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At the Pas

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July 13th, 2009

Coffee Madness

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I'm all about making good coffee )



Mmmmmmm, coffee goodness. 

Is it worth it? Oh yeah. No reheating coffee or leaving it on the hot plate of a drip maker where it keeps cooking, the thermos will keep the coffee hot for hours and hours. Flooding the coffee grounds gives you a much better extraction than the slow drip of an automatic maker. As far as speed goes, this is very quick. I can beat my automatic maker any day. But the proof is in the cup. Side by side with the same grounds this tastes much better than my automatic maker, it's that simple. 

BTW anyone want a good slightly used coffee maker?  : )

 
 

July 12th, 2009


You're doin' it wrong.


Oh bother.

Cutting myself is an occupational hazard of mine. I give myself a little slice almost every week or so, mostly just a scratch that only needs a band-aid. (see earlier article on adhesive dressing selection) but once a year or so I really give myself one to remember. Last time I buried a chisel into the heel of my hand, this time I sliced deep into my left index finger across the first knuckle. I was moving the blade with sufficient force that it hit the near side of the knuckle and then carried around to the other side. I don't think I cut the tendon, at least not all the way through, I did hit the bone though and I'm afraid I cut some nerves. Though with luck the numbness is just because of the swelling. I bled like the proverbial stuck pig. Standing at the back door waiting for Jill to bring me a paper towel (I'm over nice about the rugs) I left a moderate puddle. This time at least I didn't have to drive to a Food Lion for bandages, and since I was able to work on it right away I didn't have to reopen it and let out the collected blood. Jill was able to help out quite a bit which surprised me since even a little blood makes her pale and this was not a little.


It's a razor cut so it will heal fine without stitches as long as I can keep it closed and leave it be. Hurts like hell and I won't be able to fight on Tuesday like I had planned. I'll also be partially handicapped for a week or so, maybe I can get some drawing done at last. Tomorrow will be the worst day if it's a anything like last time. Yay.


-Justus

(no subject)

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Had a splendid dinner tonight at the Melting Pot. Didn't really plan to, just happened by when we were going out for glue. (I go through gallons of glue in a year.) Came home and watched "Sense and Sensiblity" Ahhh romance...

Jill is sore from riding and I am sore from fighting so we are quite a pair ambling slowly around the house.

-Justus

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

July 11th, 2009

(no subject)

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I see what you're doing there.

Back from practice, battered and sore but content. I fought a lot harder tonight, something like full speed and I should probably dial it back some. No pain at all, but there was zero warning the first few times so... I'll try to keep it in mind to go slow. I think I need to reinforce my vambraces a bit, that or quit hanging my arm out for all the world to hit.

Jill's lesson went well today too and the weather was very fine. She'll be jumping soon which should be fun. Her crop fell to pieces today though, I've been thinking about making her a new one so I guess I need to get with it.

Watching "Wendy and Lucy" Lucy looks very much like Ruben. He must be classic mutt.

-Justus

Posted via LiveJournal.app. *which is a crappy app, that doesn't format correctly or load images right. 

July 10th, 2009

(no subject)

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superpoop.com
superpoop.com

There are some very nice things about living in the city. One is that the dump is open till eight a night, another is that they let you drive in and dump your trash for free. This is wise since when you make people pay to dump their trash they drive down a dark road and dump it there. Yes I'm talking to you Durham.

 Course people still dump crap on the side of the road here so maybe I'm out.

One of the bad things about living in the city is the likely hood of someone knocking on your door at 3:00 AM begging for money. Course that happened to me more than once in Durham too so there is that. I felt bad for her, but I've been around the block too many times not to know the difference between someone who needs help and someone who wants to get a fix. Obviously she does need help, but not the kind I could give her, and certainly not the money she was asking for. If she had needed a ride, or help with her car, food... But never "just some money so my friend can take me to a hotel"  

  Sad stuff.

Looking forward to Jill's lesson tomorrow, she is never so happy as when she gets a chance to ride, and it is supposed to be a fine day.

-Justus

July 8th, 2009

"Let the Right One In"

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Guess the Atlantian mystery peer.


The Swedes sure know how to make a horror movie. "Let the Right One In" is head and shoulders above any other movie I've seen in it's genre. It is not perfect, and there were several times when I think the director misstepped, or didn't take full advantage of an opportunity, but where tone and overall quality are concerned it is a genuine smasher.

Creepy creepy. Wintertime in northern Sweden is creepy enough on it's own, just point a camera out into that pitch black and you have instant uneasiness. I was constantly reminded of John Gardner's "Freddy's Book" Which somehow got misplaced on the bookshelves of one of my grade schools along with a copy of "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch" and "Vision Quest" none of which are "appropriate" for grade schoolers and all are perfect examples of why we should let kids advance at their own pace. I read all those before 6th grade and look how I turned out! Well, perhaps that is not the best example... but I still think we coddle kids far too much.

Anyway I digress. I loved it, eight stars, if it doesn't set your nerves on edge than good horror films are not for you. It's a very still movie, and it is far more unsettling for it. Most movies of this type hit you over the head with the supernatural, and by focusing on it they somehow make it passe. When you spotlight something and say "Look at this!" it make it less scary. Many of the unnatural elements in this film are just a little off, just enough to make you do a double take and and get that anxious feeling that someone is right behind you in the dark. It's reality pushed just beyond what is comfortable and that is far more creepy than full on flying fanged creatures. For me anyway. The two leads are hypnotic, good child actors are possibly the rarest element on earth (they make Francium seem plentiful) and these two are exceptional. Ah, nothing like getting nice and unsettled before bed.


-Justus

July 7th, 2009

www.nataliedee.com
www.nataliedee.com



We fixed our yard. Or at least we got a good running start at it. We had let our garden strip run amok with thistle, whether it true thistle or not that is what we call the seven foot tall noxious spiny weed that grows in great profusion on our property. I had cleared the area behind the garage down to bare soil this winter, a job that required a machete, and had meant to nuke it with ground clear to keep it that way. Two weeks ago it was fine, yesterday when I opened the back gate there was an army of seven foot tall monsters completely filling the space. I think I might have let out a little squeak. Fortunately they were not very dense. Unfortunately the spines on those villains will go right through a leather glove. And they were busily copulating so I got covered in itchy pollen.

There was also the big pile of branches and assorted debris that I cleared out from behind the garage, and a bush that might have been cut down a year or three ago, a lot of "I should really do something about that " work. So we filled six big lawn bags with stuff that we don't want in our lives. Jill is a marvel of sticktoitivness, given a five foot high pile of brush she will patiently break it all down into neat bundles and stuff it into bags. The main goal here is to clear out what was a little patio area and build a little covered space so we can actually consider having people over. It would be like having another room! I'm thinking something ten by ten or so with mosquito netting and a table and chairs. We might be able to have someone over for dinner, perhaps even two someones!

Our neighbor plays xylophone in the mornings. It took me awhile to figure out what that strangely familiar sound was. I remember lying in bed thinking, "That sounds very much like a xylophone, but who on earth plays the xylophone? At home?" It's not unpleasant, and it's just quiet enough that the house has to be still for me to hear it.
 

-Justus

July 5th, 2009

On horse.

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Back from Kansas. I'm still meditating on a post about the memorial service.

Jill and I went for a ride on the C&O canal today, it was fabulous, the weather could not possibly have been better. Sunny, cool (on the 5th of July for all love) and breezy. Our horses were complacent even if they were so used to riding nose to tail that they required near constant assurance that it was ok to ride side by side. There is place called Long L Ranch out near Point of Rocks that will rent you horses for a four hour ride. There was a little misunderstanding in that the site says 'unsupervised" which is true, but they don't make it clear that the first time you visit it is in fact a guided ride. If you prove capable in that first ride you are welcome to go out by yourself next time.  We thought that they would put us up and see if were knew what we were about and then set us free, but alas no. And while our guide was a very amiable guy, having a third wheel along was kind of a damper, a date with three is never as romantic as a date with two (unless you are that special kind of couple.)  Next time however they will let us riot at our ease.

 The thing about horse people is this; I've never met a horse person, with the singular exception of my wife, that didn't think they were an expert rider.  Of course I have met some expert riders, at least three, but the vast majority of the people who consider themselves expert are intermediate at best and at worst believe that going like hell not falling off too often qualifies them as "Expert"  This is just the way of horse people, and there is no changing this. This is definitely a case of "Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius"  I think that alot of horse folks simply don't know what great riding looks like.  The irony of course is that most horse people know this (though they believe it only applies to everyone else) and take care when people tell them that they are an experienced rider. The folks as Long L Ranch certainly know this and want to see you ride before they send you off by yourself. The only objection I have is that I can tell in about a minute if someone knows how to ride, and they prefer a four hour trail ride to make sure.

Don't take any of this to mean that I myself am an expert rider. Good lord no. I can walk, I have very good ground skills, and I'm good with horses. That is it. But I've seen enough riding to know good from bad, up from down, and expert from "that girl is going to die young"  Jill would never call herself expert either, though she is a very good rider. I think you might be able to squeeze an "advanced intermediate" out of her if she is feeling good about herself that day.  Jill would rather have a perfect collected walk/trot/canter that go dashing about the field out of control. She is having fun with her hunter lessons though, and she was cantering about like a wanton last week.  : )



I, on the other hand, haven't learned how to sit a trot yet. We worked on it today and after figuring out that we were miscommunicating as only two people as close as we are possibly can I finally started to get the hang of it. Unfortunately by that time my seat bones were the consistency of minced garlic and my knee was ready to walk home on it's own. This is the first time I've ridden since my surgery and boy howdy, it brought back memories of the bad old days of post op rehab. There is a tendon on the outside of my knee that may never forgive me. But I have hope that next time I will have a better starting point.

  Nice way to spend a Sunday though, and the only mishap was me tearing my shirt to ribbons and popping off every single button when I caught it on the saddle horn dismounting. Jill said I looked very Fabio in my shredded shirt while we were putting up the horses. Poor fellow, he must have really let himself go...


-Justus



July 1st, 2009

It's true.

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superpoop.com
superpoop.com

Today was not a good day. It's my fault for being an unsociable SOB, and for not keeping my temper in check. It started well, I got a lot of work done in the shop today, including getting all the forms cut out for the deep shield press, a task that requires a lot of precision and patients. (maybe that is where I spent it all) I also got two coats on the shelves which wraps them up for delivery tomorrow. From there things went all to hell.

In other bad news Jill has an eye infection, and will probably have to go to an optometrist in the morning. : (

My shuttle for the flight leaves at 3:30. That is 3:30 AM. Saving a hundred bucks by getting the "bargain" flight on expedia is starting to seem like a bad idea.

Blah.

Lots to do tomorrow, hope things go better.

-Justus

June 30th, 2009

Gimme Shelter

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Tired and dusty.

Got to get up and take Jill in tomorrow, but I need time to unwind. Can't just stop work and head straight into bed.

Have a hoop of stuff to do before I leave Thursday, we'll see what gets done and what does not.

Confirmed tonight that I am in fact allergic to bananas. No death or anything, just swelling and itchy tissues in my mouth and throat. This sucks because one ingredient ice cream is really yummy. Freeze a bunch of bananas, (make sure they are good and ripe, moving toward brown) cut them up and toss in a food processor. I added a little milk to improve the consistency. Nice creamy "ice cream" and tasty too.

Unfortunately I'll never have it again, but Jill will be loving it.


Apparently many folks who are allergic to latex are also allergic to bananas. But that is a separate contact allergy. I have the "oral allergy syndrome" which is less sever. But it means I am probably allergic to kiwi and avocado too. (haven't noticed, but I don't eat a lot of either. This all started one day. At least I noticed it one day. I've eaten bananas all my life, no problem. Then one day I ate a banana and my mouth fell all to pieces. Very odd. So now I've joined the ranks of woe begotten miserable sods who cannot eat anything but vegetable broth for fear of death.

 

Well not so much,

 

but I will miss bananas.
 

-Justus

June 29th, 2009





"In an interview with The Associated Press this weekend at his Columbia office, just blocks from the State House, Culbertson said he believed his friend when he said that this was his only marital transgression. He thinks Gov. Sanford was simply caught off guard by "the power of darkness." 


Many people are...


June 27th, 2009

It's true.

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superpoop.com
superpoop.com


I bloody hate Itunes. I'm starting to hate Apple all together. Don't get me wrong, I hate microsoft too, with all it's stupid warnings and redundant questions, lack of any common sense at all ect, but Apple sucks in it's own fruity way.

 Itunes has managed to triple my library, without my consent BTW, and as far as I can tell there is no way to fix this problem except to go through the library and manually delete the extra two copies OF EVERY SINGLE SONG I OWN.

 Do you have any idea how many songs I own? I noticed this when my Itunes folder seemed to be about three times the normal size.   To add the sucky cherry to the top of this crap sunday, when you click "Show duplicates" in Itunes it shows you all the files, that is if you have three files it shows you all three. If it only showed the DUPLICATES, you could erase everything at once. Since it shows you all three files you have to click on each, click delete, then confirm that you really want to delete. I made it through about a thousand files tonight, it will take the rest of the week to fix this !%@$@#!@#  problem.

 Hate hate hate.




Service for Ternon

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Forwarded from the Calon list:

Ternon's lady, Tangwen (Cat) would like to let everyone know there is a memorial service planned for the evening of Friday, July 3, 2009 in the Kansas City area.

We are still nailing down the details for the site, but she wanted everyone to know the date so that those who wish could plan their travel. At this point the plan is to have an informal sort of potluck gathering. Garb is optional as this memorial will involve many people from his activities outside the SCA. Details will follow.

Tangwen has requested that this be a celebration of his life, and asks that you bring pictures and stories to share. And she asks especially that you bring cameras if you have them to take more pictures.

She also asks that in lieu of flowers or plants that donations be made to fund a bench in his honor on the Katy Trail. Or if you prefer, to an organization that provides bicycles to needy children or a stroke foundation. I will have more information on this later.

Please feel free to forward this message as you see fit.

Thank you,

Ariel


I will be flying back on the 2nd. 

-Justus

June 25th, 2009

(no subject)

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Forwarded from the Calon List: 

Moonwulf Sends Sympathies to Calontir on the Passing of a Giant

 Unto the Crown, Kingdom and People of Calontir,

I'm very saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Ternon de Caerleon. He was a good man, a hard, prow fighter and a good leader in a critical time when the then-region of Calontir moved into existence as a principality. His service and leadership was of great benefit both to Calontir and the Midrealm.   

My two strongest memories of him are from the time just before and just after his coronation as first Prince of Calontir. One was a series of hard bastard-sword fights which left him with bruised ribs and me with a smashed fingertip (I said they were hard fights). After, he helped me pierce the fingernail with a hot needle to release the fluid beneath the nail and relieve the pain.  

The other was I believe immediately after his coronation feast. A lady with more determination than sense had a flat tire on the road approaching the hall, and had driven on it a quarter-mile or so to park in front of the feast hall and beg assistance in changing it. Duty and chivalry made me volunteer, and when he heard of it Ternon immediately pitched in to help. So it was that this woman had her abused flat tire changed by Royal Peers of Calontir and the Midrealm. I recall I made a comment that she'd been foolish to keep driving. Ternon replied that that was so, then grinned and said. "But fools in trouble are generally rescued by more competent fools."

It was an honor for me to have known, worked and crossed weapons with this man. Every kingdom has its time when giants walk its earth, and Sir Ternon de Caerleon was a giant for Calontir. I've had little or no contact with him for decades, but the knowledge that he is gone leaves me missing him greatly. My heart and condolences go out to his family, friends and household.

Sincerely,

Duke Master Moonwulf Starkaadhersson, of the Middle Kingdom
 

June 24th, 2009

Lemmings

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Very wearing day, terribly low at times though I received some news in the evening that took some of the edge off my sadness.

I got the living room cleaned at least, and at least warded off the encroaching mess in the kitchen. I still need to wade into the mudroom, perhaps armed, and do battle with the forces of clutter. I also clocked eight hours of shop time though much of that time was clearing my work bench of several projects, modifying and restackng the lumber rack and clearing the truck out in preperation for tomorrow. I have a dozen personal project that need to be completed, but as always they are put on the rear burned while I finish my clients work. I'll be wrapping up a big project in the next few days and I think I will take some time off and at least finish the most pressing projects.

I do hope people are not going to abandon LJ for face book as they abandoned diaryland for LJ...

I have no desire to make face book my primary journal. I dislike the format and the whole design of the site is too busy for my taste. I do have to admire the powerful networking capability of FB. With an hour or two of searching and combing through friend lists I managed to find almost everyone I had lots track of years ago. Had I the desire I could reconnect with almost my entire high school class, not that I want to God forbid. I didn't hang out with them when I was there which was not often. But it was good to find the few friends I did have from that time.

Still and all, I'm not leaving. I'm not in the mood to hope from one new thing to another, especially when I dislike the new option.

-Justus

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

June 23rd, 2009

Ternon

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My knight has passed away.

When my father died I went and sat on Ternon's couch and wept.

I don't know where I will weep now.

Ternon's death is not shocking to me, he has been in ill health for a number of years. When I received an e-mail warning of bad news from Calontir I did not have to read the text to know that my Knight had passed on. That does nothing to diminish the sadness however. I'm too numb and stupid to write anything about him now that would do justice to his wit and wisdom. But I can say that tomorrow the world will be a little more normal, much more mundane, and all together diminished for his parting. What joy to the realm that receives this hairy trickster, ticklish warrior, sinister artist, and father of misfits.

-Justus

June 21st, 2009

Hot Steaming' Good Eats

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Justus and Jilly at Natural History




Nom nom indeed.   Cook this, it's gud.

Radiator Ramen

By Alton Brown

1 tsp olive oil 
 1 tsp  Sesame oil 
 8 oz fresh shiitake mushroom 
 1 item(s) ramen noodle mix soup* 
 2 serving(s) 4-8oz tilapia  (any white fish will do)
 1/8 tsp kosher salt 
 1/8 tsp white pepper 
 2 tbsp soy sauce 
 1 tbsp honey 
 1 serving(s) chili flakes 
 6 medium shrimp 
 1/2 large Vidalia onion(s), sliced Lyonnaise-style 
 4 medium scallion(s), sliced on a bias 
 2 fl oz mirin, (sweet rice wine) (or sake, plum wine, ect)
 2 cup(s) vegetable broth, (or miso--2 teaspoons miso paste for 2 cups water)

 Preheat the oven to 400** degrees F. Heat a saute pan over high heat, add the oils, then add the mushrooms and toss; cook until caramelized, about 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside Break the "loaf" of noodles into 2 equal parts. Season the fish with salt and white pepper***, spread a little honey on each fillet, and sprinkle with chili flakes****. Line the serving bowls with aluminum foil, making sure there is a lot hanging over the edges. Lay one half-loaf of noodles in each bowl and top with the fish. Spread the shrimp, mushrooms, and onions around the bottom. Top with the scallions. Mix the liquids together and pour half into each pouch  Pull the foil up around the food,  and crimp it to seal, leaving one tiny opening in each pouch. Set the pouches***** on a baking sheet and place in the one for 22 to 25 minutes. Set the pouches back in the bowls and open at the table. A delicious aroma will fill the air as the team escapes. Serve with chopsticks and a spoon to eat the"soup."

Why "Radiator Ramen"? Probably because you could cook it on one of these in a pinch.



That is pretty cool too BTW.


*You can also use "House Shirataki Noodles" and cut the calories in half (11 point down to six)
**I'm not sure why I read that as "425" but 400 is correct. (I cooked this on 425 twice and things turned out just fine...)
*** Yes you can use black pepper, but white is better in this. (You can also buy fresh white pepper corns and hand grind them in a mortar like I did cause then it's extra wonderful, but I am a little crazy about this stuff)
**** We used ground Chipotle. A little goes a long way.
***** Uh, oops. I cooked it in the bowls both times. Worked fine and the 425 degree stoneware bowls kept the soup nice and hot, course you might burn all ten fingers like I did by trying to move one of them. If you cook it in the bowls make sure your bowls are oven proof. And wear mitts when you serve them.

That is a lot of notes, but I'm all about accuracy. This is seriously good stuff folks, get good ingredients, and use freshly ground seasonings as much as possible. I had no idea what pepper was supposed to taste like. My whole life pepper has come out of a shaker and hasn't added much at all to the food besides color and a sharpness that I thought meant "pepper". Pepper is an aromatic spice, once you grind it it begins to loose it's flavor quickly. If it has been sitting in a shaker for a year (or ten) it's done, toss it. Even the unground peppercorns will only stay fresh for a year or so. (and that is if they are stored well) Don't believe me? come over some time and I'll show you.  Good freshly ground pepper has flavor, really good spicy aromatic flavor, it reminds me of roses a bit. Yum. 

I have a small bruise on my arm, it makes me happy because it means I've been fighting. It's been almost a year, since I was in armor at all, and that was only a couple light workouts. I'm going to go as slow as I can, and I'm still working on PT. But there is nothing to make my knee stronger for fighting than fighting. It was so good to get back out there. It's a drag because I have to be very careful, but it's worth it. I love fighting and I'd like to do as much of it as possible while I still can. It will still be quite a while before I'm fighting in tourneys, but that is the goal of course. The static pell work I've done has payed off in that I'm not nearly as rusty as I expected to be, but a pell doesn't hit back and my defense is weak.
  The group that meets at Haven on Fridays reminds me very much of when started out in the SCA. Just a group of friends helping each other out and scraping together what bits and pieces of armor they can, lots of camaraderie and enthusiasm. It makes me happy just to be there and see them learning about fighting. I might start leaving here early on Fridays to try and beat the 270 N traffic jam I got caught in this friday, over an hour to go 22 miles, if I do I'll set up there early and maybe do some teaching and A&S work till practice. They have a great space up there that they have reclaimed from some abandoned basements, (not as shady as it sounds) and it has huge potential as a hub for all things SCA.

To be 16 again...

-Justus

June 16th, 2009

Real Music

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marriedtothesea.com
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 loved this group since the moment I heard "White Winter Hymnal" sometime last year. That was an "I must have this album immediately" moment, and this single from the EP was another. This song is a masterpiece. I hesitate to post it here because it is one of those songs that you have to truly stop and give your full attention to, preferably in the dark with a good stereo turned up really loud.  The mostly acapella piece that opens the album is another. It is an amazing piece of music. If it is on in the background you think, "Oh, that is pleasant" and move on. But if you listen, really listen you think, "Wow, this is amazing!" 

 I shudder to think about another Seattle based music trend framing around this sound, there is real genius here and I expect a flood of groups trying to imitate it. Who knows, maybe there will be a "real music" movement that might eclipse the popular radio stream of Brittney spears clones for a while. I remember when grunge bands swept the hair metal bands aside, that wasn't a bad thing.

Anyway, these guys are great. I can't recommend their two albums highly enough. I was about to say that this is far and away the best music my generation has produced but then I realized that they are ten years younger than I am... Here is to you 1986, you can claim Fleet Foxes and we gave the world Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park

-Justus

June 15th, 2009

Bat for Lashes

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Panda Justus




What is a girl to do?

I saw this last year and didn't know what I thought about it. I loved the video concept, give it a try here: Bat for Lashes 
After listening to the song a few more times it is starting to stand on it's own. I was reminded of her today because I just listened to the Music Heads Podcasts I've been stockpiling  for a month on the way back from NC last night and she has a new album out. I've grabbed a couple tracks and so far I'm impressed. I'll see if they stand up to a week or so of listening "Daniel" is very good. Certainly not what I would think of as "My kind of music" but I'm digging it. Maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic lately and this music really reminds me of the 80's sci-fi and fantasy movies I loved so much as a kid.  I'm also loving the new Fleet Foxes EP. I need to do another all music post soon.  

Since I want to have the transmission serviced before I take another long trip, and because the truck costs us about 10 dollars and hour to operate, we rented a car to run down to NC for the weekend. I had told the guy who bought our house that I would swing by the next time I was in town and do a couple small changes for him and since Amazon inexplicably sent our last order to our old address even though it is not our default address and they sent the other half of our order here... and since we hadn't seen our friends in a while, and we were kind of stir crazy and a couple other reasons we jumped in our rented car, stuffed the dogs in back and hit the road. 

 The car, a 2009 Chevy Cobalt with 8,000 miles on it quickly and completely explained to me why GMC is in bankruptcy. I've been hearing for a couple years that:
 
"Yes there was a time when American cars just were not up to par with Japanese imports, but now they really are and they are just suffering from a bad reputation"  

Balls. 

If the Chevy Cobalt is any indicator of the modern American car, then GMC needs to just fold up and go away. It is a steaming pile of crap. I would never, not in a million years, buy that car. Yes it was a rental, and I know that rental companies buy the most basic model since they churn through them so fast. I don't care. I don't care how basic the model is, if it is that crappy than everything else you make is just pouring perfume on a pig. This car didn't have a glove box light. How expensive is a flossing glove box light? My 1973 chevy El Camino had a glove box light. I thought a lot about my first Chevy as I drove that little junker to and from NC this weekend.  That car was better in every single regard than this brand new car, and it was already 20 years old when I bought it. Chevy cannot make a better car than they made 37 years ago

Brand new car. Still had new car smell. Interior pieces falling off.  Imagine that you just paid $18,000 dollars for a new car, and within 8,000 miles crap is falling off and breaking in the interior. There are already rattles and other clattering noises that cars develop over say, 10 years. The vinyl on the doors is so thin that it has already torn in several places. It is so thin that it is like the stuff they line headphone pads with. In a year it will look like you locked a badger in the car for a week. The trunk, huge. The back seat, useless. Fortunately the seats fold down and the huge trunk plus the folded seats made a nice little dog house.  That is about the only thing I would use this car for, a dog house. 

 The ergonomics were abusively bad. the vinyl on the arm rest was so tacky that it gave me a rug burn. Seriously, it rubbed my arm raw, and that was THE ARM REST. The speedometer and tachometer were on the wrong side. (What the hell this car needs a tachometer for anyway baffles me) no other gauges. If you wanted to see the coolant temp you had to scroll through the "info" display. The info display is a good idea gone horribly wrong.  There is a button on the left of the steering wheel, right in the middle of the cruise control buttons, that you use to select through the info panel. This is a digital readout where the odometer should be. But when you have one screen and one button to do everything...

Here is the scroll as best as I can remember it. 

Odometer
Trip a
Trip b
Fuel Range
Average MPG
Current MPG
Oil life
Coolant temp
Tire pressure Front
Tire pressure Rear

There may have been more. All of those things are interesting but think about this; to set or view the trip odometer, or any other gauge, you have to press the button ten times, god help you if you pass it because then you have to scroll through again.  By the way, you are also supposed to be paying attention to the road. And the info button is in the middle of the cruise buttons. 

There is nothing about that car that didn't make me want to take the design team aside and say, "What the %$@# were you thinking?" 

GM doesn't have a chance. 

Trip was good though. Nice to see the old house full of people. Nice to see Viv.

-Justus
  

 

June 8th, 2009



Growing up in a little hick town in Kansas in the 80's I can be forgiven for thinking that Reggae was an English import originated by skinny white kids in Birmingham.  I'm not sure when I discovered the Jamaica connection. Anyway, I'll always love this song. It's the kind of song you can put on repeat and just let it run for a couple hours.
 By the time "(I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You" came out I was in High School and that song was on heavy heavy radio rotation. That was the year we had lots of flooding in Salina. Music always burns a strong impression in me, some songs will always be connected to certain times and places in my life. "Falling in Love With You" brings the summer of 1993 back so strongly that I don't listen to it anymore. Strange stuff music.

-Justus

June 7th, 2009

But contrary to what Kermit said, it is easy being green. We have a tiny yard to go with our tiny house and I've often thought about getting a reel mower to replace the crappy gas mower that came with the house. Well think no more! I mowed our yard with the Lee Valley 18" push mower today and I loved it. Loved it I say.

I jest about the whole green thing. While I do care about our impact, that is not the reason I bought this mower. It was either buy a new gas mower or a push mower. Our gas mower is loud, heavy, hard starting and something falls off it every time we mow. I also come in smelling like a diesel mechanic and have to wash whatever clothes I was wearing. Contrast that with the quiet whir and clip of the push mower.

 It is much easier to push than our gas mower, and aside from immediately stepping in a dog bomb, I actually enjoyed mowing my yard today. I also had no problem with  the tall grass in back, just back up and push though again if it doesn't get everything the first pass. the only thing I really need to do is to fill in some holes in my yard with dirt and seed them. since the reel mower is essentially a two wheeled vehicle it wont ride over deep ruts and holes like a four wheel decked mower.
 

So that is the first impression, I'll report on it as the summer goes on, but after today's mowing I would be confident mowing something as big as my old yard. It REALLY is not harder than pushing a gas mower, especially one that is not self propelled.

No last minute trip to the gas station when you realize you are out of fuel, no trying to transport a gasoline can in your car (hint, put it in a rubbermaid tub and wedge the tub somewhere it won't fall over) I don't have to wear ear protection (unless your mower is really quite you should wear something if you care about your hearing) this is the way to go in my opinion.

-Justus

The pain.

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Justus Aflame
Lesson learned:  When you turn liqud smoke into real smoke by say, sprinkling some on your grilling burgers, it will burn the white out of your eyes.  

-Justus

June 6th, 2009

I found a friend.

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For those of you in the know before I made close acquaintance with the Panda I was strongly associated with the penguin. How that happened I will not relate, but the story involved two dutchesses (innocent in the proceedings) and a large quantity of hard liquor.

These were left in bike baskets all over Malmo while we were there, some sort of ad campaign. Since there is such a strong bike culture there are lots of things like this. One morning a company put a bright green rain cover on every bike seat out side the central station, that is like a thousand bikes, and a little packet of peanuts on top.  I saw a guy deliberately walking amongst the bikes harvesting the packets. That dude is going to get so very tired of nuts...

 So any way, I don't even know what the penguin is for but it seemed so perfect I kept mine as a pet in our hotel room. Thought about bringing him home but we already had plenty of baggage and I figured a picture would do. Plus the idea of me arguing with the customs agent with a plastic penguin clasped under my flipper would have made that encounter even worse. 

  When we got back to the states I walked into the customs holding pen and there were oh, three, four hundred people standing in the serpentine lines. There were two customs agents. Two customs agents to handle at least three hundred people. there were 14 customs stations... but two customs agents. I guess the United States of America wasn't expecting guests that day.   After standing there for an hour to enter my home country I collected my bag and walked toward the exit. There was another customs station there, and a group of three customs officers chatting amiably by a desk on the other side of the room, all of them had their backs turned to the stations, and folks were just walking through to the exit. (this made sense since we JUST cleared customs, not really a need to be checked again within 50 feet of the 1st customs station...) so I walked through following the line of people in front of me. 


"WOAH WOAH WOAH!!" Shouts one of the dorks that was talking to his buddies,  "Where do you people think you're going!?"

As it happens I was just passing though his "check point" at the moment he bothered to turn around and observe his post so he steps in front of me and puts his hand on my chest. This pisses me off to no end since I stopped walking when he remembered that he was on duty. He tells me to back up while the other morons gather up the rest of the people who were on their way out, (I saw at least ten folks walk out before the three stooges noticed,) 

 "I need to see your declaration form" 

He is all pissy, which makes me want to pop him like a zit, I desperately want to remind him that if he had been at his bloody station and not chatting in the corner like a rent-a-cop maybe this would have been a little easier.

"I just showed it to that customs officer" I say pointing 45 feet behind me "after waiting an hour for the privilege"

I would love to add, and if you sorry SOB's were manning the main checkpoints instead of playing pocketpool in the corner all of us would have gotten through a half hour ago.

"Well I need to see it again" he says.

I worked in law enforcement, I know this archetype all too well. he makes a show of carefully studying everything on the card, slowly, turns it back and forth, I'll keep you here as long as I like BS, then asks, "Are you sure you have nothing to declare?"

"Everything we bought in Malmo went home in my wife's suitcase, I brought home a couple Kronor of souvenir change, so no, I have nothing to declare."  I want to add that I don't often travel with over $10,000 in cash and that this carry on is the extent of my luggage and no it has no animals vegetables or minerals in it either. I also know that if I don't shut up and be the obliging citizen this little panty-waist has the ability to make the next few hours of my life pretty hellish.

I was so furious when I left that I tried to find the customs office to file a complaint but no dice. The only office I found was closed, and finally getting back to Jill made me forget the whole thing for a while.

Three weeks later: (unrelated to Malmo or Customs)

We got a food processor! Amazon is trying to sell it's "Prime" membership plan. At $79 bucks a year it is a little steep, but they are doing a "free" introductory trial. If you sign up they give you the free 2 day shipping for a month. Of course if you forget to unsubscribe before the 30 days is up they automatically charge you... but I figure we will cancel our membership after we finish stuffing our kitchen with long sought after gadgets.  I have to say though, when you order something on Wednesday, and Thursday morning there is a knock on your door and some dude dressed in brown hands you your new Cuisinart it is pretty impressive.  It certainly makes you think about keeping your membership, at least until you realize that patients is a virtue and that you only order stuff from amazon once or twice a year.

 Anyway, we got a food processor because I don't know if I've seen an Alton brown episode that he didn't use his in. You know Al,



He can call me Betty anytime.

Alton Brown is our Oprah. If we have a question that has anything at all to do with food the first thing we say is, What Would Alton Do?  It doesnt hurt that he looks like and has a very similar personality to my best friend Dunstan either.

So there is my shiny new food processor and I've just got to try it out! What can I make?! AHH!!! I grab one of my trusty AB DVD's and cue up his "Turbo Hummus" to Quote:

"Heck, I would own a food processor if for no other reason but that it makes great hummus - one of my favorite foods. I don't actually have a reciepe, I just drop three peeled cloves of garlic down the chute and chop for a few seconds. Then, in goes a can of garbanzo beans (partially drained) which also gets chopped. Then a spoonful of peanut butter, some lemon juice and parsley. Then  I leave the machine on and drizzle in olive oil until the consistency is just where I want it (thick and dip-like) It's as easy as that."

And so it is! I used natural honey peanut butter and I didn't' have any parsley, and my garlic was well past it's prime, but the resulting Hummus was far and away, light-years away, the best I've ever tasted.  It was so OMG good that I woke Jill up at 2:00 in the morning to try some.

"Here try this!"
"Wha, wha time is it?" 
"You have got to try this hummus!
""O-K?"
(Insert hummus laden cracker) 
"Mmmmm, MMMMmmmm!....... can I have more?"
"Yes-We-Can!" 

It's that good folks. He has a slightly different recipe on his website, but I can't vouch for it. I'm sure it's grand, but I KNOW this is so good it makes you want to slap Yo Mama.

Oh I added a little smoked Spanish paprika from Penzeys spices because it makes awesome hummus even awesomer. With awesome sauce.


-Justus

June 4th, 2009

Stuff

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Black boxes haven't been black since the 50's. They are high visibility orange so you can find the damn things, I've known this my whole life and yet we still have news articles that repeat black boxes again and again, often with parentheses stating that the boxes are not actually black....

Either call it a flight data recorder, or flight recorder or gasp, orange box, but stop using an term that was outdated before I was born. We don't call cars "Horseless carriages anymore do we? K? ok.

I flew Air France to and from Sweden. While they had great coffee, nice movie selections and drop dead stunning stewardesses, I also experienced the four hardest landings of my air traveling career. On one of them we yawed so hard on touchdown that I could see down the runway. It's the closest I've ever come to wondering if I was going to die in a plane crash.

I'm certainly not saying that "I saw it coming" This accident had nothing to do with Capitian Kangaroo bouncing us down the tarmac, but it certainly gave me pause when I heard about it a couple days ago. I doubt we will ever find the flight data recorders, no matter what color they are, so we may never know just what happened to flight 447. I do wish the news media would stop rushing to report nonsense just to get "something" out there. I also hate piggy back stories "Plane lands safely in Denver after being struck by lightning" Really!? I heard that two planes took off from Dulles ON TIME yesterday, now that is news… Planes get struck by lightning all the bloody time. Planes fly through storms all the bloody time too. The last thing we need is some media pin head shooting from the hip on air and pulling BS explanations out of his rear. "Well it's likely that the plane broke apart due to turbulence"  Oh Really? Tell us, Mr. Graduate of Media studies from ITT Tech, just what kind of stresses would it take to wrench apart a modern airliner?

  Can you tell that I'm sick of our news media? How about "It is too soon to report on what may have caused the crash of Flight 447, speculation at this point would be unprofessional and frankly, I look good and can read a teleprompter, I don't need to be figuring out why a plane crashed. "

 While I'm savaging our news media, WTH is the deal with the obsession with naming events? I've heard multiple news stories about how to name other news stories. What bloody madness! And this is from my beloved NPR! A story about what to name another story is NOT news. Finical melt down, crisis, crash, bubble,  is it a recession, is it not a rescission. We are going to spend the first half of this whatchamacallit trying to decide when it started and what to call it, and the second half trying to figure out when it ended and we still won't have a name for it.

 Here is the deal folks, It may be great and all to have iconic names for the big events in our lives, past generations had "Pearl Harbor" "D-Day" the "Cuban Missile Crisis" ect. But why do I think they didn't waste a whole lot of time trying to figure out what to call those events? Maybe I'm wrong, maybe back then there were news stories about "gee what do we call the Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor" but frankly I think we have better things to do. The problem with 24-7 news is that you find yourself filling a lot of dear air with BS stories and SSOBs "experts" speculating about everything from the latest stock crash to what to call the Jon and Kate scandal. I don’t give a tinker’s damn about two morons who sold out their family to be on TV and are suffering the consequences.  How ‘bout you shut up, kick out the cameras and try raising your kids for a change? Hmmm?  I, for one, am sick of it. Click.

-Justus

May 31st, 2009

Puggles

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I asked Jill if she knew what baby platypodes are called.

Jill (Instantly) "Platypuppies?"

That may be even cuter than "Puggles" 

Though according to an official Australian website a baby platypus is not called a puggle, I've found several sites that say they are... and the internet is never wrong in aggregate right?   If they are not called Puggles, than I vote for Platypuppies. 

 Saw "UP" tonight. We liked it it is certainly worth seeing in 3-D.  I'll wait a few days to give my review, I don't want to either build up hopes beyond reasonable expectation, or send you into a movie with all my curmudgeonly notions  rattling around in your head.

But here is a little Meme for you:  If you are a Pixar fan, and you shouldn't really be reading this journal if you are not, Make a list of all the Pixar films from your favorite to your least favorite.

"Finding Nemo"
"Monsters Inc"
"The Incredibles" 
"Toy Story 2"
"Up"
"Toy Story 1"
"Wall-e"*
"A Bugs Life"
"Ratatouille"**
"Cars"

*"Wall-e" is a special case. If you took just the first half, plus the space waltz, it is actually the number one or two pixar movie. But the second half is so bad that it is worse than "Cars" so it is really hard for me to place.

** I know that a lot of folks LOVE Ratatouille. It just didn't work for me, it was beautiful! But as someone once said "There is nothing wrong with it, but nothing right either"

I love Pixar. But I don't cut them an ounce of slack. Even "Cars" which I didn't really like at all is better than almost any other computer animated movie you care to compare it to.  With one exception. "Bolt" 
 
I mentioned that we watched "Bolt" yesterday, but I forgot to mention that we loved it. Maybe part of it was that our dog stars in it, but objectively it was a really good movie. I was not surprised to learn that John Lasseter, (Pixar founder) had a large guiding hand in the works. It felt like a Pixar film, but it was different enough to not be a clone. For a good initial judgment, I always ask myself, "Would I like to see it again?" There are a scale of answers:

"Immediately" = This is a great movie, and I would pay another $12 bucks to stay here and watch it again.
"I would like to own this" = Very good, worth seeing multiple times
"Maybe if someone brings it to my house" = Good, don't want to see it repeatedly, but would not refuse a free viewing
"If it's on TV and Alton Brown isn't on" = Mediocre, would not watch it again if there were a good alternative
"Are you kidding? I didn't want to finish it the first time"  Horrible, Sadly this is the largest category in Panda Land.

Bolt was an "I Would Like to Own This"   I'd give it 7.5 stars out of ten.

Other Movies seen recently

"Slumdog Millionaire" 7 out of 10 stars (This really was pretty good, I didn't give it a chance because of all the hype)

"la fille de d'artagnan" 8 out of 10 (English title "The Revenge of the Musketeers"  We loved this Movie, it came out in 1995 and I saw it on my way back from Sweden, it is fantastic! Netflix it today. It is perfectly balanced  campy swashbuckling and the characterizations are pitch perfect. 

There is more but I want to actually review some of them.

In other news Jill and I are trying to find a church. You Godless heathens don't know how good you have it because there is nothing harder than finding the right church. Do you know how many churches there are in this area? Do you know how many are even promising??   The former is hundreds, the later none so far.

  Church is a serious deal to Jill and me, just any old place won't do. There is a church on our block for all love, be nice to just walk there, but since church is not just a "show up on convenient Sundays" thing for us it has to feel right for both of us.  There is something to be said for being Catholic... If you look in the phone book and find the nearest church, it will be very much like your old church. The same is mostly true for the more established protestant denominations.  I've been to many Methodist services, and at least to an outsider, aside from shifting personnel, I don't know if there is much difference at all. There are great differences in the congregation of course. If you go to a Catholic church in a wealthy part of town it is quite different from the other side of the tracks. But the service is very much the same.

 Once you get into the wild west lands of "Non-Denominational Christian Fellowship"  all bets are off. You have no idea what you will be walking into. We have become pretty adept at getting a good read from the website, but you really won't know until you show up for service. If the place isn't right for you most of the time you walk out after the service and say "Meh, let's keep looking" Sometimes you look at your spouse and whisper "We need to get out of here, right...now"

 The hardest part is when a church looks great, but when you get there you get a terrible feeling that you should have stayed in bed that morning. That was the case today. The place seemed like it might be THE place, the place where we would feel comfortable, where we could contribute our part, teach and be taught, the kind of place you are excited to drag your carcass out of bed to go to.

Nope.  We didn't last five minutes. I should say that I didn't last five minutes, Jill didn't get a bad feeling right away, but was starting to. It's been the other way around sometimes. I'll feel fine, even excited about a place but she will not. It has to be both, it never works out in the end if both of us are not on board. We commit too much to a church to have one of us dreading to go two or three times a week. 
 
 One thing we have learned is to listen to ourselves. We have stuck it out on a couple of occasions thinking "Well, lets just give it time, I'm sure things will get better, we'll get used to it."  Nope, that inner voice is there for a reason, listen to it.

So now we are back to square one, except that we have tried all the most promising churches. Now we start looking at the second tier places with the hopes that we are getting the wrong read from the website. (this has never, never happened, but hope springs eternal right? 'Course The last time I visited a church that I didn't think looked right for us I sat in the parking lot to think and pray about it and they called the cops on me....)

It's discouraging. both of us really want to be part of a fellowship again. I think that is really the biggest problem, fellowship. There are plenty of non offensive places that would be just fine if all we wanted was a good show on Sunday morning. The problem with places like that is that they really tend to be Sunday social clubs. The members really don't want to see you again till next Sunday, they don't really want to think about church more than is absolutely necessary. I know I sound harsh and judgmental, I'm not saying that they are not good people, I'm saying that they don't place the same importance on Christianity as we do.  To us it is THE thing, priority number one. To them it is A thing priority, sixth or seventh.  They go to church because they feel like they are supposed to, or because it makes them feel better about themselves, or because they just had kids and suddenly things like church seem really important.  It's just not the way we approach it.

We feel that you should be in true fellowship with the people you go to church with, or at least have the potential to have real fellowship. It takes time, you don't make that kind of relationship with someone overnight, but you have to at least feel like that kind of relationship is possible.  I give this teaching example:

 If your car broke down in the middle of the night, list five people who you feel like you could call  and who would come help you if they possibly could. Do you go to church with any of them? If not you are probably in the wrong place.

This is such a good point for me because as many of you know, I am the least capable person you know when it comes to asking for help. I am terrible at it, and it is a character failing of mine. I love to help people, I hate to be helped.  Patrick Obrien writes "There is a generosity in acceptation"  I must be quite mean in this regard. : (

 That is the kind of fellowship we are looking for, the fellowship of friends in Christ, and I'm telling you from hard experience that it simply does not exist in most churches in America today. Never even been heard of. I've long lamented that Church should be a lot more like the SCA. Or at least how the SCA used to be. A bunch of ragamuffins helping each other out anyway they could., looking out for each other, part of a big more or less dysfunctional family who even if they didn't always get along, would always be there for you when the chips were down. Sadly the SCA is becoming more like the Church, and the Church s becoming even more "Church" like. 

Well. That got bleak pretty quickly. That is the trouble with a journal, you start writing down your thoughts and pretty soon you're ready to step off a cliff.

-Justus


The carved vault sound hole of a 17th century guitar.
 
Click here for a bloody huge version, it's like a mirror, the detail just keeps going and going the more you enlarge it.

Mega Pixels be damned, I swear that my old camera took better pictures. This new one is the same brand same model line ect but it seems to me that the pics have a lot more grain. It might be a setting that I have yet to figure out, (it has a wide variable ISO) but my old camera took much finer pictures with half the mega pixels. I want it back you damn thieves!  

The whole guitar.



Nope, there is no glass there. I Could have taken the thing off the wall and played it across my knee if I was some kind of uncouth heathen Visigoth. Most of the museum was like this, with very few pieces in glass cases. 

  I haven't even really begun to sort pictures. I just look into the folder and grab one out at random.  I need to sort and caption them before I begin to forget where I took them and what they were...

Got our mail today which was nice since it contained the escrow refund check from Citi. Better cash it soon before they go out of business the damn rouges. Now it is really complete. The house is SO not ours anymore. 

We finally got around to watching "Bolt" yesterday. I don't know why it didn't strike me from the previews or posters, but Bolt is Mokie. That is, Bolt is modeled after a "White Shepherd Dog" AKA "Swiss Shepherd" AKA "Canadian American White Shepherd" AKA "Our Dog"   I might not have noticed it in the previews, but ten seconds in to the movie I said, "That's Mokie"  A quick on line search confirmed that they based Bolt on a Swiss Shepherd puppy.



It' seems that American White Shepherds are getting a bump in popularity because of the movie, course they show Bolt as a pretty small dog... which will be surprising when all these parents buy a rolly polly little ball of white fur and it grows into the hulking 120lbs brute we live with.  But they are great dogs, we will probably get another one even if it means we have to go to a breeder. I know I know, I'm a big shelter dog supporter too, and if we can rescue one we will. 

Guess what Mokie is going as this Halloween?

-Justus

May 26th, 2009

Cool Panda

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I got an AC unit for the shop this weekend (It was worth the hassle of labor day shoppers to get the better price) So far I'm very happy with it, and Lowe's is pretty good about returns if I end up not being happy with it... The best feature is the automatic thermostat. Most window AC units have them, but they only control the compressor, the fan stays on as long as the unit is turned on. This one turns both the fan and compressor on and off, which seems like common sense, but this is the first window AC unit that I've found that does it.

This is not really post worthy, except for this little blurb from their website:

"This model in the Frigidaire line is 12,000 BTU’s, which can easily cool off a small room of about 640 square feet. Perfect for small bedrooms or guest rooms. "


Snort.

Our house is smaller than that.

Granted, we have a tiny house, but I think calling a 640 sq space a "small bedroom" says a bit about our hyper consumption.

-Justus
marriedtothesea.com
marriedtothesea.com


Stop me if you've heard this one:

So this priest dies and goes to heaven, and when he arrives at the Pearly Gates there is a long line of cab drivers in front of him. Father Joe holds his head high and walks past them all to the front of the line and presents himself before St. Peter.

Pete, unimpressed points with his angel quill pen and tells him to go to the back of the line.

"But I'm a priest!" exclaims Father Joe "One of Gods select, I gave my whole life in service to the Lord!"

"That may be" says St. Peter "But while you preached people slept. When these guys drove, people prayed."


Well Father Joe can get behind me too, because when I get off the phone with a customer service representative they pray too. All over the world, even in Mumbai, when someone hangs up with me you hear "JEEE--ZUS!!!"


Last week Wed we received our neighbors mail. This is not an uncommon occurrence, I frequently deliver our neighbors mail for the USPS. (Perhaps they should send me a check but it would never got to me) But, on Wednesday we were supposed to get a Netflix. So far they have been pretty accurate on delivery dates. They send an email saying that we'll get a DVD on Wednesday and 90% of the time we do. 100% of the time so far we have gotten it within a day of when we were supposed to.

So when we got all our neighbors mail on Wed, and none of our own... I could only guess where our mail went. I left a note, (a very calm note I might add considering my extreme aggravation with our mail carrier) stating that "On Wednesday, May 20th we received our neighbors mail (413 N horners) I put it in their box, do you have any idea where our mail went?

That was the last time we got any mail. This was especially troubling because we were expecting a rather large check...

I called the USPS on Wed. They said someone would contact me by end of business Thursday.

End of business Thursday, no call, so I called USPS again, they said someone would contact me by end of business Friday

End of business Friday, no call, I called USPS AGAIN, guess what they said? Yep someone would call me Tuesday.

What I should have done was pedal my fat ass down to the post office and speak with the postmaster myself. Which is exactly what I did today. Well, I drove my fat ass since it's pouring and I was on my way back from taking Jill and her new mini fridge to work.

I spoke with the Postmaster, a decent gentleman from all I could tell. He goes in back and returns about ten minutes later with a big stack of mail. Stapled to the big stack of mail are THREE (3) complain notices all of which say in essence, "Customer is not receiving his mail, wants to know where the hell his mail is (JEE-ZUS!!! Get this guy his mail so he stops calling)"

Apparently when you call the USPS they send a notice to the offending post office.

Postmaster: "There seems to have been some sort of mix up, for some reason your carrier placed a hold on your mail"

Me: (Blink... Blink... points to the notice) "It says 'Customer not receiving any mail since last Wednesday, wants to know where the hell his mail is' How can you possible mistake that for "Customer wants you to hold his mail?"

Postmaster: "I'm not sure, I do not know why your carrier held your mail, there must have been a mis-communication I will have to speak with her"

Me: "I'll also point out again that each time I called the USPS they said that someone from THIS office would be in touch with me the next day, and both my phone number and email are on this notice. If you had called Wed, Thurs, or Fri this could have been cleared up immediately."

Postmaster: "I'm not sure why you were not contacted, I will have to speak with your mail carrier"


I'm calling BS on the whole thing. The first time I called back (Thursday) the USPS customer service person, who was an Idiot*, stated that the issue has been reported to my local post office, and it says that it has been "resolved"

Not happy. Not happy at all. Quite pissed off to but it bluntly. "Oh, complain about your service? I'm sorry Mr. 415 N horners Ln, I'll just have to hold your mail for a while" seems much more likely than a "miscommunication" to me.



-Justus



*So each time I called the post office they gave me an Order Reference number: OR-12345, OR-23456 ect The "O.R." standing for "Order Reference" get it? Yeah I got it and I don't work there. So the second time I called Bubbles the employee of the month asks me if I have an order reference number

"Yes" I say, "my Order Reference number is 12345"

Bubbles: "I'm sorry can you repeat that"

Me: "12345"

Bubbles: "I'm sorry I still didn't get that can you repeat it one more time?"

Me: "Are you ready this time? My Order Reference number is 1...2...3...4...5

Bubbles: ".......Are you calling about stamps?"

Me: (Speechless, and getting very angry) "STAMPS? Are you serious? is there someone else I can speak with? (an adult perhaps...)

Bubbles: "I'm sorry Sir, it's just that Order Reference numbers have letters in front of them."

Me: "Uh, yeah..... like maybe an 'O'.....'R'..... for ORDER REFERENCE?

Bubbles: "Oh."


I'm not funny enough to make this stuff up people.



Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. growl, gnashing of teeth.


 


May 23rd, 2009

Wandering

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Justus and Jilly at Natural History


One of the many weird and wonderful instruments in the "Museum of Music" in Denmark. I found it quite by accident while wandering the streets of Copenhagen after spending the morning at Rosenberg Castle. It's a fine museum that seems to go on almost indefinitely as you find new floors and exhibits behind unremarkable doors. What's behind this door that looks very much lie a broom closet? Oh, another wing of the museum. I didn't get to see the whole thing as they close early. I was in a room filled with 17th century lutes when I heard a faint gong sound. I looked at my English copy of the map and it said, "When the gong sounds please find your way to an exit, the museum is closing"

I enjoyed my time in Malmo very much, even if I didn't get to do an eighth of what I had hoped. I've found that If you try to do to much on vacation it begins to feel very much like work. Jill of course was working so she didn't get to do much in the way of sightseeing at all. Her group did get together and go for a short bike tour early on Thursday morning.





That's the 'Turning Torso" behind us, the tallest building in Sweden apparently. That was a nice morning, cool and sunny, in fact we had tremendous luck with the weather throughout our whole visit. It was like that every day which is uncommon in Malmo this time of year. We even saw a Mokie at the vast Dog Park near the this beach. We're actually standing on a pier about a hundred yards out in the sound. At the end of the Pier are a couple of Saunas with steps leading down to the ocean. Apparently the thing to do is to rush out of the sauna still steaming and frolic about in the ocean. As cold as the water was that day I don't know if I have the intestinal fortitude to go for a plunge.
 

While I was there it occurred to me that Gränsfors Bruks, the company that makes the axes I use for traditional woodworking, is located in the north of Sweden. "I'll just have to run up and visit the foundry and Axe Museum!" I thought Well... maybe not. It would have meant traversing the length of Sweden, a very long country, and spending 10 hours on a train each way. So I had to give up on that idea, but I did learn that they hold blacksmithing classes there every year. I think it would be the shizzle to go learn axe smithing at Gransfors. The next time I'm in Sweden... If I had thought of it before we left I could have planned my trip around it a bit better, left one night, then come back the next sleeping on the train, but ah well.

It also occurred to me that I could probably buy an axe there more cheaply than I can here in the states so I contacted them and asked if they had any dealers in the Malmo area. Nope. At least none that carried the axe I was interested in. So ironically it was much easier for me to get the axe from a dealer here in Maryland (15 miles away from my house) then it was while I was actually in Sweden. Strange modern world we live in.

We took advantage of the hotel meals almost without exception only having lunch once at a little cafe in an alley a block away from the hotel. It was not very adventurous I know, but with Jill in conference all day and good free food readily available just steps away it made more sense than eating out every night. I did gain 6 pounds in the week, even riding all over the city on a bike everyday. I blame the lavish breakfasts. Shopping was kind of a downer too, though we did get Jill half a stores worth of clothes from a little shop called "Fair Trade" There is a big retail center in Malmo, but choosing between it and another day of Museums was easy for me. The shopping around our hotel was almost entirely tourist type gift shops. We did find a chocolatier late Thursday afternoon, shops in Sweden close at 6:00 almost universally, that had such truffles! It was good for us that we only found them on the last day.


To be continued

-Justus


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