Here’s Bob’s review of bluegrass. He got some wonderful photos, too.
I swear I blogged about this a long time ago but where did all the old doctors go?
I had the same primary care doctor for at least 12-14 years. She moved on this summer but since my health insurance was changing with the new job I waited until now to deal with it. I’m looking at the clinic physicians and they’re all fresh-faced children. Aren’t there any doctors over 40?
This is a photo of my Dad’s workshop. I took a bunch of great ones over Thanksgiving but realize I neglected to post. More to come.
Bluegrass was super fun today and I will link to Bob’s review when he does it because he took photos and knows more about bluegrass than I do.
I loved all the music but my favorite band of the day was Steep Canyon Rangers. I’d love to make a joke about names of bluegrass bands but I’m tired and need to get to bed. I leave it to someone else.
But here’s a quick story. The Steep Canyon guys introduced a number like this: “We got any NASCAR fans out there?” Dead silence. Then maybe two people politely clapping. “Oh, great. Well, you’re going to love this one. I can tell.”
For the record, it was a great song and we all loved it.
Two super long days ahead.
But remember the holiday newsletter? You know, the one from Christmas 08? Yeah, it’s at about 98 percent. Don’t fret. This week. I promise.
The bunny showed up in the backyard again this morning. I haven’t seen him since the first of the year and assumed he’d moved on. I’ve decided to call him Bunny Carlos (in case you don’t get the reference). Our weed-choked lawn must be delicious. If he eats slugs, I will encourage him to breed.
For my one loyal reader who isn’t near the PAC NW, it might interest you to know that our state is completely ruined with flooding and mudslides. Washington Department of Transportation has a blog , Twitter and Flickr. Go WSDOT with the technology.
This photo set shows where Interstate 5 was shut down. I guess it’s open now for truck traffic and will open for passenger traffic later. Yikes. At Trader Joe’s this morning they said their truck couldn’t get through and I noticed the produce and meat sections were pretty scanty. Have I ever mentioned my fear of food riots? Just as a conceivable scenario. I’m not worried about it at the moment. No need to go into it now.
It’s my goal to get the holiday newsletter (you know, the Presidents’ Day holiday) done today. We’ll see how I do. I’m feeling pretty squirrely.
Tomorrow is writers group at my house and Sunday is bluegrass.
For a very long time I was adamant that I had a blog and I had Flickr. I wasn’t going to join any more online things. Then after CW I thought I should do that Live Journal thing – but 99.9% of the time I just cross-post what I post here.
Then succumbed to more peer pressure and joined Facebook. It’s a fine idea but at the end of the day, it’s just one more thing to log into and fritter away my time.
So now I’m looking at Twitter. I can see the appeal. Bob and I want to switch to iPhones next year so maybe I’ll do it then.
Meanwhile, I’m thinking I should open a Twitter page for Roger the guy in the office next door.
Sample posts:
“Wow, what a cough. Someone give Roger a cough drop.”
“Smells like Dinty Moore for Roger again today.”
“Just signed for Roger’s office supplies. Looks like a giant box of tape.”
I’m on new benefits plans as of the first. They sent me my cards in October and I very carefully put them in a safe place so I could find them at the first of the year.
I bet you can see where this story is going.
I’m not sure where else to look and I’m paranoid that, NOW, I’m going to keel over in the street and since I don’t have a current insurance card they’re going to leave me in the gutter. And everyone will see me with my mouth hanging open.
For many, many years of my life I wished to work from home or be independently wealthy. I thought that sitting around the house all day would be fantastic. Especially if I could make a living writing.
For my first job out of college, I actually liked the work but the owner was an unreasonable jerkwad which made the environment awful.
I’ve never written about my second main job out of college and the short version is that while I liked most of the people I worked with, I generally didn’t enjoy the job or clients. That job I would sometimes feel like weeping on Sunday nights thinking about the work week.
The paralegal thing took awhile but I really like my job and working with tribes and these days, I rarely think that I’d be happier sitting around the house all day long.
I just finished an epic holiday that I was greatly looking forward to. Between weather and holiday office closure, I think I only worked two days in the last three weeks. That’s a lot of time.
And I had grand plans for all these amazing things I was going to be doing. To be clear, I completely enjoyed the time and I did accomplish a huge pile of stuff. But I was dismayed by how quickly the time passed and how often the day would be coming to an end, and I’d barely gotten into one project. With endless piles of time, I still struggled to get my stuff done.
I thought this post would be more interesting when I started it. No time to go back and sweeten it up, now. But I think my point is that I’ve never been happier about getting back to work than I was this morning.
Today’s post is dedicated to Kira and Shane and if you want the inside scoop you should read this story.
Today I did my writing stuff first thing in the morning. I’m still working on the holiday letter. I know, whatever. I’m sorry. Yesterday I got all bogged down making my 2009 bookpage. So bogged down I did a totally half-assed review of Book #1 (Bridge of Sighs) and it was a FABULOUS book. I’m doing online book group with Kim (we just invented it) and we’ve both been discussing like nobody’s business.
Then I baked a loaf of no knead bread. I added a big plop of sourdough from my sourdough feeding and I’m not sure if this is a brick or not. It wasn’t as big as other loaves I’ve made. But we didn’t cut into it tonight. I’m betting it will be decent but a tad heavy. Not sure which part went wrong. I’ll watch the sourdough addage more closely next time.
At noon I stripped the turkey carcass from Xmas dinner. It’s been waiting for me in the freezer and I haven’t had time until now. I used the meat to make a turkey pot pie using the same recipe from last month. This time I used filo because I had one in the fridge and I’d already made a pie.
And I put the carcass in a pot and made turkey soup using a Cook’s Illustrated recipe.
I actually enjoyed the extended day in the kitchen. I had a bunch of Firefly’s on the TV. I’ve said this before but I’m not a big fan of TV on just for noise but during big kitchen projects, I like something familiar in the background. Everything smelled delicious. And it started snowing around 4pm. (I know, seriously, enough already. If I wanted to live in a snowy place I would have moved to SnowLand.)
I’ve been saving up some photo printing and I finally finished my stack and took them in for processing this weekend. Fred Meyer had a coupon and I thought what great timing. So I used the coupon for my order of 300+ prints. The computer discounted each print individually. We had to wait about fifteen minutes for the register to process this. And then print out this receipt.
The snow is supposed to change over into rain and I hope it does because I’ve enjoyed this time off but I’m ready to get back to work. Seriously.
So, does Toyota think we’ll be less pissed if we know nothing of the status of our car instead of calling us and telling us they still don’t have the part? I don’t understand why they wait for us to call them. Do they think I have nothing better to do with my car than park it across town?
This has not been the most optimal holiday season.
Sorry for crapola quality, my camera is basic and I took this standing on the back porch.
This bunny showed up in our yard yesterday. Our neighbors have bunnies and we asked if they lost one and they said no. It doesn’t run away when we go outside. It’s very cute and seems to think under our back shed is a great place to hang out.
Still don’t have a car. Boo. I would never have taken it in this week had I known I’d be carless all week. Must move on.
Quiet night at home tonight. Party tomorrow afternoon.
Happy New Year.
Oh – and Slumdog Millionare: FANTASTIC.
This is my Pirates of the Caribbean wristband I got at the Super Biz Mart store this morning for a dollar. They have more and also red ones so if you want one, let me know and I’ll go back and buy you one. You can also see the purple spot on my thumb where I shut the shower door on it the other day.
Starting at Thanksgiving I suddenly randomly couldn’t pump gas into my car. The nozzle would keep shutting off. First I thought it was the pump I was using so I moved my car. But it wouldn’t work that one either. I asked Bob if he could try and he went to a different gas station and had the same problem.
You can get gas in the car but it’s a lot of work. Luckily I don’t drive much so it hasn’t been a huge issue.
Between weather and holidays we haven’t had time to deal with it so I thought I’d just get it over with today. I hate putting off car stuff. They gave me an early appointment so I thought, “Good I’ll get this over with and have the whole day.” I set my alarm and got up at dark-thirty and rushed out of the house. Bob picked me up and we went for breakfast and killed some time visiting a few shops because Toyota is completely across town from us. That’s why we were in Super Biz Mart (possibly not actual name).
Finally at about Noon I called to see what was up and they still hadn’t looked at it. Why the hell did they ask me to come in so early if they weren’t even going to look at it?
We went home and sort-of put our plans on hold not knowing when we’d have to go over and pick it up.
You know that thing I do when I always expect it to cost $600? Well, I didn’t do that this time. I just assumed this was going to take an hour or two, a hundred bucks and I’d be on my way.
Oops. They finally just called and the combobulator filter agitator trip-wire bungyuny is all fouled up and needs to be replaced and there is one part, somewhere in Portland and they think they can get it tomorrow and if all goes well I can pick up my car by this time tomorrow. For about $525.
Okay. It’s not $600 but farkity-fark-fark-fark.
I was mad but I got over it quickly. Lots of things to be grateful for right now. It’s just money. Besides my “If Dec 30 is your birthday” horoscope says that the year ahead will offer “many chances to get ahead.”
We are on our way to see Slumdog Millionaire and have a bite to eat.
