Candyman!

Well, I made one of the two bits of candy I was hoping to make. For the first one, I needed wax paper, and the house, that has just about everything, didn't have any wax paper. Poop. So, I just made the almond roca sort of stuff. Wow! Talk about easy. It took just a few minutes. True, I made a mess (which, at this point, I haven't cleaned up). But the candy turned out well. At least edible. And tasty. Yay!

I had a plan to make spanakopita which failed due to a teeny weeny oversight on my part. I forgot to get spinach. I will rectify that mistake today.

Sadly, and quite surprisingly, I didn't win the Mega Ball lottery last night. Oh well. Life is frequently like that, isn't it? I don't mind paying the stupid tax on occasion. The worst that can happen is that I lose a couple of dollars. Not that big a loss.

The challenge on Daily Challenge the other day (in the main challenges) was to walk a bit more - so I parked a long way from Wegman's when I went shopping! I must admit, I didn't park quite as far when I went to Wal-Mart, but still a decent distance. I do like to walk. My friend Daniel is getting married in June and there is a bike ride that he wants people to participate in - I hope I will be able to manage to ride 40 miles without falling over dead. Eeek.

I could almost see Wegman's from where I parked!

Art Photo

Brand New Rice Cooker - I am very excited!

Yay! Almod Roca! I wonder how much this actually cost - a lot less than $9 I am thinking...

Small Towns are, er, small

Welcome Follower 43!! Drop me a comment if you ever feel so inclined!

I went into the Red Dove again last night for a couple of beers on my wild Thursday night out. It turns out that the bartender and I were in grade school together! Not often in the same class, but enough so that we were aware of each other. How cool is that? We chatted a little bit about people we knew in common. Bill Lamb is still in town! Last time I saw him was over 20 years ago. Wow!

Another thing I learned just now, is that winnings don't seem to be taxed the same way they used to be. Now they are just regular income, which means they are taxed at whatever tax bracket one finds oneself in. I guess that makes sense. I still don't see why Capital Gains (especially short term Capital Gains) aren't taxed that same way. Whatever. I haven't finished my economics book yet. I'll get to it, in the fullness of time. So, yes, I did buy three MegaMillions tickets! Yay! I am already counting my chickens! :)

The chapter I was working on yesterday was very frustrating. Too much code without explanation - not enough intermediate steps to show things working as I went. Poop. I finally got all the code typed in and it sort of worked. So I bailed and move on to the next chapter. That one was great! Yippee! Onwards!

Almost ready to make candy! I am so excited! I am planning on making Sesame Squares and Almond Roca. I couldn't find a candy thermometer at Wal-Mart, though. After dinner, let the candy making begin!

Yesterday's Excitement is today's blog!

And what exciting tidings do I have? Well, er, being my blog, nothing too exciting, really. I read more of Norman Rush's short stories. I doubt I will read either of his novels unless something in the short stories really compels me. So far, they are good but not earth shattering. Oh well.

Mom came out on errands with me! Yippee! We changed her sheets and then did laundry and food shopping. It is good for her to get out and about. Even doing little things like that. She did help. She sorted and folded! And when we went shopping, she picked out a few things that would help add to her happiness - a chocolate cake, some bananas and a couple of yogurts. Yay!

And we started to watch Deadwood! I am so excited! I saw a few episodes of this show back when it was originally airing. But only a couple. I love Wild Bill Hickock, as some of you know who have read my blog religiously. I think mom liked it. She already is begging for someone to kill Al Swearingen!

Mom's "sweet" purchases.

It was a Beer Day yesterday, but it is a laundry day now...

I used to like Jethro Tull. Ok, I still like Jethro Tull. I was lucky enough to see Ian Anderson and what was then considered to be Jethro Tull in concert years ago - back when I was living on the West Coast. Great show! And Procol Harum opened for them.

Yesterday was beer day! Yippee! I walked downtown, despite the chilly weather, and tasted a few beers. On my previous visit, I had taken pictures of the beer menu and just before heading down, used Preview on my mac, to cross off the ones that I recorded as having been drunk. Then, I made a short list of beers that I haven't had, so that I wouldn't have to think too hard about my choices. I don't like to think too hard if I don't have to. Yay not thinking! Hurrah for living in the moment! Going with the flow! Wheee! Lorraine was on duty. We commiserated about our lives for a bit. I have asked her to create a mug for mom for her birthday. She paints and I figured that would be a nice gift for mom. Christie was the bartender - she is heading to Denmark for a year in the fall. Go her!

I had three beers, which, I know, is a big surprise. The first was Westmalle Dubble. The bottle was surprisingly heavy! The beer was good, not overly (overtly?) Belgian tasting. Yay! Sadly, I ran out of space on my video camera! Eeek! (Aside: I really need to get another hard drive for storage. Soon. I am almost out of space on my computer and the Video Camera is full - poop!) So I deleted one file (the second one I took, I think). And had enough room to record one more beer. The third was done on my iPhone. Sigh. For my second beer, I had Monty Python's Holy Grail from Black Sheep Brewery. I haven't had this beer for a while and it was a lot less robust than I had remembered. And for my third, it was back to Belgium and an Orval. Wow, two Trappist Ales in one day! And both delicious!

I also got some work on the computer project done yesterday. Yippee!

Today is Laundry Day! (Trumpet fanfare, please!) And mom may actually go with me. Hurrah.

Walking often ends up with me taking more pictures.

I don't know what came over me, but I neatened my room!

It was fun to watch the boats come about and almost capsize!

Budding trees, already! It is about a month too early, here in Geneva, NY.

I just like the bright yellowness of the bush!

Cool tree

New Blog?

I am open to opinions and suggestions and advice. Like most people, though, I don't necessarily listen to them or follow them. It is nice, sometimes, to just get a little input. As some of you know (both of you?) I am working at teaching myself how to program for the iPhone. My thought process being that programming (like writing) is something that I can do at home (or anywhere) on my own time (mostly). Will I make any money? Hope springs eternal.

Now, where I am looking for an opinion/suggestion/advice is whether or not I ought to refactor (a cool programming term - though I am sure it is used in other industries) my blogs - copying out relevant parts and putting up a new blog (besides this one, the writing blog, and the political blog (which, though not published, does have a few posts in it) that pertains just to the torturous path I am on to iPhone application Nirvana? Once the refactoring is done, I would continue to post my thoughts and experiences of programming there, not here or in the writing blog (though isn't programming a lot like writing?).

So, speaking of programming, I didn't sleep well last night, thinking about what I was going to be working on today. I have already accomplished the three things that I wanted to accomplish. Now I have to figure out how to do the next bit. But I am exhausted. And I have lots of other things to do that have been neglected. One of the problems with being somewhat obsessive, is that I neglect other activities while obsessing. Sigh. I need to write up a quick "to do" list and see if I want to, er will do any of it. Most of it is, to me, boring stuff - paying bills, doing laundry, neatening parts of the house. Ick. Well, not ick, just not my favorite activities. I do enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from doing those tasks. That sense of accomplishment and what little enjoyment there is in doing the activities, doesn't outweigh the less than scintillating aspects of those tasks. Sigh.

On Saturday, I made another pizza and it turned out excellently! I cooked the pizza at the bottom of the oven and it was almost crispy! Yay!

Sunday, mom and I had a little adventure - an adventurelet if you will - out to Rochester to go to a place called The Crab Shack. I don't know where I heard about it - probably an ad on television at some point. Anyway, mom likes seafood, so I thought it would be a nice treat for her. The place was in an old chain restaurant building, done up with a lot of water related items - lighthouses, boats, sea grass etc. Mom ended up having surf and turf (which was on special) with bacon-wrapped scallops and an extra side of steamed clams. I couldn't decide what to have and ended up with a hamburger. Mom seemed to enjoy her food more than I enjoyed mine. Everything was ok, not great. I do not think we will go there again any time soon. Maybe next adventurelet will be for me  - going to a brewpub! Yippee!

After dinner, we came back to Geneva and took a shopping trip to Wal-Mart. Mom needed some stuff. Yay mom stuff!

Augustus made pizza!

In Rochester - not too far from the Airport, Apparently

Don't we look happy?

Gotta get cranking

It is getting late and I need to go shopping. Tonight we are having pizza and other stuff for dinner. I am thinking chicken nuggets (with Buffalo Sauce) and fried pickles.

There are good days and not so good days - at least where programming progress comes along. Two days ago was a good day - got a lot done and felt like I would eventually see light at the end of the tunnel. Then Friday, well, I tried something in the main file I was working on, and broke it. Entirely. I had to go back to a much earlier "snapshot" of the file and rebuild a lot of the stuff that I had already done. Sigh. But a good learning experience. Once that got done, it was almost 6! So I stopped and made dinner. Yippee! Dinner is yummy! Which is why there was no blog post yesterday. As per my previous decision - if a post isn't ready to go by 5, it isn't going to get done! Trying to keep my stress levels low! :)

Today was another good day - I have come across a few more tutorials and they are being handy. One was about animations - so I think I am going to try and solve my animation issue tomorrow (solved it - the answer was 'z'). One was on switching views - still have an issue or two there, but getting closer on that issue as well.  All in all, a bit of forward progress was made. Huzzah!

I wrote to a couple of my FB friends and asked them about the possibility of using their beer label art for my concentration game. So far, I haven't heard back from either of them. Sigh.

Other subjects: My sister called yesterday and had a good long chat with mom. That is always a good thing. I am leaning towards not going down South for my birthday after all, and instead wait to go without mom in late May. We shall see how that pans out. And we are moving closer to definitely going to mom's 60th college reunion. I need to call on Monday or Tuesday and get a little more information, but it is looking like it is a done deal. Yay! I plan on taking my video camera and still camera and documenting a lot of stuff.

Back to Thursday night, I went to MacGregor's in Canandaigua for my weekly "Thursday night date with myself" night. That was fun. I like MacGregor's. They have a lot of beer to choose from. I had Obovoid (a yummy oatmeal stout) and a Kona Pipeline Porter (because it was on sale). The KPP isn't a bad beer, but not nearly as good as the Boulder Obovoid! I chatted with a few of my neighbors about education and politics. Fun stuff!

Obovoid Tap Handle! (Nitrogen)

I just loved the pirate skull and cross bones!

Brute force

I have written about this a little on the writing blog (about which I haven't forgotten) and I want to touch on it here - since most of yesterday's productive time was spent working on the first of my applications. I am forcing myself through it - it isn't pretty and it isn't optimal, but it is starting to work. True, whenever I get one thing working, something else breaks. And then I spend a while figuring out what broke and why. After I get that fixed, on to the next thing. So far, I have a good bit working with a few more steps to go before I can even think about more steps beyond that. Yippee!

Also, if anyone can think of an iPhone app that they are dying to have, and they don't want to develop it themselves, please let me know. I do have a few ideas, three games and two non-game apps, but nothing very exciting. Not that I am promising I will build the app, just looking for ideas to expand my knowledge and to possibly build.

I find that working on these applications takes a lot of time just sitting around and thinking - waiting for the "aha" moment to arrive. Or at least the "heck, what if I tried 'x'?!" moment...

Not a lot else went on yesterday. Mom and I went out in the yard again. She spent a part of the day in the sun - she remembered that someone somewhere said that getting some vitamin D from basking in the sunshine was a good thing. I cooked eggrolls, rice&beans and broccoli for dinner.

Mexican Chinese Hybrid dinner! :)

And we watched the last two episodes of Rome. Did Varenus die in the end? If he did, it was very subtle. I hope he didn't.

****SPOILER****
 I mean his kids just started to like him again. Sigh. Anyway, it was a good series. Next up - Deadwood!

Crossing those roads (longish post)

Yay, gotta love 'em. Crossroads are a good thing. Just think if roads never intersected. How could you ever get anywhere new?

So, some of you may have noticed that my blogging has been a bit on the sporadic side. It is. I have been otherwise focused. And will probably be otherwise focused for a while to come. Not that I don't enjoy writing blog posts, I do. It is just that sometimes the day gets away from me. I get up too late, I do too many other things, whatever. It just gets away from me. And I find myself at 5 in the evening with no blog near completion. 5 is when the day is sort of over for me. At least the writing/creative part of the day. Not that cooking isn't creative - it is, but I am not really in front of my computer from 5 until I go to bed - around 11 or 12 or later. So if my post isn't mostly complete by 5, it just isn't going to be done.

I don't mind posting half-assed posts as you may have noticed. Though I do like to post three-quarter assed posts whenever possible. You know the ones - the ones that are thoughtful, feel as if they have been looked over and edited a smidge. With pictures. The not totally boring ones (every 17th or so). Sometimes, though, even the half-assed ones don't get written on time. I love me some cheese...

Speaking of crossroads, which is where this blog started, I am now at one in my iPhone work. I have done a lot of tutorials, read a bunch of books and just am a little stymied for what to do next. I now have four ideas for applications to create and that is boggling my mind a little. I like all of the ideas and I like being able to flit from project to project - at the same time, I sure would like to be able to focus on one of them. My fickle mind has its good points and its not so good points...

The past couple of days have been good. Well, most days are good. Just sayin'. Sorry I haven't written...

Anyway, Monday, mom and I went to the post office and got more stuff for her to huff, er, snort. As I may have mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the Ears, Nose and Throat Physician's Assistant gave mom some nasal spray that was supposed to help her stop blowing her nose so frequently. I think it is working. Unfortunately, there was only 5 days worth in each of the containers she gave us. And that won't last until we get back to the doctor's office in April. So we stopped in to see if we could get more samples, or a prescription. We got samples! Woo hoo! We also went to the post office, which is always a pleasure. At least it is in Geneva - nice clerks!

It is an uphill battle here at Chez Schoen-René, trying to keep the house minimally organized. I know I am not doing enough on a daily basis. Just thinking about it is mind numbing, and actually doing anything about it just takes so much effort. And mom does such a good job of making piles...

One of mom's nests - I neaten it, and two days later...

Dinner Monday was beef (which is supposedly now horrendously bad for your health) with twice baked potatoes (sour cream is the answer), broccoli and artichokes. Yay!

Yum!

Tuesday was Beer Tuesday, amongst other things. Mom and I also went for a little walk in the yard. Who out there loathes yard work? I know I do. I cannot think of a bigger waste of time. I just get no joy from it at all. Not the smallest iota. I have done a lot of yard work over the years, for mom, for neighbors, for not so neighborly people - for free, for a pittance, for pay - and I hate it. And mom thinks that because she enjoyed doing it in the past (or if not enjoyed it at least she cared about it and did it) that I should do it. Ha. Not going to happen. She was damn lucky that I took her for a stroll around the house. We found some daffodils for her to put in a vase. And we found a dead crow. (we didn't put that in a vase...) Yay! She asked me what I was going to do about the dead crow (and a lot of other things) and I said that I was going to do nothing! Sorry. Just not going to happen.

Mom. Outside!

Yay, dead crow!

Next stop, Beef and Brew for beer Tuesday. I have had to change my schedule to accommodate changes to staffing at the Beef and Brew. My favorite server, Lorraine, is taking Wednesdays off now, so I have changed my beer day to Tuesday. And yesterday, I took pictures of the beer menu - so that I can go through it and cross off what I have had. That ought to make it easier to pick what I still need to have. Yesterday's beers started off badly. Has anyone had a good experience of Duchesse de Bourgogne? I thought it was terrible. Kind of like a sour. Kind of like a Gueze. Just icky. And it left a bad taste in my mouth for my next two beers as well - Sled Dog (a dopplebock) just didn't taste right. And lastly a beer from Syracuse - Empire Amber - which again tasted off. Oh well. Not every beer day can be exemplary!

And today is another day. Go figure...

Bluettes mom calls these little flowers

Look, buds! Pussy willow?

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but there are new shoots on the Christmas Tree! Maybe this one will survive!

Sunday no Fun Day

Ok, it wasn't all that terrible. Just no game night. And I don't feel up to hosting it myself just yet. Maybe one day, if I ever get the house presentable enough. Ha! Pictures tomorrow will show what I mean. Sigh. Anyway, I didn't do a whole lot - nor did mom. And I didn't have any epiphanies or even mildly deep thoughts. I did work on the computer. I did send a few emails. I did cook breakfast for dinner (no pictures - sorry). It was yummy, though. And easy. A lot of chopping for some reason. Hmm. Anyway, more tomorrow!

Date Night?

Date Night...with mom...not really a date night...we shall call it an excursion, shall we? Yippee for excursions!

Most of the day was routine - get up, work on the computer, feed mom lunch, work more. Then around 4:30 we headed off to the movies. The Iron Lady happened to return to the Geneva Multiplex, and both mom and I were interested in seeing it. I have this feeling that mom gets anxious about being out and about - which is one reason her stomach acts up. I don't really know how to combat this - except maybe make her get out more often. But I digress. We made it safely to the movie and it was, of course, playing in the smallest theatre, all the way as far from the front entrance as possible. Ok, the one next to it might be a smidge further. When we got there, only three other seats were occupied. Before the end of the movie, there were a few more people.

The movie itself was decent. I don't know that it needed to be seen on the big screen. I agree with some of the critiques who said it focused too much on a declining or declined Margaret Thatcher. Meryl Streep was excellent and certainly deserved an Oscar. I would have liked to have seen more of her in her prime than in her old age. Still, a good movie.

Next stop, Pure for Indian food. Mom said she wasn't too hungry, so we got only one dish and some nan again. Since I am a good son, I ordered a dish that featured Salmon. For a woman who was not too hungry, she managed to eat a good bit! Jessica, the hostess, visited with us a few times. Bartender Joe also came over and chatted. I do like that place and will stop in again one Thursday night. And mom and I will go there for food again one day.

Back at home, our night continued with some more Rome. We are getting close to the end of the series. Marc Antony, who mom resolutely fails to recognize, gets shipped off to Egypt at the end of the last episode that we watched. What will happen next? Eeeek!

All in all, a pleasant excursion and evening. Yippee!

Movie Poster - I think it was a little misleading...

At Pure - taken by Jessica

Mom wearing Joe and Ginger's Christmas Gift (scarf)

That time of...

I think it is that time of month or perhaps life. Once again, I am not feeling very social. I haven't progressed very far in my FB letter writing campaign since I last wrote about it. (Speaking of which, my next step is to cull my list from the first 100 letters...something which is giving me some pause...) I have gotten a couple of emails that I haven't responded to. I know, shocking, right? And I haven't written a snail mail letter back to Emily yet. I am a bad person. Ok, not really a bad person, just not doing the best job at communicating. Sigh.

We had a lot of fog here last night. And this morning. I like fog. To look at. And walking through it is fun too. I don't enjoy driving in fog though. In case you were wondering...

I love it when I run into a problem with one of the programs I am working on and eventually get the problem fixed (by searching the internet, or by trying a variety of things...). Yippee!

Burritos for dinner. But I couldn't figure out how to roll them and have them hold together. Oh well. Maybe next time!

Seen Milk?

The other night, mom and I watched Milk - not a movie that I was dying to see, but someone mentioned so it ended up on the NetFlix list. I was alive during those occurrences, but was not really aware of what was going on - especially since I was on the East Coast and San Francisco is on the West Coast (for those of you who weren't sure...). I was aware of the gay rights issues and didn't understand what the big hullabaloo was about. People are people, don't hate, don't discriminate. That seems pretty simple to me. Anyway, the movie was surprisingly good. Sean Penn did an excellent job. As did the rest of the cast. I was saddened by the fear evinced by so many. But happy that good apparently triumphed! Huzzah!

I have started watching episodes of Bones on Netflix. They have through season 6 available for streaming. I still don't understand how they choose which items to stream and which to not stream. I am sure it is some sort of legal rights/distribution thing. Sigh.  Anyway, for a longish time, back in Clayton, we would watch an episode of Bones with dinner. I just had to remember not to actually be eating during the first few minutes when they revealed the body (always quite gross on Bones).

Last night I visited the Red Dove Tavern in Geneva. They always have good beers on tap. Yay! I had a a Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA (though it tasted a bit more like a double IPA to me) a Naked Dove Scotch Ale and a third beer that escapes me just now. All three were quite tasty. I also had nice chats with Erin (who is planning big changes in the not so distant future), David (who is working towards a degree at NY Chiropractic College) and Abby who is always entertaining.

And I started reading Norman Rush's book of short stories - Whites. I liked the first story though not as much as I hoped I would. I will try to read some more and see if his style grows on me. It felt sort of disjointed to me.

Still percolating (or plugging, hmm) along on the computer stuff. Every once in a while I get the thought that this is totally doable, and then the next few days I feel like I am way over my head. We shall see which wins out!

Less dough equals more yummy!

Oh, I made an awesome pizza last night for dinner. When I made the pizza dough a while ago, I froze some cause it wouldn't fit on the pizza stone. It was pretty little when I got it out - but I stretched it to fit most of the stone. Which made the crust pretty thin, which I like! Next, I converted some spaghetti sauce into pizza sauce (added a lot of garlic salt and oregano). Toppings were grilled onions, grilled mushrooms and pepperoni. Mozzarella cheese for the cheese. Mom actually liked it (besides just saying that she liked it). I will have to do that again soon, as I have a lot of sauce to use up!

A Lovely Warm Ginger Day!

Yay! Though mom isn't going to take a shower - she almost stamped her little feet over it - it will still be good to have Ginger here. She is taking classes and getting another nursing degree notch in her belt so that she can get a better paying job. Which means that she won't work doing what she is doing anymore. A bridge to cross when we get there.

I put the recycling out last night! Yippee! I am always happy when I get the recycling out!

Walked downtown to the library and the Bodacious Beef and Brew. I haven't had a good walk since the fall! Yay!

The library had all of Norman Rush's work, so I got them all. Don't know if I will read any of them - haven't been in much of a reading mood lately. We shall see.

I found out that Lorraine is going to not be working on Wednesdays, so I am going to change my beer day to Tuesday. Earlier in the week. Yippee! For beers, I had Schneider Aventius (yum) Harpoon Celtic (also yum) and Wychwood Hobgoblin (not as yum but ok).

Again, I am leaning towards going to Canandaigua for my Thursday night out. Chances are slight but it is there in the back of my mind...I'll probably just Red Dove again - unless there is a compelling reason to try Pure once more...

I am having so much fun working through the iOS tutorials. Each time something breaks and I fix it, I feel like I have accomplished something. And when the app shows up on my simulator and does what it is supposed to do, well, downright yippee!

Ivy!

I guess Spring has Sprung!

Pretty!

I am not sure why the HWS US flag was at halfmast - any know?

Norman Rush?

Anyone out there ever read any Norman Rush? He was the author at the reading last night at HWS. I am going to look for his work at the local library when I go out today. Yippee! It was a really well attended reading. Saw a friend or two there - and might have recognized a student or two.

I accomplished my goal of adding touch capability to the project I was working through in one of the books I bought. Speaking of which, I really need to sell the books that I got that I don't want or like. Anyway, that was a good thing. Unfortunately I also added in a bug of some kind that makes things  sort of stop working altogether after one launch. Sigh. Back to the drawing board!

Mom and I had a little spat last night. I suggested that she take a shower on Thursday when Ginger was here and she refused. Not sure what to do about that. I love my mom, I just don't like to be around her when she is stinky. And I don't really want to be the one to help her shower. She kept saying she would shower when she wanted to, and I said I didn't want to be the one to help her, then she said well, all I would need to do was...and I said - that's helping. Sigh. We shall see if Gigner has any better lick with her. I don't understand my mother's aversion to cleanliness. It is irksome, though.

I tried to make a casserole last night. It didn't really turn out all that well. It looked interesting, tasted ok, but just wasn't right. Oh well. C'est fromage.

Today is beer Wednesday at the Bodacious Beef and Brew! Still trying to figure out what to do Thursday Nights. Turns out that Emily will be working Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Leaf Kitchen now...

I think it looked good...

Yay accomplishment!

Yay, yay, yay! (Or yeah, yeah, yeah)! Spelling onomatopoetic words can be challenging. Anyway.

Yippee! (or Yipee!) Laundry got accomplished! Why do I feel like that is such a big thing? I guess because I feel like I am not in a particularly productive point in my existence just now. And even doing something as small as laundry seems like a huge success. Yay!

Feeling a smidge frustrated over the iPhone programming learning right this second. One of the books I am looking at is very confusing as it straddles two different xCode Versions. And on top of that, it straddles two versions of the cocos2d libraries as well. Grr. And they make their third project one that can only be done on the iPhone which requires me to pay $99 that I don't have. Double grrrr! Well, to prove that I am learning something, I will just have to rewrite it so that it responds to touches instead of to the accelerometer. If I can...

Well, at least the weather is great. Spring has sprung, at least for the time being. I don't put it past our wacky weather to toss in another chill down or two our way before winter gives up the ghost.

I lost and then found mom's camera. And in the process broke it a little bit. That is grr-i-fying as well. Not that I mind using broken things - how long did I use my first digital camera after I needed to use a hair-tie to keep it working? 6 years?

Tried a recipe for sweet potato fries last night and was thoroughly underwhelmed. Not crispy enough for me. On to the next recipe! Dinner was good, though - I made beer battered chicken nuggets and then tossed them in buffalo sauce! Yum!

Ok, have to move forward with my day. More struggles with iPhone development, maybe read some of my Economics for Dummies book (Scarcity? Really?) and putter some more. Joy.

Not so crispy sweet potato fries - I like crispy as a texture!

Dinner Chez Schoen-René

Blank Page Syndrome

Blank page, staring me in the face. Fill me! FILL ME!

Ok, then, that is at least a start.

I just haven't been feeling like putting fingers to keyboard lately - at least in the blogging department. Not that my life has been uninteresting - at least to me. For instance, Saturday night, I actually went out! Gasp! I know, weird, right? Leaf Kitchen said they were having music and I thought - why the heck not? So I went and had a lovely time. Sean, a man I had met there before, was playing his guitars and singing. Other people I knew were there as well. Including a birthday party for another friend. I also met a couple, recently moved from Charlotte with two cute kids. I had a hair shaking contest with the four year old. I think she won!

I cooked more french toast for dinner on Sunday. Yay french toast - and relearned something that I knew - that the french call the same dish "lost bread" as it was often used with stale bread - saving it from being thrown away.

And I am having fun on my mission to learn how to program the iPhone. Yippee!

Oh, I started reading my Economics for Dummies book - I was surprised to learn that the entire science is founded on the idea of scarcity. How sad is that?

Things are often different

And that isn't a bad thing - just an observation. It is snowing just now here in beautiful Geneva, NY. Where people still aren't planning to come visit. But that is ok. Mom wants to be left here if I go on a trip to NC. Not sure how that would work, since I have disallowed her from cooking. Any thoughts are appreciated. Still thinking I will drag her along. We shall see. It is still a few weeks away. Hey, is it really Spring Ahead this Sunday? How did that happen? Weird.

I am stymied just now in my programming efforts. Just waiting for a little epiphany there. It will happen. Meanwhile, slogging through online tutorials and books. Haven't yet taken the plunge and started the coco2d stuff. Sigh.

Yesterday, I went and helped Mary again for a little bit. I didn't really do much - she had two young lads who were doing all the lifting and toting. I did help her clean out her office some more. Throwing away a lot of the "floppy" disks that older machines used. Made me want to go to NC and throw mine away. Sigh. I really need someone to help me be ruthless with my crap down there. One day. Then Jackie came by - who I still think is attractive - and they started talking - and I was just standing around, so I came home. Yay home! It was a Ginger day - mom and she started working on the front hall closet. Got some good cleaning done in that area of the house - washed windows, washed the front door curtains, wiped stuff down, cleaned stuff out. Yay! Sadly, the coats are still in piles around the living room. I doubt many will be gotten rid of - but I really don't care if the aren't replaced until two weeks from now. (Next week is mom's shower and that takes up most of the hour.) It isn't like we have a lot of visitors...

My plan was to go out and have some beer last night. But it wasn't to be. Mary made a last minute call to drop off more alcohol she didn't want to lug away and a huge older dictionary that she had no need of - like we do? - (that being said, I am always happy to see any book come into the house - yay books!) - and some freezer food that she didn't want to throw away. I also helped her with getting a reservation at a Motel 6 on the route she and the truck are taking today. I hope we picked a good one (I think we did). So I stayed home instead. Does that mean I get to go out another night? Yes. Yes it does. I am leaning towards Saturday night (eeek) - maybe heading to the lovely Leaf Kitchen. We shall see how I feel.

Big truck!

Cake and eating it too!

I sort of don't understand the notion of having one's cake and eating it too. I think the idea is that if one eats one's cake, that one doesn't have it anymore. Ok, and? I have gotten to eat the cake. Hopefully before it became all stale and icky.

So, yesterday, I was concerned that I would not get to go to Beer Day Wednesday at the Beautiful Beef and Brew. Well, things worked out really well. Mom and I got there early, worked for a few hours - lunched at home and then haircutted at the Studio Salon in Geneva. Then I dropped mom back home and went back to Mary's house for a couple of hours. Around 4, everyone sort of called it a day. Yippee! So I got to go to Beer Day! Yippee!

Lorraine was there, which made me happy. And Kaitlynn appeared again - she gets younger every time I talk to her - and we chatted about her future - she is thinking of learning to be a rad tech or a ultra sound tech. I think she is smarter than that, but it is a good start! As for beer, I had a Stella Artois (which was pretty boring) a Delerium Tremens which was good though really strong and finished up with a Dos Equis Amber, which I thought I had had before - but I guess I hadn't written it down. (Well, of course, I have had it before, but it hadn't been videotaped, I don't think.) So, all in all, a decent day at the Beef and Brew. They are planning on getting more tap lines put in! Go them!

Later, Mary took us to dinner at Nonna's. Yay! We ate a lot, which is fun now and again. 

I learned something from a dream last night. Not to date a 19 year old Russian girl living with her sister and a friend in NYC. Ok, it was mostly a nightmare. Phew! At least I can avoid that! :)

Ill gotten gains from helping Mary move!

Mary's lovely ex-house!

What? Where did the Artichokes Francais go?

Mom, me and Mary at Nonna's

Different Plans

Today is going to be different from how I envisioned it earlier this week. Then again, most days are. Or are they? Hmm. Anyway, I thought this was going to be a typical Wednesday, with two engagements tossed in - mom's haircut and dinner with Mary. Instead, it looks like mom and I are going to help Mary work in her house - which was sold recently - packing boxes and maybe moving stuff around. I don't know if that will be all day - or just the morning. So here I am, up and at 'em (or as I used to think - up and atom) raring to go at an early hour. Yippee.

So, sadly, no beer day today. Maybe I will go on Friday instead. And I am still thinking of going to do beer night on Thursday in Canandaigua. We shall see how I feel about that on Thursday!

Tuesday was a pleasant day. I am working through a few more programming tutorials. I figure the more I do, the more that will stick in my little brain. I think I am actually beginning to understand how objective-c and the Apple iOS SDK work! Eeek!

Dinner last night was adventurous in the tuber department. I made some baked sweet potatoes - in the microwave - then took the innards out and mashed them with some butter and some brown sugar. Yay!

Ok, gotta go lug!

Another Engagement!

Wow, what a week this is turning out to be. And next week, there is a reading at the Colleges! Yippee! Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself. Again. Sigh.

So, the doctor's appointment was not stellar. Mom went kicking and screaming (in a figurative way). She just didn't want to go. We went to see a doctor for her itchy ears and for her running nose (Rhinitis). Well, a nurse practitioner. Why does a visit to a(n) NP have the same co-pay that seeing a doctor does? That doesn't seem right to me. (Co-pays still set mom off - and do irk me more than a little bit...) Anyway, we didn't even see the NP we had been promised. A new one to the practice helped us. She was nice enough. And pretty patient. Mom didn't behave too badly and was mostly pleasant and entertaining. Yay! The NP gave mom an examination and then gave us some sort of anti-histamine nose spray to try and said to come back in a month to see if that worked. Is this just a variation on "take two aspirin and call me in the morning?" They undoubtedly think that the ears and the rhinitis (love that word) are symptoms of an allergy. To check their hypothesis they are giving mom the anti-histamine. Yippee! Why they wouldn't just give her an allergy test to see what she might be allergic to, I don't know. Probably to get more money from her insurance companies and from us.  So, that is what we are going to do. Today will be the first day of nasal spraying. I can hardly wait.

After that, we went to McDonald's to get mom a fish sandwich. Maybe on Wednesday, after her hair cut and before dinner with Mary Gerhart (the other engagement) we will get her a fish sandwich from Wendy's. Then she will have had fish sandwiches from the three remaining fast food places in Geneva (since Burger King bailed on us a few years back). I didn't get anything because I had eaten left over pizza for lunch and still was full. I have two more pieces of pizza to go! Yippee!

Last night we had breakfast for dinner. I made sausage and cheese omelets, some left over veggies and a toasted bagel with cream cheese! I love cream cheese!

We also watched more Rome. I have mixed feelings about the change of Actor's for Augustus (Octavian). But was happy to see Lucius Verenus start to snap out of his funk. Huzzah!

The Doctor's Office

Busy Weird Week

Not really busy, but we do have two, count 'em, two commitments: an appointment with an ear, nose and throat doctor to see if we can address mom's drippy nose and itchy ears. And later in the week, a haircut for her! Yippee! Ain't we got high times to look forward to?

And it is Monday! Yippee! A FB friend posted a cool picture of someone leaping off a cliff - I think it was supposed to be inspirational - it scared me just a little bit. :)

We got some snow last night and yesterday. Some of which actually stuck to the ground! And it is supposed to be 59° on Wednesday. What is that about? Weird indeed.

Last night was game night - I haven't attended in a while for one reason and another. There were three of us, and we played a co-op game (where players work together to try and beat the game together) based in the world of The Lord of the Rings. Yay Sauron! It was tough, but we managed to win. Without losing any of our heroes! Yippee for us!

Game night in full swing!

Blue and Gray

Or do I mean grey. Hmm. Anywho, weren't those the colors for the Confederacy during the American Civil War? Wow, great! At some point on my political blog, I am sure I will end up writing about the Civil War. Yes, I haven't posted the first entry there yet. I have three written but haven't figured out if I like them or want to re-write them. We shall see. That is one of the many little things that is helping me to feel a tad blue just now. Maybe I will cure that little bit today.

Luckily, this here is a Sunday blog, and as such will probably have even lower readership than normal! Yippee! (I did, though, post another Writing Blog entry - not scintillating, but something...)

Oh and the gray comes from the day - it is overcast (as is frequently the case here in lovely Geneva) and my sweatpants and t-shirt are both grey. TED - does everyone know about the TED series of talks? - A friend posted a cool one about magic thinking - the gist of it was, well, what I took away was - the best way to be productive and creative was to work until you got tired of working. Then play. Then play until you get tired of playing and then work. Which is just the way that I like to do things - and have liked to do things for as long as I can remember. Which is one reason that I can't stay in any one job for too long. Too much work and not enough play...

More reasons for blueness - money. Why the heck do money and I have such an antipathetical relationship? I could really use a decent monthly influx of cash. Donations gratefully accepted. Though I do have products out there - that no one is buying! I really need to do something about that but just feel paralyzed. My thought is to buy Google ad or Facebook ad time for my books. But the process is a smidge intimidating - and there is, big surprise, a cost involved. Which of course gets paid up front. And why have so few of my "friends" bought copies? What is that about? Grrr. Part of me wishes that the Saucers weren't so far away, so that I could a) drown my sorrows at a place that makes me, generally, happy b) work on my 20th plate and c) sell copies of Diary of a Plate Addict. My current thought is to head down to Charlotte and Columbia for my birthday - have a couple of days at each Saucer. But have I written to either of the managers? Nope. I am just feeling a bit defeated by the whole thing. A friend's friend wrote a book and has already sold more than 1000 copies - a novel! I guess he has more friends than I do. Or friends who are more supportive than some of my friends are. By the way, for those of you who have purchased copies (especially those who didn't feel they needed to, or that the book was expensive yet bought copies anyway) you all are awesome!

Lack of a relationship is another little blue note. And I don't have any idea what the heck to do about that."Do nothing," is the common piece of very helpful advice. "It will happen when it happens." Great. Woo hoo!

And there is mom. Sometimes the whole situation just makes me feel sad. Ok, it often does. I feel like I am not really all that much value add for her here. I know, for instance, I am not cleaning up the house very quickly or effectively. And that is sad-ifying.

Well, enough of the pity party. Mom and I went out last night! Woo hoo! Rocking Saturday night when your hot date is your 81 year-old mom! Yippee! Gosh, I am such the babe-magnet! Anyway, we went to see The Artist. I mean, why not, since it got the Best Movie Oscar and the leading man got the Leading Man Oscar. I thought that it was good, not great. Any number of movies actually from that era were as good or better. The lead was pretty good - not having seen all of the other nominated performances, I can't really compare and contrast. I am glad I went, but I don't think that a copy of it will adorn my DVD collection shelf any time soon. After that we went to Friendly's for dinner. Mom does like going to Friendly's. It was quite busy - I keep forgetting not to go on Weekend Nights - but that is when the movies are, so...Jeanette, one of the servers, was nice and even gave mom a hug. Mom ended up having sweet and sour shrimp, which she enjoyed, and I had a so-so reuben. At home, our exciting evening was topped off with watching the first two episodes of Season 2 of Rome. All in all, a pleasant day. I hope Lucius Verenus pulls himself out of the black place in which he has found himself...please, no spoilers!

Yay movies!

Mom's friendly dinner

Errands Galore!

Yay errands! I love doing errands. Even with mom. True, they aren't quite as fun with her, but still fun. We had three to do yesterday and accomplished them all with eclat!

First off, Rite-Aid. They had called to tell us that some pills were ready. Yay! And another new floating pharmacist. (She was even prettier than my favorite pharmacist - if such a thing is possible.) Mom stayed in the car for that one. No, I did not leave the car running and no one kidnapped her. I also told her to crack a window if she felt a lack of oxygen. Luckily it wasn't too warm a day. :)

Next stop, mailboxes etc. type of store. Mom's charitable donations sometimes yield tchotchkes. Recently she got a babies blanket for one such. Which she decided to send to Candace, my brother's wife - or my sister-in-law. I wish that I could remember her last name. (She didn't take my brother's last name.) Ok, I have added her to my Contacts list. I love my iPhone. I am sure man smart phones would be just as good - but I do enjoy my Apple products...We didn't get mom's favorite to wait on us - he was busy with other customers, but our young man was effective.

Last stop - Wegman's! We spent $50 on mostly monthly stuff - nuts and candy primarily. We also looked for nail scissors - mom can't seem to find any of the thousands of pairs that she has. I am going to look in her bathroom and see what I can find in her drawer. If I can't find at least one pair, I will excoriate myself. But if I do, I will trumpet my success.

Back at the homestead, wings and pizza were on the menu for dinner. I made the dough from scratch - used some premade sauce and topped the partially cornmeal crust with pepperoni, pepperoncini and mozzarella. I followed directions better and dusted the pizza stone with cornmeal - and it worked - not sticky pizza! I cooked it a little too hot I think - the sauce didn't bind to the crust enough for my taste - making it a little wet. Well, I will keep experimenting. Making the dough was really easy using my food processor!

Today the plan is movies (The Artist) and dinner at Friendly's. Mom can only take so much of my cooking! :)

$50? Really?

It looked good, though!

Thursday Beer Night

It turned into an India Beer Night. Joe, who bartends at the Red Dove, now also bartends at Pure - a new-to-Geneva Indian Food Restaurant. So I stopped in to say hello to him and ended up staying for quite a while. First off, Jessica the hostess was there - she actually remembered my name from the previous visit - and we chatted off and on as she went about her business. Then there was a nice guy at the bar whose name I wouldn't know how to spell - we chatted about TV, books, music and such. Very enjoyable. And lastly, there was the beer. Four of them - I don't think I have had any of them before. And I doubt I will go out of my way for them again. Not that they were terrible, they were just a bit boring. Pictures below.

I cooked some steak for dinner - and a twice baked potato - and some spinach and some mixed vegetables. Yay!

Today I did not, yet, do any work on the computer stuff. Yay for a mini vacation. Hopefully later mom will feel up to going out for a little shopping/mailing expedition. It is a beautiful spring day here in Geneva! Yippee! Though winter is supposedly not over yet. We shall see...Have I mentioned that I like the variety of the weather here. The cold winters are more than made up for with temperate summers. Yay, I don't need air conditioning too often here! Yippee, even!

Yummy, if I must say so myself!

This was a liter bottle - fairly dull

This one had a little more flavor than the first, but still nothing to write home about

This was supposed to be the darkest - but turned out to be another lager...

And just when I thought it was safe to go home, Joe found a fourth brand of Indian beer for me to try!