|
I decided to be educational today. The spouse and I went to a local sushi restaurant for sushi classes. Now, we've made sushi before and while it was okay, it definitely qualified as homemade sushi. Today we got all those little tricks that made it actually resemble restaurant sushi. We each made a ton of maki, got the tricks to make nigiri, had the best shad head soup (no actual shad heads made an appearance) and washed it all down with a Sapporo. And fueled with this meal we went on to do tons of yard work. Who knew a little raw fish and beer could do so much?
Who thought the VW ad campaign was a good idea? I can see the original pitch for this one..."Remember the old Volvo commercials where they used to throw the cars off roofs of buildings? It's gonna be like that except there will be people in the cars and then they'll get t-boned!" You know what it makes me do? Change the channel. The minute I spot that it's one of the two commercials I quick find the remote and change the channel...or shut the TV off. Yeah, that's marketing in action. Memorable? Yes. Will it make me buy the car? Nope. In fact, with each subsequent showing, I grow to dislike VW more and more. And I originally liked the car. Stick that in your focus group and smoke it.
Spring is here. I mowed the lawn tonight. I didn't mow it well, but it got mowed. I'm out of practice. That and I can't figure out where I had mowed and where I hadn't mowed. And the lawn is all lumpy because we have moles. So in other words, the lawn is not exactly picture perfect. But I got to rock out with the headphones and drive in drunken looking swaths. And these days, isn't that entertainment enough? I probably burned $6 in gas doing it, so it had better be enough.
I know I've been lax in posting, but it's been a rough couple days. Not intentionally mind you, but Sunday we had a basic day planned, decided to go to a local golf store's demo days. Did I mention it was pouring rain? Well, we got good and cold and damp and hit a ton of golf balls. That was tiring, but what came later was much worse. Came home and fired up the remnants of our wood for the year in our wood stove. The house was damp and cold and this was the quickest way. While that got going we went upstairs to have a cup of tea and some microwaved pork dumplings. Just about to drink the tea and alarms started going off. Rush downstairs only to find our chimney on fire. This isn't as drastic as it sounds since there is a stovepipe going into the wall, but you could see through the airgap bright red-orange flames. Call 911, and with the cellphone you don't get local services, so I had to try to get across to the person I was talking/yelling at that my house may be on fire and that we actually lived there. And we waited for the sirens to start blowing. And oh, did we get firemen? Three fire trucks, two cop cars, an ambulance. (Now I didn't overblow the emergency, I stated it was a possible chimney fire over the phone.) They got to use the ladder truck to check out the roof. (Oh, and that was more exciting for the firefighters than for us, since they had just received the truck and it seemed like it was one of the first times they got to use it.) We got to see the cool infrared camera thing. We had at one point 6 firefighters in the house. After all was said and done we were exhausted. Luckily there was no damage to speak of short of a smoky room and a few smudgy ash marks on the wall. If that is as close as I get to fire in my house, that's just fine. I don't suggest it for anyone. It's damn scary.
So I survived a whole day of work. It was a pretty good time I must say. I got to use my crazy typing skills, spreadsheet skills, copy machine skills and even got to draw arrows on a Powerpoint slide. I was everything to everybody, and I liked it. It's amazing what one day's work did for my attitude. It's been far too long. Perhaps I shouldn't have gone to law school at all, and should have become an executive assistant instead. My bank account would have thanked me.
And tomorrow I go to work. For one whole day. Yup, after all the haranguing with the placement agencies I have a 1-day position typing. But that's okay, it gets me out of the house and I probably will clear more money than I'll spend in gas. Here's hoping it isn't a whole waste of time for me. So in the meantime, I'll keep hunting for a real job and hoping for the best in results so I don't get to go through this limbo again. Not that it'll get me a real job mind you, but I'd stand a better chance.
I hope you had a lovely holiday weekend. We had great weather and a power outage. Because you know if it's a holiday weekend, we have a power outage. You can bet good money on this. It wasn't that big a deal for us since we had already cooked and eaten lunch, but for my neighbors with big parties, it wasn't so cool. Our one neighbor met her guests at the door by announcing, "WE HAVE NO POWER!" And when you actually called the outage in, you were told by recording that not only did it involve the substation, we weren't due to get power back until 8pm that evening. Luckily, they over estimated by about 4 hours. We just sat outside and enjoyed the weather for a while. Just about the time we thought about going elsewhere the power returned. I always enjoy that moment. And for a place with underground utilities, it happens far too often.
And so it begins. I went to the driving range last night. My technique did not miraculously improve over the winter. If anything my stamina went into hiding. I could not stop yawning by the end. This cold is so not helping. All day I've been sneezing my full head off. *sneeze* Ewwww... *sneeze* Ewwww... But in the quest for more golf knowledge we're going back to golf school! Yes, just like last year but this time we'll actually be able to use our new mad skills for the entire season. It won't be nearly as warm as August last year but then maybe I won't look like a lobster when I'm done. Gotta get some stamina before then, otherwise I'm gonna die.
I think I got a cold from a library book. I woke up this morning with a scratchy throat and post nasal drip. Seeing as how I've never suffered from allergies, I tend to believe I'm getting a cold. Suck. So I decided to go the gym anyway. And I lasted all of 30 minutes before I nearly fell asleep on a machine. So I can't say that workout was successful. Either way, I've picked up another germ stack...um stack of library books. If nothing else I'm reading about a book a day. Oh, and I'm learning to speak Spanish. What can I say, I have to do something even if I'm doing nothing.
I have a David Leadbetter Swing Setter. Since the weather has become less than absolute zero I go out in the yard and swing this device until I wear myself out. I annoy my neighbor with it. I especially annoyed my neighbor when the golf courses weren't open. Those brief sunny warm days in the winter, I'd stand in my driveway and swing. It makes a clicking sound when you do it right. Today, it was inspiration from the Masters. No actual golf played yet, but I can click click with the best of them. Oh and Phil Mickelson? Get a haircut already!
Today was sort of icky. You know it's been raining when you go outside and all you smell is worms. Worm smell! Worm smell! (Yeah, my mother didn't get it either.) So where else to go but the mall. And while at the mall I ran into a couple relatives of mine. I haven't seen them since September, before I knew about the last Bar Exam. Probably through the grapevine they might have known I didn't pass, but they didn't let on. I appreciated that. I did have to admit to the fact I didn't have a job. Which of course led to the normal response, "So when are you going to have a kid?" Ummm, after I got my eyes to go back into my skull I said, "Not yet." That wasn't specific enough, so I mentioned that the student loans in repayment take a bit more priority than any fertility on our part. What can I say, she's eager for any progeny in the family. I'll keep my knees together just in case, thanks.
There's been one good thing about me not working. I don't use that much gas. I never go anywhere. Last night it was $2.69 a gallon. The spouse needed to fill the car. The excuses about the price of gas become more varied by the day. Instability in the Middle East. Possible shortages of ethanol. Someone looked at the Exxon Tiger funny. It's all a big conspiracy, and I don't care if you think I'm nuts. The way I see it, we'll be at $3.00 by Memorial day, and if they can push it, $4.00 by Labor Day. Why? Because Brazil has become gas independent. They use nothing but their own self-produced sugarcane ethanol. These gas companies have to make up the money somewhere. It's you and me. So get ready to dig even deeper, and watch the economy go in the toilet in the process.
I don't normally post twice in one day, but I just realized something. Today is the 3rd anniversary of the Screaming Bean. I've been through alot these last three years, for the good and the bad, but I wouldn't remember half of it without this blog. I want to thank all of you who have been here from the start and all the others who I've picked up along the way. I've given some thought about stopping this blog a few times, but I enjoy the interaction too much to stop now. So in the meantime, keep showing up and I'll try to keep giving you a reason to stop by.
It was over 70 on Friday. It was glorious. I sunburned myself. This week it may snow. Why? Because we put the snowblower away in the shed yesterday. We're doomed...doomed! And it's Monday again, so I'm back on the job hunt. I can't say I'm any too pleased with that placement agency I worked with. If all you can find me is a data entry job and I can't even actually get that job, why am I doing business with you? I need to find someone to work with me who can actually get me a job in the ballpark.
|
