la dentista con jamon y frijoles

You know that mask thing the hygienist puts on before she works on your teeth? I don't think that's to prevent germ exchange, I think that's so they don't have to smell your breath while they work in your mouth - and to prevent their drool from dripping on you. Has anyone ever had a male dental hygienist work on their teeth or even met a male hygienist?

On a different topic, I made some ham and bean soup yesterday, and even if I do say so myself, it had almost the perfect taste. But, while I was making it, I felt a compulsion to add something to it, but I couldn't figure out what that something should be, so I didn't put it in. It felt like maybe it should be a vegetable or a spice. Green beans? Corn? Peas? The veggies I did put in were onions, celery, and carrots. Spices were bay leaves, parsley, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Of course, there were ham and beans in there. Does anybody have any other secret ingredients they like to add that I could try next time? Since it tasted so good, maybe I should leave well enough alone though.

Fresh

Don't you just love the first substantial snow of the year? It always makes everything look so fresh and new and starts the snowboarding juices flowing. It's even better when the sun shines afterward and makes the world really bright. It snowed 6-12 inches overnight on Thursday night, and I woke up to it on Friday morning. I didn't even care that I had to shovel my driveway to get the car out of the garage (making me a little late to work) or that my oatmeal overflowed in the microwave that morning. The local government must be trying to save money. They did one initial pass with the snow plows, but then it looks like they haven't done anything else, so some of the roads are kind of treacherous in places where the snow turned to slush yesterday and today and then turned to ice. That's it - no real point to this post.

Shoht Weekend

This past weekend I added a couple notches on my "states visited" belt. I went to see my former (not old, although she did just have a birthday recently) college roommate. She lives out on Cape Cod, so we hung out with the Kennedy clan and other muckety mucks - you know, the usual. Kidding! We hung out with our own cool selves. For the geographically challenged, Cape Cod is part of Massachusetts (the handle of the gun), and we also ventured briefly into Rhode Island. Anyways, you don't want to hear all the details, you want the highlight list, right?

1. Spending time with a good friend and getting know her new husband.
2. Eating a frog bog (think turtle with cranberries instead of nuts). Delicious.
3. Excessive Dunkin' Donuts population. We're talking, like, two per block. Minimum of once a day attendance required at DD.
   
4. Seeing an awesome double rainbow.
5. Did you know eastern Massachusetts is the home of Ocean Spray (the cranberries)?
6. Learning what it means when you hear about a cape house, a saltbox house, a gambrel - architecture stuff.
7. It does not seem to be a requirement that the siding on all sides of your house match. Your shakes rotted only on one side? Replace it with narrow horizontal siding or new shakes on that side only, possibly in a different color.
8. Almost being convinced to get a ferret. I think if I got one though, it would put me over the line from enjoyable eccentric to creepy character.
9. You can't make a weekend trip without a minimum of one flight delay and getting caught in traffic so you only get to the airport a half hour before your flight leaves, right?
10. Whaling museum, replica Mayflower, and the Plimouth Rock (that's how they spelled it).
11. Clam chowder and shrimp New England style.
12. Heahing that chahming accent. :-)
13. It's not a roundabout, it's a rotary.
    

A couple pictures from the trip

Not a good picture, but the only one we took of the two of us - outside Davy's Locker.

This speaks for itself.

Yummy....

What do Mayflowers bring? Pilgrims, of course.

Ahoy, mates! I see land!

The aforementioned friend did get married this summer, and I have been derelict in my duty/tradition of posting my "top 10" list of memories of her. This will be an incomplete list as there are way more than ten good memories (3 years of living together will do that), and probably some of them should not be mentioned so we don't incriminate ourselves too badly.

1. Honesty sessions.
2. Watching Austin Powers three times in a row until about 3:00 AM one night.
3. Decorating Rick and Jason's cars with their "outing" signs and almost getting seen by Rick in Wilkerson as we were on the way to his car with our supplies.
4. Many a meal in the dining centers and going to get "late night" food.
5. Hanging out at the Union, and "certain people" often skipping class to hang out some more.
6. Getting spring fever and going rollerblading.
7. Playing Rook. Lots.
8. Almost getting caught by the cops while letting air out of Gary's tires.
9. Learning that not all people think the same way I do, and that's OK. Life is more interesting that way.
10. Getting a different perspective other than my own on songs, and because of that, I now appreciate songs I used to dislike.
11. Helping me to become a more spiritual person.

This list was more difficult to start than I thought I would be, but now I'm having trouble stopping, but I will.

The happy couple

You're Welcome

While I work on preparing my "weekend summary" post, these videos will have to tide you over. I think the wireless one out of the three is the best. Check back tomorrow for a possibly more interesting post, although we all know humor is in the eye of the beholder. Any guesses on where I went for the weekend? Hint: I didn't stay home.

Bathroom Behavior Observation #7

Many of you may have already seen this, but it makes me laugh every time I read it again, so I figured I'd post it for your dose of weekend humor.

You may need to stop at the women's restroom . . . be prepared!

When you have to visit a public bathroom, you usually find a line of women, so you smile politely and take your place. Once it's your turn, you check for feet under the stall doors. Every stall is occupied. Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly knocking down the woman leaving the stall. You get in to find the door won't latch. It doesn't matter, the wait has been so long you are about to wet your pants!

The dispenser for the modern 'seat covers' (invented by someone's Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty. You would hang your purse on the door hook, if there was one, but there isn't - so you carefully, but quickly drape it around your neck, (Mom would turn over in her grave if you put it on the FLOOR! ), yank down your pants, and assume 'The Stance.' In this position your aging, toneless thigh muscles begin to shake. You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold 'The Stance.'

To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, 'Honey, if you had tried to clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!' Your thighs shake more. You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday - the one that's still in your purse. (Oh yeah, the purse around your neck, that now, you have to hold up trying not to strangle yourself at the same time). That would have to do. You crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It's still smaller than your thumbnail.

Someone pushes your door open because the latch doesn't work. The door hits your purse, which is hanging around your neck in front of your chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the tank of the toilet. 'Occupied!' you scream, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious, tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, lose your footing altogether, and slide down directly onto the TOILET SEAT. It is wet of course. You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late. Your bare bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper - not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try. You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew, because, you're certain her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, 'You just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get.'

By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a fire hose against the inside of the bowl that sprays a fine mist of water that covers your butt and runs down your legs and into your shoes. The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the empty toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged in too.

At this point, you give up. You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You're exhausted. You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks. You can't figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the line of women still waiting. You are no longer able to smile politely to them. A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it??) You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and tell her warmly, 'Here, you just might need this.'

As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used, and left the men's restroom. Annoyed, he asks, 'What took you so long, and why is your purse hanging around your neck?' This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with a public restrooms (rest??? you've GOT to be kidding!!). It finally explains to the men what really does take us so long. It also answers their other commonly asked questions about why women go to the restroom in pairs. It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse and hand you Kleenex under the door!

Bathroom Behavior Observation #6

On the same day that these signs showed up, we also got a serious e-mail stating the same thing and adding that managers would be on the look-out for employees who are creating graffiti. I never saw any graffiti, but apparently somebody in the men's bathroom on the 3rd floor was really going to town with some anatomically correct images on the stall walls. I like how their "permanent" posting is hung on the mirror with tape in a little sleeve thing where anybody could take it out of there.


P.S. That's digital graffiti I did there to protect the innocent - or whatever you call them.

Whew!

It was quite the week at the minimum security prison this week. It involved intense concentration for more than thirteen hours a day, and one day was 16 hours long. This happened for four days straight. We did get about two hours off for "good behavior" to go and vote on Tuesday. We learned about the goodness of sequential Design Of Experiments and how to determine important factors in a product/process. Would you believe we spent hours on end analyzing and doing scientific experiments on a balsa wood glider to try to hit a "varmint".

Speaking of voting, I got to the polls and quarter after seven in the morning and still had to wait in line for an hour to vote. Other things I missed due to my sequestration:

• Almost all the trees lost their leaves.
• Going outside the four last gorgeous days of the year (temps in the 70's)
  
• Watching/listening/reading in suspense as the election results came in
• The stock market dipping drastically the day after the election
• Gas dipping below $2.00
• Sleep!
  

A couple things I didn't miss:

• Delicious food at the prison (because we had lots of it)
  
• Obama's speech late Tuesday night - got to watch it on TV since I was in the process of getting ready to go to bed in my "hotel" room.
• Launching a catapult
  

Fruits of My Labor

When it snowed last Monday, I finally gave up on my tomato and cucumber plants and quit bringing them into the garage at night. I gave up hope they'd actually get to maturity before they died. I planted them about the end of June hoping I'd get at least a couple cucumbers. And here they are! The plants grew pretty well, but they didn't get enough of a growing season. Maybe I'll try to grow some indoor ones this winter.


My crop for the year.