Starring Bezzie, her Mad Scientist husband and their sons Chunky and Moochman in a whirlwind "adventure" involving excitement, loss, separation, a series of financially draining transnational moves, hitting rock bottom, climbing up again, and a slight change of plans. Oh, and there will be some knitting involved too!
Sunday, July 05, 2009
The Day After
I wonder what the 5th of July was like to our founding fathers?
Was there an afterglow? Fear creeping in after telling the mother country she could sit on a pin?
Hmm. Something to ponder.
Actually now that I wiki it--if it's to be believed--like any good government proceeding the actual dates and signing of the Declaration of Independence are all over the board.
Regardless, we had a good Fourth.
We slaughtered a watermelon and enjoyed some urban grilling.
I'm sitting at my desk this morning chasing my tail as the stacks of filing slowly increase and threaten to topple down upon me and smother me. If I'm lucky they'll only cripple me and I can get workers comp.
Anyway, I'm sitting there entering timesheets for the entire month* in one sitting, and we hear a big BOOM! And the building shakes.
Since we had been listening to the repairmen of the Perpetually Broken Elevator drill to the center of the building (the elevators are never running right and we are probably single handedly keeping the elevator repair industry in business) I figured maybe they had dropped something.
A few minutes later, one of the associates sitting near me noticed some black smoke coming from the street.
A few minutes after that, the sireeens (yes, that's how Chatty Cathy would say the word "sirens") down below were deafening--moreso than usual.
Three people were walking over the grate on the street where the transformer was when it caught fire. Frightening because if this had happened an hour later--yours truly could have been a walking BK Broiler herself.
Thankfully everyone was OK. Unfortunately everyone on the block but US lost power. I was a bit pissed about that.
Oh well, I got most of my timesheets input.
As I left the office, it started to storm and pour like a cow peeing on a flat rock.
When I got home, Dr. Mad Scientist brought this to my attention:
Fan-frickin'-tastic.
I can tell you exactly why this happened.
1. The landlord needs to put a new roof on this place but can't afford to. We already have a spot in our closet that leaks just like this every time we get lots of rain (knock on soggy wood, it hasn't leaked this year).
2. We have effin' squirrels or some other vermin living up in the ceiling. I can hear them scratching around. Do you think he cares when I tell him this?? Nope.
I've even gone so far as to document it. Turn up your speakers--the middle of this short little clip you can REALLY hear the nasty ass thing scratching around up there.
Seriously? I understand that a roof is expensive. But so is losing $1200 a month from rental income when your tenants get sick of putting up with Sammy the Squirrel and his Leaky Roof.
But the day wasn't for naught.
I still came home to two dorky boys that were happy to see me.
Seriously these goofballs are the only thing that keep me sane sometimes.
*Timesheets for the virgin who has never worked for, worked as, or had to pay an attorney is how they bill for their time. In a perfect world, after they complete each thing they do, they would write it down and the time they spent doing it.
"June 23: Phone conference with Client Schmoe regarding upcoming hearing in Schmoe v. Dillweed. .60 hours"
However, I find this is never the case.
They usually wait til the last week, or the last day of the month to write out their timesheets. So instead of entering 20 sheets one by one each day into the billing system--I usually have to do 20 on the last day of the month with the Billing Administrator breathing down my neck sending me threatening emails in all capital letters.
Grab your glass of milk--it's Cookie of the Week (CoW) time!
Or hey, grab your stuffed piggie and come along with me!
This week's cookie is the Lemon Snicker.
Take your basic snickerdoodle recipe and substitute lemon extract for the vanilla extract and add 1/2 a teaspoon to the granulate sugar you roll the cookies around in before you bake them.
Mmm...so delish! I love the chewy semi-baked centers!
Even though I had to turn the oven on to make these, they're a very "summery" cookie.
It's the simple drop-stitch scarf out of the $25-marked-down-to-$5 silk ribbon yarn I bought with Chris when we went to go check out the Suckery Spinnery in Frenchtown. I shouldn't be so mean, it was an OK yarn store. Nothing I'd make the trip out to visit again though.
Since it was only 100 yards, it's not that long of a scarf.
More of a scarflette.
Or maybe an ascot of sorts.
The stats:
Pattern: My "own" using stitch design 151 from The Book of Knitting and Crochet.
Yarn: The aforementioned mystery $5 silk ribbon.
Needles: US7
Notes: Meh, it's not my finest work. I somehow managed to add and then drop a few stitches in the middle. So it kind of bottlenecks a bit. The rose buttons--while I like them and think they add a nice touch repeating the crinkly-ness of the silk ribbon yarn, are a little too big for the drop stitch holes. But with a little work, they get on there.
I'm not much of a scarf person. This one might go to Mom.
But it was a nice mindless little knit while I figure out what I want to knit next.
Me and the non-hairy boys hit the Montclair Farmers' Market this weekend. It was very crowded and Moochie wasn't too pleased being down in his stroller in the crowds.
I don't blame him.
I nearly had a throwdown with a yuppie couple that refused to yield half the sidewalk to us as we were leaving.
Apparently when you're busy yapping at your gently stubbled husband while standing at the helm of your SUV-esque jog stroller taking up the right side of the sidewalk while your other child, Scotty Snotnose, sits next to you on the left on his little perfect mini-bicycle, you don't have to bother trying to move or helping little Scotty Snotnose out of the way so others can pass.
I don't blame Scotty Snotnose, he looked barely old enough to be on a bike. But c'mon. Could you at least PRETEND to move out of the way? I had to push my stroller OFF the sidewalk into the grass to get around these clods.
I made sure to remark loudly to Chunky that I hoped he was courteous enough to know when to move out of the way when people needed to pass. Hee hee. I'm gonna get shot.
Bunch of savages in this town.
On the plus side, the tomatoes they had for sale were amazing!
And huge!
Half-baby-head sized!
We also just got word that "Wednesdays In Washington Park," the park across the street from the office are back--another farmers' market! I'll have to check it out.
I'm willing to bet Newark sidewalk pedestrians are more courteous.
Not sure how that picture ties in, but it was from the same shoot and cute.
It's not "C" for Cookie this week (even though cookie, cookie, cookie starts with "c"!) it's Cake! Chocolate velvet cake to be exact.
First you grab two 9" round cakes.
These are cake mix cakes. Sue me, it was a work-night.
You whip up 3 ozs. of cream cheese, 1/4 cup of cocoa, 2/3 of a cup of powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon of milk, and two cups of heavy whipping cream (cream the cheese, cocoa and milk together first and then gradually add the sugar and whipping cream).
I could eat that stuff between two slices of bread--yum!
Next slice both your cakes in half horizontally.
Then layer it baby, layer it!
But when it's done it's going to seem kind of naked.
Ah ha! Everything looks better with ganache!
Mmm...slice, sit back and enjoy another year of life.
Born and raised in the Land of the Midnight Sun; married and migrated to a Colorful Square; perambulated to a Pleasant Peninsula; left to chase a Lone Star; and finally I am gallivanting in the Garden State.
