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!

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!