Tell you all my secrets

We've started our Christmas cooking this week, which means we are out of the crawlspace!  We had a company come in to seal the rim joists on Thursday, which was an adventure.  Everything that could have gone wrong for them did, from equipment malfunctions to one of them getting called away on another job less than halfway through.  I made the remaining guy corn dogs for lunch (because that's how I roll, and I saw he had only a bag of chips and a root beer with him.)  When I left for my hair appointment, he was chewing on a corn dog with an "Oh my Zod, if I must die, let it be today?" look on his face, but he got it all done!

We also put the Christmas Brr-lesque show to bed this weekend. kornopolous came to town for the show and to celebrate his 50th birthday...and got food poisoning from eating a calzone at the show - surprise!!  It was a sucky way to spend his birthday, but he says it was still a good weekend.

Thursday was the last derby scrimmage for 2013.  I was one of only three skating refs to come, so I had to jam ref.  It was that or head ref, so I think I made the right decision. :)  I did mostly okay. I asked a couple really stupid questions of 0014, who was  head ref, and I didn't make any calls on my jammer which meant I was skating for the entire scrimmage.  But I did send two blockers to the box and I stood up to Deuce when she questioned a call and she didn't yell for a more experienced ref to come overrule me,

Then I lost my jammer.

See, the jammer refs switch at half-time, so if I'm fucking up for the white team, now I can even things out by fucking up for the black team.  I was following one jammer, I saw the other waaaaaayyy over on the other side of the track, and I couldn't figure out why Re-Pete Offender (the other jam ref) was all up  in my business until he asked if I was reffing black. :"Yeah!" I said astutely. "And the black jammer is..."  well, she was waving at me from the other side of the track.  Re-Pete laughed his ass off,  0014 laughed his ass off,  Honestly, I did too,  Re-Pete told me after then jam "It happens to all of us and you did exactly what you are supposed to do:  you yelled FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!! and went and caught up to her."

The best part was that on Saturday this came across my roller derby ref tumblr:

When jammer reffing and I momentarily lose sight of my jammer

The Civic Orchestra went off beautifully Friday night, finally. It was pretty touch and go if the show would happen, first with the ice storm and then with the Concert Master falling in his carport and not being able to perform. But the show did go on - we cut his big solo piece and a second violinist filled in for his solos in the other pieces. The Maestro gave me flowers before the show and made a big speech about how I always look after them so well and how much everyone loves working with me.


Saturday was my day to do nothing, but the DICS got a call to come lay track for derby practice again. The venue keeps pulling up the tape we use to lay the track if we leave it on "too long" so we have to re-do it every single week. Yes, that is as stupid, annoying and expensive as it sounds. In their defense, this week was because we rented the space to have two tracks for practice, but still. We expect to be called to do it all again next Saturday. And next Thursday.

After that lonelydumptruck hung out with crownwench and I went over to see geolinguist's new apartment and hang out with him. We haven't done that in far too long and it was a great, mellow afternoon including a trip to Moosestooth for pizza and beer. Sid was over hanging out with lonelydumptruck when I got home, which was also a mellow fun time. We drank far too much, stayed up way too late after Sid left and discovered the charms of How I Met Your Mother.

Sunday was the final tech for the Brr-lesque show. It went so well we decided we all deserved to go home early and relax instead of running the first act again, which is always good times.

July has, arrived with rain, rain rain.  I am probably the only person in town not happy to see it.

 

It was a pretty quiet weekend for us.  Gumbo class went great!  It was just Randi, her Little Miss and one of Little Miss' friends.  Both girls were very well-behaved and had a ball.  Little Miss decided she wants our five-disc DVD player for Christmas.  Rodney stopped by after because it was just starting to get cloudy and he wanted to go on one more ride with the top off his jeep before the rains set in, so I babysat the gumbo while the boys hit the road.

 

Randi's party on Friday was really low-key and fun.  We got to hang out with Dad for a good part of it, and Rodney and Hilary came.  Jay has a tandem bike attachment and Little Miss insisted I follow them around the block, so I wore myself out pretending to chase them and doing Ministry of Silly Walks.

 

Saturday I helped Geolinguist with the chickens and a few other projects, then I took a much needed nap.  We went to The Big Lebowski with Rodney and Hilary, which is always a good time. The Beartooth was actually serving caucasians.

 

 

Sunday I had a tech meeting to go through the rehearsal schedule and show dates for Brr-lesque.  LonelyDumptruck sat in, then we walked around the Market to kill time until my Aurora shift.  It was the busiest night I've seen this season, which was a really welcome change!

Had a good night hanging out with Geolinguist.  We went to King Street Brewery, which I hadn't been to before.  It's just a good-sized tasting room with patio furniture and a nice selection.  They did certain styles by mixing their standards.  I had a dunkleweissen, 1/4 stout, 3/4 heffeweissen.  I was impressed.

 

LonelyDumptruck went BHoF shopping with Lola, then to their place for War Movie Night with Frankie, so Geolinguist and I went to Olive Garden.

 

I don't think I've been to Olive Garden (or Red Lobster) since we went with my parents and Grandma Dorothy.  It was actually fun.  And we had a waitress who listened!  I made a mention that I'm allergic to tomatoes when Geolinguist ordered bruchetta and she came back to check that I knew I'd ordered a dish with tomato sauce.  I assured her I knew what I ordered.  It was sweet.

 

LonelyDumptruck has been in my hometown for a week visiting my folks, hanging with the Pack of weiner dogs, shopping, seeing burlesque.  Oh, and doing training for work.  That was the real reason for the trip.

 

Sunday afternoon I dropped him off at the airport and then headed over to the real estate to work on the mailout until my eyes started to bleed.  I picked up Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark from Redbox and heated up some soup for dinner.

 

I ended up re-watching the mid-season finale and then the new episode of Walking Dead.  I should have waited for LonelyDumptruck, but I couldn't bear waiting another week to see what was going to happen.   LonelyDumptruck called several times.  He was having trouble opening the file with his resume/application for a new position so I had to resend it in various formats.

 

Years ago I read the original novel of The Planet of the Apes and I loved it.  I haven't seen all the sequels from the 70's but, I admit, I want to see them.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes was alright.  I liked it right up until the moment

( Spoiler be here )

I made it through about half of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark before pooping out.

 

Monday night I went over to Geolinguist's sister's house to pet the kitties and meet the chickens.   Lila was a perfect calico lady, but I offended Caddock by calling him the Orson Wells of cats.  In my defence, he looks like a cross between a Main Coon cat and a palomino.

 

Feeding the chickens was fun.  When I was a little girl and we went to visit Grandma and Uncle H.O.'s family in Iowa, one of my jobs was collecting the eggs, so it was cool to get to do that again.  I wasn't very good at getting the chickens to get off the eggs when I was little and the chickens would peck at me.  Monday I got one egg but I couldn't get the chicken off the other.  She was too polite to peck, though.

 

After that we had good beers and bruchetta at Midnight Sun.  None of the main courses looked appealing,.so we crossed town to Table Six so Geolinguist
could have a burger and I could get ravioli. 

 

I finished Don't Be Afraid of the Dark when I got home.  It was beautifully shot but, ultimately, uninspiring.  I'd read it was based on a TV movie and it still had a real teleplay feel to it.  I could tell where commercials wanted to go.

 

Tuesday I went over to the real estate office for a little bit, until LonelyDumptruck called and I went home so he could tell me about my Valentines gift.  He'd hidden a bottle of tequila for me and then bought a flask for himself so we could have a drink together before he went to a burlesque show. 

 

A few shots later I settled in to binge on episodes of The River, a new show Mountain_Hiker recommend to me.

 

Imagine a television nature show host  beloved like the Crocodile Hunter or Marlon Perkins has gone missing in the Amazon and his wife and estranged son go to look for him with a camera crew and producer who hope to turn the hunt into a new season of his show.  They turn down a fork in the river that isn't supposed to be there and veer off into some serious Lost territory. I am really loving it.  I can see where some of the conventions will wear thin if they don't change them up - the monster of the week and using one character for The Perils of Pauline plots - but so far it is off to a good start.

 

A dear theater friend is in town visiting for the week and extended an invitation for people to meet him for dinner at an Italian restaurant near the real estate office Wednesday night, so I worked for a bit and then headed over.  Only two other people came, but it was awesome to see him.  We shared mussels and I ordered spaghetti.  Both were thick with cloves of roasted garlic the size of new potatoes.  I'm petty sure LonelyDumptruck could smell me all the way in Tacoma. 

 

I desperately wanted to watch the new episode of Top Chef, but I forced myself to wait until LonelyDumptruck gets home.  Instead I took a muscle relaxer and watched old episodes of Top Chef Masters until the challenges started to bleed together.

 

Thursday night was even more low-key.  I skipped the real estate office in favor of getting a few chores done and then house managed a show.  They sprung a Q & A on me, so I got done later than I planned but I still got to talk to LonelyDumptruck and watch some cooking TV.

 

I didn't know when LonelyDumptruck was coming home, so I signed up to house manage every night this weekend.  CrownWench picked him up at the airport and dropped him off at Beartooth for a brr-lesque hostess' birthday gathering.  I'm hoping to be done in time to join them.

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Friday night was social night. We ate the last of my biscuits and gravy and then headed out to a Jenya's birthday party. They had a ton of vodka, as always, and a table of great food including a big tray of sushi. I think I ate my weight in rolls. We got to chat with Geolinguist, PoisonDartFrog and MonkofSilence for a while, which is always awesome.

After the party we headed down to The Woodshed for the going-away party of one of my This Is Where We Came In cast members. We were the last people to arrive and actually happened to catch the guest of honor with his coat on making one last stop at the cigarette machine. We talked him into staying for one more and we got to talk for a while, then we headed over to Darwin's to see if any of the regulars were there. They were not, but our favorite waitress was and I got a hug and a really crappy blueberry beer I ended up abandoning.

Saturday morning we got up nice and early to prep the house, then Geolinguist came over to help us pull up the carpet in the living room. The carpet came up nice and easy, but we discovered eude de cat piss, or perhaps ferret stank, saturating the padding and that made the next layer a lot less fun. Stephanie came by in the afternoon to help pull tack board and molding.

It took most of the day and three runs to the hardware store, but we got a few rows of flooring laid and made a game plan for the next few. CrownWench came over after work for dinner and movies. LonelyDumptruck went to Mr. Prime Beef and bought a little sumo wrestler of a chicken. This 5-pounder had fat deposits under the skin of the breast and little chicken love handles. We didn't have the lemon or some of the other things he used when he made the Epic Baked Chicken last time, but we punted and the sumo chicken was fucking delicious.

We watched Blackthorn and Blithe Spirit. I really liked Blackthorn, but there seemed to be a logic-fail in the story. Has anyone else seen it? Do any of you have an insight on Stephen Rea's character? I've never seen or even read Blithe Spirit before. I didn't quite care for it, but now I'm curious about how some of the ghost effects are done on stage. I'm sure they bulked up the number of them for the film.

Today we got up and I played Sims Social while LonelyDumptruck played Skyrim and we watched a little cooking television before getting back to the flooring. There was a Brr-lesque workshop all afternoon, but I didn't feel up to moving that much. We worked until we were practically cross-eyed, but we got all of the angle cuts and the off sized pieces around the stove done, so we hope to get as far as the next heating vent tomorrow. Got to keep some goals in mind.

Another successful birthday in the books.

We both took Friday off, but LonelyDumptruck had a full morning planned. The bank he works for does a program with a local school where someone goes into read to the first grade class and the bank lets the class keep the book. Coincidentally, the school happens to be the school where LonelyDumptruck's sister Jen works. The bank is too big for that have been planned though, I'm sure.

He had a great time. They gave him a Happy Birthday bracelet and all the kids sang to him. The book was Pirates Don't Change Diapers, but LonelyDumptruck didn't get to read in full pirate garb. It seems the bank actually has a policy against that.

We met up for brunch at Kriner's Diner after that. I made the mistake of asking for a full-order of biscuits and gravy. It was delicious, but we are still working on the leftovers. Seriously.

After lunch LonelyDumptruck went to get his hair cut. I took the opportunity to hide presents around the house.

Have you heard about that website http://www.xtranormal.com/? The one that lets you make little movies? Well, they released characters from The Big Lebowski, so I spent the time LonelyDumptruck was reading and getting his hair cut making a little film of The Dude and Donnie performing one of LonelyDumptruck's scripts.

LonelyDumptruck found most of his presents right away and then settled in to play some Skyrim while I fucked around on Sims Social. After a while we decided to brave Costco to get supplies for family dinner. While we driving there, he decided that it would be nice to meet up with friends to celebrate his birthday, so we sent up a quick Bat Signal and arranged meeting at Beartooth for pizza and beer.

Most of Anchorage had the same idea, so we had to wait almost an hour for a table. The pizza was worth it, believe it or not. The current special is a chicken pizza with a mushroom cream sauce and pickles jalapenos. I am going to miss it when the specials change. Rodney, Stepanie, Geolinguist and CrownWench came out to play, then Rodney and Stephanie came back to the house to watch a few episodes of MXC.

Saturday I got my hair done and we got the house ready to host family dinner. Rodney recommended a German zombie/epidemic movie, Rammbock, so we settled in to watch that until it was time to start cooking. I really liked it.

Dad and Ila were in town for birthday fun, so Jay, his girlfriend and her daughter, Jen and Lori-O came over. The plan was to grill steaks but we'd run out of propane without realizing it, so we cooked them on the stove instead. Like on Thanksgiving, we set off the smoke alarm/security system searing the meat. Dad talked about how good the smoky steaks were for the rest of the weekend. We made mac and cheese for the kid but she didn't like it. She was very polite and said that to everyone but us, though. I think her phrase was "I didn't like it, but it was very nice of them to try."

LonelyDumptruck continued to indulge my penchant for horror movie and we watched Pontypool, another zombie/outbreak film, after everyone went home.

Sunday I called out of Brr-lesque rehearsal in favor of going to see Red Tails with LonelyDumptruck Dad, Ila and Lori-O. After that we had meatloaf at Lori-O's house and then came home for yet another horror movie, the new Call of Cthulu.

So. 

I caught a cold. I was really sick Thursday and Hella-sick Friday, but not bad enough to call in.  The reception desk is right next to the Germophobe's desk and he was NOT pleased that I was there.  I know he complained/tattled to the Big Boss because as soon as he walked in, the Big Boss greeted me with "So I hear you're not doing so well!"  Ten minutes later he had the Lead Toy come down to take over the desk and make me go home.

So I went to the post office and then bunkered in for the day.  The Misfit Toy Christmas party was Friday, so I agonized over whether or not I should go.  On one hand, it's a cold.  On the other, I did get sent home and the Great Puritan Work Ethic says too sick to work = too sick to play.

We met

 CrownWench

for a drink at Roadhouse and then stopped by the party for a little bit.  It was nice, though we got there so late we missed the drink tokens and the tickets for fabulous prizes.  Invisiboss won a new tv.

Saturday I House Managed for one of the ATY Christmas shows during the day and we had the Brr-lesque Christmas party that night.  I was feeling shittier, but rallied, and even played some of the games.  I was first out at musical chairs and got a cash payoff for complaining that I deserved a consolation prize.  (turns out they did that for the Boy Who Kisses  JDawgsPI last year, so I won't feel bad.)  I creamed everybody at a memory game and won a Look gift certificate and was still asleep on the couch by 10:30 while LonelyDumptruck watched 
Boardwalk Empire.

Sunday Geolinguist and I went shopping for his sister and then we met LonelyDumptruck at Beartooth for White Christmas.  I'd never seen it before.  Next week they are showing Santa Conquers the Martians and we're all hoping to meet up for that.

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And lo, it was good.

 

Thanksgiving was pretty laid back.  Mommie sent over a massive bowl of stuffing (Grandma's recipe) Wednesday night so we cooked that along with the turkey.  Because we do everything Alton Brown says, we skipped brineing the turkey this year and, instead,

 

LonelyDumptruck butterflied the bird and used a dry rub.  I think it was our best turkey ever.

 

He also made cranberry sauce, as is tradition, and I roasted sweet potatoes with orange and made carrots roasted with Chinese 5 spice. The carrots had good flavor, but a really gritty texture.  I think I am going to cook the spices in the butter and then toss the carrots in that instead of melting the butter, pouring that over the carrots and adding the spices.

 

Sometime between starting the turkey browning in an insanely hot oven and learning how to turn off the fire alarm, the oven got turned off instead of down.  That wasn't discovered for a hour, but it ended up working out fine.  That gave me enough time to prep the veggies and the last person was just walking in as things came out of the oven.

 

It was a small group, for us: Mommie and Eddie (who brought rolls, appetizers a pumpkin pie and bread pudding)  Jay (King of Mashed Potatoes), Stephanie (apple pie) 

 

LonelyDumptruck's step-brother (another apple pie) and Geolinguist (pi...no, wait, orange satued kale.)  Jenny came over after her family dinner and grazed a bit.

 

Everything was great and it was just about a perfect amount of food.  We did have to take a walk around the neighborhood between dinner and dessert.  There was a great deal of wine and beer too.  Mommie and Eddie brought over a new board game, What's Yours Like, and we played a few rounds of that. 

 

Geolinguist and I planned to go to the last show of The Muppets, but it was across town and we were having do much fun we just decided to stay in instead.

 

Friday I was supposed to work all day, but the phone only rang once in five hours so Little Boss sent me home.  I finished the dishes and braved Wal-mart to buy a birthday present for Boo. 

 

After that I met

 

CrownWench at Roadhouse and LonelyDumptruck met us there when he got off work.  We were planning on going to see the Lead Toy's band at Koots, but we ended up having so much fun just hanging out that we never made it there.

 

Saturday was kind of a mixed bag, emotionally.  Late morning was Boo's fifth birthday party at an inflatable playground.  We weren't able to stay long because Saturday afternoon was the funeral for one of

 

LonelyDumptruck's cousin's sons.  There was a memorial after the service, but we opted out of that.  Instead we bunkered in for a while and  LonelyDumptruck started the turkey stock.  We went to pick up some supplies to dress up leftovers and LonelyDumptruck picked up Skyrim, so that was his day.

 

After dinner

 

Geolinguist stopped by to pre-function before we made another attempt at seeing The Muppets.  We made it this time and I am so glad we did!  It wasn't perfect, but it was a great Muppet Show.   I can't believe there was only one original Muppeteer on the movie, but there were only a couple instances of wrong sounding Muppets and they cracked a joke about that.  The plot was paper thin, but we laughed through the whole thing.  Camilla and the Chickens singing Fuck You....I seriously could not breathe.

 

We stayed up until 3 or so watching Mythbusters, so I slept in a bit on Sunday. 

 

LonelyDumptruck played Skyrim and I played Sims until Brr-lesque rehearsal.  I made bacon and turkey hash for dinner and we watched most of our Sunday programs.  Speaking of...holy shit, Walking Dead anyone?!?

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