Brother, Can You Spare a Quarter?

I just finished my collection of state quarters. I got Hawaii sometime last year, but I missed Wyoming along the way. My Mom gave me one (actually two) yesterday. Here's the complete set.

Jealous?

Honey and the Moon

I love coffee, it's true, but I like most hot beverages:  tea, hot chocolate, chai, warm milk (sweetened with sugar and topped with a sprinkle of nutmeg), hot toddies, etc.

Since it's been a little chilly lately, I've been warming up to a spot of tea more than usual.  I rediscovered the honey bear in my pantry to compliment the many teas I drink.

Although Kona is my favorite coffee, I'm not sure I have a favorite tea.  I like Earl Grey and Chamomile, both of which I drink plain.  I put milk and lots of sugar or honey in most black tea like English Breakfast and Irish Breakfast.  I like Green Tea, but I mostly drink that because it's healthy.  

(Keep Feeling) Fascination

I had a potentially good conversation today regarding my 9-5 situation, which might change as soon as next week. Fingers crossed!

Phone First

When I got my new cable service I also changed my phone service to "bundle" and save money. I was happy with the VoIP phone service I had, but it was scheduled to end soon so I thought I'd give cable a try.

I hate it.

The new service sounds awful. There is a buzz on the line that the installer said they can't fix unless I want to pay $35 per phone jack. I also hear a sound on the line at some point in every phone call that sounds like a phone ringing or an old phone dialing. There's no voicemail and I don't have an answering machine.

I can't see a reason to keep it, but I have two more weeks to get out of my contract.

All Systems Normal

I lost about 1000 songs on my iTunes earlier this month when I opened the program and an error message said the files were damaged. Yesterday, I tried connecting my iPod, which still had all the songs, and synching the two but that only transferred the purchased songs to iTunes and erased the other 900+ songs from the iPod.

I thought about reloading the songs from CDs but that seemed like a lot of work. And I wasn't exactly sure which songs were and which songs weren't still there. I checked my computer folders and found the song files. I was able to get one missing song to play and save so I imported the whole folder into iTunes. Other than creating duplicates of the songs that transferred from my iPod, it worked! I'm not sure what happened, but I'm glad I was able to fix it.

Resuming Write

I was working on my online resume that's posted on a few sites. I thought it was interesting that one got 14 hits even though it wasn't searchable. How does that happen?

I think I need to add some details and make it meatier. There are some bare-boned parts. I should definitely put in more buzz words.

Cookout

The food at today's cookout is worth commemorating. I should have taken pictures. Hurray for the start of summer grilling!

Lunch
Burgers
Brats
Andouille
Kielbasa
Hot Dogs
Chips
Fritos
Cheetos
Fruit Salad

Dinner
Chicken
Zucchini
Potato Salad
Macaroni Salad
Pasta Salad
Puerto Rican Rice

Dessert
Yellow Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Peach Pie
Sweet Potato Pie
Peanut Brittle

I'm pretty sure I ate about a month's worth of sodium and nitrates.

Shell Game

I spent the better part of four hours shelling raw peanuts. I was able to shell half a cup an hour, which seems ridiculously slow. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

I wanted to make two pounds of peanut brittle and each batch called for a cup of peanuts. Once I realized how slow it was going, I almost scrapped the plans altogether. The end result was aces though so I guess it was worth it.

Golden Oldies

Q and I were playing the old Nintendo 64 yesterday and today.  It started with Mario Kart, but since I rule that game, we switched to Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Stadium 2.  I mostly lost the battle games but won lots of the mini-games.  The sushi game is my favorite.

I also busted out Pokemon Puzzle League.  I love that game.  I still need to solve a few of the boards in the super hard level of the Puzzle University.  I'm not sure I can solve them since according to the game, I've already logged over 13 hours trying.  Plus, do I need a new old addiction?

Hanging Off A Cliff

Two of my favorite shows were canceled this month: Everybody Hates Chris and My Name Is Earl.  Both ended their fourth seasons with unanswered questions.  Who is Earl Jr.'s father?  Did Chris pass his G.E.D.?  Will Earl have Dodge visit on the weekends now that he knows he's Dodge's biological father?  Who was that shady guy in the restaurant where Chris and his family were singing Living On A Prayer?

Another bad thing about these shows ending is that I used to TiVo them to watch with my oldest nephew.  I guess we'll have to find other shows to watch.  We're looking forward to Community with Joel McHale.

What Day Is It?

For some reason, I have a hard time keeping track of Thursdays. Today for instance, when I woke up I thought it was Friday and as the day went on I thought it was Wednesday. You'd think getting the newspaper every day would give me a clue. On Thursdays I even get two papers!

Maybe there should be more songs with the word Thursday in them.

The Book I'm Not Reading

I have a lot of recipes. Most are clipped from newspapers, magazines or food boxes. Some are handwritten recipes that I got from other people. Others are recipes that I found online. If I had to guess, I'd say I haven't made the vast majority of the recipes, like at least 90%.

I've gathered all of the recipes I've saved over the years and have a plan to organize them. I have a binder, some sheet protectors and divider tabs. I'm starting with the ones that are 8" X 10" that are easy to place in the sheets. I haven't decided how to deal with the odd shaped ones. I'll probably just tape them to a piece of paper.

It's going to be hard to throw away any of the recipes.

Caulk Blocking

My "new" windows are a little over five years old. They are armor glass, which blocks outside noise. It also keeps the cold out in winter and the heat out in summer. It's great stuff, but what really sold me on these particular windows was the lifetime guarantee that included maintenance.

A service technician came out yesterday to replace a screen that was scratched by Nigel last summer. The damage was really my fault because I shouldn't have left the window all the way open after dark. I'm sure there was a skunk, bunny or other cat outside attracting his attention. The screen previously withstood his claws, but he must have been really aggressive because he made holes big enough for bugs to get through.

While the tech was here, I asked him to look at the caulking around the windows. He replaced the damaged caulk on the outside and even filled in the gap on the inside of the large picture window that's been there since the guy who refurbished my woodwork ran out of caulk.

How've You Bean?

I've been experimenting with dry beans for a few months. It all started with the dry bean soup mix that turned into really great soup. I've made it twice with a little variation and both times it was easy. 

Then, I decided to make beans to put in chili instead of using canned beans. That didn't turn out as well because I misread the directions for soaking and cooking beans. Also, I made both beans together, which discolored the kidneys.  The chili was good but the beans were a little hard.

I've since made black beans for tomato black bean soup and to eat with rice.  I've made rosada beans for a bean loaf (think meat loaf with beans instead of meat.) Today I made garbanzo beans for a delicious hummus. 

The soaking part is easy and not really time-intensive if you do it overnight.  Cooking them is tricky because every bean cooks at a different speed.  Also, I have trouble getting a precise simmer on my stove, which doesn't help things.  I'm not an expert yet, but I don't think I'll go back to buying canned beans anytime soon.

Food Denied

I went to dinner at an Italian restaurant that is not a chain and shall rename nameless because meals there are usually very delicious and enjoyable. I learned yesterday that the mom and pop nature of the business makes for bad dining when the ma is missing.

The menu board outside of the restaurant listed Spinach Fettuccine Alfredo as one of the specials. I asked the waitress if that meant spinach noodles with alfredo sauce and she said "yes, the noodles were homemade and are very fresh." I eagerly ordered it.

Minutes later, she returned to say that they were out of the special. At 6 PM? When they're open until 9 PM? And the place was pretty empty? I couldn't help but wonder whether they threw them out because they were inedible.

I got a calzone instead.

Cat Food Fight

I haven't been monitoring Nigel's food very closely in the last few weeks. I tend to just give him food when he asks for it so I might be overfeeding him. I think he's gained a little weight, which isn't good for him. I'm have to be stricter with his meals.

Be Kind Rewind

I've mentioned going to the library recently, but mostly I've been using it as a video store. I realized that you could reserve DVDs online, which opens up all of the Clevenet catalog for the taking. It also saves time at the library and the hassle of having personal contact with other people looking for videos since the reserved section is self-serve.

But, there's no instant gratification. I had to wait almost 2 weeks for the 8 out of 10 that I borrowed. I won't know when the last 2 will be available until I get the creepy automated call from the electronic librarian.

Here's the list of DVDs I checked out today and the libraries they call home:

All About My Mother -- Cleveland Public Library
Bobby -- Cleveland Public Library
Donnie Brasco -- Eastlake Public Library
Memento -- Lorain Public Library
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -- Cleveland Public Library Hough Branch
Paris, Je T'Aime -- Willowick Public Library
Sunshine -- Birchard Public Library (Fremont)
The Tudors (First Season) -- Cleveland Heights - University Heights Public Library

The main reason I started reserving videos online was for The Tudors, which I could never find at my branch. Weird.

Referential Treatment

Apparently, references are hard to come by these days. 

Everyone Knows It's Windy

The second floor of my house has older windows than the rest of the house. I can really tell the difference on nights like tonight when the wind is gusting. Right now there's one window that is rattling loudly. I think it's one of the few with the screen down and storm window up.

The old windows are hard to open, the screens don't fit right and they're drafty. The newer windows don't have storm windows that have to be put up or taken down when the seasons change. I hate the old windows.

Spending or Saving?

I came into a little money today, which wasn't totally unexpected but did fall into the "I'll believe it when I see it" category.

Part of it will have to go to my speeding ticket, but I might allow myself to buy something frivolous with a little of it. Maybe some new earrings. Or maybe some new glasses.

iMac

There are fewer and fewer things I can do on my old iMac, which I bought in 2001. I can see my hotmail inboxes but can't read the emails. My other email accounts work okay but look weird.

Certain websites are partially viewable and the links don't work. Also, my wireless card doesn't always pick up the Internet signal broadcasting 20 feet away.

I like iPhoto, so I keep most of my pictures on the iMac, but the older version of iTunes isn't compatible with my iPod Touch so I have to use my PC for most of my music.

Anything not web-based works fine. I typed this on my iMac, but couldn't publish it so I had to cut and paste from my PC. This post might be screwy because of it.

My Favorite Movie Star

Movie popcorn season is here! I've seen two "summer" movies so far and hope to average one a week through August. I won't, but I hope to.

I also hope most of the movies are accompanied by popcorn and a Cherry Coke.

Flower Box

The flower box in the front of my house is momentarily pretty. Sadly, it won't last.

Affordable Retail Therapy

I had some money in my iTunes account so I bought some songs:

Oxford Comma -- Vampire Weekend
Silver and Cold -- AFI
Ruby -- Kaiser Chiefs
Our Truth -- Lacuna Coil
Reality -- Electronic

Time Management

I'm always running late. It's been my undoing more times than I can count. Today was especially bad since it ended with me getting a ticket for speeding. I was on that stupid stretch of Mayfield that goes from 35 MPH to 25 MPH. No matter how many times I travel that road, I never remember to pay attention to when the speed limit changes. But, the real reason I got the ticket is that I kept checking the time as I drove instead of checking my speed.

So, as a belated resolution I'm going to try to run 5 minutes early to everything instead of my customary 10 minutes late. I suppose that means I should leave 15 minutes earlier than I think I should. I honestly don't mean to be late, I'm just a bad judge of how long it takes to get from place to place.

Automatic Extension

I updated to Internet Explorer 8 and now I can't see certain pictures and movies on some websites. I think that means I'm missing an extension or something. Why didn't all the extensions I needed download with the update?

I spent some time trying to fix this problem but couldn't so I just downloaded Safari to view the pages I can't see on IE. I wish I was a full-time Mac instead of a part-time PC.

Third Time's The Charm?

The cable company came out AGAIN! to look at my DVR/digital cable box. On the first box, the DVR went bad, the second one just stopped working altogether. If the third one doesn't last a week, I'll throw it out the window and make the cable company retrieve it from among the flowers.

How Long Do I Have to Keep Them?

They're going in the recycling tonight. I think they're recyclable.

My Aching Head

My eyes have been hurting because I need new contact lenses. Today, I've had a headache on and off that seems to subside when I blink. It goes away when I close my eyes and comes back when I open my eyes. Thousands of mini-headaches.

I should have gotten new contacts sooner, but I misplaced my prescription. I could get a replacement Rx from my eye doctor, I suppose. I need to stop wearing this old pair or start taking Tylenol. Strangely, my eyes aren't red or swollen and my vision isn't blurry.

On the Shores of Old Lake Erie

Here's the building that used to be Lorain High School. This is the view of the seam where the cafeteria meets the front left of the building. The cafeteria was added to the building in the '70's, I think.

Here's a closer view of the area. I don't know if these bike racks were ever used. They're in a weird and impractical area, really. Near the middle-top of the picture is a sign.

Here's the sign, as best I could capture it. The builders joined the cafeteria building to the original building without regard to the fallout shelter sign. Why didn't they just remove it?

Bloody Hell

I knowingly lied to some Jehovah's Witnesses today, and I think I inadvertently offended them.

Jehovah's Witnesses come around my neighborhood a few times a week. I don't always answer the door. Today, I had my front door open and couldn't not answer the door. When one asked me why I thought society had a problem with drugs, I said that I didn't know, but that I was home sick and didn't want to get them sick. She gave me a pamphlet, and they left.

The weird thing is that while the woman was talking to me she kept staring at my t-shirt:

I know JWs can't get blood, but are they not allowed to donate? Was my t-shirt passive-aggressively offensive? Maybe that's all you have to say to get out of talking to them, "I believe in blood donations."