27 feb 2010

i woke up at 6:15 and realized i had not checked the water the night before. ran down to the basement and got there with 10-15 minutes to spare.

breakfast

egga and bologna sandwich
half an orange
coffee iced tea

we decided to go see the begonias and the orchids at the botanical gardens.

lunch

grilled chicken sandwich
shared large fries
iced tea

at McDonalds in Gainesville.

we got down to the mall at about 2:00. got out at Smithsonian. we should have gotten out at Federal Center. we went into the castle to go to the bathroom and get a snack.

snack

caffe mocha
shared slice of cheese cake

pretty good drink. ok cheese cake.

by the time we got to the b.g. my knee was very sore. i sat on a bench for about 30-40 min while e began her tour. i really liked the way they displayed the orchids this time. we've probably gone down to see the orchids 4-6 times in feb. or mar. i think this show showed them to best effect. nice job. the begonias were a little disappointing. however they did have a really knock out azalea near the begonias. great color and gobs and gobs of flowers. i really like azaleas and rhododendrons. camelias too. used to have great camelias on the grounds of W&M.

when we got back to Vienna we decided to eat dinner at an old favorite haunt from our Fairfax City days. the Pan Am family restaurant. we realized that we first ate there in oct. of 1990 and some of the same people are still waiting tables and cooking.

dinner

gyro sandwich
onion rings
cole slaw
iced tea

good gyro and rings, poor slaw. Pan Am always has really refreshing iced tea. it is absolutely amazing how much food they give you.

i did not feel well when we got home. fell asleep on the sofa. i woke up when SNL was starting. i watched parts. Jenny from the Hood was the host. She was better than expected. Jenny from the Hood was the musical guest. She was about as expected. two snoozers. bill hader really cracks me up.

26 feb 2010

breakfast

bagel w/ cream cheese
banana
iced tea

lunch

fish sandwich
whopper jr. w/ cheese
dr. pepper

at bk. not a bad fish sandwich. much better than the one i had a micky d. roys used to have a really good fish sandwich during lent.

ha! forgot to give up anything for lent!

dinner

bagel w/ cream cheese
tomato soup
iced tea

watched speed skating, slalom and a little hockey.

25 feb 2010

breakfast

bagel w/ cream cheese
banana
caffe mocha
iced tea

lunch

meatball sub
fries
salad
iced tea

at Ledo's

snack

chips
iced tea

dinner

veg lo mein
italian beans
iced tea

lo mein from Wegmans. pretty good but may have msg.

dessert

donut
iced tea

24 feb 2005

breakfast

bagel
oj
banana
iced tea

lunch

yogurt
iced tea
cookies
pretzels

dinner

scrambled eggs
grits
toast
iced tea

23 feb 2010

breakfast

bacon egg and cheese bagel
breakfast burrito
iced tea

at McDonald's

lunch

cheese sandwich
bowl of cereal
iced tea

snack

caramel macchiato


dinner

clam chowder
grilled cheese
iced tea

22 feb 2010

breakfast

bagel w/ cream cheese
banana
coffee
iced tea

lunch

ham and cheese sandwich
pretzels
iced tea

dinner

clam chowder
grilled cheese
iced tea

snack

cookies

21 feb 2010

woke up with a huge head ache and feeling really rotten on the sofa at mommy's house.

Mark's train was early in the morning so we had to leave around 8:00 to get there in plenty of time. Mark had gone out to starbucks first thing in the am. brought back a cappu for me. the espresso really helped my head ache.

we got to the train station in good time. said our farewells. Mark asked us not to wait for the train to leave so we headed back towards Denbigh.

Mommy's Sunday am tradition is breakfast at the Belgian Waffle so we went to the BW.

breakfast

mushroom and spinach omelette (no hollandaise)
bacon
hashbrowns
toast
iced tea

omelette was very good. key is to avoid the hollandaise. i love the way they cook their bacon. i feel like i'm back in India.

we went back to motoka and chatted. Karen was already packed but her flight wasn't until about noon. we dropped her off in time. i packed all my stuff when we got back and said good bye to the birthday girl. it was a very good visit and i really think she had a good time.

i stopped at hardee's to get fortified for the road.

snack

hot dog
iced tea
bottle of water

very slow service at that hardee's

i went back through Richmond rather than by the 295 route on the recommendation of several people. it worked well. maybe a little faster than 295.

managed to get to the route 1 exit in Fredericksburg before stopping for lunch.

chicken fajitas
refried beans
rice
chips / salsa
iced tea

at Pancho Villa. This is the second PV I've eaten at in the area. Both have been good.

stopped in Warrenton to get subs. Elizabeth had book club today and I've been driving so I thought subs were the way to go.

dinner

spicy italian sub from subway
iced tea

so so. I went to bed very early. really tired after two nights on the coach.

20 feb 2010

i woke up at about 6:30 on the sofa in my mom's house. stiff neck. stiff back.

mark went out to starbucks for coffee, etc.

breakfast

apple fritter
3 small donuts
cappuccino
water

from starbucks. i should have had either the small donuts or the apple fritter.

snack

crackers
water

mark went to get karen at the airport around 11:45. they took longer to come back than mommy expected so she got a bit worried.

after m & k came back, claire and matthew showed up soon after. then scott, glenn, and amanda arrived at about 2:00. muchly was the chatting until we left for dinner at the BBQ restaurant at about 2:30.

early dinner

salad
onion rings
tuna (grilled)
cole slaw
biscuits
iced tea

pretty good.

we stopped at the cemetery to visit daddy's grave on the way back. it was the first time we'd all been there since his funeral which was in 1994.

we had mommy's b-day cake at around 6:30

cake
choc/van ice cream
iced tea

good cake. the richmond/stafford contingent (claire, matthew, scott, amanda, and glenn) headed home shortly after cake. we really only had about 5 hrs with everyone together but it was still very nice.

m & k decided to go to a german restaurant in yorktown in the early evening to see if they could get curry wurst.

snack

weiss-wurst sausage
curry sauce
role
potato chips

really good. i had not had curry wurst since something like 1963. i recognized it immediately when i smelled the sauce. amazing.

every body went to bed around midnight. i slept on the coach again.

19 feb 2010

i was away from the computer for several days. i was supposed to write stuff down but forgot to. let's see what i can remember.

Feb. 19 is Mommy's 78th birthday. Happy, happy!

breakfast

toast w/ butter
coffee
iced tea
banana

planned to head down to newport news by about noon but the list of things to do got longer and longer. i actually got out around 1:00.

lunch

turkey, bacon, avocado sandwich
dr. pepper

at Quizno's.


snack

fish sandwich
fries
iced tea

at McDonald's near Ashland. not very good at all. fries weren't bad.

got to NN at around 4:30. chatted with Mommy until around 6:00. we headed downtown at about that time to meet Mark's train.

we went to dinner at Steve & John's after getting Mark.

salad w/ blue cheese
hamburger steak w/ fried onions
fries
tiramisu
iced tea

pretty good but the onions upset my stomach. talked until after midnight. slept on the couch.

18 feb 2010

trying to remember feb. 18 on feb. 19 shouldn't be so difficult!

breakfast

bagel w/ butter
banana
coffee
iced tea

very busy day today with tons of requests for do this by this time. i also had to take kissie to the vet. she has not been eating for a day or two. she's normally sort of the picture of cat well-being.

i didn't really have meals today. i sort of snuck in a bit when i could get it.

lunch in slow motion

cheese sandwich
pretzels
cookies (3)
iced tea

took the cat to the vet at about 3:45. traffic was insane. they didn't find anything obviously wrong so they did some blood tests, etc. vet seems to think it could be related to thyroid.

dinner

hot dogs (2)
banana
cereal
iced tea

we watched part of the women's half pipe on the Olympics. when the 4th of 5 competitors fell during the run we changed over to jlp on dvd. episode called lessons. kind of fun. klingons, cardasians, romulans. dr. auschlander from st. elsewhere. (still playing a pompous so and so). when they say advanced culture on ST:TNG, they mean. the premise that an "ancient civilization" could write a computer code that once complete could "reconfigure the tricorder" (an absolutely unknown technology) and then run a 3d power point through the tricorder is so far fetched.

i'll be away from the computer for a couple of days. next update will probably be on sunday.

17 feb 2010 (ash wednesday)

today is Ash Wednesday. A long time ago we used to go to church every Ash Wednesday and get the sign of the cross on the forehead. I don't think I've done that since about third grade.

Elizabeth was ready early this am so we made it to the VRE in good time. They have started prohibiting parking in the area of the station so the parking problem will only get worse.

breakfast

bagel w/ butter
banana
iced tea
coffee

just got some bad news this morning. feeling a bit down. think i'll do some laundry.

lunch

bologna and cheese sandwich (2)
pretzels
banana
iced tea

snack

two cookies

i remembered that i had to get gas on the way to the VRE today so i left early. i got gas at the safeway. this is new to me. i now know of two safeways in nova that sell gas. has safeway done this for a long time?

stopped at caribou coffee after getting gas

snack

large caffe mocha

i also got a medium latte for elizabeth.

dinner

scrambled eggs (3)
little smokies (4)
toast (2)
cherry coke

dessert

banana

we watched some speed skating and some downhill in the olympics. spectacular crashes in the downhill. i was amazed that one lady got up and walked away after the fall she took. the vonn won her race.

we also watched an episode of ST:TNG where jlp falls in love with the new head of stellar sciences. nice episode but i kept feeling that jlp seemed an awful lot like howard sprague in this episode.

it's funny i absolutely loathed howard sprague when i was a kid. now i occasionally see him on nick and nite and find that he's a fairly likable nerd in the mode of ned flanders. in essence, a truly kindly person.

for many years i couldn't believe melanie in gone with the wind but when i realized she really was that nice i came to really like the character. howard is a little like that.

16 feb 2010

federal government open today so Elizabeth is going into the office. south hill is still not plowed. parts of kelly are still in rough shape. this should be fun.

south hill was pretty icy. so glad i didn't encounter anyone on that stretch.
kelly had some bad spots as well. someone had an accident at kelly and broad run church. didn't look like anyone was hurt but the cars were pretty heavily damaged.

we had to detour around the accident so we thought we'd probably miss the VRE ... and we did. we missed the key turn at nokesville rd by about 10 seconds. amazing. we would normally go to manassas and catch the amtrak train but it was running about 90 minutes late. so i drove e to the vienna metro.

the metro was insane. it took nearly 30 min to get away from the station. what fun!

went to breakfast at IHOP

steak omelette
pancakes (3)
iced tea

not bad. i really wanted to go to the good old Pan Am but they don't serve breakfast during the week. traffic around the metro was insane. otherwise the traffic was not bad.

lunch

bologna and cheese sandwich
chips
iced tea

ate half my sandwich. stomach was not happy with me.

dinner

grilled chicken sandwich
waffle fries
side salad
iced tea

at Chick-fil-a. The best thing i've had a cfa lately. pretty tasty.

dessert

mineola orange

not my favorite thing. to me a mineola orange tastes like an orange in the same way that cherry-flavored aspirin tastes like cherry. i looked up the mineola orange on-line. actually a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit. i used to love tangerines. never seem to get good ones at the store any more.

watched the sporting dogs and part of the working dogs on Westminster. remaining groups are terrier (which i like) and best in show (waste of time).

winners so far

hound: whippet
toy: toy poodle (i'd like to see the toy piano win one year)
non-sporting: french bulldog (you just hear an old stereotype british guy saying "say hear now that's simply not sporting")
herding: puli
sporting:brittany

so far, i'd go with the brittany for best in show

it's a good thing most software on the internet is free. almost everything you use has a jury-rigged feel about it. twitter is so fluky it's not funny. blogger routinely tells me it has a problem with my cookie settings when i never change them. you get what you pay for.

15 feb 2010

federal holiday today. everyone calls it "President's Day" so i always assumed it was President's Day. however, the official act establishing the holiday actually designates the day as George Washington's Birthday.

breakfast

toast (2 sl)
coffee
oj
iced tea

got out of the house long enough to go to the pet store and the grocery store.

lunch

chicken sandwich
cheeseburger
iced tea

at Burger King. we eat at home a lot more than we used to. fast food can taste so much saltier now than it used to. the chicken sandwich at BK tastes like someone dumped a whole salt shaker in it. amazing.

snack

snickers bar

haven't had a snickers in a very long time. really tasted good but way too sweet!

it was supposed to snow 1-3 in starting this afternoon and ending about 2-3 in the morning. it started to snow on the way to the store. by the time i came out of the grocery store it was coming down really heavily. by the time i got home and saw about .5 in sticking to Beverly Ct. i was getting pretty bugged at the weather man. then it stopped snowing about the time i got home.

now they say it may snow late over night but it shouldn't be much in the way of accumulation.

dinner

burritos (2)
iced tea

burritos were tasty but, again, the commercial seasoning was too salty. i wish i'd eaten just one meat burrito and maybe had the second with just cheese and veggies and cetera.

dessert

donut
iced tea

we watched the hound group at the westminster kennel club dog show. we've watched at least part of westminster every year since about 85 or 86. when we first started watching we used to stay up late to watch the whole thing.

westminster is one of those harbinger's of spring: westminster, acc men's bball tournament, ncaa men's bball tournament, the master's. once you get to the master's it is really spring. westminster means you are over halfway through winter. acc tourney means it's nearly spring. march madness starts in the dregs of winter and ends in the first days of spring and the master's has those beautiful azaleas at least 2-3 weeks before our azaleas fully bloom.

we switched to the olympics when westminster switched from USA to the other network.

14 feb 2010

slept in until almost 9:00. kind of nice. sun was out in the morning and for most of the day. high temp around 35/36 F. pleasant day.

breakfast

bowl of cereal w/ milk
oj
iced tea
coffee

also shared a blueberry bagel w/ Elizabeth

Wegmans makes the best bagels in the Warrenton area. Safeway or Target is second best. There are no bagel shops in the area. it seems like the perfect place for an Einstein or a CBB.

(I just checked on-line. there are now only two CBBs in the DC area: McLean and Nat'l Airport. There used to be many, many more. I ate at the CBB in FFX City, Gallows Rd., Georgetown, among others. Kind of sad but I do remember them steadily going down hill.)

(Closest Einstein if probably the one in FFX City on Pickett.)

we watched CBS Sunday morning and the Round Table on This Week as tradition dictates and then went out to try to clear some more snow. we spent between 2 and 3 hours digging and now have

- a clear path to the front door
- a clear driveway from the garage door to the street
- a turn-around area
- a clear exit for both cars (?)
- a path from the front of the house to the back of the house
- a path from the backdoor to the front of the house
- a path from the cat door to the path system

and Elizabeth managed to clear away the snow from all of the down spouts.

we decided to reward our efforts with a call out pizza. we got papa johns because we haven't had their pizza in about a year.

lunch

pizza (3 sl)
coke
iced tea
chocolate pastry delights (2)

the chocolate pastries were extremely rich. should have only eaten one. the pizza really hit the spot.

snack

pizza (1 sl)
iced tea

we were both very sore and pretty full from the pizza so we never really had dinner on sunday. we just sort of grazed when we were hungy. I ate my "dinner" over about 2.5 hr period.

dinner

bowl of cereal
cheese sandwich
last slice of pizza
iced tea

we watched an episode of Star Trek: TNG called Starship Mine. The episode "borrowed" heavily from Die Hard and the actor playing the Alan Rickman role was rather weak but it was a fun episode. Picard did not say whoop a tee aye oh.

watched some olympics after that.

13 feb 2010

woke up at 6:00 this morning and got on the computer. worked for about 90 min.

breakfast

bagel w/ cream cheese
banana
coffee
iced tea

snack

half an orange

finished digging out a turn-around for the car. trying to dig 30-60 min each day if the weather isn't too cold or windy.

snack

coke

lunch

lasagna
iced tea
club soda

Stouffer's lasagna. pretty good for frozen lasagna.

went into Warrenton after lunch just to get out of the house. turns out the turn-around is just a tiny bit too small. we'll have to do a little more digging tomorrow. we went to the library and Borders in Warrenton.

snack

vanilla bean scone
medium caffe mocha

both good.

dinner

potato soup
toast
iced tea

elizabeth's famous home made potato soup. really excellent and even better on a cold day.

we watched two episodes of As Time Goes By on PBS (the one in which Rocky gives Lionel the house and Lionel proposes to Jean) and an episode of ST:TNG. Can't remember the title of the episode but Worf discovers that his father did not die the way he thought he did. solid episode from season 6.

we also saw the Hoos fall short against the Hookies and saw Ohno win the silver. those blades in the speed skating scare the crap out of me.

12 feb 2010

Lincoln's Birthday

We used to get national holidays on Feb. 12 and Feb. 22 (Washington's Birthday) when I was a wee child. Now we get the third monday in Feb. for both.

woke up early and thought I'd go right to work. worked for about 30 minutes and started to feel exceedingly tired. went back to bed until about 8:00.

breakfast

bagel w/ cream cheese
banana
oj
coffee
iced tea

worked from 9:00 to 12:30. went out at 12:30 to work on a turn around in the drive way. had to dig through the snow we had piled up in clearing the driveway. slow going. got about half way through after three 30 minute sessions. snow is about a foot lower on the other side of the berm we created.

lunch

egg wrap (2)
orange
iced tea

snack

three cookies
iced tea

dinner

veggie burgers (2)
chips
iced tea

boca burgers, flame broiled variety. i've actually started to like them.

dessert

ice cream and a banana

we watched another old favorite. Apollo 13. Apollo 13 is one of the few movies i know that i will almost always watch. if i'm going around the dial and i see this movie playing i usually think "oh this is the good part. i'll watch this." and then i think "oh this part is coming up, i'll watch that." and i end up watching the rest of the movie.

i think my favorite line is "are we on vox?"

the party scene at the beginning of the movie reminds me so much of the parties my parents threw when i was a kid. my dad was in the Army and Jim Lovell (the Tom Hanks character) was in the Navy. My dad served from about 1950 to 1972 and Jim Lovell served in the Navy from about 1952 to 1962 and then in NASA from 1962 to 1973.

elizabeth and i sometimes watch the "space trilogy": The Right Stuff, The Dish, and Apollo 13. The Right Stuff and Apollo 13 each one a few Oscars and each was nominated as Best Picture. The Dish is an Australian movie from 2000. Essentially a comedy, it won a great number of awards in Australia but is little known in the US. However, The Dish may be the best movie of the three.

11 feb 2010

didn't get to bed until after 3:00 last night. i took a two hr nap in front of the tv and that left me feeling wide awake around midnight.

woke up at 8:00 feeling pretty rested. i kept thinking it was friday.

breakfast

bagel w/ butter
grits
banana
coffee
oj

snack

toast (2 sl)
orange (half)
iced tea

they plowed sometime this morning so we thought we'd go to the bank and run some other errands. Beverly Court was beautiful. Almost bare pavement. The hill on Greystone wasn't too bad. Passable with the sun out but it looked like it would be very icy in the early morning. South Hill was just ridiculous. Terrible job of plowing. Even in full sunshine it was pretty bad. Kelly and Broad Run Church were not nearly as good as I would have expected. We nearly got stuck at three points on Kelly. 29 was beautiful. Dry pavement. Lanes and most of the shoulders clear.

lunch

bacon turkey bravo sandwich
half Greek salad
apple
iced tea

at Panera. Very good.

snack

caffe mocha

at Starbucks. OK. I like the caffe mocha at Caribou much better.

dinner

chicken and dumpling soup
bagel w/ cream cheese
iced tea

the soup was Campbell's Chunky soup and it was surprisingly good.

dessert

ice cream w/ a banana (almost a banana split)

We watched an old favorite after dinner: Sense and Sensibility by Ang Lee. Such a beautiful movie. Amazing cast. For me Elizabeth Spriggs and Robert Hardy are the absolute delights of the movie. Although Hugh Laurie and Imelda Staunton playing a married couple again as in Peter's Friends and the delicious Imogene Stubbs are wonderful in their own rights. I don't think there is any one in the movie who isn't excellent. A tremendous treat for a winter night.

10 feb 2010

woke up at 5:00. i seem to be waking up about 15 minutes before the alarm lately. as soon as i forget to set the alarm i'll sleep right thru.

conference call from 6:00 to about 6:45.

looked out when i went down at 7:00. snowing pretty heavily, poor visibility. looked like 4-5 inches in the driveway. the forecast says it may continue to snow for another 12 hrs. oh joy!

breakfast

bagel w/ butter
bananas
donut
coffee

Wegmans has surprisingly good donuts and bagels.

second conference call at 9:00. lately i'd be doing really well if i could be paid by the concall minute.

lunch

turkey & provolone on rye
cup of chips and salsa
three cookies
coke
iced tea

snack

half an orange
iced tea

it seems like the snow stopped at around noon. it looks like the sun is trying to come out. however the winter storm warning has not been withdrawn and does not expire until 7:00 pm so we could still have a few more hours of snow. fingers crossed.

the nice thing about the big naval oranges is that you can split one with a palsy-wal.

cats don't like the smell of oranges.

dinner

spaghetti and tomato sauce
salad
iced tea

spaghetti really hit the spot today. cooked just right and a really good salad. i've gotten kind of flaky about salads. i used to always want a salad. now it is a minute by minute decision.

someone came around at dinner time offering to plow the driveway for $30. we agreed readily. (as Jane Austen might say.) the guy did an amazing job. worth every penny. we're still stuck because no one has plowed the street but at least we don't have to dig to the driveway. whatever digging we do can be clearing a turn-around in the driveway and clearing a path from the back to the front and so on. maybe by monday we'll be able to navigate around the yard in a reasonable way.

it was fiercely cold went i went out to look at the driveway and pay the guy. unbelievable. the wind just blowing right in your face and taking your breath away.

next snow in the forecast isn't until Sunday night (weather bug) or Monday (weather.com) and next snow is supposed to be moderate.

dessert

ice cream
iced tea

i watched the last episode of season 2 of star trek at lunch today. assignment: earth. teri garr (at like, 20) is in the episode and is quite disarming. i got a huge kick out of the episode. it feels like it may have been an idea for a spin-off. (according to wikipedia, it was an idea for a spin off). i think they used the same cat in this episode as they used in the catspaw episode. very cool cat. the cat actually perches on robert lansing's shoulders at one point. lansing's character is named gary seven. good name.

we watched i'll see you in my dreams after dinner. doris day and danny thomas. bio-pic about Gus Kahn who wrote dream a little dream of me, makin' whoopee, toot toot tootsie, and so on. good supporting cast, well directed. doris day is tres beautiful in this one and both she and danny do a great job on the songs they sing. for my money kahn had a lot of non-descript songs but maybe that's just a reflection of changing tastes. michael curtiz (casablanca, life with father, yankee doodle dandy, etc.) directed. nice light entertainment. not great but enjoyable. interestingly enough it was nominated for a golden globe.

09 feb 2010

Candace Johns birthday today. Happy Birthday!

woke up at about 5 am. i must have had crazy dreams. i was sleeping across the bed with one sheet and all of the blankets on the floor. woke up freezing and dying of thirst. decided to go downstairs and get something to drink.

ate a banana and drank some tea while watching the episode of star trek where the planet has evolved as earth but in this case the roman empire has survived into the 20th century. pretty good episode.

breakfast

cereal
iced tea
coffee

we are very low on everything and the fed govt. is closed again. E's company goes by the govt so she is off. it is also supposed to start snowing again in the morning and snow all night and most of the day wednesday. calling for more than 10 in. We decided to go to the grocery store as early as possible since we are out of almost anything and will probably be trapped again on tomorrow and possibly thursday.

lunch

pizza (1 sl)
iced tea

at Wegmans. pretty good. very thin crust.

got through the grocery store faster than expected. it felt like it would start snowing at any minute but we got home with no problem but the side roads are not in good shape.

snack

coffee
donut

("Coffee, donut." Peggy Sue Got Married.) Wegmans makes a very tasty donut. Elizabeth makes a hell of a good cuppa joe.

late snack

bagel w/ butter
iced tea
yogurt

it started to snow a little after 5. there was a 1/2 in on the ground in half an hour.

dinner

cassoulet (1.5 helpings)
artisan wheat toast
iced tea

govt. announced shutdown for wednesday at around 6:30.

dessert

southern milk chocolate ice cream

we watched the first half of a program about the making of animal house on the biography channel. much were my laughings.

08 feb 2010

conference call at 6:00 am again. pretty good call. finished by 6:50.

still no sign of the snowplough. everything aches from digging yesterday but we still have a swatch about 6 ft wide, 2 ft deep and 40 ft long to dig. That's in the neighborhood of 500 sq ft of snow if my math is not too bad.

breakfast

cereal w/ milk
banana
oj
coffee

went out at 11:15 to work on the snow. Fred from next store volunteered to help. He moved more snow in 10 minutes than I could move in an hour. I went in at noon for a concall. When I came back at 12:30 E and Fred had already finished the whole driveway. Amazing!

lunch

turkey & provolone on rye
salad
iced tea

dinner

lasagna
salad

frozen lasagna. Stouffers. pretty good.

dessert

orange

antiques roadshow and big bang theory. thought it was a really funny episode of bbt.

07 feb 2010

Woke up at around 7:30. Sun is out. Nice to see that.

breakfast

cereal w/ milk
oj
banana
coffee
iced tea

We started digging at about 10:30. We dug in shifts from 10:30 to almost 2:30. Can't imagine how the stokers used to shovel all day. We got about 2/3rds done. We stopped because of frozen feet.

The road has not been plowed. There is a two foot wall of snow where we stopped digging at the top of the road.

lunch

clam chowder
crackers
iced tea
coke

dinner

casoulet (2 helpings)
rye bread (2 sl)
iced tea

casoulet was very good.

dessert

toast w/ marmalade
iced tea

We watched the super bowl starting in the 2nd quarter. Amazing number of commercials. Unfortunately there were not many of the commercials that were amazing. Haven't figured out why Danica Patrick is a sex symbol. Why so many people walking around in underwear?

The Saints played amazingly well. Great job for NOLA.

I wish they would remove half the people from the booth, 90% of the pre-game. Does any body care about the endless blather?

The partial who were mostly pretty good. I liked the lights. What I would have really liked to see is the setup and the teardown. That was some tightly arranged activity!

06 feb 2010

woke up at about 5:00 as I have been doing. I decided to go back to bed since I didn't have to get up. slept until 8:00. it was kind of nice.

tons of snow every where and still snowing. holy cow!

breakfast

mexican omelettes
banana
coffee
oj
iced tea

E made the omelettes. Eggs, cheese, salsa wrapped in a tortilla. Excellent.

I went out at about 11:00 to try to clear a path to the back door and to clear away some of the snow piled around the heat pump. I went out through the garage because it was the only door we could get open. There must be a 30 in drift in front of the front door. back door is blocked by over 3 ft of snow. The snow right in front of the garage is about 2 ft deep. amazing.

I got everything I needed to do done but then I made the silly mistake of going around the front of the house rather than doubling back on my path. I barely made it. Snow was hip dip in places in the front yard and by that time I was very cold.

lunch

tomato soup
grilled cheese
iced tea

dinner

turkey reuben
chips
coke
iced tea

dessert

bowl of cereal

I tried to watch an Italian movie on DVD. It was supposed to be based on Cosi Fan Tutti. Turned out to be moderately hard core porn. Not a nice surprise. Turned it off after 15 minutes. Too many naked Italians.

Ended up watching The Rocket about Maurice Richard. A Canadian made movie in French. Odd movie. It kept reminding me of other movies. It was rather austere. A little humor would have been a big plus.

Snow stopped around 5:15 pm. We must have gotten 24 in.

05 feb 2010

up at 5:10 am for concall. found a note that one of the participants had to cancel. rescheduled for monday.

breakfast

bagel w/ butter
banana
oj
coffee
iced tea

E arranged to work from home today because of the predicted storm so we didn't go to the VRE.

snow started at about 9:15 with a light fall. by noon the streets looked pretty slick because it is a wet snow. much different than the December snow.

lunch

ham, bologna, provolone on a bagel
chips
yogurt
iced tea

yogurt was not very good. i've come to the point when Breyer's fruit on the bottom is just TOO sweet.

took a break at about 4:00 to watch the last few episodes on the season 10 disk of the Simpsons. The drawing seems a great deal more sophisticated by the 10th season.

dinner

turkey reubens
chips
iced tea

pretty good.

snow was falling at a pretty high rate by evening.

i saw the finale of True Grit just before I went to bed. I'd have to say that I hadn't seen T.G. in at least 30 yrs. The final shoot out between John Wayne and Duval and his henchman takes place on one of the most beautiful fall days you could imagine. It looks like perfect football weather.

I first saw True Grit when I was about 10. At that time the violent scenes in the movie seemed REALLY violent. Seeing it now they looked rather tame. All in all, I found it refreshing to see a movie where the characters speak in complete sentences and where even the most violent outlaws parlay before they resort to violence.

looked out the front door on the way to bed. It already looked like we had as much snow as we did in the December storm.

04 feb 2010

woke up at 4:45 again even though i didn't have a concall today. i seem to wake up between 4:30 and d5:15 everyday.

really felt hungry when I woke up. ate breakfast at 5:30

breakfast

bagel w/ butter
iced tea
banana
coffee
oj

i like oj but i think it makes me hungrier

2nd breakfast

sausage egg and cheese sandwich
sample of cinnamon coffee cake
caramel macchiato
iced tea

at 9:00 o'clock. the cinnamon coffee cake was insanely rich and insanely cinnamon-ny

i got the macchiato at Caribou Coffee asked them if they could make brand X's beverage. manager of the CC had formerly been the manager of a brand X.

feeling a bit stir crazy today.

forecast is for a great deal of snow. I decided to take the recycling to the center today. I've been meaning to do it for a long time. also picked up some things at the grocery store and got cat food at PetSmart

lunch

veggie burrito
chicken taco
iced tea

at Qdoba. I remembered about 30 seconds after I ordered that there is a Chipotle a quarter of a mile from the Qdoba. I always like Chipotle better. Dang.

Also stopped at Target for a few items. Got a coffee at target. Pike's Place? Not bad.

dinner

pizza w/ pepperoni, mushrooms, onions (3 sl, should have had 2)
greek salad
coke
iced tea

watched another episode of Evolution. Interesting series.

03 feb 2010

up early yet again for a concall. setup in the basement. connecting through the cable worked out. pretty good call.

looked like about 5 in of snow on the ground after last night. wet, fluffy stuff. it didn't look like we'd be able to get out in time to get to the VRE. E was able to work from home.

breakfast

bagel w/ butter
banana
iced tea
coffee

i had a couple of rush jobs to do. we decided we'd let the sun work on the snow and try to dig out in the early afternoon.

lunch

potato and leek soup
ham, bologna, and cheese sandwich
iced tea

p&l soup is traditional english soup. i got it from the uk and ireland section at the grocery store. it just looked like it might be new and different. ok but not something i'll put on my usual soup list.

we attacked the snow after lunch. it hadn't been sunny but it was warm enough to really do a lot of melting. we managed to clear a good path in 45 min to an hr. we are now hearing that a big storm is coming fri/sat. so what's new?

snack

crackers
cherry coke

dinner

burritos (2)
iced tea

we watched another episode of a program called evolution. interesting show but a lot of the biologists and paleontologists talk about evolution as if it were an entity rather than a process. evolution conducts experiments and thoughts like that.

i watched two episodes of the simpsons after that. season 10 episodes. i really liked the canals of springfield.

02 feb 2010

groundhog day

early morning concall again today. trouble with the connection again. reschedule for tomorrow. i'll connect the computer directly in the basement and see if that works.

breakfast

cereal
banana
iced tea
coffee

lunch

meatball sub
retro dr. pepper

at wegmans. good.

dinner

bologna and cheese sandwich
chips
cole slaw
iced tea

we found a st:tng rerun on the syfy channel. turned out to be the two part finale. really an excellent episode. they even got to invert their tachyon pulses. always a delight.

snowing pretty steadily in the evening.

01 feb. 2010

Can't believe it is already February. Amazing.

Extremely cold at 5:15 in the am. 10 degrees according to the Weather Bug. Early concall this morning.Signal strength which has generally been good of very good is now low for some reason. Causes Skype quality problems. Have to reschedule for Friday. I'll have to set up my computer near the router and test it before Friday.

breakfast

bacon, egg, and cheese on a bagel
iced tea
caffe mocha

at Panera. Pretty good.

lunch

italian sub
fries
iced tea

at Ledo's. The lunch deal at Ledo's is very good. Any sub, fries, and a drink for less than $7.

For some reason the waitress at Ledo's is my best friend in the world. I've been going to that Ledo's since it opened (Oct. 2004, I think, because the wait staff were all dressed for Halloween the first time I went) but in the last two years I would think I go there maybe once every 6 wks max. Oh well, she's a very friendly lady and always has news from Haymarket.

E. had to work a little late so she caught a somewhat later train. Went to VRE a little later than usual. I really wish they would put some lights on that access road!

My stomach turned a flip just as I was making supper. About 20 min where I just felt like I couldn't eat anything. I sat down and drank some tea and felt a little better.

dinner

spaghetti w/ butter and parmesan
iced tea

I also made a salad but didn't feel like eating it. That seems to happen a lot lately.

dessert

donut
iced tea

We watched Antiques Roadshow from Atlantic City, NJ. I love the way the appraisers name the price. "One of these without the lid sold for 800,000 in Arkansas in '47. This one has the lid and the documentation that it belonged to Oswald Thorgood so I would estimate that it would make between 40 cents and 8 trillion dollars at auction." Some of the antique furniture is appraised for less than a comparable piece of modern factory made furniture. Oh well.

31 jan 2010

used the CPAP for 2-3 hours. slept fairly well but woke up at about 4:45 from a terrible dream. I don't remember anything about the dream but I dreaded to go back to bed. I went downstairs and did the dishes and watched star trek.

breakfast

bowl of cereal
banana
iced tea

2nd breakfast

bagel w/ butter
coffee

Decided that it was best to start shoveling the driveway as soon as possible since the sun was out. It was about 18 degrees at 10 am when we started. I tried using the leaf blower. It worked ok since the snow was extremely dry but the snow was a little too deep (6 to 7 in). I think it would have worked well if there had been 3 in of snow or less. It took about 1 hr to clear the driveway from the garage to the street. In the December storm it took us about 4 hrs and that was with help from one neighbor shoveling and from another with a snow plow. Really soar elbow after digging the snow.

lunch

sandwich on a bagel
chips
iced tea

snack

chips and salsa
coke

dinner

lentil soup (home-made)
crusty bread and butter
iced tea

dessert

mini cinnamon buns (2)
iced tea

We watched a tiny bit of the Pro Bowl. I always get a kick out of the mis-matched helmets. For once the uniforms made for the game looked like actual professional football uniforms. Usually whoever designs them seems to have mixed up the pro bowl design with the design for some high school team.

Ended up watching Galaxy Quest on DVD. Such a funny movie. So many great lines. Guy gets a lot of good ones: "Did any of you ever WATCH the show?" Many were my laughings amid the watching of these historical documents.