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May 22, 2000 |
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Okay guys. I'm on to you. Really I'm on to you. It all started
on Saturday, when I sent out mail
about Thanksgiving dinner next week. Yes, Thanksgiving dinner. It's a
long story, but if you want to read about it
be my guest, no pun intended. Anyway, I'm guessing that it all originated
from Tom; I think he had an instrumental
part in the last one. I think they're doing something to celebrate my
birthday, which is coming up… in three weeks!
Still, it is fun to just beat the bushes and see what comes out.
[Ha!]
Yes, admittedly, one of my friends goofed and forwarded me part of that
thread. No, I won't tell you who it was, but I'm not sure if this person
is even aware of it.
Some clues. Some of my friends have mail from other folks on my invitation
list that I haven't gotten yet. Yes, that was also a tip off. As
was my Gift List page getting larger than
usual hits. At least they had the sense of not having everyone sign up for
the notification list at once. No, I don't track the mail on the list,
that would be strange. However, I do monitor who signs up for the list.
I'm not comfortable with the idea of a complete stranger knowing precisely
what my friends are getting me.
And yet someone else in the invitation list, who I talked to on the phone,
said something to the effect of it being a very active e-mail
thread and knowing precisely what I was getting. Face it… you
guys have blown it.
Still, I'll sit here relatively quietly in my office. Although, I'd be
delighted to see who would read this journal entry and put the two
together. I know I'm such an pain-in-the-ass.
Remember that bug fix I was working on Friday and Saturday? Well, after putting together the fix and confirming it through the first line of testing, we decided to blow off the bug.
I won't say that I disagree with the decision. I'm actually pretty indifferent about it. Sometimes it is just a little frustrating to spend time and effort on ideally something that won't get fixed. I understand it is all about calculated risks and making informed decisions, but sometimes I get weary.
Sorry, I forgot about lunch, so I'm adding this some days later…
I had lunch with Dave today. He treated me for lunch, since the Braves won the season series versus the Giants. The bet was for lunch at the restaurant of our choice, so thus we're having chicken wings at Hooters. He said he was very amused about the idea of having Hooters on his credit card statement… and yes, his wife knows.
I wasn't in a very talkative mood, I was nursing a dull headache. Dave and I chatted during lunch. Dave may be a bigger baseball enthusiast than myself. Really He knows more baseball history, I'm an infant when it comes to baseball.
You know what I like most about talking to Dave? I love listening to him talk about his family. I like seeing the way his eyes light up when he talks about his son, Dan. How he is so amused about the way his son eats his french fries or what he says when he goes to the zoo. It's great because he is confident. He is not ashamed to talk about his son and how much he loves him.
And naturally, he talks about his wife. The way they both love baseball, and collect baseball movies… how they enjoy John Cusack movies, and simply the way the care about each other. …how they buy each other movies. It's endearing.
Lunch was over much too quickly and naturally Dave picks up the tab. He paid with his San Francisco Giants credit card in a small sense of protest. Classic Dave.
I went to the grocery store to shop for my dinner party on Saturday. Being a single guy who happens to eat out most of the time, I don't typically have any perishables at home. It's not that I don't know how to cook, because obviously I do, it's just that cooking for one person is pretty tough. I can't remember the last time I managed to finish off a dozen eggs or a carton of milk.
You know what I found out about turkeys a few years ago when I first started this? You simply cannot get any fresh turkeys at this time of year. None. Frozen turkeys are not bad, really, I'm sure most of the turkeys that are served during regular Thanksgiving were frozen at one point. Another thing to note about turkeys though, is the fact that they seemed to be polarized around two sizes, too small and too big. Really The perfect size would've been about fifteen or sixteen pounds. The turkeys were either under eleven or over twenty-one. You know something… Life is mocking me.
I also got all the ingredients for my cheesecake. It's a good cheesecake. I've been able to bribe people with it. No joke. At this point, I've baked it so frequently that I know the ingredients from memory. I won't bore you the details about my baking skills because all I do is simply follow directions, but people seem to like it nonetheless.
You know what else I found out? After close inspection, I found that margarine has an expiration date. Did you guys know that? I mean it's months, literally… like September for instance. I've always pictured margarine as one of those things that keep, this is why certain foods are appealing. Stove Top Stuffing for instance, because it requires no other food items that expire quickly… like eggs or milk.
As I was going through the vegetables, I got a couple of Vidalia onions for one of my potato recipies, as well as a ten pound sack of potatoes. That's one of the reasons why I make so many potatoes. I have to use up the entire sack. You don't think that I would actually do anything else with these potatoes do you?
Oh, you did… Pervert!
I was wearing my Miami Hurricanes shirt, which I didn't think about at the time. I sneezed while I was in the vegetable section and one of the attendants in the market replied with a, "Bless You". I didn't think anything of it at the time.
I went to the checkout line shortly after that. All the lines seemed equally bad, so I just picked one and stuck with it. I was thinking to myself that I was pretty tired and I might simply go to sleep shortly after dinner. The attendant from the vegetable section stopped and started talking to me.
He noticed that I had a shirt from Miami and wondered if I was really from there. I told him I was. It turns out that he lived in Kendall, which is about five minutes from one of the places I lived while attended the University of Miami. We reminisced about what life was like in Miami… the Cuban food that was available at all times of the day or night… The warmth and the sun… the way the people were genuinely friendly.
Okay, I know that Washingtonians are going to balk at this, but sorry folks you're not friendly. I'm not saying that you guys are unfriendly, just not particularly friendly. I'm also not saying that you guys are not polite, because you certainly are, it's not like we're living in New York City here (Great… now, I'll get hate mail from New Yorkers.) Folks in Miami talk to each other. Case and point, when was the last time you were approached by a Washingtonian supermarket attendant?
I said something to the effect of, "Washintonians will never talk to the next person in line" The woman in front of me in line chuckled. We were all talking there while the checkout line crawled along. He left shortly after, though I continued talking to the woman in front of me.
It turns out that she is actually Californian. [See!] And she moved here for the job. She asked me where she should go to in Miami since she would be there in business in a few weeks. She talked about her two kids, the younger of who is seventeen and about to go to college. The other works with a veterinarian and fell in love with a kitten about a year ago and talked her into keeping it. She talked about how she travels entirely too much, and that she may enjoy it in moderation, but she is growing weary. She talked about her pets, the miniature dog that is smaller than the cat and the turtle that hibernates for six months.
She was a very cool lady. That's the kind of friendliness that is lacking with most Washingtonians.
I went home immediately after that. I also had to go through my refrigerator and throw away any of the older items so there wouldn't be any confusion. I was then able to put the food away. I then ate my dinner and tooled around with my computer. I was pretty tired, so I went to sleep.
Rest is good.
May 22, 2000