The Bitch and Whine Roll

Posted on November 29, 2007 by Pamela

I’m having a lot of despair about my transportation situation. On Tue/Wed, 3 out of four travel legs were bogged down by highway accidents. I get to stand in the dark and rain and wait for a bus. Then I get to be damp and sit on a bus forever. It’s not even December, yet.

It’s a sad state of affairs when the first thing I do when I get out of bed in the morning is run to the computer to check my Powerball ticket to see whether I have to go to work.

Driving myself wouldn’t help much although at this point it’s starting to make sense again. I quit driving because parking is too expensive. If Bob picks me up and I’m a half hour late because of traffic so he goes into a restaurant and eats and drinks something while he waits, how are we saving money? Plus now both of us are inconvenienced.

The most obvious solution is either work closer to where I live or live closer to where I work. Neither are easy fixes for us at this point in our lives/careers.

Meanwhile, my webhosting upgrade whatever is still messed up and I can’t get my email the usual way but I did finally figure out, when I was searching for an online help forum (which they do not have), that if I login on the hosting site as a customer there’s a place to access webmail. I can’t do jack-crap with the instructions they sent me. I can’t ftp. I also noticed yesterday’s post never showed up in my reader. Is that related?

I called support yesterday and after 10 minutes I was still the 10th person in line so I gave up because I don’t really have time to be on hold for two hours. The help screens are completely and totally worthless and say things like, “Webmail is easy to setup and using your username and password you can check your email from anywhere in the world.”

That is fantastic news. Too bad I still have no idea how to set it up and there’s no HELPful instructions.

Can you imagine if you asked someone to write instructions to make a pie. And this is what you got:

Crust: pie crust is a flaky pastry made from a butter, shortening or other fats combined with flour and salt and sometimes sugar. It is placed in a pie plate in preparation for fruit, custard or other prepared filling and then baked.

Do you feel like you could make a pie from those instructions? When I’m in charge of the world: everything’s going to be different.

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Frack!

Posted on November 28, 2007 by Pamela

FRACK!

I finally figured out that my posts aren’t showing up because my webhosting did their migration or upgrade or giant-pain-in-my-ass that they had scheduled and then rescheduled. Their instructions for entering the brave new world have no relation to anything in reality and I’ve spent the last hour trying to figure out how to set up my ftp in my blogger settings to make it work. You’d think blogger could tell me my ftp is effed up and not that “it’s taking a long time to publish” worthless info. Jeez, it’s like the entire planet is conspiring to waste my time.

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Rain Maker For Hire

Posted on November 28, 2007 by Pamela

Yesterday I made it rain again. I decided to hoof it over to Powell’s to see if I could pick up a few more copies of the anthology with my story in it. The sky did not look rain-like and I clicked the trusty weather icon on the desktop and there was Nothing about rain. So off I went without my umbrella and wearing my non-waterproof wool hat. You can guess the rest. For the second time in two days I had to wring out my panties. Also, Powell’s didn’t even have the book but I’ve learned since that’s available here.

In other news, on Monday night when I got home I had a piece of mail from a lab that performed routine and completely uncontroversial lab work for me at my regular check up in September.

The form letter indicated they hadn’t received payment for their services and further that according to Oregon law, if insurance refuses to pay a claim, they need to notify the lab and the patient in writing. The bill was for $50.

The letter goes on to instruct me to contact my health insurance and find out what’s going on and then call the lab and tell them and if the health insurance doesn’t have a copy of the claim then I need to call the lab with the name and fax # of the representative I’m dealing with and they’ll resend the bill.

For the time and money it cost to waste my time, why not just start by re-billing insurance? Why am I even being involved?

I phoned my health insurance phone tree and after being advised that wait times were longer than usual I went through their website and sent an email relaying all of the above and giving them the lab’s billing department phone in the desperate hope that I can be taken out of the loop on this stupid thing.

My insurance emailed me back and said they had no record of the claim, that they don’t accept faxed claims and to instruct the lab to mail the claim to the claim address. Then I called the lab and they wanted to keep me on hold forever so I hung up and faxed them a note telling them to re-bill. Stupid.

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Rain Maker

Posted on November 27, 2007 by Pamela

Everyone in the PACNW can thank me for the rain. Usually I make it rain by washing the car.

Yesterday I did it when I took my umbrella out of my bag because all of a sudden I decided it made the bag “too heavy” and besides, it’s been clear for days. During this same frenzy of getting ready to head out the door for work I also detached the waterproof hood from my squall-proof/blizzard-proof coat so I could wear my cute not waterproof wool hat and fuzzy scarf.

I sealed the deal when I was standing in the garage holding a towel in my hands and thinking, “It would sure be handy to have a dry towel in the car but I don’t really need it right now.” Then I put it back where I found it and continued on my way.

I exited the office at 4:30 and it wasn’t just drizzling, it was showering. I no longer park in my building since the parking bastards raised the daily rate to $12 when the lot next door closed so someone can build another office tower. If I ever get the opportunity to time travel I’m going to tell my past self to buy parking lots and then enjoy raking in piles of free money. Now I park about a 10 minute walk away (Only on yoga day. I could, seriously, write a 10 screen post about parking but it’s not worth it. The short version is, I drive 1 day a week and take the bus the other days.) so I was nice and wet when I made it to the car not to mention smelling like livestock. (My wet wool hat.)

It sure would have been handy to have a dry towel for my hands and face when I got in the car. Then there was a stalled car right where I exit the parking lot and for some reason everyone in that lane just stopped. No one went around. No one helped. Everyone just sat there. I’ve never seen anything like it. I finally had to squeeze out between two stopped cars and make a wish that there was no oncoming traffic and drive around the mess.

Added: “Oncoming” may not be the right word. I wasn’t driving on the wrong side of the road to get around. There were three lanes and the lane where the parking garage exited was stopped. So I had to drive across this lane and blindly jump into one of the still moving lanes. If this doesn’t make sense don’t worry. It’s just a dumb traffic story.

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Let the Cheer Begin

Posted on November 26, 2007 by Pamela

My feelings about the holidays change from year-to-year. I’m not really a holiday lover but not a hater either. I like the holiday cheer part but hate the big crowds and traffic jams it creates.

Last year we had an unusually busy holiday season and tons of events. We’re not big social people and while I love visiting with family and friends, I find it extremely draining to be in large groups of people that I don’t know.

Also last year my family was here so we did a lot more going out to movies and restaurants and stuff than Bob and I might normally do. At the end of last year I totally hit my breaking point and refused to attend our last function and instead spent the day puttering around the house in my sweats with my hair uncombed.

So as we started the slow descent into this holiday season I was preemptively stressing about getting overbooked and Bob reminded me that we don’t have as many events and we’re going away for the holiday to a quiet place where three cars is a traffic jam and the only people we see are family and friends so nothing to be exhausted about. (Assuming the weather cooperates and travel goes smoothly.)

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I Can Remember Lots of Things

Posted on November 25, 2007 by Pamela

Not long ago Jezebel had a thread and endless comments about Sixteen Candles v. Pretty in Pink.

As if.

I love my Pretty in Pink and my Duckie and my Iona and Andie with her drawer full of pink beads. But if I’m forced to choose, Sixteen Candles is going to win every time.

The movie was on cable last week and I taped it and watched it yesterday.

I love this movie.

Every time Bob came into the room I said, “Honey, come here. This is the best scene in 80’s cinema.” If you know his taste in films you’re laughing right now because he likes weird old foreign stuff with like, one guy in a room playing the accordion while a monkey tap dances. He would think that was the best scene in cinema. He also claims I’ve already made him watch 16 Candles with me at least 4 times which I find very hard to believe. Or not.

One thing that struck me about the film during this viewing was how much stuff you could NEVER put in a mainstream teen movie these days. Homosexual slurs. Terrible Italian stereotypes. Horrifically racist Asian stuff. Drunk teenagers driving, mixing drinks and doing it with no mention of protection whatsoever.

I have a million favorite moments in this movie but I will mention two. The first is when Farmer Ted is mixing martinis for himself and Jake Ryan and handing him peanuts and giving him girl advice. Classic.

The other is probably my favorite movie scene in history beating out when Luke destroys the death star, “nobody puts baby in a corner” and that moment in the Battle Of Helm’s Deep when Gandalf comes galloping down the hill.

It’s at the very end when Samantha is leaving the church and people are taking off and all the cars pull away and there’s Jake Ryan leaning on his red Porsche waiting for her! And even better, her Dad lets her drive off with him instead of going to her sister’s wedding reception. On what planet does that happen?

The best.

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It Starts With Pumpkin Seeds

Posted on November 24, 2007 by Pamela

Little Yellow PumpkinThe pumpkin photostream is up.

It starts with sprouting pumpkin seeds and ends with pumpkin pies.

We are having a quiet weekend. Yesterday I was out chopping back dead dahlias and other yard cleanup duties. I found the box that the bulbs came in on the workbench and as I went to throw it out I noticed there was one packet of bulbs left. I think it was these. I cleared out a spot for them but I needed a bag of dirt to supplement and obviously totally forgot. I took care of that this morning.

I just took the last of the tomatoes from the window sill and put them in a pot with a slab of butter and will hopefully make a tasty little bowl of soup. All the last little reminders of summer, gone.

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The Book Pile

Posted on November 24, 2007 by Pamela

(Bigger version of photo here.)

This isn’t a completely accurate version of all the books in the house that I plan to read someday but the top shelf is the main holding area for things I intend to read sooner rather than later. The second shelf books aren’t a priority but I wanted to get the Han Shot First bookends in there.

The bookends on the top shelf are the Argonath from the Lord of the Rings.

This whole thing is making me look a lot nerdier than I’d intended. I’ve always liked to read a lot of different kinds of stuff but this year I’ve been on a sci-fi/fantasy binge much more than in past years. The Kite Runner and The Known World have been here forever and I’ve “almost” read them a number of times and then seem to be distracted by something else.

I thought about why this might be and my best theory is that when my job changed I started working much longer days and when I get home my brain fried and then I eat dinner and have a couple glasses of wine and it’s hard to concentrate on what I’m reading for more than a page or two. In this condition: dragons, space ships=easy, literature=less easy.

I don’t know why I feel the need to explain myself. I like to read the books I like. The sci-fi books are also idea for public transportation.

I keep lists of the books I read and short reviews here.

At the moment I’m reading Fargo Rock City and Chuck Klosterman IV by Chuck Klosterman that Meredith and Jeff loaned me. Fargo Rock City is about hair bands. I can’t believe I haven’t read it already. When I started it I thought a little bit of Chuck goes a long way but I’m having fun reading both. I like particularly like the celebrity profiles in IV. I also started Potter 7 at last. I can’t remember much about the other 6 books and I thought I’d speed read through the synopses online but even those are endlessly long. I don’t need to reminded of every time Harry drank a tankard of pumpkin juice and scratched his butt.

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Worth Eating

Posted on November 22, 2007 by Pamela

I thought I scanned a really old, like 60’s era, Thanksgiving photo earlier this year but I can’t find it so I’m posting a picture from the Orleans post office instead.

So far all the cooking I did in advance is having problems. Except the pumpkin pie which I didn’t really make for dinner today, more like an ongoing snack all weekend. We already cut into it.

Several years ago we were at a party where they served the best chocolate mousse on 9 planets. It was the kind of thing you thought about for days after. The taste, texture and tiny flecks of chocolate. It was a spectacular dessert and I’ve wanted to make it myself ever since.

I used the Cooks Illustrated recipe and it did not go well.

Perhaps I should back up and confess that I was über-multi-tasking yesterday. I had Star Wars IV, special edition on the tube, I made the pie from my own pumpkins (photos sometime this weekend) so I had to process those and make the pie (also crust disaster as per usual) I made the salad, the mousse, our Wednesday night dinner plus I intended to bake some breadsticks which I ended up passing on but I did do step one of the no knead bread recipe.

The mousse was a large pain in the ass and involved melting things in a double boiler, separating eggs and whipping this and that or the other thing into soft peaks and gently folding this into that and everything needs to be smooth. I was also fretting about the not really cooked 2 eggs thing. Is stirring egg yolks into melted chocolate enough? Is the food safety industry overly paranoid and do we not really need to worry as much as they seem to want us to?

By this point dinner was ready and the season finale of Weeds queued up (aside- tiny spoiler: Kevin Nealon, banjo, awesome.) I folded everything as best I could and reminded myself about Julie and Julia and I’m not the first cook to curse at a cooking project that’s not going well. There was no graceful way to get it into the serving cups. My attempt at gentle spooning turned into violent glopping.

Meanwhile, husband and hot food wait at table.

Then I tried to carefully wipe the mess off the rims of the serving cups and it smeared unprettily. At this point I said ferk-it and covered each dish as instructed then threw them in the fridge.

Dinner went fine. We cut the pumpkin pie which was delicious. I finished making the salad without incident and hit the sack without causing harm to myself or anyone else. I worried about the mousse all night and came up with the idea to transfer them into new, clean serving cups.

The mousse transfer is a wonderful idea that totally didn’t work. I only did one cup and it looks like someone dropped it and then scraped it into the dish with a tree branch. I tasted it. Fantastic. I left the rest as they are. Not pretty but taste good, dammit!

Meanwhile, my bread dough came out like bread batter. I’m not sure if I spaced and didn’t put enough flour (probably) or spaced and added too much water. I shaped it the best I could and it’s rising now but I don’t think it’s going to work. I dug out the bread stick recipe from last night because it only needs 45 minutes to rise. Let’s just hope I can turn out decent risotto or we’re going to be eating pizza tonight.

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Power Goose Down Insulation

Posted on November 21, 2007 by Pamela

When I was younger I was one of those people pleasing people and I didn’t want to rock the boat and was all easy-going, “I don’t care, whatever you want to do.” Now I’m Queen of Ornery and I think everyone should be pleased with whatever I’m willing to offer. There’s a story involved but we’ll save it for some other time.

Remember the -40° coat? I got it last week and yesterday was the test run. I had to wait for the bus at 7am, the temperature was probably around regular 40° (meaning not: -40°).

You know that feeling when you climb into a comfy bed and the pillow is fluffy and the comforter is puffy and you snuggle in and it feels so great? This is what my coat feels like. It’s awesome. It kept me toasty warm but not overheated, which was what I was worried about. I don’t know who does the temperature rating. I think if it was -40° I would need to wear three of these coats. But it will be perfect for me here. I need to find my scarf and I might remove the hood and use my wool hat instead. I don’t like the visibility limitations of a hood.

I’ve got a big day. I’m doing a bunch of cooking/baking including processing some pumpkin for a pie. (Photo of processing the summer 05 crop here.)

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