Brisket

I bought an over 5 lb. brisket at Wegmans tonight. We're not Jewish, but we do like a good brisket. I plan on cutting it in half, and freezing half for later. It's way too much meat for two people. I'll probably do it barbecue style with noodles.

It looks to be like a lonely week for me. Ed is going to be working crazy hours for a tent sale at work. I may get some extra sleep, though. That is one advantage. I am still so tired from our busy season.

Next Day

Of course, I was right about yesterday. The shipment and paperwork were found in the warehouse today. So, it was my fault that it went missing? I think not. I argued the point that it was much more likely that something would be lost in a 40,000 sq. ft. warehouse rather than in my 8 x 10 office space, but it fell on deaf ears. And, did I get an apology of any form today? Of course not.

"Survivor" begins tonight. I'm going to DVR it like always, so Ed and I can watch it together when he gets home tonight. It's so cool and gloomy outside that I almost feel like napping before he comes home. Maybe I will.

Tales From The Chair

Hi, Guest Blogger here. Well, the owner of the blog wanted to take a day off. That's OK with me. Interested about the title? The guest blogger spent 5 1/2 hours at the dentist today getting started on a 5 tooth bridge. And it is the first one that Dr. A. has done. Man, I feel good about that. J. knows that I hate going to the dentist, and this was going to be major work (and will continue to be with two more visits). Nothing like the sounds of drills, saws and brushes bouncing off the back of your head. Stuff flying into the air, and that constant gag feeling. The end result is that I have a temporary bridge in, a schedule to get one tooth ( couldn't be saved) removed, and a new bridge in three weeks.

The only way I could have tolerated this is that fact that J. loves me, and the dentist is pretty good and recognizes that I have a problem with the process. After this event, I think the next one should be easier.

Guest blogger signing off for today. J. will be back on Thursday.

Indian Summer

Yesterday was like a perfect Indian summer day, yet today I feel like fall is right around the corner. It's much cooler today, with almost a chill in the air.

Labor Day is such a perfect holiday. There are no gifts, no decorations, nothing special to do at all, except it's a day off from work. The name of the holiday has a certain irony, though, doesn't it? It's to celebrate the efforts of all the workers in the United States, yet instead of laboring today, we all have the day off from work.

As it gets cooler, I know I'm going to think about my dad more and more. This time last year, we were making pretty frequent trips to see my parents, because my dad really couldn't get around too much. If he was feeling somewhat strong, we would go out to eat, and if not, Ed and I would stop at Wegmans and pick up something to grill. I still have no desire to ever go to an Outback again. It was the last restaurant my dad was in. He liked the lamb chops there, and I remember the last time we were there he wanted a taste of my mom's margarita.

He would have been 78 on November 1st, but he died on last December 5th, and was buried on December 8th. I love you very much, Daddy, and think about you all the time.

Garlic Festival

Today, Ed and I went to the Pocono Garlic festival. It was being held at the foot of the Shawnee Mountain ski resort. The website really hyped it, and I was expecting some huge event. It took us forever to get there---traffic backed up on route 209 for miles. We finally get there, and there is a $10 admission for adults.

Can I just say that we were underwelmed? There were a dozen food stands, all selling foods made with, you guessed it! Garlic. There were a couple of entertainment tents, and there were a few craft booths, and that was it. On the way in, I overheard a woman say, "it took us longer to get here than it did to walk around the festival". In our case, it took us the same length of time it took to consume a shared can of Budweiser.

We then took an alternate route home along the Delaware river and had a late lunch at a place called TK's Bar and Grill. The sandwiches were just, eh... It was a beautiful day, though, and at least we got out and did something.

$100

Ed and I went to the Sands today for brunch. We both had sort of a weird assortment of food. He had shrimp, cheese, salmon, hashbrowns and I don't know what else. I had pot roast, a baked stuffed half potato, a roll, and sausage. We both started with the New England clam chowder, which was quite good. And, we both had fruit and two kinds of cake for dessert.

After brunch, we played the machines a while. I won 400 quarters for hitting 4 deuces on a deuces wild machine. Not bad! Net-net when we left, my winnings were more like $40 rather than $100, but I'll take it.

I'm making a new casserole dish out of the huge yellow squash that Ed brought home. We are also having grilled chicken tonight. The weather is really nice today, and it will be pleasant to sit out on the patio.

Amber and Finger Food

Amber seems to bark much more at dinner time if the food is something we pick up with our fingers. Corn, ribs, chicken wings, pizza...they all seem to have the same excessive reaction.

Tonight was ribs, mac salad, and corn on the cob. The guest blogger cooked it all himself, and it was all very yummy. He even garnished the mac salad with a couple of home grown nasturtiums.

Getting Sick? I Hope Not

Right now I have a temperature of 100.4. I'm achy, have the chills...no idea why. I laid down from 7:15 tonight until 8:40. I was under the covers in bed and still shivering. I know I dozed off a bit.

Welcome to the fall shipping season. I cannot afford to get sick and miss any work.

Cement

We purchased a cement garden bench for my father's grave site. It's in three pieces, the two base legs and a top, and it's very heavy duty. I think my mom was surprised, and I also think she likes it. In fact, I know she likes it. By the time she walks out to grave, she is too tired to stand long, and now she can sit with Daddy.

I miss him so much. That will forever be cemented in my heart.

Tired and Cranky

I'm totally exhausted. Seven hours of training for a job I've been doing for five years. It was very, very boring and unnecessary. Of course, the golden girl from South Jersey was spared attending. So unfair!

I have a flank steak marinating, and we'll have a nice salad and baked potatoes with...hope it turns out good!

Rita's

Rita's Mistos are the best. I have mango tonight, but lemon is my favorite.

Watching the premiere of "Project Runway".

Yes, I should have Twitter...that is what this entry sounds like.

And So It Begins

I was very busy at work today. Since we are a seasonal business, this is pretty much when the "season" begins. Somehow I managed to lose a few packing slips that I had just printed today. I even knew after doing a shipment summary report which ones I was looking for. I retraced my steps, checked every printer, when through all files, and I still have no idea where they are. I made sure I told my boss, since I wouldn't put it past her to have taken them in the first place to see how I would react.

Last night, the guest blogger managed to break our coffee carafe. He had it perched precariously in the dish drainer, and as he was walking downstairs, the vibrations kicked it out of the dish drainer (or maybe my dad did it?). Anyway, he hears breaking glass, and rather than investigate, he comes back to the bedroom and tells me there has been an "explosion". So, of course, I go with him downstairs to the kitchen, and there is the carafe in a million pieces. Nice...ask me to go confront a potential intruder!

I went shopping at Wegmans after work, so that task is done. Maybe I'll go get a mani-pedi tomorrow. I won't have too many free Saturdays once the overtime kicks in.

Returns

It just started pouring rain at work. I just spoke with Ed, and he’s not getting the rain across town. He’s had quite the frustrating retail day…I think I will turn this over to him tonight to describe the fun times!

Go for it, Guest Blogger: There were no fun times today. Let's start with the downstairs PC: J. said that it wouldn't connect at all on Tuesday. Well, the guest blogger went off to Best Buy's Geek Squad to see what the problem was. Turned out it really wasn't anything more than the password was "lost" somehow. The kid was very helpful though, and just in case, if was a hardware problem, he recommended Netgear's USB port. Bought one. Well, then I found the password, and we're up and running. Have to return the port on Friday.

Next comes the new bedspread adventure. We saw one at The Christmas Tree Shops on Sunday, but it was a king, and somehow, we felt that it was too large. Needless to say, J. mother said "it's only 6 inches bigger". Well, I bought it. After stripping the bed, flipping the matress, and sheeting and everything, I put the new spread on. Guess what, it not only covered the bed, and the hope chest, and fell on the floor on the sides. Reverse everything and put the old one back on. Like I needed the "bed change" exercise. Went back and returned the package.

Thus, the guest blogger's day off was spent running around. Now on to USA vs. Mexico soccer, and the laundry. Something has to go right. Oh yeah, I finally tried Sports Barber Shop on Union Blvd: quite the place, got a great haircut.

The Aftermath

Day 1 of no surfing at work went okay. I really don’t have a problem with it, because I don’t goof off on the job much anyway…I’m way too busy most of the time. I did notice that places like Facebook and other entertainment and game sites are blocked. I can still get to all the sites I legitimately need to use, like trucking company websites, Switchboard, etc. My one co-worker is bent out shape that she can’t check her bank balance from work anymore. I also tested and tried to get to blocked sites from anonymizer.com and from Google, and no go. So, the system they are using is fairly sophisticated.

I was looking forward to being able to go back to parking on my street again. As predicted "Dipshit" was parked more in front of our house than his, sticking out a foot and crooked. I squeezed in behind him and should have boxed him in really good. Musikfest is over, and our peaceful little neighborhood returns. Okay, it’s not exactly quiet and peaceful, but at least it’s just the few random Trans Bridge buses speeding up and down the street, and not a constant stream of “fester cars”.

Perm

I finally got my hair cut and permed today. It was way overdue, but I just wasn't able to fit it in until today. I really liked the girl that did it. My regular girl was doing a color job, so I just took a risk on the new person.

We are grilling a whole chicken tonight. I have had it brining in salt-brown sugar-fresh herbs since this morning. The herbs came right out of my garden...sage, tarragon and rosemary

Overall, it's been a nice relaxing day. I think I will continue my new routine of going grocery shopping on Friday night rather than Saturday. The store is less crowded on Friday, and why should I take up time on day off doing this chore?

Parking

As I had mentioned before in an earlier entry, we have this neighbor who is a rather clueless parallel parker. This morning, I noticed that he had put out two lawn chairs in the street to “save” his parking space. First of all, this is never done during Musikfest. The street is for public parking, and Dipshit should know better.

In the winter, it’s a different story. It’s sort of an unwritten rule that if there is a major snow storm and you have spent the time to dig out your car and the parking space, it’s okay to reserve that space with a chair or a crate or what have you.

So, getting back to Dipshit, if the cars that park in front and behind the chairs park too close, he’ll never be able to get in the spot anyway. I would hope that during the day someone took the initiative to just move the chairs.

Cleaning Supplies

Before I left home this morning, the cleaning lady gave me a bunch of directives about new supplies that she needs. I’m thinking she wants to go the more disposable route, since she specified that she wants a new micro fiber mop and an extendable Swiffer. If it makes her clean any better, I’m all for it.

Everyone is still talking about Teacher’s Pet’s behavior on Saturday. So, it wasn’t just my imagination. The girl truly is a nasty bitch. The phones are getting busier, so it’s not quite as boring today as it has been for the last few weeks. In a couple weeks, I won’t even have time to think.

Musikfest

Today is the start of Musikfest in our town. It’s a 10-day music festival of mostly free performances, although there are headliners like Blondie, Chris Isaak, David Cook and others on the main stage that have ticket fees. Over a million people descend on this town over the next 10 days, and traffic and parking are a mess.

Because of our house’s location, we are only a couple minutes walk from it all, and as a result, our street is very popular for parking. Fortunately, we do have two spaces in the alley that are on our property, so instead of parking on the street as we normally do, we have to park behind the house. It’s a minor inconvenience, but most of our neighbors are not lucky enough to have off-street parking.

This is the one time of year when our neighbor, whom I refer to as “Dipshit”, is out of luck for parking. The rest of the year he hogs the street and usually takes up a couple of spaces, since he doesn’t know how to parallel park properly. It serves him right that he’ll have to scrounge for parking for the duration of Musikfest.

I’m not very neighborly, I guess.

Recuperating

Today has been a very lazy day. We slept in, went to Staples to replace my mouse, and get a new flash drive. On the menu for dinner is grilled pork ribs, corn and baked potato wedges. This is quite a departure from the lobster in Maine.

I've been watching junk TV all afternoon, and Ed and I have been on separate floors...me upstairs, he downstairs. It might be a good idea after all the "togetherness" this week.

Back to work tomorrow.

Home

It was a long, annoying car trip. That is all.