Bracing for the storm

It could be the big one, kids! A foot or more of snow!!

Went to the BSBS meeting tonight. There were at least 25 people there. I was surprised. There was some good gossip about that Food Bank Blues Festival, about how it's mismanaged and some guy in Pittsburgh books the acts because he gets a cut. So a wholehearted vote was taken to remove the BSBS from having anything to do with it.

This weekend I ate at Cucina de Betta on Friday. It was really good. Hadn't eaten there in a long time.

Fred and Sherry had a great time on the Blues Cruise and have pre-booked for next year. They advocate all to join them.

Tomorrow night is the John Hiatt/Lyle Lovett show at the Michigan Theater in AA.
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Brief update

Hit the gym Monday and Tuesday: butts and guts and Total Body Toning. Feeling pretty good.

I'm working on a new website for Robin's Nest Bed and Breakfast in Austin. Tom's girlfriend's mom's place. Got two designs going. Working on some copy and how to install a photo gallery flash slideshow with Visual Designer software.

Ginger has contacted me to be in her new all-girl band. I need another hobby. Looking at new guitars on Craigslist as my boy has said my guitar is not so good. Strings too high off the neck. Ginger thinks we can try our stuff out at the senior center. And then move on to regular gigs and benefits!!! Ginger and the Snaps.

Watched some of the State of the Union. Blah blah. Let's go Amerika!

Nothing coming up this week. Or weekend. Which is good. I can concentrate on my hobbies. LOL

Monday is the John Hiatt Lyle Lovett show at the Michigan Theater. Have dinner reservations at Grizzly Peak. Taking the day off for maximum fun.

Mandy is in my gym classes and last night she told me Fred texted her Saturday at 4 p.m. and said This is going to be amazing. I'm sure they are having an extra fun big time.

Going to the BSBS meeting Sunday at Amigo's in Toledo.
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Brrrr

A cold weekend. Today it was 0 when I got tup and now it's 10:30 and it's 2. It was a very sunny 18 this afternoon. I wore the silk long underwear top I was sent for Xmas. It's leopard print. snaggy.

Friday night we played poker where I lost about $12. Saturday AM I did a brief blues breakfast then went out for lunch and then out to look at Chip's drapes with Amy and then cleaned my house and then went to GFT to see Orpheum Bell in concert.They were GREAT!

Today I watched Modern Family and the movie Paris, Texas in bed on the iPad before 11 a.m. Then I worked on the website for Tom's girlfriend's mom's bed and breakfast. The I made the crust for an apple galette and took it to Chip's and baked it. We also had dates with blue cheese and pea soup and seafood pasta and broccoli. And white wine.

Time for bed. Another long week ahead although the weather will improve to 23 in the day and only 15 at nights.

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Electrical mysteries

Today, Chip came over and I lifted out the west window of the garage and climbed in and got the door up. Indeed, there was no electricity to the socket where the main unit is plugged in. Chip found a switch by the door, flipped it, and the lights came on. Further testing revealed that somehow, that switch is a duo one with one in the house but flipping them both didn't do the job. I don't understand it.

Anyway, the car is in the garage ahead of the overnight ice coming in so I hope I can get it out in the morning and don't have to crawl in again.

Chip says he'll put a door in the east wall of the garage where the window is now.

More fascinating details

I made a few more of those chocolate covered cherry cookies but on a couple, I put raspberry jam instead of the maraschino cherry.

In my quest to get rid of my Christmas sweet potatoes, I have 2 in baking and am making corn sweet potato cheese chowder with 2 more. Which still leaves 2. Overpurchased. Also I used the leftover cheese mixture from last week's lasagna to toss into some pasta and leftover tomato sauce for a sort of fake lasagna.

Plus I'm making some cheddar cornmeal biscuits later.

Meijer has a bag of mixed onions! You get some white, some yellow, some red. And they're cheaper than a bag of all one kind! Go figure.
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Heavy asset management setup

Asset management

I decide to get the videos off my main computer, onto a flash drive, to my work computer, onto my iPad. If you've heard me whine, you'll know when I installed a OS update on my iPad at work, it ate the videos off there. Videos that I made with my digital camera or iPod, which are still on my main computer. But there's a software update available to install, so that's what's happening on that computer while I'm blogging from my iPad with my handy new keyboard dock. Another good thing about blogging on here is it has word fix.

I think I just need to bite the bullet and buy a new Mac.

Yesterday i tried to get into the wbgufm.com website to at least fix the schedule page, but alas it's done in Dreamweaver so I'll have to take it to work, Although Mark Zaborney is editing the home page. More investigation is necessary. Plus I had to decline helping with the Bradley Bayou website because they have big plans about adding video flash things and frankly it sounds like more work than I'm interested in.

Plus I thought I would take a whack at Jess's mom's B&B website. Haven't done that yet either. Sigh.

Plus yesterday I saw I have 368 photos on my phone, many of which would look good on the internet. AND moving stuff around on my main computer desktop, I see that I could do quite a few heavily-illustrated-by-photos travel articles. Madison Ribberfest. New Orleans. NY's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mexico.

OK now I'm going to try and sync my iPod. Last time I tried this, the big computer wouldn't recognize my iPod AS an iPod, si it just randomly put music on it so now I have many songs on there twice.

It's only 9 a.m. and I have another day off tomorrow. Let's see what we can get done.

Last week, Amy sent me this link to someone's garden blog, which led me eventually to find out that there are so many garden bloggers,they have an annual convention! This year it's in Seattle.

Here's an unhandy feature on this iPad keyboard: right above the delete key, which I hit numerous times while typing, is a Lock key, that makes the IPad to go dark until you click it again. Sigh. Again.

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Christmas

Well nobody took any pictures. But it was a wild and crazy time. By 1:30 Christmas Eve day, I had no visitors. Then my kids showed up but where was my mom? I called and she answered her phone, which means they hadn't left yet. So we start drinking wine and they get here about 4. Which was when I had to start cooking dinner. I made oven fried chicken and corn casserole and green bean casserole and put out some salads and everybody chowed down. After an afternoon of cheese and crackers and hummous and veg and deviled eggs (like 3 dozen of these over the days) and shrimp cocktail.

Presents were distributed and the kids were off to their dad's. Christmas Day my sister didn't get up til noon and then only when prodded and they left about 1:30, right before I went to do a Christmas radio show.

The next 4 days are a blur. I was sleeping on the couch. We were eating and drinking and playing games and screwing around on the iPad. There were many plans made and revised and visiting. Then they were gone. It was excellent. The holiday, not that they were gone.

But the holidays were not over. We went to a dinner party up on Corey Rd on the 29th that was a delight: bacon wrapped apricots and cheese crisps and squash soup and crab stuffed mushrooms and tuna baked in oil with tapenade and salsa and apple tart and bourbon balls. And lots of wine.

New Year's Eve was a quiet time at Fred and Sherry's. But the next week was GNO at Sherry's where much wine was downed. And great snacks, thanks Sherry.

Ginny Rose's 30the birthday is at Howard's Friday Jan. 14. Then on Saturday, I'm going to Flint to visit the distraught webmaster at WJRT. He says his wife is eager to meet me. I have told this guy for 5 years I would come visit them. So.

Maybe winter will just whiz by.

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I'll never get caught up

Friday, Amy and I were going to go to Toledo in our nonsmoking avoidance way and go out to eat and see some bands, but alas the snow started so we ate a VERY lackluster dinner at SamB's and then drank and smoked, which we were very remorseful about on Saturday.

Saturday I went to the hat store in downtown BG and bought 2 hats and a vest. I"ll have to figure out if I can get some pix on here. Saturday night, Chip and I went to dinner at the Empire restaurant at Spring Meadows. It was WONDERFUL. We had a soup for two and spring rolls and the empire special and the scallops special. The Empire special was broccoli and baby corn and water chestnuts and snow peas and bok choy and scallops and shrimp in a light white wine sauce. And the candied walnuts that came with the other scallops were sinfully delicious. Then we went and looked at furniture at the Sofa Mart. Then we went to the Village Idiot to see the Homewreckers where we were packed in like sardines but fortunately we got a good place to stand. However, the sound system was all screwed up so most of the time Steve Athanas' mike was off and some of the other instruments were inaudible. We left after the first set. It was getting late. We're old.

Today, I made those chocolate covered cherry cookies I posted a pic of on Facebook and then hours later, I went to Meijer for supplies and then made a delicious mushroom stuffing and lasagna. Tomorrow night I have guts and buts at the gym, where I went today to sign up for the spring session. And a radio meeting.

Today I was on the couch with a book a lot.




It was a beautiful weekend, though cold. Sunny quite a bit, blue skies, always feels good.

it's a wrap

My house is a freaking mess. There are two empty cases of wine bottles in the kitchen, Way too much candy hanging around. And I should be at a new year's eve party.

This Christmas was a blast. The kids were home. I got some fine gifts including this iPad keyboard dock so I can blog mo better. And a beautiful silver bracelet from China.

Jing jing-a-ling

As usual, the spirit strikes me with only days left to go. So yesterday I went to Bass Pro and Kohl's. At Kohl's I decided to get all 5 of my Christmas Eve guests the same present. I spent $88 and saved $226! Also had to get myself a holiday necklace. Tried to assemble my old fake tree but alas it somehow would not connect together so I stopped at Lowe's and got a new one for $14!! That's right -- fourteen dollah. Assembled and lights on just a couple hours later.

Did a radio show yesterday that was heavily holiday tuneage. Next weekend, on the day itself, Connie and I are doing six hours of holiday music. Tune in! 88.1 or at www.wbgufm.com.

Last night, we went to hear Richard Barone at GFT. He kept saying how the songs he writes have such hard guitar chords. I could feel Joe Baker, just 2 seats away, rolling his eyes. Plus they weren't hard chords. He was certainly no Will Kimbrough, just let me say.

Friday night, Amy had a holiday party which turned into hard rockin' casino, with 3 separate tables of gaming. She prepared a meat buffet and many other snacks and cookies, all of which were delish. Around 11, her furnace ceased to function. She called Gearharts Sat. AM and they sent a boy who was unsuccessful at fixing it so Amy opted to wait for the big dog Gearhart on Mon. AM. Hope that works out OK. Not a good weekend to be trying to heat your house with space heaters.

Yesterday, I had bought Miss Jenks this Christmas ornament that I wish I had taken a picture of it, it was so bizarre. A rat/chihuahua/Yoda thing, holding a guitar emblazoned with the word Mexico, with a sombrero hanging down its back. Oh wait, I found a picture of it. You can see more views on eBay.



You can see how I would not notice the nose was chipped. Today I take it back to exchange it, but alas none remained so I sent it to her regardless, hopefully sufficiently packed to avoid further breakage. I had to send it, even chipped, as it was truly odd. Sent her some other stuff too. Hope it gets there by Thursday. SO I had bought it at Kohl's where they were having the sale of the season and I had a 30% off coupon so I get myself a couple long sleeved black tops and then decide to get my 5 Christmas Eve guests all another little something.

Wrapped all that stuff this afternoon, after having put all the hanging baubles on my tree earlier in the day. Way earlier, apparently, as I had done that AND gone to Kohl's and back before noon. Then went to Meijer for avocados for the guac for the work potluck tomorrow and ALAS they had a ton of them but all hard as rocks. So I got BOGO fresh salsa there and a gift card for my full-timer at work, then went to Kroger where they amazingly HAD good avocados and fancy chocolate bars were on sale.

Then I stopped into Barney's for the annual holiday scratch-offs. So I think I have all the stocking stuffers.

I was going to do some cooking and baking today but I did not. Don't have a lot to do this week at night so I should be able to fit that in.

Anne has been texting me, at my request, various foodstuffs I could lay in. Had them all covered, even Splenda and Brie.

Amy's holiday casino

Sherry and I smoked all others at euchre. I think her reindeer antennae were our secret weapon.

Holidays are upon us

Hmm, those first two weeks of December went right by.

Trying to move stuff around here to make room for that blow-up bed in the green room. Moved a small green chair to the bedroom to make room for the bookcase out of the green room. Moving that now-emptied CD cabinet thing to the basement. Ack, there's just stuff everywhere.

Snowing like crazy outside. Apparently the wind is supposed to pick up and make stuff a mess, plus be below zero wind chill. Went out and put my car in the garage.

I hosted poker Friday night. It was well attended and Amy lost some cash and Kim and Stubbs won it. I also had GNO on Dec. 1 which was very well attended. Plenty o snax (pic on Facebook). See, that's why I don't blog-- damn Facebook.

Holiday tips: Start making ice cubes now and bag them in the freezer. Also start buying odd ingredients-- maraschino cherries, powdered sugar, various cheeses, crescent rolls in the tube, Haagen-Dasz ice cream (some great flavors: banana split, butter pecan, white truffle raspberry). You never know what you might want to make suddenly.

Have no presents for anybody however. DO have however, tickets to Band of Heathens, Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt, and the Wailers over the next 3 months in Ann Arbor. It's all about meeeee!!!!
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Last weekend of November

I continued on Friday being a slug so I made a fresh start Saturday. Sort of. I put up Christmas lights and brought up some Santas and did a radio show and ate some Hutchings leftover Thanksgiving meals on wheels and then drove Chip and Tim out to Kim n Jim's for cards. Ha ha. Getting both those boys in my small car was a challenge. But they were glad for the DD.

Big news: Kim's daughter Brittany is pregnant, due in July. So just barely but she looks healthy. Kim's already talking booties and onesies and other gear. We had fun playing poker and got home after midnight. I think I may have won $10.

Today I washed the windows on the east side of the house and did laundry and tidying and changed the bed, etc. Got Tom a birthday card at Calico Sage and my gifts to the ladies for GNO. Bought some goods at Meijer including a frou frou necklace.

Infuriating note: I'm painting my toenails in the bathroom and the little kitty darts in, just long enough to knock over the polish bottle and make it spin like a Spirograph, spewing a circular trail of poppy on the floor and the rug. Floor, not so bad; rug, ruined.

Overall, a relaxing weekend but I could have made better use of my time. Spent too much time on Facebook on the iPad.

This week: Tuesday pick Amy up at the airport late when it's supposed to be crappy weather; GNO here Weds. but I'm taking the day off so no big deal. Poker here Dec. 10. I thought I had a radio meeting, but the Atomic Mama points out it's still November.

Time to get ready for another imported meal.
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It's all so exciting!

We went to a wine dinner at SamB's last Tuesday night. The 16th. It was very good and if I hadn't had seconds on the port that was the dessert wine, I woulda been OK. That stuff has some high alcohol content. But I recovered. As always.

Then Friday we went to a TS4A fundraiser where the theme was trailer park trash and apparently I overdressed as the bartender girl pointed out I had on similar stockings to her and she was dressed up.

Saturday was the holiday parade in BG, preceded by breakfast at the Corner Grill, then we went to Ann Arbor and ate at Logan and saw Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams. Then Sunday I had a small gathering for Karen and Wendell from Dallas.

Then I worked 2 and a half lackluster days and went to Delaware Wednesday night. My mom is not well. She's barely able to stay awake or walk. But I made the giant meal: fried chicken a la mom, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (fresh) with syrup and marshmallows, Stove Top Stuffing, crescent rolls, cole slaw (fresh made), deviled eggs, no actual vegetable, my mom's odd peach cake thing. There was a pumpkin pie which wasn't cut in my presence and sadly I took home the whipped cream, so if they had some later, it was plain.

Today, omg. I did put in my glass front door and do some laundry and buy some coffee at GFT and eat some but basically I watched video. Quite a few episodes of Modern Family which I have the entire first season DVD of and How to Tame Your Dragon, which taught me many things: children are our hope of salvation, dragons are our friends, make love not war, the big thing in control can be vanquished, women too can hunt dragons, and of course, love is a wonderful thing.

I vacillated between feeling guilty and feeling luxurious. I'm going with luxurious.

I apparently have successfully synched my iPod with my updated iTunes library. As you know, I have struggled with this recently. Getting the iTunes to ingest, etc.

I may or may not have a radio show tomorrow depending on whether the Falcon women lose or win tonight. Although at BGSUFalcons.com, it says they play at either 6 or 8 pm PST, so it seems like I'd be on. We'll see.

And Kim and Jim have cards Sat. night.

Next week is GNO at my house. I'm taking that day off because I can and I'm picking Amy up at the airport late Tuesday night. Although she had to go to work Weds.

Thanksgiving

My mom is making a peach cobbler but she doesn't like lumpy cobbler batter so shes making a Jiffy cake mix with peaches baked into the top. Hmmmm.

More holiday preps

I've been hitting LLBean.com to see what they've got on sale and today they had a queen size inflatable bed that has great reviews so it was on sale AND free shipping AND 10% more off if I'd open an LLBean Visa, which I did. No more visitor difficulty in the sleeping section.

Holiday madness approacheth

Next Sunday, I am hosting a party for Karen and Wendell from Dallas. A little evening massive drinking affair that you should feel free to attend. Particularly if you have a guitar Wendell can borrow and bring one for yourself.

Then Weds. I'm going to my mom's and making a big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday: fried chicken, stove top, creamy mashed, vegetables (although not green line green beans, which I made last year and neither my mom nor sister would eat), cranberry in the can, rolls, etc.

The next week, it's GNO chez moi at which I am preparing all the snacks. Really. Don't bring any -- unless you want to bring homemade Christmas cookies that I can then freeze for when my kids arrive, 22 days later.

And there's second Friday poker chez moi on Dec.10 and Amy's having a holiday open house on Friday Dec. 17. And cards at Kim and Jim's the Friday after Thanksgiving.

At least I got all the leaves raked out of the far back of my yard. It could still stand a mowing. Hopefully I can rake out that slurry in the southeast corner of the fenced part of my yard the day after Thanksgiving, which I have off.

Today at Meijer I started the stockup: crackers on sale, creme fraiche, chocolate chips, raspberry jam for thumbprint cookies.

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Fabulous weekend

Blue skies, moderately cool, plenty of lounging around, some drinking.

My daughter bought a 2008 Honda Civic Saturday. With 38,000 miles so practically brand new for a Honda. They let her drive it home from the deal. She's now working at both Levis fulltime and for Bradley Bayou parttime. Link is a Facebook so hope you're on.

Tom is back in the US with an apartment "an indefinite sublease in the Haight/Castro" and a job at Foreign Cinema. How he acquired either of these from Asia where a good part of the time he was unable to be on the Internet is beyond me.

Friday night I went out to the farm and had lamb chops and wine and Myles Baker St. desserts. Saturday I had a radio show. I musta done something else. Amy and Sherry came over and we had some drinks and gossip. Oh right, I cleaned on Saturday, like massive floor maintenance and tidying up.

Yesterday, a giant gang of teens tore down Curtis Ave., raking everybody's lawns! OMG can one even fathom!! I was prepared to go out and hand them some cash, but they just moved on. Maybe some community service requirement? Whatever: a miracle.

Today, I fertilized and watered my new rose bush. Bought some groceries. Made some squash soup with black beans and corn and red bell pepper. Made banana bread pudding with caramel sauce. Have some baking potatoes in and waiting for the main course-- lamb shanks-- to show up.

Reading Bucolic Plague about these 2 gay guys who buy and refurbish a working farm from 1802 in upstate New York. Although I thought it was one of those Live Your Best Life stories, mainly these guys had a boatload of cash from working in NYC plus one guy was a regular guest on Martha Stewart's TV show which enabled them to get free product placement and turn their farming op into a world wide enterprise.

That's what I need-- a world wide enterprise-- as our TV station was sold last week to a private investor so we are no longer part of the Disney/ABC family. We'll still be an ABC affiliate but not the same in many people's minds. I waffle between thinking I'll just wait and see how the new regime will be AND trying to plot out a new career(s). One FABULOUS perk from the deal is since I am 55 and have worked there 10 years, I'll get a Disney silver pass, every year FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. Now there's a retirement plan, move to Florida, take people to the park for free. That's right-- I can take 3 people into any Disney park worldwide (except maybe that Tokyo one) every day forever. OR I could effect this scheme at Disney Land, which is in the state my children reside in. Hmm, $300 dollars a day.... ( a cut rate compared with the $200 a day for adults, $185 for kids) I could give people a real deal.

Also, I'm thinking about opening a food truck. And an asset management firm. Assets like your pictures are on your phone and you want them transferred to your computer and burned to a disk to print out. Or you have a local restaurant/venue website and it never gets updated. Or your old parent has a mountain of health care related paperwork that needs to be sorted and you don't live around here.

Whatever. The whole sale deal is a door opened to opportunity. I must enter.

Otherwise, just happy we've not had any bad weather yet in November and we're 1/3 the way through.

Going to the Ark to see Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams on Oct. 20, a day I have no radio show.
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Tommy's back

He just got off the plane that had a "threatening note and box cutter." Story here.