| Oh, and for the record... |
[Dec. 17th, 2009|07:09 am] |
Since it looks like I might actually have to find the regional post-master and get him involved:
Last Tuesday, December 1, Rich went in to talk to the post lady again! (I believe this is the 5th time, but I'd have to check my notes from the last rant I went on to verify.) This time a pay stub that had been mailed out over Thanksgiving break was returned to the school, with the computer generated "mail undeliverable" sticker we've been getting the whole time. Unfortunately, Rich let her keep the sticker when he went in to talk to the post office about it, so we don't have any current evidence. (Rich's parents are going to send us some mail so they can get another copy of the sticker, but if you've had christmas cards returned to you for us, and can get them to us some way other than mail, we'd appreciate it.)
What makes this whole thing better for me is the fact that mail addressed to our street address has a note stamped on it that asks me to inform the sender to send mail to my post box! (Honestly, why would I? At least this way, I get my mail!) |
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| Bottling this weekend... |
[Dec. 15th, 2009|07:55 pm] |
So, we have almost 5 gallons of pretty good, almost-but-not-quite-dry, hard cider that we will be bottling this weekend.
We also have just over 5 gallons of what can only be described as
...CCCCC...IIIIII..NNN...NNN.......AA......MMM......MMM....OOOO....NNN...NNN....!!..
..CCCCCCC....II.....NNN..NN.......AAAA......MMM....MMM....OOOOOO....NNN..NN....!!!!.
.CC.....CC...II.....NNNN.NN......AA..AA.....MMMM..MMMM....OO..OO....NNNN.NN.....!!..
.CC..........II.....NN.NNNN......AAAAAA.....MM.MMMM.MM....OO..OO....NN.NNNN.....!!..
.CC.....CC...II.....NN..NNN......AA..AA.....MM..MM..MM....OO..OO....NN..NNN.........
..CCCCCCC....II.....NN...NN......AA..AA.....MM......MM....OOOOOO....NN...NN.....!!..
...CCCCC...IIIIII..NNN...NNN....AAA..AAA...MMM......MMM....OOOO....NNN...NNN....!!..
AND CLOVES.
(If I knew how to get that to show up in the Courier Font, It'd make more sense.)
But, it's drinkable, and that's the important part. So, if you'd like a bottle of either, come bug us this weekend.
Also, my Mom had back surgery last Wednesday. She seems to be doing just great now, except she's not allowed to bend over to pick anything up, twist sideways, or carry anything that weighs more than 5 pounds for the next 6 weeks. Fortunately, the doctor says she can drive, so as long as someone stops by to take her grocery shopping, change her sheets, do laundry, and run the vacuum once a week or so, she really doesn't need any other help.
It's amazing. Last week, her back was paining her so much she was occasionally in tears. This last weekend I spent with her, there was almost no pain at all, other than some stiffness and a few twinges at the site of her incision. |
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| 'Tis the season? |
[Dec. 6th, 2009|10:46 am] |
For Cordial making and giving away.
If we ever gave you one of our little refillable bottles, we currently have available:
Strawberry: Which was just filtered last night, and could probably use a week or two to mellow out, but it still quite yummy.
Blueberry: Which was cut with a little too much wine, so it's more like wine with a blueberry undertone. Again, still quite yummy.
Blackberry: Or black raspberry... I can't actually remember which.
Apple: Not much of this one left, since we recently unearthed it having forgotten we had stored it away when we made a huge batch back at St. Pat's day. We've been dipping into it.
Also, we just racked 10 gallons of cider. We've got 5 gallons of just regular cider, and have 5 gallons of an experimental cinnamon/cloves version that REALLY needs sweetening, since the cinnamon completely overwhelms most of the other flavors. My current goal with the second batch is to make it an alcohol version of snickerdoodles. We should be bottling it in a week or two, once the yeast is all dead and settled out.
I'm also going to go start another 5 gallons as soon as I'm done here.
( How to make Hard cider: A 12 step program for the rest of us. )
Session at the Strutt today! Yay! |
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| Thanksgiving? When did that happen |
[Dec. 1st, 2009|07:39 pm] |
I vaguely remember some Turkey, and I'm mentally ready for Christmas carols everywhere I go now, so it must've happened... So, here's how last week ran, since we decided NOT to leave the state or host the event ourselves:
Wednesday: I slept. All day. I needed it.
Thursday: Woke up, made green bean casserole, went to Portage for Turkey with the in-laws.
Friday: Rich had a gig in Lansing, so I drove him up and back.
Saturday: Having arrived home from Lansing at 3:30AM, we were justifyably tired, and didn't get up till well after noon. I wasn't feeling well, so Rich caught a ride up to his gig that night (in Lansing again.) with Rudeman.
Sunday: I got up went to school at about 10:00 ish (Any one for 10ish?) I wrote my plans and came home at noonish. We went up to the Session at the Strutt in Kalamazoo to play music from 4:00-6:00, then we boogied up to McFadden's Pub in Grand Rapids for ANOTHER session from 7:00 until 9:30ish. That was actually really fun, but Grand Rapids is a little too far to attend that session regularly. We got back home around midnight, so I crawled into bed, very glad I had already written my plans for the next day.
So, lots of music. Not as much Turkey and leftovers.
All in all, a satisfactory "break." |
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| Is this considered weird, or just eccentric? |
[Nov. 28th, 2009|01:34 pm] |
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So, I restarted our tracphone service today. I was actually hoping that we had let it lapse long enough that our phone number had expired, since way too many people have the number now. Oh well. |
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| Yay! A new answering machine message! |
[Nov. 23rd, 2009|11:17 pm] |
So, it's done to this song. (This particular link leads to a video of a performance by my all time favorite ren faire musician, Owain Phyfe.)
Unfortunately, our answering machine only let us record the first verse of the epic ballad we were going to perform, but I'm going to go ahead and post the whole thing:
Here's a health to the company
Kind friends and companions, know that we are not home.
We are off doing something, and we can't reach the phone.
So drink and be merry, and from messages refrain
For we may or might never listen to them again.
So here's a health to your cell phone, and the bill we've run up.
Let us drink and be merry all out of one cup.
Let us drink and be merry, while you're trying to call.
For it's likely we'll never get your message at all. |
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| Can we start a cold war with China? |
[Nov. 22nd, 2009|12:21 am] |
We need another cold war. Well, more specifically, our scientists need another cold war. Back when we were keepin' the commie's out of our back yard, our scientists got us all the way to the moon on the scraps our defense department was willing to throw them.
Why aren't we on Mars already? Since we don't have anyone we're racing with to get there, there's no real hurry, is there?
So, this all comes from going to see 2012 today. I was hoping they'd go more into the mythology surrounding the 2012 cut off date for our planet, but instead they psuedo-scienced the hell out of it, put in a cute modern love story, and had a lot of really kick ass chase scenes. (I suppose I should have put spoiler alert in at some point up there, so I'll throw it in right here.) Plotwise though, they totally killed the wrong people. I kept thinking throughout the movie, "Man, Gordon's a dead man." Just based on the fact he was the second husband. When we met the mistress of the Russion millionaire, we all knew she was dead too. When they killed them, it was kind of disappointing, since we all expected it from the moment we met these characters. Really, of all the horror and death that could have tugged our heart strings, why couldn't John Cusak's character die? That truly would have driven home the point that bad things happen to decent people. To have built up the whole movie around this character, only to have him die would have driven home the utter devestation that encompassed the earth, and let's take one of his two kids with him, probably Lilly, the quirky young girl with a budding hat fetish that we all found so entrancing. (In all fairness, she was a cutie, and I would have started crying in the theater if she had died.)
Ever Since Tasha Yar died, and more recently when Joss Whedon killed Wash, I've been opposed to over-use of the "red-shirt". If you are writing a tragedy folks, be willing to kill off the people you want us to love.
All in all, worth seeing on the big screen, but probably one that won't end up in our collection.
Last week, we saw Invention of Lying, which was just competely charming. It was a one gag movie, but it was carried through with such cuteness, that I completely enjoyed myself. In retrospect, we probably should have waited and rented it, but we dont' rent movies that often, so I'm glad we caught it when we did. |
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| Obliviousness |
[Nov. 13th, 2009|03:07 pm] |
So, Rich and I were enjoying breakfast at Lindy's in Centreville this morning. This is something we usually do when I have an odd day off, like today. After Lindy's we headed into Three Rivers to get an Oil Change, and some quick shopping at Meijers.
As we're driving back on M-60 through Mendon, we look to our left, and the entire complex that used to be Mendon Apartments has been demolished. What's worse is, it's been long enough that they've landscaped and planted grass on the site where the buildings used to be!
How did we miss that one? |
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| Conferences |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|08:46 pm] |
Once again conferences have come and gone, and I only got to see 2 parents who I actually NEEDED to talk to. It is nice to see the other parents though, those conversations tend to be nice and uplifting.
That's all I got. I'm tired. |
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| huh... |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|07:33 pm] |
Have you ever noticed that you can't usually tell an accent on LJ? You'd think idioms and local spelling would point to where a person was from almost immediately, but in the kinds of things people write into LJ, they just don't come up that often.
I mean Lorry vs. Truck
or Color vs. Colour
(or even teeter-totter vs. see-saw or soda vs. pop for that matter.)
It just doesn't come up!
I was wandering through one of my communities, and someone asked where you could buy hairsticks in the U.K. Some of the responders, I never would have guessed were from the U.K. based on their previous posts. Oh well, I guess my world is getting smaller again. |
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| Sick days suck... NOT! |
[Oct. 26th, 2009|01:10 pm] |
So, in the first two months of school, I've used more sick days than in the previous 4 years combined. It's not that I've been any more sick this year, it's that I've decided to start actually staying home when I'm sick. It's a hell of a lot of work to stay home from work when you're a teacher, but, I really do think that staying home meant I got healthy faster back in September. In past years, I would have gone to school when I had the flu, taking a bottle of DayQuill with me and avoiding sneezing on anybody, and using a TON of hand-sanitizer throughout the day. But this year, I'm staying home!
For the record? It's not H1N1 that decided me on staying home, as I believe that my staying home or going to school will have NO effect on the course of the outbreak in our area. From what I can tell from the paranoid outpourings of our media and the CDC, H1N1 is no more deadly than other flues for people who catch it, it's just more contagious, so more people are going to catch it. Also, I don't know if this is H1N1, or just the seasonal flu, and don't feel like wasting $50 on an office visit to the Doctor to get it tested. Socially irresponsible of me I know.
On the brighter side, I finally convinced myself to bring home AND work on the grading pile, and I was actually working my way through it until about 15 minutes ago when I decided to update my journal. Usually, I end up bringing the pile home, then hauling it back to school with nothing done, then bringing it home the next night, then hauling it back the next day, then repeating this a few more times, adding papers every time, until eventually I just give in, stay late at school and grade everything in a horrible frenzy of credit/no credit. I'm about 1/3 of the way through, which is good, since the marking period ends on Friday.
Okay, back the Futurama marathon/Grading session. The DayQuill just kicked in, and I'm doing okay for right now. |
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| The lost art of the than you note |
[Oct. 24th, 2009|08:34 am] |
So, recently, I sent out two "thank you" notes to people in my pipe band via snail mail. One to our recently ousted ex-president, to thank him for years of service (and to apologize for ousting him.) and one to a woman who had just had a good friend of hers pass away... so I guess that was more of a condolence letter, but still.
When I went to practice this week, I had totally made their day. It's amazing the difference in perception between an e-mail and a handwritten (or typed I suppose if your handwriting has degraded that far due to computer usage) message showing up in your postbox. So, to anyone reading this: I'd like to encourage you to find someone you admire in an organization you belong to, and take a half hour out of your life to write them a thank you note. As a culture, we need to get back into that habit. |
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| Am I being persecuted? |
[Oct. 14th, 2009|09:30 pm] |
Or just harrassed?
So, back in late June and early July, Rich and I were in and out of Mendon so often we forgot to check the mail for a full month. Now, Mendon is a small town, and those of us who live here within a certain distance of the post office are required to have a postbox, rather than getting delivery to our home.
When we finally did check mail towards the end of July, they had shut down our mailbox.
This was annoying, and led to a lot of confusion, but for a small fee, because we were late in filling out some paperwork, we got it straightened out... so we thought. (I have a check for $14 dated 7/17 showing I reopened the box that day... it was cashed... problem solved, right?)
Come the start of school, I go into work to get ready for the year to start. I get called down to the superintendent's office. Apparently, some of my mail had been returned to the school. (This would have been September 1st... over a month later.)
I go into the post office the next day after school, and talk to a woman, who I thought was the actual postmaster. I show her the evidence that my mail is still being returned a month later. Her response? "I don't know how that could happen. I'll look into it."
That Friday, The local policeman comes drives up to our house to deliver our water bill!?!?!? Why is the local police wasting time? Because my bill had been marked with a post office generated computer printed label that states quite clearly that mail is not deliverable to that post box! It just happens that the polic stattion shares and office space at the township hall where they manage water bills. I am in school at this time, so I sent Rich to the post office to ask about it. He talked to the woman behind the desk who said she'd leave the postmaster a note.
Last week, we had a repeat of this event! The police drive up, deliver our bill, because the post office generated computer printed label on the bill states quite clearly that mail in not deliverable to the post box! Yesterday, Rich went in and asked them to fix it, talked to the same girl, who basically said the same thing: That she'd leave a note for the post master (mistress? whatever).
So, 4 months down the road, this whole time, when we've been getting mail at all, it's been junk mail. I don't know what I've been missing out on. My teaching certificate was probably a casualty of this fiasco. It's just a good thing they track that electronically now, but I'd still like a hard copy!
What more can I do? I could write a nasty letter to the regional postmaster, right? You know what the likely result of that would be? A slap on the wrist to our local post master, and continuing retaliation on me. All that has to happen is that she has to sit down at her computer, punch a few buttons, and let the postal system know that I have a post box there! GRRRRRR! |
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| CSA-Week 20 |
[Oct. 12th, 2009|06:19 pm] |
So, I forgot to post what we got for our last veggie christmas:
A loaf of bread, 2 squash, 4 onions, 3 peppers, a bunch of carrots and some brussel sprouts.
Also, I finally posted a new story starter in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) storystarters Please add to it! |
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| CSA-Week 19 |
[Sep. 29th, 2009|04:53 pm] |
Ah... one more week of veggie christmas, than a long cold winter. *sigh* It was fun while it lasted. We shall have to start saving for next year.
( CSA Haul )
Yeah. I'd say it's been worth the $350 we paid last spring. I plan to tally it all up after the last share comes in next week, just out of curiosity, but it has definitely paid for itself and more. (If only because we had to eat vegatables.)
For the record? Carrots can be shredded into almost any rice or pasta dish you make, and usually can't even be seen! |
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piperchicki's journal
frustrated