I……ain’t got nobody. Oops. That just came out. I meant to say that I don’t have anything to say today. Which is not really worth saying. But I said it anyway. As you can see. If I tightened that up a little, I could turn that into a tongue-twister.
About a month ago, John noticed that the corners of one of the columns on the front porch was rotting. The wood was all spongy. Things were busy, so we didn’t get around to doing anything about it, but today was finally the day for John to take a closer look. I went for a run this morning, and as I came back up the hill to the house, I could see the ladder leaning up against the porch, part of the drain pipe in the yard, and a giant gaping HOLE in the column at the corner.
Not what I expected to come home to. He was able to just peel away parts of the column BY HAND – it was that bad. So anyway, it seems we have carpenter ants (and that may or may not also mean termites, since according to the great and powerful internet, carpenter ants eat termites), and the pest guy is coming out on Tuesday. Cross your fingers that the house doesn’t fall apart around our heads.
Panera is toying with my emotions, guys. A few months ago, they had a salad I loved. The spinach power salad was awesome, and I got it every time I was near a location that offered it. When they took it away, I was pretty disappointed. So imagine my elation yesterday when I got an email from Panera with the subject “Celebrate the summer with a spinach salad.” They brought it back! Hooray! John and I had just discussed picking up dinner from Panera for tonight (because going to the store is beyond us after a long work week), and now I could get my favorite salad. The world is a wonderful place.
Today, though, I got a second email from Panera. Subject: We’re sorry – we made a mistake.
We were so excited to send your monthly MyPanera® email yesterday that we failed to notice that the Spinach Salad we featured is no longer available. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience you may have experienced. We’d like to suggest that you try the Strawberry Poppyseed & Chicken Salad instead.
We hope you’re enjoying your summer — and thanks for understanding.
— your friends at MyPanera®
I was (I am) disappointed. At least they sent a nice email. But hey – it reminds me that I’m capable of making a similar salad myself. We’ve been doing that with that salad I love from the Cheesecake Factory (French Country Salad) these past weeks, too.
French Country Salad
Spinach Power Salad
So good, so good for you. And it doesn’t count as cooking, so I can still say I don’t like to cook.
I like to make plans. No, that can be stressful. I like to have plans. I like to know someone is coming to visit or that we’re going to visit someone or go on a trip. I like the lists and the anticipation. I don’t always like having to do all the things on my lists, but having someone come over is often the push I need to get something done. Like…oh, I don’t know…scrubbing clean the rocking chairs and swing on the front porch. They are really really dirty, and I would like to be able to use them without covering them with a towel first.
We’re thinking about redoing our guest room. It kinda sucks as a guest room for more than one person, as many of you know. We keep two twin beds in there, one trundled under the other most of the time. When we pull the second bed out, the open floor space completely disappears. Sure, you can put your suitcase on the floor at the foot of the bed, but you’ll have to leap from the doorway onto the bed to go to sleep. One twin bed leaves a lot more space, but it’s not very often that we only have one guest at a time. We’ve talked about replacing the twins with a double bed, but I just did some measuring, and I’m not sure that’s going to work. If we put it one way, it blocks the closet, another way and it’ll block the door – there are two possibilities left, and I need to really see it before I’ll know if it will work. I have that problem with spatial…things. I need to see it all laid out in front of me. My imagination doesn’t really work with furniture.
People are dumb. Also mean. Not everyone (obviously, you are an exception), but most of us. Can I be a hermit? Would anyone mind (or really notice) if I just stopped dealing with people? I don’t mean that I would stop talking to everyone (I would certainly keep talking to you), but it would be nice to have an access list. I will only talk to people on my access list. And I reserve the right to add to and subtract from my access list at any time.
I just killed a mosquito that was flying near my head. In my house. Which means it probably already got me because that’s how it always works with mosquitoes. Can I get hermit insurance that covers escape from mosquitoes, too? That would be helpful. And spiders and scary bugs (like centipedes and millipedes). And snakes.
If I decide to become a hermit, I’ll keep going to yoga. Even if my yoga instructor does try to kill me with sun salutations for 35 minutes straight because that’s just what you do at the summer solstice. Who knew?
I got hacked again this weekend. Not the website this time, but my email. I apologize to anyone who was spammed by me early Sunday morning (which appears to be everyone I’ve ever emailed from that account, and I’ve had that account for…15 years (ish), so that’s a lot of people). As soon as I noticed it, I changed my password for every account that uses that password.
Other than that, things are going well (which I feel oddly compelled to tell you as if we just ran into each other after a long break). My vacation-bred serenity with regard to all things work-related is officially gone, but that only covers a third of my day.
Dude. I went to a new (to me) salon to get a haircut (freshened the layers, kept the length – hey, this is important stuff) the other weekend. I was very happy with the haircut, but not 100% sure about the guy who cut it. He was very good, but kind of standoffish and very disapproving about how long it had been since my last haircut and how very much I don’t like to have to do anything to my hair every day. And he didn’t talk to me. So it was a little awkward. Anyway, you know how I don’t answer any calls unless I know who’s calling? (Nod. I’ve said this before.) Well, I broke my rule. A local number I didn’t recognize just came up on my cell phone (like in between the two paragraphs up there – totally interrupted whatever boring train of thought I had going on), and I answered it. The salon I went to is one of 15 in a local chain. The woman who called me was the owner of the chain. She said she always calls new clients. She was super nice, and when she asked me to rate my hair-stylist and I only gave him an 8.5 (based on the vibe), she suggested two other stylists at the same location who might be better for me because “first impressions are important and you should be happy with who does your hair.” She just found herself a loyal client.
My toe is infected. Left big toe. It doesn’t hurt (it hurt a ton on Tuesday, less on Wednesday, and not all now), but the toenail is lifted away from the toe a little, and apparently it’s gross underneath. (According to John. I don’t bend that way, so I can’t see.) The doctor says I’m going to lose the nail, which is also gross, but at least it’s delayed grossness. Right now, from my point of view and most of the rest of the world’s, my toenail is still attached, looks normal, and is a pretty cotton-candy pink. How did it happen? No idea. I wish I knew so I could avoid whatever caused it. The doctor asked me if I run, I said yes, and she shrugged and said it happens. Not helpful. Also ew.
I’m totally worn out from today. I spent the work day getting more and more frustrated, and then I went to the gym for two hours (class night) and didn’t think about work for even a second (which was wonderful). But the gym drained all of that frustrated energy out of me (and more), so now I’m all limp and noodly. Relaxed, but in an I-can’t-lift-my-arm-above-my-head kind of way.
I heard the prettiest version of Over The Rainbow during yoga today. I don’t know a lot about Eva Cassidy (she was local to the area and she’s dead – that’s the extent of my knowledge), but I have really really liked everything I’ve heard her do.
From Text From Dog.
I went to see my doctor last week to have some blood drawn. No big deal, really quick visit. I was in the examination room for all of five minutes, but in that five minutes, I got really annoyed with my doctor. She didn’t even really do anything – it was just the way she said something. She asked me a question, and I said well, not really, but maybe a tiny bit this, and she jumped at that and said no, that’s wrong, which I heard as what? Are you crazy? Only crazy people would think that. Stop it. So I shut down and yessed her until it was time for me to leave (which was only 30 seconds later). I probably overreacted. In fact, I’m sure I did, but I still think she was wrong and I was right-ish, and now I’m considering finding another doctor. I’ve only been seeing this one for six years… I’ve never felt strongly about her (it was her nurse practitioner I really liked, but she left for bigger and better things years ago), so I don’t really consider this any great loss. It’s just a pain to find someone else. Because I’m lazy. But you already knew that.
Seriously, I thought I was never going to get to leave work today. It got a little better when John sent me this:
I laughed (a lot), and then it was time to go home. Then we went out for sushi and lived happily ever after.
The End
Raise your hand if you want to watch an adorable kitten get his ass handed to him by an equally adorable bunny. That’s right. Everyone in the whole wide world just raised their hands. Even though most of them don’t read me. They just knew it was the right – no, the ONLY – thing to do.
Who knew that in a battle of bunny vs. kitten, the kitten would lose? (From The Daily What, of course.)
In other adorable news, the Shiba Inu Puppy Cam is back. Glad to be of service.
Here’s a little bit of randomness to end your day.
First, a video of Riley running across the yard. I’ve been paying a lot of attention to Roxy lately (she hurt her leg while staying at the kennel two weeks ago, and we’re babying her), and I think he’s feeling neglected.
Check this out! The shin-kicking in this video happened in Chipping Campden, the village we stayed in. (Source and article.)
Last, can someone please explain this fortune to me?
Love is the first feeling people feel, because love is nice.
Was it written by a four-year-old?
We still have a land line at home. I’m not sure why, really. We use it to make some calls (the vet, the pharmacy), and our parents use it to reach us sometimes, but they use our cell phones at least as often as the land line. We mostly ignore it because despite registering for every Do Not Call list out there, we get tons of telemarketers, political robocalls, and other spam. We talked about getting rid of it not too long ago, but I think our main reason for keeping it is because it’s our primary contact number for every bill, every account, every everything, and it would be a pain to update those. Not the greatest reason to keep paying for it. It’s Vonage, so it’s cheap, but still.
As long as we still have it, though, I get some entertainment out of its visual voicemail feature. All voicemail goes to my Yahoo account (another dinosaur, but I have better reasons for keeping it), but Vonage doesn’t always do a good job of transcribing what was actually said. Sometimes the program gives up altogether, but usually it tries. Just about half an hour ago, I got this visual voicemail:
“Hi Ms. Bird, this is Sharon calling from pointless mom. Just calling to let you know that your contacts are ready for pick up. Thank you”
That’s Vonage’s punctuation, not mine, and this is better than most since at least the second half makes sense. It’s also only the second half that told me it was my eye doctor’s office calling. I might suggest they change the name of their practice to Pointless Mom when I swing by tomorrow. Much funnier. I don’t know where that came from, though. It doesn’t even rhyme with the actual name. Speaking of names, no names had to be changed to protect the innocent – Bird is not my last name, and Sharon is not the name of the woman who called. (I listened to the actual voicemail, too.)
None of this is convincing me to keep a land line for the house, but it has convinced me that I don’t have to worry about evil robotic overlords just yet. Or maybe they just want me to think that…
I got a new phone! Yippee for me! The very nice guy at the Sprint store fixed the button before we left for our trip, and it worked great, all the way up to the morning we left to come home. The button quit on me, and I gave up on my phone. I did some research, and not too long after that, I showed up at my neighborhood Sprint store and bought the Samsung Epic 4G Touch. We’re very happy together.
I am way far behind on my internetting, so I’m off to visit my blog-buddies for the evening.
What to read? I think I need help. I started a book of short stories by Harlan Ellison before we left for England. I left it behind because it’s hardcover, and I didn’t want to travel with it. The stories are all somewhat depressing, so I’m not in a hurry to get back to it. I started Little, Big on the plane ride over, but it’s hard to get into and I’m thinking about giving up. Has anyone read it? Should I keep going? I finished Coming Home (this was my second time through) late last night. I love that book. The book club I may or may not be a member of read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks this past month. I missed the meeting because of our trip. I have it, but I don’t think I’m anywhere near in the mood for something like that. That would mean branching out, and I just don’t feel like doing that today. Maybe it’s the stormy weather, but I want comfort reading. Wait – I think I have the solution. I haven’t read the most recent Dresden Files book, and from there I may move on to Jim Butcher’s fantasy series. Hooray for decisions! You guys are so helpful. 🙂
We had a request for more dog videos, so here’s one of the dogs in the rain.
Hey, I didn’t promise it would be interesting. They don’t do much that’s interesting…
One week ago tonight (plus 5 hours), John and I were in the Royal Shakespeare Theater in Stratford-upon-Avon watching a Shakespeare play performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. (That should probably be Royal Shakespeare Theatre…) It was a last-minute decision. Mom and Dad spent the day in the cottage and around the village. John and I took the car to see the ruins of Hailes Abbey (beautiful), and when we realized it was a little too late (nearing 5pm) to see anything else, we decided to head to Stratford-upon-Avon. We knew we’d get there too late to get into any of the touristy stuff, but we could still go see stuff. And have tea. I love having afternoon tea. We got there right at 5pm (when the attractions were closing), so aside from a quick glance into a gift shop, we only got to see the outside of the birthplace of Shakespeare and that stuff. We had our tea (a light cream tea – we planned to find dinner somewhere before we headed back to Chipping Campden and Mom and Dad), and we took a walk down Henley Street (with all its closed shops) and eventually found the Avon. We dawdled there for a while and then noticed the Royal Shakespeare Theatre as we walked by. The doors were open, we saw books on shelves, and all of a sudden we found ourselves in the gift shop. Amazing how that works. We browsed for 20 minutes or so and were on our way out when I suggested we check the box office. What’s on tonight? Who cares? If there are seats available and they’re somewhat reasonably priced, we should stay, right? Of course right. So we asked. Hey, it’s King John. How much are the tickets? Only £16 each? Hey, it starts at 7:30. What time is it now? Oh, 7:06? And we have to move the car? We can get the car moved in time if we run. So we ran. Well, we walked really fast. Turns out we didn’t have to move the car (just put more money in), so we rushed back, bought our tickets, and sat down just in time for the play to start.
It was really good. Really good. And interestingly staged, if that’s the word. Shakespearean language, contemporary costumes and setting. And music. The wedding scene made my whole week. (“I Say A Little Prayer For You” segued into “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” with the choreography from the end of Dirty Dancing. SO. MUCH. FUN.)
One of many pictures of Hailes Abbey. Also, proof of the beautiful weather we had most of the week.
Hamlet says hello. Or, you know, "Alas, poor Yorick."
I didn't have the foresight to get a picture of the whole building...
...but I did get a shot of the books that lured us in.
We’re home, and it was wonderful, and can I please please please go back? The last couple of days at home were so peaceful and restful. I avoided my work email and managed to wake up this morning still feeling somewhat serene and would you believe it? A day at work with lots of catching up to do and one crisis (that I couldn’t get resolved today) did NOT get to me. I still feel pretty good and not at all stressed. Except for the headache. It’ll go away.
Bicycles in Oxford - Everywhere I turned, there were people riding bikes. Some with robes flapping behind them, some in skirts, some in casual clothes. Then there was the one guy riding down the street on a unicycle, but I didn't get my camera out in time to catch him.
Here’s a video I took today of Roxy eating peanut butter. Because you’re worth it, and gosh darn it, I like you.
This is going to be one of those cop-out posts. We went to Oxford today (and had a wonderful time), but we didn’t get back until 9, we just finished dinner, it’s 11pm, and we’re getting up (relatively) early tomorrow to go to Evesham. So Oxford (and pictures) will have to wait. Maybe I’ll have some time tomorrow.
I’m not going to turn this into a full travel write-up (she says in the first sentence of what will probably turn into a travelogue), but I’ll hit the highlights:
Second day in London – totally awesome. We had breakfast near the hotel and then walked all of 50 steps over to St. Paul’s Cathedral. So very impressive. (Sadly, there was no bird lady and there were only a few birds. I didn’t do any singing there.) We decided not to go in and do the whole cathedral, though. £15 apiece seemed a little steep, and we knew we’d be seeing plenty of churches and cathedrals during the week. From there, we walked across the Millenium Bridge (where I did do some singing – we saw a guy selling the world’s smallest kites, so I sang “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”) and over to the Globe Theatre. Signed up for a tour, watched a Brazilian troupe rehearsing for a matinee of Romeo and Juliet (in Portuguese, and the play had been interpreted for Brazilian culture – lots of singing, some dancing, and a station wagon as part of the set. It was crazy.).
From there, we crossed back over the Thames on the Tower Bridge, walked around the Tower of London (we visited during our honeymoon eleven and a half years ago – no time on Saturday), got some ice cream, and headed back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and head back to Heathrow to meet Mom and Dad. We got there right on time and drove to Chipping Campden to settle in to our cottage for the rest of the week.
The cottage is adorable. Two rooms on the main floor (sitting room with a fireplace, kitchen in the back), one bedroom and bathroom on the first floor, and another bedroom and bathroom on the second floor (where John and I are staying). Very cozy. So cozy, in fact, that we can hear every word spoken in the house from anywhere in the house. We didn’t realize that until around midnight Saturday night, when John and I found we were listening to Mom talk to Corey on the phone. We found out the next morning that she’d been on the ground floor, not the first floor, the whole time. So we’ve instituted a whisper rule for bedtime (barring phone calls home, of course, because whispering on the phone is kind of stupid). Actually, we have yet to try out this whisper rule, since this is only our second night and we haven’t gone to bed yet. I’ve instituted it – it remains to be seen if anyone else has. Best part about the cottage? The internet. It’s reliable. Unbelievable.
This morning (Sunday for those keeping track) – no, it wasn’t morning. We had a hard time getting moving today. In the early afternoon, we went to Hidcote, which has a wonderfully long rambling garden. It was chilly, so we came back to the cottage for lunch/afternoon tea, and then we went out to check out the church. St. James’ Church is a real medieval church, and, since we have perfect timing, we stayed for the Evensong service this evening. That was a) my first Church of England service, and b) a real church service in a medieval church. The priest was charming and old (and spoke with a pronounced lisp), and the 10 other members of the congregation (we all sat in the choir – the church itself was empty) were all friendly. The priest was thrilled to see new faces. There was more singing than I expected during the service – I didn’t think the Anglicans did that much singing.
Tomorrow, John and I are planning a trip to Oxford. It’s late (last night it was midnight (close to 1? I don’t remember) before we went to bed, and it’s already after eleven now), and we’re getting up early.
One of the many different views at Hidcote
