Sarah carved eighteen (yes, eighteen) pumpkins. She does it every year. There are some awfully good pumpkins at the link. Me? I contributed the tea lights for some of them.
Awesome carving of a cat. Well, they’re all pretty good. The turtle eating a sandwich was Max’s request. He loves turtles. We didn’t ask him about the sandwich.
Tamiflu notwithstanding, this flu sucks.
The last two nights I’ve had difficulty sleeping. Took hours to get to sleep, and then it was hot/cold/hot/cold/hot/cold all night long. I have my typical un-fever (96.3 when I last checked), and fever dreams all night. Really. My grandfather not recognizing me? That totally sucked.
Yes, I’m very, very, very crabby at the moment. I should find a way to get linked and let the morons in to comment. That’d give me fresh meat to chew on for a while.
Update: I’m not the only one not having a pleasant flu. Please note the age groups that are being hospitalized, and remember that if you are feeling flu symptoms, run, do not walk, to your local doctor. (Full post here. Via.)
Hm, let’s see… spend an hour or two posting, or shower and meet up with Sarah and the kids?
Tough one.
Later, dudes.
It’s a sinus infection. I have antibiotics and other things. But I have no energy to post.
And I have to say, Sarah is a great friend. I am extremly crabby when I’m sick, and she just lets me gripe on the phone and doesn’t complain. I realized today how extremely crabby I was just before dinner, and I called her while I was cooking and said, “Bitchy Meryl has been banished for the rest of the day.” She laughed. (I did apologize.)
I can feel the antibiotics working already. Maybe one more good night’s sleep will get me back to being mostly human.
Colds make me stupid, but they don’t steal my snark.
Oh, wait. This one did.
If you have to have a cold, it’s good to have supplies for chicken soup on hand. I had a quart of frozen chicken broth from the last soup I made (I save it to add to stuffing, and haven’t made stuffing in ages). I had a can of Manischewitz condensed chicken soup. I had a package of matzo ball mix, and a bag of carrots. And I also had one and a half boneless chicken breasts that I put in the fridge instead of the freezer on Sunday, and had to cook or throw away.
An hour later, a very hearty chicken soup. And very tasty. Two containers of soup left over, plus a couple of matzo balls to put in the freezer for later.
Well, at least it isn’t the flu. A cold is annoying, but the flu would require someone else to cook for me.
Boy, between Sarah’s family and me, we have three separate bacterial tracks going. Jake has H1N1. Nate has strep. And I picked up whatever took out the rabbi on Friday and Saturday (he was recovered enough for Yom Kippur, thankfully).
I had one container of home-made chicken soup left in my freezer. If I still feel crummy tomorrow, it’s out to the store for supplies, and fresh chicken soup for dinner.
I was going to post something earlier, but then I decided to save it for later. And then I got in my car and turned the key in the ignition, heard a very loud crack, like you hear when a fuse blows in your house, and my car went, very softly, “Rrr, rrr, rrr.” So I called Triple-A and told them to send me the battery truck. Yep. It was the battery.
All I can say is, better now than this morning after shul. And better tonight than tomorrow, 45 minutes before shul. And definitely better now than on the way home from the Outer Banks last week.
Bought the battery from Triple-A, guy who came to check mine installed it, we chatted about the two gun tattoos on his arm and Yom Kippur (I told him that I really needed the car tomorrow, and he asked about the holiday).
That, and the dog ate my homework, is why no Caturday post today. I’ll try to find time tomorrow.
Oh, wait. Tig came out of the garage after Battery Guy left, and was cleaning his paws. Sure enough, he’d stepped in the white powder that got knocked off my battery. I swept up the rest and locked him out of the garage. Yeesh. Acid powder. That stuff can’t be good for him.
The view from my balcony:
Rip tide
I think we will visit the Wright Brothers exhibit at Kitty Hawk today. And probably swim in the condo’s pool.
I know I should write about all the serious things going down, like the Goldstone Commission hatchet job. Or ACORN. And yet, all I want to do is, well, walk on the beach, swim, and take pictures of giant gulls. (I’ll have a picture later on that shows how huge these suckers are.)
So nope. Nothing serious. Not yet.
The view from my window.
Morning at Killdevil Hills
It’s hot and lovely and I’ll be hitting the beach soon.
Here.
Somewhere in the Outer Banks
Aaaaah. I can feel my stress melting away.
This is where Meryl was on Saturday night:
I’ll bet you thought from the headline this was a political post. Nope. I was at the Amelia County Fair, which featured a Demolition Derby tonight. This is the picture of the end of the derby.
It was awesome.
I have had great times at county and state fairs before, but nothing like this. The Amelia County State Fair has just gone on our must-go list. Sarah and Larry and the kids and I had an absolute blast.
More pictures, and video, if I have time to post them tomorrow. Otherwise, I’ll find time during my downtime next week. (Vacation time for me. Can’t wait.)
Are you old enough to remember ditto machines?
When I was in grammar school, we didn’t have Xerox copiers. We had ditto machines. Everyone who experienced the fresh ditto paper can recall the purple ink, and that unique smell wafting from the freshly-made copies.
I had an extra-special duty in fifth grade. Since I was one of the best students in the grade, I was appointed Ditto Maker. If a teacher needed copies of a test or homework assignment made, I was pulled out of class and sent to the office, where I would chat with the secretary and the vice-principal while I ran off copies of the requested ditto.
These memories are among the strongest of my childhood memories (possibly due to the importance of the scent of ditto ink; scent memories are the strongest). But I do remember feeling very proud every time a teacher came by and asked me to go to the office and make dittos. It was quite an honor and responsibility.
Progress is good. Xerox machines, laser printers, and modern technology make life a lot easier. But nothing will ever replace the scent of a freshly-made ditto paper, slightly damp, that I made myself while getting out of class for a few minutes.
A year ago today, I moved into my new home.
I am still as thrilled with my condo today as I was a year ago. Maybe even moreso, because I love coming home.
I just talked with my mother and some friends today—I think I’m going to have a Seder here this Passover. I didn’t last year, but this year, well, I want to have first night in my home. And I’ll even have some kids there to do the Four Questions.
Gracie loves this condo, too. She is happier here than she has ever been in her life. And Tig3.0? Well, look at the last post to see how happy they are. Every day at 11:00 a.m., Tig jumps up on the kitty shelf and annoys me until I play with him or pet him. Gracie sleeps in the office most of the day.
I’ve had overnight guests here, and I’m not worried that anything will happen to their car out in my driveway. I forget to lock my door sometimes—hell, I left the garage door open for about 45 minutes the other day because I was waving hello to my neighbor as I left and forgot to close it—and nothing happened. I no longer hide my valuables and laptop when I go to northern VA or on a trip out of town. And I never, ever hear my neighbors.
Peace. Quiet. Contentment. That’s what this home is filled with, plus a couple of cats that make me laugh, the occasional friend or relative, and various and sundry children. I think I may even have a Daled class reunion around Chanukah. That’d be fun.
Homeownership. It’s definitely a good thing.
I have to say that the Wii Sports Resort with MotionPlus is, well, totally awesome.
Jake’s over today helping me organize my books and put them into my new bookcases. After dinner, we tried out my new Wii game. Way cool. Way fun. Really liking the archery and the bowling that now acknowledges my wrist-flick and lowers my score to what it should be in real life. Jake’s loving the fencing, especially the showdown fencing that allows you to go after hordes of enemy fencers.
This is truly the only video game system that has ever held my interest. I can’t wait until the lightsaber games, now that I’ve got the MotionPlus.
I’ll be heading to Wal-Mart tomorrow to buy a second one. (We actually went out tonight, since Wal-Mart is right across the street, but they were sold out.)
Between work and play, there has been no time to post today.
My new bookcases arrived today. The office was empty and lonely without my books.
But the office started looking much better after the new bookcases were put in. I think I’m going to have to buy one more set of shelves, but I won’t know until the books go back in. Which won’t be until the weekend. Tig, of course, had to investigate.
And investigate.
And investigate. You know. Curiosity. Cats. That sort of thing.
If Gracie has set foot in the office since the bookcases arrived, I have yet to see it. I expect she’ll be fine by tomorrow, at least, until I start dragging boxes of books back into the office and putting them in the shelves. But she’s perfectly content in her spot by the railing.
I’m so excited. These are the first really decent bookcases I’ve ever had. They’re also the first that weren’t hand-me-downs. And just think, I get to alphabetize my books for the first time ever! Woot! (Actually, not so woot. Pain. But it will be done.)
Caturday is either late or early this week. Late, I think, since I didn’t post any kitty pics last weekend.
I tried to start a diet back in June, and I went with a diet that worked years ago, back when I only had about ten pounds to lose. Basically, I cut out junk foods, cut down on Coke (sorry, totally addicted to it), eat Fudgesicles instead of chocolate, oven-roasted potatoes instead of french fries, baked or grilled or oven-roasted chicken instead of fried—just common-sense weight-loss routines. Eat healthy snacks instead of tortilla chips, that sort of thing.
Well, I have a lot more than ten pounds to lose (about thirty, actually), and I went overboard in denying myself food. I wasn’t just hungry all the time, I was starving. The end result: I went off the diet completely for a couple of weeks and had to work my way back to starting over. This time, I cut out most junk food, but I’m allowing myself the occasional bag of chips. Last week, when I was jonesing for ice cream, I bought a single-serve Edy’s Slow-Churned instead of a pint. And I am not feeling the guilt over eating out with Janet and Chris when I’m staying over with them in NorVA, because I follow the 80-20 rule. Diet eighty percent of the time, eat what you like twenty percent, and you’ll still lose weight.
I am currently down six pounds from my highest-ever weight, and about to reach my first milestone. This one’s just a WOOT! milestone, because I will be back in the 140s for the first time in ages. It should happen sometime next week. The next milestone is ten pounds. I promised myself I could get four pieces of honeycomb sponge from my favorite candy store, enough for one helping of dessert (two, if I can stand to stop at two pieces).
At twenty pounds, I get my cooking oil back from Sarah (yes, I really made her take the gallon of canola oil out of my house) and I can make a batch of home-made potato chips. That will probably coincide with Hanukkah. But if it doesn’t, I’ll probably fry up latkes around that time anyway (80-20 rule). I’m doing this one the slow and steady way. I’ve decided that I’m fine with waiting until next year to reach my goal, which is 120. In my smoking days, I weighed about 110-115, and I was too skinny back then. 120 seems a more healthy weight for me.
One of the things I’ve been considering is asking my readers to sponsor my diet. For every pound dropped, you donate a dollar (or more, if you like) to Magen David Adom. I can have Sarah come over and be my witness.
If you’re interested, let me know. You can always put an anonymous comment here if you don’t want to divulge your identity. They go into the moderation queue, is all. (Little-known fact.)
I wonder how much I could raise….
I realized a long, long time ago that I am a terrible housekeeper. It’s mostly because I really hate cleaning house. When I left my apartment last year, I decided to hire a cleaning staff so that I wouldn’t have to spend half a day or more scrubbing floors and toilets. I cleaned the fridge and the oven, and they did the rest so well that I got every penny of my deposit back. So I hired the service to clean my apartment once a month, and it’s working out just fine. Every four weeks or so, a horde of Latina women comes in, scares my cats, cleans my house, and leaves things in much better shape than they were before they showed up. And these are the things that I have noticed or learned in the last ten months:
I always said I would do this when I could afford it. It’s a wonderful thing.
Last night, I stopped on the way home to watch Nate play in the Little League All-Star tournament. It’s his team’s third game, and they faced the other team in the tournament that was undefeated. We got to see two victories over the weekend, but it wasn’t looking all that great today. The other team leaped out to a three-run lead and kept the lead through most of the game. There were a few errors that made Aunt Meryl hide her head in her hands so she wouldn’t have to see the other team score.
And then came the moment Nate’s team was waiting for. Or maybe the moment we were waiting for. Nate’s team battled back several times, finally tying it up in the fifth. And up came Nate to the plate. Bam! He knocked in the winning run, his teammates padded the lead, they held it in the sixth, and game over.
I haven’t got any baseball pictures. For those, you need to go over to Sarah’s blog. But it sure was nice seeing the boys battle back from behind, and then beat the toughest team in the tournament. Thursday’s game is going to be a denoument. Friday’s game, however, will be a rematch between the two. Now that will be interesting.
Regarding my post about whether or not I can call myself a Southerner yet: I think not. There was a point in the game when the boys were still trying to come from behind. The umpire made a lousy call against Nate’s team. It happens. One of the coaches—a rather young man—had to sit out the game because they’re apparently only allowed two coaches at a time by the league. He and his buddy, who had been coaching the game long-distance the entire time (and second-guessing enough for six Monday Morning Quarterbacks) started yelling at the umps. I stayed quiet for about two or three insults, then I turned and said, “Pissing off the umpires is not a very good idea.” They tried to argue. I went all NJ on their asses, because I am not a parent, nor related to the coach (Sarah’s husband Larry is the coach), and have never had any trouble expressing myself when I think a wrong is being committed. Even better, a couple of the parents chimed in to back me up. The young men decided that perhaps they should stop harassing the umpires, especially when it was pointed out to them that this was the umpire that threw out the other team’s manager on Sunday when he misbehaved.
You know, I get that you get annoyed at a lousy call. But bad calls happen. For both teams. I think at this level, you get one “WHAT?!” moment, and then you shut up. And if you don’t, well—I really have to learn how a southern woman would have handled that, and try it that way next time.
Who knew organzing a comic collection would take this much time?
And we’re not half done.
Last week marked my seventh anniversary as a resident of central Virginia. Since I’ve moved from New Jersey, I have done a number of things in Virginia that I never did in NJ. They are, in part:
So my question to my fellow Southerners is: Can I call myself a Southerner now, or am I still one of those damned Yankees who came to stay? (A Yankee comes to visit. A damned Yankee comes to Virginia and stays here.)
Every once in a while, a new spam subject comes along that apparently keeps managing to elude the spam filters at the server level.
And I have to ask: What effing moron actually thinks he will get a free sample of Crest toothpaste via email?
Gone. And thank heaven for Firefox spam filters.
Perversely, watch what happens—bet my Akismet spam filter will now fill up with spam comments for this post.
Sarah and the kids were in town today so that Jake could retake a couple of parts of the test for the gifted program. He was sick and on meds when he first took the test, and didn’t score highly enough on the math, at which point Sarah went, “WHAT?” because the kid is a math genius. So I got a call around lunchtime, and Sarah gave Jake the phone to tell me that he had scored 100 on his math, and 97 on his verbal. Which both utterly rocks and guarantees his entry into the gifted program. Couple that with the fact that his [Aunt Meryl-advised] essay won him a trip to DC to listen and talk to some real, live moon-walkers (the astronaut kind, not the dancing), and his bar mitzvah last month, this is one very exciting time for our young man. Sarah was only too happy to take the kids out for a celebratory lunch. So, since they were two minutes away, I said, “Want to stop by for a while?” and of course, they did.
Tigger was curious, yet worried. He took to the high ground pretty much the whole time.
He stayed upstairs. As for Gracie, she never moved from under the bed. It’s naptime, dammit, and those kids are always so noisy.
Max decided to curl up in The Chair That Swallows You Whole, thus proving its name.
This, of course, initiated the usual reaction among children: Me too.
And me, too. Except in my own way.
Jake, as the oldest of the four, did not deign to curl up in the chair. You’ll have to go over to Sarah’s site to see pictures, or maybe I’ll just take pictures of him next week. He’s got an actual job here, as I’ve hired him to help me organize and categorize my comic collection, which will then be put into file cabinets when I finally find the kind that I like at an affordable price (lateral, wooden files, if you know of any good places to get them). I’ve pretty much blown my budget for office furniture for the year with my new bookcases (due at the end of the month, woo-hoo!).
We also watched an episode or two of SpongeBob, and I must highly recommend “One Krab’s Trash” as what may be the funniest SpongeBob ever. (”Oh my gosh, it’s a shopping list!“) [And by the way, um, spongepedia? Spongepedia?) I had laughtears falling, I was laughing so hard.
There is now a rule in my house that no child is allowed upstairs without adult supervision. That’s because I have a handgun in the house, and when the kids come for an expected visit, it is firmly locked up in a clamshell that disables it from being used as anything but a club. But it’s been a while, and I didn’t think about locking the clamshell until they got there. Sarah had to dash back to Ukrops because she’d left her purse there, so I figured I’d better go upstairs and lock up the gun. Max, obeying the letter of the law, came upstairs right behind me. Note that I never said they had to have permission. Just supervision. All children are born lawyers, and will parse the hell out of any rule you set down. Max stayed on my exercise machine while I locked up the gun and put it out of reach. After that, I didn’t mind if they were up on the landing while we were downstairs, but I do insist that they stay in sight (and out of my office and bedroom).
All in all, a nice break. We used to have lunch together every Thursday. Perhaps we should bring back that tradition.
The poll has been up for quite a while now, and it looks like the answers are staying pretty steady. Here are the results:
| Political posts | 22% |
| More cat posts | 18% |
| More humor | 17% |
| More personal posts | 15% |
| Popular culture (TV, movies) posts | 13% |
| Nothing, keep it like it is | 10% |
| Other answer… | 5% |
And here are my responses to the various comments and numbers: I like the idea of adding more politics and more non-Israel or Jewish subject posts. I want to go back to the blog that I had a few years ago, which was a multi-subject blog that concentrated on Jewish and Israeli issues, not a blog that almost solely concentrates on Jewish and Israeli issues. The Jewish blogosphere has for the most part ignored me for a very long time. No matter how often I link out, I’m not seeing much reciprocity, and I have to tell you, my generosity only goes so far. There are a few bloggers who have always been excellent in that respect, and now people like Yid With Lid aggregate my RSS feeds (I don’t think I’ve ever thanked Sammy for that, so Sammy, thank you!).
But don’t think that I’m acting out of bitterness. I wouldn’t stop writing about Jewish and Israeli issues because I’m not getting linked. I am, after all, Jewish, and a Zionist. I am merely stating some facts that are influencing my decision. Another fact is that I am no longer linked by other bloggers who are not in the JBlogosphere because I’ve become a one-trick pony, and they have other Israel bloggers that they link. Linking is the coin of the realm, and my blog has been in the red for a while now.
Another reason for changing things around is simple: I’m bored. When I am bored, I am phoning it in. Or not posting much at all. As this is not the Soccer Dad and Snoopy blog, it behooves me to post more than my co-bloggers. And speaking of my wonderful co-bloggers: You can find much more content on Israel at their sites, as well as Jack’s. In fact, there are a ton of Jewish and Israeli bloggers listed on my navbar. If it’s information you want, you can go there. I won’t be featuring as much Israel news as I used to.
I’m planning on going back to the things that made my blog what it is today: A variety of posts about life, politics, Jewish and Israeli issues, and, of course, cats. I’ll be posting at least one weekly roundup of links that I like, blogs I’m reading, or interesting news. I am also encouraging my readers to start adding links in the comments. (I’ll add a comments plug-in that gives you rich text options; I know you’re missing that.) But keeping things the same? Well, if I do that, you can count on my quitting blogging within a year. I don’t keep on doing things that bore me. When I was bored at my job, I tried to work within the company to do something about it, or got a new job. When I am bored in my life, I change things. When I’m bored with my blog, well, the blog has to change. And I stated that in the very first post I wrote, on April 22nd, 2001:
This site will undergo many style changes in the upcoming months, as I have no real idea what I’d like the end product to look like. What I do know is that I’ve spent several years in the industry and know the difference between a point, a pica, and a pixel. I know that the Internet is a wealth of information and misinformation, and anyone can discover just about anything online if s/he looks long enough. I know that my mindset has undergone many changes in the last few years, and will doubtless undergo more as I get older. Growth is change. Stagnation, to me, is worse than death. If I cannot change, just dig me a hole, throw me in and cover me with dirt.
Yeah, not quite ready for that hole yet.
It’s been a really long time since I actually stayed in a hotel instead of with friends. And even longer since I stayed at one that caters to a more upscale clientele. So much to snark, so little time.
Just because you call it “massage soap” doesn’t mean it’s “massage soap.” Sorry, but making soap with half-circles on one side gives you a lumpy cleaning, not a soothing massage.
Ginger? Why not Mary Ann? Everything soap-like in the bathroom is made with some kind of ginger scent. I forgot my shampoo. No worries, there’s White Ginger Clarifying Shampoo, White Ginger Moisturizing Conditioner, and if you’re really not quite tired of the scent yet, White Ginger Renewing Body Lotion! Geez, I think I’m in a ginger commercial or something. And, oh—the soap is scented with white ginger, too.
I don’t think “Green” means what you think it means: Yeah, okay. I’m buying this. “As part of Hyatt’s commitment to conserve the environment, we will change bed linens and towels as necessary or upon request. If you wish to have your linens and towels replaced daily, please contact the hotel operator.” Shyeah. Like the Hyatt isn’t doing that to save themselves a ton of money.
That being said, it’s a pretty good hotel. I went to the gym last night and will probably swim instead of bike tonight. Turns out my Sprint broadband card isn’t nearly as slow here as in the wilds where Sarah lives, so I didn’t spring for the extra ten bucks per day for WiFi. Yeah, my company would reimburse me, but it really bothers me to waste money, even money that’s not mine. That’s why I’d make a terrible politician.
The second day of class was just as good as the first. It’s really nice being in a roomful of my peers, learning new and useful things. Even nicer to have my company paying for it. I spent a lot of money educating myself to get to this point. The Chubb Institute was not cheap. It’s nice to be rewarded for all that time and effort.
I just want to say this upfront: The Learning Tree absolutely rocks.
They give us breakfast. They have soft drink machines that charge only fifty cents for sodas and water. They give us a snack in the middle of the day. And apparently, Tuesdays and Thursdays are Cookie Day.
They are a serious challenge to my diet.
And on top of that, the class I’m in is superb. The subject matter is all that I hoped for, and the teacher is excellent.
This is the best class I’ve taken since the NJIT Webmaster’s Certificate Program in the late nineties that set me on my career in web.
And if anyone’s in the Reston Town Center area, I’m free for dinner tomorrow night. I’m taking the exam for possible certification/college credit, and will then be sitting out rush hour before heading home.
The drive was exhausting. But I have a corned beef cooking, and a Gencarelli’s panelle bread, and some kosher steaks in the fridge. I had a very nice weekend with friends, and learned that my nephew is, indeed, going to my alma mater. He was accepted to Montclair State University (it was a college when my brother and I attended), and the deposit’s been sent. Not too many people still there that remember me, though. Although, he’ll definitely find out if there are any left. His father and I made quite an impression on the teachers and administrators. Mostly because of the work we did on the college paper. We were quite the investigative reporters way back when.
Well, off to finish dinner and see what news I’ve missed. The Michael Jackson Google News story count surpassed 26,000 stories last time I checked.
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