MetaChat - 3-point Saturday update

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

07 February 2009

3-point Saturday update →[More:]
1. I went to the Dulwich Picture Gallery today to see the Saul Steinberg exhibition. It was pretty damn fine. After looking at dozens of finely drawn black-ink-on-white-paper illustrations, going into the main gallery was a bit of a "Whoa! Colours!" experience. There are two astonishing paintings by Canaletto in the main gallery which make everything else in the place look like the daubings of a four-year-old.

2. I had a friend coming for dinner, and was organised enough to put a beef stew in the slow cooker this morning, so I only had to cook some potatoes and vegetables when I got home. We had snow ice cream for dessert. It was lovely.

3. At the AA meeting tonight I saw someone I hadn't seen in years. He'd been struggling badly to stay sober last time I saw him, and there are some people who, when they drop off from the meetings, you fear the worst. He was one of those I thought would never get sober. But he's back, after it got a lot worse for him, and he was looking well. There is always hope, even for those who appear hopeless.

post by: essexjan at: 17:34 | 28 comments

Oh, and a 4. I saw a deer tonight, a little muntjac, right by the side of the road next to the forest.

posted by essexjan 07 February | 17:44

1. Am sick. Takin' it easy.

2. Debit card's magnetic strip has lost it's mojo, I can't get cash @ ATM to do the laundry, so it looks like I'll only be able to 2 loads max.

3. Target was out of Blue Moon. NOOOOO!

posted by hellojed 07 February | 17:58

1. Marked some mock exams today. Because "door" is plural in Polish, there were some gems in the writing samples today: "The door swung open...and suddenly they slammed shut."

2. All kinds of weird gender stuff going on - we're four men and four women at work, and bizarrely we self-segregated for after-exam-marking drinks tonight. It was the first time in half a year I was hanging out with a male-only group of people. Strange, yet probably how I spent nearly all of high school. Also, only one of the staff toilets at work has a bin, so that's become the female-identified toilet. I really really do not like gendered anything, really, so I'm campaigning to get a second bin in the "gents'", thereby opening all toilets to all and ushering the Age of Aquarius or something.

3. I drink the tap water here as of today though no one else does, even though the water department's own statistics indicate that it's totally safe (if a little hard).

posted by mdonley 07 February | 18:08

1) It was an unseasonably warm day today, and I spent the first half of it outdoors volunteering and working in the yard. I must have pissed off my neck earlier today when I was digging in the front yard. So. Sore.

2) Was given a starter for Amish Friendship Bread. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's a chain letter for bakers!

3) Ate carrots from the garden. I think they're the last thing I'll have from the garden for a couple of months. It's almost time to start tomatoes, though! Actually, I may start them next week or the following.

posted by Stewriffic 07 February | 18:14

1. Halfway done painting my apartment hallway a vivid cross between Grape Nehi and Cabernet grapes - a tone delicately called Royal Lilac. Thank you Pittsburgh Paints.

2. Decided that I finally dig TV on the Radio. Dear Science is a great album.

3. Signed up to do tabling for a local charity tomorrow as part of a fundraising event. So tomorrow early morning will find me telling how we're trying to raise fuel and food money for less fortunate people whilst 100 people stand behind me doing power yoga for three hours straight to raise that money.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 07 February | 18:14

1. Watching Planet Earth (the great plains episode) and backing up hard drive on this chill Saturday afternoon.

2. Going to see a local band at the bar down the street in a few hours.

3. Very excited to go mountain lion trapping tomorrow. It'll be my first time tracking a big cat.

posted by special-k 07 February | 18:22

1. Work announced ten days of furloughs between now and the end of June. That's basically a 10% pay cut. I don't know if my already stretched budget can stretch that much further.

2. But it may not matter, because I have a job interview in Berkeley on the 17th.

3. Found out a former friend killed himself on Thursday. So sad for his family. I'm super sad, too.

posted by Twiggy 07 February | 18:24

Dear Science is a great album.

Amen.

posted by special-k 07 February | 18:27

1. Jon and I just ordered Greek food and are watching M*A*S*H. Since he's out of his cast, he gets to go downstairs to get the food. Heh.

2. One more week of teaching and I get a week off. I sure could use a rest. About 97% of one of my 11th grade classes passed their English regents, but only 60% of the other, so we got some work to do. The 60% class is very large (34 students, the legal maximum), with some highly disruptive students and reading levels from 3rd grade to college. I tried to get the administration at our school to break up the lower performing class so I could give some students more individual attention, but they just accused me of trying to make things easier on myself. Frustrating to say the least.

3. I desperately need to do laundry. I've been washing underwear out in the sink for a week, and we don't even wanna talk about socks.

(on preview: so sorry to hear, Twiggy.... my condolences)

posted by Pips 07 February | 18:27

.5 I actually have money in the bank! W00t!

1. Went to Winter Jam at East River Park. Worst job market since days of singer-songwriters and butterfly collars plus "free" equals "total goatfuck."

2. Walked west to Union Square Greenmarket, where I purchased a little tub of rendered leaf lard, because it's the latest culinary beat from off the street.

2.5 Went to City Bakery, where I had a caramel hot chocolate.

3. Now what the hell does one do with leaf lard again? Pastry or something like that?

posted by jason's_planet 07 February | 18:29

3. Now what the hell does one do with leaf lard again? Pastry or something like that?

Sculpture!

posted by essexjan 07 February | 18:36

1. I had an episode this last week in which, Monday during Volleyball I got some bad chest tightness, so I have to quit, then it felt better immediately, and then for the next few days, every time I exerted I got this tightness. . .uh oh.. . so Wednesday afternoon I called the DR, who fortunately was working late hours that day, and I went in, very worried about my heart (damn the internets!). He said that my heart seemed OK and it was either pneumonia or asthma. A chest x-ray later, asthma. So I am on prednisone and it seems to be kicking in, fortunately.

2. Went to the gym and merely soaked in the hot tub today.

3. We had had a dinner party planned for last night and went ahead even though I wasn't feeling that good and it was a jolly time. I made some kickass moussaka and greek salad. . .

posted by danf 07 February | 19:07

1. TheDonF and I are all achy all over from clearing brambles on our allotment. Damn, that's some hard work.
2. I'm still dreaming about the pizza we cooked last night. God that was good.
3. Scarlett Johanssen should just show more boobies in whatever film she happens to be in.

posted by Specklet 07 February | 19:14

1. Watching history channel show on the WWII German resistance
2. Big day of clearing out the apartment. Lots of stuff donated to Goodwill.
3. Friends coming around for dinner tonight. Yay!

posted by gaspode 07 February | 19:21

1. I just put a bunch of sea shanties and early American folk music on my iPod.

2. Our handbell choir is performing at church tomorrow (Sunday) morning.

3. Tomorrow I start catsitting for a week. The cats are very mom-oriented and keep looking at me in disgust, saying "you're not mom!"

posted by Melismata 07 February | 19:32

1. Finished work on this month's neighborhood council newsletter. You wouldn't think that it would take me a day and a half to get out a four page circular.

2. My new job was pushed back by a week on Friday. Boo! Now I don't start until the 16th. There was some mis-communication between the recruiter and HR about how long my background check would take.

3. Helped my son by a little Mazda MX-6 last week which keeps him from using my car and gets him out of the house more often which means that Ms. Octo and I can have a little more empty nest time.

LT - I used to work for the company that makes Pittsburgh Paint (PPG) and worked with the people who developed the current color pallet. Amazingly it costs something like 30 million dollars to design, name, develop, test and market a new color system for a paint company.

posted by octothorpe 07 February | 19:34

1. ONe purring kitten in lap, another purring kitten on shoulder. PUrring kittens make typing difficult.

2. Gf told me that our garden plot needed weeding. I headed over there for the first time in a month to discover the egregiousness of her understatement. The plot doesn't need weeding, it needs Agent Orange.

2a. Back hurts from weeding.

3. Making Moroccan beef stew and cous cous for dinner. You wouldn't believe how good it smells in here.

posted by mudpuppie 07 February | 19:47

1. Spent ten and one half hours at work today. The last half hour courtesy of having to reboot a recalcitrant computer after the owners' son had used it to play sketchy internet computer games on it.
2. The closer we get to Valentine's day the...well...wackier some of the customers seem to get. Which does, I admit, make work entertaining but not when I need to try to talk someone in another state into putting a Teleflora arrangement into a FTD vase. Yeah, right.
3. No one in my house, I repeat, no one has enough energy to cook tonight. I threw money on a table in the living room so someone could go get food and people are too tired to do that. Honestly I am too tired to eat anyway.

posted by bunnyfire 07 February | 19:59

1. Workin', workin'. Today, I showed Straight No Chaser and three people showed up, and then I showed Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys, and about twenty did. Perry always packs 'em in. The adults seemed very happy to have the additional option of sweet tea with their popcorn, instead of just the usual off-brand Kool-Aid. Dunno if we'll have money in the budget for sweet tea next time, though. Geez, that sounds a little pathetic.

2. Installin', installin'. I just put an Ahearne Spaceman on my singlespeed bike. Going for a ride tomorrow. City riding on a Sunday afternoon doesn't usually call for a lot of courage, so I probably won't fill the flask beforehand.

3. Chillin', chillin'. Tonight, I'm drinking I P As and playing Skate 2. Hops and ollies. Skate 2 is the best aimlessly-wander-around videogame since GTAIV. People in online freeskate are always trying to rope you into challenges, though.

posted by box 07 February | 20:38

1. Continuing to freak out about my UMD admission.

2. Have come to the realization that I barely do any work during the day on weekends, only at night. Combined with the fact that I really don't do anything when I get home from work--ugh. Slightly problematic.

3. Freaking out about work. The big cheese said that they aren't doing furloughs (yet, which isn't exactly comforting) but that there will be no salary increases next year. I guess it's time to start looking at student loans again.

posted by sperose 07 February | 20:50

Well it's Sunday here but....

1) Stinky babbeh woke up at 4am. Which means I did. Plus added bonus of poop explosion at 5:30am. He has just gone back to sleep - now 11am. I'm trying not to cry.

2) I can't shake this damn cold. Possibly because I'm only getting about 4 hours sleep a night. The runny nose I can deal with, the body aches not.

3) Stinky babbeh can stand up by himself now without holding on to anything. He showed me many times this morning. I guess we aren't far away from running now.

posted by gomichild 07 February | 21:03

Sweet tea's cheap if you can make it yourself. Gosh I love sweet tea.

posted by Stewriffic 07 February | 21:47

1) trying to watch BSG on hulu and read in the dark while it's buffering
2) drinking a pretty neat little ale that still had the yeast in the bottle. Mom says she's going to check on me in the morning. :P
3) Got an asploding box from this same mother. She'd put a pop-up carwash in the box, folded up, without telling me. That thing is six feet by six feet by five feet high. Scared the bejeezus out of me and the cat.
4) usless cat - I cornered a mouse and put him down in front of it and still he just meowed for food.
5) cleared the square foot garden for this year's crops. Going seed-shopping with small children this week.

Uh, the three point scale was in standard, not metric, right?

posted by lysdexic 07 February | 22:08

lysdexic: All home brews have a bit of yeast in the bottom. Just pour the beer into a glass without swirling and leave the bottom 2" in the bottle.

posted by special-k 07 February | 22:44

1. Blah
2. blah
3. BLAH

posted by eekacat 07 February | 23:35

It's Sunday now, but I'm going to join in anyway, starting with condolences and whuffles for those with sad news or stinky crying babies:

1. Back in Birmingham. Warmth, sun, my guy, my kitteh, plus I got to have a road trip with BoPo, who's here for the weekend. Pretty damned sweet all around, I say.
2. Had a great visit with Mum, which is not normally the case, so am feeling really good about that. I got to do some patching that was desperately needed, and painted the powder room a colour she loves, which was also good.
3. Thanks to 2. I have a whack of unspun wool and a couple of new drop spindles, plus 3 new knitting projects on the go to add to the one I left behind here (mailed most of my yarn back to B'ham, only to run out part way through my sister's sweater, so having to start another thing, etc etc). Looks like I'll have no trouble keeping busy.

posted by elizard 08 February | 09:12

1. Hung out with friends on Friday night; very nice.
2. Did nothing much yesterday despite earnest plans.
3. Would appear to be heading in same direction today given that it's almost 1:00 and I'm still in my pajamas.
Must. Get. Motivated.
4. Am jealous of gardeners. No point to doing much of anything here right now, not for another month at least. Also I don't know what I've got and I don't want to go clearing out in case there are bulbs and stuff under the leaf mulch that need the warmth for when it no doubt drops to single digit temps and snows again for the rest of the month.

posted by mygothlaundry 08 February | 12:52

My Sunday 3-point:

1. Made minestrone, and V. made pizza with a new superseekrit recipe

2. Light housekeeping. Would rather lighthouse keeping.

3. We had five adults, two dogs, and a 15-month-old for supper. Boy, am I stuffed!

posted by taz 08 February | 13:15

← Dusty's Trail. || Italian tourist in Fallujah "held for his own safety". →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN