The Ramblings of the Village Idiot

I have been somewhat behind in my TV viewing this year. Even though we are supposed to be preparing for baby, I find my self either really busy or really tired. Neither of which is conducive to productivity at home. Here are some of the shows I'm distracting myself with.

Chuck - I've really enjoyed this season thus far... up until the last 2 minutes of the last episode. Well, I should say last week's episode since I haven't watched last night's episode yet. When Chuck was walking down the hall with his white dinner jacket and rose, I said aloud, "I hope Bryce isn't going to be in her room". Well, spank my ass and call me Judy, there he was. I shouldn't be able to call TV shows like that. If they're going for the big reveal, maybe they should think a little harder before going with the obvious every time.

Life - I'm worried that this show is on its last legs. They've banished it to Friday night, so it doesn't stand much of a chance at this point. The makeup artist on the show should really watch some of it before designing for the next episode. Maybe its the hallmark of HD, but the makeup was horribly noticeable on this last episode - especially on the male characters. The female characters were better, but I still have to wonder about how ladies can look so polished while supposedly working out. I thought sweating was more than just glowing. At least whenever I've been to the gym... yeah whatever.

Pushing Daisies - The only show we watch without HD, thanks to Dish Network who have decided that ABC does not need to be in HD. The CW isn't in HD either, but we don't watch much on that. We did watch Reaper last season, so I need to make sure I'm not missing it. Anyway, we've both thoroughly enjoyed the season thus far. I hope the show continues to do well.

True Blood - Probably going to cancel HBO sometime soon. We like the show thus far, but can't justify the price when we could just wait for a while and get the whole season on Netflix. The accents are a bit uneven and I haven't quite figured out what they're going for here. I haven't watched the creator's other show, "Six Feet Under" yet. Maybe if I was familiar with that show, I'd appreciate this one more...?

We have Sanctuary recorded, but we haven't watched any of it yet. Any thoughts on this one?

Well, it has finally happened... Facebook has been blocked by my work network. So much for keeping up with anyone since I am not real keen on using a computer at home. I type enough at work that I have no desire to sit in front of a computer at home. That's prime TV time. Or sleeping. Or house work... wait - that one didn't fit in too well. Anyway... now I have just about nothing to do during the 6-7 minute down time between coding and testing. They won't buy new machines for us to reduce that compile/link time - so that reduces them to a bunch of scrotum licking thunder cunts.

I go to comics.com quite often during the course of my meaningless day at work. dilbert, get fuzzy, rubes, etc. I'm getting really tired of their pop-ups there. I have pop-up blockers installed, but somehow this site always gets through them. Whenever they pop up, they always to go a site that is blocked - causing my computer name to be logged in some government database. I'm sure that doesn't look too good for me.

So, I was asked to sing at a funeral recently. It was a friend of my dad's who he (luckily) got a chance to visit with while he was in town over the holidays. Having only sung at a grand total of two (including this one) funerals, I was a bit nervous. The fact that it was 10 in the morning did nothing but add to my trepidation. The family (actually, somehow the deceased) had requested me to sing the Shubert "Ave Maria" - a piece, I'm sure, everyone is at least somewhat familiar with.

Well, the only key they had was Ab. I like to do it in G - only a half step, I know... but an important damned half step at 10 in the morning. I should also note that I haven't actually performed this piece in public before - only at a lesson - 15 years ago. So, anyway... I thought I sucked. As usual, some might have presupposed.

A couple of days later, my dad forwarded an email received from the family which had the line, "His rendition of the 'Ava Maria' brought tears to all of us. "

So, the raison d'être of my post is this... wouldn't a "normal" person take this as a compliment and move on? The answer, of course, is a resounding yes. However, I (in my not right-ness) read that statement and thought, "Tears? I knew it was bad". I immediately realized my neurosis and decided to take it as the complement it was meant to be. I just found it odd that my first reaction was to read it as criticism - even from someone who, I think, would never have emailed my dad with criticism.

Stupid brain. Must drink more beer to kill off the parts that are obviously not working.

So, it's been a week since I've last updated this journal - something that I was attempting to do a whole lot more often.

Anyway, we've had a somewhat productive week. We finished moving the sprinkler heads and loading 6 truck fulls of gravel into the newly created rock bed. It looks nice. It needs some decoration in the form of tiki torches, solar lights, other big rocks - maybe in the form of a bench, and possibly some succulents or palms. Not sure about the palms since we do tend to get rather chilly during the winter around here. There is a store here called "Cold Palms" that is supposed to sell cold hardy palm trees that are proven to survive the winters here. Our winters are not severe in any shape or form, but probably too cold for your average palm.

On cat news, we took all 5 of them into the vet for their annual checkup. I really need to find another vet. It was over $700 for the visit. One of the reasons we went early (the annual was due in November) is that there is a phantom pee-er in the group. Someone has been peeing all over the back hallway. We thoroughly cleaned the hallway with the steam cleaner just to be hit the next day with a fresh puddle. Turns out that Oscar does in fact have some sort of urinary infection - so we have to tackle him twice a day to give him anti-biotics. Fun. He decided to pee all over the pet carrier (and his sister, Annie) on the way home from the vet. So, I had to further traumatize him by trying to give him a bath. The bath was unsuccessful, but the tramatization was stunningly triumphant.

Another item on the original to-do list was buy a hot-tub. Well, we did just that the other day. I swear, tent sales will be the death of me. We bought a Honda Odyssey at a tent sale last month - now we bought a hot tub at another tent sale. It's a nice enough one. Not as large as I would have liked, but 95% of the time it will be just Susie and I.

Susie has made a master to-do list that we have hung on the refrigerator. Her goal is to work on at least one of the items on that list every day. Tonight will be steam cleaning the hallway (again) along with the living room because before we caught Oscar, he had walked around the living room with sodden paws for a while. I don't want the other kitties getting any ideas about peeing, so we'll take out all the furniture and steam clean tonight. When the carpet is dry, we're going to try out my sister's rug. We've spent so much time cleaning that thing, if it still smells tomorrow, it's going to the curb.

Someday, I'll have to post from home so I can upload some pictures of the various projects in progress at the French abode.

So close on the rock project. I had a little melt down this weekend while I was trying to move a sprinkler head out of the rock "area". The drought has made the ground so hard it is almost impossible to dig. And digging was required to move the sprinkler. After almost an hour, I had the first sprinkler head dug up. Another hour and I had the new location dug. Not fun. I still have to move another sprinkler before this is all over with.

I need to dig a TRENCH in this impossible soil to run power from the house out to the proposed hot-tub location. I don't know how I'm going to do that. I can't rent a trenching machine because the trench is going really near my septic tank. I can't risk hitting it or one of the pipes with the trencher. I'm hoping for some rain. Hoping is all it is since there is no rain in the forecast.

Which leads me to believe that the grass seed I spread last Friday will be dead soon if it isn't already.

Susie and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary yesterday by going to work all day and going to chorus rehearsal right after. I was in favor of us playing hookie for the day, but her work ethic won out. I would like to think I have a work ethic, but lately I wonder. I'm all about calling in sick or staying home. Just think - I only have to do this job for another 30 more years or so. That's just depressing. By the time I'll have enough money to retire, I'll be too old to really enjoy it all. I'll have the time to finally hike the AT, but I'll probably be too feeble to attempt it. I can't see my dad trying the AT at his age. Ick. There has to be a better way. It probably consists of not whining and just accept where I am.

So, with the new bishop installed - I wonder if he is going to put the call out for new deacons.

Tonight ( I hope ) will be the conclusion of the rock moving. We need 2-3 more truck loads of gravel to finish out the project. We're going to pick up 2 loads worth tonight ( with the help of the in-law's truck ) and I'm going to move that last sprinkler. I may not be able to move tomorrow, but it will be worth it if we finish!

So, it's the weekend already. I sort of spread grass seed and fertilizer on the front lawn this morning before work. I don't know where the extra energy came from, but I try not to question these things too much. I say "sort of" because I didn't have a proper seed broadcasting device. My broadcaster is still living with the in-laws, so I used a small hand-held one I had in the shed. Amazing what you find back there.

The other option for the weekend is to take a small trip. The next 3-4 weekends are booked with church or concerts, so this would be the time to go if we didn't have so much work to do at home. We thought a trip would be nice, but we don't know where to go and we really can't afford too much anyway. We've spend way too much money lately.

BTW. It will be our 2 year anniversay on Monday.

Between rehearsals and such, we haven't gotten too much done on the ol' stone project. I think we're going to drop of the van (we got a new van two weeks ago) to get it iPod-able. Then head to Across The Pond to get more rocks to finish out the wall.

On another unrelated topic, I find it rather amusing that there is so much graffiti on in the bathroom stalls here. Rather profane stuff, actually. Normally this wouldn't amount to much, but this is a secure facility. Everyone in the building holds a security clearance and yet, we have high-school level graffiti in the bathrooms. Strange.

As the title sounds, I spent yesterday in Birmingham for the Installation of our new Bishop. It was kewl. There were over 100 priests, probably 30 bishops, even a cardinal. Odd to see such Catholic activity this far south. I assume they're all getting behind the new bishop because they know how hard of a time he's going to have it down here.

While the music was great (I was in one of the choirs), we didn't make it onto EWTN. The bulk of our singing occurred before the service. Out of the two pieces we did during the service, my TiVo only caught one of them because the service ran long and TiVo didn't compensate. Ah well. Nothing to show my boss to prove that I wasn't just dicking around for the day.

I have bell rehearsal tonight, so there will probably not be any progress on the dreaded list of chores. Thursday is community chorus rehearsal, so again... no progress. Maybe this weekend we will make some headway.

On my list of projects is the ominous one to finish the rock wall around the pool. I think it was in early May that we bought two pallets of rocks (3 feet long each) to make a rock garden all around the pool. We were getting tired of grass clippings flooding the pool every time we cut the grass. This seemed (at the time) a reasonably simple effort. Cut the sod, install rocks, back fill with gravel, and decorate. Simple?

So, that was back in May. We cut the sod out and installed one rock. One. Then "42nd Street" hit. We were so worn out by all the dancing and late nights, we didn't touch the rocks again with any fervor until this past Saturday. We started after lunch Saturday afternoon and continued after church yesterday. We have both pallets installed with only a half-dozen or so left to buy to finish the installation part. Next comes the re-grading of the space between the pool deck and the rock wall. Then weed paper, followed by a shit-ton of gravel. Maybe we'll have this project finished by next summer.

Moving the rocks had to happen before calling the concrete guy to install the pad for our new hot-tub (which has yet to be purchased). I think I need to at least know exactly which hot-tub we're buying before we have the pad poured in order to get the dimensions right.

Other fun events this weekend included a chamber chorus rehearsal Saturday morning, steam-cleaning the back hallway where one of the cats has decided to pee repeatedly, and steam-cleaning my sister's stinky rug. For the 4th time. If this doesn't get the smell out - it's going on the curb.

The project list probably won't get any love this week. We're driving down to b'ham tonight for the Bishop's installation Mass tomorrow and dress rehearsal tonight. Wednesday is bell rehearsal followed by bbq potato. Thursday will be the first night back to the project list. We have a "slight" chance of rain on Thursday, so maybe I should fertilize and over-seed the front yard. Over-seed may be a bit of an exaggeration since the term assumes some grass coverage in place in which to over-seed. Our front yard is completely dead, so this will be more like "seeding", I guess. My in-laws have my broadcast spreader, so I may have to go buy a better one :)

This week at work is another week filled with just about nothing. Getting the cockpit up and running again after months of down-time and architectural changes is about all we have to look forward to. Yip-ee.

Last night was entirely consumed by driving back and forth to Birmingham. The rehearsal went pretty well. I don't know what I am expecting out of this choir exactly, but I always seem to be a bit disappointed in it. It is just a group of non-auditioned people from various churches in the area that are getting together to sing. Not all super-star choir singers, but people willing to put in the effort to do some more challenging music than what would be the normal week-to-week fare in most of the churches. Maybe I'm just spoiled. Singing with the main HCCA is fun, but it isn't what I really enjoy. Luckily they have started a chamber choir that is right up my alley. We're only doing a couple of pieces a concert, but it is challenging music with a group of very talented people.

I guess I just really miss singing with Dr. Sneed.

Anyway - we didn't get back from Birmingham until almost 11, so it was right to bed. Even the cats were pissed off that we were out for so long. The fish didn't seem to care.

So, for the two people that actually read this journal from time to time, I apologize. I am going to attempt to use this journal to find out what has happened to all my "free" time.

There is a myriad of things that I would like to accomplish this Summer/Fall and I can't seem to get a handle on any of them. So, this attempt is going to consist of posting every day to detail how I wasted my evening. It is going to be boring anyone reading it. Again, I apologize.

So, my list of things I need to work on are (in no particular order):

1. Dig trench for electrical work in back yard.
2. Finish installing rocks around pool.
3. Schedule concrete work for hot-tub. (after rocks)
4. Buy hot-tub.
5. Run electrical under house, from breaker box into temporary location.
6. Built-in cabinets in bedroom. Build them first, then install them.
7. Clean my sister's stinky rug. If not, throw it away.
8. Organize garage (will help with #6)
9. Rebuild rotting columns on the front of the house.
10. Build refrig. platform for a friend of mine.
11. Refinish buffet into entertainment center.
12. Build new fish-tank hood.
13. Setup vivarium (?)

So, with this list of items, I should be able to work on any one of them in the evenings...

Monday - Chorus rehearsal. Bed.
Tuesday - Should have been prime working day. Goofed off. I don't remember why I didn't get anything done.
Wednesday - Bell rehearsal. Potato. New shows on NBC (Bionic Woman/Life). Neck hurt, so I didn't do too much.

Tonight we have to drive to B'ham for a rehearsal. The diocese of Birmingham finally got a new Bishop. Our old one retired almost 5 years ago. Susie and I are singing at his installation ceremony. We'll be part of just one of 5 different choirs. Should be interesting if nothing else.

Maybe I can look back on this journal to see where my time went. Or I can just admit that I can't get anything done. Ever.

If you work on an Army installation, do not go into the barely operable bathroom right after lunch on mexican food day. Unless you can hold your breath for a really long time while your eyes are burning.

If it appears that the caffeteria is experimenting with a new recipe, don't try it. The latest attempt was obviously yesterday's spaghetti noodles with yesterday's (or last week's) vegetables with a whole helping of old crumbled up hamburger patties. Yum.

It's 58 degrees in here today. The problem has been identified as the breakdown in the water heater. Apparently to efficiently cool down a building, you first chill the incoming air down to ~40 degrees then warm it back up with hot water. Since there are no thermostats controlling when to turn the system on and off, the whole thing runs full out. All the time. Even if the hot water is off. My nipples hurt.

It's over 100 again today (with the heat index). No rain in sight. Huntsville Water has not issued any advisories. Monrovia Water, on the other hand, has mandatory water restrictions - with fines. My neighbors are ignoring said restrictions and have lush green yards. Mine is dead. Stupid rule-following. If only I could bring my yard to work with me.

The Wii didn't go over as well as I had hoped. It's not that she didn't like it, I just think she'd rather not get it for her birthday. Oh well.

The worst part of today is that it is only just after 11 and I've already visited all my distraction websites that I'm legally allowed to visit. Only 5 more hours to go with nothing to do. Peh.

"42nd Street" is going really well. The crowds have been pretty large thus far, but we only really sold out one performance. My voice thus far has been behaving, even though it tried to give out on me yesterday. I made the mistake of sprinting back to the dressing rooms at one point to get a hat that I had forgotten to pre-set. After sprinting back on stage (on time, I might add) I didn't have any breath left to sing my only big solo number. I think it sounded like crap, but my lovely wife assured me that it didn't suck. She's sweet.

I haven't been able to read all about Harry Potter's last adventure yet. I'm actually surprised that I haven't been spoiled yet. I was half-expecting to learn the ending via some evil headline or something.

Last night's "costume rehearsal" went really long. Every change I have is a quick change. Mine aren't as fast as some of the girls' changes, but still faster than I can manage on my own.

I'm planning on taking some time off work this week to catch up on sleep. The problem is that no matter how late I come in here, I just want to go back home and sleep more. Maybe that will go away after the show and after the vacation up in Boston.

So, I was thinking about getting Susie a Wii for her birthday. Would that be getting "me" a Wii under the guise of getting it for her, or is that really a good present?

So I had finally decided to buy a Dell. It came down to having built various versions of the same computer three or four times without any success. I ordered the Dell on Thursday afternoon. Dell said they expected to ship my new computer out on the 17th - almost two weeks away. Saturday morning, the office was driving me crazy. There were computer parts everywhere and probably several unpaid bills lie hidden under the rubble. In an attempt to have all the computer parts in one place, I put together another computer. Not really in an attempt to make it all work, but rather a singular focus of my hatred. I had fully planned on pulling an "Office Space" on that mo-fo. Well, of course - when it was all built... it worked. Perfectly. The thing just came up like nothing was ever wrong. The only thing that didn't respond quite right was the Nero software that was griping that I had replaced the DVD/RW drive. I guess I need to buy some new Nero software. So... after letting the thing run all weekend I had decided to cancel the order with Dell when I got to work Monday morning. I figured I had plenty of time. Wrong again. The damn thing was waiting for me when I got home. The thing that really chaps my hide is that I KNOW that if I had really been anticipating the new computer - it wouldn't have shipped until the afore promised 17th. Now that I don't really want the computer - it shows up the next day.

So, I'm left with a quandary. I think my current computer's behavior is somewhat linked to the fact that its replacement is sitting right next to it. I have a feeling that if I ship the Dell back, my computer will go belly up yet again. If I keep it I either have two computers (why) or a Dell that is somewhat inferior (except in reliability) to my previous one. If I assume the second scenario, to whom would I bestow the old beast? Old in this case is truly in the computer sense as it is only 10 months old.

Any suggestions?

On "42nd Street" news... I just really don't like playing Billy. He's the horn dog which could be fun to play - but it just isn't. I'm uncomfortable which is making my acting (if you can call it such) suck. I'm also tired all the damn time which isn't helping the singing or the dancing either. Crapola. I'm sure the show will come together as it always does, but I'm really hating the journey.

I didn't want to do this, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to pull rank on you. I'm with the Mattress Police. There are no tags on these mattresses.

Susie made an interesting comment recently to our respective effectiveness in our given careers.

"It's odd that we have a computer guy and a PT living in a house that has a habitually broken computer and someone with a messed up neck".

I don't know if those were her exact words, but they are close... which leads to some explanation:

1. My home computer is dead.
2. My neck is all f*d up.

I woke up Friday morning to the horrid sensation of my head being ripped from my body. Well, it was just my neck telling me that something is not right. Again. My recurring neck troubles seem to have reared its ugly head... or neck. Anyway, it hurts. A lot. And I have to tap in 42nd Street. Not a good combination.

The computer thingy is also confusing to me. For no reason that I can come up with, it just stopped responding to the power button. You could press that little sucker all you wanted with no results. Then a couple of days later... it would come on. For a while. Then just shut off and not respond again for a day or so. So, one (or more) of three items could have gone bad - the case supplying the switch, the power supply or the motherboard. I replaced all three. The first attempt failed because of a badly worded marketing statement causing me to think that some of the components would work together when in fact, they don't. The second attempt failed along the same lines - this time the new components just didn't work together. I don't know why. The third attempt must have shorted something because there we a strange buzzing sound... then nothing. I'm shipping everything back to the respective retailers and giving up. I think I'm buying a Dell. Or some other mass-market PC. I feel like I've been defeated.

This week - 42nd Street rehearsals continue. Dad comes to visit for one day. The day with the 42nd Street rehearsal. A day off (sort of). More 42nd Street rehearsals. I'm ready for this show to be over already.

I wanted to go down to the planet because I figured the ship would get attacked and I would die. But now I'm thinking I get left behind when you guys go back and die down there!

I'm really feeling my age lately. I really hope that I'm feeling older than I really am because, damn. I'm tired all the damn time. Maybe I should try to like coffee. Or crack. On top of that - I'm trying to work 9 hour days in order to take this Friday off to drive to Camden for Father's Day. This will be my last show for a while. A long while, I hope.

I spent a good portion of yesterday cooking all manner of food for this week. With 42nd Street rehearsals starting as early as 5:30 now, I have no time to make it home to eat before rehearsals. The only way to not eat junk food all week is to take lunch AND dinner to work with me... every day.

I'm Brick Tamland. People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks. Years later, a doctor will tell me that I have an I.Q. of 48 and I am what some people call mentally retarded.

Saw this on a t-shirt today...

"Necrophilia: Crack open a cold one!"

It took me a second, but then I chortled.

Other funny ones lately -

"Can's sleep, the clowns will eat me."

"Even if the voices aren't real, they have some pretty good ideas."

... enjoy.