Birth. School. Work. Death.

When I’m on the road, for work, I don’t drink.

Believe it or don’t – but it’s true. I resist the pre-dinner drink or the wine with meal. It is just safer that way – for all involved.

Tonite, I felt differently. WAY differently. I downed four, count ‘em, large-ass beers from a micro-brew in downtown DC.

Though I didn’t make an ass of myself or anything, I did become what folks would consider unusually quiet – listening to the following (in no particular order)

• golf
• football – pro
• football – college
• basketball – pro
• basketball – college
• Barack Obama
• tennis
• hermaphordies
• pseudo-hermaphrodites
• Jamie Lee Curtis
• Tiger Woods
• darts
• Hillary Clinton

Seriously, is it any wonder when the automaton waitress kept coming by I’d just say, “I’ll have another one…….”?

Song by: the Godfathers

Record of the Month

I figured I’d do a monthly ‘what I’m listening to’ kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it’s my blog! So there!

These may or may not be newly released disks. They might not even be a good disk – just what is been in heavy rotation in my car (as usually the iPod is playing anywhere else).

Cover albums are a risky business at best. And for the life of me I cannot think of one that has entirely worked. Tribute albums are a different thing – at least with multiple artists paying tribute to a singular artist or cause.

But a singular artist covering music that has already been recorded is always an iffy proposition – especially if the material is well known and had been popular in the day.

I’m a huge fan of Allison Moorer’s disk, The Duel. But not so much of Mockingbird.

The entire disk is marginal. Nothing shines – even for a moment. It is very frustrating, especially because Moorer has such a great voice. The song choices and arrangements are flawed. Deeply.

I don’t think the fact that all the songs are by female writers has anything to do with it. Buddy Miller’s production doesn’t really add a thing to the songs – and possibly detracts from it.

A 4/4 version of “Ring of Fire”? The blandest cover of Patti Smith’s “Dancing Barefoot”? And an emotionless take of Gillian Welch’s “Relavator? It was really too much to take.

I don’t know why I do this to myself. I’m a sucker for a cover album, or the possibility of one and they never come out well. Not at all. Ever.

I do think it is why I like some tribute albums – though they are hit and miss too. Take the one to Elton John. Sinead O’Connor’s take on “Sacrifice” or George Michael’s “Tonite” – both make the album of other crap songs by BonJovi or (ugh) Wilson Phillips! Or try the Spirit of ‘73 – with a great version of , yes, “Dancing Barefoot” and “Have You Never Been Mellow” (seriously!)

Well, here is hoping Moorer can come back with a new disk of original material that suits her. That suits me. But this ain’t it.

Re-Election Day

I’m traveling most of this week, and the primary is following one, so I thought to be safe, I would complete my absentee ballot this last weekend and get it off in the mail.

As I went down the decision tree, I had to make choose what I thought was the most viable candidate. Experience or change – if one can even quantify ‘change’. Polarizing or uniting. Man or woman. Black or white.

There was also a nagging (?) quote that kept coming back to me from Liz Lemon (30 Rock) from a first season episode (those who truly know me will not be the least bit surprised I retained this):

Tracy took advantage of my white guilt, which is to be used only for good like over-tipping and supporting Barack Obama.

I made a conscious decision not to vote on black or white guilt.

Had either Obama or Clinton been far enough ahead that it wouldn’t have mattered, I would have voted for Kucinich. Yes, he dropped out of the race weeks ago, but not long enough to be taken off the ballot here. I don’t know if that would have sent a message or not, but I would have felt better.

No matter who I voted for, I felt I was compromising myself. …and not that I don’t most elections, but this one seemed to be more so. It is probably timing. If I think hard, I had zero desire to vote for Kerry. I didn’t vote for Kerry – I voted against Bush. The difference isn’t even all that subtle – in my mind.

It really did come down to change over experience. And since any of the democrats are going to be a huge change over the current administration – I went for experience.

I just haven’t heard anything of substance from Obama other than ‘change’. Tell me how. Tell me how. Tell me how. PLEASE tell me how!!!

With less two years of congressional experience, how will he navigate change in a current democratic congress that can’t pass a frickin’ thing now?? G-d fuckin forbid tides change and there isn’t a ruling House or Senate from his own party.

For the time being, Hillary is my man. It is just a gut check.

Song by: Arcadia

Cook of the House

I hate when good recipes go bad.

Ok – maybe it wasn’t a good recipe, but it sounded good. Unfortunately Ina Garten can make anything sound good…..and doable.

I shouldn’t blame the Contessa – I’m sure it is something I did. Or didn’t do.

For gosh’s sakes it was only macaroni and cheese. Sure it had like 4lbs of cheese (three different kinds!)…..and bacon and I followed the directions to a T.  What could possibly go wrong?

Don’t get me wrong – it wasn’t horrible or inedible. Maybe my expectations were too high.  Maybe my skills weren’t high enough.  Normally they aren’t when I cook and things still work out.  At least I enjoy the process, if not the final product.

….and it’s still harder than I thought to be a food photographer.  I don’t know how those guys who do the Ponderosa menu do it!

Song by: Linda McCartney and Wings
(seriously – one of the worst songs ever put to tape!)

Is (s)He Really Going Out with Him?

I was telling my email group about the ‘first date’ I had two nights ago.

No – I’m not dating behind my bf’s back, but the dinner and drinks I had with a co-worker felt more like a first date than it did of catching a meal and tossing back a few.

Come Monday I’ll be at my job for a year. It seems like a week. It seems like a decade.

Anyway, Scott has been there for less time than I have and though we had bonded, we never really did anything outside of work.  But I really haven’t with anyone from there.   …..did I mention he was straight?

So we went on a man date.

Chow and booze.  Albeit good chow and booze.  I’m happy to settle for bar food…or just a bar.  But I ended up with a spinach salad (great!) and ravioli stuffed with dungeness crab (it sounded better than it was).

Naturally, I tried to annoy the waiter when he asked if we wanted to start with a drink.  Scott, being a gentleman, motions for me to go first:  “I’ll have a Squash Strawberry Alleycat“, I replied.  Neither of them knew what to do with that!

I pretty much stuck with beer and wine, but Scott likes his bourbon.

We tried not to talk about work, but you know how well that usually goes – though it was kept to a minimum.  But that Makers Mark just let Scott babble on and on and on.  …but in a good way.  Some stuff I wouldn’t reveal here, some I could.

One of the more interesting is his telling me of his 18 year old son, who is gay, and came out to him about three years ago.   At 15!  …can you imagine?  Not to sound too much like my parents, but it really is a different world.  I mean – I knew at 15, but I wasn’t telling my father!  Or even contemplating it.  No, I was figuring how the hell to get out of Dodge and live my life.

And here I am umpteen decades later………back in Dodge.

I can see Denton and I doing stuff with Scott and his wife.  He has got a great sense of humor and I’m assuming she must at least tolerate him asDenton does me.  We’ll see.

….and for the record…..I don’t need a flashy red convertible…….if you know what I mean!!!

Song by: Joe Jackson

Shopping w/Blobby

Yet another installment in the drudgery that is everyday shopping. The camera-phone makes it a bit more fun – though I get looks whenever I take pics of products. Like I care what people think!

Is it just me – or does “Mrs. Stewart” look an awful lot like a Robin Williams?

Robin Williams as a woman – but not as Mrs. Doubtfire.

I don’t even know what ‘liquid bluing’ is. And how does ‘bluing’ make white clothes whiter? In theory, it should make them bluer…..or ‘more blue’, as any normal person might say.

Big Bang Baby

I don’t know exactly how to describe our property – but what would be the traditional front of the house now overlooks a three lane, one-way street……and there is no access to the ‘front door’.

You now approach the house from the back and come in the side. All the houses on our street have been retrofitted to have the back of the house to now be the front. Ours is even weirder, as we sit at an angle. Back in the day (like 50-80 years ago), everyone overlooked a bluff. We still do, but the roads and access ways are different.

And the property line goes down and around the hill – and along the three lane road, and it’s on a curve. Speed limit is 20 mph, but no one goes that slow. You can times it by two.

Because of that – there seem to be many many accidents.   It has gotten to the point that I can hear even the slightest fender bender that culminates in backed-up traffic.

Like yesterday morning.  Denton and I both heard it, but when traffic never stopped or slowed down, I actually questioned my intuitive skills.   But then I left the house for the office and got around the corner and saw this:

The car was headed the wrong way up the hill, but into our property.  I didn’t take this picture.  Denton did.  (and yes, I know the speed limit sign says 35 mph, but that is after you get around the curve for the straight away.)

I called him from my car saying the automobile was there, no one had stopped to help and there was someone in the car (mind you 15 minutes had gone by from sound to sight), so he called the police.  He also went out and called down to the woman, who by this time was out of the car.

Several of our neighbors thought maybe she was headed the wrong way on a one-way street, but that seems unlikely.  Not at that time of the morning.  Too much traffic to make that mistake…..and get that far.

No, I’m guessing someone was changing lanes, clipped her and she spun around – not that it was icy or anything.

Maybe it is my skewed recollection, but she seemed to be deeper into our trees when I saw her then when Denton took the picture.  Of course, maybe she tried to back out too.  Dunno.  I’m half-guessing the car is still there and will see it when I go to work tomorrow morning.

Is it any wonder we continually find car parts, garbage, liquor bottles and full sets of men’s clothing on that hillside?

Song by: Stone Temple Pilots

Black Coffee

So as I went to NoVA to get my new clinic ready for opening, I made a swing around the entire place. I checked out the physical therapy area, the lab, the offices and exam rooms.

Naturally I also peaked my head into the break room too…….and lookee what I saw (and took a picture of).

Hand to g-d, this was not a staged photo.  While my staff was setting up the clinic, the coffee maker arrived, but cups did not.  So they improvised.  I’m not a coffee drinker, and this would not really help the cause of making me one.

Yes, the normal cups did indeed arrive, but they never got rid of the last of the other cups.

All of this made me immediately flash on the “fun” Jon and I had when we used to work at OSU Hospitals, back in the day.  You know – he’d fill a urine tech tube up with apple juice, label it with a patient identifier and then pneumatic tube it to the unit I was working on.

Then while the staff on my unit were hanging around, they’d watch me grab the ’sample’, open it up and drink it.

Good times.  Good times.

Song by: k.d. lang

Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect

Like a year later, we are getting closer to starting the frickin’ master bathroom.  After several renderings, sketches and drawings (which are really all the same thing – aren’t they?), this is what we are settling on.

…and I don’t mean ’settle’.  Agreed upon.  That’s better. And there was no blood shed, so that’s good – right?

It looks a lot more elaborate than it really is.  Both windows are already there, though the right one has been covered up for years – for unknown reasons.   But yes, there will need to be new sinks, the tub that exists will have to be taken out and we’ll just put in the shower.

It’s only a drawing, so the shower isn’t really four sides of glass.  Though that would clearly appeal to my exhibitionistic streak.  The two back walls are solid – sad to say.

Ok, we still have to pick tile, colours and fixtures – so there is still time for WWIII – but I think any disagreements will come when the project takes X amount of months and I melt down two months before that.

Maybe we can see this thing completed before we hit 2009.

Song by: the Decemberists

Bigmouth Strikes Again

I don’t think I mentioned that around the xmas holidays we had taken Tovah to the vet. ….and by ‘we’, of course, I mean Denton.

After we lost Kylie about 18 months ago, I couldn’t bear the possibility of hearing bad news, as Tovah is now the age Kylie was when she got ill – so I didn’t go.

Since they are not outdoor cats, we have been really bad about going to the vet regularly. With Sophie – that has all changed. She’s gone more times than Tovah and Kylie combined.

There was good news and bad. Overall, Tov’s health was good – except some dental stuff. The poor girl had six infected teeth that needed to come out. Ouchy.

Cats are very stoic – so we didn’t know that she was in probably in pain. A few weeks later, Denton took her back in for the tooth extraction and she came through that just fine….though she is never too happy with us when she goes in the carrier or in a car.  Oh – and they also took photos of her mouth during surgery.  I couldn’t even look at them – though for about a nano-second I thought of scanning and posting them.   You can thank me later for not doing that.

Apparently cats use their teeth to kill things more than they do to eat kibble. So she bounced back quickly – though she got a few days of pain killer and a week and a half of antibiotic (you guessed it – Denton gave her that too!).  She has been happy and a little feisty (not 1-2-3-4 Fiest-y), so I think she’s ok now.

She had one follow-up appointment where she got the all-clear. But the vet gave us a cat dental device, so we can brush her teeth…….the ones that remain. You can see it below – it’s like a plastic ring you wear and get the right side of the thingy in her mouth. GOOD LUCK with that!

….but also if you look close at the picture, she gets Poultry Flavoured toothpaste.

I suppose that is supposed to make it all better!

Song by: the Smiths