Sometimes.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Yawn
Sorry I suck about keeping up to date with this. It's been a long week.
Saturday we did shopping. I took a nap. We watched Cadillac Records. I was bored for most of the movie. Jazz/Blues is not my thing. It all sounds the same to me. But I watched it. That’s what counts. Not a lot else happened.
Sunday Adam went to work bright and early and despite my plan to sleep in, I found myself up and making breakfast about ten minutes after he left. Stupid cats. I read the paper, cleaned up in the kitchen and pet room. Laundry. Some work. Shower. TV. Adam got home after noon and we spent the afternoon in the living room. He watched racing, I took a nap on the loveseat. Lazy days, I tell you. I made brownies. He made a spectacular dinner.
We got the rebalancing of our escrow account for this year. As I expected, we overpaid last year since our taxes and insurance bills went down. They sent a check for the difference and I cashed it and to pad the checking account rather than send it back to apply to next year. This also means the escrow payments for this coming year will be lower than last years’. But I plan to stick with the payment we’re doing now and throw the difference toward the principal. Our auto insurance renews in April as well and mine went up but Adam’s went down. I don’t understand that, but in total we went down something like $2. *sigh* I also got a notice that starting with my next paycheck the “Making Work Pay” credit will be in effect so we’ll see how much that impacts my net take-home.
Oh, and JP Morgan FINALLY relented and changed my address. They’d been sending things to my PO Box despite repeated efforts to get them to change their system. I closed my PO Box in October of 2007. There’s speedy service for you. *sigh* again.
Anyway, this week was boring, yet exhausting. Absolutely nothing going on. But tomorrow we’ll be heading down to Sheboygan for a wine and beer tasting at Blue Harbor. Should be interesting. I’ve never been there. After that we’re getting together with some people from the area together for a bit. Some people I haven’t seen since high school. It's hard to gather people up anymore. Everyone seems to be so busy these days.
We’re in the process of planning a trip eastward in mid-August. Planned stops include Cranberry (to visit grandparents), Hershey (mmm, chocolate), Jamestown (to visit mom), Buffalo (to meet with one of Adam’s former co-workers), Niagara Falls (hey, why not?), Marineland (otherwise known as the park whose logo is two whales humping), and Kalamazoo (well, really just because it’s halfway home from Canada.) So far things are working out well. It’s a lot easier to plan things when the majority of the stops are not dependent on other peoples’ availability.
With that, I say it's time to go to sleep. If I can convince the stupid cat to come down from on top of the fridge. *sigh*
Saturday we did shopping. I took a nap. We watched Cadillac Records. I was bored for most of the movie. Jazz/Blues is not my thing. It all sounds the same to me. But I watched it. That’s what counts. Not a lot else happened.
Sunday Adam went to work bright and early and despite my plan to sleep in, I found myself up and making breakfast about ten minutes after he left. Stupid cats. I read the paper, cleaned up in the kitchen and pet room. Laundry. Some work. Shower. TV. Adam got home after noon and we spent the afternoon in the living room. He watched racing, I took a nap on the loveseat. Lazy days, I tell you. I made brownies. He made a spectacular dinner.
We got the rebalancing of our escrow account for this year. As I expected, we overpaid last year since our taxes and insurance bills went down. They sent a check for the difference and I cashed it and to pad the checking account rather than send it back to apply to next year. This also means the escrow payments for this coming year will be lower than last years’. But I plan to stick with the payment we’re doing now and throw the difference toward the principal. Our auto insurance renews in April as well and mine went up but Adam’s went down. I don’t understand that, but in total we went down something like $2. *sigh* I also got a notice that starting with my next paycheck the “Making Work Pay” credit will be in effect so we’ll see how much that impacts my net take-home.
Oh, and JP Morgan FINALLY relented and changed my address. They’d been sending things to my PO Box despite repeated efforts to get them to change their system. I closed my PO Box in October of 2007. There’s speedy service for you. *sigh* again.
Anyway, this week was boring, yet exhausting. Absolutely nothing going on. But tomorrow we’ll be heading down to Sheboygan for a wine and beer tasting at Blue Harbor. Should be interesting. I’ve never been there. After that we’re getting together with some people from the area together for a bit. Some people I haven’t seen since high school. It's hard to gather people up anymore. Everyone seems to be so busy these days.
We’re in the process of planning a trip eastward in mid-August. Planned stops include Cranberry (to visit grandparents), Hershey (mmm, chocolate), Jamestown (to visit mom), Buffalo (to meet with one of Adam’s former co-workers), Niagara Falls (hey, why not?), Marineland (otherwise known as the park whose logo is two whales humping), and Kalamazoo (well, really just because it’s halfway home from Canada.) So far things are working out well. It’s a lot easier to plan things when the majority of the stops are not dependent on other peoples’ availability.
With that, I say it's time to go to sleep. If I can convince the stupid cat to come down from on top of the fridge. *sigh*
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Another Week Flies By
Last Friday I got home and just didn’t want to deal with dinner. The menu had shrimp stuffed mushrooms on it which means not only would I make those, but then I’d have to figure out what I wanted to eat myself. My brain was too tired for that. So I suggested we go out. We had coupons for The Greenville Station so we invited his parents out with us. It’s a cute place – used to be an old train station (among other things.) They all had fish and I had chicken. It was ok, but I’m not sure we’d go back.
Saturday morning we went shopping and stocked up on kitty litter at Copps. I’m sure other shoppers thought we were nuts when Adam pulled into line with an entire shopping cart full of it. But we have four cats. They poop. A lot. And when it’s on sale, we stock up. Same goes for dry food. I made the mushrooms that were supposed to be Friday’s dinner for Saturday’s lunch. We watched Changeling. (Eh. Long movie. Too much of Angeline Jolie looking devastated and crying.) Adam put up the new blinds in the cat room and stained the trim.
Sunday morning I went to church since the bells were ringing. Adam went to work. I came home and worked a few hours myself. Did some cleaning. When Adam got home he finished the work in the cat room. We caught up on Jimmy Fallon. Watched golf. Adam made brats on the grill for dinner. And McCain smiles. We like them.
Monday was a busy day at work for me. Then I had bell practice. In another bad turn, our member with cancer, while still in a nursing home, had to be in the hospital for a little while. Nothing seems to be working anymore but she refused being put in a hospice unit since it meant she could no longer receive anything but palliative care. She will be starting her fourth or fifth round of chemo even though no one really expects it to do any good. Those members who have visited her recently report that her coordination has really deteriorated and the spark has left her eyes. It’s discouraging. We’ve already begun discussions about whether we’d want to ring, should the need arise. Just a bummer all around. Kind of interesting how Catherine (the sister) recently posted about being the bearer of this kind of news to patients...
Alrighty. Tuesday was St. Patrick’s day and also the night of my monthly IMA meeting. It was our annual energy meeting at the Fin ‘n’ Feather. The weather was gorgeous and we joked that we should have booked a boat tour. The speakers were ok, although there was a lot of duplication. The bar downstairs must have been hopping because it got very smoky upstairs by where we were. The board of directors for next year was approved by the chapter so now in addition to my Director of Attendance, Meetings, and Nametags hats I’ll be wearing the VP Membership hat as well. I plan to go to the regional leadership training in April so we’ll see if I get any new ideas from that.
That night Adam was complaining about itchy eyes. I suggested perhaps he had pinkeye (it had been going around my office a while back.) I was kind of joking, but when I got up to take Carly to the bathroom around 1AM (don’t even get me started on that) he was in the office on the computer, self-diagnosing. I took a look at his eyes Wednesday morning and it looked like that was it. He stopped by the eye doctor during lunch, they confirmed, and gave him a prescription for eye drops. He's much improved, but let’s hope I don’t get it!
Wednesday night entailed a lot of catch-up as most weeks with IMA meetings do. Cleaning, DVR. Adam had Thursday and today off. For the weekend, we’ve got Cadillac Records waiting to be watched. Shopping. Cleaning. We'll see what happens.
And now, some kitty pictures. You know you love them.
Carly's new favorite spot
That's right. ON TOP of the refrigerator. Usually inside Adam's lunchbox.
Sigh
Then I caught JC standing in the huge teacup. Heh.
And I don't think I even want to know what was going on with this poor reindeer toy.
Saturday morning we went shopping and stocked up on kitty litter at Copps. I’m sure other shoppers thought we were nuts when Adam pulled into line with an entire shopping cart full of it. But we have four cats. They poop. A lot. And when it’s on sale, we stock up. Same goes for dry food. I made the mushrooms that were supposed to be Friday’s dinner for Saturday’s lunch. We watched Changeling. (Eh. Long movie. Too much of Angeline Jolie looking devastated and crying.) Adam put up the new blinds in the cat room and stained the trim.
Sunday morning I went to church since the bells were ringing. Adam went to work. I came home and worked a few hours myself. Did some cleaning. When Adam got home he finished the work in the cat room. We caught up on Jimmy Fallon. Watched golf. Adam made brats on the grill for dinner. And McCain smiles. We like them.
Monday was a busy day at work for me. Then I had bell practice. In another bad turn, our member with cancer, while still in a nursing home, had to be in the hospital for a little while. Nothing seems to be working anymore but she refused being put in a hospice unit since it meant she could no longer receive anything but palliative care. She will be starting her fourth or fifth round of chemo even though no one really expects it to do any good. Those members who have visited her recently report that her coordination has really deteriorated and the spark has left her eyes. It’s discouraging. We’ve already begun discussions about whether we’d want to ring, should the need arise. Just a bummer all around. Kind of interesting how Catherine (the sister) recently posted about being the bearer of this kind of news to patients...
Alrighty. Tuesday was St. Patrick’s day and also the night of my monthly IMA meeting. It was our annual energy meeting at the Fin ‘n’ Feather. The weather was gorgeous and we joked that we should have booked a boat tour. The speakers were ok, although there was a lot of duplication. The bar downstairs must have been hopping because it got very smoky upstairs by where we were. The board of directors for next year was approved by the chapter so now in addition to my Director of Attendance, Meetings, and Nametags hats I’ll be wearing the VP Membership hat as well. I plan to go to the regional leadership training in April so we’ll see if I get any new ideas from that.
That night Adam was complaining about itchy eyes. I suggested perhaps he had pinkeye (it had been going around my office a while back.) I was kind of joking, but when I got up to take Carly to the bathroom around 1AM (don’t even get me started on that) he was in the office on the computer, self-diagnosing. I took a look at his eyes Wednesday morning and it looked like that was it. He stopped by the eye doctor during lunch, they confirmed, and gave him a prescription for eye drops. He's much improved, but let’s hope I don’t get it!
Wednesday night entailed a lot of catch-up as most weeks with IMA meetings do. Cleaning, DVR. Adam had Thursday and today off. For the weekend, we’ve got Cadillac Records waiting to be watched. Shopping. Cleaning. We'll see what happens.
And now, some kitty pictures. You know you love them.
Carly's new favorite spot
That's right. ON TOP of the refrigerator. Usually inside Adam's lunchbox.
Sigh
Then I caught JC standing in the huge teacup. Heh.
And I don't think I even want to know what was going on with this poor reindeer toy.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
I bet Dakota will like this
Ignore the scene-stealing cat. He just would not leave SpongeBob alone...
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Cat Room Painted
Before (chair rails are UGLY!):
Intermediate (note the oh so chic paint test squares):
After:
We will be replacing the blinds this weekend with an off-white version after Adam gets the trim put up on the bottom of the window.
It's much brighter in the room now. Adam says it feels like walking into an aquarium. I jokingly suggested we paint fish on the walls. He thinks that's a good idea. *sigh*
Intermediate (note the oh so chic paint test squares):
After:
We will be replacing the blinds this weekend with an off-white version after Adam gets the trim put up on the bottom of the window.
It's much brighter in the room now. Adam says it feels like walking into an aquarium. I jokingly suggested we paint fish on the walls. He thinks that's a good idea. *sigh*
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Weekend Update (but a lot less funny than the SNL version)
We went out on Friday evening, arriving at the bar about 5 minutes after it opened. We were the only ones there for a good hour. This time the bartender was actually the owner. He was a little rusty and kept misjudging the amounts on blended drinks. It was kind of funny. For us, that is. We talked a bit about cruises and vacations since he had just returned from an awful time in the Dominican Republic. We tried to convince him that cruising was the way to go, but it seems like he’s more of a beach bum. We stopped for food on the way home and then went to bed.
It was another long night of kitty fighting. I slept horribly and Adam didn’t seem to notice the almost continuous ruckus. When the alarm went off we both remained in bed for another hour or so. When we got up we showered and headed out to do our shopping. As we got a later start, we were met by larger crowds. We got back home around 11 and I ate a bowl of cereal before we clipped Carly’s nails. I held her while Adam did the dirty work. On the second to last nail she spazzed and he ended up chopping way too much. Oh, the blood. We tried the dipping her foot in flour thing but she still left a gazillion bloody footprints all over the place in the cat room. We left her in there for a while since most surfaces there are easily cleaned (or not that important.) I laid down to take a nap while Adam caught up on his DVR programs. When I got back up we went up to Golf Galaxy so Adam could pick out his (early) birthday present – a new putter. We went back home, had dinner. That’s about it.
Sunday morning Adam headed off to work and I headed out to do some clothes shopping before the snow began. I was relatively successful. I returned home, started laundry, and watched Il y a longtemps que je t’aime. Why is it that French (or, really, most foreign) movies are so much better than local ones? They don’t put out as many, but they’re always of such better quality. Anyway, I also failed to mention that we watched Iron Man some time last week. Kind of Transformers meets Spiderman, but not really my thing. So I’m 14 movies through my list of 33. Yay.
After I finished the movie I had time to clean up in the kitchen before Adam got home. We went up to Menards to get some paint for the cat room during their paint sale. It’s the last room we have left to paint. Adam is making use of his day off today to get that done. I spent the rest of the afternoon checking on my hard drive backup process, baking brownies, and zoning out to NASCAR. Adam made pizza for dinner, we watched FOX, and went to bed.
It was an early one Monday morning, what with 6+ inches of snow being dumped on us Sunday night. Adam got up at 5 to go clear the driveway. The roads weren’t too bad, but it was very foggy. Like, can’t see the car in front of you foggy. That sucked. But it sucked even harder when I went home for lunch. The snow had turned into slush and once again the city of Oshkosh made absolutely no attempt to clear it off the streets. Thank goodness I don't have a low-lying car.
Yesterday was a pretty non-descript day. Nothing too exciting except for my 30-Minute Meal Experiment. And today both Adam and I have vacation. It's his birthday. We've got dinner plans, but not too sure what else will be going on.
In an attempt to get some decent pictures of Carly I pretty much stalked her with the camera all weekend. Sad to say I didn’t get much for all the time invested. I got a lot of BAD pictures:
The cat refuses to look at me when I try and take her picture. Or if she does, she GLARES.
Feel the chill...
In other cat news, Connor has taken to sleeping behind one of the litter boxes, directly in front of the heating vent. Once again, quite crafty on his part. But now on our multi-mid-night trips to the cat room not only do I have to make sure JC doesn't run in after me, I also have to check to make sure Connor isn't sleeping behind the box. Made the mistake of not checking once and shut Carly and Connor in the room together. Not a good thing...
And while we're at it, a few more cute kitty pictures. Just because.
Big Eyes
Sleepy Tail
Feel the love
It was another long night of kitty fighting. I slept horribly and Adam didn’t seem to notice the almost continuous ruckus. When the alarm went off we both remained in bed for another hour or so. When we got up we showered and headed out to do our shopping. As we got a later start, we were met by larger crowds. We got back home around 11 and I ate a bowl of cereal before we clipped Carly’s nails. I held her while Adam did the dirty work. On the second to last nail she spazzed and he ended up chopping way too much. Oh, the blood. We tried the dipping her foot in flour thing but she still left a gazillion bloody footprints all over the place in the cat room. We left her in there for a while since most surfaces there are easily cleaned (or not that important.) I laid down to take a nap while Adam caught up on his DVR programs. When I got back up we went up to Golf Galaxy so Adam could pick out his (early) birthday present – a new putter. We went back home, had dinner. That’s about it.
Sunday morning Adam headed off to work and I headed out to do some clothes shopping before the snow began. I was relatively successful. I returned home, started laundry, and watched Il y a longtemps que je t’aime. Why is it that French (or, really, most foreign) movies are so much better than local ones? They don’t put out as many, but they’re always of such better quality. Anyway, I also failed to mention that we watched Iron Man some time last week. Kind of Transformers meets Spiderman, but not really my thing. So I’m 14 movies through my list of 33. Yay.
After I finished the movie I had time to clean up in the kitchen before Adam got home. We went up to Menards to get some paint for the cat room during their paint sale. It’s the last room we have left to paint. Adam is making use of his day off today to get that done. I spent the rest of the afternoon checking on my hard drive backup process, baking brownies, and zoning out to NASCAR. Adam made pizza for dinner, we watched FOX, and went to bed.
It was an early one Monday morning, what with 6+ inches of snow being dumped on us Sunday night. Adam got up at 5 to go clear the driveway. The roads weren’t too bad, but it was very foggy. Like, can’t see the car in front of you foggy. That sucked. But it sucked even harder when I went home for lunch. The snow had turned into slush and once again the city of Oshkosh made absolutely no attempt to clear it off the streets. Thank goodness I don't have a low-lying car.
Yesterday was a pretty non-descript day. Nothing too exciting except for my 30-Minute Meal Experiment. And today both Adam and I have vacation. It's his birthday. We've got dinner plans, but not too sure what else will be going on.
In an attempt to get some decent pictures of Carly I pretty much stalked her with the camera all weekend. Sad to say I didn’t get much for all the time invested. I got a lot of BAD pictures:
The cat refuses to look at me when I try and take her picture. Or if she does, she GLARES.
Feel the chill...
In other cat news, Connor has taken to sleeping behind one of the litter boxes, directly in front of the heating vent. Once again, quite crafty on his part. But now on our multi-mid-night trips to the cat room not only do I have to make sure JC doesn't run in after me, I also have to check to make sure Connor isn't sleeping behind the box. Made the mistake of not checking once and shut Carly and Connor in the room together. Not a good thing...
And while we're at it, a few more cute kitty pictures. Just because.
Big Eyes
Sleepy Tail
Feel the love
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Friday, March 06, 2009
From the jaws of another month-end I emerge...
Grr.
As seems to be the trend this winter, the day before inventory was met with a major snowstorm. We got dumped on. And it appears that Oshkosh misplaced all its snow plows. This is unfortunate since, well, the roads got snowed on as well. It’s a mess. It took almost a week (and two days of temperatures in the 40s) for the roads to be bearable. Luckily Neenah didn’t misplace their plows, but it still made for an interesting ride to work each morning. And the highway. Good lord. On Friday morning it was just terrible. I ended up going back through town after picking up the donuts rather than brave the chaos on 41.
Last weekend was pretty uneventful. We did our shopping on Saturday. Went out to breakfast and had the weirdest waitress at IHOP. We figure she must have been an airline stewardess in a previous life. Even went to Simon’s. Then we tried to watch Hellboy II. I say “tried” because Adam got bored about 20 minutes in and I only lasted a little more than an hour. When some jelly bean looking green thing sucked up sewage and became some freaked out Green Giant forest monster thing I was done. So stupid. Granted, I didn’t see Hellboy 1, so maybe I was missing something. It was nominated for make-up or costumes or something so I don’t feel too badly that I didn’t watch the whole thing. It was just so dumb. (…wait for backlash from die-hard Hellboy fans a la Cinderella Man a few years back…)
Anywho, Sunday morning Adam decided it was time to replace the instant hot water thing in the kitchen. It had been dying a slow, painful death anyway, so it was probably nice of him to finally put it out of its misery. He did some online research and went and got a new Insinkerator faucet. We have now replaced every Kenmore appliance in the house. Woot. (Not that Kenmore is a bad brand. I mean they were original to the house so they had to have some kind of staying power. But it’s just not our thing…) I did the tool-girl thing again. He swapped it out in under an hour. Pretty impressive since the instructions had a 2 to 4 hour time estimate. The new one is about twice as large as the old one and has an actual thermostat. Yay.
I left for Sheboygan around 10:15. I had lunch plans with Jess since it was her birthday. The drive down wasn’t bad. It was weird seeing all kind of cars parked on the street in the city though. Pretty much no one parks on the street in the Fox Cities while seemingly everyone does in Sheboygan. I felt like I was playing Frogger, but my car was the frog. Anywho, I stopped in and said hi and then we went to lunch at a Chinese place. In an old Hardee’s building. By the abandoned Walmart. Oh yeah, about that. Apparently since the Walmart no longer exists they don’t bother to plow that part of the parking lot. Didn’t notice that until I was already giving my struts a work-out. It was bumpy. And some poor car followed me into that mess. I kind of felt bad about that. The buffet was the biggest I’d seen in some time. We usually order in our Chinese food from a place that delivers in record time. Everything looked good and was infinitely better than the last buffet experience I had. (It was all my fault though, so there’s no one else to blame.) We ate, talked. During this time I had a random phone call which was weird for two reasons: 1) no one ever calls me. Seriously. 2) It was a strange area code. I didn’t answer it, of course. After we left I saw I had a message. It was Catherine (the sister) telling me she had a new phone number. So, mystery solved. We went back to Jess’ apartment and watched an episode of Solitary 3.0 on Hulu. Interesting show. I headed back home around 3. Did laundry and caught up on some stuff during the evening. And watched the first episode of the Solitary season on the PS3. Heh.
Monday morning was back to work. Because of the stupid short month of February day 1 ended up on a Monday again. I was at work until about 6 when I left to head to hand bell practice. We were missing two people so it was a short one. Which was good because I hadn’t eaten dinner. I stopped and picked up something for both of us on the way home since Adam had also stayed late at work. We ate as we watched the first episode of The Celebrity Apprentice. I went to bed and Adam stayed up a little while working on something (work related I’m guessing.)
Monday night was rough. We went to bed later than usual, Adam had some gastrointestinal issues, the cats were annoying, and I had to be at work at 6:30 so we had to get up early. So, yeah, I've been tired. Luckily the rest of the week was pretty low-key. On Tuesday there was a weird message on the answering machine and thanks to caller ID I saw it was Catherine (the sister) again. So I called her back to see if she needed something. Apparently she got a new iPhone and had butt-dialed our home number. (It's a funny commercial. Seriously, go watch it.) We talked for a bit before I had to feed the cats and make dinner.
Yesterday evening Adam went up to Green Bay to go shopping for new golf clubs with Dave. I caught up on some of my DVR shows and chilled with the cats.
Tonight we plan to hit the Monkey Bar for a while to celebrate his birthday a little early. The weekend holds some shopping, Adam works on Sunday again, and I hope to do some cleaning up around the place. Or take a nap. we'll see what wins out.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, some much needed cute cat pictures. They've been seriously lacking around here lately.
Ted sprawled on the bed in the computer room:
JC's latest toy - this obnoxiously green feather thing. And yes, there are now bits of green feather all over the house.
Conner conked out in the sun:
I'd try and post a cute picture of Carly, but every time I try and take her picture she glares at me. So not cute. So until she chills out you might not see too much of her. We'll see.
As seems to be the trend this winter, the day before inventory was met with a major snowstorm. We got dumped on. And it appears that Oshkosh misplaced all its snow plows. This is unfortunate since, well, the roads got snowed on as well. It’s a mess. It took almost a week (and two days of temperatures in the 40s) for the roads to be bearable. Luckily Neenah didn’t misplace their plows, but it still made for an interesting ride to work each morning. And the highway. Good lord. On Friday morning it was just terrible. I ended up going back through town after picking up the donuts rather than brave the chaos on 41.
Last weekend was pretty uneventful. We did our shopping on Saturday. Went out to breakfast and had the weirdest waitress at IHOP. We figure she must have been an airline stewardess in a previous life. Even went to Simon’s. Then we tried to watch Hellboy II. I say “tried” because Adam got bored about 20 minutes in and I only lasted a little more than an hour. When some jelly bean looking green thing sucked up sewage and became some freaked out Green Giant forest monster thing I was done. So stupid. Granted, I didn’t see Hellboy 1, so maybe I was missing something. It was nominated for make-up or costumes or something so I don’t feel too badly that I didn’t watch the whole thing. It was just so dumb. (…wait for backlash from die-hard Hellboy fans a la Cinderella Man a few years back…)
Anywho, Sunday morning Adam decided it was time to replace the instant hot water thing in the kitchen. It had been dying a slow, painful death anyway, so it was probably nice of him to finally put it out of its misery. He did some online research and went and got a new Insinkerator faucet. We have now replaced every Kenmore appliance in the house. Woot. (Not that Kenmore is a bad brand. I mean they were original to the house so they had to have some kind of staying power. But it’s just not our thing…) I did the tool-girl thing again. He swapped it out in under an hour. Pretty impressive since the instructions had a 2 to 4 hour time estimate. The new one is about twice as large as the old one and has an actual thermostat. Yay.
I left for Sheboygan around 10:15. I had lunch plans with Jess since it was her birthday. The drive down wasn’t bad. It was weird seeing all kind of cars parked on the street in the city though. Pretty much no one parks on the street in the Fox Cities while seemingly everyone does in Sheboygan. I felt like I was playing Frogger, but my car was the frog. Anywho, I stopped in and said hi and then we went to lunch at a Chinese place. In an old Hardee’s building. By the abandoned Walmart. Oh yeah, about that. Apparently since the Walmart no longer exists they don’t bother to plow that part of the parking lot. Didn’t notice that until I was already giving my struts a work-out. It was bumpy. And some poor car followed me into that mess. I kind of felt bad about that. The buffet was the biggest I’d seen in some time. We usually order in our Chinese food from a place that delivers in record time. Everything looked good and was infinitely better than the last buffet experience I had. (It was all my fault though, so there’s no one else to blame.) We ate, talked. During this time I had a random phone call which was weird for two reasons: 1) no one ever calls me. Seriously. 2) It was a strange area code. I didn’t answer it, of course. After we left I saw I had a message. It was Catherine (the sister) telling me she had a new phone number. So, mystery solved. We went back to Jess’ apartment and watched an episode of Solitary 3.0 on Hulu. Interesting show. I headed back home around 3. Did laundry and caught up on some stuff during the evening. And watched the first episode of the Solitary season on the PS3. Heh.
Monday morning was back to work. Because of the stupid short month of February day 1 ended up on a Monday again. I was at work until about 6 when I left to head to hand bell practice. We were missing two people so it was a short one. Which was good because I hadn’t eaten dinner. I stopped and picked up something for both of us on the way home since Adam had also stayed late at work. We ate as we watched the first episode of The Celebrity Apprentice. I went to bed and Adam stayed up a little while working on something (work related I’m guessing.)
Monday night was rough. We went to bed later than usual, Adam had some gastrointestinal issues, the cats were annoying, and I had to be at work at 6:30 so we had to get up early. So, yeah, I've been tired. Luckily the rest of the week was pretty low-key. On Tuesday there was a weird message on the answering machine and thanks to caller ID I saw it was Catherine (the sister) again. So I called her back to see if she needed something. Apparently she got a new iPhone and had butt-dialed our home number. (It's a funny commercial. Seriously, go watch it.) We talked for a bit before I had to feed the cats and make dinner.
Yesterday evening Adam went up to Green Bay to go shopping for new golf clubs with Dave. I caught up on some of my DVR shows and chilled with the cats.
Tonight we plan to hit the Monkey Bar for a while to celebrate his birthday a little early. The weekend holds some shopping, Adam works on Sunday again, and I hope to do some cleaning up around the place. Or take a nap. we'll see what wins out.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, some much needed cute cat pictures. They've been seriously lacking around here lately.
Ted sprawled on the bed in the computer room:
JC's latest toy - this obnoxiously green feather thing. And yes, there are now bits of green feather all over the house.
Conner conked out in the sun:
I'd try and post a cute picture of Carly, but every time I try and take her picture she glares at me. So not cute. So until she chills out you might not see too much of her. We'll see.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
I'll Try and Be Nice...
...seeing as how certain members of my family are a part of the medical profession.
But I'm pissed.
I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. I called half an hour before my time slot to see if the doctor was running behind. Three no-shows and the person before me hadn't even shown up yet. Come on in!
So I immediately left work and drove the 5 minutes to the office. I stood in line behind some clueless chick, got my paperwork, paid my co-pay and sat down to wait.
And wait.
I sat there waiting for 20 minutes, 15 minutes PAST my appointment time.
I finally got called back, blood pressure, etc. Was told to strip, the doctor would be in in a few minutes.
5 minutes.
10 minutes.
Freaking 25 minutes.
At half an hour I was so pissed I put my clothes back on and went to find someone. I found the nurse and doctor in their lab area. Asked whether they had forgotten about me. Was told she'd be right there.
I went back to my room and sat down. Didn't undress. She can wait for me for once.
The doctor comes in. Apologizes. I tell her the next time someone tells me she'll be right in, I'll wait half an hour and then undress. Apparently the person before me (who showed up 15 minutes late) was a new patient and took a while.
She flew through the exam wham, bam, thank-you m'am style. A swab, a poke, and I was out of there. But I'm still pissed.
If they knew the person in front of me was new, why couldn't she have done my quick and easy before the long, drawn-out (CLUELESS CHICK WHO WAS FREAKIN' LATE) one? I just don't understand it.
*Deep breath*
But I'm pissed.
I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. I called half an hour before my time slot to see if the doctor was running behind. Three no-shows and the person before me hadn't even shown up yet. Come on in!
So I immediately left work and drove the 5 minutes to the office. I stood in line behind some clueless chick, got my paperwork, paid my co-pay and sat down to wait.
And wait.
I sat there waiting for 20 minutes, 15 minutes PAST my appointment time.
I finally got called back, blood pressure, etc. Was told to strip, the doctor would be in in a few minutes.
5 minutes.
10 minutes.
Freaking 25 minutes.
At half an hour I was so pissed I put my clothes back on and went to find someone. I found the nurse and doctor in their lab area. Asked whether they had forgotten about me. Was told she'd be right there.
I went back to my room and sat down. Didn't undress. She can wait for me for once.
The doctor comes in. Apologizes. I tell her the next time someone tells me she'll be right in, I'll wait half an hour and then undress. Apparently the person before me (who showed up 15 minutes late) was a new patient and took a while.
She flew through the exam wham, bam, thank-you m'am style. A swab, a poke, and I was out of there. But I'm still pissed.
If they knew the person in front of me was new, why couldn't she have done my quick and easy before the long, drawn-out (CLUELESS CHICK WHO WAS FREAKIN' LATE) one? I just don't understand it.
*Deep breath*
Monday, February 23, 2009
Lamps and Oscars
We went to Home Depot yesterday morning to get a lamp and some other household wares. We found an unoffensive clear lamp on clearance for $16. Score. We also got a lamp dimmer switch so we can turn it off from bed. Yes. We’re lazy.
Adam dropped me back off at home and went to work. I did some cleaning, laundry, and then settled in on the couch for the NCIS marathon. Adam was originally supposed to be home early afternoon, but he ended up coming home around 6. He brought dinner with him though, so it was ok. We ate, watched the race for a little while, and then he retreated to the bedroom soon after the Oscars began.
I did watch the whole thing. Well, I turned the TV off after Slumdog was announced so I didn’t get to see the slew of people up on stage. I thought Hugh Jackman did a fine job of hosting. He didn’t actually get to be on stage much aside from the musical numbers. There were no stupid jokes, no uncomfortable jabs at the famous people in attendance. I thought the overall structure of the ceremony was interesting too. Though some of the presenters seemed ill at ease, I liked the idea of bringing former winners on stage to announce the most recent winner. I thought it was pretty low that they kept cutting to Brad and Angelina while Jennifer Aniston was on stage though. Overall I think that couple gets way too much attention. I’m kind of glad neither of them won last night.
There were no long-winded acceptance speeches. There were a few that were unintelligible due to language differences. But overall, things kept moving well. No one got cut off by the evil orchestra. Only two were even remotely political (Sean Penn and the guy who wrote the screenplay for Milk) and even those were still respectfully said and generally well received.
I was kind of confused by the musical montage of songs though. Only three nominations, two from Slumdog? Were there really no other songs in any of the movies this year? And wow, what a wardrobe malfunction when they announced the winner. The lady dancer to the right of the podium totally had her boob exposed. Luckily the 7-second tape delay enabled them to blur it, but come on. It was obvious. You could see her scramble to pull her shirt up when they cut away. Heh.
There were a few other technical difficulties I noticed. They had problems getting the curtain open for the first award montage. Some of the presenters went the wrong direction or forgot they had multiple awards to hand out. And, while not a technical difficulty, I was annoyed by the In Memorium section. I loved that they had Queen Latifah sing, but the pictures kept getting bigger and smaller, moving around the screens on the stage. It was really distracting.
I haven’t read too many “professional” critiques yet. I thought it was a pretty good show. I liked the musical montage, but if you’re not familiar with the musicals of days gone by I can understand why you’d think that was a bad idea. I liked how they intercut the current year’s best picture nominees with previous ones (the challenge was to see how many you could identify), but apparently this bothered some people. I didn’t really think the show dragged. I was more annoyed by stupid commercials (I’m looking at you Van Vreede’s) than stupid presentations and witty scripted banter. I thought the new format worked well – taking us through the whole film-making process in order and giving background. Then again, that’s something that appeals to me in general. I love the AMC show “Backstory” for this same reason. As I said before, I also liked seeing former winners present, but admit this was the part of the show that seemed the least sincere and the slowest. No show will ever make everyone happy. I do hope they decide to stick with some of these new ideas in the future.
Adam dropped me back off at home and went to work. I did some cleaning, laundry, and then settled in on the couch for the NCIS marathon. Adam was originally supposed to be home early afternoon, but he ended up coming home around 6. He brought dinner with him though, so it was ok. We ate, watched the race for a little while, and then he retreated to the bedroom soon after the Oscars began.
I did watch the whole thing. Well, I turned the TV off after Slumdog was announced so I didn’t get to see the slew of people up on stage. I thought Hugh Jackman did a fine job of hosting. He didn’t actually get to be on stage much aside from the musical numbers. There were no stupid jokes, no uncomfortable jabs at the famous people in attendance. I thought the overall structure of the ceremony was interesting too. Though some of the presenters seemed ill at ease, I liked the idea of bringing former winners on stage to announce the most recent winner. I thought it was pretty low that they kept cutting to Brad and Angelina while Jennifer Aniston was on stage though. Overall I think that couple gets way too much attention. I’m kind of glad neither of them won last night.
There were no long-winded acceptance speeches. There were a few that were unintelligible due to language differences. But overall, things kept moving well. No one got cut off by the evil orchestra. Only two were even remotely political (Sean Penn and the guy who wrote the screenplay for Milk) and even those were still respectfully said and generally well received.
I was kind of confused by the musical montage of songs though. Only three nominations, two from Slumdog? Were there really no other songs in any of the movies this year? And wow, what a wardrobe malfunction when they announced the winner. The lady dancer to the right of the podium totally had her boob exposed. Luckily the 7-second tape delay enabled them to blur it, but come on. It was obvious. You could see her scramble to pull her shirt up when they cut away. Heh.
There were a few other technical difficulties I noticed. They had problems getting the curtain open for the first award montage. Some of the presenters went the wrong direction or forgot they had multiple awards to hand out. And, while not a technical difficulty, I was annoyed by the In Memorium section. I loved that they had Queen Latifah sing, but the pictures kept getting bigger and smaller, moving around the screens on the stage. It was really distracting.
I haven’t read too many “professional” critiques yet. I thought it was a pretty good show. I liked the musical montage, but if you’re not familiar with the musicals of days gone by I can understand why you’d think that was a bad idea. I liked how they intercut the current year’s best picture nominees with previous ones (the challenge was to see how many you could identify), but apparently this bothered some people. I didn’t really think the show dragged. I was more annoyed by stupid commercials (I’m looking at you Van Vreede’s) than stupid presentations and witty scripted banter. I thought the new format worked well – taking us through the whole film-making process in order and giving background. Then again, that’s something that appeals to me in general. I love the AMC show “Backstory” for this same reason. As I said before, I also liked seeing former winners present, but admit this was the part of the show that seemed the least sincere and the slowest. No show will ever make everyone happy. I do hope they decide to stick with some of these new ideas in the future.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
A Little Bit of Everything
Wow, I’m tired. This week was crazy.
Monday was bells. We’re scheduled to play three or four more times before May. It’s Easter right now and then Mother’s Day.
Tuesday was IMA and the speakers were probably the best so far this year. The first speaker was the marketing director at the Outagamie County Airport. Interesting presentation about how airports raise and spend money. The second speaker was an inspector from the Federal Protection Service. Lots of interesting stories about protecting federal buildings. The weather cooperated and the snow held off until I was back home.
Wednesday Adam went golfing and I spent a good deal of my evening cleaning up and doing laundry. I tried to catch up a little on my DVR shows. I also watched a movie – My Best Friend’s Girl. For such a crappy movie, it was actually pretty good. I actually fell off the couch laughing at one point. Seriously. It’s kind of raunchy, but nowhere near the unnecessary Judd Apatow level. Just raunchy enough. And Dane Cook is hilarious pretty much all the time anyway.
Thursday we went to dinner at The Clubhouse inside the Paper Valley before seeing "Wicked" at the PAC. We’d never been there before, but we’ll probably go back. The prices are phenomenal (although I suggested that perhaps Lombardi’s offsets the small margins in the bar) and the food was good. The service wasn’t extraordinary but I guess you take the good with the bad. The show on the other hand was definitely extraordinary. I’d tell everyone in the area to go see it, but unless you already have tickets I think you’re out of luck. The sets are amazing, the special effects are great (although we saw in the paper that the theatrical smoke set off the fire alarms and caused an evacuation last night. Whoops!), and the songs and actors are wonderful. Top notch all around. I wish I could have had the opportunity to see it with the original Broadway cast. Glinda is pretty much written for Kristen Chenoweth and I’m sure she was awesome. The story itself is pretty intriguing as well. As a fan of historical fiction, it was right up my alley. I also found it interesting that they have a core orchestra with keyboards and drums but then they use local musicians to flesh it out. Very cool.
We got home kind of late - around 11. Our seats were not conducive to a quick escape. The Carly alarm went off around 5:15. Last night I had a hair appointment after work. I was kind of overdue. I asked her to try something with curls and I came home looking like Little Orphan Annie. I suppose I should have been more specific. Heh.
This weekend has consisted of shopping – the lists had gotten rather long - and catching up on the DVR. Home improvement plans on the docket include replacing the lamp and clapper in the bedroom and re-vamping the shelving arrangements out in the garage. Tomorrow is the Oscar ceremony and I’ve not yet decided if I’m going to watch it. It will probably depend on whether I remember about it or not.
This afternoon we watched Madagascar 2 while the floor was drying. Not as good as I thought it would be, but still funny and watchable. We own the original. Don't think I'd bother to purchase the sequel.
Monday was bells. We’re scheduled to play three or four more times before May. It’s Easter right now and then Mother’s Day.
Tuesday was IMA and the speakers were probably the best so far this year. The first speaker was the marketing director at the Outagamie County Airport. Interesting presentation about how airports raise and spend money. The second speaker was an inspector from the Federal Protection Service. Lots of interesting stories about protecting federal buildings. The weather cooperated and the snow held off until I was back home.
Wednesday Adam went golfing and I spent a good deal of my evening cleaning up and doing laundry. I tried to catch up a little on my DVR shows. I also watched a movie – My Best Friend’s Girl. For such a crappy movie, it was actually pretty good. I actually fell off the couch laughing at one point. Seriously. It’s kind of raunchy, but nowhere near the unnecessary Judd Apatow level. Just raunchy enough. And Dane Cook is hilarious pretty much all the time anyway.
Thursday we went to dinner at The Clubhouse inside the Paper Valley before seeing "Wicked" at the PAC. We’d never been there before, but we’ll probably go back. The prices are phenomenal (although I suggested that perhaps Lombardi’s offsets the small margins in the bar) and the food was good. The service wasn’t extraordinary but I guess you take the good with the bad. The show on the other hand was definitely extraordinary. I’d tell everyone in the area to go see it, but unless you already have tickets I think you’re out of luck. The sets are amazing, the special effects are great (although we saw in the paper that the theatrical smoke set off the fire alarms and caused an evacuation last night. Whoops!), and the songs and actors are wonderful. Top notch all around. I wish I could have had the opportunity to see it with the original Broadway cast. Glinda is pretty much written for Kristen Chenoweth and I’m sure she was awesome. The story itself is pretty intriguing as well. As a fan of historical fiction, it was right up my alley. I also found it interesting that they have a core orchestra with keyboards and drums but then they use local musicians to flesh it out. Very cool.
We got home kind of late - around 11. Our seats were not conducive to a quick escape. The Carly alarm went off around 5:15. Last night I had a hair appointment after work. I was kind of overdue. I asked her to try something with curls and I came home looking like Little Orphan Annie. I suppose I should have been more specific. Heh.
This weekend has consisted of shopping – the lists had gotten rather long - and catching up on the DVR. Home improvement plans on the docket include replacing the lamp and clapper in the bedroom and re-vamping the shelving arrangements out in the garage. Tomorrow is the Oscar ceremony and I’ve not yet decided if I’m going to watch it. It will probably depend on whether I remember about it or not.
This afternoon we watched Madagascar 2 while the floor was drying. Not as good as I thought it would be, but still funny and watchable. We own the original. Don't think I'd bother to purchase the sequel.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
How the cats are slowly destroying the house
So I called home yesterday night on my way home from IMA to see if Adam needed me to pick up anything. He was in the process of trying to fix the lamp that sits on the nightstand in our bedroom. Apparently Ted and JC got into some kind of tussle on the bed and ended up falling off onto the table, which knocked the lamp on the floor. And then Ted somehow fell on it, breaking the top (that Adam had just SUPERGLUED with some scary, smelly, chemical compound) off. It’s baffling, really. When the lamp refused to work Adam thought perhaps it was the clapper we have it plugged into that was causing the problem. So he disconnected that and hooked it to the dehumidifier to make sure it still worked. Apparently you’re not supposed to use the clapper on the dehumidifier because it pretty much fried it immediately. D’oh! So, now we’re down a lamp and a clapper. I stopped at Walmart to see if I could find something cheap, but all their new Better Homes stuff is totally ugly. So, for now, the bedroom is kind of dark and we’ll look for a new lamp (and remote outlet) this weekend.
I’m sure this would be hilarious if it wasn’t becoming a regular occurrence around here.
I’m sure this would be hilarious if it wasn’t becoming a regular occurrence around here.
Monday, February 16, 2009
I'm Partial to #3...
Historians recently ranked our past presidents. Lincoln came in first. Unsurprisingly, W was toward the bottom of the list, but not #42. He ranked #36. He came in above Millard Fillmore, Warren Harding, William Harrison, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan. Let’s see why:
Millard Fillmore: He only became vice-president because the presidential candidate of the hour (Zachary Taylor) was such a divisive character and the party wanted to ensure they won. And he only became president because that same guy died while in office. His beliefs differed greatly from those of President Taylor so it’s no surprise that he couldn’t get much done. Slavery was also a hot topic. While he might not have been such a successful president, he was one of the founders of the University of Buffalo, so he can’t have been all bad.
Warren Harding: Normalcy indeed. Another guy who got elected not because he was a stellar candidate, but because the party was deadlocked in nominating the people they really wanted. Also a potential explanation how a “dark horse” beat out a Cox/FDR ticket: his was the first election in which women could vote. He was not a bad looking man, and his wife was very involved in the spreading the word about her candidate. That said, things didn’t go so well for this guy: Teapot Dome, stacking the deck in his cabinet with “The Ohio Gang.” He was also rumored to be quite the playboy, allegedly fathering multiple illegitimate children. (See, John Edwards, that’s nothing new.)
William Henry Harrison: This isn’t even a fair one - he died 32 days into his term! How could he have done anything? Granted, it was probably his own fault he died. Rumor is that he gave a long-winded inauguration speech even though it was cold and wet outside and caught a nasty cold.
Franklin Pierce: Good lord, yet another guy who was nominated by his party because they couldn’t decide which of the candidates they actually liked they should pick. We had a habit of shooting ourselves in the foot, eh? Pierce was another president whose major downfall came because of slavery. First there was the Kansas-Nebraska Act which nullified the Missouri Compromise, thus alienating half the country. His support of slavery (and later, the Confederacy) lost him the support of his own party. The fact that he was a drunk probably didn’t help either. Perhaps we need to give the guy some credit though: two months before he was sworn in as president his family was in a train wreck and his 11-year-old son was crushed to death. That had to suck.
Andrew Johnson: Johnson became president when Lincoln was assassinated. It’s got to be tough, being the follow up act to such a great opener. I mean, Lincoln is #1. Historians even say so! That alone had to drop Johnson quite a few notches on this list. North vs South. Republicans vs Democrats, everyone was up in arms and slavery and civil rights were in turmoil. Johnson was also the first president to be impeached, although he avoided conviction and removal from office by one vote. He’s never seen in a very good light. Then again, he did purchase Alaska. Just think - without Andrew Johnson, the Palins would be Russian!
James Buchanan: This one didn’t even want to be president! He accepted the nomination anyway, but you have to think perhaps his heart wasn’t in it. He even promised he wouldn’t run again in his inaugural address. He followed Franklin Pierce, so he had to deal with all the screw-ups left in that wake. But he really made no attempt to stop what became the Civil War. He was followed by Lincoln so I’m sure that further darkened his reputation. Perhaps also relevant, Buchanan was the only president who never married and there were rumors surrounding his relationship with a senator from Alabama.
So, were these guys worse than W? It’s pretty much accepted that the perception of success and failure varies depending on what’s going on in the world at the time the list is made. I guess we’ll see where historians rank him in 10 or 15 years.
Here’s the whole list.
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt
4. Theodore Roosevelt
5. Harry S. Truman
6. John F. Kennedy
7. Thomas Jefferson
8. Dwight D. Eisenhower
9. Woodrow Wilson
10. Ronald Reagan
11. Lyndon B. Johnson
12. James K. Polk
13. Andrew Jackson
14. James Monroe
15. Bill Clinton
16. William McKinley
17. John Adams
18. George H.W. Bush
19. John Quincy Adams
20. James Madison
21. Grover Cleveland
22. Gerald R. Ford
23. Ulysses S. Grant
24. William Howard Taft
25. Jimmy Carter
26. Calvin Coolidge
27. Richard M. Nixon
28. James A. Garfield
29. Zachary Taylor
30. Benjamin Harrison
31. Martin Van Buren
32. Chester A. Arthur
33. Rutherford B. Hayes
34. Herbert Hoover
35. John Tyler
36. George W. Bush
37. Millard Fillmore
38. Warren G. Harding
39. William Henry Harrison
40. Franklin D. Pierce
41. Andrew Johnson
42. James Buchanan
Millard Fillmore: He only became vice-president because the presidential candidate of the hour (Zachary Taylor) was such a divisive character and the party wanted to ensure they won. And he only became president because that same guy died while in office. His beliefs differed greatly from those of President Taylor so it’s no surprise that he couldn’t get much done. Slavery was also a hot topic. While he might not have been such a successful president, he was one of the founders of the University of Buffalo, so he can’t have been all bad.
Warren Harding: Normalcy indeed. Another guy who got elected not because he was a stellar candidate, but because the party was deadlocked in nominating the people they really wanted. Also a potential explanation how a “dark horse” beat out a Cox/FDR ticket: his was the first election in which women could vote. He was not a bad looking man, and his wife was very involved in the spreading the word about her candidate. That said, things didn’t go so well for this guy: Teapot Dome, stacking the deck in his cabinet with “The Ohio Gang.” He was also rumored to be quite the playboy, allegedly fathering multiple illegitimate children. (See, John Edwards, that’s nothing new.)
William Henry Harrison: This isn’t even a fair one - he died 32 days into his term! How could he have done anything? Granted, it was probably his own fault he died. Rumor is that he gave a long-winded inauguration speech even though it was cold and wet outside and caught a nasty cold.
Franklin Pierce: Good lord, yet another guy who was nominated by his party because they couldn’t decide which of the candidates they actually liked they should pick. We had a habit of shooting ourselves in the foot, eh? Pierce was another president whose major downfall came because of slavery. First there was the Kansas-Nebraska Act which nullified the Missouri Compromise, thus alienating half the country. His support of slavery (and later, the Confederacy) lost him the support of his own party. The fact that he was a drunk probably didn’t help either. Perhaps we need to give the guy some credit though: two months before he was sworn in as president his family was in a train wreck and his 11-year-old son was crushed to death. That had to suck.
Andrew Johnson: Johnson became president when Lincoln was assassinated. It’s got to be tough, being the follow up act to such a great opener. I mean, Lincoln is #1. Historians even say so! That alone had to drop Johnson quite a few notches on this list. North vs South. Republicans vs Democrats, everyone was up in arms and slavery and civil rights were in turmoil. Johnson was also the first president to be impeached, although he avoided conviction and removal from office by one vote. He’s never seen in a very good light. Then again, he did purchase Alaska. Just think - without Andrew Johnson, the Palins would be Russian!
James Buchanan: This one didn’t even want to be president! He accepted the nomination anyway, but you have to think perhaps his heart wasn’t in it. He even promised he wouldn’t run again in his inaugural address. He followed Franklin Pierce, so he had to deal with all the screw-ups left in that wake. But he really made no attempt to stop what became the Civil War. He was followed by Lincoln so I’m sure that further darkened his reputation. Perhaps also relevant, Buchanan was the only president who never married and there were rumors surrounding his relationship with a senator from Alabama.
So, were these guys worse than W? It’s pretty much accepted that the perception of success and failure varies depending on what’s going on in the world at the time the list is made. I guess we’ll see where historians rank him in 10 or 15 years.
Here’s the whole list.
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt
4. Theodore Roosevelt
5. Harry S. Truman
6. John F. Kennedy
7. Thomas Jefferson
8. Dwight D. Eisenhower
9. Woodrow Wilson
10. Ronald Reagan
11. Lyndon B. Johnson
12. James K. Polk
13. Andrew Jackson
14. James Monroe
15. Bill Clinton
16. William McKinley
17. John Adams
18. George H.W. Bush
19. John Quincy Adams
20. James Madison
21. Grover Cleveland
22. Gerald R. Ford
23. Ulysses S. Grant
24. William Howard Taft
25. Jimmy Carter
26. Calvin Coolidge
27. Richard M. Nixon
28. James A. Garfield
29. Zachary Taylor
30. Benjamin Harrison
31. Martin Van Buren
32. Chester A. Arthur
33. Rutherford B. Hayes
34. Herbert Hoover
35. John Tyler
36. George W. Bush
37. Millard Fillmore
38. Warren G. Harding
39. William Henry Harrison
40. Franklin D. Pierce
41. Andrew Johnson
42. James Buchanan
L'Amour...
Ah, Valentine’s Day. That most reviled of holidays. This year I heard it referred to as "Singles Awareness Day" and "Communist Day." Weird...
We actually went out for our “Valentine’s Day” dinner last Thursday. I don’t like crowds and I figured we could beat the red and pink craziness by taking care of it early. We went to Michiel’s in Menasha. A little smoky while waiting for our table, but not too bad in the dining room. Our jackets did suck up some of the smell though so we had to hang them in the garage over night to air out. Hopefully some day the smoking ban will have gotten to the whole state and we won’t have to worry about that at all.
Adam had a steak and I had the chicken stir fry. As far as I can tell, Adam enjoyed his meal, but I was not that impressed with mine. The chicken was dry, the peas were overcooked, and they only had linguine. What kind of place doesn’t have any short cut pasta? Anywho, we might go back again sometime. Not sure since they have the smoking thing against them already. We opted out of dessert at the restaurant and stopped at Culver’s on the way home instead. Their FOTD was cheesecake crisp. The ice cream was much sweeter than I anticipated. Almost tasted like Ben & Jerry’s Cake Batter. It was still good, of course.
Friday night we had dinner at home and then headed out to the Monkey Bar for the first time in what seems like ages. It was a lot nicer out than the last time we were downtown. Still kind of cold, but not snowing or windy. We were (of course) the first people in the door. The bartender is going to get to know us pretty well if we keep that up. We were through our first drinks before another couple arrived. They ordered one beer each, sipped it for like 20 minutes, and then left. Weird. The girl seemed very high-maintenance. Eventually the place began to fill up a little. A lot of Schenk people. We finally called it a night around 10:00 – way longer than we usually stay out. This was also reflected in my state of inebriation. I don’t get out much. Adam stopped for food on the way home and we headed to bed.
It was a bad night. Not because we went out. Because the cats had it in for us. Carly and JC began fighting with each other around 2am. Carly kept running around the bed and JC would follow her on the floor. She’d growl. He’d jump up at her. She’d hiss and throw a punch. Rinse, repeat. They just wouldn’t stop. I think at one point Adam got up and put Carly in the cat room in case she just needed to pee and JC wouldn’t let her get there. But they continued the ruckus after she was retrieved. They finally settled down and went back to sleep, but it made for a very unrestful night. We stayed in bed a couple extra hours in the morning.
When we finally got up we had quite a few places on our list for shopping. We went to Menards (of course!) where Adam picked up a vice and some new drill bits. We went to Fleet Farm for a replacement shovel blade. Grocery shopping. Sam’s. We stopped at Culver’s for lunch since we had a BOGO value basket coupon and my free birthday sundae coupons to use.
When we got home I baked the cake part of our at-home Valentine’s Day meal. Adam banged around downstairs with the shovel. I think I laid down to take a nap at some point. I really don’t remember. I just remember feeling crappy. Eventually I assembled the rest of the cake
and made the side dish.
Adam had gotten a lobster tail at Sam’s and that was his dinner. I was originally going to make steak, but since that’s what he had on Thursday, things got swapped around. (And I just now noticed that everything turned out to be RED. How cliche...) Everything worked out. I’m guessing we went to bed early.
Sunday morning we were up bright and early. I had bells to ring at the 8am service. Adam cleaned litter boxes while I was gone. He wasn’t home when I got back from church – he went to his parents’ house for a while to work on a Games! Magazine contest with his dad. I set about cleaning up the kitchen, doing dishes, laundry, cleaning up the rest of the pet room. Adam got back home, we had lunch. He watched the race, I watched part of it, went into the bedroom to watch something else, came back toward the end. It was “Adam makes dinner” night, but it kind of ended up being “Adam comes up with what’s for dinner and Martha makes it” instead. Not a big deal, since it was kind of a no-brainer, but still amusing. We caught the first HD Simpsons and then I finished cleaning up in the kitchen before heading to bed. I think I turned the TV off during American Dad because we were falling asleep.
Not too much kitty disturbance last night. Just the normal 5am pacing.
Today starts an unusually busy week. I have bell practice this evening. Tomorrow is IMA. Wednesday Adam will be gone golfing (indoors) so I’ll have an evening alone. Thursday is Wicked. Not a lot of cooking this week because of all this activity. I’ve got scrambled egg burritos on for tonight and then grilled chicken, plum, and onion kebabs on Friday.
We actually went out for our “Valentine’s Day” dinner last Thursday. I don’t like crowds and I figured we could beat the red and pink craziness by taking care of it early. We went to Michiel’s in Menasha. A little smoky while waiting for our table, but not too bad in the dining room. Our jackets did suck up some of the smell though so we had to hang them in the garage over night to air out. Hopefully some day the smoking ban will have gotten to the whole state and we won’t have to worry about that at all.
Adam had a steak and I had the chicken stir fry. As far as I can tell, Adam enjoyed his meal, but I was not that impressed with mine. The chicken was dry, the peas were overcooked, and they only had linguine. What kind of place doesn’t have any short cut pasta? Anywho, we might go back again sometime. Not sure since they have the smoking thing against them already. We opted out of dessert at the restaurant and stopped at Culver’s on the way home instead. Their FOTD was cheesecake crisp. The ice cream was much sweeter than I anticipated. Almost tasted like Ben & Jerry’s Cake Batter. It was still good, of course.
Friday night we had dinner at home and then headed out to the Monkey Bar for the first time in what seems like ages. It was a lot nicer out than the last time we were downtown. Still kind of cold, but not snowing or windy. We were (of course) the first people in the door. The bartender is going to get to know us pretty well if we keep that up. We were through our first drinks before another couple arrived. They ordered one beer each, sipped it for like 20 minutes, and then left. Weird. The girl seemed very high-maintenance. Eventually the place began to fill up a little. A lot of Schenk people. We finally called it a night around 10:00 – way longer than we usually stay out. This was also reflected in my state of inebriation. I don’t get out much. Adam stopped for food on the way home and we headed to bed.
It was a bad night. Not because we went out. Because the cats had it in for us. Carly and JC began fighting with each other around 2am. Carly kept running around the bed and JC would follow her on the floor. She’d growl. He’d jump up at her. She’d hiss and throw a punch. Rinse, repeat. They just wouldn’t stop. I think at one point Adam got up and put Carly in the cat room in case she just needed to pee and JC wouldn’t let her get there. But they continued the ruckus after she was retrieved. They finally settled down and went back to sleep, but it made for a very unrestful night. We stayed in bed a couple extra hours in the morning.
When we finally got up we had quite a few places on our list for shopping. We went to Menards (of course!) where Adam picked up a vice and some new drill bits. We went to Fleet Farm for a replacement shovel blade. Grocery shopping. Sam’s. We stopped at Culver’s for lunch since we had a BOGO value basket coupon and my free birthday sundae coupons to use.
When we got home I baked the cake part of our at-home Valentine’s Day meal. Adam banged around downstairs with the shovel. I think I laid down to take a nap at some point. I really don’t remember. I just remember feeling crappy. Eventually I assembled the rest of the cake
and made the side dish.
Adam had gotten a lobster tail at Sam’s and that was his dinner. I was originally going to make steak, but since that’s what he had on Thursday, things got swapped around. (And I just now noticed that everything turned out to be RED. How cliche...) Everything worked out. I’m guessing we went to bed early.
Sunday morning we were up bright and early. I had bells to ring at the 8am service. Adam cleaned litter boxes while I was gone. He wasn’t home when I got back from church – he went to his parents’ house for a while to work on a Games! Magazine contest with his dad. I set about cleaning up the kitchen, doing dishes, laundry, cleaning up the rest of the pet room. Adam got back home, we had lunch. He watched the race, I watched part of it, went into the bedroom to watch something else, came back toward the end. It was “Adam makes dinner” night, but it kind of ended up being “Adam comes up with what’s for dinner and Martha makes it” instead. Not a big deal, since it was kind of a no-brainer, but still amusing. We caught the first HD Simpsons and then I finished cleaning up in the kitchen before heading to bed. I think I turned the TV off during American Dad because we were falling asleep.
Not too much kitty disturbance last night. Just the normal 5am pacing.
Today starts an unusually busy week. I have bell practice this evening. Tomorrow is IMA. Wednesday Adam will be gone golfing (indoors) so I’ll have an evening alone. Thursday is Wicked. Not a lot of cooking this week because of all this activity. I’ve got scrambled egg burritos on for tonight and then grilled chicken, plum, and onion kebabs on Friday.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Recognition by Omission?
One thing I struggle with by being part of the handbell group is that by participating in this activity, I end up attending mass when we play. Generally I can sit through the service with a minimal number of moments that make me want to laugh out loud (or, on the other side of things, make me mad.) This morning's readings were leprosy related, including the one where Jesus heals the leper. This is all well and good. But then in the homily, Fr Mike asked members of the congregation who they thought were modern-day lepers - people who are shunned or may feel left out in society. Want to know the answers that were volunteered?
Homeless people
People recently released from prison
People with mental illness
CATHOLICS (!!!)
Notice anything missing? Are you surprised? Sometimes it makes me so sad, to see ignorance and intolerance at work right in front of me.
I know it's unfair to make sweeping judgements based on the ideas volunteered by four members of a congregation. But this is not the first time I've been so aware of the diversion of belief systems. It's a good thing no one expects me to be Catholic (or religious, really) any time soon...
Homeless people
People recently released from prison
People with mental illness
CATHOLICS (!!!)
Notice anything missing? Are you surprised? Sometimes it makes me so sad, to see ignorance and intolerance at work right in front of me.
I know it's unfair to make sweeping judgements based on the ideas volunteered by four members of a congregation. But this is not the first time I've been so aware of the diversion of belief systems. It's a good thing no one expects me to be Catholic (or religious, really) any time soon...
Friday, February 13, 2009
Mother Nature Is Mean
So Monday it rained, was windy, but was relatively temperate. I think it stayed in the 40s all day long.
Tuesday was gorgeous. Sunshine, temperatures in the mid 50s. I drove with my windows down. Adam wore shorts. He washed his car in the driveway after work. This after it would have been insane to try and change the oil in his car in the garage a few weeks ago because it was so damn cold out.
Then yesterday through today it’s been back to gray skies, gloomy clouds. It hasn’t gotten too much colder yet – 30s and 40s – but after the one day of great weather, it’s very mean to drop us back into winter.
Tuesday was gorgeous. Sunshine, temperatures in the mid 50s. I drove with my windows down. Adam wore shorts. He washed his car in the driveway after work. This after it would have been insane to try and change the oil in his car in the garage a few weeks ago because it was so damn cold out.
Then yesterday through today it’s been back to gray skies, gloomy clouds. It hasn’t gotten too much colder yet – 30s and 40s – but after the one day of great weather, it’s very mean to drop us back into winter.
Monday, February 09, 2009
A Post in Which I Complain About Cats. A lot.
All things considered, it was a kind of boring weekend. Friday night we did nothing. We even ate leftovers. Ok, so we watched another nominated movie – Pineapple Express. One of the least offensive Judd Apatow endeavors, with not so much foul language, but much more bloody violence. Eh.
Saturday morning we did grocery shopping before heading down to Elkhart Lake. When we got back home, we took measurement for the loveseat, couch, and chair and Adam went to Menards to get hardboard to attach to the bottoms. The cats had started ripping off the fabric and climbing up into the frame, just like they had been doing with the box springs. Stupid cats. Anyway, I finished up our state taxes while he got the wood and cut it to the right dimensions at his parents’ house. He returned with the wood, compressor, and staple gun. We attached things. Got crabby. It was a fun night.
Sunday morning we read the paper, ate breakfast. Adam looked at my bathroom sink, which had begun leaking all over the things in the cabinet about a week ago. Or at least that’s when I noticed it. He decided the plumbing under the sink needed to be replaced. So we went back up to Menards and got the necessary items. Adam fixed the sink. We think. I’ve got a bucket under it to see if it leaks going forward. We filed state taxes. Federal refund is supposed to be deposited this Friday. Adam tried to offload the IMA video taken at the October meeting but was unsuccessful. We watched WALL-E. Cute, but once again, a very thinly veiled social commentary. And not necessarily a kid’s movie just because it’s animated. I’d imagine some kids would be frightened by the violence. We had pizza for dinner. Went to bed.
Were awakened at 3:00. Carly had been sleeping up on top of my dresser. I was concerned because she usually sleeps by my head and hadn’t been there all night. So I go looking for her all over the house only to turn and ask Adam where she was and notice her in the corner. Grrr. So I transfer her to my pillow only to come back from the bathroom and discover she was missing again. She crawled under the covers this time. Stupid cats. Then JC jumped up on me and in his effort to get under the covers as well, fell off the bed. He blamed me - tried to trip me later in the morning. We were up again around 5. That’s the hour that Carly apparently thinks we need to get up at. Every morning at 5 she starts pacing back and forth on the headboard, knocking things over and being obnoxious until one of us gets up and takes her to the cat room. Such a brat.
Somewhere along the line someone peed on Adam’s bathmat again so I had to wash that. Last Thursday we had a bloody paw incident where it looked like Carly had snagged a claw on something and tracked blood all over the couch and Adam’s shirt before we noticed it. We both got bloodier while trying to figure out what the problem was. Then, as the internet knows all, we tried to find out what to do about it. More than one website suggested dipping the bloody claw in flour to stop the bleeding. Great idea. Ended up getting flour all over the foot and tail of Carly as well as all over the counter and ourselves. And the floor, when she mutinied and escaped. Get this – cats don’t like having their feet dipped in flour. Didn’t see that one coming.
Anywho, we still love the cats. Most of the time.
This week is pretty un-special. Adam’s got his rescheduled eye appointment on Thursday. My plan is to go out for dinner that night to avoid the unruly crowds on Saturday. That’s about it. We’ll see how many more movies we can work into the week.
As for today, I didn't really do anything special for my birthday. Adam gave me a necklace last week and I got some cards and emails. No dinner, no hoopla. Just donuts at work and some candy for the ladies at bells tonight. All my exciting birthdays are behind me at this point, so it's ok.
Saturday morning we did grocery shopping before heading down to Elkhart Lake. When we got back home, we took measurement for the loveseat, couch, and chair and Adam went to Menards to get hardboard to attach to the bottoms. The cats had started ripping off the fabric and climbing up into the frame, just like they had been doing with the box springs. Stupid cats. Anyway, I finished up our state taxes while he got the wood and cut it to the right dimensions at his parents’ house. He returned with the wood, compressor, and staple gun. We attached things. Got crabby. It was a fun night.
Sunday morning we read the paper, ate breakfast. Adam looked at my bathroom sink, which had begun leaking all over the things in the cabinet about a week ago. Or at least that’s when I noticed it. He decided the plumbing under the sink needed to be replaced. So we went back up to Menards and got the necessary items. Adam fixed the sink. We think. I’ve got a bucket under it to see if it leaks going forward. We filed state taxes. Federal refund is supposed to be deposited this Friday. Adam tried to offload the IMA video taken at the October meeting but was unsuccessful. We watched WALL-E. Cute, but once again, a very thinly veiled social commentary. And not necessarily a kid’s movie just because it’s animated. I’d imagine some kids would be frightened by the violence. We had pizza for dinner. Went to bed.
Were awakened at 3:00. Carly had been sleeping up on top of my dresser. I was concerned because she usually sleeps by my head and hadn’t been there all night. So I go looking for her all over the house only to turn and ask Adam where she was and notice her in the corner. Grrr. So I transfer her to my pillow only to come back from the bathroom and discover she was missing again. She crawled under the covers this time. Stupid cats. Then JC jumped up on me and in his effort to get under the covers as well, fell off the bed. He blamed me - tried to trip me later in the morning. We were up again around 5. That’s the hour that Carly apparently thinks we need to get up at. Every morning at 5 she starts pacing back and forth on the headboard, knocking things over and being obnoxious until one of us gets up and takes her to the cat room. Such a brat.
Somewhere along the line someone peed on Adam’s bathmat again so I had to wash that. Last Thursday we had a bloody paw incident where it looked like Carly had snagged a claw on something and tracked blood all over the couch and Adam’s shirt before we noticed it. We both got bloodier while trying to figure out what the problem was. Then, as the internet knows all, we tried to find out what to do about it. More than one website suggested dipping the bloody claw in flour to stop the bleeding. Great idea. Ended up getting flour all over the foot and tail of Carly as well as all over the counter and ourselves. And the floor, when she mutinied and escaped. Get this – cats don’t like having their feet dipped in flour. Didn’t see that one coming.
Anywho, we still love the cats. Most of the time.
This week is pretty un-special. Adam’s got his rescheduled eye appointment on Thursday. My plan is to go out for dinner that night to avoid the unruly crowds on Saturday. That’s about it. We’ll see how many more movies we can work into the week.
As for today, I didn't really do anything special for my birthday. Adam gave me a necklace last week and I got some cards and emails. No dinner, no hoopla. Just donuts at work and some candy for the ladies at bells tonight. All my exciting birthdays are behind me at this point, so it's ok.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
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