chefjenny

So South Hills Brewing has just opened a Monroeville location.  Now I really need to order that kegging system since now I don't have the "no time too far" excuse for picking up brewing supplies.

As an additional note, I smell like woodsmoke.  I built a firepit in my back yard out of garden pavers and edging, and we tested it out yesterday.  It was perfect.  I'd never had a wiener roasted over a fire before, and it was really tasty.  Marshmallows, too, of course.  Happy 4th!  I think I need to build a fire every year, I think it's been my best independance day/anniversary yet.

Here's to 4 good years with Phil, and looking forward to many more.

Yeah so I'm not being paid for today. While there is a budget impasse, we're not being paid, but we are expected to show up and work anyway. Once the budget does pass, we'll be paid for these days, but until then our wages are being withheld.

The first paycheck I would see evidence of this is the first pay in August, since our paychecks are two weeks after the pay period. Nonetheless, somehow knowing I'm not getting paid right now sort of puts a damper on my incentive to do any work.

As in, my sole incentive to work here is because they are paying me. Now they are not paying me, ergo...

So I am driving to/from work every day now.  So grown up ^_^  And a couple days a week I'm giving my friend a lift too - I end up having an hour to kill before I have to be at work after dropping him  off, so I found a coffee shop to sit in (that's also an ice cream and  waffle shop, and good grief is practically never closed - ok, here: http://www.customswirl.com/), and a, s I'm sitting here there are two youngish boys opening up and working the counter, and another young man whom I am guessing is developmentally disabled is hanging out, too.  And I'm struck by this thing that I've seen before, and is a strange dynamic to me.

The young men are being nice to the MR guy.  I don't mean polite, or tolerant; I mean downright kind and interactive and supportive.  And I remember from high school and all times in between this effect, this camraderie boys can have with developmentally disabled people.  With girls, it always seems like they're just being tolerant, or patronizing (which I guess is ironic, because shouldn't patronizing be the purview of the men?), treating MR like you would a particularly persistant child.  Boys on the other hand... it's more like a brotherly love. 

I don't know if I'm aptly describing what I think I'm seeing, or if I'm really seeing anything at all.  Maybe their kindness is just a contrast to my usual irritation.  But I love it, whatever it is.  It makes me feel warm and fuzzy first thing in the morning :)

So I'm working on laying out plans for some kitchen alterations.  I'm pleased with how the top cabinets look now, but the base cabinets need some work to better utilize the space.  Because my kitchen is awkwardly small, it may cost a bit more to fix up since some of the work may be custom.  Nonetheless, I am poking  around Ikea's website looking for ideas and plotting things out on graph paper, and I just saw some clever base cabinet that makes fair use of hard-to-reach corner spaces, which got me so excited I think I nearly wet my pants.

Aaaand... here's where I realize that my actual comment to myself was NOT "wet my pants" but something similar in my pants, and then warring between my enjoyment of being brutally honest and the knowledge that my grandma reads my blog.

Hi grandma!  I mute myself because I love you ;)

At any rate, yeah, kitchen remodel looks pretty exciting now.  Trying to include a dishwasher.  Ideally, I'd include a counter-depth fridge too so the kitchen isn't as crowded, but good gravy those are expensive.  So, final result will still have some awkwardness, but better storage solutions and more counterspace.

Since we're planning to rent this place out after we move whenever in the future it is that we pay this place off, it's all vanity work now instead of looking with an eye towards selling it, so I'm not wincing so hard at not getting it exactlly perfect.

This is my day. 

8:10 - show up (ten minutes late) and log in

8:15 - wash my lunch dishes for the past couple days

8:20 - return to desk, open and sort mail.  Check voicemail.  Complete data entry and filing relevant to both.  Complete the three items on my task list.  Check calendar, see nothing scheduled for today.

8:40 - All pending work completed.  Post on livejournal what a long ass day this is going to be.  Be glad I have two books here to read.

Just completed deathwatch for my friend's cat.  Everyone around me is torn up and in tears, trying to play Arkham horror and drink.  I'm just...  drinking.  I wish I could make it better for them, and I feel bad it  isn't worse for me.

I am a robot.  Or a serial killer.  Or some other socially awkward thing.

I was discussing recently with Samantha the idea of a beach vacation, renting something by the sea and going together as two families, and just spending days lounging around the beach or whatever.  Today I was reminded, and went to look at what vacation rentals cost...

I found this one which is essentially exactly what I dream of.  Plus it allows pets, so we could bring the dogs.  It just looks like... heaven.  So I'm writing this post, so next year (or this winter) when we start thinking about vacation planning, I know where to look.

I am normally not a toy person.  Normally, we go to the department store, Phil wanders around the toy section muttering about childhood raping, and I grow increasingly bored and irritated at the cheap plastic commercial crap. 

But once in awhile, I flip out about something.  I had to have the My Little Cthulu playset.  I just love my plushie "mono" giant microbe.  And now, there's this:

( Total squee behind the cut... )I just dropped fat cash on the pre-order (or put in to drop fat cash when the toys actually come out).  I just about died when Phil sent me the picture.  I have not been struck by such a strong "DO WANT!" in a long time.

First things first:  ka3ytl  will be glad to know it's no longer necessary to pick up random strangers in the hippie lot.  I passed my drivers test, and can now drive myself around places, woo!

Secondly, on Phil's (very excited) advice, I actually paid for a DnD Insider subscription.  Ok, the character builder is pretty freaking cool, and on top of that the compendium is pretty comprehensive.  I spent last night doodling around, building encounters (with some aid from the encounter builder - that tool is imperfect at best, but it's not a terrible way to organize things), and playing "the shopping game."  Showing it off to others, it raised the question:  Do we even need to buy books anymore?  The short answer is yes - I like books.  A lot.  I, like many other digitally minded people, still resist replacing books entirely with digital media.  Digital media is great for organizing information, but it's cold and heartless information.  Books are still all warm and fuzzy, nice to curl up with in bed (or if I'm feeling very daring, bring with me to the bath).  Books occupy a whole different part of my brain from online information, and I find I want both in my life.

Thirdly - we also bought a relatively inexpensive printer.  We didn't need one for awhile, because we just did our black and white prints at Kinko's and it was cheap, but as another addendum to the DnD hobby, we've been making more and more color prints and wanting them on stiffer cardstock, and the costs started climbing into the $20 to $30 dollar range per visit.  So, now we're just hooked up to the exorbitant ink machine, and yeah we're burning ink right now, but I still think it'll be cheaper in the long run than the copy shop.  It's a pretty nice printer, too - prints photos (if I really wanted to pour ink down the drain), has a scanner built in, easy set-up etc etc.  It's been doing a great job of printing color onto 3x5 notecards, so we're pretty pleased.

Fourthly - cruise in 4 weeks!  Whee!

Fifthly - this post is going longer than I thought...no, ok, I'm done now.  Luffs!

So apparently you can grow fescue grasses - which effectively makes a no-mow lawn (or a low-mow lawn - once or twice a year).  Given my loathing of the grass as it is, this might be a nice alternative.  Means I'll have to get to work killing the lawns for Fall, but heck, it could totally be worth it ^_^  Inexpensive lawn replacement - $45 worth of seed, a whole lot of water, and yay.


/* UPDATE: Link fixed, no directs to the right website */

First, another sign of spring:  Digging the dental floss out of the workdesk.  You see, Spring = salads for lunch = stuff stuck in my teeth ^_^  Good times.

Also - Carnival didn't book all their suites for our cruise (in 36 days, whee!).  So they called me up and offered me a sweet (suite?  ooh bad pun) deal.  When I originally priced the suites, I said to myself "If it's only a few hundred dollars more, I'll take it - I only get the one honeymoon after all."  It ended up being about $1,000 more, and I had to settle for an inside room.  So they called me up, offered an upgrade to a suite and deep discount pricing, and I went "Yes please."  The nice lady goes "Well do you want me to tell you about the room?"  and I think "Well, if it will make you feel better, sure."  What I say is just "Sure," but really I already knew I wanted it.

We now have a separate living room/bedroom area, a full bathroom with a jacuzzi tub and double sinks, and a full balcony for private sunbathing (minibar too, but those are the things I'm excited about).

Maybe all the recent misery has just been leading up to AWESOMEST VACATION EVER ;)

Now is the time of day that I put on my headphones and pretend to listen to music, because although I am not in the mood for actually listening to music, I need to discourage the person across from me from pestering me with her personal and work stuff.

^_^  I should invent an imaginary playlist, and pretend to be listening to that.  Maybe something like "Serj Tankian croons love tunes to me" can be on there...

There may also be a track along the lines of "President Obama tells me I am awesome..."

It's been so hard to keep myself together lately.  I've engaged in a lot of self-destructive behaviour, and I really want to run away.  Today I thought I finally was back on the up and up, figured out a couple things about my habits that were dragging me down, finally was pushing through to a more stable place, and now it feels like it's all falling apart again.

I want to hide.  I want to disappear.  I want to find a space that I can call all mine and no one else can come bother me there.

It's turning into a not-so-good day.

Did I mention my horrible line?  A riff on the old "This job would be great, if it weren't for the customers."  Now, for me, it's "My life would be great, if it weren't for me."  I'm struggling against some self-destructive impulses... finding projects to start, anything to work on for a minute that isn't me moping on the couch.  I'm tackling painting the bathroom in itty bitty increments - painted trim yesterday, peeled paint off trim today (apparently the underlayer of paint is cheapo stuff :/ ), painted some of the walls - all the hard parts of the walls, the tiny detail work and corners, so maybe tomorrow I'll set up to do the wide swaths, and then this weekend finish up the detailing.  It could go well.

Then again, it's raining pretty hard out,  and every window in my damn house is open.  And I can't find the motivation to close any of them.

The thunder is pretty loud, too.  Poor Lady is trrying to be brave, but I've noticed she suddenly very much thinks personal space is less than a micromillimeter.

Maybe I'm supposed to be curled up on the couch right now, but I'm suddenly feeling ornery.  Let the rain pour in, I'm going to clean the dining room.

I ate the first strawberry from my yard yesterday.  I had the second one today.

^_^  I need to get out there with my camera - they'll never make it into the house for pictures at this rate.

I found something on teh interwebs that will probably eat my entire afternoon:  1-star reviews on Amazon of things that are otherwise considered classics/best in their field.

I mean, some of them are fake... not nearly enough of them.  Good grief... the one where the guy was complaining that Vonnegut trivialized death in Slaughterhouse Five and how that made it a dumb book... I...

It's not that people aren't allowed to miss the point, but do they have to advertise it by leaving bad reviews on Amazon?  XD

You can't please everyone - http://www.cynical-c.com/?cat=85