Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow are the kinds of days that make bald men wish they were Blagojevich. That muskrat noggin covering sure will keep one warm, I reckon.
I feel for Doug because he has an exceptionally long walk from the parking garage to his building and even with a super hat I am sure that the cold just penetrates to his hypothalamus.
We're gripped in a bit of a nasty cold spell here in New England. This happens around here a couple of times a year, usually in August or September. This time of year it is unprecedented though.
I don't mind the cold as long as that bastard wind isn't blowing. It's a jerk, and I hate it. Fie, upon thee, wind! Fie say I.
I'm a little silly tonight. I'm in an exceptionally good mood, even though I'm currently fighting yet another super evil malware on the PC. I'm not sure if it is Facebook or Youtube that is the culprit, but right now I'm pretty much sick of teh intertoobs, webz and any inter anything that makes me have to fight it. I just want a peaceful existence online. Is that too much to ask?
Obviously, it is.
Anyway -- while I'm running yet another system scan, here is my update.
Our house is rather cold and I've had a couple near sleepless nights worrying about the guinea pigs. Not the pipes, or the ever present ice dam. But the guinea pigs. After we lost Gordon, I kind of blamed myself that perhaps the room was too cold for him and that's what did him in. Guinea pigs are sensitive little critters, and they don't like it cold. The actually are kind of okay with cold, I guess it is DRAFTS that do them harm. So I've been covering the cage with a fleece blanket at night and stoking up the woodstove, and cranking the room heat, even though by morning those things have little impact on the temperature of the room. I think it was in the low 50s this morning when I came down to the living room. Cold assed joint that room is.
So tonight, I cleaned the cage, I reorganized the upstairs loft, and relocated the pigs to up here by the computer. I figured they'd be lonely up here, but now that I think of it, someone is ALWAYS on this computer... so they'll have company. They're running around like mental cases right now. I actually am a little worried that they don't get along, because I think they're fighting. Helena's right ear looks like it is being chewed... I'm keeping an eye on them, and I do hope I don't have to get a second cage and break up that party.
They make the cutest noises, and it is nice and warm up here, so I hope they'll be happy. In the summer, we'll move them back where they were because it gets brutally hot up here, and I don't want baked piglets in August.
Saturday we had Geoff's birthday party.
I got up exceptionally early (um, 8?) and began cleaning. I had just cleaned like mad the week prior, but of course with a family of four here no one ever cleans so I found myself again scrubbing kitchens and toilets and sweeping. Geoff was very helpful, I must say. When it comes time to prep for parties, he steps up. I wish he was this helpful all the time.
Three boys and Six Hyde children arrived around 1pm, along with some adults who chilled and chatted. We did pizza and Guitar Hero and you may have a hard time believing this but I think even Jessica was having a good time. Geoff's choices of friends worked out well, the boys all got along well, and a good time was had. Sharing went down with the instruments, and a lot of laughter came from the pink room.
I had promised a trip over to the laser tag joint the next town over, and it seemed like they were having a good enough time here that we could have passed on it and stayed home and rocked out. But we packed up the Six Hyde children and three boys and a couple of adults and trekked over. The boys got to play one round of laser tag and the little wee Hydes got to go to the jumpa jumpa area and boy did they ever jumpa jumpa. They got their money worth for sure.
After the one round of laser tag, two of the boys had to be home at a certain time so we came back to the house. We did cake, and more guitar hero, and Jess' friend Courtney was here for a while. All told I don't think there have ever been so many people in our house.
The Hydes stayed late and there was a lot of Hyde Rock and Roll Family Guitar Hero. Eventually, around 9pm Geoff just left and went to bed and his guests continued to rock out. It was kind of funny.
We overslept church the following morning. We were that tired. It was a good party. Geoff said it was the best ever. I think I'm still recovering. And I'm completely freaked out that I have a 12 year old boy.
The work weeks post-holiday drip past slowly. After a couple of weeks of 3 or 2 work days due to the holidays and some vacation time, I find a five day work week simply intolerable. I say they should be banned. I did get to take Amy out to the Lobster Shanty for her birthday last week though. We whispered to lobsters and discussed the finer points of a great Nacho plate. After my system scan I have plenty of pictures to post in the flickr for your viewing enjoyment.
Most evenings over the past week I spent hours building a new webpage for our Boy Scout Troop. The committee has to approve it, and I hope they do because it is rather pretty and I do enjoy the look of it. I have a couple pages to finish, and it will be nice when it is done. I want to encourage the boys who are doing certain projects to submit stuff to the website. And maybe get an Eagle section to commemorate each Eagle as they finish. We have one coming up in April, and probably two more before the end of the year. Fun stuff.
Tonight, I had the distinct pleasure of having dinner with Terroni, who is visiting Boston on a job search in her chosen medical field. She has interviewed here, NYC and Baltimore. Long ways from her home state, and it would be kinda cool if she would come to Bahstin. The adventures of a single doctor type chick would be excellent for Universal Hub, and she could experience real, honest to goodness French Toast Alert System updates.
I picked her up at the train station, a little later than I planned because I got trapped trying to get out of my parking garage. I didn't know the Registry of Deeds has an Alice Cooperesque "Schools Out For Summer" end-of-day building evacuation. It was kind of ridiculous. Remind me to never leave the office again at 4:30.
Luckily for us, it is lighter later, and I was able to find her, and drive her around a wee bit before the darkness fell. It was too cold really to get out and go look at the House of the Seven Gables or the Friendship... so we cruised through Pickering Wharf and enjoyed the end of day feel of Salem.
I pondered where to go for dinner, and remembered that tonight was closing for the season night at the Lobster Shanty, and last week when I was there with Amy I'd told Ms. Wolf that I would come by for a drink. You know me, a woman of my word. We went to the Shanty.
When we got there, very few people were at the bar. They were setting up a buffet of comfort foods, and I noticed that the lobsters Amy and I had whispered to very recently were all gone. Gasp! So sad.
We had a couple of beers and I was contemplating us going over to one of the very nice restaurants round the way for a nice sit down meal, but the bar started filling, and the fun level started rising. We grabbed buffet food and they brought out home made bar-pie sized pizzas and started passing them around.
Ms. Wolf came by and told me that they had made, get this, a lobster infused vodka this week... and were making "Lobster-tinis." It sounded crazy enough, and before I knew it my mouth was forming the words "I'll try one."
I felt all gastronomically adventurous, like Andrew Zimmern or Anthony Bourdain, without the beating cobra heart or moose penis entrees.
Garnished with a cute little lobster claw, the Lobster-tini didn't suck. That's a ringing endorsement if ever there was one, right?
Well, considering I'm not a fan of martinis or lobster, I was pleasantly surprised by the drink. It wasn't fishy, which I totally expected it would be, and the lobster garnish had been soaked in the vodka and was just delicious. I loved that part.
Thumbs up on the Lobster-tini, yo. And thumbs up to being brave and trying something totally wacky. And thumbs up to Terroni for meeting a somewhat strange stranger blogger chick that she only knew from words on a screen. It was a crazy fun night.
Anyway. The system scan is now going on 2 hours. I am never going to conquer this Malware evilness, am I? Feh. I'm ready for bed, so I'l let it do it's thing and hope for a good result.
More later. Gotta go make sure Geoff has enough blankets and is warm enough. And no one let the dogs out tonight so I'll go do that too. Jeeesh.
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