It was a good day

Yesterday morning a bald eagle flew right over my car on the way to work. It seemed like a good omen. Last night I went to observe the City of Menasha Sustainability Board meeting. It was great! It was better than I expected and I plan to get involved. There is a book called "The Natural Step" which has a procedure to help communities become more sustainable through a four step system. Some of the topics covered were: solar panels to augment the city pool heating system and a possible solar cover. Native plantings in different locations of the city. Approval of some electric cars for in-city travel. I even got to contribute. The only downfall to the whole deal is that the meetings are on Tuesday nights and my favorite show is on Tuesday nights. I guess I'll get over it. Monty, is there a way for me to record it if I don't have cable or a working VCR???
And the final good thing of the day: I brought home some crab dip from yesterday's pig-out (we have pig outs once a week at least). It occurred to me that it might be good to mix it with Kim-chee. It was delicious. I have been pretty bored with my kim-chee of late and sometimes have to force myself to eat it.

Slackin

Wow, last post was Dec 2nd. I'm a slacker!
Shall we talk books, breifly? I recently read "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austin and enjoyed it more than I thought I would even though it was totally predictable. Then I read "Wuthering Heights" by EmilyBrontë. That was not what I expected at all. I think it is the first book ever written about white trash. There were some very unsavory characters in that book. I enjoyed it even though it tended to put me in a foul mood. Now I'm reading "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".
Tonight is my first City of Menasha "Sustainablity Meeting". The Mayor has offered me a seat on the board, but I think I will just go observe tonight before I make any rash decisions.
Hm, what else? It's really flippin cold out! Sheesh! Why do I live here???
Greg and I might be heading up to Rhinelander for Christmas. His sister lives up there and has invited us. I am hoping we will be there long enough for me to get my snowshoes out on some logging trails.
The skating rinks are open around town. Hoping to get out and do some skating this winter. Two Christmass ago my mom bought me some beautiful, professional figure skates to the tune of over $200. At that time I was planning to move to Camp Longwood which has the ultimate skating rink. I do still love to skate though!!

Did I mention that I don't like football?

Sooooo, last week I couldn't watch my two of my favorite shows because of stupid Packers playing football Monday. I missed Samantha Who. She was dating this hot guy who was a tree hugger. Now this week she's not!! I totally missed what happened!
Boston Legal only has one more show and it is over. I missed the 3rd to last! Stupid Packers.

I wanna move to Costa Rica!

Hi Peeps. Not much going on with me. Car is still in the shop. Snow sucks. Might get to go up to Rhinelander for Christmas. Hoping I can get some use out of my snowshoes!
Oh yeah, and I'm watching the Lynda.com training videos for Adobe Illustrator CS3. I can't seem to get a copy of CS3 using torrents. Anyone?

Not so bad

I love winter...

...and today is opposite day! Monday after work, I smashed up my Miata. Just another reason to love winter in Wisconsin. It had snowed earlier, then the sun came out, then it got really cold. As a result there was black ice everywhere. Shouldn't have even been driving the Miata, but I had been waiting for my snowtires for the Nissan to come in. They had been on backorder. Apparently you are supposed to order snowtires in summer. Guess when my snowtires came in? Yesterday. One day! Ugh. I will try and post a pic of the Miata. Body shop quote is $2477.

Other than that. Not much going on. Greg and I are in the process of planning Thanksgiving dinner. We are having my brother, Bret over. He doesn't like my other brother's family and I don't like getting together with all of those people either. So, just the three of us. Should be pleasant.

Narcissus

I'm too busy to blog but check out my narcissus bulbs! I've started a trend here. At least 10 other people in my dept have bulbs at their desks now.

Oh Happy Day

I am absolutely thrilled about our new President Elect, Barack Obama!! I am proud to be an American for the first time since 911. His speech, Tuesday night, brought me to tears!!!

Other good news. I scheduled my remaining vacation days and starting the week of Thanksgiving, I will not work more than 3 days a week until the second week of January. Yipeee!

Just stuck some money in repairs into the Miata and new tires are on their way for the Nissan. Should be switching cars soon.

Election Day

The lines at the polls are long. Know why? Americans can't wait to do their part to make sure we don't get another W in office!
Of course Alan Shore ripped McCain a new one last night. It was great! I have to wonder what James Spader's true political inclination is.
So today I get to vote for America's first black president AND I get to top the day off with a Neil Diamond concert!! Big day!

Boston Legal

Just so you know, Boston Legal sucked again Monday. I think there are two groups of writers. The ones that suck have lame story lines and Denny's perversion goes over the line. Usually his perversion is funny. On the lame episodes it just goes too far.

Lucky

This week is Credit appreciation week. We get treats every day and one day we get to go out to lunch and then go see a movie. I am going to see the Duchess.

copsbirdsmoneycountry

This weekend I went and saw Wayne "the Train" Hancock at Cranky's. Bought another memory foam mattress topper, this time for Greg's house. Couldn't sleep on his mattress. Now he can't get out of bed in the morning. Bought a new door for my tenant. Helped Greg install a new window in my tenants apartment. Ate at Mikeeee's Paynes Point. The food sucked as usual, but Greg likes it. Ate at Solea, service was wonderful as usual. We both had the Mocajete. Yum! Ordered snow tires for the Nissan, found out that the Miata needs: clutch slave cylinder, valve cover gasket, plug wires, radiator cap and flush and some bearings in the clutch are making noise. I need a raise!

Greg and I went tooling around on the back roads yesterday for fun. I got pulled over coming in to Medina from the west. 58 in a 35. Dude was really nice, whole process took 10 minutes. Never gave me a ticket or anything. I asked "verbal warning?" he said "something like that" and took off. Either he had somewhere else he had to be, or I'll be getting a big ticket in the mail.

On Island Road we saw a large critter in the distance snacking on a dead raccoon. As we got closer, we realized it was a bald eagle. It flew away as we slowly approached and went right back to work on it after we passed.

How do you catch a unique bird?

I'm always intrigued how each of us have such unique tastes in music, movies and books. You can never predict how someone else is going to feel about music, books and movies. My friend, Mike, has been recommending a movie to me. He swore it was right up my alley. I rented it and I hated it. The movie is "Into the Wild". Based on a true story of a young man who graduates college and purposely disappears. He goes on some adventures and finally decides to go out in to the Alaskan wilderness to live off the land. He becomes trapped in the middle of nowhere by a swollen river and ends up starving to death. The guy was a moron, it was no big surprise that he starved. No only that but ever since I watched it, I have had that feeling of dread that you get after you have a bad dream. The feeling that kind of sticks with you for part of the day. They portrayed his lonely miserable death pretty well and I just can't shake the feeling. I wish I never would have watched it.
Strange that a close friend would think that I would love that movie. Which brings me to another point. Seems like no one really has ever gotten me, or undertood me. Especially my family. They all probably wonder what planet I came from. No one, that is, except Greg. First person I ever met that just gets me. Well, my friend Lisa gets me pretty well too, but Greg really gets me. It's almost spooky. He is so intuitive with me that many times he knows what I want before I do. When I realize that I want it, it is already sitting there waiting for me. I can't imagine that happens more than once in a lifetime. I'm keeping this one.

Garlic

I planted 50 garlic plants last night. You plant it in fall, let it develop some roots, then harvest the following summer. Yummy!

Denny's Rooster

OMG Boston Legal was awesome last night! Great story line, and hilarious! I just can't get over James Spader. Back in the 80's he was in teen movies, who woulda ever thought he'd be where he is today.
Summer is over. Cold out today.

Monday morning

Hi Peeps! Sorry I have been a blog-slacker. I have been doing a multi-day on line backup of my hard drive, so I have been leaving my home computer alone.

This past weekend was the most beautiful weekend ever! The weather was awesome and the fall colors, amazing! Greg and I took the Miata on a road trip Saturday. We took backroads to Fremont and met Greg's brother, Creampuff and his wife, Mrs. Puff at Channel Cat's (formerly known as Slipknot). Lisa Coenen was there with her man, John. Had a very nice time. Looks like Lisa and I might be using my dad's condo in Ft. Myer's Beach this year. John's dad has a trailer there and John thinks he will let us use his new Lincoln. Awesome!

Please find attached, picture of Greg dangling me over the Fox River!!

Potter

I finally got to see "The Order of the Phoenix". First of all, I didn't know Helena Bonham Carter was in it. Secondly, I didn't know that Ralph Fiennes plays Lord Voldemort! Crazy!

Hi Monty!

Ok, Monty reads this, I feel better now.
Monty, Boston Legal was much better last night. Did you catch it??? I don't know what happened last week. Maybe I just wasn't in the BL mood.
Had a wonderful weekend. Weather was beautiful up north. Didn't catch any sturgeon, which is ok with me. I have a picture of me and a sucker fish that I'll post later. Got some stuff done around the house, bonded with Greg's daughters. Nice.

Finished "The House of the Seven Gables". It was ok. Story was decent, Hawthorne has a tendency to go off on too many tangents for me. Don't really care for the fancy language either. Next up is another Nathaniel Branden self helper. His books have really enriched my life.

This company is a trip. Right now we are in "fund raiser" mode. For a couple of weeks every year the company pits the departments against each other to see who can raise the most money for charity. This year it is for local food pantries. There are silent auctions, lunches, breakfasts, etc. The last week of October is "Credit Appreciation week". I work in the credit department. They break us in to groups and take us out for lunch a movie and the afternoon off on one day and all week we get "food treats and other surprises." Pretty sweet.

Hellooooooooooooooooooo

Seriously does anyone read this?
Happy hour last night with a few Webex peeps. Maybe happy hour for them, unfortunatley for me, I'm PMSing. Some lady almost killed me on the way to work, I seriously almost followed her so I could chew her a new Ahole!!! Some of you may know that there are not too many more things that annoy me more than people driving like jerks in the morning. Any other time, whatever. A person's drive to work in the morning should be peaceful. Just keep a safe distance, use your blinker. Let people in. It's not that difficult.
I know, I know, negtive today! Sorry, just be glad you're reading my blog and not actually listening to me!!
Taking the day off tomorrow. Going to clean the crap out of my apartment and maybe get some work done in my gardens. Greggy and I are going to go fishing again this weekend. His daughter, Brandy's, birthday is Sunday and they're having a big hoop-de-do on Saturday. We will probably miss it though. That's ok, sounds like it is going to be more partying than I care to partake in. I do adore Brandy, however, so I will try to get together with her later.

Stuff

Tuesday. Did I mention that I hate Tuesdays? Well, today isn't so bad, so far. At least it is summery out!
Boston Legal must have new writers this year. Season premier was last night and it sucked. Oh well, at least I don't have to worry about trying to catch it every week. I watched the season premier of Fringe two Sundays ago and it was pretty cool. Sorta cheesy, but entertaining. I'm going to miss the first normal season episode tonight cuz I gotta grociery shop!
On my walk yesterday I saw one of those huge green caterpillars. The ones that are bigger than your finger. I took a picture with my phone. Cool! I love creepy-crawlies!
Planning on going Sturgie fishing again this weekend. Should be gorgeous up there now with the fall colors!
I have 3 new CDS on their way from cdnow. Yipee!

Sick

The weekend started out good. Greg and I had a delicious dinner at Solea Friday night. Saturday we worked around the house and went to a cookout at Mikey & Lindey's. Greg went home and left me and my bike at the cookout. After the cookout, The Bottle Rockets played at Cranky's. The Bottle Rockets were great, as usual, one of my favorite bands. Saw lots of people there that I haven't seen in a while had a really good time. Unfortunately, I drank too much PBR. Not only did I get sick, but I got sick. I woke up with Greg's cold this morning. I'm sure it will turn out to be a doozy too since I beat my immune system down last night.
It is 6:40 and I'm going to go get comfy on the couch. Packers play at 7 and I hope it doesn't ruin the evenings programming.
I heard a new song on slacker.com by Kasey Chambers recorded with her husband. I ordered the album so I'm excited about that. Wandering Sons have a new 6-song ep and I discovered a Two Dollar Pistols CD from their earlier days that I didn't know about. Thank goodness, new music!!

Getting Better

So, my plumbing problems are all fixed and it only cost me a couple of dollars. Yay! Not much else new around here. Going to see the Bottle Rockets at Cranky Pat's on Saturday. Hopefully annoying drunks don't cause me to leave after the first set like the last time that I saw them.
Greg has a cold, so I guess I'm next.
Getting ready to plant garlic in my gardens. I've been in contact with a good old boy from Tomah. He is going to hook me up with enough cloves to grow 50 bulbs. You plant in October.
I grew beans and tomatoes this year. Beans didn't amount to much and the tomatoes kind of sucked. Garlic in the store is usually pretty old and sucky, so I thought I'd grow my own.
Still working on perfecting the art of Kimchee. This batch has too much garlic. Whew! Can't believe my cats can stand me after I eat it!
Found out today that I work with a fellow backpacker. Excited to have someone to talk backpacking with. Maybe we could do a trip. However, he is male and Greg would probably not dig that too much.

Tuesdays suck

Ugh! Not only do I have to come in early on Tuesdays and create the pivot chart from hell, but my morning is not going so well. First of all my toilet runs and needs to be fixed. Secondly, my tub drain is clogged. Greg tried to get his plumber's snake down it yesterday and unbeknownst to him, he moved the drain stopper in to the closed position. Now my tub is half full and I just thought it was still clogged, so I took the plunger to it. Now it is half full of shower scunge and whatever discusting stuff was on the plunger. Yuck! To top it all off, I forget to bring a new package of English muffins to work with me.
On a happy note, while Greg was over last night (I wasn't there), he left sweet little notes in places that I would find them while I was getting ready for work. So, although things are going wrong this morning, I still have a happy smile on my face!!

Sturgeon fishing

Greg and I took off to go sturgeon fishing on the Menomonee River right after work on Friday. We got up there, fished for a bit, slept on the boat and fished until noonish on Saturday. We caught two rock bass, two small mouth bass and a sucker fish that pulled a rod right in to the river. We had to reel in the other line, pull up two anchors and chase it down. Just the very end of the handle remained afloat! Not a single sturgeon. I think they were nibbling, but they are such gentle eaters, it's hard to get them on. Other people were catching sturgeon, but nothing near the 60" minimum to keep. It was absolutely beautiful on the river. Hardly anyone there. Big difference from last year on the lower Dells. Started raining just before we left, but I didn't care, I had my rainsuit and it was warm. Wished we could have stayed longer and will probably go back up at least once before the season is over (Sept 30)

Fishing tomorrow

I had dinner with Barb tonight and it was delicious! While I was gone, Greg fed my kitties. Greg and I are going fishing tomorrow night after work. When I got home from dinner, this was drawn on my chalkboard. The man seriously has the cutest personality.

Music

I'm dying here. No internet stream at Jansport; period. Ugh! I need NEW music! Seriously people, suggestions.

Patriot Day

I can't even remember which anniversary of 911 this is. That's a shame. It is also a shame that I didn't even realize that today was Patriot Day until the first time I had to type the date this morning. I usually try to wear the colors. The disaster of 911 was definately the biggest thing that has happened in my lifetime and I will never forget the horror, even if I don't remember the date some years.
That aside, not much new. I bought a giant, two person hammock at Menards. Greg is going to hang it in the sunroom. Should be cozy this fall.
Saw Long on the highway on my way in to work this morning. If that doesn't ruin your morning, I don't know what will. I ran in to his step-mom the other day. She gave me a huge hug, told me that she just can't get along with Jeff and that she and Jeff's dad thought I was the best thing that ever happened to Jeff. Duh.
Having dinner tonight with my girl, Barb, at HuHot. Sorry Monty.
Still uncertain as to what the plan will be this weekend. Going to try to get out sturgeon fishing, but the hurricane is sending rain our way. They have raised the size minimum to 60". Fine by me, I like catchin them, but not keeping them. They are just the coolest fish, and so old!!

The Pack

Last night the Packers played. I think it was the first real game of the season. It was great! I have no idea who they played, but I went shopping and had the stores virtually to myself!!

Is this thing on??

Apparently people read this! I guess I need to blog more often. I don't have a whole lot to blog about. Let's see. I went to Greg's daughter's wedding Friday. It was really nice and I shall post a picture or two when I am not at work. Greg picked me up and dangled me over the Fox River. I think someone has a picture of that. We also got busted making out in the Trolley car! I believe I was the only one taking video of the ceremony and I ran out of memory card just before I now pronounce you.....
Saturday Greg and I went out to the Fox Valley Asphalt shop where Greg cut down some trees last year. They are giant hickorys. We have already cut up and brought home the smaller, easy to handle branches, so Saturday we got some monsters. When cut to fireplace size lenght (18") I could still barely roll them by myself. This means we loaded them with Connie. Connie is a tractor, I think a front-end loader? I got to do all of the tractor driving and maneuvering. Fun! I love driving the tractors. It's scary, but fun.
Yesterday was a far less exciting day. I did however, whip up a wicked batch of chili.
I guess I'll keep you posted on my exciting life since you're reading. Whoever you are.

TGTF

Hi peeps! It's Thursday night. Tomorrow is Friday! Not much else to say. I guess that means that my life is boring?? I lOVE boring.
Nature:The end of the first season of my prairie is fast approaching. There are LOTS of weeds. I think I have been less than diligent whacking them down. Not sure what next year will bring. I have a funny feeling that it will be several years before I have a weed free, native prairie going on.
My kitties killed a bat in the middle of the night a few nights ago. Tupelo's rabies vaccine is expired so I had to send the bat in to be tested. Negative, whew! Health department was considering me exposed because it was in my bedroom and I was sleeping. In other words, had it been positive for rabies, I would have had to go through the shots AGAIN!
Cuisine: Next batch of kimchee is done. Really wish I could find someone who is Korean that knows how to really make Kimchee. It is amazing how limited the internet and books there are on actually making fermented kimchee. There is a blog about fermented food and I posted my questions about kimchee. It appears as though I am more educated on it than the people administering the blog! If you know anyone who is Korean, please direct them to me!!!
Water: Slept on Greg's boat out on Lake Winnebago last weekend. Plan to do it again this weekend. It is so sweet out there. Peaceful, rocking waves, sound of water, no mosquitos.
Went to Point Beach State Park last weekend and swam in Lake Michigan. Water was clear and cool. Sweet!!
Books: Just finished "The Living Reed" by Pearl S Buck. Very good. Historical fiction aboat Korea. Last night I started Nathaniel Hawthorn's "House of Seven Gables".
Music: dying for new music. Thornely's new album comes out next month. Haven't heard much good music this summer. Open to suggestions.