I just want to say that it's a beautiful fall day out, I love the sunshine, I love the different colors the trees are turning, and that's about it. Jay and I are hoping to go apple-picking tomorrow if we have time. I have a super-long transcript I've been working on nonstop for a few days, and if I get lots and lots done, we should be able to sneak in a fall outing.

This past weekend was my nephew Mason's first birthday party, and it's so funny how many cameras -- film, digital, or video -- were there. The kid had NO idea what was going on and mostly looked concerned and overwhelmed the whole time. The absolute funniest thing was when he was presented a little red convertible plastic car he can sit in, and he immediately started crawling all around it, checking it out from all angles. He touched the wheels, moved around to the back, got on his belly and looked underneath the car, crawled around to the front, checked out the stick-on headlights, crawled to the side again, got back on his belly and looked under the car -- it was so, so funny. If only he could have kicked the tires... And he went around like that about eight times!

I brought our video camera and got lots (probably way too much) footage of him. Hopefully I'll edit it on the computer one of these days... It's funny to think about the way people document things. I like to take lots of pictures, but most people get fussy and weirded out by people who take pictures all the time. But then those are the same people who are like, "Oh, I'm so glad you got pictures!" And I say, Well, you were pretty pissed at me at the time... loser. Kidding. And especially with the video camera, it's like, When am I going to ever watch this again? But the footage I had from the day after Mason was born was really cool to watch at his birthday party, even though at the time I felt like a jackass for videotaping it. So now I'm more aware of seemingly insignificant events that I'd like to videotape, like when Abe walks on his hind legs for an extended period of time or the like.

And congrats to the Nth degree to Pat and Kate! They got their offer on a house accepted! Weee!!! I just got to tell you guys, there's still lots of emotions to be felt this coming month, so be prepared! If for any reason it doesn't work out, don't get discouraged - but I'm sure everything will go great. We'll be thinking of you guys! Congrats.

Heavy stuff

I realize that I haven't been posting much lately. I haven't been posting much because whenever I start to write something, it ends up being all serious and philosophical and stuff, and no one wants to read that crap, do they? So that's why I haven't been posting much.

Oh, what's the philosophical stuff, you say? You wouldn't want to read it 'cuz it's too darn serious! Any funny things or interesting things I think of during the day dissipate by the time I sit down at the computer, and then I start typing posts about 'what's it all mean' and 'i've been thinking long and hard about' and the like. Bo-ring!

So ... I, uh, have no light-hearted post to follow up that intro with. Doh! I guess I could tell you the truth and say that I've been having stressful days at work, and Jay's been having stressful days at work, but c'mon. I don't want this to turn into a pity-fest. (Or do I...?)

Anyway, I'm stuck in a rut, and I don't know if posting will recover. This blog was originally set up to document all the fun house things we were doing, but we've long since stopped doing stuff to the house. Except living in it. And that's not so much fun to post about... Maybe we'll have to do some major demolition or renovation to spark the posts back up. ...?

First class

Thanks, Kate, for your comments on my previous post - it made me feel better that I'm not the only person who gets overwhelmed by daily things.

Anyway, on Monday I had my first Basic Gardening and Landscaping class at Assabet Tech. It was three hours long, and will be going on every Monday for the next 6 or so weeks. I get the feeling that it's not quite basic gardening and landscaping, per se, as the teacher began to discuss more intermediate-level gardening, like, oh, I don't know, already having an established garden full of peonies and azaleas (I don't even know if I'm spelling those correctly, and I'm too lazy to look it up) and other such plants, shrubs, and trees. And, you know, I don't have an established garden. I don't even know what the bushes in front of the house are called. Okay, I know what rhododendrens are (again, spelling?), and I know what peonies are, and I know what lilacs are, but only 1/3 of those plants are actually growing on our property. The teacher went over lots of other things that were a little advanced for me, like how to kill moles and chipmunks and different insects, and how to deal with different fungi and diseases on plants. Again I reiterate, Step A for me would be to actually HAVE a garden that moles and chipmunks and different insects and different fungi and diseases could actually attack.

So I was a little discouraged, because everyone else in the class seems to have good base-level knowledge about gardening, whereas I really don't, which is why I signed up for basic gardening and landscaping. I guess I'll just see where it goes, and maybe I'll have to supplement the intermediate knowledge I gain with some basic stuff later on.

Strangely enough, the class is being taught by a guy who's been working at Weston Nurseries for 35 or so years, and I found out recently that my dad knows him. I guess my dad worked at Weston Nurseries way back in the day (way, way back). I asked the teacher if he remembered my dad, and he replied, "Oh, sure. I went to his wedding." I said, "Oh. I... didn't." Because what can you really say to that? He also asked me if my uncle was still dancing. I replied with a laugh, "Umm, I don't know which uncle you're talking about, because my dad has lots of brothers." I for some reason assumed he was talking about some drunken uncle of mine who was dancing like a madman at my parents' wedding (a reasonable assumption given my dad's 11 siblings), which is the reason for my ignorant reply. Oh, no, he was talking about my uncle who is a professional ballet dancer. I felt silly. The teacher knows more about my family than I do.

This weekend my parents are having a party for my nephew's first birthday. Yay, Mason! I have no idea what to get him. I'm thinking some Ford stock. It's bound to go up, right? Right? (?)

Daily struggles of Erin

So, I've been thinking. I don't know about anybody else, but sometimes I just have a tough time navigating daily life. I think to myself, Does anyone else find these things as incredibly confusing and difficult as I do? They're not big things, like marriage or mortgage payments or any other large-scale life issue; they're little things, like the drain on our tub always getting clogged, keeping up with laundry, trying to get car repairs taken care of, keeping old food from piling up in the fridge, etc., etc.

So here's some questions I have for people who have it together:
- how many times a day do I need to do laundry to be at a point where I feel like I'm doing an adequate job with keeping up with it?
- do other people's tubs get clogged as much as ours? do I have a uniquely pipe-clogging-type of hair? do other people use as much Draino as we do?
- do other people have as many lonely, single, matchless socks as we do?
- do other people really keep up with filing important things? really? like, do they really have their tax records from 5 years ago? really?

If I keep going, I'll start asking really weird questions, and you'll probably think bad things about me... but these are the little daily things that get to me most every day, and it's tough to find the happy medium between letting those things run my life and keeping them in check to a reasonable, yet non-obssessive degree.

Anyway, I feel a bit better! I know I haven't posted in a while, mainly because I've been navigating daily life precariously. But y'know, stuff's been happening. Last weekend Jay and I drove up to Vermont to spend the weekend at my bro-in-law's family's 'cottage' (really a four-bedroom, two-story log cabin on a beautiful lake). It was a beautiful weekend at a beautiful place. And today we were on our way to go apple picking, but we saw a sign on 495 that said "Bolton Fair, Sept. 23 and 24," so we decided to take a detour. What a crazy, crazy fair. It was a strange day, anyway, with rain showers here and there scattered between the 80-something-degree heat and strong winds, and then you take that and add on a huge parking lot in a mudfield where the parking attendants (Boy Scouts) keep yelling at you to keep driving or else you'll sink, and strollers that hold 4 screaming kids all around you, and 40-year-old men that get too close to angry cows and keep doing it, and a trapeze artist hanging from ropes in the middle of a field, and you have an ADD nightmare!

But we're back home now, and Jay cleaned the kitchen 'cuz he's sweet, and I did some laundry, and now I'm just going to relax and get ready for another week at work. Phew. Life, huh?

Life changes, first anniversary, and other stuff...

Yes, it's true I haven't updated this blog in a while. It's not that stuff hasn't been going on, it's just I don't know exactly what to write about. Big life changes for some folks - Pat & Kate have moved to North Carolina, Cuddy has moved to Chicago... and they all left on the same day (Tuesday). Weird.

Pat and Kate moving down south prompted Jay and I to reconsider our life situation a little bit. He has a fantasy of moving down south (but not too far south) sometime between the ages of 35 and 45 and growing a big garden and working at as a college professor at a small community college and taking it real easy and enjoying ourselves. And that sounds nice, don't it? So he's been toying with going back to school, getting a masters, trying not to get sucked into the neverending cycle of corporate life... and I hope that it works out, because life shouldn't be a struggle day to day; you need to enjoy the ride while it's happening. I guess that's why they say stop and smell the roses. But the stopping part's sometimes hard when you're always moving forward day after day...

So in the past few weeks, Cuddy had her last show at ImprovBoston, we had a (lame) party for her, we got Jay a new cellphone because he lost his other one, we went on a little vacation with Jay's parents to New Hampshire and stayed at a motel on the sea shore during a hurricane, and during that vacation we celebrated our first anniversary, Jay had a business trip to Philly that ended up going pretty well, and I missed him while he was gone, but now he's back and it's the weekend!

On Thursday I took the day off and hung out with my pal Laura and her boyfriend Curt. We went to the Brimfield Flea Market. That place is HUGE. So... much... stuff. It makes me so scared to buy anything lest I become a flea market salesperson! We saw lots of really neat stuff, though. I got Jay a map of the highways of Massachusetts that was made the year before the Pike was built, and so it had a dotted line that was a proposed toll road which ended up being the Pike. It was pretty neat. I also got him a color print of the respiratory system. We're geeks.

As I mentioned earlier, Jay and I just celebrated our first anniversary. It came and went, and the top of our wedding cake is still in the freezer. And my wedding dress is still hanging in my closet. (I guess you're supposed to eat some frozen year-old wedding cake on your first anniversary, and I guess you're supposed to either make your wedding dress into curtains or preserve it or something.) We've actually been together for five years (or thereabouts - I guess we officially were together in the fall of 2001), and we've known each other for about 8 years. And I have to say, I don't regret a day of it. Awww! I love Jay more than anything, and I am looking forward to spending the rest of my daily life with him. Awww!!

Anyway, enough mush... perhaps tomorrow we will be revisiting the Alley and meeting up with Matt et al to hang out during Rib'n'Brews. He's right - the Rib'n'Brews Festival really sounds like a great time, but it's always been kind of a bust, so just hanging out in the Alley and eating some hot dogs and drinking some beers sounds much better than fighting crowds to try to get subpar 'authentic' BBQ and leftover beer for $15.

If I ever get my ass in gear, I should post some pics of recent stuff. But opening them in Photoshop and cropping them and saving them and posting them... so many steps for my small brain... If I get ambitious, watch out!

Happy birthday, Dennis!

Happy birthday, Dennis!

Stuff and such

We got some firewood delivered today. Pretty exciting, in more ways than one. I ended up posting an ad on Craiglist - I wanted a half cord of firewood for about $100. Most places were selling half cords for around $130, and I was just lookin' for a deal. Some guy responded saying he could help - I called and we set up delivery for 6:00 tonight. Well, 6:00 came and went, and at around 6:45 I had Jay call the guy ('cuz I'm scared of stuff). He said he lost the address. So he said he'd be here in 45 minutes. He showed up an hour later. We had him drive into the backyard to unload it. His headlights were off as he repeatedly tried to back his truck up into the backyard, coming very, very close quite a few times to hitting the fence. He unloaded the firewood, took his money, and booked it (without his headlights on) around the house and through the fence and onto the street. Yeah, I said through the fence. Granted, it a part of an old fence that was falling apart anyway, but come on, dude! Jay thinks he was high. We had a nice laugh. I guess we have a few more pieces of firewood now...

A while back I had lost everything on my PDA after it decided to freeze up. For a long time the program to hotsynch my PDA with the computer wasn't working, which is why I hadn't backed stuff up in months. So last night I decided I needed to figure it out so I wouldn't lose all the new stuff I had put on there. When I plugged my PDA in and performed a hotsynch operation, it actually worked! I didn't have to do anything! So all the old stuff I thought I lost (minus a year's worth) is now back on my PDA. I have Bee back! Bee is my absolute favorite game! It's the stupidest thing in the world, and I love it!

I was just going through some old pictures (you know, the kind that you had to develop) from college and the few years after. I was looking for some good pics of Cuddy, thinking I might make some sort of collage or something for her going-away party. It's weird to look back at old pics - I was so skinny! And hyper! And I dressed in a ridiculous manner! Maybe I'll go through some old videos Friday...

I know that was a random posting of random things, but it's what I was thinking about.

Gonna do some gardenin'

So I'd been talking about it and thinking about it and mulling it over and all that stuff, but I finally decided to actually take a class. Not a for-credit class or anything, just a basic gardening and landscaping class at Assabet Valley Tech's continuing ed program. It starts at the end of September and goes into November, and I'm pretty darn excited! It'd be nice to actually work on the yard and try to make it look nice and know what I'm doing for a change. We'll see how it goes.

I hope everyone can make it to Cuddy's going-away party this Saturday! I'm lookin' forward to it.

Last weekend we finally found Ashland Town Forest, which we initially read about in Ashland, one of those history-of-a-town-type books with lots of photos. There was a (very poor, old) picture of a cave that people escaping from the Salem witch trials would find shelter in, hence called "Witch's Cave," and it said the cave was in Ashland Town Forest. We didn't know there was such a thing, and we didn't know where it was. We assumed it was the state park. But a few weekends ago, Jay was test driving a Rav4 from Bernardi Toyota and we drove past this sign:

Cool sign!, I thought. And we had found the elusive forest! The walk was very nice - there was only one other person we saw (a very nice old woman that told us to keep the place a secret). Actually, Jay figured out that the forest was the place where he fell out of a tree back in college and started getting attacked by bees. He saw the tree and a flood of memories came back... You'll have to ask him to tell you the story. It's a funny story.

And last weekend we visited Matt up in Lowell, and we got to hang out in the Alley for a while. I took this picture that I like 'cuz it reminds me of an owl:


Today we went for a short kayak trip to Hopkinton State Park. We've been to the park before, but never to kayak. It was nice. There were a lot of other people out on the water in sailboats and kayaks and canoes because I think they rent all that kind of stuff out. We took Abe. Abe does pretty good in the kayak. We paddled over to a little island that was pretty much a huge mountain of dirt with trees on it. It was a very, very steep hill. But Abe walked right up it as he created avalances of dirt and rocks, and he disappeared for a while. We then heard rocks and dirt falling from a cliff next to us, and Abe was perched right at the edge wanting to jump off, so we had to pick him up so he didn't break his neck.

Now I'm on the Internet and I'm going to bite the bullet and order firewood. We like to have fires outside, but we end up having to go in the woods right next to our neighbors and snap branches off trees for wood, and that's just not going to cut it. I don't think they like loud, snapping branches right next to their house at 11:00 at night. But maybe they do, who knows?

I've conquered my fear!

Is that how you spell conquered? It doesn't look right...

Anyway, I have been trying to actually accomplish things in the past few days rather than mope about how I always want to do stuff and never do it, so the first step was to actually get out of the house, go to the homebrew store, buy ingredients for a batch of beer, take them home, and make the beer. Well, I shopped for the ingredients on Sunday (which meant getting out of the house and following through with buying them - big step!) and didn't have time to brew the beer. This is usually where the story would end. I would usually buy the ingredients and then leave them to sit for months and months and go stale, only because I usually do things on a whim and my whims never pan out fully.

However, I kept the ingredients closeby, and swore to myself that one of these nights, I would brew the damn batch. Tonight was that night, folks. Oh, sure, I didn't get home until around 7pm, but I was freakin' determined. (This batch of beer is specifically for Cuddy's going away party, so I actually needed to brew it at least 10 days before the party.) So I just dove into it. (Not literally - that would be very sticky.) I just started boiling some water in my brewpot, I put the necessary grains into the necessary muslin bag and steeped them while the water boiled, and by then I was committed. The house filled with the long-ago-familiar smell of brewing beer... and it was good.

I planned ahead and sanitized all the necessary equipment to complete the batch (floating thermometer, strainer, airlock, fermenting bucket), I prepared the dry yeast (let it soak in warm, not hot, water for 15 minutes, then stir right before pitching), I added the necessary ingredients into the batch of boiling wort (more hops, more extracts, some Irish moss and gypsum salt), I put 5 lbs of ice and 2 gallons of cold water into the previously sanitized fermenting bucket, and I completed the task.

I didn't even make that much of a mess, like I usually do. Perhaps many months of not brewing allowed my brain to comprehend and organize the various steps involved in brewing a batch of homebrew to meld together and form a cohesive idea of what I need to do in order to brew. Maybe not. But all that matters is that I now have a bucket of beer in the corner of the kitchen that will be ready to keg come Aug. 25th.

Preparing for this batch has made me excited about brewing more. Who knows? Maybe this will be the only batch I brew for a while... but I like to think that's not so. It's not so tough to do. But I guess when it comes time to actually make the contents of the bucket of beer consumable, I might have a different perspective. To bottle, to keg? Oh, the options...

Anyway, I hope everyone can make it to Cuddy's going away party so that they can try my (hopefully) tasty batch of pale ale that I've brewed up. Oh, and to say bye to Cuddy. There's always that motivation. (By the way, if you're coming to the party, bring a friend or eight. The more, the merrier!)

This and that

So life is pretty much back to normal, what with Jay being fully recovered from his Lyme Disease incident. Thank you all for your well-wishes and such! Jay's first day back at work was today, and he seems in good spirits and energetic. (I'm actually here at work with him - I have to help give him his IV antibiotic at 6pm every day.)

So I haven't posted much about much other than, y'know, that Lyme thing. But in the meantime, we did purchase two very exciting things for our house. We bought two Telechron clocks! Telechron was a company that was founded by Henry Warren, who invented the first electric clock, and the company's home was Ashland. So we've been looking on Ebay for some cool-looking electric clocks made by Telechron. We found one that advertised Telechron clocks, which is kind of postmodern, and we figured Telechron clocks that advertise Telechron clocks have to be pretty rare. Plus it looked cool. That model was actually featured in a scene from Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? in the background. So we got that... and then soon thereafter, Jay found yet another Telechron that advertised Telechrons! So we got that, too. Our first anniversary is coming up, and it's the clock anniversary, apparently, so hey, we splurged.

Jay's also been thinking about buying a car, either new or used. We go back and forth between wanting a really low-emissions, economical, great-gas-mileage vehicle and wanting a big truck or SUV-type thing that we can lug things around in. We might hold off for a bit until we decide... but we definitely want to get something, as Jay's Mazda 626 blows.

And for all I neglected to email, we're going to have a little get-together to say farewell to Chris Cuddy as she embarks on her journey to Chicago comedy. It shall happen on Sat., August 26th, at our house. Feel free to tell anyone you might know that might be interested. I might even brew beer. (I say that every time and it never happens, so don't get too excited, chump.)

Did I forget to tell you?

I guess I forgot to say that Jay's out of the hospital. He got out on Sunday, and he's doing so much better now. Thank you everyone for your thoughts :) Now he has to get antibiotics until Aug. 24th, and hopefully there won't be any complications at all from the Lyme Disease. Okay. Bye!

Adventures of the week

As you know, Jay's been in the hospital with Lyme Disease, waiting for his heart to recover from the infection. It's been quite a week - lots of funny things have happened, lots of crazy things, and save for the fact that my husband's heart wasn't working, the whole ordeal was rather painless. Jay should be out of the hospital either tomorrow or Monday.

They took out the temporary pacemaker for good today, and his heart seems to be going strong. It apparently still has a first-degree block, but that isn't very serious and should clear up on its own, and is not threatening to his health or life or anything. We kept the wire that rested on his heart to send the electrical impulses that kept his heart beating. The doctor thought Jay was weird for asking if he could keep it as a souvenier, but then when I came back into the room, I asked the same exact thing. So either the doctor's weird for not thinking it, or both Jay and I are weird. Take your pick.

Perhaps I will post some pics soon (yes, I am the geek that took some pics in a hospital. You'll be glad I did in 20 years when you look back on it!). Anyway, it's off to bed - this whole thing should soon be over!

Update on my hubby

So the last post was kind of on the meloncholy side, so I'll keep this light. Jay is still in the ICU, and probably will be for the rest of the week, but that's only because they want to monitor his heart for a bit. The Lyme Disease test came back positive, so that's a good thing (even though they pretty much assumed that's what the problem is). He's doing super great -- you wouldn't know anything was wrong with him at all, y'know, except for the pacemaker thing :) And again, he'll make a full recovery with no permanent damage or lasting effects from it.

Sooooo... yeah! I took the last few days off and will take tomorrow off, and his family's been great - his dad does night duty and sleeps during the day, and his mom and I have been staying with him during the day, and Matt's been by a lot, and Bri stopped by, and my parents and my sis & bro-in-law have been by...

I really can't think of a good way to end this post. There's no good closing!

News about my hubby

Hello! I just wanted to let everyone know that Jay apparently has Lyme Disease (they think) that manifested itself as some heart irregularities on Sunday. We took him to the ER ('cuz you don't want to mess with your heart!) after he said, "Sweetie, my heart feels funny." His pulse was very, very, very slow and his heart beats sounded very strange and not synched with is pulse. We showed up at the ER and Jay said, "I feel completely fine, but I guess my heart might be acting strange," or something. She took us right in. The initial nurse was confused by his pulse reading. It was about 20 beats per minute! People pass out at that rate! But he was feeling fine. Then the EKG guy showed up and thought the EKG machine was not working. Oh, but it was working - the EKG reading was just really strange. A bunch of cardiologists came in and were looking over his EKG readings. They told him he had a third-degree heart block - I guess that means the top part of his heart wasn't communicating with the bottom part of his heart, and the two parts were just beating on their own without any rhythm. They said, "It's a really good sign that you're still alert and talking to us! We'll just leave it at that!" Which kind of freaked us out.

Long story short, they had to put him on a temporary pacemaker to keep his heart beating normally, which means they put a wire down through a vein in his neck that rests on his heart that shoots out electric signals to tell his heart to beat. So he's still over in the intensive care unit at Framingham Union (or MetroWest Medical Center, whichever you prefer) and will most likely be there for most of the week. He's on antibiotics for the Lyme Disease, and his heart should be getting back to normal within a few days hopefully. There won't be any lasting damage done or anything - it's completely transient.

The Lyme Disease would totally explain why Jay's been feeling so strange for the past month! We attributed it to the strong headache medicine he took a few weeks back which made him feel woozy, then he got a rash, then all his extremities ached in strange ways, and he's been feeling tired and run down lately. But it's great they caught it now and can treat him. I'll keep you posted as to his status in the next few days. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, everyone!

So much stuff to do

It's been over a week, I think, since I've posted, and I would have posted something, but we've just been enjoying the outdoors too much last weekend and this that I haven't had the time to sit and edit pictures and write stuff. So here goes:

Last weekend (fourth of July weekend) was lots of fun - we saw a homemade fireworks show at a lake in Framingham, we swam and kayaked with Abe at the state park, we hung out with friends, we saw Superman Returns, we disc golfed...

So I got a good shot in from around two trees and made it right in the basket. I'm not good at disc golfing, but it is a fun outdoor thing, and I was pretty happy when I heard the chains clinking after I chucked it with wild abandon around trees. I actually bought two discs for myself this past weekend - so exciting!

Jay one-upped me (he likes to play one-uppie, apparently) with a great shot this weekend - it was over a mountain and through trees to a basket hanging from under a tree. He doesn't look nearly as excited as I was, but that's Jay's style. Understated.


And we had Cuddy over and went to the carnival right over a the high school parking lot! It was a lame carnival as carnivals go, but hey, I gotta get any carnival action I can get.


Cuddy made Jay an ice cream pie. Deliciousness, and I don't even like desserts all that much.


I like this picture because everyone in it has a silly face.


And today Jay's parents came over and we kayaked and swam again over at the state park, and then we went over to Prezo in Milford, which, I'm convinced, is the best restaurant ever.

I have to get up for work, so I'm going to bed, otherwise I'd write more.

Reviewing old posts

I just spent about 20 minutes revisiting old posts from the infancy of indianspring.blogspot.com. Some made me laugh, some I skipped over, but it's funny because most of the posts in the first two or so months actually had to do with our new house (hence I named it indianspring.blogspot.com). After we stopped doing much work on the house, I started posting about other stuff, which, you know, can be exciting and all. But it was fun to look back on when we moved in and the days before we actually had set a wedding date.

So reading those made me want to post more about what's been going on here at Indian Spring Road. Today Jay did some yard work - he mowed the front lawn and backyard. We were worried about the look of our front lawn because we don't know what we're doing when it comes to having a nice lawn, and the entire springtime consisted of a semi-bare lawn. But recently some new grass started growing. It's a different color green than the rest of the lawn, but hey, it's freakin' grass, so shut your pie-hole, neighbors! (Okay, our neighbors haven't actually said anything about our not-perfect lawn, I'm just paranoid that they've been thinking it.) I tried to use hedge trimmers/clipper/shears things to trim the jungle that's become the shrubs in front of our house. I let them get so out of control that when I trimmed them to what they actually should be trimmed to, there ended up being stumps in the bushes. It'll grow in...

We also took a really nice swim over at the state park. It's definitely the highlight of living here, being so close to Ashland State Park. We just walk on over with our noodles, float around for a while, and walk on home. Some people are scared of swimming in lakes and/or ponds, but man, the water is so refreshing, there's not a lot of people swimming in the places that weren't built as a beach, and it's so closeby!

Tomorrow we're going out to central Mass. to have a BBQ with my fam. My sister and her husband are building a house on the land that they live on now (they've been living in a purple mobile home for a while), so we'll get to see the foundation and beginnings of framing they have so far. And we'll get to see my nephew, who's so adorable. Maybe we'll even get home in time to see some fireworks somewhere!

I hope everyone has a safe fourth!

B-ball Hall of Fame

This past weekend we went to the Basketball Hall of Fame. I will possibly post pictures later, I'm too lazy to right now. It was lots of fun! I'm not nearly as huge a basketball fan as Jay is. Heck, I'm not really much of a basketball fan, at that. But it was cool seeing the history of the sport. I really like all the old stuff they have, like really cool old uniforms and old scoreboards and old basketballs that look like footballs. It's a neat place, if you're at all interested in the sport, and I know Jay really enjoys it.

Then we tried to find a place to grab a bite to eat. We came upon places that I would link to, but I don't want to dirtify your computer. There was a place called "Mardi Gras Gentlemen's Club" whose tagline was "the most beautiful women in the world!" and a place called "Sin City." I don't think I need to say anything else. Needless to say, we went back to eat at the Uno's right next to the Hall of Fame. But hey, if anyone needs a destination for a bachelor party, go to Springfield!

Here's some pics!

me with an old-school Celtics jersey - I think it's made of itchy wool... ouch

Jay tossing the ball into the original basket - a peach basket!

My favorite jersey of all time... the rainbow Nuggets jersey

Jay can jump 9 feet plus! What a man!

I snuck under Bird's arm. Smelly.

Jay loves him.

I tried jumping high, too... could only get to 7 feet... sort of... the kid that kept egging us on helped out immensely.

Town of Ashland trash talkin'

Well, we now have to pay a lot of money to get rid of our trash. Last year the town started charging us a fee per year for trash pickup. Okay, property taxes aren't paying for it anymore... we can deal. Now they are rolling in a new "You Throw Away You Pay" campaign where you have to buy official Town of Ashland trash bags, and they'll ONLY pick those up, along with paying the flat yearly fee.

Pretty handsome, eh? Here's the prices of the bags:
- 14-gallon bags: $3.75 for five bags
- 33-gallon bags: $6.50 for five bags.

Bucka-wha?? Are you shitting me?? Seventy-five cents per bag for the small ones or a buck thirty per bag for the 33-gallon bags! Plus whatever we pay for the yearly trash fee, which I don't even pay attention to because it kind of makes me angry. I pay, I just don't pay attention.

What makes it worse is that we just bought a 90-bag box of trash bags.

I think we used about 5 so far. So we have 85 big black trash bags. Anyone interested? They should have a trash-bag buyback program like they do in Boston for guns. For every 100 trash bags you get a $50 gift certificate to Target. But don't use it on trash bags.

When I went to buy the brightly-hued bags yesterday, the kid at CVS was getting all pissed. He's like, "These are so ridiculously overpriced! We don't get anything for even selling these things! And now we can't even sell regular trash bags!" I was like, "Dude, I know!"

So last night as I prepared dinner, I would walk to throw something out, I saw the bright orange glaring at me, and I thought, Crap, if I throw this away, that's like throwing away .04 cents. So I put all the veggie scraps in a plastic bag, started using a dish towel instead of paper towels for drying off veggies and stuff, and started searching random packaging for the recycling symbol. I think I spent 4 minutes searching on an empty bag of burrito tortillas for a recycling symbol. I didn't find one. They'll now pick up recycling once a week instead of biweekly. And man, we were never good at staying on top of recycling, but now we have to really try hard.

You know, it's weird, we spend money pretty liberally when we go grocery shopping or when we go out to eat, so it's weird that I'm so anal about scrimping and saving money on trash pickup! It comes down to very little money in the long run, but I guess it really is working because I can't stop thinking about how to start composting and how we'll keep on top of recycling everything! So good job, Ashland, for making me obsessed! High five!

Boring post!

Hi. I don't have much to say, but I thought I'd blog a bit and say hi. Went out for drinks last night with Dennis. Good to see you. I had a dream last night about a hot dog in 3D made in Illustrator. Weird. We might be looking into buying a new/used car soon, as Jay's car is a piece of poop and we don't like it and it needs lots of new things and the 'check engine' light will never, ever go off. Ever. I woke up with a bad song in my head. "Ride, Captain ride, upon your mystery ship..." That's the only lyrics I know, but the tune is damn near burned into my brain. I'll try to get the "Reading Rainbow" song in my head. Ah, much better...

UPDATE THIRTEEN MINUTES LATER: Now I have "The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain" stuck in my head. Don't know why. Oh, Audrey Hepburn/Julie Andrews...

It's sure gonna be a hot one!

I think I know the key to successful blogging. I define successful blogging as a blog that your friends and family enjoy visiting every day and that elicits insightful discussion amongst them. I'm sure, you know, those "other" kinds of blogs (like the political ones, ones with commentary on, what, world news and such) have completely different criteria, but I'm just talking about little old blogs like mine or Pat and Kate's or Dennis's.

The key(s) is/are: (1) To post about something not too personal, but something lots of people can relate to, like a movie you've just seen; (2) To stick to that one point and not go off on a tangent; (3) Links help, just 'cause they're fun!

I don't follow these three criteria, and for that, I apologize. I tend to just post about what Jay and I have been up to, and I don't post all that often, so my posts tend to cram a bunch of info in with no theme throughout. But hey, that's the way I work, so deal.

CASE IN POINT: Jay got back from his Bailey Boys Weekend and was sick with the same thing I had. We both spent the rest of the week recovering. We're slowly getting back to 100 percent, but we're still not there yet.

We ALMOST flooded with all the rain that's been coming down, but no water actually came into the basement. The cement covering the sewer pipe just got very damp and wet.

Last night we went to Blockbuster and rented Grizzly Man, a documentary that takes the footage of a psuedo-bear expert who lived with grizzly bears in Alaska for 13 summers and edits it into a documentary about the guy - the guy and his girlfriend were mauled and killed by a bear. That's the kicker. We thought it was a really good movie - it's a fascinating look at a man that's a bit delusional but with good intentions, and you kind of get mad at him for being such an idealist and having such delusions about nature, but he's not such a bad guy - he just really, really loves animals, but still, nature is nature and you can't think wild animals actually have human feelings, because hell, they'll kill you if they're hungry.

And today we're going disc golfing, I think. I'm very proud to say that we planned ahead and bought beer yesterday - ah, planning for the future! The earmark of human evolution! Not sure what's going on for the rest of the weekend, with Father's Day and all... I know we'll be putting in the AC soon, though, since it's going to be super muggy and hot.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Fever all through the night

Dammit, I'm sick! I woke up this morning with a sore throat (thought it was because I left the fan on low even though I hate the fan, but Jay sleeps with it on so now I find the sound comforting), but my sore throat wouldn't go away. Then I got a headache, then body aches, and now I just feel icky. I haven't been sick in a really long time (except for when I got cold sores, but that wasn't really sickness, that was just grossness). I'm not used to it. I bought myself some chicken noodle soup from Friendly's, which is my favorite kind. I know, it's Friendly's, you wouldn't think it's good, but boy, is it ever. Try it next time you're sick. So I'm just going to chill out with the pup tonight on the couch, maybe watch some TV, and hit the sack early.

On a side note, I found my glasses! They were lost in the house for a few weeks. They had fallen into a storage box that Jay put downstairs. I know this is real important stuff, guys.

Another side note: here's a pic of babies. Jackson (my mom's cousin's daughter's son - whew!), Mason (my nephew - he's the cutest!), and Matthew (my mom's cousin's daughter's son [not the same cousin]). Mason's only a month older than Matthew, and he's so much bigger.

Comedy is funny

So Friday night, me, Jay, Erik, Matt, and Lisa went to see Cuddy in the Lowell Comedy Festival. A troupe that she's a part of, The City That Sleeps, performed upstairs at the Old Court. The first two groups, eh, mildly funny. But The City That Sleeps was hilarious - they did a mix of sketches and films, and it was very, very good stuff. If you go to their website, you can click on "Menino for President" at the bottom of the homepage and you can see a very funny film. They have other films up there, too.

We ended up going to Sangria's afterwards, always a great place for a cheap beer and some townie amusement. I love random mediocre bands that play at bars - I think they know about 14 chords, and you can play a lot of standard rock tunes with those chords. If I could sing, I could be in a mediocre townie band... oh, wait, those guys can't sing anyway, so I guess I COULD be in a mediocre townie band!

Anyway, we decided to trot around Lowell in the rain trying to figure out what to do next. Jay, Erik, and I ended up over at Cobblestones for the afterparty. Jay made friends with a nice townie lady with 4 teeth named Kathy whose husband had fallen asleep so she snuck out to go drinking. My kinda lady. We hung around there for a few beers, and then ended up at the hotel where the performers were staying at. Cuddy was kind enough to let me and Jay crash in her hotel room. We stayed up very late and Cuddy had to get up early to get her hair done in Framingham.

And today Jay left super early this morning to go on his annual Bailey Boys Weekend, a.k.a. Father/Son Weekend (I prefer the former, only because the latter sounds a little like a Hallmark card). We spent last night preparing delicious foods for his trip, packing up a bunch of stuff, and doing laundry. Quality time! He'll be gone until Tuesday. They go up to Warren Island in Maine. They kayak out then sleep in hammocks. Sounds good to me! I guess they have prisoners chop firewood there, so there's tons and tons of free firewood you can use. I smell bonfire.

Today I get to go to my mom's cousin's daughter's baby's christening. (?) I have a very large family, and some of these people I don't really know, and my mom's cousin's daughter is one of those people. I went to the baby shower, so I guess I should go to the christening. Then later on I'm going back to my hometown to visit Laura who's home from Chicago, and she's having a little BBQ at her parents house. Should be a good day.

The weather's beautiful! Everyone should stop reading this post and go outside and do something! I mowed the lawn this morning! Fun shit, man!!

Lowell Comedy Festival

Details are mildly sketchy, but from what I can gather, the specific show that Cuddy's going to be in is actually at 9:30, but she's part of a bigger group of people that begin performing at 8:00. I think we'll probably try to be there for the show starting at 8:00.
Click here for some details. It'll be fun!

Cuddy's funny

Cuddy has a comedy show tomorrow night in Lowell at the Lowell Comedy Festival. Anyone want to go? I'll post more about it tonight.

Spelling?

We just watched the spelling bee on TV, which was pretty interesting. I have to wonder how smart these kids are beyond knowing origins of prefixes and countries of origin and whatnot... They should have a "one word, two word, hyphenated" contest where kids have to figure out if words like "backyard" or "streetlight" is one word, two words, or hyphenated. I have lots of trouble figuring those things out.

I've heard the word "xenophobia" and its derivations (correct usage of a word?) many times recently, mostly (okay, exclusively) on NPR/WBUR. I've never, ever heard that word used in any new story or conversation or anywhere else, and they've been using it like it's going out of style on NPR. Which made me feel stupid, because hell, I didn't know what it meant. So I looked it up in the dictionary I won back in high school for being a good English student (it's a funny dictionary, because it brags about being the best dictionary for the 1990s), and now I know what it means. I thought it meant something much more complicated... but I guess it's just fear of foreign things, such as people or cultures. Woo wee, so exciting...

Also, Dennis and other polker folks were wondering where the term "cold turkey" came from, and from two of my court-reporter reference books, I found two different explanations. One had something to do with cold turkey being a bland meal without side dishes, and one had to do with "talking cold turkey," like talking about something in a blunt way. And both references were pretty believable and trustworthy, but I have to go with the latter, since I can't really wrap my head around the concept of the whole bland meal thing. It just didn't make any sense, for God's sake. Come on!

Quick post before I brush my teeth

Played poker last night for the first time in a while and lost... but it was okay because I came home and out in the backyard there were a bunch of lightning bugs, and that made me happy.

I have a new collapsable hat! Did I write about this yet? I lost my red one last summer to the Ashland reservoir at the state park, but Jay's parents spied one at Target recently. It has flowers on it. Jay bought me two. Jay surprised me by stealthily forcing me to go to Target and I was all, "Why the crap are we here?" And then he found them. Weee!!

Why is it that when I try to post a quick post I keep hitting all the wrong letters and I have to keep hitting the backspace key almost every other character?? Oh, such keyboard problems...

Misery Island

Yesterday we went up to Beverly to visit Jay's 'rents. We had a great time - they grilled up some great veggies and steak, and they had bought a new fire pit that we got to hang out around. And today we went out on Jay's dad's rowboat (Jay kayaked) out to Misery Island off the coast of Beverly. It's a beautiful island with lots of cool ruins of old water tanks and club houses. I got a bit sunburned even though I put on SPF 48 sunblock. Our camera got a big wave on it so now it doesn't work, otherwise I'd-a posted pics. Okay, I probably wouldn't have posted pics 'cuz I'm too lazy, but it's okay to blame it on the waves, right? Jay and his pops ate lots of hot peppers stuffed with cheese off the grill, and they burned their faces off, but they loved it.

I have the best husband

Jay bought me rib-eye steak (otherwise known as Delmonico) even though he doesn't eat meat, and he bought me tasty beer, and he got me very pretty flowers. Methinks I like this man! In fact, methinks I love him! Thanks, sweetie!

Another half day

So the courthouse closed early again today, so I got to leave at 1:00. And now it's a little after 3:00 and I'm bored. I went to Home Depot, picked up a couple of gift cards for some family members, and I was going to pick up a seed spreader thingie and some grass seed, because our lawn is looking like it has male pattern baldness. But the seed spreader was 10 bucks more than I expected, and I couldn't seem to find the grass seed (all I could find was a bunch of peat moss and topsoil and fertilizer), so I got ansy and just left with the gift cards. I also was going to go grocery shopping, but I might save that for later... I'm nervous about this yard thing, because I would sure love to have a beautifully landscaped and manicured lawn and garden, but I really don't know what the hell I'm doing. No matter how many books or magazines or online articles I read, when it comes time to actually doing something, I get all paralyzed with fear. I don't know exactly what I'm scared of, but I guess I feel like I'll mess stuff up or do a terrible job, and after working that hard and having it come out bad, I would be depressed. BUT, I am going to get off my tubby bum and at least attempt to dethatch the front yard, so that we'll be able to put some lawn seed down.

So Jay has his first Celtics rookie card! I put his new greenceltics site over as a link - keep on checking in as his collection grow! It's like sea monkeys!

So how's everyone doing? I bet you're all much happier now that the rain has finally stopped. Am I right? I mean, I was ready to build me an ark! Come on! Seriously, though, I'm hoping to get some grilling in sometime this weekend. Perhaps we'll have a small shin-dig on Saturday if the weather forecast stays the same as it is now. Check back, as I will have more details as the day approaches.

I wanted Cool Ranch Doritos for a snack today, so I put $.85 into the vending machine. The bag got stuck. So I put in another $.85 and hit C5 again (the Cool Ranch Dorito button) to dislodge the first bag. That bag, too, got stuck. I was pissed, man. My belly was growling something bad! I figured it was just my luck that something so terrible would happen to me. Why did I have to pick the Cool Ranch Doritos? I could have had some Sun Chips or something! Man. Then I got back up to my office, all in a bad mood, and one of my coworkers told me his wife was very sick and in the hospital and was not doing so well. Then I felt guilty for being so mad about my Doritos. Ah, perspective...

Lake Ogallala stops by for a visit!

So last year during the 'wet season,' we found out that our backyard likes to flood and make us a nice little lake. I thought I had some pics of it, but they were probably bad anyway because it was dark out. But today, after almost a week of steady rain, our backyard has brought us the infamous lake-of-chocolate-from-the-original-Willie-Wonka-colored Lake Ogallala!
Anyway, I was 98 percent ready to post some pics of the current flood, but our computer sucks and told me it had low CPU space or something, so I had to quit Photoshop. I think I saved one:

So yeah, our backyard is a huge wet puddle of icky-colored water, but our basement's not flooded! Yet. As we've told many, many people, our only real wish when we bought a house was to have a dry basement. The previous homeowner swore, SWORE that the basement hadn't flooded EVER. Well, it hadn't flooded because they had a septic system until a year before they decided to sell, and when they decided to hook up to the town sewer, they comprimised the waterproof basement's integrity by jackhammering a trench through the floor and laying a sewer pipe pretty darn close to basement-floor level and putting some rock filler around it and then filling it with cement. Cement doesn't bond to cement, and somehow a few cracks appeared in the newly laid cement, and now the basement floods. Ah, homeownership... Luckily we have stuff on pallets (not that anything in the basement is super valuable or anything), so we just take it as it comes.

I hope everyone else's basements are dry so far... I guess Romney declared a state of emergency and there's lots of dams about to fail 'round these parts. Who'd-a-thunk that only a few weeks back there were brush fires galore because of lack of rain?

Jay's new hobby

Update on ants: there's no more of them. I think the ones that survived the Raid went and told all their little ant friends to not mess with 8 Indian Spring Road. ::flexing muscles::

So anyway, Jay decided this past weekend that he is going to start collecting the rookie cards of important Celtics players. He's created a new blog about it: Greenceltics.blogspot.com! It's a cool idea, I think, and I'm excited to see what kinds of cards he ends up with. I just really like the old-school graphic design from the early '70s. Late '70s not so much... but early '70s is definitely cool.

And it's supposed to rain right through the weekend... boo hiss, ninny! I guess people's lawns need the rain or whatever, but man, that means we can't do anything outside. And I like being outside. Hopefully the weather will be super nice once all the rain ends...

Rants about ants... oh, that's right, it rhymes

This past weekend I noticed a few ants strutting about the kitchen. Oh, sure, we don't have the cleanest kitchen on earth, in the US, in Ashland, or heck, even on Indian Spring Road, so sure, I can expect some... but I just hate ants! There wasn't a swarm, just three or four puttering about. So I killed 'em. That's right. No Buddism here; I killed them ants dead. Today I come home to more ants... but y'know, only four or five just hanging around, not looking like they've come in from any specific spot. So for the past two hours, I've intermittently been killing one or two ants, leaving the kitchen area for a while, coming back, killing two or three more, leaving, coming back and killing two more... and so on. I can't figure out where they're coming from, as it's not like a big line of ants following the leader. I suppose some ant traps are in order, as now the house smells sickeningly of Raid. So that's my big story.

Dennis had a very fun party on Friday - except it totally wiped Jay and I out for the rest of weekend. We can't party like we used to, no way, no how. I think we went to bed about 4am, and man, we were exhausted the rest of the weekend. I used to stay up all night, drink too many Pabsts, figure I shouldn't sleep, and go to work at Starbucks at 4:30 a.m. And back then it was okay. I was young. Now I'm old and tubby and just plain sleepy.

Now I have to go kill one or two ants. Yech.

Minor thoughts on major issues

I bet no one really thinks to look to see if this blog is updated regularly, and heck, I can't blame them. I don't update it regularly. I can't really come up with much stuff to say on a regular basis. If I did, I feel like I'd be posting mostly compalints about humankind, and we all know you can get that anywhere on the Internet. And plus I only hop on the computer only once a day, and it's only for a few minutes, and to compose a coherent and interesting post is just too much work for me most times. So I'll just post a little update about Jay and Erin these days:

Jay's been working on a crazy project at work, so he's been working long, weird hours the past week and a half or so. In the meantime, I've been going to work and doing the same old thing (you know, typing, talking into a mask, looking up hyphenated words... the usual). I've had my eye on going back to school, but I'm not sure for what yet. Jay accompanied me to an open house at Lesley University - I was looking into the expressive therapy program there. However, I'd like my job to pay for grad school, and that limits me to state schools. That's where my school search stalled... It's tough trying to figure out what grad progam you want to enroll in when you just don't know what you want to do for a career!

Abe's doing much better. Oh, sure, he's still insane and likes to lick his paws and nuzzle a little too close, but after his surgery, he's 100 percent better. We got those trees down, which makes the house look like it got a haircut. We're looking forward to Dennis's Cinco de Mayo party. That's about it!

There's lots of stuff going on in the news, and I think I can honestly say I don't have a firm viewpoint on much of it. Take the immigration thing, for instance. I don't like the idea of people circumventing the legal system; but when the legal system just can't work for you, your only option IS to circumvent... and the trial of the 9/11 conspirator (I can't spell his name, and I'm too lazy to open a new browser window and look it up), he got life in prison instead of the death penalty, and I really don't have a view on that - the jury found what it found, and that's that... and the National Anthem being sung in Spanish (I guess that goes hand in hand with the immigration thing), I just don't have a viewpoint - when it comes down to it, it's only words, and whatever language it's in, it's still just words, and you know what they say, sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me. So yeah. Maybe I've taken the easy way out and become noncommital or nonconfrontational or something, but I feel like I've got my own things to worry about, and if something comes along that affects me or people I love, then sure I'll take a stand, but now I'm too busy wondering if my laundry will be too wrinkled if I leave it in the dryer for too long.

The next big thing for 8 Indian Spring Road is a new roof. That's coming up this fall, hopefully. So exciting! (That was a little sarcastic.) Oh, did you guys hear about the Nyanza thing? I just heard today that the findings of the report might be overstated. Which buffered the bad news that cancer abounds in Ashland, but still... cancer still could possibly abound in Ashland. Hey, as long as we've got John Stone's Public House!

A whole new house

We got a bunch of trees removed today, and it's like it's a whole new house! I will post more pics later when I get better ones, but here's something:


It's really unbelievable. We got some pines down that were super close to the side of the house, and that whole area is so big now; we got a pine in the backyard out near the shed; we got the maple tree behind the porch out; and we got the big huge oak tree in the side yard taken out. It's really crazy. I can't believe how much more light there is!

Cleaning my parents' basement

Today I went to my folks' house to sort of help clean out thier basement. Their basement is totally full of old crap, and lots of my stuff from high school and college was oncluded in it. So I didn't really help clean; I just went through all my old stuff. I kept a lot of cards from people I don't remember now, birthday cards and such, and I also found lots of old photos anf videos and lots of other stuff. Kind of scary, the stuff I found, like old newspaper clippings from when I helped paint Quaboag Regional High School's rock in support of the vice principal who was accused of sexual misconduct. (What??) And I found my SAT scores, which I calculated could have gotten me into MENSA, but I actually calculated wrong, because I added my math score too high. I can't do math; therefore, I can't join MENSA. Damn you, Geena Davis! I found an old video that my best friend Laura had made me from my high school graduation. I laughed out loud at that... So anyway, it was a trip down memory lane over the past ten+ years, and it's weird to look back at your life like that. I wonder what kind of stuff I'll keep from now on, and where exactly I'll keep it.

Abraham update!

Well, the outpouring of concern over Abe was touching, so I felt the need to share with you all that Abraham is doing much, much better. He's pretty much back to his old self. Instead of whimpering and sulking, he's running around and playing with his blue octopus toy. So we're very happy he's feeling better - it was so sad to see him in pain! You'll all have to give him a big hug when you see him this weekend. 'Cause you're coming to the party. Right?

The woes of being Abe

So I say again, yes, I certainly don't post all that often, but I did want to share the sad news that Abe is sick. Well, his bum is sick. We're taking him to the vet tomorrow morning to get his anal sacs fixed. Ewww. I know, it's icky, but he's certainly in a lot of pain, and it makes me and Jay very sad to see him in so much pain. He's been a good sport, though - so he'll probably be feeling under the weather for about a week, but next week at the Marathon party, he hopefully will be better. Well, once he sees all the people and gets all excited for everybody to pet him, he'll feel better instantaneously. So we'll see... poor, poor puppy...

Brewing beer for the marathon party

Well, I've been super lazy with regard to this here blog. I've had stuff to say, but by the time I sit down at the computer to write, I'm bored. But right now I'm in the middle of brewing up a pot of summer ale (my first homebrewed beer in like over a year, possibly!), so I had a few minutes to post. I sent out Marathon Monday party invitations (gotta love Evite), so if you didn't get one, let me know.

Yesterday we bought Jay new tires. Very exciting. We also went to the bookstore and got me some books about landscaping, job-hunting, and how to dress. Very, very exciting. We also had lunch at Quizno's, who makes a damn good sub. Mega-exciting. We watched "Good Night and Good Luck," the movie directed by George Clooney about Edward R. Murrow in the McCarthy era. Not very exciting. And today is Matt's birthday. Birthday-bash exciting.

So that's about it... I'll let you know how the homebrewing goes...

Good ol' boys

So, you know how much I love this guy, and I would love for all who read this post to come celebrate his birthday one day late. Daniella's Cantina! I think it's on Fairbanks Street! Framingham! 7:30 Sat night (which is probably tonight, if you read this at a normal time, such as the morning)! Yay!

What's today?

I've lost track of what day it is... but at least this is going to be a short work week! (Do those two things have anything to do with each other?)

So Cuddy just came over to show me and Jay a digitally-remastered version of a DVD she made back in college for a friend who moved to London. It was a silly DVD, and she did a good job of re-editing it. Then we bought steak. Mmmm... I love steak. We also bought veggies, and we grilled up the veggies and made a salad out of them, and we grilled the steak too. Mmmm... grilled steak. Mmmmm... grilled veggies. Now it's naptime.

Jay and I have been watching Olympic curling, the women's. It's kind of fun. As I sit here and type, I can hear the scary Brits screaming, "PULL!!!!!" I actually don't know if that's what they're saying, but it sounds like that. Now to go watch more curling!

Hi there, again

So I made Jay two kinds of mac and cheese (the one pictured has asparagus and caramelized shallots; but he liked the other one, with roasted poblano and tomato-cilantro salsa, better), and Jay got me a fresh, juicy steak straight from John Stone's in Ashland for Valentine's Day. I also got him his Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, and he got me Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter. Is it strange that we get each other food and beer for Valentine's Day? Jay had various women asking him if he was going to get me Beanie Babies or stuffed animals for Valentine's Day. No, thanks; I'd rather have a rare steak with a side of mashed potatoes and asparagus. MMMmmMMMmm!! But I think if he actually told them that, they might be a little frightened. ::shrug::

Well, it's finally back to work tomorrow, after a whole 8 days of being out. It's going to be strange, but I'll be glad to be out of the house. Although it was fun hanging out with Abe all day. But it'll be a good transition because I have Monday off, so it'll be a little taste of the old grind, then a long weekend.

That's about all! Jay's birthday is coming up. I'm not really sure what we're doing, if anything. I was thinking maybe about meeting up for drinks (and steak?? oh, not for Jay...) at John Stone's on the 25th (not this Sat., but next). We'll see what transpires.

Happy Valentine's Day

I know I haven't been posting much lately, but that's only because I haven't really been in the mood. But here's two pics inspired by Dennis, who has been busy with his photoblog. Yeah, they're both the same, but different... ooooo.

So I'm again recovering from a nasty cold sore that made it so I couldn't form the sounds of "B," "F," "M," "V," "P," and "W." I didn't mean the M V and P to go together like that. I think I've been absorbing too much basketball info from Jay... Anyway. I missed work all last week and for yesterday, today, and tomorrow of this week. I got a new doctor, and my first appointment with him is tomorrow, so hopefully he'll give me magic medicine that makes me better. But we'll see.

On a side note, I went to another dermotologist last week who seemed very concerned about my purple legs. (I have blotchy, purple-y, veiny legs. They used to call me Roadmap in elementary school.) She did blood work to see if I was ill. But then she called to tell me everything was normal and that I was just naturally purple. Thanks, Doc!

So yeah, it's Valentine's Day. Days like this kind of freak me out, because I can think of lots of nice things to do for the one I love (that's you, Jay), but then I get absolutely overwhelmed with ALL the possibilities, and then I try to figure out how to implement any one of those plans, and I sort of shut down. So sorry, Jay, I ain't doing anything, but I thought of some nice stuff! Kidding. I'll think of something... it might not be that great. But it'll be something.

That's about all... have a happy Valentine's Day and whatnot.

Gettin' lazy with those posts!

I'm lazy. I haven't posted a pic in a long time, I haven't really been keeping this updated... I think it's lost some of its novelty. Le sigh...

I lost all my data in my PDA last week. It was like the last two years just ::poof:: disappeared. I wasn't so upset about losing phone numbers, work info, etc., but mostly about all the stupid things I kept track of, such as what I made for dinner on January 18th, 2004, or some silly remark Jay made about mopeds, or whatnot. I'm over it now, though - now I'm getting mad I lost some work stuff.

On Saturday I had an appointment with a personal trainer. My legs hurt bad. So I'm going to this personal trainer for one week, hoping to learn how to do a good exercise routine at home so I don't have to commit to joining a gym every year for the rest of my life. I go tonight, tomorrow, Thur., and Sat., and then hopefully I'll be more edumacated regarding fitness. We shall see...

Another Winterfest is coming up... Feb. 10. Not sure what's going on, but I bet it'll be cold.

I made veggie pot pie last night. It was good.

Mmmm... that's about it for now. Oh, and I'm sure everyone heard that Ricky Davis got traded... Jay's a little better now, although it was very shocking and quite emotional. Tonight's the Celtics' first game against the team they traded him to. I hope Ricky doesn't do crazy defense on us. That'd hurt.

Paint and hot sauce

Seeing as how this blog was originally started because we had moved into a new house and wanted to talk all about what was going on with it, I figure that I'd post about our new paint color in the living room. However, I'm much too lazy right now to actually go get the digital camera and upload pictures, so I'll do that later. Okay, maybe I won't. But anyway, we painted the living room a tannish-green color and the fireplace a dark brown. It looks great with the new couch, and is a nice change from white all around.

Yesterday we went for a walk (okay, this isn't house-related stuff), seeing as how it was so nice out. We went to Hopkinton State Park. We didn't explore too much, as it was getting super windy and the forecast called for rain. (It never rained, by the way.) Abe was super hyper. He was running around all crazy, leaping over rocks and downed trees, and eventually decided to try to jump over a little creek. He didn't make it. But he did jump over three more similar creeks... and never really quite made it.

We then went grocery shopping, and Jay decided to try to make some hot sauce. He loooves hot sauce. I'm kind of scared of hot sauce, because hell, it burns. Mouth pain is not so much fun. Anyway, we picked some poblano peppers (no, not a peck; just three), some jalepenos, some red ones and some yellow ones (we didn't know what they were), some anchos, and some dried habaneros, the hottest chile pepper known to man. Jay grilled them up on the grill (you know, even grilling hot peppers smells super good!), skinned them, and pureed the up in the food processor. He did some other stuff to it, added some things, and now he has what he likes to call "Anti-Vampire Snot Sauce." It has a garlicky taste and is green.

And today, well, who knows what we're doing? I have to go do some laundry, which I know is super exciting...

Some TV reviews from Jay and Erin

Jay and I have been watching a lot of Discovery Channel lately, mainly Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters. Both are good shows. We enjoy Dirty Jobs because the host, Mike Rowe, is a funny, funny man. He's kind of a jerk, and some of his jokes are a little cutting, but that's what makes it so funny. (Tough to describe - you have to see it.) I learned that he actually studied history, philosophy, music, and other neat things, and was an opera singer in Baltimore. He said once, while during an intermission in a Puccini opera, he went with his buddy across the street to grab a beer, because it's fun to drink while singing Puccini. And Mythbusters is just fun because they do cool things and Adam always gets hurt.

But last night we watched Country Boys, a PBS documentary about the perils of growing up in Appalachia. Now, PBS is good stuff, right? I mean, public television, educational and ground-breaking, right? We heard commercials for Country Boys on WBUR, Boston's NPR news station. So we both were interested in seeing it. Well, it wasn't very good... and I don't know if it's one of those "message is in the medium" things where the actual documentary was slow-going and meandering and pointless to show that life for these boys is slow-going and meandering and pointless. That's Jay's theory. I just think it was poorly put together and not very well thought out. So we turned to the dog show.

While watching the dog show, I was extremely pleased to see a commercial for the Puppy Bowl, a fantastic show where they just show a bunch of puppies in a playpen. You're supposed to either watch it instead of the Superbowl or flip channels to it during the half-time show. It's just a great idea, isn't it??

So anyway, I guess the point is that Jay and I watch a lot of TV. But if you're going to watch TV, I highly suggest Dirty Jobs. Avoid Country Boys. And the Puppy Bowl... well, I certainly hope it sticks around for at least 30 more years.

I got the urge to post

I haven't posted in a while, nor have I been in the mood to post, only because I feel like nothing exciting has happened. Which isn't true. Jay recently put together our wedding album, which looks fantastic, and I'm happy to see that we actually have lots of good ones. I thought the photographers didn't do that great of a job, but once you sift through them and take out the subpar ones, the photos look great. Yay Jay!

We didn't do anything exciting for New Year's. (Although if you watched Dick Clark count down to the New Year, it was exciting in a sad way... he skipped like 4 seconds... doh.) I woke up about six minutes before midnight, as I had fallen asleep on the couch about two hours before.

And I've been feeling sorry for myself lately, as I have a nasty-ass cold sore (yeah, it's gross), and it seems to like to not go away. So it's lame, but I took the week off because I have a hard time speaking and eating, and those are two things I like to do (and speaking is part of my job). But I sure do miss eating like a normal person... Jay's been very sweet, though; he got me two kinds of delicious chicken soup the other day, and he even got me my favorite Quizno's sub that he cut up into tiny pieces so I could easily fit them in my mouth.

So I've been to the doctor twice in the past week, and I realize that she's not very perceptive to anything I have to say. Which makes me want to find another PCP (primary care physician). But how is one supposed to find a PCP they like? You can't interview doctors over the phone. You can't go to ratemydoctor.com, as that Web site doesn't exist (unlike ratemyprofessor.com). So ah well. I shall sit this one out, and until I suffer accidental death or mismemberment, I shall settle for my PCP, who is sweet, she just doesn't listen.

Oh, and I brought Abe to the vet today. He had to have his rabies shot. He also got a physical and some sort of lyme disease shot, as well as a distemperment shot. I don't know what the distemperment shot is, or if it even is "distemperment". I might just be saying that because I brought up dismemberment in the last paragraph. ::shrug:: But he was a good boy, and everyone loved him.

Okay, I'm rambling, so I go now!

Wow, it's been about a month?

So yes, I haven't posted in a long time. Sorry for those of you that actually come here. (Sorry in the sense that I haven't had new material; not the fact that I'm sorry you visit me.) We have gotten our new couch - it certainly wasn't as comfy as the one in the showroom, and I was on the verge of returning it (along with the $45 pick-up fee) because it wasn't nearly as comfy as I hoped, but since it's so big and . . . well, big, we decided to keep it. I also got to sit in the Get Bucket Brigade section for two games - which was fun, but I think I took too many pictures and annoyed the Buckets Brigade the first time, and then the second time I was self-conscious and didn't really cheer much, so it was a mixed bag of emotions for me. And now Christmas comes along, and I'd really like to wish everyone I encounter a Merry Christmas, but I don't know if they're Jewish or not or what, so I say happy holidays, and I'm proud of that, but apparently people get mad if you don't say "Merry Christmas," but I say whatever, all the semantics boil down to is well-wishing anyway, so plthhh. So I wish you all well! And I hope everyone gets to see their loved ones this season. It's going to be 44 degrees tomorrow. That's warm for this time of year.

Recap of the weekend

Now that my butt cheeks have healed from sitting on a few too many couches, I thought I'd say that we had a very nice weekend. Of course, Thursday was Thanksgiving. Then Friday we went to Bri and Kerry's for their Thanks Again party - as always, a great time. Friday night saw Jay cheering on Ricky D at the TD Banknorth Gaaahden. Saturday we went out looking at new couches - Jay and I are getting each other furniture for Christmas instead of gifts, 'cuz we sort of need new furniture. Luckily, we have the same taste when it comes to shopping for couches - it has to look decent, but it has to be super squishy and comfy.

So today, unfortunately, Jay's not feeling too well (much like Pat - hope you're feeling better, Pat!). I just wanted to say that I don't like the recent weather. It seems like the weekends are either rainy or cold, and then the weekdays are nice and sunny and warm. OR the warm days are rainy and the cold days are sunny. For instance:

Weekday: Warm, but rainy!

Weekend: Sunny, but cold!

Couch shopping and its repercussions

Quick post here: today we went looking at couches, and so we sat down in lots and lots of different ones. Now my butt is all chafed, and it literally feels like someone scraped medium-grit sandpaper on my butt for an hour or so. Jay thinks I'm weird. But man does it hurt!!

Post-Thanksgiving post (redundant?)

Hey, I love Thanksgiving, I love the stuffing, I love the turkey, I love the side dishes... but I wouldn't love washing the dishes. Haha, can you tell I just left my mom and dad to clean all these dishes?? Man, I suck!!

How was everyone's Thanksgivin'? We had dinner at my parents' house and got to hang out with my nephew - I'm scared of babies, but he's a cutie and I got to burp him a lot - and then today we went to Bri and Kerry's for Thanks Again, which seemed much more low-key than other Thanks Again parties. If you don't know what Thanks Again is, it's the day after Thanksgiving party where people bring any leftovers they have and Bri fries up some whole turkeys. If you haven't had fried turkey, your arteries haven't lived. So delicious... so crispy... so tender... oh, so fried.... mmmmmm.

Oh, so Thanksgivin's over, it was a bunch o' fun, and now we have to do the holiday shopping. Thankfully, my immediate family is doing the 'Secret Santa' thing where we all pick a person to buy for, instead of trying to buy a gift for all six of them. But we're still going to get the baby a gift, namely some Celtics clothes. Jay noticed that Mason has lots of Red Sox and Patriots baby clothes, and now we want him to represent all the Boston teams. Especially the C's. I said we should get him some New England Revolution gear (shout out to Dennis!), but Jay wasn't very excited about that....

Turkey turkey turkey

Well, here Jay and I are at my parents' house out in the WB (West Brookfield, not the TV station), and it's snowing, and the aroma of roasting turkey is in the air, and I'm in the middle of fixing a veggies and dip platter. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone - I hope everyone has a great meal and a great time with whomever you spend it with.

Last night we got to go out to Ye Olde Tavern, the ONLY bar in my hometown, where every townie congregates on the eve of Thanksgiving. I saw a few guys from my high school class (no, none of them were boyfriends; I didn't have boyfriends in high school because I was too interested in marching band), I saw a few people from the class one year behind me, and there was also a girl fight on the dance floor. Woo! It got really crowded and really surreal, so Jay and I got the heck out of there.

And here we are on Thanksgiving morn. I got to set the table. I have to go finish making veggies and dip now. (I get distracted. Look, a turkey!!)

The Publick House

I took Jay out to a place called The Publick House in Brookline last night. We found out about the place on The Phantom Gourmet, which is becoming a source of weekend entertainment for us lately. They said that this restaurant had a great macaroni and cheese, which happens to be Jay's favorite thing in the world. And plus they have like 27 beers on draft and many more I can't count in bottles. So we drove on into Brookline and got to the place at 4:00. I didn't know they don't open the kitchen until 5:00. Not to worry, though - we just sat ourselves down in the corner and got a beer. Jay picked out a throne chair. Seriously. It was this really uncomfortable wooden chair with a very high back that had intricate carvings in it. He loved it. When dinner time came along, Jay ordered the mac and cheese, and asked our server for some add-on advice: should he get asparagus and caramelized onions and add an extra artisanal cheese? Heck, why not?? He ate the whole thing, so I'm assuming he liked it a lot. We had a great time at this place! The workers were friendly, the service was great, the atmosphere was fun - not too loud that you couldn't hear yourself speak, the food was good and the beer was great.

Which brings me to my next suggestion: Jay and I decided that for his birthday in February, we're going to have a mac & cheese cookoff! Everybody you meet has a different recipe for this comfort-food dish, and Jay wants to try them all. No details are set in stone - I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that this February will be mac & cheese-rific.

One year ago

So I was looking through our digital pictures, and looking at ones from about a year ago revealed that this was about the time we were in the middle of getting the house. It's strange, I feel like for the first time in my life that I actually have stability and can actually remember things like where I lived last year and what was going on. In the past it's been like life moved and changed way too quickly to actually put roots down and have an idea of where you'd be in 6 months. Ah, philosophising...

So yeah. Looking at my trusty PDA, I see that we put an offer down on the house on November 3rd, 2004. We went to a Celtics game on November 5th. We applied for a mortgage on November 16th. I brewed my delightfully clovey gingerbread beer on November 21st (ew, it's a year old! but it certainly has mellowed...). And I also have a note on December 2nd that says my sweater smells like poop. Well, then... Here's some pics from November 13th, 2004, a year ago from last week when we had a 70-degree day:




So anyway, it's strange to look back one year and remember what was going on. I certainly don't remember two years ago or three years ago... I see people in court saying, "Oh, I've been working there for 9 years come this February," and I have no idea how people remember stuff like that! I don't even remember when I started WORKING in court! And it's only like 2 or 3 years ago! Maybe this will be the turning point, who knows.

UPDATE: Regarding the recent post where I had my first roadkill incident (yeah, I killed a racoon with my car), I was reminiscing through the posts over at my old blog, "Erin Talkin', ye-a," and came upon this post from June 17, 2004. Animals should fear me!!

Midweek post

So we're still getting used to Abe having a nice haircut. I swear, he seems like a much more pleasant dog! It's weird. He's all clean and neatly trimmed, and he seems much better behaved. Jay bought him a new octopus toy the day he got his grooming done, and the thing's probably a bit bigger than him and with 6 more legs. Abe was scared of Wally (yes, we name Abe's toys - what?) because Wally was bigger than Abe, but just yesterday he embraced the new toy and started to bring to toy up to our laps and growl at us because we were too close to it. Abe's a weird dog.

Nothing much else going on... my new session in Worcester is going to have lots and lots of crazy trials going on, which is exciting, yet mildly scary seeing as how it's all criminal stuff. Jay's away at the Celtics game now -- well, he's actually on his way home at this point... the C's had a really bad game, unfortunately, but they showed a great shot of the Get Buckets Brigade in the 3rd where Jay was standing on the back of the seat in front of him. Good stuff.

Is everyone excited for Thanksgiving?? I love turkey!

groovy pic

I just killed a racoon!

My first roadkill experience, and wow, it sucked! Well, I guess they'd all suck... but anyway, I was just driving back from the Oriental House with my Chinese food, and right before the Mobil station on the way back, I looked down very quickly to change the station on the radio when I saw something out of the cornerest of corners of my eye, and that something was a flick of movement in front of my car. My front tires, and soon after, my back tires both hit something pretty substantial. Doh!! I turned my car around in the hopes I hadn't just blatantly killed someone's cat or dog... and as I drive my car back and flash my high beams, I see the still-flickering reflection in the eyes of a big racoon laying motionless on its back. I totally killed a big racoon. Thank God it wasn't someone's cat!

On a side note, Jay killed a possum with the same exact car pretty much in the same exact spot not but a week ago... animals should learn to not play in the road near the gas station.

Too much work

So it's silly, but I find it difficult to keep up the whole blogging thing. (A) I have to find something interesting to write about, (B) I have to find pics that correspond, and (C) I just really don't have the attention span to accomplish all that!

So anyway, this past week entailed Jay going to Celtics games (watch him on Fox Sports Net, you'll see the Get Buckets Brigade I guarantee!), me being moved to the Worcester courthouse, and Abe getting a haircut. I am going to focus on Abe getting a haircut.

Before:

after:

Wowsers!! It's two different dogs, pictures taken on the same day!! No kidding, I'm laughing my ass off at how different he looks. Oh, but he's a cutie pie...

Party?

We might have some peeps over around 2:30/3:00 on Saturday - it's gonna be nice and I want to grill! Let me know if you're interested.