Lockdown and a New Setup

Well, my loyal readers... it's been a while! Last week was frustrating trying to post. Blogger didn't always want to cooperate. Then, to top it all off, work internet access is basically on lockdown. We have to use our e-mail password to access the 'net and most sites are unaccessable. Gotta love the company internet police! For a few months, I was unable to access e-mail. Now, most everything else non-work related is gone as well. And, they track where you go!

I've had my own PC (the one I had from when I lived in DE) set up at home but never had it hooked to John's DSL. I rarely used it, but with the recent lockdown events at work, it was time I made use of my PC. I always had access to John's PC, but he loves his Sudoku, games and surfing for cars and stereos. I hate kicking him off his own PC when I have my own. Friday night, John headed out to Best Buy and got me a wireless card for my PC! Yea! Internet access from my old clunker. And some more memory too! (Thanks, Love!)

It took us a while to figure out how to network the two PC's together, but we finally did. Plug 'n Play isn't always as easy as they make it out to be. John bought a wireless hub for me back when I worked for that other armored company and I had a company laptop with a wireless network card. Sometimes, I worked from home and John set it up so I could hook into the company's network via VPN. (OK Sean, Mike, Doug, Chris, Dave and Bill... stop laughing at my attempt to throw out technical jargon!). The hub had been sitting unused since last year.

Today, we went to Ikea and bought a cheapie computer desk. I had the PC on a folding tray table before. Not exactly the most comfortable for blogging.

Anyway, hopefully, more to come very soon. Just wanted you to know I wasn't neglecting the blog. Cheers!

Cruisin' Adams Morgan

Look, BHL! I have pictures!

When I left you on Friday, John and I had plans to go downtown to check out Chance Gardener at Staccato. And we did! Getting there was quite a test of patience, however. You'd think someone would build one of those multi-level parking garages in the heart of Adam's Morgan. It would make a killing!

We looked for street parking for about an hour. Poor Johnny. In the past, we've circled around for 10 minutes looking for a parking spot before bagging out -- and this was just at the Corner Pub! A couple times, we missed a spot by mere seconds. It had to be our turn, right? Finally, we parked on 16th Street near that park with the big tall walls where Handsome Matt and Alison were supposed to be married had it not been for the rain storm. We walked a long two blocks or so up to the bar. CG had already been playing for half an hour.



Dummy me was playing with the settings on my camera and missed catching a pic of the band on stage. John even said, "You'd better hurry up if you want to get a picture." Doh!

We finished our drinks while the second band set up and began their set. They sounded just like how I expected (from the way they looked). LOUD. I have no idea what the guy was singing.

We left and went next door to the Duplex Diner to hang with the band. The guys were unhappy with their performance. I thought they were really good, but they said maybe 2 songs were good and there were lots of errors. Not that I could tell!

At the diner, I ordered a little something to nosh -- an appetizer of Pigs in a Blanket and Tater Tots. I don't remember how much it was (DC prices!) but the blankets weren't cooked all the way through and there were maybe 10 tots on the plate. Artfully arranged, but sparse. I did have to keep in mind this was DC and it was pretty late (the kitchen was closing up when we ordered our food). I just expected regular "diner" portions. Dan, the drummer aka George, ordered the brownie a la mode for dessert. This was definitely a diner-sized portion! There were 6 of us and I'm not sure we finished it. I had 3 small bites... just to make sure it was good (and it was!).

We walked off the late night snack and got back to the car to find it was:

It was a great night out, despite the crappy parking situation. I'm really glad we went down to see Joe and his band!

Saturday morning, I cooked up some bacon and baked Orange Almond Scones from a mix given to us by my MIL.

We ran a bunch of errands after breakfast and ended up missing the Maryland game. We pretty much hung around the house that evening. I didn't have anything planned for dinner, so we walked up the street to get a Quizno's sandwich for John and some Salmon Teriyaki at Asahi for me.

Sunday morning, John went out and bought us some new lights for the front of the house. The old ones were builder-grade gold torch things. The "gold" had pretty much flaked off. Every house has these gold torch lights! The great thing about the new ones is they have a light sensor on them. You can leave them switched on and when it gets dark, the lights come on.

Since John was on call, we didn't venture out anywhere. I started knitting a few things including this little gem for my boss:



This was so easy to make! Two hours from start to finish. I stuffed it with some cheap craft store acrylic yarn from my stash that I hate. I'm a yarn snob on a craft store budget. Actually, one craft store chain (AC Moore) does have some nice yarns along side their cheapie acrylics.

Hope everyone had a good weekend... till next time...

Go see CG Tonight!

Spotty picture uploading has me less inclined to post lately. Sorry, loyal readers!

If you've got nothing to do tonight, head down to Staccato's in DC and catch our buddy Joe and his band, Chance Gardener at 9:00 PM. Normally, John and I have FND at my parents' but we decided to do something different tonight. I've only seen CG once -- they played an acoustic set at Olson's in Arlington. Alexandria? I dunno... somewhere in NoVA. I think this was the original band... or maybe the second incarnation. Anyway, they were really good. I also got to see the band practice when they used to rent time/space in LL's basement.

Not much else planned for this weekend. Possible hike up Sugarloaf with Freddy, Mange and Shacky on Sunday, but John is on call, so who knows...

Best Pal's Big Day

It's my best pal's birthday! The big 44. Of course, picture uploading isn't cooperating today, so you'll have to click HERE or HERE to see who I'm talkin' about (if you don't know already).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WILLIAM!

(Blank)-Crack of Dawn

John has to be in Fairfax at 6:00 AM all this week, which means he's getting up at the butt-crack of dawn. Normally, he just gets up at the crack of dawn... After he left, I had some weird dream that he was in the house explaining something to a co-worker and trying to show him something on the computer. He wanted me to get up and help him, but I was in that state where you think you're awake, but you're not. I kept thinking if he wanted me to get up and help, he'd have to come drag me out of bed. I somehow convinced myself he wasn't really in the house. I hate those dreams!

A full weekend, as usual. FND at my parents'. We arrived to find someone had stolen the front wheel off my uncle's Honda Accord. My dad said the alarm never went off while they were jacking up the car and stealing the wheel, although during the rainstorms the other night, the thing wouldn't shut up. That car has the worst luck in terms of theft. When my uncle first got it, the airbag was stolen. TWICE. Then he got an alarm put on. It's sad to think my old neighborhood is subject to crime. Makes me worry about my parents. Thank goodness there haven't been any reports of home invasions or anything like that yet.

Saturday, I caught up on most of my TiVo'd shows, except I haven't watched Smallville or Nip/Tuck since the new seasons started. I finished a birthday knit for Jossy while John went out to the book store, had some lunch and bought cookies at the Amish market.

We headed to Tom & Julie's party mid-afternoon and were surprised to see the party wasn't as big as in past years. Although the weather was cool, it was sunny and not too bad for an outdoor party. Julie only sent out Evites, where she would normally send out regular invites in the mail. She didn't have everyone's e-mail, and of the 80 or so folks on the Evite list, less than half responded. Maybe people don't know how to navigate an Evite? Even though the party was smaller than normal, there were still lots of people John hadn't seen in a while and of course, there were yummy eats -- including CRABS!

After the party, we tried to catch a movie but didn't feel like waiting an hour for the next one to start. I think we're more matinee people now. Sad, but the thought of paying $12.00 or whatever a Saturday night movie costs these days to sit someplace butt trifling (like the front row) with a bunch of rowdy teens just doesn't appeal to me.

Sunday, we had a couple errands to run. We headed out around 11:30 to get some breakfast and decided to try Eggspectations. By the time we got there, it was a little after noon, so that didn't happen. I was starving and didn't feel like waiting. It's not a good sign when you drive up to a restaurant and people are spilling out onto the sidewalk waiting to be seated. So, we went to our first stop, Annapolis Lighting. Next door was a Baja Fresh, so we grabbed something to eat there. Not exactly the omelette I was envisioning, but at that point, I would have eaten day old chicken left out in the rain.

We've been looking for some new outdoor lights, but because of the way the current ones are attached to the house, we have to get lights with a small base. Also, the light above the garage has to have a small base and not hang below the base very much. There are some really awesome lighting options out there, but our limitations and desire to make switching these lights out easier narrows the options for us. I think we found some for the front door and decided it wasn't absolutely necessary to have the one above the garage the same as the door. I think it might be OK if they just had the same finish on them. We're also looking to change out some of the cheapie builder's-grade fixtures inside the house.

After looking at lights, we headed up to Columbia Mall to get a GC for Jossy. We looked at a couple other stores and then headed home. Although the 'Skins game was on, I napped through it. I woke up right as Brunell threw that interception to seal their loss to the Titans. It was nice to learn that Maryland and Dallas won, however.

After the game, we headed to Mike & Diane's to celebrate Jossy's 15th birthday. I really enjoy the B family gatherings.

So, you may notice this is a pictureless post. Not that my camera wasn't out this weekend, 'cuz I snapped a bunch of pics! Blogger doesn't seem to want to load them today. I ought to find some other blog host site, but this one's free and fairly easy to use, if not totally frustrating...

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Off to work now...

Hat Season

I can't believe how cold it got overnight! I'm glad the weekend is here though. Saturday, John and I will be attending the annual "Hat Party" hosted by his former bosses, Julie and Tom. Two years ago when it was held mid-September, John called me up out of the blue (we weren't dating or anything yet) and invited me to go with him. When he called me, I was on my way out to a birthday lunch with family friends, so I told him I'd meet him at his place afterwards. Little did I know what kind of spread Julie and Tom would put out!!! I was so stuffed from lunch I wasn't able to eat much more than a brownie. They had steamed crabs, shrimp, grilled lamb chops, burgers, sausage, hot dogs. Guests brought all kinds of side dishes (pasta salads, dips, etc...) and desserts. There was a giant blow-up slide and a moon bounce for the kids.

Julie and Tom's house is right on the water in West River, similar to the B family beach cottage, except they have a private dock. Hopefully, the weather will be nice and I'll have lots of pics to show next week.

Sunday, we'll celebrate Jossy's birthday. She's going to be 15, I believe. I offered up Jackass as a birthday present, but John said, "She can't drive yet!". I'd never give Jackass away! He's myng-guh*!

Have an awesome weekend, everyone!

* This is an inside joke that originated with the way William's boss says the word "Fine". I've adapted it to lots of words ending in "ne" like phone, mine, wine. He doesn't think it's applicable to all those other words, but I think it's funny and I'll keep doing it!!!

Oct 12th Birthdays

October 12th seems to be a very popular day to be born! I have 3 friends born on this day (but sadly, only a picture of one of 'em on hand)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JODI!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NORMA!

and lastly....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LAURIE!

Wishing you a wonderful day and lots of birthday surprises!

On Friends and Friendship

A recent post (Grudge or Reason) by my buddy Bill got me thinking about my own friendships throughout my life and how I've managed or mismanaged them. If you want to go check out what he wrote, go ahead... I'll be here when you get back...

I think friendships (and relationships in general) are cyclical. This is because people change schools, move away, get jobs, get married, have kids. You know the deal. If you think marriage is hard work, try making sure you keep up with all your friendships!

By the way, so far, marriage is way easier than I ever expected it to be! If you have to "work hard" at it, you might not be married to the right person. Oh... sorry... we weren't talking about that.

I'm lucky to be able to say I have a lot of friends. They run the gamut from being "very close friends" to "friends of friends I like a lot but we aren't very close". And then there are the different groups of friends who rarely, if ever, interact. We all have these relationships, don't we? The nature of these relationships change with the way our lives change. The challenge is to maintain the friendship, even though the relationship has changed.

One of my good friends, who I don't see very often, tragically burnt a bridge between herself and one of my groups of friends. She was working, going to school to finish up her degree, and trying to keep her foot in the art world. Every time there was an event involving this group, this friend was invited. But she rarely attended. After a while, members of the group got tired of the no-shows. At some point, one of the group confronted the friend and the friend basically responded that she was "working on her art and didn't have time to hang out with the group". Although that's a smack in the face (it could have been said in a different manner), the friend didn't say this directly to me, so I'm still friends with her. I didn't take any offense to the friend's busy schedule. Because it's part of life. You put effort into what's important to you at the time and true friends will support your effort. Granted, saying you don't have time (for your friends) is not the best way to maintain friendships.

When I do happen to chat on the phone or get the chance to hang out with this friend, it's really nice to catch up. I understand and accept that everyone has a life to live. Just because we don't speak to or see all our friends weekly doesn't mean those friends aren't in our thoughts. It just means that when you do connect, make it count.

I'm not saying all friendships should be kept. Some are really not meant to be. So Bill, if you're reading, even though I recommended e-mailing your friend and telling him "Congrats" on his wedding, do it if you really are happy for him. If you simply don't care, let it go.

Oh! And Hi, Neita! Just wanted to tell you I'm glad I got to see you over the summer and to meet Sherie!

OK... now go call your friends and tell 'em you love them.

I Smell Like Thanksgiving

Freddy ran into Joe on the bus (Freddy on a bus???) and they decided to meet up at the Quarry House Friday night for a couple beers. Here we are as Joe gives us the scoop on what's been happening with his band, Chance Gardener:



John and I drink beers in tribute to one another:



Hey! What's Johnny doing on Sean's bottle of Rogue beer?



Gimme some of your tots!



Saturday, John and I went to the AAA Antiques Mall in Savage and ran some errands. William was having the guys over to watch the Yankees/Tigers and Mets games so we went over. Mainly for the Ledo's pizza and hangin' with the peeps, not because we're big baseball fans or anything.

Sunday, I cooked up the turkey I defrosted during the week. It was quite yummy! I brined it overnight in a salt, brown sugar, citrus and herb solution. It was stuffed with carrots, celery, onion, orange and more herbs and rubbed with butter, salt and pepper. I sprinkled on a little herbs de provence for good measure. This was from a combination of recipes I got off the Food Network's website.

Here's the turkey, cooking in the wonderful roasting pan and rack (wedding) gifted to us by Bianca and Jay last year. Thanks guys! They also gave us a baster and thermometer, which really came in handy to making a very moist and juicy perfectly cooked bird.



I took this bird over to William's as he was having people over for the Redskins game. There was also mashed potatoes and corn (William bought at Boston Market), stuffing, rolls, jellied cranberry sauce, green beans, yummy gravy from the pan drippings, and chicken (bought by Raymond). Turkey and that spicy green chili sauce they give you with Peruvian chicken is really good together!

John enjoyed a turkey sandwich for dinner when I came home with the leftovers. He spent the afternoon at his mom's helping put up lattice around her porch.

Sadly, the Redskins lost to the Giants. And the Cowboys lost to the Eagles. Although Bledsoe threw a ton of interceptions and got sacked too many times to count, I was glad the game wasn't an entire blowout. They were thisclose to tying the game and putting it into overtime until another interception was thrown. The Eagles capitalized on the error by scoring a touchdown. Dagger! So tragic. Don't even get me started on the Terps...

Traffic Triumph

For the past 2 weeks, I've been driving Ninny to work 'cuz Jackass needed its belts tightened and it's actually kinda fun to drive Ninny. I get to work much faster in the Mustang. Imagine that! (Just kidding, Johnny!)

Anyway, earlier this week on my commute home, I was almost at the 895/95 split in Baltimore. A bunch of cars sped by me, one being a Young Dude chatting on his cell phone and the other being an older man in a Passat-looking wagon with DE plates. Knowing that the split is where they often set up speed traps, I drove normal speed (about 60 in a 55 mph limit zone).

Young Dude got pulled over right at the split. I laughed sooo hard. About half a mile down, old guy in the wagon got pulled over too. Hee hee.

Yesterday's commute was a little disconcerting. After I got through the tolls at the tunnel, the second exit on 895 south had a three cop cars blocking the exit. One of the cops had his gun drawn and the others were walking towards a car they pulled over. Gotta love Baltimore!

Today, being rainy and everything, it seemed like I was in the car for hours. I heard there was an overturned semi in 95 north at Rt 100 so I took Rt 1 all the way to 895. It was slow going. Although there wasn't much traffic in my direction, rain just sucks. And then on the highways, everyone was doing 55 or slower. In the LEFT lane. If you're scared of the rain, stay to the right!!! Idiots! I was so happy to finally get to work and get be out of the car. Although now I'm just sitting at my desk. More sitting. No wonder my tuckus is getting wider!

Enough ranting... this weekend's plans are fairly loose. Tonight is FND with my parents and then we're heading to the Quarry House to meet up with the gang. This was set up by Freddy, who said he ran into Joe Basso on the bus (c'mon... Freddy on the BUS???) and decided to get us all together since we haven't seen Joe in a while.

I was planning on cooking up a turkey I took out of the freezer to defrost and having the guys over to watch football, but John said his bro wants the two of them to fix MIL's porch (lattice) Sunday. I'm not sure what's gonna happen to the turkey. It's definitely getting cooked, but I may just end up taking it to my MIL's for dinner. Besides, I think these days the guys prefer to go hang out at some bar in Bethesda rather than at someone's house. Maybe I'll ask tonight if anyone's interested in football, turkey and all the fixins on Sunday.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

My Toes are WHAT?

Last night, while I was catching up on stuff I had TiVo'd and knitting some socks, my toes were itching a little on my right foot. So, I rubbed in between the toes and it was a little tender. I had John check it out.

"Looks like Athlete's Foot", he said.

WHAT???

Never in my life, after all these years, have I ever had Athlete's Foot. Even through actual athletic things -- swim classes at the Y, soccer, public pool showers, working out at the gym, etc. I did start walking during lunch with my co-workers, but this was only one day of walking so far.

John had some foot spray in the bathroom. Expired in 2000. So, I washed and dried my toes and sprinkled some baby powder on it for the time being. And scrubbed the bathtub. I almost knocked myself out from the fumes of the Mildew Remover spray. Tragic.

I blame this fungus on Weelay Magillay. I think he planted something in my new chucks at Khalid's party.

Finished Object Showcase 10/03

It's time for William's favorite segment of this blog... the one where I show you some of the things I've been knitting!

Not only do I fail as a picture-taking food blogger, this trait also extends to my knit blogging. A couple things I made were gifted before I was able to snap a pic. Oh well...

My awesome gift giver husband got me a new Canon SD600 Elph digital camera (the one all the kids have) and I had been protecting it with this cute little froggy silk coin purse thing Linda gave me a few years ago. It did the job, but was a little too snug and took too much effort to get it in and out.

So, I took some leftover yarn from a failed iPod cover project (which eventually turned into some mittens for me!) and made this:


Inside, I lined it with some cheap quilt fabric and John helped me pick out the button:



Next up is a Secret Project that turned out too small, so I gave it to my co-worker for her niece (or grandniece?) and I'm going to make another one. This was a very quick knit it shouldn't take very long to redo.



More details later. I was planning on gifting this to someone (haven't selected a recipient yet) at Christmas, but it's too goofy and funny to keep to myself that long. Knit on!

Caviar and Olives

I feel like this weekend was non-stop adventure from the time I got home from work Friday night to Sunday evening. Not that I'm complaining, 'cuz we had all kinds of fun. Just that I'm a little beat- mageat this morning.

After dinner at my parents', we headed over to El Aguila in Silver Spring where Robert was hosting a little belated birthday thing for Pokey and Bianca. John and I had never been there but have always heard lots of good things about the food. Bianca's bridal shower was held there, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it. Since we had already eaten, we just ordered drinks (a giant mojito!) and I sampled some of William's shrimp from his fajita platter. I also had some coffee and xangos, which was like a dessert taquito with banana and some kind of creamy pudding filling inside a fried dough (like a flour tortilla).

Saturday morning, John and I headed to Lowes to look at medicine cabinets for my parents' bathroom. The one they had was some kind of resin/plastic and one of the two mirror hinges broke off the plastic part (not repairable). So, we ended up getting a really nice stainless mirrored one with glass shelves.

Next was a search for some white pillowcases that weren't 600 thread count (seems like they're all like that anymore!). By the way, why is it you can buy a flat sheet and make 3-4 pillowcases out of it for half the price of buying regular pillowcases??? I found a good deal and then we headed to the grocery store where I picked up some stuff for us and ingredients to make Laab Gai for Khalid's birthday party.

Compared to last year's bash (when Khalid turned 40), this was much more low-key. It was a little chilly outside for this time of year, but always good times. Here's Khalid looking a little suspicious that Nicole would smash the cake in his face (it's been known to happen!).



William, Nicole and Pokey:


Khalid opens his gift from me and John (a dreamy Freddy pillowcase):



Sunday, I had planned to head to Adam's Morgan for a craft fair. My brother called on Saturday afternoon and asked if we could take Jules to her soccer game Sunday afternoon as he and Ann were going to the Redskins game. At first, I thought we could go to the craft fair, take my niece to her game and then install my parents' new medicine cabinet. Oh... and somewhere in there, stop by Freddy's for a 'Skins game cookout.

It didn't exactly happen that way though. Around 12:30, we installed the cabinet at my parents' and then went down to Takoma Park where they were having their Street Festival. We ran into Don, Nate's brother, and were surprised that we didn't bump into anyone else. I didn't look very closely at all the vendors, but I did find this little "caviar ring" at the Mann Made Designs booth:



It's glass with little bubbles (like caviar). The picture doesn't bring out how cool it really is. If you look at it from the top, it's this blue/green color. As you look at it from the side, it turns blue/purple and then an orange/amber. They had this other green oval glass design with a red spot in it (like an olive). Cute!

Around 3:00, we walked back towards my brother's where we had parked so we could get Jules and take her to her game. I don't think I could ever coach a team of kids who were just starting out. The coach was really great. There were only encouraging words coming out of his mouth. Me? I was like, "What the... ?". I do have to say that Jules has some skills, but the team is a mix of kids who have played since they were 5 and those who look like they just started this year.

.
Although this picture looks like there are 3 teams playing (turquoise, red and teal), the turquoise and teals are one team. That's Jules on the right. In her "teal" shirt. They split up Jules' team from last year and stuck her on another "teal" team, but they have different shirts. For the fee you pay to play, don't they give you a new shirt so everyone on the team can match? The game ended in a tie even though teal was leading 3-1 for a good portion of the game. Two late second half goals tied it up.

After we dropped Jules off at Ann's mom's, John and I were starving but too tired to go to Freddy's. So we had dinner at California Tortilla and then looked for Cinnamon Almonds at Trader Joe's. They were still out... would it kill them to RESTOCK the cinnamon almonds???

I'm glad busy September is over. We already have a couple things on the calendar for October. I was hoping we could have another Chumado party at the beach cottage before it gets too cold. Maybe we'll just stick to the annual one in the summer.