Typing Away While Having My 1st Coffee (04/21/13)

So it's around 430am and I have been awake for the last hour or so and I decided to brew some coffee and start on my day. My coffee is yum though I was bit heavy-handed with the Kahlua. If I keep it at this pace this morning I may be cited for MWI (Mowing While Intoxicated).

I did some volunteer work today at Greenville 2013 Para Cycling Open and to be honest that wasn't really work. The organizers had me manning the intersection of Salters and Old Sulphur Springs roads making sure that normal folk wouldn't be on the closed road course. Given that I was located in the middle of the course I pretty much did nothing but cheer the athletes and get a sunburn.

For hours after the event and even now as I type, I am on a high from seeing the incredible feats of strength, determination and daredevil-ness of these athletes. Things like seeing someone with cerebral palsy cycling up an incline while their arms are shaking madly as they strain to get up that hill or witnessing a blind person on the back of a tandem bike being coached by the front rider who has vision see as they work as one to go up and down a hill at the fastest speed that they can. Or seeing the former F1 racer Alex Zanardi now a double amputee as a result of race accident now as a hand-cyclist attaining speeds on a downhill stretch that would have me worried on a regular bike is amazing.

The most incredible thing I saw today was the female athlete #189 in the race. She was riding a trike and suffered from cerebral palsy. Her first lap going up the hill I was working was inspiring. She just couldn't get up there. Her trike was stuck in too low of a gear and she just didn't have the strength in her legs to push up the hill. At one point she went backwards at least 15 feet and I was worried that she was going to end up in one of those roadside ditches that are so prevalent on the sides of Greenville county roads. She managed to stop right at the side of the road and grass while we were watching her and the one rule we were told from the outset is that we were not allowed to assist in any matter with the riders. Somewhere deep inside this lady found the willpower to get up that hill. It took her a long time (minutes and minutes) which assured that in her time trial she was just trying to finish. The other guy I was working with told me that he had never seen such a feat of determination. It was amazing! I literally had tears in my eyes when she made it up the hill and looked at us and said "that hill was tough".

This was her first lap. In her category they were doing two laps. I figured that she was only going to do one as her time would obviously not be a podium one. That was a learning lesson for me as for #189 it was about finishing the time trial and not about the time. She came back down on lap two of the trial and we were overhearing on the race radios to keep an eye out for her to make sure she was okay and to call for help if required. On the downhill part she flew by and then had the 1 km circle to do and then come back on the uphill on the other street. On her second try she had figured out her gearing which allowed her to make it up that hill at a decent clip. It was like it was another rider. She gave us a big smile as we were cheering her on. So cool!

I got home around 4pm and H was sitting on the back deck and I started showing him of the pics on my phone and telling him about what I had seen during the day. He made the comment that it seemed like I was high on life as I was babbling incessantly for 15 minutes or so. LOL. It was true as I was at that point. I will definitely be there next year when the world championships are held!

Kind Of Felt Like Typing (03/30/13)

Okay it's 9:10pm and I still haven't had supper. Just finished watching a great RockDoc on the Foo Fighters on VH1 Classic. When Dave Grohl started the band way back when I was hesitant to embrace the West Coast hard rock n grunge sound made popular by the Foos, Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots. Over the last ten years or so I have jumped on the bandwagon and actually like going back and listening to the earlier material. One thing I have noticed is that these bands and their sound remains true and not formulaic at all.

A couple weeks ago the Drive out of Chicago was playing classic album sides and a couple of the sides they played sounded so boring, trite and passe. Back in the 80s I liked Van Halen amd Bon Jovi. Listening to 1984 or Slippery When Wet in the 2010s was way boring. Frankie and Gina can go jump in a lake for all I care to paraphrase a song or two from those albums.

Okay I'll stop slagging the hair bands now. LOL. I used to love the hair bands. Perhaps my baldness has created a hair band aversion of sorts. Who knows? LOL.

Anyways while watching this RockDoc, I did my usual channel surfing during commercials and happened upon an episode of Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" where Guy was in Rhode Island watching the chef prepare "Littlenecks, Roasted Corn, Chorizo and Tomatoes over Spaghetti" and it looked absolutely delicious. I have never made clams at home. In fact I never have ordered clams in a restaurant. I have had some but not often. They were of the fried variety which is probably blasphemous to many. I looked up the recipe and have it saved and I may try it out next weekend. It looks really tasty and not too complicated.

It was a beautiful day here. I was pretty productive. Well I was for me on a weekend. Funny how my monthly massage does wonders for my "esprit de corps".

I went to another funeral or graveside ceremony today. It absolutely sucks that as I get older more and more people I know or know of are passing away. The count over the last year or so is reaching double digits and that truly saddens me. I get all pensive at these things and it brings me back to my immediate family losses like my Mom and Dad.

Hmmmm. All of a sudden I don't know what to type. I think I need to head to the kitchen and dazzle. Ha. It's too darn clean there anyways as I cleaned up last night. I have some medium size shrimp thawed that will go well with something. It can't be bad to eat shrimp at 10 pm can it? Hmmm. I think not! Besides I did say and write to someone today that starting Monday I will be a little more normal in my eating habits. As it is still my birthday month it is therefore my prerogative to do as I want. Anybody knowing me well would say that I must have a birthday every month as I pretty much do what I want when I want. It's the Canadian in me!

Peace out!

Ramble On I Say, Ramble On (03/28/13)

So we are getting real close to starting the 2nd quarter of the year and looking back it seems that I haven't done much so far besides perhaps cleaning up my backyard pretty nice though I still have some to do. I will likely finish that up this Saturday and Sunday if the weather holds out. It will at least be milder.

I was re-reading this blog for typos and I realized that I am so accountant-like. Rapidly approaching the end of the 1st quarter. LOL. Normal peeps would say something about spring being sprung and here I am dropping fractions at the drop of a hat.

I did start planning a nice week off at Sanibel Island at the end of June. I have the condo reserved, a deposit down and beach chair at the ready. Between now and then I need to get a beer cooler. Well a larger one at least!

It might be a good idea to lose some weight between now and then because NASA may be reporting white whale sightings off Sanibel and Captiva in late June. NASA would have had they still a budget! So I guess I am safe! LOL. Seriously though I made the great choice to quit smoking 3 years ago but since then my metabolism has slowed down to the same rate as the average rate of brain activity in a typical Republican in the year 2013. Yes pretty much non-existent.

I was thinking about it this morning as I got dressed for the office that my wardrobe is really lacking in clothes that still fit me somewhat. One of my co-workers actually said that I looked dressed up today and looked sharp. Truth in fact I had just come back from getting my head shaved and was wearing decent fitting clothes that was a step above my usual shorts and T attire or short sleeves and khaki attire.

I picked up H at school at 5 and forewarned him that we were going to stop for some cold beers and nachos at Bailey's. It was sort of a reward for almost getting to the almost end of the work week as well as it being sunny and in the 60s which hasn't been seen here in the last couple of weeks.

As I had Led Zep's Celebration Day blasting on the car stereo with the windows down; the usual drive home conversation would have to wait until we reached Bailey's as Zep's Kashmir was on the player.

Once we got our large ice cold Yuengling drafts with nachos on the way our conversations took off. Either we have the attention spans of amoeba or we just like to wander when we converse which explains the way I write these blogs and the meandering that I do.

Inside of an hour we had talked about the Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Montreal Canadiens. We touched upon his paternal grandmother and his maternal grandmother. We hit upon his long distance charges on my cell phone bill as well as how many gigs his Pandora usage is on our shared date usage plan with Verizon. Shared? Ha kind of like Romney/Ryan's economic plan. Sharing my effing derriere. We then segued into bad draft beer tap choices at Bailey's which led into conversation riffs on the drum skills of Jason Bonham, Keith Moon and the Mike dude from Dream Theater. That led us into a conversation about John Entwhistle's bass playing as well as the bass players from Muse and Kasabian. Then we went into a conversation about Chia Pets that would grow into "Jesus" look-alikes and how that would be a big seller in SC. Then the conversation turned to how I can never keep track of his friends besides Eean, Matt, Sam and Aaron I guess. Turns out that he has four friends name Nick. It's like what the eff! Is there that many people that name their sons after a gambler or a Russian czar. We then talked about the cons of jalapenos being drowned in some vinegary solution pretty much guaranteeing that they lose all their sizzle. We also of course had the obligatory "Dad you are such a doofus" moment when I asked him about the bass and keyboard player that are quite invisible in Black Keys videos. Turns out the the guitarist plays those instruments as well so they only have touring keyboard and bass players so the group could be called Two Black Keys and that would be apropos.

Hmmm. Well I went off on another tangent here as I am wont to do at times. I have also lost my train of thought as I have the last ten minutes scratching Jinx Jynx's tummy so I am going to sign off for now and try to be a little less scattered the next time. Ha!

Peace out!

This And That And The Other Thing (03/17/13)

Well Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! This day is also known worldwide as Marc's Birthday Eve. Ha! Yes I am celebrating another birthday tomorrow. All I can say about that is man oh man the years go by fast after you hit forty. I am flipping over to 2nd half of my life officially tomorrow.

After spending a quiet Friday night at home making chicken curry (thumbs up from the younger Schlewing) for the first time on my own and getting semi-sloshed on a bottle of Italian red; I was quite busy yesterday. The morning absolutely sucked and I don't think I can make it any prettier than that.

I got super busy in the afternoon in my backyard cleaning up as much of remaining leaves and sweet effing gumballs that have accumulated in my yard for the last couple of years. Literally hundreds and hundreds. I filled up at least 12 to 15 wheelbarrow loads of stuff that has fallen off the trees in my yard or are leftover grass clippings from last year I guess. Surprisingly my back is okay today. I have a sore spot on my right hand caused by the manner that I rake which will probably get worse in a little bit when I head back out to finish what I started yesterday and on several other weekend days. It's great having a large and tree filled backyard but it is work keeping it well maintained.

After doing this work I felt I should reward myself with a trip downtown to the West End and have myself some great chicken wings and craft beers on tap at Mac's Speed Shop. A bonus was that a great traditional Irish band named Kellee (www.kelleemusic.com/#1) was playing there at 8pm. I have seen Kellee play at Fitzpatrick's at least 5-6 times over the last couple of years and have always enjoyed their versions of traditional Irish songs from yesteryear. I stayed for the first set and as usual loved their music. Unfortunately Mac's crowd was not very appreciative of the efforts made by the band. Most weren't listening and hardly participating. Kellee's music is truly an interactive affair to really enjoy.

There were tons of people wearing green yesterday night but they were less Irish than people from Sri Lanka or the Solomon Islands. A bunch of posers drinking Bud Light in green bottles and having shots called Irish Car Bombs. Just the name of that shot revolts me. I can't be the only person that thinks that naming a drink after symbols of violence is just effing wrong. What's next? A shot named after 911 or Newtown. Think of it. Isn't that exactly the same as the name of that shot? Disheartening I think.

Okay enough of that vent. It just peeved me off.

I will say that the chicken wings were phenomenal. I always take the Red BBQ flavor. Delicious! I had a few pints of Redhook Long Hammer IPA and truly enjoyed that beer as well. First time having this beer that is brewed in Washington state. Definitely a keeper.

Well as I wrote earlier, time to get busy outside!

Peace out!

Okay I Felt Like Typing (03/02/2013)

Well I have not been exactly prolific in the last month or so on here. Have I? Yes that is a rhetorical question. No answering back required. Thank you very much. For some strange reason my blog when I am not updating regularly is more popular in Russia than it is back here stateside.

Instead of blogging in the middle of the night like I usually do when I wake up at 2am or 3am; I have been reading lots and lots of fiction. No not the fiction that the Republicans in the this country actually do any good. That would be considered fantasy I think. I have been going through my latest 8-9 books that I have bought at used bookstores and have been catching up on baseball news as spring training has started.

The Schlewing household has a new addition. Her name is BooBoo and she is a 6 yr. old cat that my ex-manager has been asking me to take for the last 3 or 4 months as they have a bunch of puppies that have overtaken their house. BooBoo compared to our 12 yr. old tabby Jynx/Jinx is one amazing athlete. This cat likes heights. I keep finding evidence of her adventures near the highest points in the house. Places like the cupboards in the kitchen, the fireplace mantle (Michelin Man in the snow globe is now broken), dining room table, bathroom counters, wall unit shelves and one of her favorite spots which is the top of the fridge where she scared the living bejesus out of me the first time when I went in the fridge to grab a cold one after work. Harrison had a good laugh at my expense that first time as he had seen her but I didn't. In retrospect it was hilarious. This is a pic of her at her favorite spot in the house. I will have to learn how to use my droid camera without the flash. LOL. Yes that is fish oil tablets, sunscreen and candles. Yeah yeah I am getting old. Or am old. Whatever.



Been to a couple of Road Warrior games in the last month or so. I keep wanting to call them the Grrrowl like the previous incarnation of the team but they're really called a wrestling tag team name. As OMC sang in the 80s "How Bizarre".

I bought couple of tickets for the Darius Rucker show at the local amphitheater at the end of May. That is a sure sign of summer when they start booking shows there. Harrison got himself some tickets for Flaming Lips / Black Keys show at the same venue a little bit later in the season.

I am looking forward to the concert acts that will be named in the coming weeks for the Aloft 2013 Memorial Day weekend. This event is pretty darn cool and was until this year called Freedom Weekend Aloft. I saw an amazing Eddie Money performance there last year which I blogged about in June of last year I believe it was. I'd like to see a show with Cheap Trick or someone like that this year. That would be pretty darn cool! Last time I saw them was the Dream Police tour way back in the last century.

Okay I have some groceries to get. Going to make some guacamole and I am short a tomato or two and going to make a chicken breast egg noodle casserole thing for supper tonight and I may be missing an ingredient I believe.

I'll be back.

Early Saturday Morning (02/02/13)

So earlier tonight I had some lime cilantro chicken leftovers that tasted even better than when I originally made it. I then watched the 2010 version of Styx perform "The Grand Illusion" and "Pieces of Eight" in their entirety on VH1 Classic Concert. I think that I appreciate their stuff more as I get older. Lawrence Gowan is great at doing the Dennis DeYoung parts and he is a quasi-Canadian to boot.

I got peeved at an inanimate object again today. My Droid Razor drives me nuts. The battery life on this thing is awful. It seemed that the last time I looked at the battery availability it was at 100%, the next time I looked at it a few short hours later it was at 10% and about to go to sleep. Back on the charger it went just so that I can get it juiced and then I will put in sleep mode when I try to finish off the Deaver book I started earlier this week.

One of my customer's passed away this week. This getting older thing sucks sometimes. It just seems that someone I know is passing away every other week. My friend (customer) Jack up in Milton, On passed away from the complications of an aneurysm that occurred on Monday night. I had just spoken to him two weeks prior and I had kidded with him that I was doing real good lately at answering his calls without him having to leave a voice mail. I would see those last four digits 4789 and I knew that Jack wanted to send us some money. I never met the man but I had spoken to him on the phone at least once a month for the last 5 years and prior to that I would speak to him when my then coworker Normand was out of the office. In my work world, character is one of the 4 C's. Jack had character. When he told me that he would do something he did it. I can't say that about everyone. 63 seems real young to me.

Going to finish this Guinness Draught and then do some reading.

Peace Out

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!