Tax Day

Went to the Tax Day rally just up the street for a few minutes, and saw this sign. Pretty must lost interest in life in general because nothing will ever be as awesome as this sign:

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Hello old age

I just pulled a grey hair out of my head. I guess that means I can start my midlife crisis now?

Ooh! I know what I'll do! On every webzone I frequent I'll just drop in some unsolicited advice, which will be the best advice ever, because I am a wise elder now. I am world-weary and wise from my decades of experiences. Everyone will pause and listen to and follow my sage wise sageness. It's gonna be awesome!


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I last saw Gravy being chased by a Holstein into a neighbor’s yard

No that’s not a LCD-induced vision; it’s my poor kitty cat being chased by white-with-black-spots-and-no-tail cat. I was feeding a lizard and saw out the window little Gravy kitty trotting around the yard. Then I saw the WwBSaNT cat trotting behind her. Then I saw Gravy look back to see she was being followed and speed up her trot. They went out of the view of the window, so I ran out to that side of the yard, and found no trace of either cat. Meanwhile, Biscuit was on the inside of the door, but could tell an intruder was on the outside somewhere. So he bravely stayed inside when I told him to go outside and find his buddy. I hope Gravy is alive when I get home. Thanks for protecting your friend, Biscuit.
 
And yes I’m complaining about cats running amok outside when I should keep them inside. Cats are wild animals and need to roam.

[UPDATE] She's alive.

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Stuff in my yard

No wind or rain to knock all the petals off before enjoying it!

Didn't even have to go to DC for cherry blossoms.

More cherry tree.

More cherry tree.

Lizard sez: I'll have some of the blossoms, please.

New life

Woodpecker eyeing the kitties

Cardinal eyeing the kitties

Cardinal eyeing the kitties

Biscuit eyeing the birdies

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San Diego 2010: My vacation and Hubby’s “not a vacation”

This post is long, but there are purdy flower pictures below the fold

We went there for a military conference, so that meant I had to occupy myself while Hubby was busy during the day. I was lucky enough to convince my dad to come down so we could see desert wildflowers together (the timing was just too good to pass up).

Sunday: Butt crack of dawn flight, got to the hotel around noon, after a very long time at the rental car facility. Hubby got an upgrade from a sedan to a Explorer. We had 5 people and their giant suitcases to fit, so that fact alone was enough to need an Explorer. That thing ended up being very nice, a new one, with the two extra seats in the back. So we were able to drive that around town with big groups of our friends. Thank you tax payer.

After check in, we really needed some lunch bad, and Hubby being the ex-longterm resident of San Diego, was going to take us to a place he liked from like 20 years ago. Before we left he looked the place (Carlos Murphy’s) up online, saw they had a web page with address and everything, and called it good. Garmin took us to a nice outdoor mall, with Hubby saying “I don’t remember this being here.” Bad sign, and a foreshadowing for how this search would turn out. We wandered around the mall, didn’t find it, plugged in an alternative address for the place (the address you get when you plug in Carlos Murphy’s into Google Maps). When we got close to the place, we could tell that not only was that particular restaurant not going to be there, it was a safe bet that no restaurant had ever been in the area. It was a medical/industrial park. We had passed at least one real sit down Mexican restaurant and a couple taco stands between the mall and this medical park. We why didn’t just turn back around and hit one of those, I don’t know. We ended up driving by a strip mall with a Chili’s out front and a Kripple Kreme next store over. Kripple Kreme come from the reaction of driving by the place, and while two of the girls were in midsentence screamed out in unison: “Krippa Kreme!! Krippa Kreme!!” They were so excited they couldn’t even say the words. It was awesome. And Kripple Kremes are darned tasty. Too bad Maryland sucks and only has a couple. So, we ate at Chili’s (what is it with us and hitting up Chili’s whenever we travel? How unimaginative are we?) And hit up Kripple Kreme’s after.

So, finally had food in our bellies, spent probably two hours making fun of Hubby and his mannerisms. Got back to the hotel in time for the rest of our friends to be looking for dinner. They had a restaurant in mind, down in Gas Lamp district. (We ended up spending a lot of time there. It’s a cool place and nicely set up.) This ended up being a nice steak place. We pulled to car over nearish to the place, we all got out to walk the half block while Hubby parked the car. As we’re walking up the block, we see a silver Explorer backing into a spot right in front of the entrance! Yes, Hubby has found the perfect parking place. We paused to enjoy the moment, as it will never ever happen again for our entire lives. Anyway, food. Steak place. It was super good (I only had appetizer). No need to say more. OK, fine: tasty.

Monday: First day of me being bored while Hubby was busy. I think this was the day I had a breakfast of Kripple Kremes (those things stay good for a long time if kept in the box and the humidity is high) and then a Maritime-themed-business Espresso Drink in the courtyard of the hotel. That was a lot of sugar and caffeine to work through, so sorry for all the tweets. Don’t remember what we did for lunch, it was probably just something simple at the hotel. Dinner was a social event I invited myself to. Mexican them, but food was pretty bad. You would think they could find a caterer in San Diego who did good Mexican food. By the time everyone was good and drunk, it was time to move the party to Gas Lamp. We went to Whiskey Girl, which I have to say, is a really cool place. Normal bar, the guy played lots of good music (until requests started and the 90% white crowd got a ton of shitty rap to be played). It was good people watching as drunk people just have a hard time getting along with each other. Like the young guy trying to move in the girl who had all her drinks paid for by some old married dude. And the Shanks. Oh Jesus the Skanks. There were lots of them. It was a Monday night. Anyway, my dad got in late, met us at the bar, met my friends while they were all loud and drunk. He seems to still like them, though. Our group ended up closing down the place. (At 1:30! What happened to 2??) Lots of scuffles outside where I was waiting for the second or third tab-paying and shots-rounds to finish up. One taxi driver in particular was being a real dick to the bike-taxi guy, since the two bike taxis were in the empty spot at the curb the taxi driver though his car should be. Guy in bad shape in the half pass out stage, being held up by two friends, puked on the sidewalk. Skanks exiting the bar walked through it in their skank shoes: awesome. Finally a worker dude threw a bucket of water to wash away the puke (not mine this time!). Got everyone back to the hotel without barf inside the car.

Tuesday: Day 1 of Anza-Borrego flowers. Henderson Canyon and Coyote Canyon (so, North side of the park). We actually heard coyotes while at Coyote Canyon! We pretty much were driving aimlessly around, following signs and stopping when the flowers were pretty. Something I found out about myself: I am so much of a control freak, I get physically ill when not driving. So, we had to pull over because I almost barfed (was kneeling in the sand too close to a bunch of ants. Didn’t get bit, but it made me nervous). Turns out my puke place was pretty good flower viewing. There were lots of cacti there, and we didn’t really see much anywhere else in the park.

Me in Henderson Canyon area. (Mom will love the visible bra strap.) Taken by my dad using his camera with Godzilla attached.

A boy and his camera. Henderson Canyon area.

This is one picture I was hoping for when coming out to the desert. I wish the ground had been more cracked, though. Henderson Canyon area.

Henderson Canyon area with Godzilla.

So more driving aimlessly, found a good pasture of flowers near or at Henderson Canyon. Went back to the country club we had passed earlier for lunch. It was yummy, and the weather was so nice! Found the Visitor’s Center to finally get a pace of the darned place and figure out where we were going. Then Coyote canyon where there were less numbers of flowers, but there was lupine there.

I like to buck the establish photography community by having the thing you expect to be in focus out of focus. Yeah, that's it. Totally on purpose, that was. More like: what I think would look good in my head does not end up looking good.

At least the thing in the center is in focus this time

Like the tall thing with red honey suckle flowers, this particular cactus was all over the park, in various stages of growth. Some were huge with tones of little arms coming out, most were pretty small.

This was a very good lizard. He let us get very close taking all our pictures of him.

Coyote Canyon

My favorite. Coyote Canyon.

I'll call this one a Desert Creeper.

While most of the other flowers and cacti has areas where they were either thick or nonexistent, this plant was pretty much everywhere, although not always flowering.

Dinner I think was me and my Dad at a super tasty Italian place on Coronado. He knew about the place from when he and my mom had driving through town, and he had two reviews for places. They had gone to the other place that time, but he said this place was way better. He even was going to set up a reservation for when he’s in town again for a car show next week.

Wednesday: Day 2 of Anza-Borrego flowers. South end of the park, where we had heard was good viewing from the purser at the country club restaurant. A disappointment as there wasn’t much to see. Not many flowers and not many different cacti either. We did have to go through Border Patrol checkpoints, and I may have used international data rates on the iPhone even though we never left the country. Ran across two illegal immigrant relief points, with the water and the shade. Didn’t see anything moving in the hills, but we wondered why anyone would come though that way in the first place. The terrain is very hilly. There are much easier ways to come though. Like through some poor rancher’s land.

Probably a red-tailed hawk, But Sibley doesn't really show any hawks that have so much red in the wing area. South end of the park, near the illegal immigrant relief points. We should attach camera gear to these guys.

Near the illegal immigrant relief spots. I don't care if this picture is cliched, I was hunting for it as soon as I saw train tracks

Dinner was back in Gas Lamp for Indian. This dinner was me, Hubby, dad and three other friends. We were fetching my friends from a social cocktail hour, they were pretty much gone by the time we asked them to sit still in the car without throwing up for 15 minutes. One of the people with us was a small Asian woman who happens to lack the ability to metabolize alcohol. So she had had like 4 or 8 or 12 (depending on who you talked to) wines before getting in the car. She barfed all through dinner. Not at the table or anything, just had to leave for the bathroom many, many times. We got a tasty appetizer of chicken deep fried in a chickpea breading, the tandoori mixed grill, chicken tika masala (of course), a lamb vindaloo and a shrimp vindaloo, and a whatever the chickpeas is called. (Rogan josh? Don’t remember.) We probably should have gotten one more meat, as we usually get one dish for each diner. We did when you count the tandoori, but the portions of the entrees were just a bit on the small side. Anyway, food was super good, we were trying to get our friend in bad shape to eat a little of the rice, the naan, anything. Finally was we get the check she says “OK, I’m hungry.” So we got another of the chicken cracklins appetizer (those things are effing delicious) and I thought another meat but I don’t remember anything else coming out to the table. Oh yes. She really likes veggies better than meat so she got a plate of chopped veggies. Not sure how good cucumber is at absorbing alcohol but whatever.

On the way to the car we walked past a bar with a big picture window and a mechanical bull inside. The previously almost-pass-out-with-alcohol-poisoning girl stopped short and declared her desire to ride the bull. So we went in, paid her fee, got video of it, and left. She was wearing track pants or whatever you call the slick material pants so she was disappointed that she didn’t stay on longer. Apparently she’s an expert at this and knew she would have done much better had she been wearing jeans. Did not know that about her!

That was probably the end of the night. I don’t actually remember. Hubby and I were moved to a hotel just down the street by this point, since he registered late and there was another conference starting Thursday. Hubby had spent the day at the zoo while I was in the desert, so it was probably an early night for us.

Thursday: My dad left for the airport early, called me at 9am for me to go back and retrieve his shirt. He was already home at that point! That must have been an early flight! And his shirt is still sitting at my house waiting to be mailed.

I pretty much had the afternoon to myself. I got my hair cut by a nice lady named Dottie, and then I walked around Balboa Park for a couple hours for more pictures. I took some, but I didn’t really explore too much of the different areas. There was a dog park and I was tempted to scare all the owners by barging in and taking pictures of all the doggie faces (faces not feces). I decided against this for fear of being arrested.

Balboa Park

Skiddish lizard at Balboa Park. He ran away while I was trying to get closer.

For dinner we met our regular group at the sports bar on the resort property. We didn’t know this when plans were being arranged, but there was a big (in all uses of the word) group of Kentucky fans watching the March Madness nonsense. The game had just started when we were getting close to being done and these people cheered at Every. Goddamned. Point. So we tried looking up the Cornell fight song and what their mascot even is. The only fight song I found was an mp3 of the band version, so no words. Anyway, countermeasures failed and we popped smoke. I think we just ended up being lazy and went to the room of one of the guys in the group, drank the last of his vodka, and went back to our room when the police was called. At 9:30pm. The cop (he looked like a real cop with the mall security rentacop bravely standing behind him) told us to break it up or take it outside. Let me get this straight cop: we either have to break up our little shindig at 9:30 at night because at most three people are bothered (side, side, upstairs) or take it outside where we can bother 10 or more people? The choice was easy! We went outside where they had nice little café tables set up in front of each unit. But we’re nice people, so we really did try to keep quiet. But also, we were hanging out in this guy’s room as a time to formulate our next plans, which we did for another hour or so. They all wanted me to drive them someplace. I said it’s bedtime, as our flight was the next day. Not early, but I still wanted to get some packing done. So Hubby and I headed back to our hotel, and I don’t know what the party animals ended up doing.

Friday: Breakfast at the original resort with our flying buddies, then flight, then getting home at like 1 in the morning. Kitties had an empty food bowl and growling tummies because they were too stupid to knock over the food bag I left open for them. Honestly, out of three cats I would have expected more from them. One time they ripped a hole in the bag, so I thought leaving the bag open would make it easier for them. And all the fishies lived and all the lizzies lived. Which is more than I can say about last year this time when we left the house under the protection of a long time friend of ours.


The End. This post has 2722 words. That’s gotta be a record for the little amount of information conveyed.

The road goes ever on.

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Kill the Bill, DC March 20, 2010 [with a couple pictures]

We're heading to DC is a couple hours. This is a place holder to see if I can get some pictures loaded from the phone while down there. (Still can't upload pictures from phone to here, will have to be links from Twitter.)

In a related topic, my town had a Kill the Bill rally earlier this week. We didn't know it was happening, of course, because we aren't on any mailing lists. We went to the July 4 one last year and would have signed up then. But you know what? We're the sort of people who don't like to have our names on lists! So that got me thinking: how do you have email lists to organize for a group of people who don't want their names on any lists? Even though I know that's what the list would be for, I still don't want my name on it! So I guess that means that it's even more remarkable that so many people show up to the various Tea Party events around the country.

Anyway, pictures hopefully soon. And I'm bringing a video device, but don't know if anything will be worth recording. The last time I started recording speeches the guy went off on a How Awesome Ron Paul Is speech. So I didn't post that.

UPDATE below the fold:

I had my iPod on me, but wasn't close enough to really be able to see or hear what the speakers were saying. But I got a couple pictures. Everyone liked my shirt (Obama on a Unicorn) and my sign.

And then just a few of the crowd:

We stayed toward the back of the crowd by the traffic circle. We couldn't even see where the speakers were from way back there. Walking up the street towards the Capitol (we were late) you could here everyone cheering for whatever someone said before you could see them. And the way it all echoed of the buildings made the sound carry a lot farther down the street. It was pretty cool. And then to slowly be able to make out all the yellow flags in the huge crowd of people in front of the Capitol. I actually had goosebumps!

So, my rough estimate is maybe 1/4 of a Rose Bowl, so 25ish thousand people. It sounds like a lot, but it felt like a lot of people. [apparently at the thing they announced they were at 25000 people.] I was just on the outskirts the whole time, but I could see that the crowd was stretching out a long ways. I saw lots of white people, which makes sense since there is mostly white people in this country. There were plenty of different ethnicities there also. A group of Japanese exchange students (is my guess as to who they were) asked me who the man on my sign was, so I explained. There were a lot of kids coming through on tours, who probably just wanted to get a nice picture of the building. I really felt bad for them, because I hate having people in my pictures. Especially when I was in Philly trying to get a clean picture of Independence Hall.

Saw a sign of Pennsylvania Nurses against HCR, so looks like there were some groups who actually came from pretty far away. Talked with a retired couple for a long time (while Mr. Voight was speaking :( ), but they were like us and most people there who hadn't done that sort of thing before. The mood was like the one July 4 rally we went to in my town last year. People cheer when they hear throw the bums out, or cut taxes, or whatever. But mostly it's just a bunch of people milling arund admiring each others signs. I don't know why every one like mine so much, it wasn't very original. There was a guy who does caricatures for a living, and did a great Obama as Pinocchio (with the long nose and leaves coming off of it). That sign was really a piece of art, and he's saying "Oh, it only took me a minute to do up."

Anyway, I had a good time, even if we spent a lot more time travelling than actually there at the event. I thought this one was pretty awesome, so I can only imagine how goosebumpy the 9/12 march was!


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Things Trebek sucks

(or, Potpourri)
Would you have got that joke without the explainer? Do you still not get it? Does this help: "Rough; just the way your mother likes it, Trebek." Fine then just look it up.

Snow
It's melting! We've had a few nice days in a row, so the piles of snow are slowly shrinking. The sun is out, the birds are chirping. Makes me feel like quitting my job and sitting on the deck all day. OK, step one of the plan is already in the works.

This sudden change from winter to spring weather has got the geese all migrating at once. Instead of the many small groups of birds flying south in the fall, there are few giant groups all heading north at once. Big groups like 50 birds in one V instead of the 5 or 10 your usually see. Still the same amount of racket coming from the sky. And poop too.

Lizards
It took a little while, but they are both done brumating. The little dude I'm not sure he ever was fully under, but he did slow down for a few months. Big dude, though, he was out for like three months. I had fed him just a couple veggies and fruit maybe a week ago, he took them reluctantly. Now yesterday feeding him more, he practically took my hand off. I think he's awake and ready for food. He just needs to make a good poop then he'll get his veggie and crickie regimen back.

Toyota
I am thoroughly disgusted at how the media has portrayed this outrageously scandalous scandal with their news stories every day: "XX more instances of sudden acceleration!! WEREALLGONNADIE!!" Now, that's fine to report that more instances are coming to light. But I think they need to make sure it was a genuine occurrence and not, say, a floor mat or an old person jamming on the gas before flipping their shit with the freakout factor. The particular example I'm thinking of is the video of the police cruiser stopping the Prius with the brakes of the cruiser. Obviously the Prius driver forgot or never knew to flip it into neutral. Also something he could have done? TURN OFF THE FUCKING CAR. Yes I know that is not the first step to try, as you lose power steering and power assist brakes. BUT YOU STILL HAVE THEM. And yes, the cars with a push button start can be tuned off while driving down the road. You know how you do that? By pushing the button. Well, holding the button I guess, for however long it takes. 5-10 seconds, I'm guessing, if it's like a computer that froze up (yes, I'm looking at you work computer).

Anyway. Back on topic. The driver obviously needed some direction on how to handle the situation. Maybe he already burned out the brakes, I don't know the story I'm only reacting to the visual this story created. So the cop comes along the help. Apparently the cop also forgot about putting the car into neutral because he resorted to the most dangerous situation possible. Seriously, running a car down the freeway without power steering is WAY less dangerous than trying to stop a moving vehicle with another moving vehicle.

So my point: why didn't the cop just say over the PA: "Take your right hand and put it on the gear select lever. Move the lever to the N position. Steer to the side of the road. Have a nice day."

It is unfortunate for Toyota that my fantasy situation didn't happen. There would have been no sensational graphic to be blasted on every news outlet for the next three days. Instead the cop risked everyone's lived and we end up with a sensational graphic that is blasted on every news outlet for the next three days. I just feel like Toyota doesn't really need this piling on right now. They got a couple things to worry about, and they are addressing the issues. So why are we determined to drive Toyota's good name down into the mud? These freakout stories have been running long enough now that John Q Public's immediate reaction to just the mention of the name or a glimpse at the logo is "Danger! Unsafe! Run away!"

All I'm saying is Toyota is going to have a tough enough time recovering their reputation after this already. But they wouldn't have such an uphill battle if the media would treat this as they would any other recall from a GM or a Ford model. OK, with the exception of exploding fireballs of death trucks as seen on Dateline way back when. The media would say "Ford Taurus XL model years 2002-2003 have a seatbelt problem that will strangle children and small adults. Go to you dealer or call this number for more info." Done. No slander, no libel, no defamation.

End rant

Moving
Still no word

Health Care Reform
A friends' 11 year old daughter is right this minute in the ER with a bad asthma attack. This is a known thing to the family, so she has inhaler and all that stuff. Just a particularly bad attack, is all. That part isn't the point of the story. That point is that this is a lifetime military guy's kid, so he has a just a little experience with the way government run healthcare is going to work. [Aside: People seem to forget that there a few groups in this country that already experience this miraculous new way of doing things: active military, anyone in the VA, American Indians living on reservation (I think). I feel like I'm forgetting someone. These groups know the system, and know it sucks. Just ask any one of them. Anyway: this guy's daughter is not responding to the nebulizer treatments, Prednisone, etc. She started off at the base hospital, but has been moved to one closer to their house, the regular hospital for everyone else. His statement on her getting moved from the government system to the private citizen system: "She should start getting better now. I hate to say it, but it's true." From a lifetime military man and exceptionally honorable and good human being.

OK, that's all.


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Back from Orlando, still can't see the ground

The temperature has gotten to the mid 40s in the daytime, so that should be melting a good amount of snow at a time. I guess it's not melting as fast as I thought it would, because I thought I would be able to see a difference in the 4 days we were gone in Orlando (70s! warm!).

Before leaving:

After returning:

As you can see from my photographic evidence there wasn't much change.


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Too much snow makes people lazy

Sometimes people need a helping hand, and sometimes people need to help themselves. Yesterday after the big snow, we had ZERO secretaries come in to work. So all the important phone calls (the President could be calling, so a phone has to be answered (during daytime) or forwarded (weekends and evening) to a live human at all times when not ) went through to Hubby. That sumbitch was ringing all damn day. But anyway. The reason no secretary and less than half the regular personnel bothered to come to work yesterday: snowed in. Yes of course. They only had two full days to dig themselves out.

Hubby shoveled enough of the driveway to get one car out. That job took all day Saturday, while the snow was still light. The job was so long because of the section that was piled up by the snowplow. So all he had to do was get the driveway, then it was plowed roads from there. The street right behind us is outside of city limits, so they are lucky if a county plow came by. They had one strip plowed while we had the full width of the street plowed. But the poor souls in the streets that connect those two major roads? Totally effed. No plow. Two feet deep of solid snow from their front doors to the road at most 200 yards away. Those people I can understand not being able to make it to work by Monday. Even with a snow eater it would take a week to clear the street. Oh! And those smug bastards who bought snow eaters! I will only privately acknowledge their wise move in buying a snow eater. Even if you use it once in your life, that is money well spent. I will not compliment their wise purchase to their face. I’m not going to give them the satisfaction.
 
So anyway. Back to the sacks of crap who can’t be bothered to shovel their driveways. I don’t believe for a second that every secretary in the building was in the situation that their road wasn’t plowed. Most of these people live in the same town as I do, so they have excellent maintenance services, with snowplows running 24/7. I want to know how many people just decided to park their car on the street the night of the snow and then the next day said “Oops, snowplow totally trapped my car! Guess I can’t get to work!”
 
And why am I ragging on secretaries? We are supposed to have one in the building to answer the phone in the daytime no matter what. The Commander was here ferchrissakes but not one out of eight secretaries? The Commander lives an hour and a half away!
 
So why am I upset about this? It makes me feel like a sucker. The same way people who pay their mortgages are suckers because we could have just defaulted on the loan for too big of a house and still been able to keep living there. Hubby is a sucker because he has the work ethic and sense of responsibility to make sure he can get dug out and mobile as soon as possible so he can make it to work come Monday. We were out driving around on Saturday night and ended up helping some idiot in a 2WD station wagon who was stuck. Because we are the people who carry jumper cables in the car not because it has a shit battery and constantly needs a jump, but so I can help anyone I see who needs a jump. Which is an awful lot of people, it turns out.


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STFU SOTU SOMT (State of My Town)

Let's take a look at the businesses in my immediate area that have, um, "passed on" (as in the rainbow bridge?) let's call it, in the last year:

- Giant: gone, sign torn down, building still unoccupied.
- Super Fresh: gone, sign torn down, building still unoccupied.
- Circuit City: gone, Halloween store had moved in before demo work to building, but now the big red part of the building is gone.
- nice Italian eatery/pizzeria privately owned and operated by the Greek family: gone, sign still up so I have a glimmer of hope, but I know I'm kidding myself.
- Pizzeria Uno: news to me, Hubby just told me, just in the last couple weeks apparently.
- Chinese buffet in a nice mall with Safeway: gone but something else is there now, don't remember what.
- Wendy's: gone, made into more parking for the ATV store next to it; this may have been pre-Obama, but can't be sure.

The part that troubles me about the places closing down (which happens. I get it.) is that nothing has really come in to take their places. A lot of these are major chains. I mean, grocery stores? These two were in the same part of town, and now the people on that side of town have to drive all the way across town to another, more expensive one.

Thanks a pant load you fucking piece of shit.


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Stuff in my yard

I finally got a better picture of one of the foxes (still not excellent because I had to mess with them in photoshop):

They, or at least this one, live under the brush pile a neighbor and I have been building. So this is her or him going back home for the night:

And the rest are all of birds.

Every time someone is on the feeder I have to try for a picture. The first one is from a couple weeks ago, and all the rest are from this weekend's snow storm of the century:

I love this guy's beard:

And all these last ones are one our deck, on our three-foot snow drift that was blocking the door. Good thing the doors open inward:

This guy's feet are cold, I think. He kept doing that:

And finally a female:

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Thanksgiving 2009

I'm doing a brine turkey again, 13 pound beaut, with the only change from last year is that I did the drying period between brine and oven. I don't think I did it last year because I'm pretty sure I hadn't read that far in the instructions until oven time. So this time I was a little more prepared.

Defrosting the bird: We bought it on Saturday, frozen, so it had been in the fridge "defrosting" from Saturday until Tuesday night when I did the washing off and noticed it was still an EFFING BLOCK OF ICE! (I had wondered why there wasn't any juice in the bag!) So while I was washing it off, I spent an hour trying to get it somewhat defrosted, since it was going to be put in the cooler surrounded by ice and I didn't want it to stay frozen.

Brine: Crate and Barrel brine pack, again. Gives you the herbed and spiced brine, the bag, and also an herb rub. Tasted pretty good last year.

Drying the turkey in the fridge between brine and oven: I noticed there was quite a bit of juices in the pan, so I hope it doesn't turn out dry!

Stuffing and Trussing: God I hate doing turkeys. I probably shouldn't have slicked up the bird with olive oil and rub before needing to manhandle the fucker; trussing went not so well. I think I got the bits (carrots, onions, celery) to stay inside a little better than last year, so there's that. Also, I think this bird has an abnormal top hole. I can't get the neck skin to stay tucked inside, and it kind of just glops back out and slips around the string. So the string isn't really doing a whole lot to keep the bird together, I think.

Time for the Oven: It's in, breast side down for 45 minutes at 400degrees.

Still on my checklist:
- Garlic roast potatoes from my favorite cook Ina Garten. Well, OK, second fave after Bourdain, but I don't watch him for the cooking.
- cornbread muffins [don't have time!! :( ]
- dressing [in the home stretch]
- gravy! hope it turns out better than last year [it looks goopy. I poured the rest of the last box of stock in to increase volume, we'll see how that goes...]
- candied pecans


[9am] got my first burn turning turkey. Started the gravy with browning the nasty bits.

[9:40am] turned the turkey two more times, now it's on its final run: cook until done. Nasty bits still boiling in broth for 15 more minutes. Got another burn.

[1pm!!] I'm behind schedule, won't have time for cornbread muffins. Time to take the foil off the dressing and take a shower! and I may have a broken toe. Stupid cat.]

[after dinner] dinner was super yummy. Everyone liked the turkey. Hope it doesn't make anyone sick! There was ham, scaloped corn, and pie. There was others, but I only had eyes for turkey, ham, scaloped corn and ham. The gravy turned out pretty well, except I could have removed a little more fat from the drippings.

We're watching football now.
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Hey Maya, what have you been up to?

Well, glad you asked. In the last month I went up to the eagle spot and tried for some pictures with Godzilla. All the birdies were hanging out clear on the other side of the river, so not a whole lot of good pictures there. Every once in a while an eagle would fly over and land somewhere deep in the trees behind us. There weren't any eagles in those trees, and I'm hoping it's not permanent. They better be there next time I go up. If they have indeed left that nesting site, there is a road that goes along the river on the other side where eagles have in the past had lots of nests. Maybe we'll try over there sometime, even though you have to get out of the car and walk down a trail to see anything.

But anyway, I got a couple pictures over two days:

this is actually a turkey vulture. They like to hang out on the lower levels of the electrical towers with the cormorants.



















eh, some are OK, I guess. I don't do action shots very well, because the auto focus is a pain in my ass. Just wait until I can get one of a eagle in the near trees, right over the parking lot like last year.

So we went Saturday and Sunday a couple weekends ago. We got there in the afternoon, with about 2 hours daylight left both times. On Saturday they opened up the dam right when I was thinking it was time to give up. Opening the dam is like feeding time. It's stirs up the water and gets the birds hunting for fishies. When they did the same thing at the same time (ish) on Sunday, I began to think they do it for us photographers. I am starting to feel like going there is like going to the zoo, and at 4pm is when the animals are fed. At any rate, on neither day did we get any good eagle diving into the water moments. Sunday was worse, they just didn't seem hungry.

But we will try again!

So. What else have I been up to? Well, I stalked and met an internet friend 5 states away, and went to her Halloween party. It was a ton of fun, and was positive reinforcement to keep stalking internet friends in the hopes of them being as nice and awesome as this one. I have more thoughts on this real life vs. what I know or think I know about a person based on information from the internet, but I don't feel like writing. So maybe later. I did learn, though, that greeting someone with "I recognize you from the internet!" is probably not the best way to go.

One thing I DO need to write about is my trip home from the vet with Biscuit. It was humiliating for him and I laffed heartily. Not at him, of course. That would be rude.

More upcoming stuff is liveblogging Turkey cooking tomorrow morning. It is sitting in brine as I type. Why did I capitalize "turkey"? Hell if I know, it just feels right. I must have some German in me.


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