I'm not entering Kevin's showing, because this is a personal in-joke, but I do thank him for the opportunity to drag it out again. It's been that kind of week.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
The Giant Floating Head knows the score
I'm not entering Kevin's showing, because this is a personal in-joke, but I do thank him for the opportunity to drag it out again. It's been that kind of week.
Do you really want to know this stuff????
So Lefty tagged me with that “Tell 8 Things about Yourself” meme the other day, like I’m just going to drop everything head to the computer and start typing away or something. So, just to show him a thing or two, I waited a couple of days. I’m ornery that way, sometimes. (Just kidding, Chris!)
Anyway, here are the rules:
- Each player starts with eight random facts about themselves.
- Those who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight facts and post these rules.
- At the end of the post, choose some people to get tagged and list their names.
I don’t do the tagging thing, so I’ll be disregarding the last one, but I think I can handle the rest of it. (It seems to me that Roger tagged me with something similar ages ago too. Maybe I should check that out.)
So let’s see…eight random facts about me:
1. Foods I need to stay away from when I’m trying to lose weight: potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, pop tarts, french fries, sugared cereals, pizza, and those ice cream bars with the chocolate coating on the outside and vanilla ice cream on the inside. I find it very hard to have any of these foods in any sort of moderation whatsoever, so I have to abstain. Except, of course, for a very rare and occasional splurge.
2. When I was in college, I was a student summer missionary every year. I worked in the “four corners” of the lower 48 states: Lake Placid, NY; San Diego, CA; Miami FL; and Seattle, WA. I caught a lot of flack from my friends over the Miami and San Diego assignments, since they thought I’d be in for a cushy vacation at Baptist Student Union expense. However, I worked my butt off in both places. So what if I came back from both assignments with the best tans I’ve ever had?
3. At one time I was the news editor for a lesbian magazine. Seriously!
4. My life travels in very weird circles sometimes. When I was in college, I dropped a major in math, yet ended up working in the math department as a senior. My first job of any substance in Louisville was for a non-profit, which I left in 1990, only to return in 1997. When I left the second time, some of the folks there told me that they would be waiting for me to come back again. Taking my current job brought me back into a building where I worked in the mid-nineties. Same floor, even! Different agency, though. I’m tantalizingly close to having another of those circles happen to me again. I can’t say anything until it happens, but keep your fingers crossed for me. Please.
5. When I was a kid, I used to have frequent throat infections. When I was sick (which was a lot of the time), I had a hard time swallowing anything, so I lived on mashed potatoes and apple sauce. As a result, I was a skinny little booger. Then I had my tonsils removed when I was about eight. Cleared up the problem! And I’ve been a tubbo ever since. Applesauce is still one of my favorite foods, though. My grandmother used to keep a jar in her cabinet all the time, just in case I came by.
6. I have read over 50 books so far this year. Over the weekend, I finished three. Reading has always been a stress relief for me, so I guess that says something about the way 2007 is going for me.
7. When my mother was a senior in high school, she won the history award, which was one of the few competitive senior academic awards at her school. Everyone who wanted a shot at the award had to take a test and write an essay.
When I was a senior in high school, I won the history award, which was one of the few competitive senior academic awards at my school. Everyone who wanted a shot at the award had to take a test and write an essay.
8. I have shared various parts of my life with 16 different cats. Three of them have been neighborhood-roaming cats who made my yard one of their usual stops. (In fact, there’s one of them right now who stops by our front door every day for a hand out. His name is Zeppelin. The kid down the street named him.) One of them kind of came with a house we rented when I was a teenager. The first one that we ever had as an official pet was named Kitty. He ran off after we moved and we never found him. The next one was called Kitty Jr., because he looked like Kitty. The third one was called Black Kitty, because he was, well, black. My brother was responsible for all three of those names.
Okay, those are my thrilling and obscure eight facts. Anything else you want to know?
Anyway, here are the rules:
- Each player starts with eight random facts about themselves.
- Those who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight facts and post these rules.
- At the end of the post, choose some people to get tagged and list their names.
I don’t do the tagging thing, so I’ll be disregarding the last one, but I think I can handle the rest of it. (It seems to me that Roger tagged me with something similar ages ago too. Maybe I should check that out.)
So let’s see…eight random facts about me:
1. Foods I need to stay away from when I’m trying to lose weight: potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, pop tarts, french fries, sugared cereals, pizza, and those ice cream bars with the chocolate coating on the outside and vanilla ice cream on the inside. I find it very hard to have any of these foods in any sort of moderation whatsoever, so I have to abstain. Except, of course, for a very rare and occasional splurge.
2. When I was in college, I was a student summer missionary every year. I worked in the “four corners” of the lower 48 states: Lake Placid, NY; San Diego, CA; Miami FL; and Seattle, WA. I caught a lot of flack from my friends over the Miami and San Diego assignments, since they thought I’d be in for a cushy vacation at Baptist Student Union expense. However, I worked my butt off in both places. So what if I came back from both assignments with the best tans I’ve ever had?
3. At one time I was the news editor for a lesbian magazine. Seriously!
4. My life travels in very weird circles sometimes. When I was in college, I dropped a major in math, yet ended up working in the math department as a senior. My first job of any substance in Louisville was for a non-profit, which I left in 1990, only to return in 1997. When I left the second time, some of the folks there told me that they would be waiting for me to come back again. Taking my current job brought me back into a building where I worked in the mid-nineties. Same floor, even! Different agency, though. I’m tantalizingly close to having another of those circles happen to me again. I can’t say anything until it happens, but keep your fingers crossed for me. Please.
5. When I was a kid, I used to have frequent throat infections. When I was sick (which was a lot of the time), I had a hard time swallowing anything, so I lived on mashed potatoes and apple sauce. As a result, I was a skinny little booger. Then I had my tonsils removed when I was about eight. Cleared up the problem! And I’ve been a tubbo ever since. Applesauce is still one of my favorite foods, though. My grandmother used to keep a jar in her cabinet all the time, just in case I came by.
6. I have read over 50 books so far this year. Over the weekend, I finished three. Reading has always been a stress relief for me, so I guess that says something about the way 2007 is going for me.
7. When my mother was a senior in high school, she won the history award, which was one of the few competitive senior academic awards at her school. Everyone who wanted a shot at the award had to take a test and write an essay.
When I was a senior in high school, I won the history award, which was one of the few competitive senior academic awards at my school. Everyone who wanted a shot at the award had to take a test and write an essay.
8. I have shared various parts of my life with 16 different cats. Three of them have been neighborhood-roaming cats who made my yard one of their usual stops. (In fact, there’s one of them right now who stops by our front door every day for a hand out. His name is Zeppelin. The kid down the street named him.) One of them kind of came with a house we rented when I was a teenager. The first one that we ever had as an official pet was named Kitty. He ran off after we moved and we never found him. The next one was called Kitty Jr., because he looked like Kitty. The third one was called Black Kitty, because he was, well, black. My brother was responsible for all three of those names.
Okay, those are my thrilling and obscure eight facts. Anything else you want to know?
Saturday, August 11, 2007
It's Salsa Time!
Yes, it's another batch of yummy homemade salsa! This time it's black bean and corn salsa! Starring our home grown tomatoes!
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Eddie Mitchell Picked a Peck of Peppers!
And I did it last night.
If this heat wave doesn't break, the peppers will be about the only thing left in the garden. My flowers are nearly all dead. Record highs every day this week so far, and tomorrow's supposed to be no different. There's a TON of stuff I want to do in the yard, but it's just too hot to do more than the bare necessities.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
And now a word from Chiquito!
He wanted the last word on this morning's post. Happy to oblige the cute little kitty.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
The Hole Truth
The hole, er, whole truth about what’s up with me this time. This is a picture of our kitchen ceiling.
That large gap that you see in the ceiling tiles is not a design feature, nor is it the beginnings of a skylight installation. It’s not even one of those little “fix-it-up” jobs that came with the house when we bought it.
Rather, it’s something that just happened last week. We came home and found the kitchen ceiling getting really acquainted with the kitchen floor.
We’re not sure what caused it. There’s not been any kind of a leak or drip or anything like that. In fact, it rained over the weekend, and I kept listening and looking in the hole for signs of a leak, and there weren’t any.
We’re reasonably sure it’s not termites either. At least there are no signs of damage on any of the joists and such. I’m a little concerned that it might have been larger critters crawling around in the ceiling, but the hole’s been there for a week and we’ve not seen any signs of such. And none of the cats are acting like there’s something up there we need to check out.
Still, for some reason, the ceiling tiles ripped away from the staples holding them up. I’m starting to think maybe the house decided to redecorate itself. Either that, or there’s some kind of inter-dimensional Star Trekky portal up there. Maybe the answer is incredibly obvious and we’re just not seeing it yet.
More puzzling than what caused it is what to do about it. We thought our home warranty would cover it, but no such luck. Keith thinks we can handle it ourselves. I’m still thinking we might be too handy-man challenged for that. There are only about twelve tiles that have fallen (so far), but that could change any time now.
If we do tackle the job ourselves, then should we just replace the tiles that have fallen or rip the whole thing out and put something new and shiny up. I’m a little afraid they might not make this particular style of ceiling tile any more. It would be our luck that they have matching tiles these days, but they’re a larger size, so they won’t fit in the hole.
I’m honestly lazy enough that, if we’re going to have to yank the whole thing down, I just might advocate waiting until the rest of them fall out on their own. I mean, what’s gravity good for if you can’t use it to your own advantage?
On the other hand, a little destructive-therapy might feel good about now. Who can I pretend that ceiling tile is as I rip it down and cast it to the floor with a disdainful sneer? Take that foul fiend! Now back to the pit that spawned you!! Uhm, sorry about that… Stupid overactive fantasy life…
Anyway, now that the dust has settled a bit and we’re through having people pass through the house and look at this, I’ll blog a bit more. This includes finally answering Roger's questions! And when we come to a decision, I’ll post something here. It might make for some fun photo ops.
Speaking of photos, here are some that are happier than a hole in the ceiling.
The garden is going okay. The beans and bell peppers are not doing well and several tomato plants have died, but we still have a bunch that are really producing well. The hot peppers are doing great, too. I missed the chance to take a pic of our first huge batch of Roma tomatoes, but here are some Orange Pixies! Aren't they cute?
Wait a minute, that last one wasn’t an Orange Pixie! That was Chiquito! Isn’t he HUGE now? He's been with us almost a year now.
The reason I couldn’t get a pic of the first bunch of Romas is…
..They’ve already been turned into yummy homemade salsa! I love yummy homemade salsa!
The green flecks are homegrown cilantro from the herb garden.
I missed the first batch, but here’s the second batch of Romas, with a couple of others thrown in. All waiting to be turned into more yummy salsa!
And to close out, here’s our only bell pepper to date. Sad, huh?
That large gap that you see in the ceiling tiles is not a design feature, nor is it the beginnings of a skylight installation. It’s not even one of those little “fix-it-up” jobs that came with the house when we bought it.
Rather, it’s something that just happened last week. We came home and found the kitchen ceiling getting really acquainted with the kitchen floor.
We’re not sure what caused it. There’s not been any kind of a leak or drip or anything like that. In fact, it rained over the weekend, and I kept listening and looking in the hole for signs of a leak, and there weren’t any.
We’re reasonably sure it’s not termites either. At least there are no signs of damage on any of the joists and such. I’m a little concerned that it might have been larger critters crawling around in the ceiling, but the hole’s been there for a week and we’ve not seen any signs of such. And none of the cats are acting like there’s something up there we need to check out.
Still, for some reason, the ceiling tiles ripped away from the staples holding them up. I’m starting to think maybe the house decided to redecorate itself. Either that, or there’s some kind of inter-dimensional Star Trekky portal up there. Maybe the answer is incredibly obvious and we’re just not seeing it yet.
More puzzling than what caused it is what to do about it. We thought our home warranty would cover it, but no such luck. Keith thinks we can handle it ourselves. I’m still thinking we might be too handy-man challenged for that. There are only about twelve tiles that have fallen (so far), but that could change any time now.
If we do tackle the job ourselves, then should we just replace the tiles that have fallen or rip the whole thing out and put something new and shiny up. I’m a little afraid they might not make this particular style of ceiling tile any more. It would be our luck that they have matching tiles these days, but they’re a larger size, so they won’t fit in the hole.
I’m honestly lazy enough that, if we’re going to have to yank the whole thing down, I just might advocate waiting until the rest of them fall out on their own. I mean, what’s gravity good for if you can’t use it to your own advantage?
On the other hand, a little destructive-therapy might feel good about now. Who can I pretend that ceiling tile is as I rip it down and cast it to the floor with a disdainful sneer? Take that foul fiend! Now back to the pit that spawned you!!
Anyway, now that the dust has settled a bit and we’re through having people pass through the house and look at this, I’ll blog a bit more. This includes finally answering Roger's questions! And when we come to a decision, I’ll post something here. It might make for some fun photo ops.
Speaking of photos, here are some that are happier than a hole in the ceiling.
The garden is going okay. The beans and bell peppers are not doing well and several tomato plants have died, but we still have a bunch that are really producing well. The hot peppers are doing great, too. I missed the chance to take a pic of our first huge batch of Roma tomatoes, but here are some Orange Pixies! Aren't they cute?
Wait a minute, that last one wasn’t an Orange Pixie! That was Chiquito! Isn’t he HUGE now? He's been with us almost a year now.
The reason I couldn’t get a pic of the first bunch of Romas is…
..They’ve already been turned into yummy homemade salsa! I love yummy homemade salsa!
The green flecks are homegrown cilantro from the herb garden.
I missed the first batch, but here’s the second batch of Romas, with a couple of others thrown in. All waiting to be turned into more yummy salsa!
And to close out, here’s our only bell pepper to date. Sad, huh?
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