Look, more snow!

Now, "look" would make one think that I am putting in a picture of the new snowfall that we got last night. And, if I get my act together, I might just do that. Probably won't, but anything is possible.

Feeling a little tired this morning. Oh well - gotta push through a little work at the Smith - getting the projector back to baseline for the movies this afternoon and evening. The group that came in yesterday needed a lot of video tweaking to get it how they wanted it - and to accommodate using the cyc(lorama) as the projection screen. It would be really clever of me to write down these settings, wouldn't it. Sigh.

Went in and the settings were what they ought to have been. I don't know what that is about. Honestly, I am not making an effort to understand this projector that well. We will, hopefully, soon get a new projector. And server. And become, presto, DCI compliant. That would be nifty. Though movies that we get on DCP are probably going to be fairly costly. Rental and shipping. Anyway, it only took me half an hour to do all the movie stuff I had thought of. Then I took another half hour working on getting the second ticket printing printer set up - to no avail. I will try again on Monday. It really oughtn't to be as difficult as it is. Why they don't just factory install it with a large (high) IP address, I don't know. What ever. Maybe the Artsman support people will be a great help. Anything is possible.

Home became lunch land for a bit. I made mom a small lunch of crackers (she didn't eat them) a third of a banana, some ensure type drink and some orange glop. Oh, and hot coffee. She took a long time to take her pills, but did a decent job on the food. Still holding out hope that her diminished appetite is due to the pain from the shingles. Which, apparently, is getting worse. Fingers crossed that the shingles and the pain go away soon.

I am playing a sniper world war two game on my xBox. Not the best game, but entertaining in its way. I am also cruising through the first Harry Potter book on audio. Put a hold on the second. I wish that mom would like or understand Audio books. Sigh.

The second things that came out of the new oven - six chicken pockets and two pizza pockets! Yum!

These turned out much better than my last ones

More pictures! I am working on a de-cluttering track on Daily Challenge. Yay! I am only going to do it for 9 days for now, but will go back to it as it seems like it will be what I need a lot of in my life just now. I don't think Daily Challenge has a dating track. Hmm. I will have to see. But I am doing the challenges. One of them was to declutter my kitchen counters - something I did a few years ago when I first moved back. Here are the newly cleaned counters:

Left Counter all spiffy

Right Counter even spiffier

I hope to keep it about this clean, give or take, more or less...

Ditto with this counter - sans the laptop and the Harry Potter Book

Some of the stuff that came off the counters (not the puzzle stuff...)

Well that is sad

Poo, even. I got all caught up in the many hour downloading of stuff for my computer that I completely forgot about doing my daily challenge, which means that my really, really, really long streak was broken. Oh well. Life is that way sometimes. I am sure I will survive. (One of my DC friends suggested I ask for a mulligan - but I do not hold out high hopes for that - which means I might just stop doing DC.)(They wrote back and said they could try to restore my streak - we shall see.)

And Twitter finally listened to my support emails and reset their flag on my email account so I did get a confirmation email and was able to log into my account. Huzzuh.

Mom was up all night basically, sitting in the bathroom. Not sure what to do about that. And she refused to lie down at 4 in the morning - after having spent the whole day sitting up. I must admit to yelling a bit to get her to finally lie down for a while. My throat is still sore.

I am exhausted. And a bit on the sad side. About Daily Challenge mostly. Though my mom is always good for a bit of sadness.

Yosemite (Yo-ze-might) has been safely installed and I don't see any problems. It will grow on me, I am sure. So, all of my personal computing devices are up to date. Hurrah!

Oops. Spoke too soon - apparently there is a new thing that the Mail app does that necessitates making some tweaks to one's account settings for some email accounts. Not everyone sees the issue - luckily enough people have that there are pages and pages devoted to it on the internet. Yay internet!

Spent way more time at the Smith today than I had planned. I even get to go back in later tonight. I could really use a nap. Mom is exhausted and passed out in her bedroom - in her chair unfortunately. But I can't even think about sleeping until I finish up closing at the Smith. Sigh.

Work, play and cleaning

It is one of those multi-function days.

I got up relatively early and headed to The Smith to test a few things. The HDMI splitter started working again, which is good and confusing. We shall see if it works for the projectionist on Thursday, as she has a DVD film to show. I also tested the DVD, added a trailer to the playlists, called the electrician about when he would be coming to start work on some lighting work that we requested a month ago (sigh) and blew out the rusty boiler water. Phew! I also went to the bank and checked in with the people who do the kiosk for us.

After that, a quick trip to the grocery store, where I got some huge beets!! Yay. I had my beet, apple, carrot and lime juice this morning. Yum. I also did my yoga. Sadly, the only thing that I have actually accomplished every day so far this year is writing my blog. So far, so good. Oh, and I have been doing my Daily Challenge response every day. Baby steps.

When I got back from my tough morning, I played for a little bit. I am playing Dishonored which has been enjoyable so far. A cross between an FPS (first person shooter) and an RPG (Role Playing Game). Fun stuff. I have gotten stuck a couple of times, but many people have gone before, so there is help aplenty on the internet.

Next up, room cleaning. My room hasn't been cleaned in at least a year. I was going to take a "before" picture, but that would sort of defeat the purpose of cleaning my room. I might take an after picture, just so that I can look and see what my room looks like when it is neat (ish). I don't mind a messy room, or a chaotic space, generally. Weird, right?

Wow, it really wasn't all that dirty - just cluttered. The status of my existence just now. Maybe one day I will be down to the minimum amount of belongings and stuff, but that day will be a long way in my future, I fear...next step - dusting - and then vacuuming. Yippee!

Augustus, vacuum cleaner repairman! So, I started to vacuum my room and noticed that the bag wasn't inflating. Oh no, Mr. Bill! (I am reading a book about Saturday Night Live) I took the thing apart and got out the clog (the entire tube was filled - I think we kept the last bag in too long...). It was not as easy as it could have been - but it is done now - and my room is as clean as it is ever going to get. Huzzuh! Time to cook dinner and chillax!

Work work work work

It looks like there will be a bunch of hours a day for the next three days spent at the Smith. Though I do have, I think, a full staff, so I won't have to be there if I feel that I don't have to be. That would be nifty. What I don't have, and would like, is an elder baby sitter. And for less than $20 an hour. Sigh.

While working on inputting cues for Cinderella, I learned a good bit about the old light board that we have. Like, if the master level is not at 100% all of the lighting percentages that are input are not what they seem. In other words, if it is off by even a fraction, much confusion can occur. As it did me. Sigh. One of my hopes for the Smith is to have a new (to us at least) light board at some point in the not so very distant future. Oh, and I had one of those epiphany-lets: we need to replace some signage with digital signage since the marquee was taken down so very long ago. (If I am not making sense, I blame the hour. It is 8 am as I type this - only 6 hours of sleep.)

Without realizing it, well, that isn't strictly true, I have been doing the Daily Challenge thing for over 3 years without missing a day. Where's my prize?

Had a weird and not good interaction with a vendor this week.

Me: Hey, we're missing something from our order.
Vendor: Ok, I'll send a replacement. If I get it out today, you will have it tomorrow.
Me: Cool, thank you!
Half an hour later. (Close to five - i.e. too late to get the order out that day...)
Vendor: Are you sure you didn't get it?
Me: Quite sure.
Vendor: Because I am sure I sent it.
Me: Really, quite sure.
Vendor: Ok, well. I will get it out tomorrow - you will have it on Wednesday!
Me: (A little irked not to be getting it Tuesday) Fine.
Wednesday - no package - Thursday no package
Thursday - Me: Hi, where's my stuff?
Vendor: You said you would have someone pick it up.
Me: Do you remember telling me it would only cost $10 for you to send it - and me saying great, cause it would cost me three times that to send someone. Then you saying that you would send it so I would get it Wednesday - UPS ground?
Vendor: Yes, I remember. Then I remember you saying that you would have someone pick it up.
Me: Please send it!
Vendor: Ok.

Grrrr. If I don't get it today, it will make me less than professional. Grr, grr, grr.

Internet Fail!

No Post yesterday, not exactly sure why. I just didn't manage to get it done. Sigh. I did, though, do other stuff. And I did stuff on Friday too. Weird, right?

One of the exciting things that happened recently, was a second round of dimmer vacuuming. This fun filled process is not doen frequently, but seems to do the trick in preventing the dimmers from occasionally failing. Not failing catastrophically, just failing enough to make it annoying for the audience. Since I haven't heard anything from The Smith, I am guessing it did the trick. Yay!

On Friday, mom had a doctor appointment. It was zippy and easy. Sadly, they have gone to an electronic check in system. I guess they are trying to save money by having fewer reception people. Sigh. Why is it all about money? The scanner that is attached to the system had fallen from its velcroed position, so I thought it had eaten my mom's health insurance card. But it hadn't! Phew and yippee! Mom got weighed, not measured, blood pressured, temperatured and blood oxygen leveled by a nurse. Then, almost immediately, Dr. Ryan appeared. He didn't have much to say since mom didn't have much to say. Besides her Alzheimer's and some of her other issues, she is healthy. I am happy about that. Mom thinks these 6 month check-ups are a waste of time and money. Speaking of which, I was surprised that the visit was only $15. Huzzuh!

So much for Friday. Saturday, Daily Challenge wanted me to do a chore I had been putting off. I was going to, but then decided that I was going to take Saturday and Sunday off from chores. But the universe wasn't letting me off the hook that easily. A little before five, Justin came over and took a look at the leaky faucet. Turns out that the internet was wrong about what needed to be fixed in the faucet. They had said replacing the little cylinder thing would do the trick. When I couldn't find a replacement cylinder, I figured I would need to replace the whole faucet assembly. Justin stuck a screwdriver down into the bottom of the faucet housing and pulled out a little washer/gasket and spring pair. Who knew they were there? The internet videos I watched hadn't mentioned these. Apparently, they get tired eventually and need to be replaced. $5 at Value Hardware. Desiree didn't know where they were, so she got me another associate who helped me locate the right ones. Back at the homestead, I replaced one of them, and the leak continued. So I replaced the other one and, voila, leak no more! Yippee! Cheers from the masses! A chore was accomplished despite my wanting to not do anything of significance on Saturday. Silly Universe.

Saturday night, I went to Leaf Kitchen to help them try to get rid of some of their bottled beer. I did a good job. I think they appreciate my efforts. Saw people I knew and chatted with them a bit before eventually toddling home. It was a fairly early evening for me as I popped into bed almost immediately on my return. I guess I was tired or something.

Less Miserables

Last night was movie night, here at Chez Schoen-René. The movie was Les Miserables - the movie of the musical of the book by the same name. I am glad I watched it - but I was underwhelmed. Maybe it was more overwhelming in the movie theatre. I know that I enjoyed the live production of it I saw - I think it was a touring company in Rochester a long while ago. Part of it is the music - there are really only about three different themes in the whole show. Part of it was that I don't really like the story that much. Not sure why. All the death perhaps? Or the amazing coincidences. Whatever. And it didn't help that mom asked me (after about an hour of silence) who people were all the time. I think by the very end of the movie she figured out which was Jean ValJean. Hurrah for small blessings.

I spent a lot of the day yesterday at The Smith - helping clean out the projection booth - which has needed it in a big way for at least a few years. There is satisfaction in making a place that looked jumbled and messy look like it is organized and clean. It took a little longer than I had envisioned, but that is the way of things sometimes.

Today was partly a Smith day too. We had a meeting about the new air conditioning system that was recently installed. After that we did a little tour of the space looking to see in what condition the contractors had left the spaces. Overall, they left them pretty neat! Yay!

I feel dull today. I posted a response to a challenge on Daily Challenge and so far, not one person has commented on it. Sigh.

Wow, and this sure is a dull post. I will do differently tomorrow. Promise!

Cloud Atlas anyone?

Sometimes I get a little carried away with my responses to my Daily Challenge posts. Too many words. Not as many (or as boring, I hope) as some of my connections on there. But still, I feel like my 200 words was easily accomplished and don't feel like I have any more left for my blog post. Yet, I mostly struggle on and attempt to come up with more verbiage.

Last night's movie was Cloud Atlas. I enjoyed the movie. It was really, really long and I admit to taking one break from it - nature called. The stories were all interesting, the actors all did a good job, visually it had a lot of great moments. I guess I will have to read the book at some point. (I just looked and my library system doesn't have a copy on CD. Hmm. We will see what happens here...)

More thoughts on things to do in the future. Move to Canada - Toronto or Montreal - Toronto because it is not that far from Geneva. Montreal, because Cirque headquarters there and I could again try to find work with them. Or move to Las Vegas for the same reason - though I think I would rather work a touring show or at the home office than work a show in Las Vegas. Find some other circus to work with. I could also start trying to find backers again for Sirius Theatre.

After rehearsal last night, I went to Parker's to watch Al, the director, eat. Ok, that wasn't my primary reason for going. I like Al and enjoy hanging out with him. I had a beer or two while he had dinner. It had been a long while since I was last in Parker's. Certainly not my favorite place in town - but it wasn't terrible. I noticed on the way out that they had Dogfish Head 90 minute - I am guessing it was on tap. Which means I will have to go and have at least one beer there sometime soon. 90 minute doesn't last long, usually.

50 Followers!!

Wow! Whoopie! Huzzuh even! I have fifty followers of my blog. How awesome is that?! I am very excited. Next stop: 250,000. Or maybe 51. Thank you for choosing to fly the boring skies of Life and Such.

Got the Beatles Book! Yay! I think I am going to look at Taxman first. I am very excited about that as well.

Is incessantly wanting to check your email and phone for texts and messages the same as waiting by the phone was back when I was a teenager? Not that I ever did that. I never had a phone to wait by in my teenage years. I was at Andover from 14 to 18 and we had no phones in our rooms. If you wanted to see someone, you went to their dorm and saw them. Or hid in the bushes near their dorm and hoped to catch a glimpse of them...just kidding. I don't have good stalking techniques - oh, well, come to think of it, my stalking techniques have never been good. I would make a terrible hunter. I think I would be a decent gatherer, though...And yes, it is exactly like waiting by the phone - except that I have two devices that never ring - the computer and the, er, phone.

Maybe it is I who shouldn't be allowed in the kitchen. A friend posted on Facebook that there was early corn at the grocery store. Mom adores corn on the cob, so I got three ears for dinner last night. Dinner consisted of home made shrimp eggrolls, broccoli and corn. I steam my broccoli and corn, generally. Last night was no exception. Except that I forgot to put water in the corn pan. Eeek! We all survived - I think the pan even survived. I will look today - the corn actually got cooked somehow. Just from the heat, I guess. Not quite as good as steamed corn, but beggars (and losers) can't be choosers. 

I did, at one point, plan to get a lot done today - pay bills, move stuff around, etc. But it is looking like that isn't going to happen. Woke up early, futzed around a bit - did my daily challenge etc - then went back to sleep for a while. Suddenly, it is lunch time! And later I go into The Smith for the rest of the day. Sigh. Best laid plans, etc.

Homemade Mac and Cheese a la 'Gustus

Strictly speaking, it wasn't "Mac" and cheese - it was pasta and cheese. Mini wagon wheel pasta and cheese to be precise. I sort of fudged a recipe I found online - changing the milk to half and half and adding some water, I didn't measure the spices (salt, pepper, nutmeg) or the flour (supposed to be half a cup - I think I added a bit more than that). And instead of the bread crumb topping that it suggested, I used Cheddar Cheese and Jalapeño Cheetos. What? On Daily Challenge, we had a challenge a few days back, that suggested that we try a new herb or spice or use a favorite herb or spice on a different dish. So I suggested Mac and cheese topped with one of my "favorite" spices - Cheetos.

A little side note about Daily Challenge, for anyone who has forgotten. I don't know how I got turned onto the site - but somehow I did. It is from meyouhealth.com. The idea is to do a little something for yourself each day to further your well being. There is a general track, which has challenges from all aspects of one's life - physical, emotional, mental. Then they have lots of other tracks that focus on different areas specifically - Happy Back, Lucky Legs, Self Esteem, Money Matters (I don't think these are the names, I am just going for a sense of the types of tracks available). So the idea is that you do the challenge and then mark it completed. Then there is the option of saying how you did it. Sometimes (often) the accomplishment really needs no explanation (yes, I walked a different route to the bathroom) so it seems kind of silly to write anything. Which got me started being silly most of the time. I like being silly. In case you hadn't noticed. In the course of being silly, somehow I brought Cheetos (which I think is a silly item of merchandise) (note I didn't say food...) into my posts, using them in all sorts of, hmm, less than normal or appropriate ways (do not think "bestiality" since that would make Cheetos an animal and I am a fairly certain they are supposed to be (or once were) vegetable). Which led to the above response. Which prompted at least one of my connections on there to ask for pictures when I made the dish. Which brings us to last night. And to today's post.

Anyway, the "mac and cheese with Cheetos on top" turned out pretty well. Yum and yay!

I could have just made this and added Cheetos, but I didn't!

Who knew there were so many Cheetos choices?

Not sure it looks all that appetizing, but it sure was tasty!!

I did end up going out last night but chickened out asking the bartender to hang out. Maybe I will one day - probably won't - but it could happen. Had a lovely time, though, chatting with her and with two other women (one was a new server there and one was a professor from Hobart and William Smith I have seen out and about a few times) (Geneva, as she pointed out, is very small - in a mostly good way...). Yippee!

Fleeing Friday

As you all know, I love alliteration. The lazy man's way to make language seem interesting. We didn't really flee anything, we just headed to Kingston, NY for the beginning of Erich and Shelly's wedding festivities.

Because of the proximity of the wedding, we didn't have to get up early, which is a good thing. I like to sleep latish (which is often 9:30 or so) and do a bunch in the morning - like write my blog, do my daily challenge, check out facebook, maybe look at the news online, the weather, play a little on my phone (I keep playing Flippety and seeing if I can make it crash) (speaking of which, my great nephew Lewis crashed it again - and my nephew Ernst, an actual programmer sort told me one way to maybe prevent the crash - though I think it is not necessary as I doubt many people will actually do what Lewis does - just randomly push on the screen over and over again until it crashes...), maybe work on a project or two, figure out the day, plan dinner, etc. I usually get a lot done in the morning - mainly because I have silence in which to work. No nattering. I don't mind a few minutes of nattering now and again, but incessant nattering is another thing entirely...

Well, that was quite a little digression, verging on a rant. Moving on. I got up and did a lot of the above stuff before going in to mom's room and checking on her status. Asleep. Gentle prodding yielded an awakening mother. While she was starting to do the arising thing, I got her blunch (breakfast and lunch) (not brunch - that seems to be something that happens before lunch time, while blunch is something that happens at or around lunch time but is one's first meal of the day) and some coffee. Much as I disdain coffee, it does seem to clear some of mom's mental fog. Not memory and such, just her normal morning miasma of unhappiness and disgruntlement. And I started cleaning the kitchen which I like to leave as neat as I can when we go traveling. Few things are more unpleasant than coming back to a messy kitchen after being away.

We got out just at one - barely. Yippee! The drive was pretty smooth - no back-ups or traffic snarls. Mom did natter quite a bit - sadly, she has a way of harping on the two topics I most dislike talking about - money (ick) and my house in NC. When I say that I don't want to talk about them she gets angry and says that she can't talk about anything. Sigh.

The lovely Super 8 motel used to be something else I am sure. It is more of a hotel than a motel - with the rooms all opening on inside corridors. It is ok. Not scintillating. Mom doesn't like the pillows (too hard) and we had a little electrical problem - the multi-plug in the wall was loose - or the plug plate was loose or something was loose. Anyway, the staff swapped things out and it all works fine.

Since we had some time to kill, I turned on the news for mom, missing most of the BBC news because it started half an hour earlier here than it does in Geneva. And then ABC for some reason was out of synch. Other channels were fine - just ABC was weird. Oh well.

Off to the rehearsal dinner at the lovely Rosendale Cafe in Rosendale NY - where the wedding is happening as well. (Not the Cafe, but in or near Rosendale.) We ate outdoors (not my favorite thing) at unassigned tables. It all worked out eventually. Juliet was kind and forced me to not sit with mom. Yay her! Mom ended up sitting with Juliet and Candace and Karl (my brother and his wife). I sat with two of my nephews, their significant others and Lewis (Ernst, Jill, Sam, Abby). Food was good - all vegetarian (sigh). I had a sweet potato burrito - which I enjoyed - though Jill's Greek Salad - which seemed more like a Mediterranean plate than just a salad, looked excellent as well. And I got to have two yummy Rogue Dead Guy beers! Yay!

All in all, a decent day! Tomorrow I will write about the wedding, which is happening today!

The Sign!

Rockin' Rosendale Cafe

Betty (mother of the groom) Mom and Juliet

Ernst (father of the groom) and Paul

The menu

Ernst reading a sonnet that he wrote (we are that kind of family)

My sweet potato burrito

Jill's Greek Salad/Mediterranean Plate

Opera Night One - Check

The first performance of The Barber of Seville was last night. Yay! Only two more performances to go. I am enjoying the production, for the most part, and am looking forward to it being over at the same time. I just got an email today asking me about hours and such. Sigh. I could go on a little rant here, but I am going to restrain myself. Suffice it to say that sometimes I wonder about people's priorities.

Speaking of the performance - nothing major went awry. The show seemed to be well received by the smallish audience that attended. The actors seemed pleased. And Al (the director) didn't have too many notes for we technical types. Yay! There was an opening night feed session at Pure - the Indian Restaurant across from the Smith. Yum!

Yesterday, I went shopping at Wegman's for the first time in a while and was a bit taken aback at the crowd! I was there a little after four and the joint was jumping! Much needed supplies (like potato chips and soda water) were purchased. It looks, though, like another trip today is warranted. Dinner must be prepared! Oops, after doing a Daily Challenge challenge of cleaning out the fridge, I found enough vegetable matter to make dinner without shopping. Yippee!

Last night, we ate the last Bertolli's, which I managed to overcook a little - weird but true - and some corn on the cob. Mom loves corn on the cob. She asked me my secret and I told her "butter." That is my secret ingredient for most cooking. Yay butter!

Have I mentioned that I don't like the ads on Hulu? I am thinking of going for Hulu plus, but the finances aren't there just yet.

Ok, not the most exciting blog post. Maybe it will be more exciting tomorrow? Anything is possible (most things are unlikely).

Dinner at home

Michele (Rosina) and her parents

Yummy Indian food at Pure

Two Blog posts and a daily challenge

That has been my day so far - I posted two brief brewpub blogs about places in Syracuse that I visited last year: Empire Brewing Co. and the Suds Factory. Both places I would like to revisit. And I probably will. At some point. Maybe in August. For now, I am content to not be driving very far in the car unless I am highly motivated. And a Daily Challange post - sometimes those are like little blogposts. And recently, I have been aiming for amusing or funny were possible in my DC posts. And I posted a new writing blog - not scintillating, but better than nothing in my opinion. Do people type IMHO anymore (besides me just then)?

Speaking of funny, I am working on a joke, but haven't figured it out yet. Who knew that writing something humorous could take actual work? This joke is beer related - there's a surprise - so I am afraid so far that only beer people would get it. I mean, how many non-beer interested people know what a growler is? Hmm? The joke has to do with having six pack abs versus having growler abs...

Yesterday, we got a leak fixed. I helped Justin a teeny bit - saved him maybe three minutes by doing things he could have done himself, but were a little bit easier if I did them for him - like flushing toilets and running water. Yay me. He, on the other hand, busted it out and worked his ass off to get the job taken care of. Removing a bunch of old pipe and replacing it with shiny new PVC. It was a fairly big job - no walls had to be removed and replaced, so it wasn't super huge - but still - it took the better part of the afternoon to complete. Even with my "help."

Other than that, let's see what excitement was in store at Chez Schoen-René. Well, mom did some culling in the red room. We now have ten items ready to go to the Center for Concern. And a couple of new rags! And she actually did some exercise. Used her little arm weight and got on her mini-treadmill (a step exercising thing) all by herself. Now if I can just keep her doing these things...

I wanted to take a minute and talk about my lack of an emotionally enriching romantic relationship. Some might take me for desperate. I am not. I am pretty happy in myself and my life. I am, though, easily motivated when I find someone I find interesting and attractive. And will go to great lengths to get to know someone and see if there is any chance of a relationship there. Just wanted to clear that up...

Justin

Look at all that shiny new plumbing!

Found some, finally

Day Twenty-Six Austin (TX) and Toodling About

Long, arduous toodling, but still toodling. And taxing, for both me and mom. Which is why I have made the unilateral decision to have an extra day of rest here in Austin. Sure it will put us back in Geneva a day later, but I think we can both use the time to recoup our energies before the final push. Oh, and a good friend here in Austin is having a BBQ at their place on Wednesday and I don't want to miss it. Other than that, rest! Oh, and I need to buy some duct tape. Which might actually be used to fix a duct. How weird is that??

So back to the day behind. Enough of this looking ahead stuff! :) Since I am in Texas, I was determined to go to the most recently opened Saucer, in Sugar Land (near Houston). It was a long drive, but shorter because of my clever, clever, GPS. It took less than three hours! Yay! A short, hop and a skip sort of drive. Wow, it is weird that I think that three hours is a short drive. Almost like when I lived in Texas. Anyway, we got out and got down there at lunch time.

Mom noticed the Saucer first! What a great location they have. Right at the entrance to City Walk! It is a decent sized Saucer - not as large as the Saucers in Memphis or Little Rock, but still a good size. It wasn't all that busy when we got there. Joe, a key employee, took the time to chat a little right off the bat. Actually, over the next couple of hours, most of the management said hello! And I had met most of them at other times in other places. What a small world, the Saucer world really is. Our server, Chelsea, took really good care of us. She even brought me an extra cup of ice! And made a fresh pot of coffee for mom. I hope I remembered to tip her...Mom and I shared a Reuben-esque for lunch. I also had two beers - Pecan Porter on Nitro - yummy! And an IPA from someone around here. It was good, not great. Otherwise I might actually remember its name. I only had two because I had intended to stop at the San Antonio Saucer to get the straight poop on just how far along Frank is on his plates. I am guessing he has hit thirty by this point. Or maybe not quite yet. Anyway, we took a great group picture! Thank you Sugar Land Saucer for a lovely visit! Next time I am in the area, I will definitely stop in again!

Next stop, the Alamo. I hadn't realized it was so far from San Antonio to Houston. Wow, right triangles are amazing...We did eventually get there, after half a bag of sunflower seeds on my part. Sadly, there is no parking really close to the site. Which meant that mom and I had to walk from where I did eventually find parking, to the attraction. Joy. After some time, we managed to get inside, where it was way cooler! Those old time architects sure could build them! Oh, wait, they had installed air conditioning. Never mind... The actual building is teeny. Weeny even. But we were there. I only hope that mom actually remembers The Alamo...

Something I thought mom might enjoy was a river cruise along the river walk. Walking, obviously, was not an option. It actually wasn't too hard to get to the boat. And the boats were loading and leaving at a rapid pace. Luckily, it was really easy for mom to get on and get seated. The tour was a little canned, but mom seemed to enjoy it. Well, she liked it a lot more than I did. Don't get me wrong, I had a nice time, but it was not great. She mentioned how good the tour guide was at least five times. Maybe she will mention it again today. Anything that makes her that content, can't have been a bad thing!

After the tour, I stood her in the lobby of a hotel while I went in search of the car. It was right where I left it, fortunately, and I got back before she got anxious enough to wander off on her own looking for me. That is one of the troubles of traveling with her - leaving her someplace alone is a smidge worrifying.

The drive to Austin wasn't too long. We opted for dinner back here, rather than in San Antonio. One of my Daily Challenge friends suggested a restaurant partly owned by her nephew. "Bacon" was an intriguing name, so that is where we dined.

Interesting place - very Austin-like. Small, straightforward, laid-back. Mom and I split a hamburger - that had bacon in the burger! I added a couple of slices of bacon to it. And they had a bacon aoli for me to dip my delicious french fries in - they were almost shoe string potatoes. And they gave us a lot of them! Great dinner choice!

Back at Sam's we crashed pretty quickly. I watched a couple of episodes of Stargate Atlantis before setting my head to pillow for the night.

Sugar Land Saucer daytime staff!

The Alamo!

River Walk Boat Tour

Yummy burger and fries at Bacon in Austin!

Day Sixteen - Separate Ways Day

Feeling a bit tired today. Gee, aren't you both excited that I share how I am feeling with you? I should really sleep for another hour or two, but I also want to get up and get out at a reasonable time for the drive to Las Vegas. Glarp. Where is my chauffeur? Hmm? Yet another reason to amble for president - lots of limo service! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy driving my own vehicle. To the grocery store. This driving across the country is for the birds! Oh, wait, birds can fly... then again, I bet that is more tiring than driving. Has anyone ever done the big glider flying thing? I would love to try that once. One day perhaps.

Look, lots of words I haven't really said anything! That's why I like my blog.

Yesterday, mom and I went our separate ways. Yay! What I would have really liked was a day just sitting in a lovely pub somewhere and all of my friends dropping in to say hello. I could have worked on Flippety, maybe read something, had some good beer. Flirted with servers. All that sort of thing. Instead, I decided to do a self imposed driving tour of the Bay Area. How freakin' relaxing was that? Not very. Fun, though, overall. And I did get to see five of my friends from the area.

Before I write about me, me, me, let me say a little about mom and mom's day. She got a relaxing pampered day. Our host took great care of her! They hung out, ate, watch videos, and generally had a pleasant time. Lucky them!

Meanwhile, I got up and drove out into a traffic jam! Yay! Auspicious start. Not. I didn't stay in it long. I tried the "detour" feature of my GPS. My old one had a cool "blocked" feature - the problem with that was it asked for how far away and how long the blockage was. Who knows that information? That's why it is good to have a handy co-pilot/navigator/private masseuse (ok that last isn't part of the general job description of the person sitting shotgun (though having a shot gun is pretty close to mandatory), I just think it would be nice - the first two parts are important, though)! They can take down the GPS and fiddle with it to get a good route - along with maps and atlases and things - while forward progress continues. This time I just pushed the button and hoped. I did, eventually, make it to my first appointment. Only 45 minutes late.

Rosanne was kind and patient and waited. And it was great to see her! I am not sure when the last time was, but the years melted away. Yay! I had a little taster of four beers - Veronica brought them over and wasn't quick enough to dodge a picture! My favorite of the four, though all of them were decent, was the Peach flavored beer. Yum! Rosanne had an appointment that she had to attend, so our visit was very short. She left, I settled my teeny bill, and headed to appointment two - 50 miles and a world away.

I have only been to San Jose once or twice before. It has always seemed like a nice enough city. This time, I had a GPS and it took me straight to the home of my friend Jules. Who I had never met. We are Daily Challenge friends. And she is the first (hopefully not the last) DC friend that I have seen face to face! Yay! We sat and chatted for a bit. She needed to get to sleep so she could work her night shift. I had to get back on the road for my next visitation.

Up to San Francisco. Let me say, that traffic all day wasn't that bad. Well, except for one part, but I will get there in a bit. I headed for Hayes Valley, which I had never really considered a neighborhood before. Of course it probably always was, but I hadn't spent much time there. Certainly a place to hang out, if I ever am back in the Bay Area again. Which I hope to be, but one never knows, does one? I was only about 10 minutes late to this get together. Phew! Murrey had staked out a table and had gotten a free pretzel 'cause she knew the owners! I snarfed the whole thing since I had yet to eat that day. She and I went to Andover together, many years and yesterday ago. It was a pleasure to have the chance to see her. Hurrah!

She needed to go to her dinner appointment, I needed to go to my dinner appointment. I drove further into the city to pick up Patti, a friend from Ithaca College. We headed to North Beach, on a Friday night. North Beach in non-peak times is a bear of a place to find street parking. Friday night is just ludicrous. But eventually, parking angels sang hallelujah and turned up a space. Yay! We had dinner at an Italian Cafe (go figure, in North Beach...) that was yummy. And listened to music from an old looking jukebox. Again, great to catch up.

After dropping Patti near her home, I headed to my last get together of the day, in my old stomping grounds, Oakland. And to one of my favorite places, Barclay's. Luckily, Susan and her husband frequent the place and were comfortable hanging whether I was there or not. They saw me coming and were surprised when I disappeared. I had gone to get my card - 1555 - upon which one marks the beers one tastes. Yay! I had a Breckles Brown (I think that was what it was called). They had a dearth of dark beers - it being summer and all. I probably ought to have gone for an IPA, but I didn't. I hadn't met Kyle before - great guy! - and mostly sat and chatted with Susan! She seemed to be happy and healthy - who can ask for anything more. Barclay's hadn't changed since I was last there - ten years ago? Except that the service staff has gotten more attractive...

I had given myself a curfew, so headed back to Sonoma around 10. Yay! I was in bed by 11:30 and asleep by midnight. A long, long day. Rewarding, and long.

I don't think mom missed me for a second. :)

Me and Rosanne!

Chez Jules

The beer Garden with Murrey

Patti enjoying our time together!

Kyle, Susan and me

Laundry and I really do get along

Yesterday was laundry day. Yippee! I made mom change her sheets. But she wanted the same ones put back on. They are the green felt like ones. Winter sheets. She likes them, which is all that really matters in the long run. Originally mom had planned on coming with me, but chose to remain home and work on letter writing. I think she wrote a letter to President Obama. He will be thrilled, no doubt, to hear from her.

While I was out at the laundry, I chatted with a woman I have seen there quite a few times in the past year. Turns out she is here for much the same reason that I am, taking care of an ailing mom. Though she is choosing to leave and getting on with her life. She heads off continue school, probably next fall. Good for her. Me, I have decided that this is my next 5 year plan. Which of course might be four or ten, but five-ish, definitely, if I can handle it. Chatting with her made the laundry experience a bit more pleasurable (though it is pretty fun in any case). (Pillow case for example...)

I did a bit of wandering while there - looked in at Staples - I have a bonus award that I need to spend there soon. Then looked at the new construction in the mall. How weird is that? There are unoccupied storefronts, why add a new storefront? I don't know. Pretty much decided I am going to go see Avengers today. After beer day at the beautiful Beef and Brew - heading there early in fact, but I am getting ahead of myself and will leave that for tomorrow. On my wandering, I stopped in at McDonald's. When did their value meals stop being a dollar? Eeek! But my french fries were still pretty tasty.

Oh, the other day, the Daily Challenge was to spice up one's cooking. So I took a picture of my "go to" spices.

New construction at the mall

Less food more money! Yay!

Hmm...

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...

More Snow!

How exciting is that? Still not a six foot blizzard, but better than nothing. Am I hallucinating, or did Geneva, NY used to have a real winter - one that started with snow in October and ended with snow in early April? With the ground mostly covered with the lovely white stuff for most of that period? Maybe those are just childhood fancies and imaginations. Whatever, they are my imaginings! :) I think we are supposed to get back into the 40s later in the week. Sigh.

Well, I got an interesting comment on one of my posts. The Social Media, er, Person (I can't remember her title and I am too lazy to look just now) must have come across one of my posts where I mention Daily Challenge. And she posted a comment! Yay! So, next step, people - actually meeting one or more of my Daily Challenge Connections! It will happen!

I got stuck in the iPhone programming book. The program that they asked me to make doesn't work as expected and I can't see how to fix it. So I am taking another approach - I am going to do some of the Apple tutorials and see if they can give me enough information to fix what is broken in the other project. I have read some of the first tutorial and have already learned a lot. Yay learning! Ok, finished the first tutorial, about to do the second. Yippee! Then, back to the other book. I can hardly wait!!

Watched three more episodes of Rome last night. I don't know where I saw it before, but somehow I have seen bits of all of these episodes. I have never subscribed to HBO, so it must have been while I was traveling at some point, watching them on hotel televisions. Weird.

Pine needles all gone! :)

Pretty winter from my bedroom window

Daily Challenges

Every day, little challenges appear and either get handled or ignored, hoping that they will just go away. And sometimes, luckily, they do. Other times, they don't. So they get handled. Add to this the self imposed challenges and the challenges that come from meyouhealth - also, interestingly called, Daily Challenges, and a day can get full very quickly.

Speaking of Daily Challenges, I would once again like to say how happy I am to have found the site. I have made some friends, met lots of interesting people and generally have a great time there. I have noticed that some people who were negative have either disappeared or changed their tunes. That is awesome! Sadly, some of the people with whom I have connected have basically stopped coming to the site. Well, I hope they are happy and well. It is cool that I have friends from all over the world on Daily Challenge - some of them have even become FB friends - and I hope to meet some of them eventually. I have two connections from Romania, one from Brazil, several from Canada. Yay! I have never been to Brazil and hope to visit there one day.

Yesterday was a pleasant day. Ginger came and helped mom with a shower. I played a bit and got stuff for dinner - buffalo chicken wings (home made buffalo sauce) - Mediterranean pasta salad - steamed broccoli - Yum - and a visit to Leaf diner! There was a gaggle of women from William Smith hanging out there - always a good thing. Gave a card to three of them - Shelby who was our server from the other night and two others. Later, Dan and Dan and Brett were there. And the whole evening, I had the pleasure of chatting with Emily.

Oh, an interesting exchange happened the other day. A friend had someone comment on one of her posts. I thought the someone was attractive to me so I wrote my friend and asked about her. She said she was 25, too young for me and asked if I liked redheads. I responded, yes, sadly, I do like redheads and that age doesn't matter to me since tomorrow we might all be dead. Age really doesn't matter to me and my heart - or even my head. As long as there is a connection, it doesn't matter to me if the person is young or old. They are still a person of interest and that is all that matters. :)

My books all arrived today! All four in one box, though ordered days apart. Go Amazon! Two books on programming, one on Economics (for dummies) and one on US Government and Politics (for idiots). I am so excited!

Chicken wings!

A well decorated table at Leaf Kitchen - and who is that cleaning up?

Yay books!

Getting Older

I had thought of a great title and subject matter for a blog and poof - it is gone - out of my head. I ought to know better than to not write it down immediately when I think of it. Sigh, sigh, sigh. Oh well, c'est fromage.

Still feeling downright anti-social. Yippee! But I do need to get out and about today. Laundry to do, Christmas tree to buy, and groceries to shop for. I am wanting to make an apple crumble - got a lot of Ida red Apples sitting around that need to be eaten.

Got another month of photos done on Facebook yesterday! Hurrah! I plan to get another done today. That would be awesome. And mom and I had breakfast for dinner - I still haven't learned to get everything done at the same time. Oh well - the food still tasted good! Now I am trying to figure out the menu for the week. One of the great things about cooking for my mother is that she is appreciative of anything I feed her! I still smell like bacon from last night. Shower time! I figure once a month is probably a good thing whether I need it or not. Maybe that is why I am feeling anti-social...because I stink?

Being anti-social could also be affecting my blogging. I am just not feeling very interesting. Glarg.

Today's Daily Challenge was to watch a music video of a favorite song - I chose Scarlet Begonias from the Grateful Dead. Yay! Fun stuff and brought memories and tears. Not actual tears, just a bit of welling - from happiness and remembrance of things past. And I was struck by how awesome the technology is that allows us to do something like that. Speaking of which, I am not getting very far, very fast on my beer video blog. It will happen - just don't know when or how or what it will look like...

I really need to give up on the silly Gardens of Time thing. Just sayin'...

Photo from December 18, 2011:

I generally like my eggs over easy - mom likes hers over hard! This is twice baked potato, french toast, bacon and eggs.

Pizza!

My search continued last night for my favorite pizza in Geneva. And so far, the winner is Cam's Pizza in downtown. Cam's has been around for years and years. I don't know if it is the same owner, or if it has changed owners 1000 times. Anyway, I think it might be the last contender - though I haven't tried the local Dominoes. Hmm. I went down there, to Cam's, in the rain and ordered a pizza in the shop. They said 20 minutes, though it was closer to half an hour. The 14" pizza was larger than the box and although I ordered pepperoni and artichoke hearts, I didn't really see much evidence of the artichoke hearts. I know, they are expensive, but still, one actual heart chunk wouldn't have been too much to ask, would it? Still, it was pretty tasty and might just be the winner for the time being.

One of my DC (Daily Challenge) friends thought that the woman I met in the grocery store would actually contact me. I applaud her positivity - but I doubt her grasp on this particular reality. I think the chances are slight that I will hear from her. I will give it a week before I write the supermarket woman off completely, but me, I would have already contacted me. Yes, I am that wonderful. No, seriously. I mean if someone gives me their contact information, I am at least polite enough to send them a note.

What else exciting happened yesterday. Spanish class and Spanish lab - I think I went back to my failing ways on the quiz last night - it was stuff we studied almost two weeks ago and I wasn't really prepared - the info wasn't fresh in my little noggin'. I now know one thing I will have to study up on for Friday's exam. I have the "repaso" to do today. And that is about it for commitments, I believe. But back to yesterday. Nope, nothing exciting to report.

Ok, time to do my repaso. Sigh.

Pictures from November 14, 2011:

A sign!

Do you see an artichoke heart? I don't!