More procrastination, although I have made progess...

Sso I'm watching Ninja Warrior and not creating content and input rules for my database, but it is so much more fn to watch this. NW is the most awesome Japanese obstacle course show I've ever seen. I never watched it until bro moved in back in May and introduced me. Now its definitely a show I turn to when nothing else I'd rather see is on. I would say its in my top 20 shows though and rising. In fact, I might watch new ones if they came on G4, like the one they're doing to November. I like the girls, but I really watch for the sometimes hot and brawny, or not so brawny, men. They are the reason I'm posting a second blog today. Mhhhmmm, look at the pecs on that guy........... sigh. Yeah, there are lots of reasons to watch NW, so watch it if you can or not. They just get so excited.

Procrastinating on homework

So I'm procrastinating right now. I have to finish the bulk of my assingment for SLIS 5200 tomorrow and I didn't really start until today. I'd worked out what I wanted to say, but hadn't said it yet. I've also got some due dates for SLIS5080 for this week and both assignment for that class are group, so I have to start discussing some articles before Tuesday, I think, so long as I have something to say, I may be able to put it off til later and its not like the group has to come to a consensus or anything or produce a report or posting, this is just us talking amongst ourselves, I think.

Went to hike with my Little today rather then church. I was prepared to go to church after dropping her off since church starts at 11:30, but it took a lot longer to get everything together, get out there, and well everything then I'd expected. I reckoned we'd hike for an hour, I would take her home, and that would be it. Instead, I picked her up and she still had to get ready, then she had no breakfast, it was 9 am, and so we stopped at McDonalds, where she wanted to play. I played hide and go seek with the kids, yes this includes crawling through the tubes and stuff. It was a lot of fun. I miss playing like that. The only thought you have is not getting caught and feeling like you're on the edge of your seat, waiting to be caught. :) Lots of fun and we played for almost an hour. None of the other adults played, but the sign says adults are allowed to play too, so I did.

Then we went to the DISD Nature Center and hiked for an hour. The kids really liked it, despite the bugs. I think they had more fun at McD, but still liked the nature. Other then the bugs, we saw some cool plants and the pond/lake. D said she's like to go fishing there with her Gpa. We actually saw a boy and his Dad, or whatever, going to the l/p with fishing stuff, so obviously this ideas occured to others too.

The D was again hungry, so we went up to McD again and had lunch and played on the equipment for another hour. This time I tripped over my feat while running to base and fell on my knees, ooh they are bruised now, just goes to show that I'm not as young as I used to be, a thought I will revisit on Friday ;)

So while I thought I would drop D and her friend off at 11:00, we ended up finishing at 2:30. Wow, it was a lot of fun, and my thighs are telling me I should play like a kid more often whilst my stomach tells me not to eat like a kid. Yes, I finished off D's fries, sad that. Oh and I had a caramel sunday that was SO good. mhhhhhmmmm, good.

Btw, did my roots again, I guess I'm going to stay red for a little longer. I am considering a haircut though...

Can't wait, Heroes is tomorrow, more awesomeness.

So I did some cooking experimentation last night (no that is not a picture of my cooking, but one I got from http://cleanplateclubnyc.com/2007/04/18/taoism/ that looked good, my sister didn't give me back my digital until this morning :luv her: ) and today. I made a couple of dishes I’d never made before. I made a Quiche and Salmon. I also made that wonderful crème brulee I’d made before and it was just as wonderful today and yesterday. I finally picked up some real ramekins. The only ones I had were 2 I got from a garage sale in Worland. Now I have 8 more courtesy of the dollar section at Target. Susie-Q and I went there before the baseball game last week to kill time since the Church is near downtown and I assumed, even though we were going mostly against traffic on a Friday evening, that we’d be delayed where Woodall Rogers hits 45N/75N/ Central. We weren’t and traffic moved along swimmingly, so we had 20 minutes to kill and stopped an exit early at Target and picked up the ramekins and some sodas.

Okay, so I’ve got some ramekins and my wonderful stomach came to the rescue against because I ate all the crème brulee between last night and lunch today, that’s 6 portions, 1 right out of the oven, another after the salmon and another right before bed, then 2 for breakfast this morning. The upside to this gluttony is that I washed the ramekins and made quiche for lunch, and now the quiche is automatically portion controlled and I only ate one for lunch. Now for the recipes…

Never having cooked any sort of fish other then nuking fish sticks, I was trepidatious about cooking anything fish, but I persevered and went up to Kroger after work. Lo and behold, the Salmon was a manager’s special and I picked up 1.25 pounds for $5, more then I’d normally pay for a protein, but it didn’t break the bank. I actually went there for catfish, but they only has 2 packages left and both smelled faintly fishy, the salmon on the other hand had no fishy aroma, so you know which one I bought J. I looked at lots of dishes online and combined them to make my own

 1.25 lb filet of atlantic salmon
 1/3 yellow onion
 ½ green bell pepper
 2 tbsp garlic
 2 tbsp olive oil or more
 8 oz of rotel style canned tomatoes, I used Italian seasoned ones
 3/5 cup of mushrooms
 8 oz feta cheese


1. Put the olive oil in the skillet to heat up on medium heat.
2. When you fell its hot enough, add the garlic, onions, bell peppers.
3. After about 5 minutes, add the tomatoes and let cook for about 3 more minutes.
4. Remove veggies to another plate, but leave as much of the juice in the pan as you can.
5. Add another tbsp of olive oil.
6. Raise heat to high.
7. Add salmon to skillet, skin side down.
8. Leave mostly alone for 10 minutes, then turn over and cook a further 7. Sprinkle half the feta on top
9. Remove from skillet and leave for a few minutes for everything to settle before eating it. Oh, and top with the feta.

I love this dish, the this dish is good for both feta-haters and fish-haters because the two flavors really neutralize the negative flavors in each other. The feta seems less sharp with the fish and the fish less fishy with the feta. Now the salmon I ate I’d bought in the store less then an hour earlier and when I got it, there were no fishy smell, so there was only the merest hit of fishiness in the finished product, but I have a feeling that even with a fishier fish, the fishiness would be cut down by the feta. Try saying that 5 times fast. J

I saw lots of bicyclists on my way to work today. Today is a beautiful day for it. The air has a bit of a fall crispness and the sun is shining merrily. I do love days like today. In fact, I think I’m going to bicycle to grandma’s house. It’s almost 3 miles away and I’ll be building on my last distance of almost 2 miles away. Hopefully, it won’t heat up too much before this afternoon. Today is also my Little’s b-day, so I’m going to call and see if she wants to do anything, or if she wants to go with me to her Fair day since the Fair started yesterday :celebrate:

Going down to Winnie next weekend. I got a coworker to switch shifts so I can leave Thursday afternoon. We should be gone by 5:00 and be at Ann’s by 10:00. It’s going to be great, or awesome. Then on Friday afternoon/evening (sometime between 5 and 8 depending) we’re going to return.

Williamsburg, VA for vacation

It's confirmed, I've reserved at week at Williamsburg Plantation, a place with decent to excellant reviews in, you guessed it, Williamsburg, Virginia. The average temperature in Williamsburg in October is 70, making it eminently travelable with a dog. Why, you may ask, does this matter? Because I'm going to bring Luna with me. That's right, for a $75 fee and hassel of using a pet freindly room (I call this a hassle because I'll probably be put in the older one and I've heard a couple bad things about it from online reviews) I can bring my sweet ;) little doggie.

I'm going to be there from October 27 to November 3. This means I get to drive 20 hours to get there. I don't want to fly because of Luna and I'll want to drive around while I'm there. I considered a rental car, but it hardly seems worth the expense, most don't get any better gas milage then my Taurus and I know my car and won't have to worry about returning the cars with exorbitant pings anywhere. Also it would cost more, you know how it is. I'm to stay in a 2 beadroom, 2 bath condo, yes this is for one person and her dog. Certainly more then I need, but this is what they had available. My parents offered me a condo week for my birthday. It costs $139 to use the condo with a further $39 fee since I'm not named in their account. :( It's also going to be another $75 for Luna. This does add up, but I think it's worth it. It still costs less than $40 a night for a huge 2 bd, 2 bth apartment with a jacuzzi tub and you can't beat that. I'm looking forward to seeing Williamsburg with my dog. I found the names of several restaurants that allow dogs to sit with you on the patio and if the weather is nice, that will be a great option, as will just walking around with her. I do miss that dog when I go away without her, so why not bring her with me? Well, I'll answer that. She's yet to go potty in the house, but she did go sometimes when I lived in an apartment and she couldn't go out as frequently.

I fear she may regress and I will just have to stay on top of that. Also worrisome is that this is a pet freindly unit and they are in limited supply, but this is the off season and the chick on the phone said it wouldn't be a problem, but my reservation won't go into their system for a week, so I have to call back next week to confirm. Also with pet freindly units, a dog may have gone potty on the floor and other dogs can smell that and will go there as well. As long as I take her out after feeding her and also every few hours, she should be fine. It's not like I have a job while on vacation and will have to leave her alone all day again.

Another concern is that she does bark, if I leave her alone in the condo, I don't want her to bark. She'll probably sleep, but if something interesting walks by, esspecially other dogs, she will bark at it and she has a resounding bark. I've thought about using one of the bark shockers, but I hate to do it. Do I have a choice? Alsi, she's not trained to a crate right now, but I think I should crate her in the condo whenever I'm not there, but I would certainly need to start that now so I have to pick up a portable crate. Also she sleep most of the time while we drive, so she'd be much safer and not too terribly unhappy in a crate. Hmmm, vacation considerations, I'll talk more about them tomorrow.

Polygamy

So I’ve been hearing about a case lately about some girl who accused her husband of raping her, and btw they happen to be polygamists. Everything about this case seems to tell me it’s a witch hunt. I mean what did he do that was worth prison time?

Now, some 14 year olds can handle marriage, my Grandmother was 14 when she married Grandpa and they are one of the most loving and connected couples I know. There are some 14 year olds who are too immature to marriage and this chick would seem to have been one of them. Also, this is a free country, that girl could have been pressured into marriage, but she could not have been forces. All you have to do is say ‘no’. Now, the girl also claimed that she tried to kill herself after the first time they had sex, really. Lol yeah right. Totally emo this one is. Now I’m just waiting for a twin brother to arrive and for her to accuse him of rape only for him to turn out to have amnesia and have come back from the dead. Yes, I’m thinking soap opera. I just look Elissa Wall up by name, wow, she’s kinda ugly too. You’d never think she would have an illegitimate child would you, but wasn’t she pregnant by another man when she divorced her first husband. Yeah, you all probably know what I think of her by now. It’s not a secret, I think she’s a misguided, pathetic, lying, manipulative 21 year old. There are plenty of other people out there who are just like her, but they aren’t encouraged to come up with stories against family like she was so they don’t get their 15 minutes unless they somehow become famous, like for murder, theft, acting, singing, assault, whatever.

Oh bother, don’t get me started in on her anymore, I might become mean J

So the whole polygamy thing. I mean what’s really wrong with it? Of course, now it has the reputation for being a kooky institution practiced by crazies living on the edge of society and using the poligamistic beliefs to force marriages and underage sex on women. Well, this is to be expected given that polygamy is illegal, who but a certain type of person is going to practice it?

All right, so these are my opinions, fell free to have your own…

Totally web 2.0, and Heroes

So I'm going to do something a little different this year for my Nanowrimo. I'm going to write it via on online private wiki at http://www.netcipia.com. This will hopefully cut down on the whole emailing the document to myself and getting confused on versions and so forth thing that happens to me every year. Maybe I'll finish for the first time in 6 tries. Yes, I started in 2001 and the closed I've come is 21,000 words. I seem to get stymied around 15,000, also Nanowrimo is in November, a notoriously busy time for students and I started my freshman year in college and am about to finish my Masters, so I'm just so busy in November. Maybe if I can get all the planning done in October, I can really celebrate it. I'm thinkin of going on vacation the week of Halloween, so I can see Williamsburg in the Fall, I hear its quite beautiful in October. The weather should be cold, but not too cold, and I'll be able to devote at least a couple days to nanowrimo while staying in a condo. All these wins make it hard to resist, although this does mean I'll be out of town for Halloween, but who really cares, I'm not big on Halloween, although it might be fun to see what's happening in Williamsburg that night, just for funsies to quote Scrubs.

Saw Heroes last night. How awesome was that. I mean, we kill off Sulu, although I rather doubt that he'll be absent for the rest of the season, can we all say 'flashbacks'? We also see a stalking emo potential bf for Claire, the 'normal', and a scene with HRG going all assassin on his power tripping manager. Ooh, and that scene with Molly and Matt with the new villain was a bit creey. I hesitate to say super-creepy this early on when I know its going to get mondo worse. Also, to mention the previews which bro refuses to watch since he figures they may spoil it for him (for me they just whet the appetite), we see Syler on a beach getting a drink. So he doesn' drink blood, who knew?

Flat Tire

I got a flat tire on my way home. Yes, I’d just left Eastfield, so it was THAT part of Mesquite. I was all prepared to do it all myself when I realized that my spare tire was undrivable. The rubber was literally cracked and showing a LOT of metal. First I was approached by an older black man. He offered to put the spare on for a few dollars. I wasn’t carrying any cash and he offered to do it anyway, but I didn’t really want to drive on that tire. Then some gentlemen from the service station across the way came over and kept me company until Dad got there. So this was my disaster of the evening. I used some sort of tire fill-up in a can and when to a nearby Chevron to continue filling the tire up. I’m heading to the store tomorrow to replace both the back tires since if one goes out, chances are the other one will go out to. I’m also going to have to remember to replace that spare. Maybe I’m a suspicious person, but I wonder if someone from Walmart stole my spare and gave me one in much worse shape since my spare was showing no tred when I used it last May and I’ve not used it since. Of course I’ve left my car alone several times since then, so who knows if someone stole it, or maybe it was seriously damaged the last time I used it. Although I drove it less then 5 miles and less then an hour.

I also found out my blog is accessible on Google, I guess it just makes sense with the whole Google Blogger thing. I search for Seagoville bikes and my blog entry of today was in the first 10 results. Cool. This reminds me of Jake Sisko from DS9. When told he didn’t have any readers, he was hopeful and replied that when people did read his stories, they would be interested. Could this be my philosophy?

Biking and Luna and Dog Training

Well, my allergies were much less pronounced today. It’s like my head was encased in foam and the foam was eaten by some giant space anteater last night. Hmmm, I’m happy I wasn’t awake for that. J I’m still sniffly and the post-nasal drip still drips down the back of my throat and my ears still itch (which is odd since its usually my eyes that itch). I actually felt well enough to bike up to Minyards (about 2 miles with some hills) and pick up some more allergy meds and nasal decongestants. On my way home I had to grin. A motorcyclist rode by me and actually waved and smiled at me. Oh, the camaraderie of the open road. Well, my calves hurt during the ride, but I felt reasonably good, if overheated. I do wish I’d eaten first because there were a couple times I felt I could have eaten a house.

Which leads me to my next point. Dude, I’ve been hungry lately. I just keep eating. Like today, I ate steak and broccoli at about noon, then at 4 had a chili cheese dog from Sonic and lots of peanuts and a couple of cheese sticks. Now it’s 5:45 and I’m hungry again. What’s with this? Is it because of the exercise? Luna got out with the bike today and she ran beside the bike for quite awhile, having fun and gamboling away with her BF from next door. About half-way through, she got distracted. Since I didn’t intend to bring her or her BF with me anyway, I just allowed her to be distracted and went along my merry way to Minyards. When I returned, her BF and her and found their ways to their respective home with no harm done. I just hope they didn’t annoy anyone. I guess they treat the whole street like it’s their one big yard. Almost funny.

I’ve been working more with Luna lately on training. I think she’s finally figured out what stay is, now I just need to keep it going and get her to come when called. It almost works, but she’s still such a puppy and just wants to have fun.

Tomorrow’s bike ride is going to go through some of the back roads of Seagoville and Luna is not invited. Wish me luck (with not eating the cows I’ll see along the way).

Hay Fever :(

That’s right, I’ve been afflicted with hay fever for the past few days. It started when I was down in Beaumont with my sister. We were shopping and eating and playing with my nephew and all I really wanted was to take a nap. Then I had to drive 2 and a half hours toward Dallas until my Mom took pity on me and took over. Thank goodness because I was feeling a bit woozy at the time and it probably wasn’t a good idea for me to drive.

So I stayed home from work yesterday to pamper my hay fever. The sleep felt great. It seems all I want to do right now is sleep. This really is the pits even beside the sniffling, sneezing, post nasal drip inspiring coughing and wooly head. I tried Dayquil but it did no good. I’m not sure that the anti-histamines work either, but I’ve heard they can take a few days to get started in your system. I usually only get hay fever when the weather changes in the Spring and Fall. I got hit pretty hard last February and it lasted for a very miserable 2 weeks in which I used up just about all my sick leave. I hope this time isn’t as bad. I’ve got what’s left from the prescriptions in the Spring and I’ll try Claritin again. It usually work on me, but didn’t last Spring for some reason.

What really bites is that I just bought a bike and was really looking forward to riding it this week. But with my muscles feeling like jelly and slow reflexes both from the hay fever and the medication, I don’t think a bike ride would be particularly enjoyable for me or random people I would run over or be run over by.

My sister drove part of the way down 45. She got an hour of freeway driving in the relatively un-trafficky freeway on Saturday afternoon. I stopped her about 60 miles from Houston and took over since I wasn’t comfortable with her driving with more than a few other cars on the road. She’d already drifted into the left-hand lane several times. Oh well, I’m extremely proud of her. She also drove for about an hour on 175 once we hit Kaufman. She was nagging at us to let her drive before that, but I did not want her driving my car on 2 lane highways. Not when, she’s already drifted into other lanes. However, on the second highway trip she was much better. I only had to remind her twice to stay in her lane and not take over the entire highway. I should mention that my sister is 15 and these were her first experiences driving on the freeway. She’s looking forward to getting her license in February, much more then I think any of us did except my brother Charlie. I waited to get my license until I was 18, as did everyone else in my family. Bro wanted it before he was 18, but was content to drive illegally since getting your license before turning 18 requires a class or your parent’s help.

It’s hard to sit in a car with a beginning driver and not freak out. I think I did a good job with calmly giving Kat suggestions and keeping her focused on the road and not allowing her to change the radio station or play with any controls until I knew she could handle it. Now I would feel more comfortable with it all. It was funny, she actually asked my Dad if he would let her drive herself to seminary in the mornings from now on. It’s about 10 miles, mostly highway and 6 am so the raids aren’t busy. I feel guilty now, my Dad asked me to drive my sister to school in downtown Dallas this morning and I said no. If I’d known to car was going to cost $3,000 to fix (it’s in the shop right now and they’ve got a rental car) I would have probably said yes, or maybe not. I don’t think my current slow reflexes would be good with downtown traffic. Besides, you would think Dad would want to enjoy driving that big SUV the car repair people gave him to drive as much as possible.

Bicycle Commuting

Well, this idea first occured to me in the Spring, but I did nothing about it. Yesterday right there on my Google homepage was an article labeled "How to Bicycle commute" or something to that effect. I decided then and there to start and went to Craigslist. Picking at pretty slim right now with most listing either out of my price range or clear across town. I stopped at the thrift store and they had a sort of rusty, but reasonably decent used bike for $50 and that was it. Frankly, I wasn't going to pay $50 for a thrift store bicycle, especially since I don't know much about bikes. I suppose I could have driven to the nearest Local Bike Store, but didn't. I went to Wlmart and picked up the Ladies Schwinn Sidewinder. I really like the style and I sat on it and could feel myself cycling with it and it was marked down $30. I picked up a bike tool set, head and tail lights, and helmet as well, all for under $175. Now I did play around a little with tightening some screws and it took awhile to figure out the front tire release, but I feel really comfortable on my new bike.

Now why did I have to buy a new bike? Because it's been years since I owned a bike. I think the last one I owned was in Germany. I've wanted to own ones since then, but it hasn't worked out. I never get around to going out and buying one.

The weather in Dallas this past week has been perfect. This is another reason I'm thinking about bike riding. The air is so fresh, I just wast to cycle somewhere.

To get myself back in the bicycling groove, I'm going to try to do all my local errands on the bike. Eventually, I'd like to use it to commute to work a few times a week, except when I'm driving SuSu to school with me. I'm a little nervous about riding my bike home at 10 p.m. It's late and I don't work in the best part of town. Of course, it's not really a bad part of town either. There've been attacks at Eastfield before, but I'll be clipping away on a bike. I'm also a little nervous about the distance, but I'll work up to it. I could park my car in downtown Mesquite and ride the bike the 5 or so miles to campus. But you know, its only 13 miles from my house to work via side roads. It's doable and would certainly help me get my exercise thing going. Also another benefit of working at a community college is the women's locker rooms. This is irrespective of the weight room and pool which are also both awesome benefits. When I read about some people who commute and have no shower or changing facilities at work, I feel happy that Eastfield doesn't have that issue.

Oh well, time to sike myself up for bike butt. You know, that pain before your derriere gets used to the bicycle seat. It usually lasts about a week for me, but I've got to do it. You know, get in shape and save on gas. And in a nuclear holocaust, ala Jericho, I would be comfortable on my bike as transportation around the diseased and irradiated Dallasites (Dallas was one of the nuclear detonation points in Jericho.)

Wish me luck!!!