I’m writing this post in Pages on my iPad, and will upload it onto my iDisk, since my WordPress app isn’t working correctly. There, enough technology references for ya?
I see that I haven’t written any in the last six weeks. Which is unusual compared to how frequently I posted when I started this thingie here. I guess time and different life circumstances make for a lot of change and will alter one’s writing/documenting habits.
Nanowrimo is coming up in a couple of weeks (they’re already ramping up their tweets on Twitter). If you”ll remember from last year, November is NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth and I took part in that and it was fun.
So in order to get back into writing maybe doing this on my iPad (which I love, btw) will make it a little more fun to write. Stay tuned to see if I tackle nanowrimo this year.
It’s been almost three and four years since Rattle & Hum, The Twins™, have died. Friends and family have repeatedly asked if I was going to get another pet and when. I took care of Mike’s cat, Aris, for a while last summer and that was fun, he is a great cat. But being unemployed at the time I didn’t think it a good idea to take on another expense. I watched the black alley cat, Mama Kitteh, for weeks while she nursed her four kittens. I desperately wanted to do a smash-and-grab on the two gray ones. But again, being only partially employed at that time, economics won out and I had to let them move on as well.
A third opportunity has presented itself. My neighbor Kevin got a kitten for his daughter but his baby-mama said the kitten wasn’t working out so he took the cat back. I volunteered weekend before last to cat sit while he was out of town for the weekend. I assumed this would involved me coming into his apartment to feed and care for the cat. Instead, he brought the cat to me. He either didn’t want the unattended kitten to tear up his apartment or it was a sly way to make me fall in love with it. When he brought the cat over I had just woken up from a nap so I was a little out of it. He said something to the effect of “keeping the cat if I wanted to” but in my sleep/haze I wasn’t sure if he had said it or not.
Over the weekend the cat snuggled up to me and seemed to enjoy her surroundings. His daughter named the kitten Princess, a name I would have to change if I was to become the food FoodGiver. Her pretty eyes are the color of butterscotch pudding so I’ve named her ‘Scotch (note the apostrophe). ‘Scotch is loving and cute and still a kitten. This last aspect is the only thing that irritated me over the weekend, with her hyperactivity, jumping (on me) with claws full-on, etc. And then I needed to remember that this is what kittens do, and in time she will mellow out.
Come Monday when Kevin came back to pick-up/discuss said kitty’s residency I told him that I just needed a few more days with her, through the full week and next weekend to make my decision. Well I think that decision has already been made because I went to the grocery store on Saturday and picked up a big bag of dry food, cans of wet food and some kittie litter.
I’ve owned four computers in my life: a Performa 630 CD, the very first bondi blue iMac, a PowerBook (Pismo) and my current iMac G5. Sixteen years ago, while owning that Performa, no one thought of backing up their files in case their hard drive crashed. It was just a given that the computer would continue to run as expected. And you could always transfer files to a diskette if you needed to keep them extra special.
Now that my iMac is an achingly old (in computer lifespans) five years I’ve decided it’s time to back up all those old files just in case there is an impending hard drive crash (or monitor outage, logic board death, etc). So now I’ve got all that info saved. I was going to write about this experiencing concerning an Apple product that I’m using but I’ve decided against that so this post may be a little abbreviated from what it was once going to be. Sorry about that. But all’s well with the backup. And it’s being done wirelessly.
Here’s your weekly gross-out. It’s getting better, but still can’t fully bend my knee. There’s a doctor appointment next Monday so maybe I’ll get some anti-inflammatory pills. And hopefully an xray on my right hand, which I really think is broken now because it stills hurts so much.
In a fortnight, Season Four of Mad Men starts up. If I burn through an episode of Season Three a day, I can be all primed for the debut.
Mad Men’s official website is here, which contains sneak peaks and cast interviews, recaps and full episodes from last season as well as a cocktail guide. The official iPhone app can be downloaded here.
AMC brilliantly whipped up interest and hype last summer before its Season Three premiere by allowing users to “Mad Men Yourself” which just about everyone on the planet did. The avatars were able to be used on Facebook and Twitter and everybody was a cartoon character for a while. If you were one of the few that didn’t, you can still do it here.
Obtaining groceries without a car can be somewhat cumbersome. Thankfully there are now (within the last few years) online services that will deliver groceries to you, just like on those ’50s television shows. But then when you lose your job those convenient online services tell you that they don’t take the EBT Card as a form of payment. That means I’ve been walking (or biking, or evening Zipcarring) to the local Safeway to get my groceries for the past 18 months. Ah, I do miss that EBT Card though…
So now that I am working 55 hours/week in order to make up for all that moola I didn’t make in ’09, and I’ll mention The Crash which has put the bike out of commish, it’s a little difficult to get to the grocery store. I decided to pull up my Peapod account and take a look at what they’re offering now that I’ve been shelf-shopping for the past 18 months. I found that I had an unplaced order already tallied up that I hadn’t set for its delivery schedule when I got the pink slip back in December ’08. Oddly enough, it seems pretty much in par for what I’d be ordering today. I’d have to add a couple of items to get that additional $1 off on the delivery fee though (on orders over $100)—like frozen entrees that I could take to work instead of spending $8 a day on lunch! I’ve still got a pretty well-stocked pantry, due to the EBT system providing much more purchasing power than I would use in a month, $200. So I’ve got boxed goods and canned goods for a while. Bomb shelter!
Item
Size
Qty
Item Price*
Total Price*
Produce Stand
Apples Granny Smith
1 EA
2
.99
1.98
Banana Green
1 EA
3
.39
1.17
Banana Yellow
1 EA
3
.39
1.17
Carrots Baby Peeled Organic
16 OZ BAG
1
1.99
1.99
Lettuce Red Leaf
1 EA
1
1.99
1.99
Lettuce Romaine
1 EA
1
1.99
1.99
Onions Yellow Organic
3 LB BAG
1
3.79
3.79
Meat & Seafood
Ground Beef 85% Lean Big Buy
APX 2.5 LB
1
11.22
11.22
Deli
Cabot Cheese Cheddar Sharp 50% Reduced Fat
8 OZ BAR
1
3.39
3.39
Deli Ham Virginia Style Cooked (Thin Sliced)
APX 1/2 LB
1
2.99
2.99
Beverages
Deer Park Spring Water – 24 pk
16.9 OZ BTL
1
6.49
6.49
Bread & Bakeshop
Nature’s Promise Naturals Bread 100% Whole Grain
24 OZ PKG
1
1.99
1.99
Nature’s Promise Naturals Bread Multigrain
24 OZ PKG
1
1.99
1.99
Cereal & Breakfast Foods
Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts Frosted Strawberry – 12 ct
22 OZ BOX
1
3.00
3.00
Snacks, Cookies & Candy
Doritos Tortilla Chips Nacho Cheese Family Size
17 OZ BAG
1
4.89
4.89
Giant Saltines Fat Free
15 OZ BOX
1
1.50
1.50
Snyder’s of Hanover Pretzels Sourdough Hard Fat Free
16 OZ BAG
1
2.50
2.50
Grains, Pasta & Side Dishes
Barilla Pasta Rigatoni
16 OZ BOX
1
1.79
1.79
Barilla Pasta Spaghetti Thin
16 OZ BOX
2
1.79
3.58
Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper Cheesy Enchilada
7.5 OZ BOX
1
2.19
2.19
Baking Goods
Guaranteed Value Sugar Cane Granulated
4 LB BAG
1
2.29
2.29
Condiments, Oils & Dressings
Giant Olive Oil Spanish Olives Extra Virgin
17 OZ BTL
1
6.29
6.29
Ken’s Steak House Dressing Fat Free Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette
8 OZ BTL
1
1.00
1.00
Ken’s Steak House Dressing Healthy Options Parmesan & Peppercorn
8 OZ BTL
1
1.00
1.00
Sauces, Spices & Seasonings
McCormick Oregano Leaves
1.37 OZ BTL
1
3.49
3.49
Laundry, Paper & Cleaning
Brawny Paper Towels Big Roll 2-Ply Prints
6 CT PKG
1
8.99
8.99
Health & Beauty
Softsoap Liquid Hand Soap Antibacterial with Light Moisture Pump
I guess not a lot has happened in the last week. Sleep, bus, train, train, work, train, train, walk, work, eat, repeat. It’s difficult trying to make up for all that money I didn’t make last year. But both jobs payroll have taken to my direct deposit which is really convenient so there’s fewer bank trips depositing actual checks.
To check progress and possibly still have a grossout, here’s some pix of the crash burns, two weeks out. The arm’s coming along fine but the knee is still problematic. The skin is still not very pliable and the flexibility of my knee joint is very limited. So even though there’s not a lot of pain, it’s still a nuisance to hobble around with one non-bending leg.
Here are pix of the worst of the bang-ups, and also the huge (from bicycle standards) bump in the road that took me down. The only part that really hurts much is the knee, and that’s pretty much because I can’t bend it due to the tautness of the skin that is there while the wound heals. Needless to say, it’s taking the longest to make it to the healing point of scabbing over and closing the flesh wound. Gross, I know, but the facts.
But on the flipside, I now have health insurance! I received my membership card in the mail today, and apparently it’s a pretty good healthcare system from what I’ve been hearing the folks at work say: very little co-pays and I can see any doctor I want at any time. Time to schedule an appointment and get these wounds (and still a hand that can’t grasp well) looked at. Maybe get some meds too. I think the fun painkiller meds are out of the realm now but perhaps I can get something that will help me heal quicker.
And I love that my medical card has The Logo on it.
a fortnight, Season Four of Mad Men starts up. If I burn through an episode of Season Three a day, I can be all primed for the debut.
