Bad Drivers and Goulash Supreme (01/26/13)

Well now I feel like typing away this morning as I sip away on my 2nd coffee with Kahlua. I can star in their next TV ad that states that things go better with Kahlua. Never mind that Coca-Cola tag line as things really go better with my choice.

So it seems that yesterday was an adventure on the roads of the Upstate what with over 570 wrecks in 8 hours because of a little bit of freezing rain. The actual number is higher but the police stopped counting after 570 it seems. I drove by a couple of them on my way home back from the office after getting out early at noon to work virtually from home (whatever that means).

It's beyond me to see those statistics every time that there is some inclement weather here. One of the wrecks I saw involved at least 8 cars on a newly repaved 3-lane highway. It looked like a scene out of a demolition derby with 8 cars lined up one after another all banged up either front, side or back. You don't have to be a traffic road engineer to know that first they were likely driving too fast, too close and likely too preoccupied on their cellphones for the road and weather conditions.

Perhaps not all of them were but there were definitely a couple of them on their phones as it is epidemic here just like needing a 44 oz. soft drink to go with your chicken fingers at the local Spinx or QT. Don't get me started there. LOL.

Truthfully it is safer at times to stay off the roads than try to share them with these non-Einsteins down here!

So besides that occurring yesterday, I decided to try a new dish out that I received via email from allrecipes.com. The dish was called "Goulash Supreme" and differed from what my Mom used to make when I was child or teenager. Her recipe had beef that was oh so tender in a paprika and chili pepper based sauce usually served on yummy egg noodles.

The recipe I used yesterday called for lean ground beef, the requisite paprika, garlic, onions, tomato paste, chili peppers with stewed tomatoes. I used organic diced as I didn't have stewed ones and it also called for a macaroni-typed pasta.

The original recipe called for all of these ingredients to be blended and cooked together after browning the ground beef. There was no way I was going to do that. In my experience cooking any noodles or rice in a recipe all mixed up guarantees mush. LOL. This is in my limited cooking experience. We aren't talking Iron Chef skills. Yet! Ha.

Before I continue on here I want to make a point about organic diced tomatoes. What the heck does that mean anyways? I find myself buying stuff at Costco often because it says organic on the label as if that is some magic word that means super duper in taste and quality. I don't have a clue what the difference is between organic diced tomatoes and just plain ol' Del Monte diced tomatoes. Talk about being gullible!

It's kind of like seeing a label that says low fat or low calorie and thinking that it means something good. Low fat compared to what exactly. Low calorie compared to a huge bowl of rocky road ice cream made with real cream products or low fat compared to a carrot stick. After I finish writing this thing I will have to check out the definition of an organic diced tomato just so that I don't eff up my Saturday. I would do it now but then I may not finish writing this blog before my massage at 11. LOL.

Anyways back to "Goulash Supreme". It turned out okay. I think it was missing some oomph and the overall taste and aroma of the dish did not harken me back to days when my Mom used to make it just for me special. LOL. She probably told each of us that she was making it just special for us as it was a pretty much a well-liked dish in my family memory bank of things remembered. I will try the recipe one more time before adding it to the things I cook list but this time I will add some additional paprika, chili pepper and perhaps my new favorite jalapenos to add some oomph to the taste. I will let you know the results down the road. I am sure everyone is waiting with bated breathe or is it baited breath. Ha!

That's it for now as breakfast beckons and I need to shower before heading out to Massage Envy and later Barnes & Noble or Mr. K's.

Peace out especially to my blog readers in Russia. Pretty darn cool that someone or some people over there read these things of mine.

Quick One For Monday (01/14/13)

This is going to be a quick one as I have some dishes to do as well as at least one load of laundry and I am going to try this new chicken stew/soup recipe. I have the chicken breasts in the oven and I'm going to have prep a whole bunch of veggies. I stopped at the "Lion de la Nourriture" on my way home with H but I forgot about corn that is called for in the recipe.

It also called for peas but that ingredient will not appear in any recipe anytime soon in my lifetime. I am still dealing with the childhood trauma of my not eating in peas at the supper table at one of the foster families I stayed with when I was 7-8 yrs. old. Not exactly one of those joyous memories that's for sure. Eff peas I say.

It was another dreary effing Monday here with the one positive being that it was warm enough to be outside in short sleeves at 6pm at night. That is a nice thing about January in SC!

Besides that I was pretty darn productive at work. It was one of those days that flowed pretty well. A rarity for a Monday. It may have helped that I booked about 13 to 15 days for later on the year. It still leaves me with another 15 or so take this year besides the stat holidays. I am really gung-ho on a beach trip or two this year!

I have 70s music playing on MusicChoice in the living room. I really need to look into getting a sound bar on that TV. The sound is kind of tinny to my uneducated ear. The mighty mighty Temptations are raising up a storm in living room. It is time for me to strut my stuff in the kitchen! LOL.

Peace out my brothers and sisters of the world. Let us pray for help for the GOP in the coming months that they come to their senses. It may take an awful lot of prayer there. LOL.

Up Pretty Early (01/13/13)

You know it seems odd writing 13 in the date field whenever I write it out. No doubt it is related to the "bad luck" connotation of this number. It's even weirder when you write it twice like I just did in the blog title. Boy would the Mayans or some other ancient people go to town had we 13 months in a year. LOL.

As an aside I actually laugh when I type in the LOLs on here. My cat doesn't think of it as being too strange as she hasn't said anything to me about it. Yet! LOL. My cat probably thinks that a lot of us humans are weird anyways as often when people walk in and see her or cross her path during the day they or we feel compelled to call out Jynx. Often repeatedly. The cat must think humans are effing delusional!

As is usually the case when I am writing up a blog on here I am listening to "Deep Tracks" out of Chicago. They just played a version of "Wooden Ships" that I always assumed was only a Crosby, Stills and Nash tune. Crosby and Stills along with Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kastner wrote the song back in the late 60s and the Airplane included it on their classic "Volunteers" album in '69. The CSN version was also released that same year. It's interesting to hear both versions. Lots of commonality and some distinct differences as well as the Airplane had some amazing musicians back then. The harmonies of Grace Slick and Marty Balin are great on the Airplane version. Then again the vocal harmonies of CSN are second to none. I have the feeling that I will be YouTube-ing CSN songs all morning now or at least until I run out of my pot of coffee Kahlua.

I had to make a Total Wine run yesterday to restock my coffee cordial. I had reached a critical point in my inventory levels there. I also bought a 6-pack of Anchor Brewing Company's Liberty Ale out of SF for imbibing at some near future date. LOL.

So as I had mentioned in my previous blog I tried a recipe out of Wednesday's Greenville News called "Kiki's Beef Curry on Flatbread". I have found when trying recipe's out for the first time that they are definitely hit or miss when it comes out to the spice content.

I thought I had all the ingredients but it turns out I was missing a cup of plain yogourt to add to the curried beef mixture right at the end of the cooking process. I'm not sure if that would have acted as a thickener or not.

One of the mistakes I made when browning the meat, onions and curry powder was perhaps not draining some of the fat at the end of that process. I was using a low-fat content ground beef but the end result was still a bit drippy as H put it. It was not as spicy as H likes his food. I figured as much as I didn't think that the newspaper was going to publish a high octane heat content recipe for a family dinner. Next go around on this recipe I will make sure to add some sriracha to up the spice factor.

The end result though was tasty and definitely gave off the aroma of Indian food having been prepared so the recipe is definitely a keeper for me. There aren't many leftovers left from it as I saw when I put it away last night.

The simple salsa recipe of olive oil, tomato and fresh parsley was excellent. I am definitely going to use that again. One of the things I have noticed when I used fresh herbs like parsley or cilantro is that I either have to have more patience in cutting or dicing the herb or be way more patient in de-stemming it or something. I take too many shortcuts there and I keep realizing that I don't like the "stemmy" part of the herbs if they are not cut fine enough. I also need a new zester thingy. Zesting the lemon last night was a pain in my derriere!

Going to try a chicken stew recipe today. I'll see how that turns out!

I watched a bit of the playoff football games yesterday but I got real tired of the hyperbole used in describing plays and performances. The word sublime and football should not be used in the same sentence. Sublime is John Butler playing an accoustic guitar. Sublime is listening to Morgan Freeman speak. Sublime is a CSN harmony or hearing Julia Roberts laugh. Watching 250 to 350 lb. behemoths running into each other is not sublime. It just seems that sports announcers on a weekly basis are spouting off on the greatest ever efforts, plays and mistakes made in the short history of televised sports. It's really not that spectacular, amazing or thrilling on such an ongoing basis. There's definitely some major exaggeration going on there.

I finally gave up on GB-SF game and ended up watching "GoldenEye" which was the first Bond film with Pierce Brosnan in the lead role. I am sure that I have seen it before but it almost seemed like I was watching it for the first time. I must say that Famke Janssen and Izabella Scorupco are as easy on the eyes for the male viewers as Brosnan likely is for the female viewers. Judi Dench as M was great. Even in a small role, she brings so much to the table.

After the movie I decided to start planning some of my vacation time for this year. There is definitely a beach trip or two in my 2013 summer plans. I've been trying to find something relatively affordable in the Outer Banks for June or July. It doesn't look it is going to happen unless I want to rough it a bit with some tent camping.

Much of the offers there are based on 3-4 families sharing a living space and dropping for $3000 or $4000 for a week's rental. There is very little available there for my family status these days though there might be some smaller timeshare condos available once I can figure out these websites without having to endure hard sells for timeshares. There could be a deal though for a two or three day recharge the batteries at the beach if I want to sit through a presentation or two. There are deals to be had in late August early September so that may end up being a late summer option.

I did happen to find some great possibilities for June/July at Sanibel Island in SW Florida. That trip is definitely going to happen once I check out the department roster for those two months. I loved my time there last summer and to be right on the island for a week and minutes from the beach would be sublime. Ha! There is that word again. LOL. That trip will be booked in the next two weeks. Yes!

Okay that's it for now. Time for some breakfast. OTC is hungry!

Peace out!

Long Week (01/11/13)

I am pretty darn sure that I am not the only one that found this week to be longer than recent ones. Yes I know that all weeks have seven days and one hundred sixty eight hours but I think that a few extra hours were added in unbeknownst to the vast of the population and especially to this opinionated person.

This may have been the first week in eight weeks or so that I put in five days at the office. Besides the recent holiday weeks; there were a whole bunch of shorter work weeks as I was trying to get to my ten day max allotment of carryover vacation days.

What made it tougher as well was giving rides to H to school in the morning at 7am as this semester he has four days starting at 730am. I am so not a morning person. Leaving the house when it is still dark in the morning is criminal. LOL. Add to the fact that I think there were three rainy or very cloudy days this week so it was rather dark leaving the office at five. Yesterday was so pleasant coming home with windows down somewhat and X95 blasting away some new rock as opposed to tonight's drive home with the windows rolled up and the wipers set to intermittent to counteract that misty stuff that was falling on 385 southbound.

This weekend I think will be a work outside weekend as I believe that the temps will be in the low 70s and sunny. That will be nice. There will be no reason for inactivity in that case.

I am also going to try a new recipe that involves meat-filled curry infused pita recipe with a simple homemade salsa. I was going to try it out tonight but upon arrival at home, H and two of his friends had taken over the kitchen area playing chess with pictures of the chess pieces like the rooks and pawns on these mini-shot glasses. These glasses were filled with some really bad whisky and H and his buddy Alex were going to town in an aggressive speed chess match designed to get the players mellow (aka feeling no pain) in short order. From what I could hear from my room was that mission was accomplished. LOL.

Anyways that is it for now as the words aren't really flowing tonight.

Peace out my blog readers!

Well I Am Awake (01/06/13)

Well I have been awake for about a half hour or so and am sipping on my first cup of coffee. I'm addicted to my weekend java with Kahlua now. It is yum. I made it through the night sleeping. Cool beans!

I saw a quick headline that the NHL may be back with a possible 48 game season after negotiating throughout the night. You know what I don't care. I'm pretty sure that I am not the only hockey fan that thinks that now.

While there are many that will be welcoming them back with open arms like the people whose livelihoods depended on games being played like arena staff and businesses near the hockey rinks as well as some die-hard fans; I won't be one of them anytime soon. The owners and players can take as I politely as I can say a flying eff. My days of supporting a league spending my hard earned dollars purchasing a pair of tickets for $150, $8 beers and $6 hot dogs has ended.

The only good thing for me in all of this on a personal level is that perhaps now when I go to a sports bar for a meal and a couple of brews, perhaps a TV screen or two will have a hockey game going that I can periodically look at in between bites of food. I will be slightly more interested in the hockey game than I ever will be watching any level of basketball pro or not or some Mediocrity Bowl that we have been subjected to on ESPN for the last three weeks. Like I really care what happens between two six and six teams who last played a real football game five weeks ago. There was such a bowl game on TV early yesterday afternoon. It was like whatever, who cares and I hope that the Food Channel has something decent on.

I'm glad to say that H was in good enough shape to go back to work this morning for 7am. I offered the young man a ride but he begged off saying that he needed to ride his bike to get some exercise in. Yes I swear it is true that he is my blood relative and son. Even if he talks about physical activity and means it we are related. LOL.

On a completely different note, I have ten games of Words With Friends going on either on Facebook or on my "not so smart" phone and I must be playing with the world's slowest players ever. I am almost tempted to use the remind button but then I think my phone will explode if I do so.

I need to read the little book that I got with my "not so smart" phone. I don't know to delete text messages. I don't know how to get rid of thirty or so apps that I will never ever use. Most importantly I have the find that flaming lighter app so that I am prepared for the next time while I am attending a live concert and a favorite power ballad starts playing. I will then be able flick my cellphone app on and sway. If I ever do that lightning will strike me and cause irreversible brain cell damage. It would have the same effect on me as would listening to more than five minutes of Hannity, Krauthammer, O'Reilly, Susteren and all the other flaming dips on the pretend news station.

Now onto something way more pleasant. I am listening to Robin Trower's "Too Rolling Stoned" from the classic 1974 release "Bridge of Sighs". Some white men, usually British it seems, are just destined to play the blues. Robin Trower is no doubt one of them.

It's time for coffee kahlua number two. Peace out!

What I Did Today? (01/05/13)

Okay let's start by answering the blog title question by paraphrasing the late great Edwin Starr from way back in 1970 and say "absolutely nothing".

As I mentioned I was up at the ungodly hour of 4am or so and reheating the chicken noodle soup that I made for H the night before. After a couple bowls of that and reading some more MLB stories, I went back to bed to finish up my 2nd book of the week which was Brad Thor's "Final Black" which was a good read except for the preachy right wing asides from one of the novel's protagonists. Those parts kind of went blah. blah. blah whatever.

I have couple more books left from my recent Barnes & Noble discount table purchasing free for all. I guess I will be reading one of those on my next nocturnal readathon. I have the darn red squiggly lines under the last word of the last sentence. Look I put in hyphens and it's still red squiggly lined so I am just going to leave it as it is. Spell-checking gawds be damned! LOL.

Back to my doing nothing today. So I finished the book and went back to sleep around 630iah and woke back up at 10am. You get the feeling that when your day starts this way it's pretty effing likely that not much will be accomplished.

One my customers yesterday told me to check out a couple of videos on YouTube. Dave S. from Winnipeg referred me to the full versions of the Kennedy Center Honors for Led Zeppelin and for Buddy Guy tributes. I'm really glad that he did so.

Let's start with the tribute to the greatest rock band ever Led Zeppelin. From the get go this tribute was great with Jack Black's opening monologue that showed how much of fan he is of the band. What makes a tribute come across as honest and sincere is sensing the vibes of the speakers, presenters and performers. Starting off with Jack Black leading into the Foo Fighters leading to Kid Rock to Lenny Kravitz to Jason Bonham with the Wilson sisters. You could see, feel and hear the sincerity in their homages to Zep. Seeing Dave Grohl back behind the drum kit reminds you of the late John Bonham or if not him it sure as heck looks like Gonzo from Sesame Street was playing the drums. Then seeing the drummer of the Foos, Taylor Hawkins doing his best Grohl as a frontman singing the classic "Rock 'n' Roll" and having the time of his life doing so. Then Kid Rock doing "Ramble On" and then Lenny Kravitz doing "Whole Lotta Love". You can sense the honor these guys felt doing Zep's material in front of Plant, Jones and Page. Then the finale with Jason Bonham getting behind the kit just like his late Dad in Zep's glory years and the amazing Wilson sisters from Heart that have been Zep-heads forever it seems coming together with a tight, tight band, string section as well as a horn section and to top it off a full-fledged choir performing the epic "Stairway To Heaven" as it was their song to begin with in the first place. The camera flashes back and forth from this spiritual performance to the members of Zep that you can see are greatly touched by this amazing from the bopping heads of Jones and Page to the tears in the eyes of Plant. Simply amazing!

I then looked up the Buddy Guy tribute and was floored by the words and music. Can it get any better to start off an homage with the voice and presence of Morgan Freeman? I think not. That man and that voice can sell ice to Eskimos or swampland to gullible hicks like me. The words, the phrasing and the inflections in Freeman's voice touch a chord. Tracey Chapman then performed a Buddy Guy version of what we normally refer to Elvis' "Hound Dog". That segued into amazing performances with Jimmie Vaughan, Gary Clark Jr., Jeff Beck, oh my goodness Beth Hart and the inimitable flame-haired Bonnie Raitt. I singled out Beth Hart there because though I have heard the name before I had never heard her sing. All I can is OMG! What a talent! I immediately searched YouTube and have added at least 5 tracks to my favorites list. Check out her performance from Rockpalast 2011 called "Sister Heroine". It touched my heart and that's off the first listen. There aren't many songs that do that.

Next time I speak to Dave S., I'll have to thank him for turning me onto these performances. They'll be played often on this desktop as I type more of these blogs or search the internet.

So as is often the case when I get onto YouTube several hours go by before I come up for air. LOL. What started with the Guy & Zep tributes ended up with watching performances from Beth Hart, Joe Bonamassa, Zappa Plays Zappa, Styx with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, Steelers Wheel, Buffalo Springfield, Joss Stone, Roger Hodgson and Joe Walsh. Well there went the afternoon.

Now it's time for supper. I think it is a sandwich type of night. I was going to go crazy with a spaghetti sauce but that will be done tomorrow.

Peace out!

Already Thursday aka Almost Friday (01/03/12)

If I wait 24 minutes or so I can change the title of the blog to "it is Friday" or some variation of that.

In keeping with a 2012 tradition, I fell asleep earlier on the couch and slept for almost three hours there before waking up because the darn thing is just too short for me. That is another continuation of 2012 behavior where I am doing the same thing expecting a different result. Ha!

Actually the reason I woke up is that I heard H coughing like crazy. No matter how old your child gets, they are still your babies even at 21 years and 6 ft. 3 or 4 inches and all-knowing. LOL. I don't have anything for coughs in the house except Hall's lozenges which are affording him some comfort. Everything else I have seems to be sinus, drippy nose and sneezing related.

I did have to give him a hard time about going outside on the back deck and having a cigarette with his buddy M who was over for a while. As a reformed smoker I am giving him a hard time as if I never had a cigarette when I was under the weather. Yeah right. Just an example of the old do as I say and not as I did theorem of parenthood. LOL. Yes I am poking fun at that parenting skill of mine.

So earlier tonight I had some chicken souvlakis with some of the remaining Greek-style chicken that I had as leftovers in the fridge. Okay they were Greek-style chicken with tomatoes, red onions, shredded lettuce, feta cheese and tzatziki sauce but in large whole wheat tortillas as I ran out of pita bread so I guess I had Greek chicken tortillas. They were yummy!

So for Greenville today it was cold enough outside for me to go to Costco and drop another $150 or so on vast quantities of Fat Tires, Red Bull, Tortilla Chips, etc etc and leave it in the car for a few hours as it was near freezing. Yep I was out there wearing my usual short sleeve shirt as I am watching these female fashion plates with their jackets with what I hope is fake fur as if all of sudden we are in the Arctic. I hate those jackets or coats. It's weird that I eat meat but I draw the line at wearing an animals fur.

I'm sure that is hypocritical on my part but I am not ready to become a vegan anytime soon. It's like having a tofu burger that tastes like hamburger, well eff it I will have the real thing anyways before I have bean curd and pretend that it is a real burger! Okay mini rant there. LOL.

Uh oh I better post it as it is now moments away from being Friday.

Peace out!

What Day Is It? (01/02/13)

Okay what day is it today? I know it is the 2nd day of the year but it seems as we get older it just gets harder to keep track of the days of the week around holiday season. It's like hmm yesterday was let me think and the weekend is coming up umm eventually.

It's even weirder here as the elementary, middle school and high school kids went back today. I guess I have to come to the conclusion after being here for 13+ years that "Jour De L'An" is not a big thing here like it was back in Montreal.

In my long ago youth and my not so long ago 30s and 40s the first day of the year was a huge extended family day. We (the 3-4 Schlewing-Miller kids) would get dragged around to grandparent homes, aunt's and uncle's homes and to my godfather "Mon Oncle Pit" for meal after meal and dessert after dessert.

We would be eating roast turkey, roast pork, "tortiere" (meat pie), "pattes de cochons" (pig's feet or knuckles) and I think there were even vegetables around from time to time but they never really found on this carnivore's plate.

There would be like 30-40 Schlewings, Millers, Gagnons, Champagnes, Soucys, Dumontiers, Boules, etc etc all crowded into these little flats that my relatives rented in places like Verdun, Lasalle, St-Henri and Point St-Charles. For the longest time I thought that all of my aunts and uncles had two or three names for their first names. They were all Ma Tante Denise, Ma Tante Exilda, Ma Tante Pauline, Ma Tante Therese, Ma Tante Simone, the aforementioned Mon Oncle Pit, Mon Oncle Rolland, Mon Oncle Georges, Mon Oncle Hubert, etc. etc. Every year we would hear the same things. My goodness look how much you have grown. It was hilarious!

To say that we were not very rich would not be an understatement. LOL. Like the good Catholics that our Moms were there were always four and five kids in each of these branches of the family. Hard to set aside money when the hand-me downs start having to be replaced by new clothes after being sewed over and over.

I remember the thrill that me and my cousins would have at this time of the year because we would actually get name brand soft drinks in the individual bottles rather than the generic store brand bottles that immediately lost their fizz as soon as they were opened. We were able to have Coca Cola in that funky little 6.5 oz bottle, or Pepsi in that tall wavy or swirly bottle or 7-Up in their unique green bottles.

While all the women would be in the kitchen warming up food, preparing more food and doing endless rounds of dishes (remember this was the 70s, it was different then) my Mom the rebel along with Ma Tante Madeleine (her brother Rolland's wife) would be hanging out with the men drinking fancy brandy and cognacs in these ornate little glasses that would not be out place at a church's altar when they go through that ornate ritual stuff that they do.

The men and male cousins of drinking age would all be in the den or TV room drinking some real fancy liquors. No beer was to be found on "Jour De L'An". That was a day for Courvoisier, aged Scotch or Whiskeys, the finest Canadian Club products and some weird aperitifs that us kids would try to sneak drinks from if the older people weren't watching. I know now that everyone was aware of what Marc, Sylvain, Christian and Claude were up to. We weren't fooling anyone. LOL.

Needless to say we wouldn't be getting home too early on New Year's Day. There was no way in heck that anything of value would be done on the day after "Jour De L'An" in the province of Quebec.

I miss that. I think that's why I had a tough time this holiday season. It was completely devoid of any tradition whatsoever in Schlewing's World. I know that I can't go and re-create the old days. Too many people have left us onto their next journey whatever that may be. I know that going forward I'm going to do my darndest to start some new tradition.

Oh and it's Wednesday! LOL.

First One (01/01/13)

Well here's to my first blog of 2013 as I toast myself with coffee with just a wee bit of Kahlua. It is a holiday after all! Therefore no preaching at me allowed as if that would influence this stubborn man any. Not hemoglobin likely! These days I am more apt to listen to doctors than anyone else anyways.

That is my way to segue into what I want to accomplish in 2013. This is sort of my New Year's resolution I guess though I have never been one to make what many see as empty promises which is what New Year's resolutions typically end up being within a week or two if that. LOL.

So as I was saying I started listening to doctors three years ago in March when I heeded their warnings and quit smoking and truly I didn't have an issue at all doing that.

So when I went to get my annual physical a few months ago when it was time to update my medical records for insurance purposes the main issue at hand now is my high blood pressure. While some it is work related due to my almost non-existent time management skills; I believe most of it is related to the weight gain since quitting smoking. I laughingly refer to my quitting smoking as 60 pounds ago as opposed to almost 3 years ago.

While some ex-smokers miss the habit, I truly don't. I hate the smell of it. It is the ultimate reminder why I am glad that I stopped. It just reeks. I didn't realize how much until my sense of smell returned I guess.

Case in point from yesterday when I picked H up at the airport yesterday afternoon after his being away for 10 days or so and he just finished one while waiting for me to pick him up. He sat down in the front seat and it was like I missed you, glad you are back and "open the effing window please". LOL.

But I digress back to this blood pressure thing. The doctor prescribed me a low dose medication which needed to be upped as the results for the first 30 days weren't where they needed to be. So now I am taking a bigger dose of medicine so the doctor has done her part.

Now I need to do my part which is eat a bit healthier. I am referring to you my chips with sea salt. I need to get out and about and that doesn't mean checking out every restaurant bar that has some unique beers on tap. It probably means some exercise and getting sweaty somewhat. Yuck! LOL. It means not using LePage way of counting things. It means actually taking in less calories than those being spent. That is a combo of fruits, veggies and light beer. Ha just kidding about light beer. Why bother drinking swill? Let's exchange that light beer comment with a less sedentary life style.

So my goal for this year is to reduce my BP as I still want to be around when I make my last monthly mortgage payment in June 2039!

Peace out.

PS I am listening to Pete Townsend's version of the Canned Heat classic "On The Road Again" on Deep Tracks. Cool version. Had to slip in my music thing as I usaully do here. LOL.

A Little Bit Chilly (12/30/12)

So just after 7am Sunday morning and it's a little bit chilly in the house. Perhaps typing at my desktop in a tshirt and briefs is the reason. LOL. I could just put on a pair of jeans I guess and stop whining.

Listening to my "Deep Tracks" station online and they just played Styx "Castle Walls" from their 1977 album "The Grand Illusion". I love this station. On a typical station if they played this album at all; this would be the 5th choice as a track to play on the turntable. You've got "Grand Illusion", "Fooling Yourself", "Come Sail Away" and "Miss America" that all would typically get airplay before "Castle Walls".

Every time I typed about a band's or an artist's output I refer to albums or records. I am such a dinosaur. LOL. I am pretty darn sure that I will never own an Ipod or download a music to my phone. I listen to albums and I sure as heck don't want to be listening to them in silence on earphones likely at a volume level that is causing permanent damage to my hearing.

How many of today's artists come out with a full disc of music of which we know of or hear more than maybe a couple of cuts? Aside from some country artists like perhaps Taylor Swift there aren't very many at all. I mean take a look at the top 50 on the "album" charts at the back page of any recent Rolling Stone issue and you will likely understand what I mean. If you don't, you're just insane! LOL.

Now the station is playing "The Song Is Over" from The Who's 1971 classic album "Who's Next". That album had a total of nine songs and seven of them get airplay and "The Song Is Over" might be the seventh track that does and it is still an amazing and memorable song.

Okay I gave in to common sense and put jeans on to get my next cup of coffee. It's just too darn cold in the house to flouncing around in briefs. "Le spectacle est fini". HaHa!

So in today's math lesson we will use the example of Maine's Republican governor Paul LePage on how not to do things. Last year he took a page out of the idiotic tax cut pledge from the TP platform which just goes to show that these dips never learn to count past 21 which means using fingers, toes and their you know whats. So one year later they have $400,000,000 less revenue over the next two years. Yes that is eight zeroes after the four.

So last week LePage ordered $35,500,000 in immediate spending cuts including one-third of them from the education budget. So the year before this neanderthal took over, Maine ranked 21st as far as education standards. Now it's 27th. If this keeps up they can be come down to our levels here in SC where we are ranked last in the nation.

Here's another simple math truth taking out the zeroes. If you have $400 less revenue or income if you are spending everything you make. How the eff does cutting $35.50 in spending balance your budget. Aren't you short $364.50? Guess what happens next? I am pretty sure it won't be dealing with LePage's actions in nepotism. It will likely be affecting the true middle class and those people are not bringing home $250,000 a year.

Just another shining example of idiocy in action as brought to you by TP policy. Bravo!

I just thought of it. The Styx album title is a perfect match for Lapage's economic policy.

Geez I have to shave. This is driving me nuts. I have really gotten to the point that I have more hair on or near my chin than I have on my face and it is itchy. I also need to get some brekky in. I think I may spoil myself this morning and have breakfast out somewhere.

That's it for now. Peace out!

Sun Is Out (12/29/12)

So the sun has decided to come back and make in an appearance over the city of Simpsonville. It sure is nice to see it out even though it isn't all that warm out there. I just made my way to the kitchen to grab a beverage (LOL) and I looked outside through the mini-window next to the front door and I saw some glorious rays. For the last couple of weeks, sightings of the sun have been few to say the least. I especially notice it at work as I am maybe 15 feet from a huge panoramic view and all I have been seeing is grey and blackish skies and clouds. Ugh. Not exactly uplifting.

I need to get past this ennui that I feel these days. Spending Christmas alone was not a smart move on my part. I should have gone south and find some beach that I could have spent a couple of peaceful days in what I call my happy place. Salt water and I are one. It is the pisces in me. LOL.

Uh oh Houston we have a problem. I just took a sip of my RJ Rocker's Patriot Pale and set the bottle down and it fizzed up and we have a fizz field over my computer table. Time to get a paper towel. Okay all cleaned up!

So this isn't a Schlewing's World blog if I don't include the music that I am listening to right now as I type this. I have Peter Gabriel's "Secret World" concert that was taped in Modena, Italy in November 1993 that is playing on the DVD player on my desktop. Peter Gabriel is an artist! Simply amazing. This show is incredible. The songs, the musicianship, the choreography and Paula Cole. I think I am infatuated with Paula Cole. Ha. Now the world knows that Paula Cole is aces in my book. She has that thing.

Okay back to the present. I have to prep some chicken breasts that I want to have Greek-style but I will have to make a grocery store run and get some lemons. I'm out of lemons. You can't have Greek-style chicken without lemons. It just can't be done. So I am going to get some lemons and solve today's major issue in Schlewing's World.

After that I am going to fire up the work laptop and try to get my year-end targets.

That's it for now. Peace Out!