EY's Rants and Raves

Whole weekend to myself, no spouse, no cares. It's kind of odd. But rather nice too. Halloween party at T's Friday was pretty fun. The chicks she works with are a scream. I wanted to go as a vampire, but I couldn't get my fangs to stick. Should have gone for the cheesy ones that you take out instead of "better" ones. Oh well. The fake eyelashes with the beads on the tips were incredible. I may have to get some more of those just for fun. Without the tips, of course. The beads are a bit dramatic for every day. Really good food, but with N and T cooking, there was no way the food would be average.

Saturday night, I kinda had a date. Well, dinner with a friend who happened to be a guy. It was fun. Not too much fun, you understand, just fun. The Boy called to wish me Happy Anniversary. He's off at a 4 Wheel Drive thing called Rocktoberfest. It's not always on our anniversary. You may wonder why one would send the spouse away on anniversary weekend. I don't know that I have a great answer. It's one of the things that he really digs. He is always understanding about things I want to do that he may not understand. I've gone to the SEC Tournament without him, went to Chicago to see the Bears in a luxury box without him, went to CA to visit a friend without him. None of those were on our anniversary, but shouldn't you think about your spouse more than one day a year? We did have a nice dinner last weekend and I'm sure we'll do something else fun this week.

Watched the second episode of Six Feet Under today. It's a little different from what I remember. And I don't remember Ruth sleeping with Hiram in the second episode, but apparently, she was having a little fun earlier than I thought. Since the episodes have no commercial breaks, it's going to take a while to get through the whole season. And after that, I'll have to watch them with the commentary.

Football football football today! Woo Hoo! In addition, I'll have ironing, ironing, ironing and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and vacuuming, vacuuming, vacuuming as well.

No Gentle Reader, I have little new to report. Still no Bon Appetit. I'm buying one tomorrow and tellin Conde Nast about it. My back and chest hurt from Pilates--they never have before, so that's a little odd. Work is, well, work. Nothing new or great or fun there. I did get 31 MPG on my latest tank of gas, so I'm still loving the car.

Nope, now I'm just tired....with no new recipes to read.

I have a friend who has a dream job. Well, HER dream job, that is (and I guess that's what matters). She's a clothing designer and I recently saw her fall line. It's goregous. It is absolutely "her". The colors, the fits, the styles, the fabrics are all incredible. I've always known she has a great eye. I shouldn't be surprised at all, but the depth of her talent is just breathtaking. When I saw her clothes, I was so proud of her that my heart was about to burst. I'm planning to write her (more tangible than a phone call) and tell her this.
I am just so so so so happy for her and delighted that I can admire her talent--even if my money to sense ration prevents me from indulging in any of it!

(And no, no Bon Appetit YET?!?!?!)

But I did call Conde Nast and they assure me that it's coming. Sigh. I'll be patient. Without a Bon Appetit to read, I can ponder on how the inefficiencies of America's health care delivery have finally meant that, while I have insurance, my company's new plan is like being totally uninsured. And paying $70/mo for the priviledge.

Gentle Reader, there is little that brightens my month more than my monthly issue of Bon Appetit. And of all the issues in the year, the November/Thanksgiving is the best. This year, I'm extra-excited because I'll be hostessing a Turkey Day with the fam. So of course, I need ideas...and NOW. The night I got my car, I saw the latest on the stand at Barnes and Noble. I thought I'd be getting mine soon. Then my friend J calls last week and asks "Did you get something in the mailbox?" I hadn't. He'd gotten his. I call BA today and mine should be on its way. I have a menu to plan! Shall we have turkey or ham? What kind of dressing? What new vegetable side dishes could I do instead of brussels sprouts and green beans? Is there a new pie recipe I can try?
I NEED MY MAGAZINE! Ahem, I mean, time's a wasting....I'm a planner. I have to start planning.
Had a lovely dinner with my friend JA today. She's engaged to a wonderful man. I'm so very happy for her, but sad that she'll be moving to NW AR. She's promised to lunch with me when she's in town. Her boy is very sweet and makes her very happy. Can't argue with that.

This was War Eagle weekend, Gentle Reader, and for some reason, I thought it would be fun for my mother and I to go. For the uninitiated, War Eagle is a large craft fair and they really do try for it to be crafts and not a lot of junk. All the surrounding areas also jump on the craft bandwagon. Some of this is very nice to look at and some would be nice to buy. But I'm just not a "put some wooden scarecrow or snowman in my yard" kind of gal. I go for the pottery. Which there was darn little of. But I'll get that at the Arkansas Craft Guild Fair in December. The trip up was OK, the car made it wonderfully, Mom didn't drive me too nuts, Becky's sister and friend took a bit to open up, but when they did, they were cool. I found it funny that we connected over our common love of dogs.
Got all the kids on my Dad's side of the fam bought for. They were the only ones I really could buy for at this kind of gig. Couldn't shop for Mom or Becky right there with them.
I found the actual War Eagle fair to be a bit odd. I'd just been to WE a few weekends ago and was struck, as I often am, by how pretty a place it can be. Mountains (hills, really), a nice plain in the valley, old bridge, big red (operational) grain mill. Green fields, wonderful trees just starting to turn. It's one of the spots that DH loves and I fully understand why. But not this weekend. Oh, the trees and sky were perfect; bridge and mill as they always are. People....tons of people. Tents, cars, SUVs, trampled grass, dust. I don't get why people would bring anyone under 16 to War Eagle. Especially this weekend when it was hot and dry. Little kids could really care less. And the guys....almost every non-vendor male I saw looked like he was being tortured. Why not leave the guys and kids at home to have way more fun than they're having looking at stuff they don't care about? My DH went to WE once. And at the end of the day said "OK, I've been to WE with you. I had fun being with you, but I will never do that again, so don't ask". I absolved him of any future visits and thought it quite funny.
Of course, my visit with Mom was fine until we discussed the holidays. Thanksgiving will be at our house and they'll be here, so no sniping that we won't be spending time with them. Great. Now Christmas. It's at a cousin's in the NE part of the state at a time when we'd normally be heading to the NW part of the state. Not good. Of course, my objection only got me the "you always spend Christmas with them, why can't you spend Christmas with us for once" that I SOOO love. I told her that we'd try to work something out, but that conversations like that make me want to say "if you can't accept the idea of compromise, we just won't come see you at all". Which is so petty. And so uncalled for. But then, so is her attitude. She is RETIRED. Dad takes the months of Dec-Feb. off. His work puts him 30 miles from us every week. If they come spend the weekend with us, it's closer than him going home. My in-laws aren't retired. Sometimes, Thanksgiving and Christmas is the only time we get time to see them. "That's not MY problem" Mom says. And this is the woman who taught me to share. Being an only, it's not like I can foist her off on another sib to deal with until she cools off. If I had other sibs, I suppose it wouldn't matter if ALL of us got together or not. My grandmother was always happy to see the kids that were near or could come see her and to talk to the others on the phone. Would that she had given her daughter any of that.
Sigh. DH agrees that she should be better about the whole thing. He threatened to tell her so, but I don't see that happening. Not sure if it would be better or worse if he did.
Sigh. Yep, only a mother can turn pearls of wisdom into a choker. And make me wish that I'd spent my weekend cleaning out the garage.

Yes, Gentle Reader, I finally got my cute silver Civic coupe. It's just lovely. All small and so sex-ai. With all the features (except navigation) that you can get on one. My mother-in-law has a silver Accord coupe. We're two peas in a pod--she's a big pea, I'm a little pea. Not sure how DH feels about the car....I think he's a little irritated because I'll be demanding to get to park it in the garage (we have a 2 car garage; nary a car has been in it in the 2+ years that we've owned the house). He'd be right.
A rather uneventful football day for me. I'm glad to see Green Bay win a game, but 52-3 over the Homless Saints is excessive. TMQ will say that the football gods won't be pleased. I can't believe Tampa lost...to the Jets. The Jets. Who have a QB who hasn't played in forever; who were 1-3 coming into the game; who got beat by Baltimore, one of the weakest offenses in the league. I can't believe Miami is losing to Buffalo. Bleah. I hate Buffalo. New England is likely going to squeak past Atlanta. AFC team I hate against an NFC team I hate. The worst part of this game is that someone has to win. That Jim Mora Jr sure is cute, however. There, I said something nice about Atlanta.
Chicago lost, Washington could go either way. Dallas and Philly might be fun. Dallas just scored (according to espn.com--Fox is still enamoured of StL and SEA) and I have to believe that was a fluke.
I'm keeping the car a surprise from my Mom. She and I are going to War Eagle Craft Fair this weekend. Should be fun.

It's October. Football season has started (finally). Yet, one of my favorite TV shows, House, isn't being aired tonight because of a baseball playoff game. Not to belabor the point, but Fox, "Who the f*ck cares? It's HOUSE night!!?!?!?" Skip the OC (sorry JB), skip the 70's Show, whatever, but leave me Hugh Laurie's piercing blue eyes and lovely sarcasm. Best I can tell, I'm out until next week. F*cking baseball. Apparently I'm not the only one. A cursory glance at the House message board on fox.com shows that there will be no House for a MONTH and no one is happy. Let's see, watch one spoiled brat doctor who is witty sometimes and has good story lines or watch 2 teams of overpaid men playing a game they played as kids and never got any better at. Hmmmm, which do I choose? House. Which does Fox choose to foist on me? Right. F*cking baseball....until November. Guess I'll have to start recording NFL games and watching them on Tues pm.