Plants again!

My success with growing (read: not killing) both jalepeno plants and sweet potato plants this year has encouraged me to keep trying. JLR and I recently bought a peppermint plant. This one is going to be tricky. I can't leave it in any of our home's prime windowsill locations because Wally will eat it. So during the day I leave it in the one window Wally can't reach, but this window isn't insulated very well, and with the cold temperatures, the plant has been looking a bit pitiful lately. And by "lately," I mean, "basically since the day after I brought it home."

But I'm hopeful yet.

Come on, little peppermint, you can do it!

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Problems with English

I don't know if it's a lack of sleep, a lack of proper nutrition, or just generally getting older, but JLR and I have been having some problems speaking properly. The other night, for example, she told me that she was having breathing problems, "because of the nases." I think she meant her sinus/nasal passages? I couldn't laugh at her because earlier that evening I had made quite a statement of my own.

We were listening to Christmas music on an online radio station. I really liked one song, and JLR told me that it was a Manheim Steamroller song. I was surprised. Not that I don't like any of their music, mind you, but it's not generally my taste. I wanted to say, "Get out!" but my brain was having none of it. It reached for something similar, something that would do, and before I could stop it, my mouth spat it out.

"Go home!" I said with gusto.

Go home. I just--I don't know.


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Planning in a Small City

I work for a city of about 7,000 people and about 6 1/2 square miles. Definitely a small city. We're in an urbanized area, however, and are surrounded by larger cities. The city bordering us to the west has about 750,000 people, and the one sharing our eastern border has about 300,000. Many of our problems, then, are distinctly urban in nature. But despite finding ourselves in the midst of big cities, we still have to deal with rural-type problems, and when we do, well, the suburbanite in me is tickled pink. I can't help it.

Today, a co-worker and I were driving around town posting signs about an upcoming meeting, when my co-worker pointed out that Mr. Carter's goats had gotten out of his field and had wandered into the cemetery next door. Mind you, they weren't in the part with graves, but still. It had potential to become An Issue. After all, who would want to see their loved ones' gravestones being nibbled on by wayward goats? I needn't have worried, though. When I drove back by a little bit later, the goats had moved on. They had somehow circumvented the fence and were now calmly grazing across the street in front of the insurance office.

Conference

Last month, I went to a professional conference on the coast. The warm weather and beach view were great, as was the break from work--oh, no, wait. There was no break. I took my computer and worked in my hotel room at night. Except--there were two nights when I hung out with other professionals at the pre-arranged evening conference activities and the later trips to local bars. And I had no idea people acted that crazy when they're away from home. See, when I'd been at conferences before, I'd skipped the evening activities. But now I see what I've been missing. This appears to be the typical conference agenda:

First day:
Attend workshops all day. Go out drinking with other attendees until midnight.

Second day:
Get up in time to attend all day workshops. Go out drinking with other attendees until, oh, 1 or 2 in the morning when the bars close. Go to IHOP.

Third day:
Repeat activities from second day, except go to game room in swanky resort hotel to play shuffle board instead of going to IHOP.

Fourth day:
Improve on activities from 2nd and 3rd days by hiring a mini-bus to drive you around so you don't have to worry about drinking and driving while bar-hopping.

Y'all, I have no idea how they do it. I'm younger than most of the people I hung around with, and I hadn't a hope of participating in their, um, scheduled activities. There was no way. I stayed up with them on the 2nd and 3rd nights, and even without drinking I couldn't stay awake as long as they could.

And also, there were so many times when I wanted to say, "Does your wife know you're behaving like that?!?"

They're crazy, y'all.


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I wish I could work on a project with Danica McKellar...

...because then I'd have a finite Erdős-Bacon number.



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Yum!

Tonight, JLR made a delicious tomato basil soup, totally from scratch. Well, she did use a wee smidge of leftover tomato sauce. But she also chopped and cooked down fresh tomatoes, she added the right amount of seasoning, she figured out how much other stuff to throw in to thicken it and make it taste good, grain-free and impatientbee-and-impatientchicken-allergen-free. And oh, how it does taste good!

Good job, JLR!


(This is a noteworthy accomplishment because neither JLR nor I are good at cooking. Our list of failures is much, much longer than our list of successes.)
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It Be The 19th, And Ye Know What Day That Do Be.

TLAPD

Dear ArcMap,

I appreciate your working with me on georeferencing our zoning map, I really do. I just wish--and don't take offense and stop working--I do wish that it hadn't taken all day for this to happen. All day and part of my evening.

Oh, it's the computer's fault you say? But it runs my other programs just fine. Not that I'm accusing you of causing problems! Please don't stop working.

*******

In other news, the co-workers have been commenting on the state of my office. In particular, they have been commenting on the barrenness of the walls. Yes, the walls probably would look better if I put up pictures or something, but I don't like to personalize my work space too much. I'm going to have to do something, though, just so that my co-workers won't think I'm strange. Also, one of the city council members said my office looked like a bureaucrat's office.



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Watermelon, I Love You

I ate a pound of watermelon today. I know this not only because the package said it contained a pound of this yummy, sweet, watery treat but also because I weighed myself before and after eating the watermelon.

If I had had more, I would have eaten it.



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