01 June 2014
Bears and Beards
01/06/14 05:35
A fairly eventful week. One day I got to work and parked in my usual spot in the back, a few spaces down from the dumpsters. It was a cool cloudy day but the week had been going well and I felt good. I walked in the door and was greeted by my coworkers with “Did you see him?” “Who?” “The bear. He was digging in the dumpster.” I hadn’t seen him, in fact it appears that he took off before I arrived but, you know I kinda wish I’d known about this before. Maybe someone could have closed the gate, or been in the lot to wave people down and have them park in the front.
Ah, the joys of living a stones throw from the wild.
We shipped a pile of stuff this week. Lots of robots. Many, many robots. Lots of huge heavy robots. By Thursday I was so sore and tired from hauling around robots and cases, and tethers, and tracks that I had to skip seeing Mike play at the Lantzville Pub. I’d been looking forward to it all week but instead I just took some Tylenol and went to sleep just after 7:00. It turned out that this was more of an event than I had expected. Marsha and Barbara were joined by a number of our friends. Mike sang Happy Birthday to Barb from the stage, and most of the people there joined in, (it was her 89th), they gave her a little cake, it was a really nice event. Too bad I missed it. There’s an old saying about how you should work to live not live to work.
What if you’re too tired after work to have a life?
But that was a one time thing. Mostly we’ve been enjoying the sunny warm evenings. Marsha has been going out on the deck with Geiger. Watching Twins games, reading, playing video games and such. We've also been doing a bit of yard work. Tidying up the place and generally relaxing. I did have an idea one day as I was working in the yard. I realized that I wanted to write a musical. It would be called Yard Work and would feature the songs
I Really Don’t Care About The Lawn
I Just Walked Into A Wasp Nest
Does Anyone Really Mind If I Don’t Mow
I’d Rather Be In A Turkish Prison Than Weeding
My Wife Wants It Done
and of course the big show-stopping number
What Moron Thought This Was How To Spend A Saturday
But seriously it’s been fun…really.
Wednesday they delivered the stuff for our next big project. There’s now a huge dumpster in the front driveway and stacks of shingles on top of the house. Monday our friend Dave will be starting to replace the roof. We knew it was due when we moved in. They said it would last another five years, but we don’t want to wait until we have an actual leak before getting it done. The forecast is for a week of clear, sunny weather so it’s a good time to do it. Someone at work asked me if I was doing it myself, no was my answer, just no. Oh, technically shingling pretty simple so I COULD do it. Heck I have done a bit of shingling in the past, on a house that was a LOT lower and less steep than this one. I’ll let the younger, crazier folks get up on the roof. I’m happy to stand in my freshly mown lawn and write a check. We did make one strategic decision though. We had a choice between 30 and 40 year shingles. We’re in our 50s now. Their ain’t no way we’ll be in this house in 40 years, so we saved some money and went with the 30. Let the next owner deal with it. Mwahahaha.
Yup that’s about as evil as we get.
(As an aside, when I was writing this I wanted to make sure I had spelled Mwahahaha correctly. A quick check on line revealed that not only had I spelled it right, but the word is in the Oxford English Dictionary. I would not have predicted that.)
In other news, I've been thinking that it might be time for a change. I’ve had a beard for over twelve years now. Just to remind you I look like this.
Maybe time to let it go. All the fashion press and such are saying that beards are passé. Perhaps I should just shave it off. I have an appointment this week to get contact lenses. Perhaps that should be a start. Maybe my new look should be no glasses, no beard, slimmer, with better clothes and a more outgoing persona. A clean break with the hairy, bespectacled, chubby, poorly dressed, introvert of a couple of years ago. Maybe it is time to start fresh. Then this week I was digging through some old pictures and found one of me taken before I grew the beard.
Maybe not.
Do you know what an ANZAC Biscuit is? I came across them this week and had to look them up. They were invented for the Australian and New Zealand soldiers during WWI and are now a traditional staple of their cuisine. It’s much like Butter Tarts or Poutine here in Canada, or lye soaked overcooked fish in Minnesota. (I believe it’s called looted-fisk but that implies it’s also stolen.) Essentially it’s an oatmeal coconut cookie but made without eggs, which were in short supply during the war. Also by omitting the eggs the cookies could be stored for much longer without spoiling. I believe some original ANZAC Biscuits will in fact be attending the events marking the centennial of the start of the war.
In any event if you want to try making ANZAC Biscuits yourself (and I’ve tried to make them sound as appealing as possible) the recipe is here
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/anzac-biscuits-i/
Note though the recipe calls for “Golden Syrup”. This isn’t the same as Karo syrup. Golden Syrup a British product made by evaporating sugar cane juice until it thickens. Karo is, I believe, corn juice evaporated and then a dash of vanilla added. I’d try Byerly’s or Lund’s or somewhere you can get British food items (up here there are “British Shoppes” though I don’t believe I ever saw one south of the border).
I might give them a try.
Ah, the joys of living a stones throw from the wild.
We shipped a pile of stuff this week. Lots of robots. Many, many robots. Lots of huge heavy robots. By Thursday I was so sore and tired from hauling around robots and cases, and tethers, and tracks that I had to skip seeing Mike play at the Lantzville Pub. I’d been looking forward to it all week but instead I just took some Tylenol and went to sleep just after 7:00. It turned out that this was more of an event than I had expected. Marsha and Barbara were joined by a number of our friends. Mike sang Happy Birthday to Barb from the stage, and most of the people there joined in, (it was her 89th), they gave her a little cake, it was a really nice event. Too bad I missed it. There’s an old saying about how you should work to live not live to work.
What if you’re too tired after work to have a life?
But that was a one time thing. Mostly we’ve been enjoying the sunny warm evenings. Marsha has been going out on the deck with Geiger. Watching Twins games, reading, playing video games and such. We've also been doing a bit of yard work. Tidying up the place and generally relaxing. I did have an idea one day as I was working in the yard. I realized that I wanted to write a musical. It would be called Yard Work and would feature the songs
I Really Don’t Care About The Lawn
I Just Walked Into A Wasp Nest
Does Anyone Really Mind If I Don’t Mow
I’d Rather Be In A Turkish Prison Than Weeding
My Wife Wants It Done
and of course the big show-stopping number
What Moron Thought This Was How To Spend A Saturday
But seriously it’s been fun…really.
Wednesday they delivered the stuff for our next big project. There’s now a huge dumpster in the front driveway and stacks of shingles on top of the house. Monday our friend Dave will be starting to replace the roof. We knew it was due when we moved in. They said it would last another five years, but we don’t want to wait until we have an actual leak before getting it done. The forecast is for a week of clear, sunny weather so it’s a good time to do it. Someone at work asked me if I was doing it myself, no was my answer, just no. Oh, technically shingling pretty simple so I COULD do it. Heck I have done a bit of shingling in the past, on a house that was a LOT lower and less steep than this one. I’ll let the younger, crazier folks get up on the roof. I’m happy to stand in my freshly mown lawn and write a check. We did make one strategic decision though. We had a choice between 30 and 40 year shingles. We’re in our 50s now. Their ain’t no way we’ll be in this house in 40 years, so we saved some money and went with the 30. Let the next owner deal with it. Mwahahaha.
Yup that’s about as evil as we get.
(As an aside, when I was writing this I wanted to make sure I had spelled Mwahahaha correctly. A quick check on line revealed that not only had I spelled it right, but the word is in the Oxford English Dictionary. I would not have predicted that.)
In other news, I've been thinking that it might be time for a change. I’ve had a beard for over twelve years now. Just to remind you I look like this.
Maybe time to let it go. All the fashion press and such are saying that beards are passé. Perhaps I should just shave it off. I have an appointment this week to get contact lenses. Perhaps that should be a start. Maybe my new look should be no glasses, no beard, slimmer, with better clothes and a more outgoing persona. A clean break with the hairy, bespectacled, chubby, poorly dressed, introvert of a couple of years ago. Maybe it is time to start fresh. Then this week I was digging through some old pictures and found one of me taken before I grew the beard.
Maybe not.
Do you know what an ANZAC Biscuit is? I came across them this week and had to look them up. They were invented for the Australian and New Zealand soldiers during WWI and are now a traditional staple of their cuisine. It’s much like Butter Tarts or Poutine here in Canada, or lye soaked overcooked fish in Minnesota. (I believe it’s called looted-fisk but that implies it’s also stolen.) Essentially it’s an oatmeal coconut cookie but made without eggs, which were in short supply during the war. Also by omitting the eggs the cookies could be stored for much longer without spoiling. I believe some original ANZAC Biscuits will in fact be attending the events marking the centennial of the start of the war.
In any event if you want to try making ANZAC Biscuits yourself (and I’ve tried to make them sound as appealing as possible) the recipe is here
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/anzac-biscuits-i/
Note though the recipe calls for “Golden Syrup”. This isn’t the same as Karo syrup. Golden Syrup a British product made by evaporating sugar cane juice until it thickens. Karo is, I believe, corn juice evaporated and then a dash of vanilla added. I’d try Byerly’s or Lund’s or somewhere you can get British food items (up here there are “British Shoppes” though I don’t believe I ever saw one south of the border).
I might give them a try.