Hammock Time

This is the view from our hammock. Rather awesome, no?

Atlanta had such great weekend weather*, I brought the hammock out of storage early and had some well deserved time to rest in it after a whole lot of yard work. It was our annual "chop down the old monkey grass" weekend. Like I always say, if it has "monkey" in the title, it is bound to give you trouble. We also did a bunch of other chores that you don't want to hear about.

Now the smell of charcoal smoke and jerk pork is filling the evening air. I am sipping wine and catching up on internet stuff while my husband cooks. Hope your weekend was equally productive and enjoyable. Smells like it is time to eat - gotta go!


*It isn't all wine and pork aroma. We are paying dearly for the early spring with a very high pollen count - especially considering it is only February. At least we are warm and comfortable while we sneeze and rub our eyes.

The Road Less Traveled

Went on a road trip last weekend with Mom. We visited Warm Springs and Pine Mountain/Callaway Gardens. There wasn't a convenient interstate route from A to B, and that was just fine with us. Our country road trip was very pleasant. Hardly another vehicle on the road. Slowed down a few times going through a small town, and there were some traffic lights here and there, but all in all it was an enjoyable journey.

The interstate might have saved us twenty or thirty minutes, but the trip would have been far less memorable. I'd rather enjoy the journey.

Try it sometime. You might be surprised.

Thirteen Days

...until I get my life back. The board exam is looming large - Saturday, August 23, 8:00 am (not usually my finest hour).

I've got cabin fever (in August - how sucky is that?), I'm stir crazy, I can't seem to function some days, and there are still nearly two weeks to go in this state. All I do is work, sleep, eat, and study. Well, and watch a little TV from 9-11 some nights. But damn, how boring and restrictive is that? Add to that a huge reduction in alcohol intake and you have a recipe for unhappy.

Aside from radiological physics, I've learned a few other things from this experience. Did you know that Tension Tamer tea can have some unfortunate gastric side effects if you drink 5-6 cups of it in one evening? Consider yourself warned. I suspect that it shares an ingredient or two with "dieters tea". Did you know that learning lots of stuff in one area can make you stupid in others? Well, some days I cannot put together a rational sentence, so there ya go. Did you know that if you stare at a book, your cats will be irresistably drawn to lay on it? OK, I already knew that, but they have confirmed it time and again. If you can learn physics from osmosis, my cats are pretty damned smart.

The only good thing about this weekend was the it was cool and dry enough for me to do my studying on the porch for a change. We turned the A/C off on Friday night and haven't had it on since. It would have been a great weekend for... ah, I won't go there. Lets just say the weather was gorgeous for late summer and I was grateful to be able to hang out on the porch for my miserable marathon study sessions.

Death and Taxes

Death and taxes consumed most of my Saturday. It was a rainy day - steady rain for a change - and perfect for the jobs at hand. It wasn't as bad as the post title cliche makes it seem. I spent the day scanning old photos and locating some digital shots for Big Daddy's funeral reception. I also did our taxes (finally!).

Going through the photos was fun. I did find some good Big Daddy photos, but also enjoyed seeing old friends, family, pets, and places I used to live or visit. There were a few issues getting my scanner to work on PDM's computer. The software didn't work with Leopard (his new operating system), but the problem was easily solved by booting up with the older operating system. I've still got to scan photos from some other family members and expect to get some digital photos from them as well. The obituary was published in today's paper, and his service is next Saturday. So the photo collecting is a bit "last minute" but I think it will all work out in the end.

The tax stuff went smoothly (other than the usual shock at seeing the total amount we have paid in over the year). We don't have anything super complicated going on with our income and/or deductions, so the returns look pretty much the same every year. I originally just bought a software package to do federal, but I caved and downloaded the state version because I just didn't feel like dealing with it and I knew it would take far less effort that way. The state program found something I didn't know about and more than paid for itself with that bit of info, so it worked out for the best. This kind of stuff is NOT how I like to spend my Saturdays, even rainy ones. I'm glad it's over for another year.

I haven't done anything worthwhile today. And isn't that the best way to spend a lazy Sunday? PDM has spent hours making more tessellated tile patterns for the new porch floor. Me, I've been damn near useless today. Reading, surfing, eating, and napping, with about 20 minutes of random house and yard work thrown in to make me feel less guilty about the rest of the day.

How was YOUR weekend?

CatBlogging included at no extra charge...

PorchPhotoBlogging!

The contractors started working on our new porch late last week. Moxy and Zima have already explored every new nook and cranny. More photos here.

I finished "construction" on the blog. What do you think of the new look? PDM said it was "too purple", so I toned that down a little. The colors look tasteful on my notebook's monitor, but slightly garish on his... I'm thinking we have the saturation levels set differently. I remember Natalie having similar troubles last year with her background color not looking the same for everyone. And go ahead and laugh, but I enlarged the font size because I am tired of squinting at my monitor. No "old" jokes, please. This means you, LL!

Not much else going on this weekend. We did lots of yardwork yesterday, but we are already losing our battle with weeds. Ever since the watering ban, the weeds have taken over - they have no trouble growing when the grass is struggling. We've even got several new varieties that I cannot identify, and I've been pulling weeds for a long time! Stupid weeds. But it isn't all bad news. The catnip is coming back in very healthy. You can't kill mint, although Zima tries her best to love it to death.

Home Improvement Hits and Misses

It was a mixed bag this weekend on the home front. PDM and I each had a home improvement project to work on. The front door replacement took PDM and our friend Tim longer than expected and was a little more involved than they had planned on (nothing in this house is a standard size), but it is basically done now and looks great. All that is left is to paint the interior trim and the job will be complete. The ugly old front door wasn't even exterior grade, so this is a big improvement. The glass lets in a lot of light and brightens up the foyer. It looks pretty from the street at night when the house is lit up. And purely by accident, we happened to buy it on the weekend that was a sales tax holiday for energy efficient home items. Since the door was a special order (non-standard size for our non-standard home), it was expensive, so the sales tax savings was significant. If it keeps our house a little warmer in the winter, so much the better.

My "supposedly simple" little two-weekend bathroom project went horribly off track. The first weekend I had planned to strip the wallpaper in the tiny half-bath, prepare the walls in the full bath next to it for painting, and remove the shower doors. Next weekend, I was going to paint both bathrooms and recaulk the tub. I am already way behind schedule.

When I removed the wallpaper, which appears to have been on the walls for the entire 42 years that the house has existed, a whole lot of wallboard came along for the ride. You are probably thinking that I suck at wallpaper stripping and must not know what I am doing. Let me assure you that this is the not the case. I've successfully removed wallpaper several times in the past and was able to do so without mangling the underlying surfaces. Now I know why the wall in the other bathroom looks so crappy and is going to need so much repair before we paint. I am guessing that some wallpaper was removed in there, with similar results, and the previous owners just painted over it anyway. We're not going to be satisfied with that kind of worksmanship. I asked PDM to help, so he tried mudding over some of the bad spots. We'll sand it smooth when it dries and then evaluate the results. If that doesn't work, we'll have to go to Plan B. Plan B involves replacing the damaged wallboards, so I hope we don't have to go that far.

PDM, who is cooking dinner for us right now (chicken burritos), wanted to make sure I let y'all know that I called him in to fix my mangled bathroom wall project. I told him that I was honest about how the two projects went down. But just in case you missed it, I will say it again. "PDM's project went great, looks great, and is 95% done and won't be a hassle to finish. My project turned out to be a horrible mess that will drag on for weeks, and I had to get him to fix the stuff I did wrong, and it is going to be a monumental hassle to finish, and probably won't look that good when it is done. And now he is making my dinner." And he is smiling.

Mr. Silvio and Georgia Tech Football

He's so darned cute, but growing up fast. But if he continues to chew on power cords he isn't going to grow up at all. Stupid kitty. :-(

It is the end of August and for my beloved Yellow Jackets, football season begins tomorrow. It is an away game - at Notre Dame, right there under the "touchdown Jesus" or what have you. It's a big game. We'll see what happens. Tailgating will have to wait one more week, but that's OK. For now we'll get some pulled pork, brunswick stew, cole slaw and beer and watch the action on our "big ass TV" in the comfort of our air conditioned den.

Have a happy holiday weekend everyone. Be safe.

Oh, and since it is college football season: THWG!

Doctor Who and Cuban Pork Roast

Another weekend bites the dust. It started out pretty good: left work at 3:55pm on Friday guilt-free, then made it to the pub early enough to see the old guys who come in for happy hour. Got caught up with a girlfriend who I haven't seen in a month and chatted with a few of the other regulars. Then it was off to Mellow Mushroom for a medium pizza with pepperoni, sausage, onion and jalapeño to go. We timed it so that we'd be home for the season three (US) premier of Doctor Who, and we were already stocked up with wine and beer for the event.

Saturday was kind of "blah". I read a lot (but not the newspaper, which apparently I neglected to renew our subscription for - oops), took a nap, and played with the cats.

Today I went into work to do some of the annual testing on the linear accelerator ("linac") - it has to be done after hours when there are no patients being treated. I got a decent chunk of it done. I'm working tomorrow evening and might be caught up with the annual as much as is possible for now. In return for working two of the last three weekends, I am taking Friday off.

While I was working, PDM was in the kitchen going through a trial run with a new recipe - Cuban pork roast. It took him 8 hours start to finish, not counting the 24-hour soak in a brine solution. We're making this and lots of other yummy Caribbean-themed dishes next weekend for our summer cookout and needed to know how long it takes and whether or not the recipe needs any adjustments. Taste testing is a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it. And I am happy to report that it was very good. PDM served it up with "mo jo sauce", black beans, jalapeño cheddar cornbread, and plantain chips. Hungry now?

Flux

Things are changing a lot at work, and it has all of us feeling uneasy and unsettled. We said goodbye to one person, a good friend, on Friday. A physicist is leaving later this summer, and we also have another physicist who will be going on maternity leave any minute now. There is sure to be a new hire (or two, or three...) to adjust to, and assignments are likely to change and change again.

I was very busy on Friday and found myself comfortably in denial about my friend's departure. It may not hit until late next week, when I'm back at the main location and things are very different. Then again, I may be too busy to deal with it this week as well - there are several things going on that are out of the ordinary and likely to take up a lot of my time. I came in and worked half a day on Saturday and still expect to work late several days this week.

But enough about all of this. How was everybody's weekend? Ours was low key. A little more low key than we had planned. We've been thinking about taking in another kitty (June is Adopt-A-Cat Month). We went to the Atlanta Humane Society on Saturday morning to look at the kittens, after getting the house all ready for a new arrival. It was tough to decide on just one, but we finally settled on this little guy:


He has to be neutered before the shelter will release him, so we couldn't take him home right away. I can't wait to see how Moxy reacts to him. I think they'll end up being buddies. Zima, not so much.

"All due respect..."

I just uncorked a bottle of chianti in preparation for the last new episode of the The Sopranos. For the last couple of months, this is how we spent our Sunday nights. I can't say it has been a routine - settling in with a nice meal and a bottle of chianti - only because the show isn't on often enough for it to seem that way. It wasn't unusual to have to wait well over a year between seasons.

I'm curious about how they will end the show. The mood that has been building this season is ominous and dark. I don't have a preference - just hope that it will be the usual high quality, meaty fare.

Rather than mourning the loss, I appreciate what The Sopranos has done for TV. It has shown what is possible in this medium when the creators are free from network interference, ratings worries, the need to be an instant success, and broadcast standards and regulations. The result is a TV series that plays out more like a novel than a dramatic series. Add in lush cinematography, brilliant musical soundtrack choices, excellent writing and acting, and you have got one helluva show. I am sure that HBO was rewarded with many new subscribers who came because of this show, and stayed because of all the other great series: Six Feet Under, Sex and the City, ROME, Carnivale, and Deadwood, just to name my personal favorites.

Weekend Wrapup

So, another weekend bites the dust. What's new? Friday wasn't very good for PDM and me. He had to go in super early and worked a long day, and we had an emergency patient late in the day, so I ended up staying much later than normal. We completely missed the happy hour crowd at the pub.

As usual, it didn't rain here. But it was cloudy on Saturday, which made it cool enough to work in the yard. Since I can't plant stuff (due to no rain and all), I wrecked my hands pulling up weeds and monkey grass. I also managed to contact some poison ivy, which itches like crazy now.

On Sunday, we went to see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Unlike Spidey 3, I really liked Pirates 3. Sure, it was a long movie, but not a boring movie. And I loved the little blurb after all the credits. I don't care what the critics thought - it was damn entertaining. I am a satisfied customer.

After the movie, we went to lunch and then shopped for furniture. Why is it that the majority of couches in showrooms are leather? Leather couches and cats do not mix.

Today, we turned on our air conditioning for the first time this year. Yes, in Atlanta, Georgia, we made it until June 3rd without any air conditioning. That's gotta be a record. There have been only two good things about the drought: very few mosquitoes, and low humidity. Today, it seemed muggier than usual and kind of hot, so we caved.

Did I mention that I got poison ivy, and that it itches? A whole damn lot.

I hope you had a more exciting weekend than we had. If you did, please tell us all about it in the comments!