Thursday Thoughts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ag8J2NMYmc

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Jitters

Caffeine has a real effect on me. While pregnant and nursing, I didn't have any - so after 2 years of being caffeine-free, I've gone back to my morning coffee. This morning turned into 3 cups. I can barely function, my hands are shaking so much. I sort of feel like this guy...

Effulgent Jen

Effulgence: to shine forth There's this theory that says if you say you are something (happy, sad, angry, hopeful) you will become that. So today, in this gray, rainy day, I am effulgent Jen! It sure is nice to be back home again. Beerman and I went to our church blood drive on Saturday. Poor Beerman got an enormous bruise where they poked him. Probably because he beat my incredible 6 minute pumping time by almost a full minute! (That'll teach him!) Anyhow, that's my plug - if you haven't donated in a while (or ever), go ahead and do it. It is super fast, and the blood banks need it. The mold allergies are kicking my butt these days. However, it's hard to be sad when you're running after C-man who is running toward the grape arbor to steal un-ripe grapes before you can catch him. Here's a photo of him with his squinched up face after biting into one and going back for another...

DC Take 3

Our third day in DC was another day filled with class. It was a bit more tedious today than yesterday, what with people being comfortable enough to start with the, "In my situation..." crap. But, that's certification courses for you. We left at lunch time and went out on our own to the Hard Times Cafe. It's a cool little chain that specializes in chili. We had the Texas chili on fritos. Fantastic. Tonight for dinner we went to a place called A Dublin Chipper. Today was its official opening. It has enough room for 20 people to eat at one time, and specializes in fish and chips. I had the large cod (6 ozs) accompanied with the tartar sauce, while my friend had the ray accompanied with the Katie O'Shea sauce (mayo, ketchup and chili). We shared a large bag of chips with the hot chili sauce. There were six sauces to choose from - the aforementioned tartar, Katie O'Shea, hot chili, and then a curry, and 2 more I can't remember. There were fried Mars bars, but we were so stuffed from our eating frenzy over the past few days (did I mention the made-to-order omelets I've been eating each morning in the hotel for breakfast?), that we actually said no to the Mars bars. After the dinner, we walked down to the Chesapeake Bay and looked at all the touristy crap in Old Town Alexandria. I'm going to be really glad to be home with Beerman and C-man tomorrow. I haven't posted many pictures lately, so I thought I'd look for one. The funniest thing about this picture is that I've actually been here! It's in nowhere Southern Missouri, near Farmington. I'm going to find my picture of me next to this sign and post it next week when I'm home again:

DC Day 2

I spent all day today in class. It was a much better class than I'd expected, though, which was pretty positive. Tonight we headed to Post Modern Brasserie to eat. On Wednesdays they celebrate Colonial grains. Tonight's beer was a Clipper Ale. It was a bit too hoppy, but compares pretty comparably to a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

Dinner was pretty much in the excellent category. We started with bruchetta. It was heirloom cherry tomatoes (sweeter than sugar), manchego cheese, and caramelized onions. (It was supposed to have white anchovies, but we asked for it to be served without) It was garnished on top with the tiniest bit of parsley. It was next to impossible to eat graciously, but we snorkled it down, enjoying each bite. Next, I had the ribeye cap. It was a tiny portion, served a bit on the rare-ish side, but enjoyable nonetheless. It was served next to a zucchini galette, garnished with wilted purple oregano and green oregano. Yum. My friend had the sea bass. It was laid on top of great looking mashed potatoes, and topped with arugula and a wine-poached egg. Absolutely beautiful and apparently quite tasty too. We accompanied this with trufle frites. They were absolutely out of this world. Desserts were lavender smores (restaurant made graham, chocolate sauce and lavender marshmallow) and pot de creme. Eich-ee-wow-wah! This was accompanied with port wine for my friend and sambuca for me. Our post-dessert dessert consisted of apricot jellies rolled in sugar (melt in your mouth good), chocolate balls rolled in pistachios (is this what they did with my leftover delicious pot de creme?), and lemon cookies. If the server (from Minnesota, University of Wisconsin alum) hadn't served my friend sheeps milk ricotta and nettles ravioli before we corrected him on the sea bass, it would have been perfect. But, since he was a Wisconsin alum, we got over it quickly.

Tomorrow is more class. I'm really missing my baby and husband already.

Washington DC

I flew into Washington DC today. We did a bit of walking. Our first visit was to the Smithsonian Photography Museum. Very cool place. The current exhibits include William H. Johnson: and William Wegman: There was also a great exhibit on portraits of the presidents. I think my favorite was one of Nixon done by Norman Rockwell! We went past the White House. You know, the people's house that no people can go into. We saw the Washington Monument. What a drag this administration is. The 24/7 peaceful protest is still going strong, however. It has been since 1981. Then we saw the brand new WWII memorial. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was really quite impressive. They did an excellent job on it, and the fact that it is in line with the Capitol, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial makes it even more outstanding. Tomorrow I'm in "class" all day, but hopefully we can take the train in afterward and see some more stuff at night. I love this place!

Torpid

Torpid: To be sluggish or numb. As in, Jennifer is extremely torpid today. Beerman and I were watching a show on crocodiles on PBS last night. Yes, life without cable on a Sunday night when you're trying to get a kid to sleep can be a little bit dull. Anyhow, a guy called the crocs "torpid" and I didn't know what it was. I made Beerman look it up (because C-man was in my lap), and now I have a new word to describe my day. I also learned that we need to clean off the shelf that holds the dictionary -- as everything came falling down on top of Beerman. That's a project for another day! Our weekend was really nice. Great weather, dogparks, garden stores, planting, napping, outdoor church mass and annual picnic (Beerman and I ruled the beverage tent! Next year we own that picnic.) C-man is quite a ladies man. At church all the little girls wanted to be his friend because "he is soooo-oooo cuuuu-uuute." Their words, not mine. I finished another book on my way into work today -- Dirty Blonde by Lisa Scottoline. It's about a smart, modern woman who is appointed to the Eastern District Federal Court as a judge. A smart, professional career woman who makes her way up into the world from being a blue-collar working-class kid. Nice, right? It's moves along fine about this smart woman who gets herself in the middle of some pretty bad situations, when suddenly the author tries to put in a plot twist. So instead of the person she figures out as the killer really being the killer (spoiler alert), it becomes her incompetent law clerk. Someone who has a less than two-bit part suddenly becomes the plot twist. That's not a plot twist, that's just stupid! And then the author says as the two-bit law clerk wanna-be plot-twist shoots the judge, "The bullet just grazed her shoulder, but the jacket was DOA." BARF! Are you kidding me? That's what we're reduced to? A smart, hard-working career woman is being shot and and what she's concerned with is her jacket? Oh, puh-leeze! And of course, in the end, she and her best friend are both madly in love with the handsome cops who protected them during the ordeal. Big ol' thumbs down from Jennifer! If you do make the mistake of reading this book, don't get the audiobook -- it's read by a Canadian. Sorry to my Canadian readers, but if a book already sucks, I at least want to hear "process" not "pro-sess", "out" not "aooout" and "produce" not "prah-duse". Tomorrow I'm heading off to Washington DC for the week for a certification in Measuring and Evaluating. Yeah, pretty exciting topic, eh? Hopefully it's good for the long-range career though. Tomorrow I should get the chance to see some sights, since I leave early in the morning. And Mom -- you post comments by clicking the "comments" below. Not the little envelope.

Friday Foolery

Thank God it's Friday! has never been a truer statement. Wow, this has been a long week. I'm less blue today, but not totally out of my funk. I guess you could say I'm more of a light periwinkle. Tonight we have C-man's school picnic. Tomorrow is housework. Sunday is our church picnic. Somehow Beerman and I felt it would be wise to join the picnic committee. Man, next year we're owning that committee! It's Irish Fest and Zoo a la Carte this weekend. Since I can't stand celtic music and those little red-headed girls with ringlets stomping their feet under those flouncy dresses to beat of the annoying celtic music, maybe we'll hit Zoo a la Carte. In funny Friday news, the Virgin Mary has now been found in chocolate drippings... http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/17/chocolate.mary.ap/index.html Apparently the Madonna is a hungry woman, what with all the sightings on food -- toasted cheese sandwich, cheese, chocolate... After all, a woman's gotta eat!

Blues

Today is one of those sad days. I have loads to be thankful and happy about, but just can't seem to crack a smile today. Maybe if I didn't have to wake up 2 of my staff guys at 10 a.m. Maybe if my feet didn't hurt so bad each step wasn't painful. (the orthotic place called a 4th time today asking if I wanted to go ahead with the orthotics. And I said, "You realize this is the FOURTH time I've told you this - yes!) Maybe if I liked my job. Maybe... Well, you get the picture. Hopefully I'll be Happy Jen again tomorrow.

Finales

I admit it. Fox has me hooked with its incredibly cheesy summer reality shows. At least Hells Kitchen went to the right chef, even if they were both incredibly dull. But tonight is my favorite little addiction, So You Think You Can Dance. I'm soooo cheering for Heidi, but I know Travis will win, because the judges totally tilted it in his favor. Beerman's flight from Portland lands at 6:30, so by the time he gets his baggage and we get home, it'll be after 7. I should still be able to make the good stuff since it's dragged out over 2 hours. In other news, I have had no less than 4 people at my work today say, "I'm glad I'm not you," or, "Thank God I don't have your job." Yeah, things are going splendidly these days. It makes me rethink why I feel I need a "career". But as Daddy always said, that's why they call it work not fun! At least I have pilates at 3 p.m., which always makes me feel good. Now I'm off to go dream about being on a beach far, far away from my job, with a beer in my hand and sand beneath my toes!

Random Musings

Why are people such angry drivers these days? I mean, if you've got time to flip me off, then you've probably got a little time to wait and let me merge safely into the lane. Even more, if you've got time to roll down your window to shout obsenities at me for following the law by turning right into a right lane (just because it wasted a millisecond of your time because you wanted to get in that lane) then don't you have time to think something nice about your fellow drivers? Can't we all just relax our white knuckles for one day and be courteous? C-man is really having trouble with his teeth. I know it's not his ears (for once) because we were just in to see the doctor. But he sobs in his sleep. I get up and hold him, hoping he'll wake up or just go back to sleep, but he's in such pain. It's so sad. I had my book club last night. Apparently a few others felt like I did about the stupid book, because the discussion was really limited about the book itself. That's the thing with book club books - they need to have some depth in order to be able to discuss it properly. On a good note, here's the sweetest face I've ever seen:

Monday Madness

In case you didn't notice, it's Monday. Beerman is in Oregon, doing his Beerman thing, so C-man, the dogs and I are on our own. So far so good... I have a book club meeting tonight, so C-man is with a babysitter for a few hours. We're discussing Peyton Place. I hate going to book club meetings when I thought the book was crap, but here goes nothing. Can someone please explain to me why this trashy crap was such a sensation in the 60s? In funnier news, Boy George is on trash duty. I wonder if he's serenading the other inmates while picking up the trash.

If this isnt love...

Earlier this week, after showering, I heard Beerman go back into the bathroom where none of his things are kept. I then heard him humming as the distinct sounds of someone putting on deodorant hung in the air. I popped my head in the bathroom, and sure enough, there he is in nothing but a towel and God's glory applying a stick of Dove deodorant -- curiously, the same kind I use -- under his arms. This morning, after picking a few underarm hairs off the end of the stick (I shave each morning, so unless the dogs are into deoderant, I'm pretty sure I know where it came from), I let him know that both CVS and Walgreens sell deoderant. After he left for work, I then sat down on the toilet, and looked over to see that there was no toilet paper on the roll... Guess I'll be finding CVS or Walgreens after work today!

Codeine and Her Red Shoes

C-man hasn't been sleeping well between his incisors grinding through and this cold that keeps him up coughing. Since I've got this stupid cold too, I've had a hard time sleeping. I finally broke down and got up mid coughing fit to take some Tussinex (the codeine cough syrup). I chugged a bit, smiled at myself, and as I slid back into bed stared in horror at the clock that read 4:16 a.m. I took codeine just 2 hours before I had to get up! Arrrgh! To make myself feel better, I put my red shoes on. Now I can't get the song out of my head:

Oh she move like the diva do

I said I'd love to dance like you.

She said just take off my red shoes

Put them on and your dreamll come true

With no words, with no song

You can dance the dream with your body on

And this curve, is your smile

And this cross, is your heart

And this line, is your path

Jay-Z Storms the UN, yo?

So Jay-Z is now joining with Kofi Annon at the UN to talk about the water crisis in the world. Is this some sort of bad joke? What is the new program going to be called: Water for Cristal? Oh, but I forgot, Jay-Z is worried about such worldly topics such as shunning Cristal. Maybe his highly intelligent and insightful lyrics will be upgraded to something like this:

I gotta let you niggas know the time like Movado

My motto, stack rocks like Colorado

Bottle off the DASANI, WATER by the bottle

It's a damn shame what ya knot though me

Slick like Igot though (who?) fuckin Jay-Z

Makes me fell all warm and fuzzy inside knowing he's at the forefront of one of our major world issues.

Tricky Tuesday

In case you don't have enough wasted time in your day, see if you can figure this out: http://www.aimsedu.org/aimskids/ipuzzles/farmer/farmer.html Also, I've been on a quest to read 52 books in 52 weeks this year. So far I'm doing pretty well, and am on schedule to finish it. Being in 2 book clubs has helped out in the quest. My favorite books this year have been the Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See, and Memory of Running by Ron McLarty. I've been making a list of all the books people have recommended to me, and it's looking like 2007 will have to be another 52 in 52 year just to finish them all. If you have any requests that I haven't put on the already-read list, let me know!

State Fair Hangover

Beerman, C-man and I went to State Fair yesterday with our $4 tickets. (It pays to buy them in April) Man, I sure do love that place. It was great watching C-man see all the animals, realizing that they aren't just Little People figurines. Now when he says a cow goes "Moo!" he knows they really do! I caught a cold from our little household germ machine, so I wasn't into the food as much as usual. However, I'll review the little I did have. (By the way, this year boasts 40 items on a stick!) Pork Sandwich: While they still have that tasty bbq sauce, the bun got all cheap-o this year. Corn Dog: Oh, my, greasy goodness. I wait 12 months for this tastiness. Monkey Tail: It's like an ice-cream sundae without the ice cream, but just as good. I prefer mine rolled in nuts. Pizza: C-man had to have his pizza, and I tasted a bit. If you're going to go to the fair, stick to the fair food. The new thing this year was the horticultural center. There is a whole area of gardens from around the world. For a more serene Fair experience, I highly recommend it.

Friday Foolery

Now who thinks this is a good idea? I really have to appreciate this woman's ingenuity! For those of you who have never been, I highly recommend a visit to the Wisconsin State Fair. Where else can you eat corn dogs, drink beer, eat corn, and watch horse pulling all at the same time?

Hot Enough For You?

Yesterday I decided to walk to the Milwaukee Public Market for some lunch. On my way there, I see a 40-ish construction worker approaching me. Construction worker: (head-snap nod, half-smile/sneer on his face) "Hot enough for ya?" Me: No, I'm married. Now, what in the hell was I supposed to say when I'm passing this guy who I don't know going opposite directions? "No, I really enjoy the heat and humidity. Despite growing up in rural northern Wisconsin, I hate the snow and cold more than anything." What ever happened to "Hello beautiful"? Anyhow, I spent my lunch hour on a picnic table in the hot sun thinking of a few things I could have responded: "No, I prefer them younger" "No, I'm just not into bald guys" "No, I'm waiting for global warming to really heat things up." "No, I prefer when my skin melts off" In other news, the Wisconsin State Fair begins today. I can say with an honest heart that I've never attended a better festival/fair anywhere in the world. If you can get there, be sure to go!

Wacky Wednesday

It's too hot and boring to be witty. So here's one of my favorites... And of course, I couldn't leave out our highly respected international peacemaker extraordinaire...