greg3d

It was a slow day at the lab till the thieves showed up

Firstly, I'm heading down to Tampa for Thanksgiving. First time I will have done Thanksgiving down there since 1985. It's about time. I'm taking Mortimer with me. He hasn't had a vacation in a while either. I have lots I want to do, just hope I have time for it all.

I haven't blogged about the mozzarella yet. Last Saturday I made up my mind to hang around the house and putter. I used to do cooking projects all the time a long time ago. I used to make sausage, I used to brew beer. I even made mead once. I kind of stopped doing it when we moved out here because for a long time I didn't have a decent kitchen and I got out of the habit. Besides, there was too much to do here outdoors. So Saturday I pulled out a book on cheesemaking I acquired a while ago, having had it in mind mind to do this quite some time and embarked on making my own mozzarella. It was not a rousing success, but it was fun. The recipe I chose took me all day and made a firm ball of cheese. The problem was that the recipe called for the ball to be soaked in brine and that made it too salty. Maybe some people like it that way. Maybe that's traditional. Aside from that it tasted like mozzarella. I might be able to use it on pizza if I cut down on the salt everywhere else. It is certainly worth trying again. Now you can buy fresh made mozzarella at the fancier groceries around here, so it only all about the fun of doing it.

So. It was a very slow, very dull day for me, and if Hebert reads this I'll catch hell, because he and Michelle were screaming busy. Anyway about 4 o'clock I'm crossing over to the trailer when Debbie, one of the operators jumps in an electric cart and starts to tear off. She sees me, slams on the brakes and yells to me to get in the cart, that she needs my help. Not having much else to do at the time I said yes and got in. After we were moving was when she told me there were thieves stealing scrap metal on the other side of the plant and that we were going to stop them. She said she felt better if the had a man along. I resisted the temptation to suggest we go look for one. So we go tearing across the plant, brazenly ignoring the 10 mile an hour speed limit, since it was an emergency. I expect the cart was doing about 15 mph, but that's neither here nor there. Sure enough there was a white van and three people tossing metal pipes and other scrap into it. Debbie pulls up in back of them and starts giving them hell. The police had been called and she was trying to keep them busy till they got there. They plead ignorance that they were doing anything wrong and started throwing the scrap back, then they jumped in the van and took off. The operators at the control center tried shutting the gates, but they managed to get away. Apparently these people have been seen stealing a number of times. We got their license plate number, so maybe the police can track them down.i think we would have been better off waiting. The police would probably have been there before they got the van loaded up. It didn't look like too dangerous a situation, but I suppose you never know. Well, that was my excitement for the week.

lovely party

I thoroughly enjoyed myself at Matt's party. The food was good, my bread pudding was a hit and I met some new people. I also got to visit with some spouses of co-workers I don't see very often. I had lots of people to talk to. Got to see my co-workers out of the work environment and just reaffirmed that I like to have them as friends too.

festive

Off to a Christmas party this evening, given by Matt, one of my co-workers. Should be fun. As my contribution to the potluck, I made one of my specialties: Spanish bread pudding.

I spent the day decorating the front window while listening to holiday music. Don't know if we will ever get around to getting a tree, so at least something is decorated.

I also drained and refilled the hot tub. The last time I turned it on I got suds. In the process of baking the pudding, decorating the front window and trying to socialize bunnies, I managed to forget about the hot tub while refilling. Deck's quite wet. Had to drain it back down to a manageable level. It's supposed to freeze tonight. That wet deck is going to be treacherous and I know the one who will take a flying skid on the ice will be me.

long day

I'm brain dead, but I try to write a bit.

I went to the annual AOAC regional meeting today. I'll be there part of tomorrow too. It's a gathering of the state's analytical community and a chance to get together with some of my former co-workers. Peggy was there, and Roy and Karin; three people I was close to at Manchester. I brought Karin by the house to see the back yard and to try out my car, since she's in the market for a new one. Peggy will come by tomorrow. The workshops in the afternoon were interesting, and I picked up some useful bits of information concerning tests we are developing. Karin was the only one from the Ecology side of Manchester to be there, and there weren't many from EPA either. In fact attendance this year was pretty small. There will be a new chair next year and maybe that will help. I hope the focus will change some. The Microbiology section has dominated and Environmental work has really gone down. Listing to three talks on foodborne pathogens right before getting fed in a school cafeteria did not do much for my appetite.

The evening banquet was pleasant and a chance to catch up a bit with Peggy. She and I need to have a long talk tomorrow. She is another who helps me put things in perspective.

I'm pooped. Another long day tomorrow.

cooking pot roast on a hot day

Let me start with something important. Demon Child was a good pseudonym, but the name she fessed up to is better. Therefore, Demon Child will now be referred to as Zany Blue. Take that ZB!

Yes I am cooking pot roast on a hot day. (Hot being 74 deg F, but this is the PNW.) Zany Blue's comment when she saw what I was up to was "You're insane." Yeah,well. I makes sense to me. An introductory issue of Cooks Magazine was delivered here by mistake. There was a great recipe for pot roast in it, and when I get a recipe idea into my head, it has to happen no matter what. It's so happens I am off work today and have time for it.

Not that it's been a teribly relaxing day.

I was blasted out of bed by Mortimer at 8AM in his usual subtle manner, ending up with me covered in hot sauce. Having accomplished that he took off. I packed Jimmy into the crate and drove him up to Seattle for his check up. Now the routine had been Arthur would drop him off about 10 and then mess around Seattle till about 2PM. Now I have plenty things I can thing of to do in Seattle, so I timed it to drop him off in time to get to Seattle Center to see a 3D IMAX film and then do some shopping. So what happens? They aren't busy, they take him right in declare him good to go in 10 minutes and there is nothing for me to do but take him home again. It was too warm to leave the poor rabbit sitting in the car, so I bagged my plans and headed home.

On the way, I get a distress call from Mortimer. I'm not going into all of what happened. Suffice it to say he called Zany Blue over then left her to her own devices. Having nothing better to do, she and I got in the car and headed out to one of the large nurseries, where she was considering applying for a job. She got an application and I got a boxful of plants. (Bad, bad me) We ended up near the lab, so we dropped in to visit and were sent out by Stephanie for an emergency coffee (Iced Americano, trple shot, with cream) We had lunch, stopped at the grocery store, and that led me to the pot roast.

And it's only 4:00.

I hear activity, so maybe Mortimer is back from hibernation. The roast is cooking and I'm going outside to plant my latest acquisitions.

some catch up

The last time I posted we were planning a trip to Portland and a holiday party. Both happened, but not the way we expected.

Portland was a bust. Not completely; I got to go to the 3D Center and Powell's, but we didn't make it to the opera. It was held in a small theater and we got the time wrong. I would have liked to have gone to see King Kong, but Arthur wasn't having it.

We came home Sunday in time for a holiday party at Mortimer's house. We had about 8 kids and four adults, so it was pleasant and low key. At about 9:30 we started to wind down and thats's when the snow started. Mortimer had driven 2 local kids home, but spun out on the way back. No damage, no injury, just a scare. THe three kids that came down from the Seattle/ King County area were not comfortable driving hoome in those conditions, so we turned it into a slumber party. I was the only adult left, so I was there for the duration. It being that everyone knows I snore, I got relegated to the couch in the living room where no one could hear me. The problem with that was it got COLD, so I had to go on a blanket search at 2:30 AM. Which was OK, because I could hear all the kids in the bedrooms still talking. The end result of this was me not hearing the alarm in my phone and sleeping in till 9:00, which made me AWOL from work. Fortunately, the boss is on vacation, so I didn't get in any trouble. I had to drive Mr. Witherspoon up to Seattle anyway, so I just took the day off.

Tonight I finish my Holiday shopping, I hope.

just stuff

Amazing what some decent sleep will do for you. I’m feeling fairly perky today.

Last night was a low key pizza and a movie night. Took a long nap while the dough was rising, made the pizza and settled down to watch Van Helsing. It was a bit over the top, but fun mind candy. Lots of effects and silly jokes and enough references to old movies to keep me laughing.

I’m not satisfied just pushing buttons on an instrument. I want to know how it works. I want to know what each setting does and what effect changes make on the result. Putting samples in one end and getting numbers out the other is not analysis. A good analyst understands his instrument and knows how to get the best performance out of it. Learning the characteristics of a new instrument takes time and sometimes the powers that be don’t have patience with the process, though it really pays off in the long run.

Ok, so maybe it wasn’t the best idea in the world. When you work at a sewage treatment plant, make sure you know which way the wind is blowing when you take your lunch outdoors to eat.

There is an article in today’s Tribnet about the Urban Waters marine research facility, which is where our laboratory will be located in just a few years.

a country dinner

For several years now, I've had a standing invitation to visit Peggy at her property in Everson. Yesterday, Mortimer and I drove up there to spend the day. Peggy and her husband have built a lovely house on five acres, where they spend their weekends gardening. They are basically in the process of replanting the five acres with choice trees and shrubs.

Spending time with Peggy is always a pleasure. She and Joe showed us around the property; I finally got to see all the plantings we've been talking about the last few years. Mortimer was on his best behavior and hit it off with both of them.

Peggy's home is a custom designed timberframe house. It fits organically into the property and looks like it belongs there. I think it's perfectly placed. The interior is warm and inviting and homey.

The highlight of the day was dinner. We took out one of Peggy's many cookbooks, found a simple but tasty sounding recipe and went to work. Joe went to get the ingredients while Mortimer and Peggy and I visited. I've mentioned before that Mortimer loves to cook and he and I make a great kitchen team. Peggy's kitchen is large so there was room enough for the three of us to work together. We made chicken breasts in a white wine sauce with cabbage hazel nut bleu cheese salad.

I have to say that Peggy is one of those friends that even if you haven't seen each other in a long time, you pick up right where you left off. I miss seeing her every day. Thank goodness for email and telephones. Some people you jsut don't want to lose touch with.

sometimes you find you just don't belong anymore

An old friend invited me to a party yesterday. He and I go back 30 years to the days when I first started busting out of my introverted bookish nice boy image. We have kept in touch and I usually drop in to see him when I'm in town.

It started off fairly well. They were staying in Tampa for the gathering so I met him and his partner at their motel early to catch up on things. The drinks were already going when I got there, so how the evening was going to go was fairly evident. Another old friend from the old days was there, who used to go by the nickname Fish. I don't recall how the nickname came about, but it stuck. She's now a widow, having married someone older then herself. She used to be extremely heavy and it was nice to see she had lost a considerable amount of weight and now was looking quite good. She was much more mature and subdued and we had a really good time catching up on our lives.

My friend was already starting to slur a bit when we left for the restaurant. There were nine of us including my friends two kids who I hadn't seen since they were infants. They've grown up into two very attractive and pleasant people. The son, I noticed, takes after his mother and didn't smoke or drink. We went to the Bonefish Grill which had excellent food and a pleasant staff and an atmosphere amenable to conversation. I was seated across from a young lady who just recently became a police officer. The topic of discussion turned to domestic violence which gave me the opportunity to bring up Al-Anon and do some outreach to a professional.

From here on I was out of my element. We moved on across the street to a bar where I nursed a glass of ginger ale amid clouds of cigarette smoke and the pounding of music videos and watched everyone get progressively drunker. When my friend could hardly stand up anymore and Fish got shrill, I decided to take my leave and go somewhere I could breathe.

I've been in Al-Anon too long to deal with drunks anymore. I do not understand the attraction of a bar as a place of social gathering. I don't drink, I don't cruise, I don't smoke, and I like to have a real conversation. I can visit my friend at his home, where we can converse to a point, but the liquor is always flowing and there comes a time where things just stop making any sense. It's interesting; I'm back at a place I was 30 years ago. It's scary the things I had to go through to get back there.

Today I did things that felt right. I slept late for one thing. I watched a movie with my parents, one of those pleasant '60's romantic comedies that are just charming and fun. I went for a walk with my mother (without the dog, so we could actually set a bit of a pace), I took a long nap and went out for a nice dinner at Cracker Barrel. This is good stuff.

There was good stuff before the party. I did my workout at the local Y and went to an excellent Al-Anon meeting. You would think that would make me run the other way immediately when I first saw the liquor bottles in the motel room, but I guess I'm not ready to graduate from the program yet.

Arthur is rather down back at home. He does not do well by himself, and was rather grouchy on the phone. I wish he would figure out how to have fun when I'm not around, which has been rather frequent of late. But, that's not my problem.

I'll wind down with a bit more of my latest book, "Just a Geek", by Wil Wheaton. I discovered his website www.wilwheaton.net a while ago and find it very entertaining. He has become quite a good writer. His book are derived out of his weblog, with more depth and background, but his blogs are very immediate and honest. I highly recommend it.

Enough for tonight. One more full day. Not quite ready to go home, but I miss my Alateens.

you don't need to leave your house to have fun

I never left the house today. (Taking out the garbage doesn't count.)

My goal was to watch at least three movies, but that didn't happen. I did make it through the second half of LOTR Two Towers Extended version, which was terrific. There is so much detail that was left out of the theatrical versions. It's like a new movie.

I got a chance to talk to my sister, which was a treat. She was over at my parents house when I called, so we had a chance to chat for a bit. We both keep pretty busy, so catching up with each other isn't always easy. Usually we communicate by email. She told me she might bring her family out to San Francisco next year, which would be an easy place for me to meet them. I also know it pretty well, so I can act as tour guide for a weekend.

For a change, I did some fancy cookin' for dinner. I used to do this fairly often, but I wasn't all that occupied with volunteer work then. But since I set that all aside for the weekend, we got some shrimp and I made prawn etoufee, from a recipe by the late Earl Peyroux. I must say it turned out well. I found a recipe online, that is close enough to Earl's as not to matter.

I'm not getting to my camera club meeting these days, but I do still get the newsletter. If anyone is interested in stereophotography the newsletter is here.

It was a nice change for Arthur and I to hang out together. He's usually game, but I'm terrible about over booking myself. Causes tension sometimes. I'll be busy this week, but Friday we fly to SF for the weekend to catch some opera.

Anyway, I guess I'll kill the rest of the night with some LOTR DVD extra features.

later all!