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.