Monthly Archives: August 2013

And away we go

I’m on my way back to another school year, BoomR is on his way to Venice…where are you bound today?

I haven’t had a moment to reflect on this past summer, as is my wont on the first day of school (no kids till Wednesday, though). For now, the biggest issue is staying the course this year, in many ways. Lots of changes coming up for my colleagues and me. Nothin’ like jumping in head first.

The crazy weekend was good. Did I mention it was crazy? Haven’t stopped since Friday morning. My freezer got the full Monty, though. Between Saturday night and Sunday night, I managed to prepare and pack away the following dinners, at least twice each, sometimes more:

  • salmon filets
  • salmon cakes
  • salmon for salads
  • Chicken Romano
  • Italian meatballs
  • Boston cod filets

It should last us over two weeks. If not, well, back into the kitchen I go. I will perfect this, I swear.

And now, time for war paint and hitting the road. Have a good week, fiends!

Whirlwind weekend

Yeah, I’m about to have quite a few of those. Much is on my reptilian brain this morning.

I saw this photo on a friend’s Facebook wall today. I am redoubling my efforts to be a barracuda against bullying this year at school. Gay, straight, malcontent, square peg…doesn’t matter who you are. No one deserves to be bullied. (Well, maybe St****rs fans.) So a warning to all and sundry who want to be mean people at school: I’m comin’ for ya.

Speaking of beating up on folks, the Browns did that in fine style last night. ‘Bout time someone from Cleveland can beat a Detroit team. But can Cleveland catch a break? No. If it’s not a lack of offense or pass rush, it’s injuries. I swear.

So why all the whirlwind weekends? The Thriller and I have done really well with treating ourselves better. Since April, he’s lost 36 lbs., and I’ve lost 29 now. We stopped pumping ourselves full of sugar and animal fat, and cut way down on our wheat consumption. It’s taken only four months to lose this weight, which is a surprisingly short time. I don’t usually post about weight issues, because I never wanted to get caught gaining it all back and having to explain yet another failure on that front. But it’s good now. I feel confident that it’s gone to stay. Yippy!

Anyway, my point, and I do have one, is that we are going to use every Sunday as a cooking marathon. Once rehearsals for the musical start up next week, it’s full sails and into the wind for me, but I refuse to let my nutrition take a back seat to my schedule. So, we cook and prepare and plan. (It’s the “plan” part that usually gets me.)

Anyone who has any great ideas on cooking ahead, post away. I have several, but always looking for more!

Happy Finkday — I’m off to pay bills, then to the crazy weekend(s) ahead.

¿Por qué? Pourquoi? IX

I never want to insult anyone’s intelligence, and I won’t do it now. It’s not the people who fall for seemingly transparent internet scams that I fault, but the fools who perpetrate them. Truthfully, it could happen to any of us. Still, I see my Facebook and email friends capitulating to scam after scam, and it makes me wonder: ¿Por qué? Pourquoi?

The latest one is a rerun that surfaced two years ago, involving major airlines giving away two free tickets and a huge pile o’ money to spend. But ya gotta *share* the post first. Sharing on Facebook is something I rarely do, and when I do it, I know exactly where it’s coming from. I also don’t share (for obvious reasons) funny photos directly from a site that contains inappropriate stuff. Instead, I’ll save the photo to my own drive, THEN share it. That way, I’m not connected to a site which may or may not have sinister plans for world domination, or, as is more likely, pageviews for spamming purposes.

“Sharing” a post or article or picture on Facebook is designed to do just that: share you with a particular site. So, today’s PSA: Don’t make it a habit to randomly click “Share” — rather, copy a URL or save a picture and post it yourself.

And whatever you do, don’t help the spammers by posting their crap and writing, “I don’t know if this is true, but it couldn’t hurt to share it!” Well, it could, and it could hurt YOU and your privacy. Facebook is already a minefield of gold diggers; be smart about your settings.

Why does Facebook offer free games to play? Duh! To get more of your info to share with their vendors, silly! If you’re OK with that, rock on, but FB already has enough of my information, thank you. Don’t get me wrong — I love what Facebook has brought to my life, not the least of which is its importance to the discovery of our biological father, who is a joy to us. It never would have happened without my interactions with relatives through Facebook. Yay for that. But the FB “applications,” like games and surveys? No way. And you shouldn’t, either.

OK, enough prattling about. On to the showers and the school house. Yippy.  :roll:

La comédie est finie

What, already?

One of my favorite — albeit tragically sad — lines from Immortal Beloved is when Beethoven, in his final death struggle, reflects on his life and says with great bitterness and regret, “The comedy is over.”

And so it goes with Summer 2013 (except without the bitterness and regret part). Yesterday, I went to Earth Fare with Kay and bought some groceries, then spent the better part of the evening relaxing. It was the last time until, oh…Christmas break. This morning, it’s back in the Old Routineyeah, man.

Things are changing all over this fall, especially with public education in Ohio, and indeed, the country. I don’t know where I’ll be (in my head) next Memorial Day, when this year is over. I hope I can keep my attitude positive and my outlook fresh. It’s sort of self-defeating any other way, ja? Life is what you make it, and all that happy crappy, as Stephen King says.

One thing’s for certain: next year’s Odyssey will be fun. It’ll be shorter, but still exciting. In the general plan is a trip to Virginia Beach, followed by the sights in and around Washington, DC and Philly (the Thriller has never been to either place), and a jaunt up to Atlantic City. The only bad part? Surviving Pennsylvania. (This is the state that never ends; it just goes on and on, my friend…)

We’re really not beach people, so the trip to the ocean will be for the view and not the sunbathing. But we hope to see fantastic things, and we’ll enjoy the planning process. The saving-up process, not so much, but it will have been worth it when we finally take off next June.

Next June…are we there yet? :P

…and on Sunday morning, too.

Tell you what: I have to quit sleeping in, or the 19th is going to hit pretty hard. But I must admit, I have enjoyed these last two lazy mornings.

Time to stop procrastinating…after tonight. Tonight! Breaking Bad premiere.

I really don’t watch that much television. There are nights when it never gets turned on up here. I just have several shows that I follow — most airing on Sunday nights, for some reason, so the DVR is pretty busy — and I rarely miss. Fortunately, they’re also available in my cable provider’s on-demand listings, so time isn’t as big an issue as it used to be.

Remember the days when, if you missed a show, you just, well, missed it?  8-O

What are your favorite shows? I mean, ones that you watch now, as opposed to the canceled ones that we all wish would come back? (I could make a list of those a mile a long.) For now, though, I’m addicted to:

  1. Breaking Bad
  2. Mad Men
  3. Downton Abbey
  4. Once Upon a Time
  5. The Newsroom (HBO)
  6. True Blood (HBO)
  7. Ray Donovan (Showtime)
  8. Homeland (Showtime)
  9. Game of Thrones (HBO)
  10. Boardwalk Empire (HBO)
  11. House of Cards (Netflix)

Wow…I guess that’s a lot of TV! It doesn’t seem like I’m in front of the box that much. And notice: no sitcoms. Never liked them, never will. Does that make me a humorless grouch? Naaah. That means I’m surrounded by enough situation comedy with my own family and friends, I don’t need any on TV — which bodes well in the reverse for the “drama” aspect, yes? :-)

Happy Sumday, fiends — I hope you’re enjoying it.