Monthly Archive for November, 2007

mmm… yumminess

Published on November 28, 2007 in moBlog. Closed Tags: food, memories, mobile.

I developed a taste (read: addiction) for apple soda way back in 1995, on a school foreign language club trip to Mexico. At all the cool little restaurants we ate at, we would ask what kinds of soda they had and apple was always on the list among the cokes and sprites and roor beers. Prior to that, I’d only had some sparkling apple stuff at holiday parties and such. I had a bit of a hard time finding it back on the east coast. the Jones green apple variety was way too sweet. The Izze apple was closer, but a little too much like juice. I was hoping to find some online a couple years ago, since coca-cola bottled an apple fanta… and my search didn’t turn up any american products, but I did find Sidral Mundet. Now, I tend to have a supply of Manzanita Sol in the house all the time. It’s a little sweeter than the authentic stuff, but it’s yummy, and probably closest to what I got in restaurants in Mexico. And it’s at a lot of grocery stores and gas stations. Yay!

shopping

Published on November 26, 2007 in Family & Friends. Closed Tags: Dad, friends, memories, money.

After a short day of work, Sarah and I made a holiday shopping tour of several stores and the mall. We bought stuff for a lot of family and friends and got some supplies for Sarah to make her own wrapping paper. I got some ideas for some of y’all, so you might be receiving something from me this year, either in the mail or maybe when I’m back east for those few days just before Christmas. If you’re thinking about returning the favor, I have combined my immense and confusing Amazon wish lists into one enormous list so that anyone who happens to search for me gets to see everything.

Shopping for other people really does cause some neat warm-and-fuzzy feelings. I have a fond memory of an extreme example of that phenomenon. My dad took this guy named Danny, who did odd jobs for us because he needed the money, and his kid, Phillip to the mall and had them pick out everything they wanted to get for each other. Then Dad paid for it all. I took the kid around and helped him get over the urge to just stare at and touch things he wanted and think of things his mom and dad would want. It was really nice.

training at the Y

Published on November 25, 2007 in Random Thoughts and Work. Closed Tags: camp, memories, YMCA.

I don’t get paid enough to train people. I don’t get paid enough to empty trash and walk the building, either… I barely get paid enough to sit here and stare at a computer, though that really isn’t my job. There’s supposedly a new girl coming in this morning, who has never been here, and who I need to train. She’ll be sitting over at courtesy desk, so there isn’t a whole lot to explain to her. That half of the job is pretty simple, watch the check-in screen for notes, greet people, refill coffee pots, hand out towels, start loads of towels in the washer, file guest sheets. I almost get paid enough to do that job… but I’m not here for the money, I’m here so I don’t lose the retirement fund I’ve contributed to for the past however many years.

My headache disappeared sometime shortly after I got home yesterday. We put the tree up. The stand is a bazillion times better than those old overgrown ashtray with a retaining ring stands I remember from my childhood. Got a little tree sap on my arms and a lot on my hands. Getting it off my arms reminded me of the days at Camp when I was climbing evergreens for ropes course work almost everyday. I stopped wearing shorts and started wearing a long sleeve work shirt to avoid getting that stuff in the hair… it takes so much effort and/or so much really abrasive cleaners to remove it. Getting it off my hands was easy, but I’ve still got a couple little marks on my arm that I didn’t put enough effort into. The tree smells nice, though. I hope it lasts until Christmas, it doesn’t seem to be taking up as much water as I expected for the first day. It could just be a different kind of tree than I’m used to. Obviously, my “lottery tree” didn’t need water, and that’s all I’ve really dealt with for the past 6 years or so.

Back to the boring.

ouch

Published on November 24, 2007 in Family & Friends and Random Thoughts. Closed Tags: food, my.head, YMCA.

Mornings at the Y are especially boring when the basketball league takes the weekend off. The height of activity, so far, was selling a 24″ wreath. We’re pretty sure that our tree grew while it was up on the roof, on the ride home. I think we’ll be pushing furniture around this afternoon and putting it up. If my headache goes away, that is. I woke up with a little headache, and it has grown into a ridiculously painful mess. I tried drinking a bunch of water, thinking that I might just be dehydrated. When that had no effect, I tried some coffee. I don’t think it’s working, either. I’m in the home stretch, now, though.

have tree, will travel

Published on November 23, 2007 in moBlog. Closed Tags: driving, food, memories, mobile.

tied down with care. makes me miss my jeep(s), though I don’t think I ever actually used them to pick up a christmas tree. we also got free cups a hot cider and a free apple cider donut. yum.

happy black friday, we bought a tree

Published on November 23, 2007 in moBlog. Closed Tags: memories, mobile.

in case it’s not apparent, that’s a big round bail of hay dressed as a turkey. we bought a christmas tree… pretty different from when I lived with my parents and we’d run out and get one as close to the day as possible, and then leave it up until St Patrick’s day. It’s also a far cry from my hand-me-down “lottery tree” that served as the whole of the holiday decorations in Woonsocket. It may have come out this early on one or two years, but taking it out of the closet was a lot less effort.

closed for the season

Published on November 21, 2007 in Family & Friends, Photo, Random Thoughts and Work. Closed Tags: food, friends, memories, mobile, my.head, Photo, team.building.

Except for administering the post program surveys and evaluations… and entering all that data in the computers … Adventure Ed. is done for the season. I’m uploading the last of the pictures, now. I’ll probably have to put together a CD of them all organized into folders again for the kids, my coworker Antoinette or both. I should probably do that this weekend, so I can give CDs to the facilitators and teachers this week… just in case eMailing the students doesn’t go as planned.

Got a big dinner in the works for tomorrow… helped prepare some desserts for baking this afternoon/morning. I always feel really full after the Adventure Ed. overnights, so the idea of a big meal isn’t all that appealing right now, but I’m sure I’ll be hungry by tomorrow. A couple years ago, I went a little moblog crazy on Thanksgiving. Life was pretty different back then. I won’t deny that it’s fun for me to go back and read old posts. Especially the ones where I’m not doing as well as I am now. I was whiny and depressed a lot, probably terribly uninteresting reading for all of you… but fun for me, ’cause things are so much better now. Don’t get me wrong, I still feel ridiculously tired and on the verge of non-functioning after work some days, but now it seems like it’s a justified exhaustion instead of just not being able to focus or just having a broken head.