Monday, 02 January 2012
Jennifer dictates a blog post:
Once upon a time, I was standing in the middle of the kitchen looking around aimlessly into space and then I told me wife, “I don’t know what to do.” And she said, “Do the dishes.” No, wait, I said: “I don’t know what to do. Tell me something to do.” And then she said, “Do the dishes if you don’t know what to do.”
And then I said, “I don’t know if I want to do the dishes.” And then, a couple minutes later, she saw that I was doing the dishes. And then I quit doing the dishes and I didn’t know what to do after that. And I was bothering the crap out of my wife & being obnoxious and so she said, “I’m ready for you to go back to work.”
The end.
But you’re not really publishing that, right?
Yeah, I am. Why would I bother typing all this if I wasn’t gonna use it?
Why?
*shrug.*
Tuesday, 03 January 2012
Well, as tangentially hinted at above, today was my first day at work since December 23rd. I don’t hate my job, so I really don’t mind being there; I was even kind of looking forward to coming in to work today because I had some stuff I wanted to get done.
My main problem with my job is the commute.
I’ve solved this problem by carpooling (to save money) and listening to books on tape (to enjoy the time). When neither of those is an option – and I thank the local libraries for systematically removing their audio cassette books from the shelves – I listen to the radio, usually NPR.
But, as they informed me about five times today, today is the “start” of the election season.
Oh, I’m sorry – I guess all that extended coverage about Michelle Bachmann running around Iowa and Newt Gingrich saying asinine things for the past several months must not have counted. From listening to NPR, I thought the election “season” got under way sometime last August. But I guess they are referring to their coverage, because at no point during my drive to or from work did NPR spend more than 10 minutes not talking about the Iowa Primaries today. They were practically tripping over themselves trying to find something to talk about regarding the candidates and their tactics and what level of hatred they all have towards gays, women, science, and poor people. And, of course, their unfortunate last name.
If NPR gets this worked up over the Republican’s Iowan Primary, I can’t wait to see how they act when the Democrats are looking for a candidate.
For more on the Republican primaries, CLICK HERE.
Or just let me sum it up for you: It’s all boring nonsense designed to help you figure out which misogynistic asshole is the best man for the next of 49 more primaries.
Wednesday, 04 January 2012
I think I need to take my brewing know-how to the next stage (or “level,” if you prefer palindromes).
Whenever a co-worker discovers I brew beer, they get all interested and ask questions, like I’m an expert. But, I quickly exhaust my knowledge and refer them to THIS VIDEO, which then deflects the conversation onto my film-making hobby.
When I first joined Toastmasters, I figured I would give a speech or two about beer brewing, but then I learned that a few other guys in the club have the same hobby, so I don’t really want to give a speech about brewing in front of people that probably are better brew connoisseurs than I.
Finally, the co-worker who borrowed my brewing equipment last spring – just so she could see if she wanted to invest in the hobby – has now become the master. She’s whipping up yeast, concocting her own recipes, and – according to my wife – has way, way better labels.
Anyway, I received an Amazon gift card as an Xmas gift, so I’m gonna buy a copy of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. And some caps. It’s always good to have some spare caps around.
Thursday, 05 January 2012
Today, as part of my commute home from work, I began heading east on a main street in St. Paul. As soon as I made the turn onto this particular street, I noticed something was wrong. Traffic heading west was backed up a bit, and the cars were slowly swerving into my lane. I gawked as I drove by: there was a busted up bookshelf littering the road. Then, about two hundred feet later, there was a busted up changing table (or something similar – there are so many diapers in my life I guess I’m just assuming it was a changing table). Then, about 500 feet later, near an exit ramp, was a desk chair in perfectly good condition. Well, close – there was one caster wheel missing.
“Huh,” thought I. Someone must’ve lost a load out the back of their pick-up. I kept driving. The desk chair reminded me that we’ve been wanting one. Ever since we moved, we’ve been using the rocking chair at our desk. This doesn’t work too well. Sometimes, I fetch the big green exercise ball and sit on that. It works pretty decent, actually, but the height is not adjustable, and without back support, we can only sit there for a brief period. That desk chair lying there, tossed aside and forgotten, meanwhile, was exactly the sort of chair we need.
Now we own it.
Oh – and I found that fifth wheel, too.