Benched

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A couple of months ago in the grocery store, I noticed a display of teak patio furniture including a storage bench with a padded seat. I have no need for teak furniture outside (though I love it) but I wanted the bench very badly, to put in my foyer, against the stairs.

Sadly, we vacillated and the next time we went to the store, they were out of benches.

Then, the night my parents arrived, we went back to do a “light” shopping (that cost $200 – I blame the Milano cookies for that) and they had the bench again. I made Fuzzy grab it, buy it, and take it to the car, while I went around filling my cart. He did, because he likes to make me happy.

The bench, in it’s flat-ship box, sat in the garage until Monday, when, finally Fuzzy put it together. It’s a bit deeper than I thought (the seat, not the storage bit) but I love the way it looks, and yes, at some point, I’ll take a picture.

The problem is…now I kind of want the teak patio furniture, too.

Friday Fill-in

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1. For me stagnation is the opposite of creativity.
2. Little Earthquakes was the last excellent book I read.
3. I like fill-ins because surveys and memes spark new ideas sometimes.
4. In nature I like looking at the ocean, and pelagic sharks.
5. Anyone but McCain should win the US elections.
6. The last time I laughed with all my belly was I’m not really prone to fits of laughter, most things amuse me in small ways.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to the work-week ending, tomorrow my plans include refilling Zorro’s meds and visiting the comic book store, and Sunday, I want to see the “Sex and the City” movie!

Like this meme? Play along here.

Wifi-ing Adored, So Clear, So Portable

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A few weeks ago I found out that I was going to be receiving one of these very cool cellular routers from Powerful Signal to test, use, and play with. It’s a device that uses a cellular card (which I have) and turns that signal into a wifi hotspot within your house. During the spring and summer, we’re prone to major storms, and while we don’t lose power for long stretches of time, usually, we do have blips long enough to make the Uverse router et a little nutsy, so I’m really excited about this.

(I’m also excited about it, because it means we don’t have to stress over finding hotels with wifi when we travel. Since my cell card has unlimited hours/traffic we can stay or visit pretty much anywhere, and bring our wifi with us.)

As part of the review of this router, I’ll eventually be making a video about it, which I’ll be sharing here. I’m still learning the whole video thing, but I’m sure it will be fun to play with.

I have to confess, the concept of playing with this mobile router has my husband pretty excited as well, mainly because he remembers me complaining about having almost no signal when we visited his parents at their farm.

A Difficult Day

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All day Tuesday I felt as if I were trying to move through viscous liquid, both physically and mentally. Greenish glowy viscous liquid. Sort of like aloe gel but without the skin soothing effect.

Of course, in reality I was just tired and a little crabby, and not in the mood to work, and yet, I finished everything I’d planned to do, and managed to enjoy an afternoon of dark skies and rumbling thunder punctuated by the odd flash of lightning and softened by a steady, soaking rain.

We may or may not get more rain today, but even if we don’t I think I’m in a better mental place than I was all week.

I wrote another chapter of a fanfic today, and I’ve worked out some issues with the NOVEL so I know how to fix them, and just need to work diligently so I can have lots of time for personal writing this week and weekend.

Sometimes, the difficult days are the most rewarding.

Homebodies

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Sometimes, it’s nice to stay near home, and just have a relaxing weekend that doesn’t involve anything more taxing than seeing a movie and light grocery shopping.

Last night, we met one of Fuzzy’s work buddies for the 8 PM show of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was delightfully implausible and wonderfully escapist. Shia LaBeouf is becoming quite the performer and growing into a watchable adult, and Harrison Ford is still hot even though he’s showing his age. Or maybe because he is. There’s just something about slightly grizzly, casually disreputable men.

We got home around eleven, and I blogged a bit, and then crashed, slept late today, but not well, because Miss Cleo was on a sugar and cocoa high from stealing a 1/4 pound bar of chocolat noir, and eating it all. I was fairly close to locking her outside for the night, but she’d have barked nonstop.

We finally left the house around three, went to Cracker Barrel for eggs and bacon, and then did the grocery shopping we needed to do (I bought t-bones for tomorrow, an indulgence, but one I’m looking forward to quite a lot), hit Starbucks, hit Blockbuster where we rented a truly atrocious Allen Quartermain film because Fuzzy wanted to see “the character Indiana Jones was inspired by” – I went into the cool, dark bedroom half way through – it was THAT bad.

We also rented Charlie Wilson’s War, because anything that involves Tom Hanks speaking words written by Aaron Sorkin cannot be bad. And when I say rented, I mean, we actually paid money. We didn’t use Blockbuster coupons or exchange DVDs rented by mail, although we have both Enchanted, which I have because Jeremy said I needed to see, and Invasion because I’m all for sci-fi/horror, we just haven’t watched them yet.

And I STILL haven’t seen Sweeny Todd, though I have the soundtrack on one of my mp3 players.

Anyway, tomorrow, we’re hanging out here at home, maybe swimming, maybe just staying inside our blissfully air-conditioned house and watching movies, and maybe catching up on reading and writing.

We’re being homebodies.
And we’re fine with that.

Weekend Plans.

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This weekend, our plans are light. We’ve accomplished seeing Indiana Jones, so far – it was, to use the same phrase as a friend, an enjoyable romp. Totally implausible, but fun, and Harrison Ford is still hot even though he’s showing his age.

Other tasks include building the bench Fuzzy bought for me two weeks ago (or was it three) but hasn’t yet but together, taking apart the plumbing of the bathroom sinks and replacing the u-bends, and looking at the pressure on the kitchen faucets because while the bar sink is fine, the main sink seems to be losing pressure and I can’t figure out why.

We could, of course, call the home warranty company for the plumbing, and we might still, but the bench will definitely be completed.

And then maybe we’ll hit the Mars Watch thing at Fair Park, or go see Speed Racer.

Writing on Hotel Paper

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Sometime in the next few weeks I’ll be booking my flight and hotel room for my trip to San Francisco in August. As such, I’ve been skimming hotel websites reading about their amenities. I don’t really care if there are walk in bathtubs or not, as I don’t need an accessible room, but wifi is a must, and a free breakfast is useful. I’m looking for a hotel in or near the Marina district, and I found one I think will do, but not sure yet.

I’m looking forward to this trip for the actual conference as much as I’m looking forward to it just for a change of scenery. I do some of my best writing on hotel paper, or in places other than my own home. Something about being “away” just makes the creative juices flow.

I just wish I could be away and still have my dogs. I can sleep fine without Fuzzy if I have to, but sleeping without the comforting weight of a small dog on the covers in front of me is really odd.

‘Twas Grillig

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It’s weird but having a grill is like having a shiny new toy, and I’m suddenly inspired to cook again.

Sunday night, we had grilled top sirloin with steamed broccoli, and roasted potatoes. (The secret to roasting potatoes on the grill? Put some olive oil and garlic salt on a square of aluminum foil. Coat the outside of the potato (after stabbing it several times so it won’t explode), wrap the foil around it, and then let it sit on the grill for about 45 minutes before you put the meat on.)

Monday night, I made bratwurst, baked beans, and sliced tomatoes seasoned with a little bit of lemon and salt.

Yesterday I coated chicken breasts in a mixture of olive oil, kosher salt, lemon juice, and herbs de Provence, and let them come to room temperature while I roasted sweet potatoes on the grill, and tossed some sliced zucchini in a similar oil/herb/lemon mixture. Then we grilled it all.

As I write this, I’m eating a grilled steak salad (made a basic lettuce salad, poured over it the leftover tomatoes, and then warmed leftover steak and some mushrooms and put that over the cool veggies.) It’s a wonderful blend of tangy and smokey, cool and hot.

Tonight, I plan to make penne al pesto and slice the leftover chicken breast (they come in packages of three and there’s only two of us) into it. Tomorrow we’ll do something with hamburger or turkey, ditto Friday.

I’m only using really light seasoning on all this stuff – garlic, salt and pepper, mostly, but it all tastes so good, and it’s so satisfying, and while, yes, I did succumb to the lure of chocolate and make a batch of brownies last night, they were made from scratch, with half the sugar the recipe calls for, and zero trans-fats.

Stay tuned for more adventures in outdoor cookery, or share with me your favorite grill recipes.