Blessings, Darlings!
This is the move that will never end. We're still moving. We were supposed to be out Monday - 4 days ago.
Part of the delay was a dead truck - the alternator had to be rebuilt in our driveway. Part of it is that we have a home business with delicate lab equipment that takes lots of bubble wrap packing - and we are doing all this ourselves. Three people means it takes lots of time.
We THINK the inside of the house will be empty but not cleaned by the end of today. But we'll still have to empty the shed, pack the stuff in it, then dismantle and pack the shed.
We're just moving things off the truck and into the garage at this end at this point.
But at dawn this morning I watched Momma Deer and her spawn come up from the woods and walk across the neighbor's lawn - made me hungry for venison just looking at them! And the Blue Ridge Mountains are lovely any time of day. AND we see real stars, lots of them, and Bob saw a shooting star the other night.
Frondly, Fern
Friday, November 12, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Moving, Day 2
Blessings, Darlings!
This is a long-ass post, because I'm having long-ass days.
Yes, I know I didn't blog about Moving Day 1. I'm combining it here.
You know how they say that battle plans last only until the battle begins? So, too, for moving plans.
The Chubby Hubby had this aggressive plan on which rooms we'd move each day, what time we'd leave by, etc. The CH lives in a fantasy world.
I figured we'd leave to get the truck by 8:30, be home with it before 10:00. Uh, no. We didn't leave till 9:30 because CH wasn't ready. But we got there and I discovered that we could have gotten there at 7:30, a fact the CH hadn't told me. Fine, we're now running late. I have to be at the house by 2 because cable guy is coming between 2 and 5, and the electrician is coming at 4 - but the husband plans to be there WELL before 4, with the loaded truck, to meet the electrician.
So problem 1 - we ran late.
Problem 2 - as we drove to get the truck, the battery light lit up in the car. The car I was going to leave out in at noon, to drive to the country. Where I know there are places on the road which have no cell phone coverage (middle of the Potomac river bridge is just one place). So after the CH heads off in the truck for home, I drive the car to the mechanic - the one we give so much business to that we call him our Corporate Partner (this is what happens when you are keeping older cars on the road), and explain the problem. And that the Check Engine light is on as well, because the engine is running too lean. I asked him to look at things and give us a call, giving him the CH's cell number. Spawn picks me up from there and we meet CH at home.
I call Comcast to verify that the cable guy is coming. It takes 20 minutes to get thru' to a human and do this. Husband was on the phone with someone else during all this, I've forgotten who or why. I run out to get rope and a lock for the truck.
Time to load truck. Well, it turned out that spawn had packed about 20% of his room and the pantry, rather than the 80% I had assumed he had packed. What had he been doing over those days? I have NO idea. I had the library fully packed, and the living room and my office 80% packed before running out of room to put the full boxes.
Notice that CH hadn't packed a thing? That the office/laboratory/business hadn't been packed at all? Sigh.
I help load the truck as fast as I could from 11:30 till noon, when I had to leave. Very little was on truck. But I leave two men in charge. No problem, right?
I get to the house early, so I take a side trip to find out where the Aldi's is. Success! I even find a faster route than the obvious one back from the Aldi's. Get to the house a little before 2.
And I wait. I clip coupons. I plug in the laptop (I brought it and a small TV so I could be damn sure cable and internet worked before cable guy left), and listen to music. And I go online thru' an unsecured ethernet connection someone in the area has, to see what's on sale at Rite Aid and Food Lion. I also have lunch.
I wait more. Around 4 the cable guy arrives, I explain what we want, he marvels at the kluges others have put in for cable wiring. He gets to work.
Husband calls - they are running late. They leave the house around 3:30, for a two hour drive. Electrician is due at 4. He tells me what he wants done. Fine.
Cable guy keeps working. I keep waiting. At 4 CH calls - ooops he forgot he can't take a truck on the parkway. He's taking Rt 1 instead. Will be later than his already late estimate. Whatever.
Electrician gets there at 5 ish. We go over what is needed. He'll report it to the business owner, I'll report to husband, they'll talk tomorrow about the estimate.
Husband gets there around 6. Cable guy is just finishing up, I'm signing the finished work order. Husband and son haven't had lunch yet. I offer food, husband wants to unpack truck while there is light.
We start unpacking. One bookcase promptly falls apart. It gets dark. I send the guys in to nuke some dinner. Spawn makes his in oven instead, takes 45 minutes. He does little unloading during his wait. I unload and unload and then nuke some dinner for me. We finish unloading a bit before 9, leave out around 9.
I take a seriously needed shower, and several ibuprofens.
That, my dears, was day 1. About 1/2 of planned objectives met.
Day two begins. I do dishes. I start packing, since now I have room to put full boxes again. Get my office and the living room to 90% done.
The guys slowly start packing. Then they break to vote and pick up repaired car. The one no one called us to give us an estimate or approve work on. Which now has a rebuilt alternator, and a bill of $600. They return.
I head out to vote and hit the store for more prepared meals, and a veggie tray, and OJ, and to fill the car. Come back and pack and make boxes for CH. It takes CH 16 boxes to pack his first bookcase. We start loading truck. My knee - the one with torn cartiledge and arthritis - soon tells me that I can't do the stairs a whole lot. I go back to packing.
Husband's schedule says that the library, my office, the living room, and the kitchen will all be done being moved by end of day. It is 3:35 right now - I've barely started packing the kitchen. We are consistently making 1/2 of the estimated progress each day.
But we're at least at 100% of painkiller.
I must get packing and lifting and loading.
Frondly, Fern
This is a long-ass post, because I'm having long-ass days.
Yes, I know I didn't blog about Moving Day 1. I'm combining it here.
You know how they say that battle plans last only until the battle begins? So, too, for moving plans.
The Chubby Hubby had this aggressive plan on which rooms we'd move each day, what time we'd leave by, etc. The CH lives in a fantasy world.
I figured we'd leave to get the truck by 8:30, be home with it before 10:00. Uh, no. We didn't leave till 9:30 because CH wasn't ready. But we got there and I discovered that we could have gotten there at 7:30, a fact the CH hadn't told me. Fine, we're now running late. I have to be at the house by 2 because cable guy is coming between 2 and 5, and the electrician is coming at 4 - but the husband plans to be there WELL before 4, with the loaded truck, to meet the electrician.
So problem 1 - we ran late.
Problem 2 - as we drove to get the truck, the battery light lit up in the car. The car I was going to leave out in at noon, to drive to the country. Where I know there are places on the road which have no cell phone coverage (middle of the Potomac river bridge is just one place). So after the CH heads off in the truck for home, I drive the car to the mechanic - the one we give so much business to that we call him our Corporate Partner (this is what happens when you are keeping older cars on the road), and explain the problem. And that the Check Engine light is on as well, because the engine is running too lean. I asked him to look at things and give us a call, giving him the CH's cell number. Spawn picks me up from there and we meet CH at home.
I call Comcast to verify that the cable guy is coming. It takes 20 minutes to get thru' to a human and do this. Husband was on the phone with someone else during all this, I've forgotten who or why. I run out to get rope and a lock for the truck.
Time to load truck. Well, it turned out that spawn had packed about 20% of his room and the pantry, rather than the 80% I had assumed he had packed. What had he been doing over those days? I have NO idea. I had the library fully packed, and the living room and my office 80% packed before running out of room to put the full boxes.
Notice that CH hadn't packed a thing? That the office/laboratory/business hadn't been packed at all? Sigh.
I help load the truck as fast as I could from 11:30 till noon, when I had to leave. Very little was on truck. But I leave two men in charge. No problem, right?
I get to the house early, so I take a side trip to find out where the Aldi's is. Success! I even find a faster route than the obvious one back from the Aldi's. Get to the house a little before 2.
And I wait. I clip coupons. I plug in the laptop (I brought it and a small TV so I could be damn sure cable and internet worked before cable guy left), and listen to music. And I go online thru' an unsecured ethernet connection someone in the area has, to see what's on sale at Rite Aid and Food Lion. I also have lunch.
I wait more. Around 4 the cable guy arrives, I explain what we want, he marvels at the kluges others have put in for cable wiring. He gets to work.
Husband calls - they are running late. They leave the house around 3:30, for a two hour drive. Electrician is due at 4. He tells me what he wants done. Fine.
Cable guy keeps working. I keep waiting. At 4 CH calls - ooops he forgot he can't take a truck on the parkway. He's taking Rt 1 instead. Will be later than his already late estimate. Whatever.
Electrician gets there at 5 ish. We go over what is needed. He'll report it to the business owner, I'll report to husband, they'll talk tomorrow about the estimate.
Husband gets there around 6. Cable guy is just finishing up, I'm signing the finished work order. Husband and son haven't had lunch yet. I offer food, husband wants to unpack truck while there is light.
We start unpacking. One bookcase promptly falls apart. It gets dark. I send the guys in to nuke some dinner. Spawn makes his in oven instead, takes 45 minutes. He does little unloading during his wait. I unload and unload and then nuke some dinner for me. We finish unloading a bit before 9, leave out around 9.
I take a seriously needed shower, and several ibuprofens.
That, my dears, was day 1. About 1/2 of planned objectives met.
Day two begins. I do dishes. I start packing, since now I have room to put full boxes again. Get my office and the living room to 90% done.
The guys slowly start packing. Then they break to vote and pick up repaired car. The one no one called us to give us an estimate or approve work on. Which now has a rebuilt alternator, and a bill of $600. They return.
I head out to vote and hit the store for more prepared meals, and a veggie tray, and OJ, and to fill the car. Come back and pack and make boxes for CH. It takes CH 16 boxes to pack his first bookcase. We start loading truck. My knee - the one with torn cartiledge and arthritis - soon tells me that I can't do the stairs a whole lot. I go back to packing.
Husband's schedule says that the library, my office, the living room, and the kitchen will all be done being moved by end of day. It is 3:35 right now - I've barely started packing the kitchen. We are consistently making 1/2 of the estimated progress each day.
But we're at least at 100% of painkiller.
I must get packing and lifting and loading.
Frondly, Fern
CPT #13 Marinade Beef
Blessings, Darlings!
While we're on beefiness here, let's talk about our American love of grilling.
It's dangerous.
Yes, getting your sear on adds flavor and complexity to the flavor of meat. But it raises the carcinogens (HCAs, or heterocyclic amines) on the meat a whole lot.
What to do? Boil everything?
No, not EVERYTHING.
Going to grill meat? Okay, Marinade it first. That can reduce the amount of HCA's by up to 88%. AND adds flavor. Win-win, if you ask me.
While we're on beefiness here, let's talk about our American love of grilling.
It's dangerous.
Yes, getting your sear on adds flavor and complexity to the flavor of meat. But it raises the carcinogens (HCAs, or heterocyclic amines) on the meat a whole lot.
What to do? Boil everything?
No, not EVERYTHING.
Going to grill meat? Okay, Marinade it first. That can reduce the amount of HCA's by up to 88%. AND adds flavor. Win-win, if you ask me.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Museum Eating
Blessings, Darlings!
I'm not here to talk about food-court food or that type of mall. I'm talking about the food in and around the Mall in DC.
When we first got to DC, the museums and food stands of the Mall were not exactly a 'food destination'. Boring and tasteless, with very few healthy options, or vegetarian options, or fresh foods. Case in point was the National Air and Space Museum. They had a cafeteria, but could not cook food there. The volatiles given off by cooking would harm the exhibits. So there, and I believe in ALL the museums, the food had to be cooked off-site and sent in by conveyor belt, sort of kept warm. The cheeseburgers were to die from, not for.
Best of the lot was a little restaurant on the ground floor of the National Gallery of Art, West, the Garden Cafe. It was very pleasant, quite overpriced, but had food that was nice. Second to that was the ice cream parlor in the American History Museum - great ice cream, AWFUL service.
That has changed over time. Not that I think that the fast food places that have been moved into the Air & Space Museum are worth the calories or my money - but at least they are cooking it on site with appropriate ventilation.
But now there are some OUTSTANDING places to eat. The Cascade Cafe, in the basement between the National Galleries, is wonderful cafeteria, with good sushi and other foods, outstanding desserts, etc. One of my favorite is bookstores there as well.
And, oh my Gods, the cafeteria of the National Museum of the American Indian! The Mitsitam Cafe features foods of the Americas. Amazing food. Pricey food, but worth it.
Frondly, Fern
I'm not here to talk about food-court food or that type of mall. I'm talking about the food in and around the Mall in DC.
When we first got to DC, the museums and food stands of the Mall were not exactly a 'food destination'. Boring and tasteless, with very few healthy options, or vegetarian options, or fresh foods. Case in point was the National Air and Space Museum. They had a cafeteria, but could not cook food there. The volatiles given off by cooking would harm the exhibits. So there, and I believe in ALL the museums, the food had to be cooked off-site and sent in by conveyor belt, sort of kept warm. The cheeseburgers were to die from, not for.
Best of the lot was a little restaurant on the ground floor of the National Gallery of Art, West, the Garden Cafe. It was very pleasant, quite overpriced, but had food that was nice. Second to that was the ice cream parlor in the American History Museum - great ice cream, AWFUL service.
That has changed over time. Not that I think that the fast food places that have been moved into the Air & Space Museum are worth the calories or my money - but at least they are cooking it on site with appropriate ventilation.
But now there are some OUTSTANDING places to eat. The Cascade Cafe, in the basement between the National Galleries, is wonderful cafeteria, with good sushi and other foods, outstanding desserts, etc. One of my favorite is bookstores there as well.
And, oh my Gods, the cafeteria of the National Museum of the American Indian! The Mitsitam Cafe features foods of the Americas. Amazing food. Pricey food, but worth it.
Frondly, Fern
CPT #12 Grass is Good
Blessings, Darlings!
I'm talking about grass fed organic beef, my dears. What did you THINK I was talking about?
Pastured organic beef - well, really, beef without growth hormones specifically - lowers the chances of early puberty especially in our daughters. Which lowers their risk of breast cancer.
Frondly, Fern
I'm talking about grass fed organic beef, my dears. What did you THINK I was talking about?
Pastured organic beef - well, really, beef without growth hormones specifically - lowers the chances of early puberty especially in our daughters. Which lowers their risk of breast cancer.
Frondly, Fern
Sunday, October 31, 2010
CPT #11 Exercise
Blessings, Darlings!
How many times have you heard/read it - "Moderate exercise is good for you"? Well, this is another one of those times!
Half an hour a day (average) of moderate exercise (bike riding, brisk walking, serious dancing, etc.) reduces the incidence of intestinal, endometrial, colon, breast and lung cancers.
Why, you ask? Let me tell you - apparently because moderate exercise kicks up the immune system. A well-tuned immune system, running along efficiently, does a better job of recognizing rogue cells that turn cancerous before they can become tumors. Maybe, if it turns out that viruses are involved in more cancers than we know about, a top-notch immune system destroys them before they can do their dirty work. Maybe it's some other mechanism that we'll find out about in the future.
For now, the recommendation I can give is to move a little more. I'm trying to get my Mother In Law to walk around the local indoor shopping mall. I'm suggesting that my mother take stairs and not the elevator. Both my Mother and Mother-in-law are in their 90's, so 'moderate exercise' for them is WAY different than 'moderate exercise' for me. The main point is - get off your butt!
Frondly, Fern
How many times have you heard/read it - "Moderate exercise is good for you
Half an hour a day (average) of moderate exercise (bike riding, brisk walking, serious dancing, etc.) reduces the incidence of intestinal, endometrial, colon, breast and lung cancers.
Why, you ask? Let me tell you - apparently because moderate exercise kicks up the immune system. A well-tuned immune system, running along efficiently, does a better job of recognizing rogue cells that turn cancerous before they can become tumors. Maybe, if it turns out that viruses are involved in more cancers than we know about, a top-notch immune system destroys them before they can do their dirty work. Maybe it's some other mechanism that we'll find out about in the future.
For now, the recommendation I can give is to move a little more. I'm trying to get my Mother In Law to walk around the local indoor shopping mall. I'm suggesting that my mother take stairs and not the elevator. Both my Mother and Mother-in-law are in their 90's, so 'moderate exercise' for them is WAY different than 'moderate exercise' for me. The main point is - get off your butt!
Frondly, Fern
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Rally Ho!
Blessings, Darlings!
The Spawn and I went to the Rally For Sanity today. I took the day off of packing to go. He took the day off of pretending to pack, leaving the task of pretending to pack to his father. (I left the Chubby Hubby with 25 empty but put-together boxes to fill. It is now 8 pm - 8 of them are filled. This is his first day packing. I've packed roughly 150 boxes so far all by my little lonesome. We start loading the truck on Monday. HELP)
As usual, we left later than we planned - at just after 10 am instead of at 9:30, which WAS my fault. CH drove us to the New Carrollton Metro station - there are advantages to living in the DC area. Instead of taking either of the exits most folks take to the station, we took the second one from Rt 50 West, rather than the first one (to the Beltway and the Metro) or the exit from the Beltway.
We did good. Yes, we had to make a left into the station, and wait for the light to change. HOWEVER, the traffic from those other two exits was really heavy and merged into one lane. And that one lane was backed up as far as we could see it. I don't know if it was backed up on the beltway, too, or not - it had not been backed up on Rt 50.
The Spawn hops out of the car as soon as we turn into the Metro, I'm driving so the CH and I kiss and switch drivers where it's legal to. I start looking for the end of the line and/or my son. The line is long - from the farecard machines out of the building, down to the parking structures to the left.... thru' one garage, outside the garage back to the front - that's where my son is. I join him. By the time we get half way thru' the line we joined, the line was 33% longer.
It took us an hour to get on a train. Where we sat for a while. Because the Mall area was too crowded with trains for ours to start out - they were backed up in the stations. The train fills, totally. The doors close, and the driver warns us that she HAS to stop at all the stations and open the doors at all the stations. We laugh. The people waiting at the stations we stop at look at the train, we see them mouthing "No WAY!".
Actually, at the first stop, the Landover station, while there WERE people waiting for the train, the parking lots were empty-ish and there were no lines for tickets. The people there should have gotten on a train heading for New Carrollton and NOT gotten off, just sat there as the New Carrollton people got on. It would have worked out GREAT for them.
We got to the mall by 12:30. No, we got NEAR the mall then. We tried to get to the Mall many different ways. 3rd street was hopeless. 7th little better. We stopped for lunch. Back to 7th. After working our way thru' the crowd for 30 minutes we found a place where we could get glimpses of the Jumbotron, but couldn't hear. Did that for a while. I THINK Sam Waterson was on the screen, but I'm too short to have seen more than glimpses. Later, we worked our way to a place where we could hear some but not see at all. There we caught Yusef Islam, Ozzy Osborne, and the O'Jays. But we still couldn't make out anyone speaking.
Mind you, we were still having a great time in the crowd, reading signs, watching street theater.
So we hung out. After a while, we went for more food. We cut out before the end, since it was clear that trains going home would be as problematic as trains getting there.
Since we've lived in the DC area since 1988, we've been on the Mall for lots of events. But we have NEVER faced such lines at the metro, or such crowds on the Mall. Granted, mostly we've done inaugurations, where I'd bring a radio since I knew I'd not be able to hear but could count on the event being livecast for free. But even for Clinton's first inauguration the crowds weren't that thick. Frankly at that time the Spawn was only 5 and I'd have panicked trying to handle a crowd that thick with him.
I don't know how much of the Mall was covered with people - that's one problem with being IN the crowd. But if it went down to 14th Street, as JoeMyGod says it did, the crowd was over 250,000. There were plenty of helicopters overhead, so someone was trying to estimate the crowd.
But I think that the police and metro were TOTALLY blindsided by the numbers.
Frondly, Fern
The Spawn and I went to the Rally For Sanity today. I took the day off of packing to go. He took the day off of pretending to pack, leaving the task of pretending to pack to his father. (I left the Chubby Hubby with 25 empty but put-together boxes to fill. It is now 8 pm - 8 of them are filled. This is his first day packing. I've packed roughly 150 boxes so far all by my little lonesome. We start loading the truck on Monday. HELP)
As usual, we left later than we planned - at just after 10 am instead of at 9:30, which WAS my fault. CH drove us to the New Carrollton Metro station - there are advantages to living in the DC area. Instead of taking either of the exits most folks take to the station, we took the second one from Rt 50 West, rather than the first one (to the Beltway and the Metro) or the exit from the Beltway.
We did good. Yes, we had to make a left into the station, and wait for the light to change. HOWEVER, the traffic from those other two exits was really heavy and merged into one lane. And that one lane was backed up as far as we could see it. I don't know if it was backed up on the beltway, too, or not - it had not been backed up on Rt 50.
The Spawn hops out of the car as soon as we turn into the Metro, I'm driving so the CH and I kiss and switch drivers where it's legal to. I start looking for the end of the line and/or my son. The line is long - from the farecard machines out of the building, down to the parking structures to the left.... thru' one garage, outside the garage back to the front - that's where my son is. I join him. By the time we get half way thru' the line we joined, the line was 33% longer.
It took us an hour to get on a train. Where we sat for a while. Because the Mall area was too crowded with trains for ours to start out - they were backed up in the stations. The train fills, totally. The doors close, and the driver warns us that she HAS to stop at all the stations and open the doors at all the stations. We laugh. The people waiting at the stations we stop at look at the train, we see them mouthing "No WAY!".
Actually, at the first stop, the Landover station, while there WERE people waiting for the train, the parking lots were empty-ish and there were no lines for tickets. The people there should have gotten on a train heading for New Carrollton and NOT gotten off, just sat there as the New Carrollton people got on. It would have worked out GREAT for them.
We got to the mall by 12:30. No, we got NEAR the mall then. We tried to get to the Mall many different ways. 3rd street was hopeless. 7th little better. We stopped for lunch. Back to 7th. After working our way thru' the crowd for 30 minutes we found a place where we could get glimpses of the Jumbotron, but couldn't hear. Did that for a while. I THINK Sam Waterson was on the screen, but I'm too short to have seen more than glimpses. Later, we worked our way to a place where we could hear some but not see at all. There we caught Yusef Islam, Ozzy Osborne, and the O'Jays. But we still couldn't make out anyone speaking.
Mind you, we were still having a great time in the crowd, reading signs, watching street theater.
So we hung out. After a while, we went for more food. We cut out before the end, since it was clear that trains going home would be as problematic as trains getting there.
Since we've lived in the DC area since 1988, we've been on the Mall for lots of events. But we have NEVER faced such lines at the metro, or such crowds on the Mall. Granted, mostly we've done inaugurations, where I'd bring a radio since I knew I'd not be able to hear but could count on the event being livecast for free. But even for Clinton's first inauguration the crowds weren't that thick. Frankly at that time the Spawn was only 5 and I'd have panicked trying to handle a crowd that thick with him.
I don't know how much of the Mall was covered with people - that's one problem with being IN the crowd. But if it went down to 14th Street, as JoeMyGod says it did, the crowd was over 250,000. There were plenty of helicopters overhead, so someone was trying to estimate the crowd.
But I think that the police and metro were TOTALLY blindsided by the numbers.
Frondly, Fern
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