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Hmmm, you must be saying, interesting title today. Well I'm not talking about the two legged type of vermin, so it's kinda yucky! You may not know, but I have two cats, Gray cat and Max. Gray cat has been a fixture here for years, I sorta inherited her and she's grown on me. She sleeps with me most nights if she's in the house. Max on the other hand, I just got last summer and he can be a bit annoying at times... Anyway, Gray is a real killer, she kills baby chipmunks, mice, moles, whatever she can get her paws on (or into I should say). And I know it's because she loves me and all, but I'm not amused to find that the thing on the carpet at the top of the stairs (yes, if the light wasn't broken I would have seen it right off) isn't debris of some sort, but a chipmunks head! I almost stepped on the damn thing! And I have to wonder where the rest of it is too. And, as if that's not bad enough, there's more. Seems like since she sleeps with me, and I guess thinks my bed is the place to be (hmmm, smart girl, huh?) she has left me "presents" in my bed before. OK, it's one thing to find a dead mouse on your comforter, but what happened last night, freaked me out. About two in the morning I woke up suddenly, I rolled over and something made me pop up. Hmmm, must have been that dead mole that was under the covers, that my leg brushed against! Eeeewwww!!! And another time I woke in the morning to find a dead mouse all squished, like I had rolled over on it multiple times with my legs as I was asleep. See what I'm getting at? This is weirding me out, like I have to be all paranoid who knows what I'll wake up with in my bed... OK, now that I got that out, I'll catch you up. Not much going on. George came over Monday night and laid the tiles in the bathroom up in the cottage, it came out really nice. Tomorrow night he's gonna grout them and start laying the tiles in the entry hall and kitchen/dining area. So little by little. I know I wanted to have it done by the end of the month (tomorrow) but the floor situation screwed me up. If I had gotten the pergot floors like I wanted it would prolly be done by now. So the trees are all starting to bud here, the whole place is coming alive and it looks nice. The no grass at all in the front yard thing is kinda depressing, but I should have grass seed down this weekend as long as it doesn't rain. Today I went to Home Depot and got two more sheets of wonderboard to finish the underlay for the tiles in the kitchen up there. Grace played hookie and came up, so we just hung out in bed like slugs and half-napped all afternoon and then I cooked up some burgers for dinner. She left to do her Wednesday evening thing and I'm writing this. OK, before it gets dark, I'm heading out to pick up some junk in the yard and put those last two sheets of wonderboard down. Then I have to do laundry and I'm wiped out, so prolly go to sleep early. Nice day- enjoy what's left of it... posted @ 06:17 PM EST [link] [Karma: 2 (+/-)]Gunga Din, water - water ! Guess what ? I got the water tied in down here at the house yesterday, so now there is running water in the cottage!! Yup, I had it all done and air checked the lines last night, then I ran out for a few hours. Well I got home around 9:30 and said, what the hell... So I turned off the house, drained the lines down and cut in a tee to tie in. It sounds like a 20 minute job to do the whole thing, but it's a little more involved due to circumstances. See, we couldn't get the water line going up there buried deep enough as there's so much rock ledge under the ground once the machine started digging. I had thought about using heat tape to keep it from freezing in the winter, but once it's buried, what do you do when it goes bad in 5 or 6 years? And how do you know it went bad, wait until the line freezes and then you're digging up the driveway in the winter, Sounds like a bad idea. So, the brilliant solution? Run two water lines up there, and make it a loop, and then add a circulator pump in line and a check valve so the water can only go in one direction (around the loop obviously) and another check valve from the house feed so the water can't try and back feed into the house system here. That picture is my boiler room wall and those are the two lines, the pump, and two check valves, but plumbing-savvy types probably recognized that right off! So now in the winter, just flick the switch to turn on the circulator pump, and since the water will always be moving, it can't freeze.... At least in theory, I'll let you know how it works next January... And more exciting news on the cottage- my friend George is coming over today (yes, I know it's Easter, I'll stop working and eat a big Easter dinner) and we're going to lay the ceramic tile in the bathroom and the the entry hall and kichen area. Yeah baby, get that bathroom floor done and I can set the fixtures and then I'm almost finished! I am gona be fried today- I was up to almost 5:30 this morning. Last night I was screwing wonderboard down on the floor up there in prep for the tiles. Then I got done around three and when I should have been sleeping, a good movie came on I never saw so I had to watch it. It was called "Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession" and had Art Garfunkel, of all people, as the lead, and Harvey Keitel also, who I usually like. And Theresa Russel was hot twenty years ago also! All in all it was quite good and I'm surprised I had neither seen nor heard of it before. OK, I still need to have my second cup of coffee, drinking Tanzania blend these last few pots, it's a little mild for my taste, I like bolder African brews myself. Then I have a few more screws to shoot into that floor before George comes. And all my kids (yes, all four of them) are coming up to have Easter dinner at my Mom's this afternoon, so it will be a busy day, I'll try and post later and of course have pics of the floor. Alright, if you're Greek (like me) or Russian Orthodox- Happy Easter! posted @ 10:37 AM EST [link] [Karma: 5 (+/-)]Damn... Started smoking again. Yup, yesterday I bought a pack. The rest is history. I'll write more tomorrow, exhausted tonight and going to sleep (but I'll have a few cigs first, eh?) posted @ 10:15 PM EST [link] [Karma: 6 (+/-)]Aaaaaggggghhhhh, I wanna smoke !!! Damn, I quit smoking yesterday. Yesterday wasn't bad, but today, well, lets put it mildly and say I'm really friggin' cranky. On the verge of going postal at times. but I just take a deep breath and tell myself that person can't help being the way they are (and any way they are is almost sure to be more then my patience at the moment) and it's probably my perception that is off. And it passes. But damn it's hard not to say something at times. OK, as a matter of fact, just typing this is making me crave a smoke, so I'm going to stop. Tomorrow I'll find some cool links to post about people who are quitting and on the verge of being psychotic as a consequence, and also somehow still seeing the humor in it, K? Alright, night, methinks I'll go upstairs and watch TV and try to not think about the fact there are probably some butts in a wastebasket somewhere in this house (yes, isn't that gross, but that's how bad this damn addiction is)... posted @ 09:57 PM EST [link] [Karma: 16 (+/-)]Evolution of infatuation Me, twenty years ago: D'you think she'd go out with me? Me, fifteen years ago: D'you think she's smart? Me, ten years ago: D'you think she's nice? Me, five years ago: D'you think she's not psycho? Me, now: D'you think she'll pass the background check? - I lifted this from accordian guys page, thought it was funny as all hell, so props to him, and as fer me, yeah, I haven't had time to come up with anything witty or insightful lately. Mixed a bunch of concrete and poured the floor in the bathroom up in the cottage, had a big fight with my Mom today (what else is new), and then just chilled out with G on CUseeme and cooked up some ravioli for supper. Did some laundry, did the dishes, now I'm gonna go watch a movie and fall asleep. Yes, I know, how do I deal with all the excitement? It ain't easy but you get used to it! posted @ 10:30 PM EST [link] [Karma: -11 (+/-)]'Taters OK, so I took a day off today and did nothing. G played hookie and came up in the morning and we went and had Mickey Dee's breakfast. Tried their steak egg and cheese on a bagel thing, it was quite good. Then we came back and just layed around in bed all day until around 2:30. Then she took a nap and I cooked some cornbread. Then we went to the supermarket and got the fixin's for supper. Which is why the title today is- taters... So since we both openly joke that we have an eating disorder, and people are always amazed at the amount of food we can eat when we chow down, I'll just say we may have made a little too much food! Like six pounds of potatoes for three people may have been overkill. And 12 boneless thin sliced pork chops may also have been a few too many. She cooked up a wonderful frittata for an appetizer, but there were nine eggs in that bad boy, it could have been a meal in itself with a nice salad... Then she roasted up all those aforementioned taters, drizzled with olive oil and salt and pepper. I very finely chopped some parsley up and made a salad of baby romaine and shredded carrots, and shook the shake and bake onto the pork chops. She made a nice red wine vinaigrette for the salad and also to make a potato salad with a few of the taters. Then we roasted a couple heads of garlic, and mashed them into the taters with fresh parsley, butter, and loads of coarse salt and fresh ground pepper. By the time it was all ready, we were both exhausted, Sam was wanting it to be done so he could go out, and we were a little full from the frittata! Well, the oven roasted, skin on, garlic mashed potatoes were delicious, the pork chops were a little dry, and I never even had any salad. By the time I did all the dishes and cleaned up, we were wiped. Smoked a couple butts, had some coffee (yes, the famous kind) and then she left and I'm sitting here writing this. And I'm burning old stuff from my PC onto CD's and deleting it, then defragging so I can free up some space. I guess you'd call it "archiving". I want to make enough room to copy the whole disk from my old workstation onto here, so I can go through it and burn that onto discs too. I haven't used that machine in almost 3 years, but it has a ton of stuff on it that I still need now and then. It's a dual Pentium 2 all scsi box, so I'm gonna wipe it out, put Linux on it, and it should be a kick ass Linux box, eh? Well, I'm exhausted, gonna go crash, as tomorrow I have a lot of stuff to get done and some errands to run. And I guess I'm having mashed taters with dinner tomorrow night! posted @ 11:13 PM EST [link] [Karma: 2 (+/-)]Pickled Bologna!! It may sound gross, it may seem as if you wouldn't go near it with a ten foot pole. However, if you grew up (or ever lived) in the midwest, you may have fond memories of pickled bologna... Yes, the amazing stuff that comes in a big jar, one continuous piece of tube meat in that vinegary brine. Well, the good news is you can order it online, and I did. Here it is, a new jar full of pickled bologna. It's best enjoyed on a ritz cracker with an optional slice of farmers cheese. So I promised you a few pics of the yard, so you could see the gargantuan task I have ahead of me, so here they are- Here's looking out the kitchen door, the whole front yard is now a foot higher then it used to be. And here it is from out in front by the road. and this is the view from the same spot, turning around and looking towards the road, notice around that little maple tree there is a 25 foot circle of gravel embedded into the soil.... That should be fun to try and rake up! Here's the view from midway up the driveway (which is destroyed too by the way). And my personal favorite, the giant pile of dirt, rocks, and pieces of blacktop (err, I mean my driveway) that is piled up next to the pool. I don't even like to think how many man-hours and wheelbarrow loads it's going to take to remove that.... OK, enough of that. I'm gonna throw my laundry in the dryer, take a quick shower and look for something decent to watch on the tube, so later y'all. posted @ 09:19 PM EST [link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] mmmm, plain spaghetti Yesterday the sun came out around 2 and stayed bright and breezy, t-shirt weather! I saw a couple convertibles with the tops down and heard a lot of bikes cruisin' around. Very tempted to put the top down on my Jeep, but I know from past times even though it's warm, I'll freeze my ass off at highway speeds... This week is supposed to be in the seventies every day the latter half, so watch out Spring fever rules may go into effect... I bought a couple 25 pound bags of grass seed to try and plant a lawn where I now have only dirt (like 2/3 of my yard) and am not looking forward to all the work it will entail. Raking out all the ruts and picking out all the stones, forget about the piles of gravel the construction guys just ground into the yard... What a nightmare, but since we aren't getting any rain for a few days, I'll wait on the planting, maybe just do the prep with Sam on one section today. I did get the second coat on the ceiling in the cottage, and I installed the ceiling fan, the high-hat eyeball trim, the track lights, and the smoke detector, so the ceiling and lighting are out of the way. I also got the end caps for the baseboard heat so it's all finished.This week I'll pour the concrete in the bathroom floor, attempt to lay ceramic tiles in there (first time, wish me luck) and then I'll be able to concentrate on finishing the bathroom. I also want to finish taping the closet, install the shelving system in there and put the closet door and trim on. So it will be a busy week. In the evening Grace came up and we cooked dinner. Just plain spaghetti with olive oil and butter, she sauteed some broccoli with oil and garlic and I made a salad of just romaine and shredded carrots, she made her delicious vinaigrette. Then we had a pot of my famous coffee. I'm taking to calling any coffee I make "my famous coffee" as everyone loves my coffee, I have friends that only want to visit for a pot of my java. Hmmm, what does that say about my personality? hehe, oh well ... After dinner Sam bleached his hair, it looks good. His friend John T. came by and he had a plate of spaghetti. I like that kid, he always eats whatever I offer him when he stops by around meal time. Must be the greek grandmother in me I guess. OK, I'm going to finish my coffee (yes, the famous kind), get dressed and start working on raking and leveling the yard. I'll take pictures and post them later so you'll get an idea of what I'm up against, when I say that guy destoyed my yard and driveway, I'm not kidding! K, enjoy the day boys and girls! posted @ 12:43 PM EST [link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)]OK Pho So yesterday- Painted the ceiling in the cottage, am going up there soon as I finish this to do the second coat. Then I'll install the light fixtures and ceiling fan. Then G came up and we had a nice afternoon, just relaxed in bed and veged out. Last night drove all the way to Poughkeepsie as she found that they have a vietnamese place there and we have been wanting a nice bowl of pho for some time now. Went on Mapquest and got directions, drove up there and believe it or not there were 2 places within a half a block of each other. The first one we tried Saigon Cafe was Zagat rated and supposed to be good. Well the spring rolls weren't that great and the pho was too sweet. We split vitenamese steak and I liked, she didn't. So don't ask me why, but after driving all that way, I just had to try the place up the street also, it was much bigger, maybe 15 tables compared to 6 in the first place, and more of a restaurant atmosphere. The pho was better, but they still used wider noodles, almost like pad thai, rather then the very thin vermicelli that in mind is the only proper noodle for pho. So to sum it all up, you need to go to Mulberry street downtown to get really good vietnamese cuisine. The place I love is called Pho Viet Huong at 73 Mulberry St. in Manhattan and I wrote about last time I went there and have pictures too, in this post- so I won't go on and on about it. If you are in NYC's Chinatown, do yourself a favor and stop in and try it, you won't be disappointed. So we kinda had a discussion/argument about all kinds of heavy stuff on the way home, then G went home, and I called her to make sure she got in OK, it was raining and foggy as all hell last night. We talked for a good hour until she fell asleep on the phone, then I went to sleep. Relationships are hard, when you're really in it and you really work on stuff, but I love her with all my heart and it's worth it, even if it is painful at times. We talked again this morning, and now I'm drinking my morning coffee and writing this! I'm going to go turn the space heater on in the cottage to warm it up so I can paint. I'll surf and add some cool links and a post tonight. Oh yeah, how's that war going? And can people click the "view my guest map" button on the link bar and PLEASE post a pin where they live?? Pretty please? posted @ 11:14 AM EST [link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)]New Lucinda album is out !! Oh, I forgot- The NEW Lucinda Willams album is out today !! And the critics are giving it rave reviews, of course... It is absolutely fan-f**king-tas-tic... When I saw her last summer at Central Park she played a lot of songs off it and I've been waiting since then for it's release. You can listen to the whole CD online by clicking HERE Or read a review of the album So run out and buy a copy NOW posted @ 11:22 AM EST [link] [Karma: -13 (+/-)] Snow Again... Damn, I'm really getting a little tired of snow now. I like it and all, in the winter that is. But I have stuff to do and it's messing with my schedule. Up in the cottage I put in the kitchen sink and faucet and finished piping out the water main in the boiler room. Yesterday I installed the baseboard heat and it looks good. What I really want to do is caulk a few cracks in the ceiling and paint it (with ceiling white, of course) but the temperature is too low to paint, so that's why I'm saying the weather is screwing up my schedule. I guess I'll just do odds and ends up there today, finish bringing the feed over for the heat, across the attic and stub it down in the boiler room, and maybe sand the taping I did in the bathroom. I want to get the ceiling painted as I bought all the lighting fixtures. I would like to get them installed as hopefully the electric will get hooked in to the house this week. Yesterday as I was sitting here, before I went up up there to work, I decided to drop a line to my head hunter. Well low and behold, she called me back within 5 minutes! I was very surprised. She said she just had something come in that morning and she was going to look it over and see if I was a good match. We talked about some skill sets and then I got an email from her saying she was going to do a presentation of my background to them and she'd let me know as soon as she heard something. That was yesterday afternoon. I'm starting to think the worst... Or maybe just the usual, which lately has been the worst. Couldn't she at least call or write and say it's a no-go so I don't sit here wondering? Aaaaaggghhh, I need to find a job, like NOW!! Then I drove through the snow and freezing rain last night to go down and see G and we had breakfast at IHOP, it was very yummy. Came home, talked to her on the phone and fell asleep. What an exciting life I lead huh ? For some strange reason, for the first time since it started, I watched the war on CNN this morning when I woke up. It's so weird to see it all first hand almost. Like nothing is private anymore, I guess Marshall Mcluhan was right after all. Made a pot of coffee, and drinking it now before I switch to construction worker mode. All out of stuff I like so I brewed a pot of Ethiopian Sidamo. Going to stop by S'bucks today and pick up a pound. Lately I favor a custom blend, half Gold Coast and half French Roast, it's very good. Of course if I could afford it I'd drink nothing but Yemen mocha's... The other cool thing is a couple weeks ago they had a brewing sale, and the coffee pot I use, the "Utopia" was only fifty bucks, so after the employee discount (thank goodness for friends) it was only thirty five bucks!! Yup, so I bought a spare one to have for when mine breaks. I'm already on my second one, so I figure every year or so they just wear out. The amazing thing is this is the EXACT same pot they sell at the Bodum store for $119, and I got it for a mere thirty five, oh how I love a bargain! And it makes the best coffee you ever tasted. Vacuum brewing is the best method there is, and this pot makes it foolproof with a built in chip that controls the temperature and timing. In any case, don't even get me started on coffee, I'll be here all day! So I'm gonna have another cuppa, get dressed, and start my day (yes, before noon!). I'll check in again soon, and have some pics of the cottage work as well, K? posted @ 10:57 AM EST [link] [Karma: -1 (+/-)]Spring Ahead! Ah, once again I'll have to remember which clocks I have changed and which ones not as I try to figure out what time it is. It's so much more fun to just change half of them. Not much new to report around here. Had a relax and hang around in bed and on CUseeme day yesterday, then G and I went to Crackerbarrel last night and had a good ole country style breakfast for dinner. Gonna go to Home Depot today and get stuff for me to install in the cottage this upcoming week. Kitchen sink and faucet, door for the closet, the baseboard heat, the lighting fixtures, stuff like that. Think I'm gonna try and get the main room finished and then concentrate on finishing the bathroom afterwards. The main thing is getting those damn tiles down on the bathroom floor. Guess I should just rip up the plywood in there, pour cement, and then get to it. OK, rather then bore y'all I'll finish my coffee and start my day. Nice to see nobody is signing my guestmap... :-( posted @ 10:50 AM EST [link] [Karma: 8 (+/-)]Two Quickies OK, I was EXHAUSTED last night. Got the cables dragged through the conduit and hanging there ready to hook into the respective panels. It was a major pain and I was out there at 7:00 pm with work lights on backfilling the trench! Came inside, talked to Grace and told her I was gonna hang up here and go to sleep early. Then I took a shower, called her back and talked until I fell asleep. I like that, we talk on the phone until one of us falls asleep almost every night. Last night I was asleep by ten, imagine that! So I'm gonna put two quick links here and then I'm off to Home Depot, then heading down to see my honey. Have a good one ! First a funny online novella- "How Harry Potter Got His Groove Back" And we all need the Alanis Morissette Lyric Generator posted @ 11:24 AM EST [link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)]One Hundred Things Yeah I know, it's kinda cheesy and everyone does it. I must have too much time on my hands, or maybe I'm avoiding all the "not fun" work around the homestead by feeling compelled to add content here. In any case, I sat down and wrote the almost obligatory "100 Things" page, and it's on the link bar so y'all can check it out. Funny when I started, it seemed like it would be hard to come up with a hundred little blurbs, things that are what makes me the person you know (or don't) and love (or not). But by the time I finished, my head was full of things, and I was like "oh shit, I wanna add this and I wanna mention that", probably could have easily wrote another hundred, but then it wouldn't be 100 things now, would it... Alright, I've procrastinated enough today. I'm gonna go to the electrical supply house, pick up 100 (hmmm, that number keeps popping up doesn't it?) feet of 4 gauge thhn wire and drag a new electric service out to the cottage. Thanks to the backhoe operator who cut the old service in December, hours after I pointed out to him where it was buried, of course. OK, peruse the 100 things and feel free to comment if you like, you know, you click the link under this post that most likely says "no comments" ! posted @ 11:19 AM EST [link] [Karma: -4 (+/-)]Miso Soup Recipe Well I skipped a few days but I've been busy. You may notice I added a cool guestmap (please pop a pin in your location), a comic of the day, and the good old weather pixie so you know what it's like outside my window right now. And if you are intrigued by the "autoerotic" site and want to post a pic of yourself... Anyway, my contribution today is a really yummy, quick and easy recipe for Miso Soup. I'll spare you the thousand word rant on why miso is so good for you and why we should all eat more. So on with the recipe- 3 cups water 3 scallions- chopped 1 stick wakame seaweed 1/2 teaspoon hot sesame pepper oil (you can skip this if you want) Tamari/soy sauce to taste, usually 1-2 tsp. (I recommend a japanese soy sauce) Black pepper to taste 1 1/2 generous Tbsp miso (I like red or shiro miso, try white for a change) 2 Tbsp. soft tofu optional - sometimes I add 1/2 tsp of dashi, purists may disagree optional - very thinly sliced shitake mushrooms Place water in a pan and heat, while heating add wakame broken into very small pieces (they will expand), the sesame oil, tamari/soy sauce, and pepper. When water comes to a boil, add scallions (and a few thin slices of mushroom if desired) and remove from heat. Dissolve miso in water, add very small chunks of tofu and serve. Enjoy with a nice green salad and rice or maybe some crusty bread for dipping... Note- it is important not to cook the miso or vital nutrients and enzymes will be destroyed. OK, that's my fave miso recipe, only takes ten minutes and it's delicious. Once you buy a package of wakame and a tub of miso you will have enough to last you for many many batches of soup. And these days regular markets all carry tofu, so you will only have to visit an asian market once in awhile. Personally though I love them and do as much shopping there as a regular supermarket, but that's just me. Alright, eat well and be merry ! posted @ 06:31 PM EST [link] [Karma: 8 (+/-)] |
