Thanks Patrick - The Tully’s is delicious. I’ll make your back up copy tomorrow.
May 18, 2008 – 10:02 am
I think we’re going to need that book too because no one is going to love the Coonhound except us.
Quiet in the house
May 7, 2008 – 7:10 amLast night I dreamed that little bugs had burrowed underneath my skin and I could see them crawling up my arm. I’ve had a string of disturbed dreams for the past week. Relief is one of the most common emotions I feel upon waking.
A fine cup of coffee for this fine morning. Quiet in the house. Occasionally glancing over at a Polaroid of Rhen.
I have turned off the heat, finally. Probably will have to turn the whole business back on later in the week. Lower 60s for the highs. Spring just really can’t latch on to anything. Sunday looks to be the worse by far, topping off at a paltry 51 degrees Fahrenheit.
What else here? The end of the semester is upon us. Students are panicking busy writing papers and studying. The eleventh hour constantly chimes in our library.
Well, I’m C_’s alarm clock. Time for me to go upstairs and chime.
Snake oil
April 20, 2008 – 10:17 pmAs I sat cross-legged, eating ice chips on my gurney in the emergency room last night I thought, “Who are these wonderful people that bring me everything I could possibly need during my time of distress?” Well, health professionals obviously but I felt they were a little something more than that. That was right after a nurse and draped a blanket around my shoulders and brought me a slurry of medicine for my unruly stomach. She told me it was a cocktail of Mylanta, Zantac an analgesic and a numbing medicine that would take away some of the pain. She also told me it tasted horrible.
“Mint Julip?”, I said. She laughed and said, “I wish.”
She was right. It was horrible but I felt better after I had finished it.
From my room I could look around the privacy curtain and through the windows to see a large plasma screen hung on the adjacent wall with a spreadsheet displaying on it. I could see my initials after the “Room Four” row and more initials for the other rooms in the ER. There were five other patients in that night. I thought it was remarkable since it was 2 AM, Sunday morning. An hour later there were only two of us on the spreadsheet.
A security guard milled around aimlessly for awhile occasionally looking over his shoulder. The nurses stood around a computer monitor and laughed loudly. Orderlies tried to nap on the over-sized plush chair in the waiting room. I think they were orderlies.
My doctor was a man in his late twenties. His manner was business-like at first. He went through all the possible illicit drugs I could be using during my interview with him. I answered “no” to all of them. He seemed to soften after that was out of the way.
At the end of my three hours in the emergency room he diagnosed me with viral gastro-enteritis. Fancy for the stomach flu. He said we could do more testing but he was quite sure this was it and in the course of a couple days I would feel better. The intense pain I felt was gas built up from using way too much Imodium that I had taken to stop he acute diarrhea I had been suffering from the last couple of days.
He leaned back on the counter and looked up and said, “You know, sometimes you just got to sh- shh- shhh.. it out. Actually, I’m not going to say that. Imodium is more for a car trip. Like, if you need to go somewhere. You should never use it three days in a row.”
Leaving the room, he stopped and patted me on the back and wished me well.
I’m on a diet of light foods for the next couple of days. It’s driving me nuts. I have a queue of leftovers from beautiful meals I could not partake in over the weekend. They wait for me in the refrigerator.
And I’m OK with that. Still though, it’s funny how it all makes me feel strangely exiled from everyone else.
The weekend update
April 12, 2008 – 8:38 amLast night I enjoyed a meal from the pages of “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food” by Jessica Seinfeld. We had Macaroni and Cheese 1 with Cauliflower. Who knew that when cauliflower is pureed and added to mac and cheese it is DELICIOUS?! Of course Rhen didn’t touch his portion so I ate it. I felt a bit like a king knowing that I was dining on food that comedy legend Jerry Seinfeld eats. The transference was almost tangible with each deceptive bite. The cookbook looks really old school. It has cute little hand drawn illustrations. I like that. It is also easy to open and it stays open because it has the spiral notebook binding. A real no-brainer for cookbooks but you’d be surprised how many publishers skip it. I’m really looking forward to cooking out of this book and I say that with all seriousness.
I’ve had a terrible cold the past week. My sinuses feel crowded and gluey. I’m sure I’m on the mend (hey, tea can only do so much) but each morning feels like a small death until I can blow and hack everything out. I know, gross.
Today I’m looking forward to receiving my next two Netflix movies! Hooray for the Netflix and hooray for the United States Postal Service! Rhen is getting The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep and I’m getting There Will Be Blood. I’ve been a huge fan of Mr. Day-Lewis ever since he played Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York.
Oh! Last weekend Christi’s office mate found us a Schwinn bike trailer for ten bucks at a garage sale! Practically brand new but missing the coupler to hook it up to a bike. Go online, find part, order part for another ten dollars, wait three days, hook it up last night - perfecto! Trailer retails for $200. We got it for $20. Just awesomeness. Rhen loves it.
What else? Hmmm. Shuffle through papers. Hmm, nothing really there. In basket empty. Out basket empty. Of course there will be photography and emails I need to catch up on too. Always nice to write and photograph.
So I will sit, drink coffee and be patient while winter plays its last hand over this fine weekend.
On the last night of alternate side parking I saw a ghost
March 31, 2008 – 7:08 amFrom November 1st to April 1st our town has alternate side parking to help with snow removal during the winter. It’s like a $30 fine or something if you’re parked on the wrong side of the street and if the city needs to plow you can throw on the price of a tow job to your bill. On odd days you park on the odd side of the street. Even days you park even. It goes into effect from like, 11 pm to 6 am.
So last night at about 2 am I remembered I had left the car out on the wrong side of the street. Expletive and uff as I dragged myself out of bed. I was not getting a parking fine on the last night of alternate side parking.
Um - pajama bottoms, a wool winter jacket and hiking boots without socks. I stepped outside and looked to the west. There I saw two figures a block down by the corner bar dressed in white. They quickly glided out of sight towards the river.
I moved the car into the driveway and looked again for the figures. Nothing. I suppose it could’ve been anyone in that early morning light.
Nightmare
March 2, 2008 – 12:23 pmI woke up this morning at 4 disturbed from a nightmare. It’s the same dream each time and I always take advantage of it by getting up early and making coffee. Nothing quite like it.
During these early morning interludes I listen to music. This morning I selected my entire Tom Wait’s collection and set it to “shuffle”. Favorite tracks included:
“Come on up to the House”, Mule Variations
“Poncho’s Lament”, The Early Years
“Just the Right Bullets”, The Black Rider
And just so you know, Tom Waits is completely acceptable music for the morning. Unacceptable morning music would be- Alicia Keys, ABBA, and Modest Mouse. Actually, Modest Mouse is never acceptable music. It’s like dude, write more than one verse.
In other news we are the proud owners of a thoroughly modern brand new furnace. Apparently, the other one was “running dangerous” and was going to burn our house down sooner than later. The thermostat is completely programmable for the entire week and I never tire of updating the Comfort Control System™ to the perfect um, comfort level. It really is a thing of beauty. Here’s a picture.
I know. Totally hot.
Another interesting thing about the heating and cooling system in our house is the duct work. The guy who sold us our furnace (Bob) said that our duct work dates pre-WWII. It’s not aluminum, instead that used some sort of galvanized tin. Another indication would be the service label on the duct work. Notice the 4 digit phone numbers. We’re pretty sure these guys are dead.
Pretty awesome huh? Rest easy Elmer and Al. Your duct work is in good hands with Bob.
Spring break is upon us where I work so the next couple weeks should be easy business. Something I’m looking forward to. Rhen’s 3rd b-day party is also coming up. Today we set out to pick a cake for it. Something with Cookie Monster, I think.
So there you have it.
Oh, coffee. Just about gone. Time to do.
The curse of the lame ass Netflix DVD
January 8, 2008 – 10:18 pmThat whole “Pirates of the Caribbean” series? Guilty pleasure. I’ve been trying to get “The Curse of the Black Pearl” from Netflix for like, the last couple of weeks.
They keep sending me cracked DVDs of it.
What the eff Netflix?