My purse flooded

Has your purse ever flooded? Mine did today. See, I've been hauling around my old red purse I got from Target. It's okay. But for Christmas I received a really, really cool purse that is made of one zipper that's continuously zipped up till it makes a bag.

Neat! But although I love it, the straps are a very bad design and they don't stay attached to the purse.

Anyway, I had been using my zipper purse, but since the straps keep flying off the thing, I decided to swap back to my old standby. Well, today as I was signing into work, I noticed a little puddle on the ground. Hmm, I thought. I wonder what that's from. Well, my purse was leaking blue-colored water out of itself onto the floor. I reached into my purse and pulled out my (completely empty) water bottle, and then peeked in the purse. There was 3 inches of blue-dyed water in it! Blaahhaa!! I had minimal stuff in the purse since I had recently swapped back, but I still somehow managed to write lots of stuff in blue nonwaterproof pen on a piece of paper and stuff the paper into my purse, where the ink proceeded to get washed away by the leaky water bottle.

Anyway, there I was in the courtroom at 7:15 in the morning with a purse full of blue water, and what, pray tell, are you supposed to do with a leaky purse?? I didn't have anywhere to dump the water; I'm in a courtroom! I think I quickly took everything I could out (including my waterlogged cellphone which now doesn't work) and then I ran to the bathroom, where I dumped the purse water out into the sink.

Now, on my drive in, I was feeling very contemplative and philosophical, thinking about the meaning of life and what really is happiness and all that deep stuff; and then to have a flooded purse? I really wish I had my camera, because even though I was in a melancholy mood, I couldn't help but realize how funny that was. I was dumping blue water out of my purse into the sink at work. I don't know; maybe I just didn't get enough sleep last night.

I proceeded to have a very strange day, full of incompetent attorneys and higher-ups not doing their job and an old Italian woman dumping out the contents of HER purse onto counsel table; the contents included pill bottles and medical bills. It wasn't blue water. If it was, I would have spewed V8 out my nose.

That's it! No more!

Well, we've experienced the trifecta (sp?) of bad restaurant experiences. The nail in the coffin. The straw that broke the camel's back. I don't really know what that all means or if it makes any sense... but we've decided to just not eat out at restaurants anymore. And it's not because we're trying to save money or eat healthier or anything; it's simply because we've been continuously disappointed lately when we've gone out to eat. Seriously, seriously disappointed. Bella Boston in Logan Airport - well, you might have read the post regarding that experience a few posts back; Acapulco's - you also read about that in the same post; and yesterday we went up to the Lowell area to see Coleman (Jay's older bro's kid - hence, my nephew, right?) play in a basketball game, and then the Bailey fam went out to the Lowell brewery for some late lunch. The beer was pretty good, but again, the service was horrible and the food (my food, at least) was very bad. I feel like a bee-yotch when I get upset and complain about my dining experiences, but man, if you're going to pay money and leave a nice tip, is it too much to ask that the waitstaff, oh, does their job? and that the cooks do their job by making food taste okay?

The answer apparently is: Yes, it is too much to ask! So I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!!

Today Jay and I decided we are not going out to restaurants anymore (except John Harvard's, were we will only drink beer and eat the hummus platter; Prezo in Milford, where we will only go once in a great while for a treat; and The Publick House in Brookline, where we will only drink beer and stick to the food we know we like). I am going to make a concerted effort to be a better cook and be more prepared to have home-cooked food every night, and for each meal on the weekends (except maybe for going to the new bakery for a cherry turnover).

We took a $150 trip to Market Basket today, and when we got home, I cooked up a batch of chili and served it with baked potatoes for lunch, and I also prepared a batch of roasted vegetable and chile salsa, which goes really well with enchiladas, and can probably be used with other stuff, too. So that was Day 1 of boycotting dining establishments, and now I'm tired! Cooking for four hours makes you kind of exhausted. I actually forgot to eat any of it yet, so now I'm getting nauseous and dizzy, so I think I'll go heat up some chili and have bread with it. And yes, I will check to see how my meal is going after I serve it to myself, and I will offer myself a refill on my beverage when I notice it's empty. Man, good food and good service! If only I could leave myself a tip!

Dennis the photographer and pizza places in Ashland

Right now we're having a little fire out in the firepit in the backyard (oo, I love two words you make into one!), and I just was peeing and thinking ('cuz I think when I pee; what?), and I wanted to say that Dennis is a good photographer. I hope he posts pics on his photo blog thing of what he photographed tonight, 'cuz from what I saw, they were neat-o. Neat-o pics, D!

And I also wanted to post about pizza places. It was twenty of 11:00 and we wanted pizza, so I called up Pizza Mine, our old standby, and they had already closed at 10:00. I proceeded to call all -- no, seriously, ALL -- of the pizza places in Ashland, and some wouldn't even answer the phone, but most were closing at 11:00 and wouldn't deliver at this time of night. It's Friday night! There's a freakin' college in the next town over! What pizza shop owner would close their doors at 11:00 on a Friday night?? Oh, ALL of them! Pu-sha, I say! Pu-SHA!

Anyway, I write this as I sit and wait 14 minutes for the frozen pizza I found in the freezer to cook, so that Dennis, Erik, Jay, and I might have some satiation. Wow, that word looks really, really weird. It's 11:03 and you can't get pizza in Ashland. Unless you have some in your freezer. Hmph.

Update, and rant about restaurants

My first post of the new year! I actually wrote half a long post recapping 2006, but I got bored or distracted or something, so I never finished it. I think I was trying to put pictures in with it, but all the pics I reviewed for the first few months had nothing to do with what I'd written already, so I sort of gave up. I do have it saved as a draft, however, so maybe in June or July I'll revive it, finish it, and post it. Who knows? We're just crazy like that, y'know?

Jay has been busy with preparing his applications to grad school since he left his job. Just yesterday, he put the final touches on his portfolio and other paperwork, and just last night, we sent out a little package to Mass Art! He's applying to the Dynamic Media Institute there. Next week he'll finish up packing up stuff for RISD and will send it off. I'm so proud of him for all his hard work and following through with applying - next step is waiting till we hear back. Thanks to Matt for helping him with the cross-platform and other computer stuff!

We've had a few disappointing restaurant experiences lately. First notable one: Bella Boston in Logan Airport. I know it's an airport bar, but my GOODNESS it was horrible. Just horrible. Jay and I brought Cuddy to the airport when she was headed back to Chicago. I won't get into it too much, but everything was really expensive, the beer was gross, the food was subpar (Jay's was super greasefest galore), the service was terrible... but the real crowning moment was when the waitress brought over extra plates for Cuddy & I to split a burger. She brought over two black styrofoam plates (styrofoam? please), one on top of the other. I picked up the top one and began to put some food on it; Jay goes, "Did you ask for that?" and pointed to the bottom plate, which had what looked like old sour cream and chunks of salsa on it. I don't get grossed out very easily, but that was gross! Where the hell did she actually take those plates from? Seriously! I can only surmise she literally picked them out of the trash and put them on our table. ::shudders::

And last night we went to Acapulco's on Route 9 in Framingham, which used to be great, then was okay, and last night's experience makes it now bad in my eyes. We got the very first booth, which initially we thought was cool - we weren't surrounded by lots of people and it was nice and quiet. Well, it wasn't cool; it was about 90 degrees for some reason. Whew. We ordered drinks & food, which both came quickly. Margarita - okay, but a little too much sour mix. Food - eh, it was okay, but even though the plate was about 2,000 degrees, the food was barely warm. After our waitress took our order, that was the last time we saw her for literally 45 minutes. Some other person brought our food out, and there was a busgirl hovering nearby like a vulture, or buzzard, even, who stopped by our table twice; the waitress never came back to do the customary "how is everything?" check-in, and never came back to offer us another beverage after our margaritas were gone. Hmph. Even after our food was done and the vulture -- I mean busgirl cleared our plates, we sat and waited for an uncomfortable amount of time before she ever came back to offer us dessert or coffee, or maybe another drink. In the intervening 20 minutes, Jay and I decided we'd have a beer; then decided we'd just leave because it was 90 degrees and our waitress was never coming back. Even after we asked for the check, she didn't come back for 15 more minutes!

Sorry. I ranted. I'm not a very demanding person, I don't think, and I don't have super fancy tastes and ridiculously high expectations for dining out; I just would like an average night out with average service and average food. If the waitperson smiles, that's even better; if the beer's especially delicious, bonus points. I just get a little upset when the experience is just ridiculously bad, I guess...

So that's what we've been up to!

Rule of Thumb

I wanted to post quickly about this:
I went to Chili's (which actually should be Chile's, since they have a chile pepper for their little logo - and yes, I do believe chile pepper is with an "e," not an "i") with Cuddy and her brother and her bro's girlfriend the other night. I opened the menu, and it had a little blurb about how before thermometers were invented, beer brewers would dip their thumb into the wort (the name for unfermented beer) to check for the right temperature to add the yeast. It claimed, "That's where the phrase 'Rule of Thumb' comes from."

And I haven't checked this out, but I do believe they're wrong. I'm not trying to offend anyone here, and I apologize if I inadvertently do, but I believe the phrase "rule of thumb" comes from when there was a law on the books that husbands weren't allowed to beat their wives with canes that were thicker than their thumb. It's an offensive phrase. And I don't know where the hell Chile's -- I mean, Chili's came up with that.

I had to write that down because I was going through old posts and read about how Dennis was wondering where the phrase "cold turkey" came from, and I found out it has many different explanations and origins.

Rule of thumb relating to brewing, my ass!

Giving you something to read while I think

Hi, there. I have LOTS of stuff I want to post about, but I've been pretty busy the past week, so I literally haven't had the time to sit and focus on writing stuff. So to bide the time while I come up with a post, here's the post recapping 2006 that I never finished. It's at least half the year....

Here it is!

"I was going to recap December, but decided that I'd steal Pat and Kate's idea and recap the whole damn year.

January
We didn't do anything exciting for New Year's. I was still struggling with getting cold sores. Some TV we'd been watching: Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, Country Boys, and the Puppy Bowl. We also painted the living room and the fireplace. At the end of January of 2006, I lost all the info on my PDA, and I was very sad about that. I was playing Tetris on it on Jan. 24th and it froze. I had entered lots of random stuff you'd usually forget about, like what we had for dinner each night and funny things we've said. Ricky Davis also got traded from the Celtics, in the middle of Jay's role as a season-ticket-holding member of the Get Buckets Brigade.

February
I had signed up for a personal trainer for a week, and that was fun while it lasted. I got more cold sores, had taken a week of sick time because of them, and finally switched PCPs to go to a doctor that specialized in infectious diseases (eww, infectious...). Since then, I've been cold-sore free (yay!) - I had hoped in a previous post that he would give me magic medicine, and he did. Jay got me delicious steak and asparagus and mashed potatoes from John Stone's for Valentine's Day, and I made him two kinds of mac and cheese. We had fun watching Olympic curling. We celebrated Jay's birthday at Daniela's Cantina, and it was great seeing everyone. I think Fun and Games was visited at some point during the night, but it was closed; then some people came over our house and we stayed up late drinking and playing Trivial Pursuit on the TV. We also went to Winterfest in Lowell.

March
My nephew Mason was christened. Jay got a promotion at his job. We spent St. Patrick's Day at Daniela's Cantina (so not Irish). We discovered Pandora.com. We watched The Loop and American Inventor. Jay got himself some new tires at BJ's. I bought some books about landscaping and dressing myself. I brewed a batch of beer in preparation for the Marathon Monday party.

April
Abraham's bum broke and he had to have some minor surgery done. He made a very quick recovery. I helped my parents clean out their basement in preparation of my brother and his wife moving in - they needed the basement to store stuff, and they were moving in so they could save some money for a house. We bought a wheelbarrow and put together the hammock that Jay got as a birthday present from my mom. I was still trying out that whole "working out" thing - I tried out Gold's Gym in Ashland, I tried going to the Y in F'ham... Jay picked up the foosball table from Josh's place (when he lived with Dennis). I got some foosball lessons from Jay. We also tried grilling lots of different veggies for the first time - broccoli and carrots, along with the usual asparagus, zucchini, and peppers. Deliciousness! Jay makes a prediction that edible hats will come into style during our lifetime (I have no idea what prompted that prediction). We had our Marathon Monday party. I was looking into going back to school for some sort of psychology degree, and attended an open house at Lesley University. I tried making homemade veggie burgers, which didn't work out too well.

May
We got some trees down in the beginning of the month. Jay was working on a very big project for work and was staying late in the office a lot. Jay decided he'd start collecting rookie cards from prominent Celtics team members. We went to Kate's surprise birthday party in the midst of a week-long rain. Our backyard flooded after that week-long rain (but our basement remained dry). Charmed has its final episode (man, I loved that show).

June"

New Years' Something or Other

I've been thinking about what kinds of resolutions I would like to make for the upcoming new year. I came up with an idea a while back (not related to resolutions for the new year) about making a list of 52 things I want to accomplish and do one thing a week. They might be small things, they might be big things... but things, they are! Some of the ideas I came up with:
- do something with my wedding dress
- get some of my clothes tailored
- organize Jay's and my clothes drawers
and thus and such.

Anyway, we'll see. I tend to have grand ideas and then don't execute. Hey, it doesn't mean I'm a bad person...

So Ms. Chris Cuddy is home for the holidays, if you consider MetroWest her home and not Chicago. Jay and I will be seeing her tomorrow probably. ...Yeah.

Ummm... I know I don't post a lot, so I'm trying to think of stuff to write about while I'm actually writing! Jay's been looking more seriously into grad school - he's going to apply to RISD and Mass Art. He had already taken a trip to RISD a few months back, and yesterday he went to Mass Art to check it out. So he's been keeping himself busy with working on his portfolio, completing the necessary 'administrative' tasks like getting references, writing out his mission statement, etc... Yay, grad school!

What's been going on with me? Not much. It's been slow at work lately, and I've slowed waaaaay down on researching the fancy CAT software I want to get for work. Hopefully I'll gear up in the new year (ooo, maybe that'll be one of my weekly tasks) and make a well-informed decision.

I've recently been more interested in musical endeavors (not serious ones, though). I pulled out my big old keyboard the other night, and realized I really suck at playing keyboard now! I used to be, you know, at least pretty good at piano; but I couldn't remember much of anything, and what I did remember, I wasn't very good at. Jay and I went to the music store near FSC last night and I picked out a piano book with pop-ish songs, but when I got home and opened it up, I realized that the songs were so, so simplified and boring-sounding, and even still, I had a tough time sight-reading them. So I just don't know - am I now a beginner piano player? Oh, the horror! I used to be able to play "From a Distance" like nobody's business! (Wait, no, I couldn't -- that was the song that I messed up on during a concert in high school, and the public access channel was recording it, and they played it over and over and over again for weeks...)

Oh. Jay wants me to write that I also bought a nose whistle. I guess it's really called a humanatone. But I like "nose whistle" much better.

My birthday jersey

Oh, yeah! I gots myself an old-school Denver Nuggets jersey for my b-day! It came in the mail today, and if I do say so myself, I look pretty damn hot. Sweet!

Yes, Patrick, I'm rocking the Blogger beta!

I almost forgot that I upgraded to the new Blogger version and switched what my template looks like. I was actually going to even try to design my own template or modify the ones they offer, but hey, I got bored and moved on to something else.

So thanks to Pat for the Gimpshop suggestion - I downloaded it, and it's done all I need it to do beautifully. I still haven't posted many pics, but hopefully I'll get there. My attention span is so short that by the time I log onto Blogger I've forgotten about what I wanted to write about.

Today is my birthday, and my workday was pretty uneventful (same ol', same ol'). But when I got home, Jay had gotten me some very, very pretty flowers, and a TV tray with fun '50s star patterns on it. (I did really want some sort of TV tray for the living room, because I wanted something I could put my laptop on without getting in the way of tasty snacks I like to put on the coffee table.) And then Jay took me out to dinner to Prezo, a very nice restaurant in Milford that we like for fancy-ish occasions. I got a steak! Delicious steak! With a side of asparagus! Delicious! Mmmm!

So I'm now 28, and we're now watching the Celtics play the Knicks, and I guess the Celtics are playing well for my birthday (they're up over 20), and Abe's stomach is making strange noises, but that's probably because he was eating lots of grass on his walk after work, and my palm is itchy, and I think I have to change out of my power suit into some comfy clothes, and I should load up WordPerfect onto my computer.

So another thing to say: I've been using WordPerfect for the past, oh, three-plus years to do my transcripts. I've gotten used to it. I've been using it on a reburbished Dell laptop from 1998 that su-cked. When I got this fancy new laptop, I didn't have WordPerfect to load up onto it, and since it came with Microsoft Office Suite, I figured I'd try out the ol' Microsoft Word. It pissed me off! I find it difficult to deal with page numbering, I find it difficult to define specific punctuation I want it to do, I find it difficult to deal with line numbering. Many little tiny things that bothered me. The judge I'm with is fascinated by my use of this new computer, and daily he will ask how it's going. I informed him of some of my frustrations with Microsoft Word, and he made it a personal mission to figure out the things I was frustrated with. And he did! I was very surprised that he took the time to figure it out. He helped me figure out line numbering (it's under the page layout menu under 'file'?? Hello, nonintuitive!). That was very nice of a judge to do.

I need Photoshop

I was trying to post some pictures, but I don't have Photoshop, and I don't know how to use any other photo-editing programs that come with Windows. (Paint? What the hell right does that program have to even exist anymore?) I think I went into my frustrations with this thing, Picasa, and I think I posted a weird post with pictures and weird text.

Anyway, here I sit as Mike Hinde visits and we're watching the new King Kong. It's bad. It's only 15 minutes into it, and I can't get away from the fact that Jack Black is trying to act. It's still Jack Black. But I rented it because we hadn't seen it yet, and I figured it'd be a good movie to watch on our new big TV.

"I think no matter how big the TV was, this movie would still suck."

That's what Jay just said. I agree.

Yeah. If anyone has any ideas on how I can edit pics without Photoshop, let me know. I just want to resize and save for web! ::shaking fist::

p.s. that picture that was inadvertently posted in the previous post was our Halloween costume. We were supposed to be ASCII art, but we ended up telling people we were either a crossword puzzle or a word search puzzle. I still don't know exactly what we were.

And... I have no idea what I'm doing

 
Umm, I realized I don't know a lot about computers after I got my fancy Zanzabar 2000 (my and Jay's nickname for my fancy new 'puter), and all I want to do is upload (or download?) pictures from the digital camera and use some Photoshop-like program to resize and compress it. That's all I want to do. Did you know that Windows XP still has Paint as an accessory? Paint? What really can you (or anyone??) do with that? Seriously!

Anyway, I opened this thing called Picasa, and I hate the kind of software that does everything for you and won't let you do anything you actually want to do. This is one of those pieces of software. Oh, I can 'reduce red eye' or 'adjust color' or even 'crop,' but all I want to do is resize and save for web! Oh, easy-as-pie parts of Photoshop, where are you?

Long story short, I chose something along the lines of "Blog this!" after I selected an image I wanted to actually edit, and it opened up a Blogger window with some fancy HTML code at the beginning of the post, and I just left it there and wrote this disdainful post. Now I'm going to post it and see what happens. 

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!