About the Weather

Each time I wake up on a cloudy morning I instantly hear Natalie Merchant's voice as 10,000 Maniacs plays "About the Weather" through my cranium. This morning is one of those mornings.

According to last night's weather report, at some time today we are to expect a humongous rainstorm like no other rainstorm in recorded history. It was cloudy at 7am. Now it's sunny. I wonder if this is one of those storms that has its edge right on top of me, or just south, where we get the grey drizzlies and no deluge.

The second birthday party on Geoff's dance card this week has been postponed due to this storm. Marcia called this morning to let us know. She was going to have it anyway and chance it that the storm won't make it as far north as they are, but she figured she'd be better off picking another date. I'm relieved... I have to take the car and get it inspected now that we've got our stuff from the registry, and I forgot to go buy a present for Peter. So it is good to have more time.

And watch it not rain any further north of Danvers today. Heh.

Geoff and I hid a geocache yesterday afternoon after I worked for a couple of hours on one of the web projects. I'm finding that I have about a 2 hour limit before I need to walk away or before they start fighting. Then we need a break and I come back and work again. So it is flowing smoothly, with them around. I just have to make sure the "break" isn't too incredibly long or I get out of the mode of working all together.

Last night we had a huge campfire. I figured seeing as this rainstorm to last four days will be approaching, we'd better go have one or we won't be able to for a week. It was 9pm and Geoff reminded me that I'd promised the campfire. I tried to dissuade him, but he was having none of that shit. I'm glad the fire started quickly, I was afraid it would take forever and be after 10pm by the time the coals got good for marshmallow roasting. I've got this campfire starting thing down.

Doug and I sat by the fire talking until 11pm. He put some monster logs in there, and I didn't want to have to put them out, but... it was bedtime. He told me his boss is moving to Virginia. She's getting married in August, and her husband is going to school or something in the DC area, so they'll be leaving. This kind of sucks for him. He really enjoys her as a supervisor, and one of the problems Doug has with work is that people who are complete dingusbrains end up as his boss(es), and he despises them. Doug has had very few supervisors that he's liked in the many years I've known him. And he likes this one. So I feel badly.

It's funny, but it is the one trait that he and my mother share. They never like their bosses, and when they get one they like, everything goes shitcan for them at that job. My sister can attest to that with my mom's work history.

So, we'll have to see what happens after the transition, and hope for the best. I'd like him to stay there until the fall. At least.

So the verdict is back on my sister's car. I hope you're sitting down... It's her flux capacitor -- gonna cost over $1700 bucks.

Heh. That's what Aaron said to LeeLee, and luckily she's the kind of kid who paid attention during the 80s and knew that a "flux capacitor" was from Back to the Future. Well, it isn't JUST from Back to the Future, there is actually some science behind the whole concept, but Christopher Lloyd made it famous when he hit his head on the toilet and had a vision of time travel.

She needs new spark plugs. And that's that.

The kick in the nuts is that she just had her car serviced before leaving for Maine. You'd think the mechanic would like check these little doo dads and upsell her "hey, your spark plugs are looking lame, would you like a new set?" or something.

So, her car has been up in Maine, needing new spark plugs and nothing more. It looks as if we will drive up to Maine to get it on Saturday. As you may recall, this Friday night is the BNL/Alanis concert in NY (oh, I so cannot wait!) and we're heading down for that. If Jessie isn't too wiped out, I want to try and meet the band after, if security is allowing that. I've passed on each opportunity in the past several months because the shows we've been to have been on school nights or they were 2 hours away from my house so I had to get in the car and drive home... this time though I totally want to see if I can.

But we're going to get in the car and drive on Saturday morning, get up in here by noon and then continue the rest of the way to Maine. I think Linda is going to spend an extra day or so up there, doing the touristy thing. Doug is going to drive up on Friday night with the dogs, seeing as he'll be solo during the day, and have some time to himself with A&M.

Sweet.

A while back Tanager had asked me if I thought the Low Carb thing had gotten out of hand. I answered but had some additional comments to make.

While grocery shopping yesterday, I took a good look at the low carb Coke (C2) and low carb Pepsi (Pepsi Edge). C2 has 12 grams of carbs. Diet coke has Zero.

I know a lot of people don't like the taste of Diet Coke. I'm one of them. But. If one is allotted 20 grams of carbs a day on Atkins, at least during the induction phase, and one is in jones for a soda... one should not piss more than half of one's carb limit on a C2.

Switch to Diet Coke.

Doug and I were trying to figure out what the point of this beverage would be, who are the target soda sippers for C2. This article on C2 states that the target audience is people who want to cut carbs but prefer the taste of Coke Classic. So it isn't for someone on Atkins, just someone looking to reduce their carb intake overall... I guess it makes sense. This article on Pepsi Edge states the same thing and notes that the product tastes more like Diet Pepsi than real Pepsi, so it sort of defeats the purpose. You may as well drink a Zero carb Diet Pepsi instead of a 20 carb (damn!) Pepsi Edge.

My mom used to drink Pepsi by the truckload. Or was it Diet Pepsi? It must have been Diet, because she'd be as big as Comic Book Store Guy if it were regular Pepsi. She stopped drinking soda a while back... good for her.

I don't drink a lot of soda. I prefer something like Ginger Ale to a Cola beverage. And I certainly prefer beer or water to any carbonated bevvie. I suppose if I were all about the taste of Coke Classic vs. Diet Coke, C2 would be a good thing for me. But it hardly matters. If I want a soda, on the very rare occasion that I want such things, I'll have a diet something and am perfectly happy about it.

It isn't a fine wine or a cognac, it's friggin' soda. Bubbly, carbonated, caffeine delivery system. That's how I see it. I don't understand caffeine free Colas. That's the attraction for me. Caffeine free diet sodas boggle my mind completely. Hi, you're drinking brown fuzzy water, ya know? Better for you if you grab a Poland Springs or Dasani instead, dude. Caffeine free diet soda. Pfth.

Marketing C2 as a low carb choice when Coke has a NO carb drink available is kind of funny in my opinion. You'd think they'd put on an ad campaign to let people know Diet Coke is the best choice for your low carb lifestyle or something. A really good ad campaign in this carb counting crazy day and age about the no carbness of diet sodas would bring a lot of people back to trying Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi.

If you use a slice of lemon in them, they're actually pretty tasty.

Well, I need to get to work. My daughter is still asleep, my son is well behaved. I have to get the car inspection thing done, and have another geocache to hide. So, better seize the day, eh?

Have a good day y'all!