At Least I'm Using My Jacket

I bought a light, hooded rain jacket a few years ago before we went to Alaska. It was perfect for wearing on warm-ish days when it was damp out.

I haven't really worn it a lot since then, because Minnesota seldom has warm-ish damp days. We tend to have cold, snowy days or hot, steamy days. Very few are somewhere in the middle when it's warm enough to wear a light jacket but you need to be kept dry.

This year, after going out and shopping for a new winter coat, and after wearing each of my leather jackets for about four days, I have found that it has been too warm for any of them for most of the past few weeks.

I've broken out a sweatshirt or two, but then it decided to get kind of drizzly, and I didn't really want to carry my umbrella everywhere - not to mention that during a hard drizzle an umbrella doesn't exactly do any good.

So I have decided to celebrate the one benefit of this crappy weather: After two years of mainly leaving it in the closet, I've been wearing my rain coat a lot.

It's not exactly lined with silver, but I'm taking that as this cloudy stretch's shiny lining.

Remember Those Tomato Plants?

I was clearing out the yard, today, getting ready for winter. After all, it was in the 50s for what could be the last time this year, so it was the perfect day to do it.

I pulled up the tomato plans which have offered me three red tomatoes and a bunch of "are they ripe or aren't they?" green tomatoes over the past couple of months.

Today, I found another TEN green tomatoes.

Have I mentioned that it is the 15th of November?

I have no idea what to do with them - they feel hard, so I don't think they're actually ripe. And I'm not going to have any time to try out a fried green tomato recipe any time in the next week.

Maybe I should put hooks in them and use them as Christmas decorations. After all - at the rate we're going, they might just be ripe by then.

No Words

There are days when I simply have a little bit of a block and can't figure out what witty thing to write on here. Most days I push through and find something. Some days I don't.

Today, though, as I saw news reports of the attacks in Paris, I was trying to figure out what to say. I looked at some maps and realized that a couple of the attacks were in the neighborhood near where I lived when I lived over there.

I found out this evening that two of the restaurants were within less than a block of my old apartment. One of the news reports listed casualties in my old street.

Christopher asked me whether I was okay - whether there was anything he could do - as I was scrolling through the news feeds with tears running down my face.

I tried to explain what was going on in my head - in my heart - but it's too irrational, emotional, visceral.

I simply have no words.

I'm Dyeing, Here

I may have taken my first foray into covering some gray today.

In part, I attribute this to the fact that so many of the women I work with are constantly changing their hair colors. Sure - they are all in their 20s and are choosing colors like blue and pink - but I'm surrounded by it all the time.

And there have been photos circulating online of men dyeing their hair and beards all sorts of bright colors - think neon green, bright blue, or flaming red.

I'm not really sure that any of those would look good on me. But I do know that, in the recent past, I've been getting kind of tired of seeing the entire front of my beard turning more and more white. I mean, it's not even gray at this point. My mustache is still a bit dark, but the chin area is pretty much white.

For those of you who haven't seen me, recently, here's what I'm talking about:

Okay. No. It's not all that bad. And when I keep it more closely cropped the whiteness of it doesn't seem quite so white (see my "author photo" in the righthand margin). But it's just not really what I think of when I think of me, you know?

So, with a little time on my hands, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I went to the store and did a little shopping around. I opted to see what I would look like with "dark brown" instead. 

Having spoken to a friend who apparently has been doing this for a while, I knew it might take more than one round of color to get it to turn out the way I'd want it. Round one - to quote Christopher - looked a bit "darker gray" in most areas, but not brown.

The second round definitely covered a bit better. And I'm kind of enjoying it at the moment. Is it as  dark as my original beard? I don't think it is. (Christopher says it looks different - like maybe I should have gone for "black" instead of "dark brown.")

Here's what I've got:

Not sure how long I'll keep it this way. I'm really not certain how much upkeep I want to deal with. After all - one of the reasons I keep my beard is because I don't have to shave every day. But, at least until this washes out, we'll see how it goes.

Pasta Nachos

I sometimes eat things that are a bit questionable from a food value standpoint. Most of the time, I do this when Christopher is not around. I find it's truly best to do it when he's out of town for a few days, so that I have time to prep, eat, and remove the evidence of the meal.

Today, as I was driving home, I was contemplating what we had to eat in the house that needed to be eaten before it went bad. Some leftover pasta (no sauce), some cheese, and some salsa.

We live in the land of the casserole/hot dish, so I thought that that could all go together pretty well. And - honestly - it did.

I sprayed a pan with nonstick spray, tossed in the pasta, layered on some American cheese singles (don't hold it against me, remember, I was cleaning out the fridge from random past events) and some shredded cheddar, and then poured on some garlic and lime salsa. Tossed it in the oven until the cheese got all melty, and - boom - pasta nachos.

The only problem was that Christopher got home from what he was doing while the food was in the oven. I guess after 10 years, it was about time he found out what I do for dinner when he's not at home.

Catering Customer Conundrum

Hiring a caterer (or at least considering hiring a caterer) is weird.

You spend a bunch of time doing research and asking for possible menus and trying to figure out what they supply (do they bring silverware? do I have to rent napkins?). 

Then, when you decide you're ready, you have to send in a request for a proposal. Because, apparently, they may or may not want to do a proposal for you.

Then, you wait for a reply. Lots of times, they seem to reply (at least with an automated notice saying they've gotten your request) pretty quickly. And you move forward.

But if they don't respond within a few days, you have to decide whether or not to follow up with them. If you do have to follow up, you get one of two responses: "Sorry, it's on its way," or "I've been busy, but I'll get it to you in a while."

Unfortunately, neither of those responses guarantees you'll get a response any time soon. 

Okay. I get it. This is all customer service. I've been in customer service jobs for most of my life. Retail. Box Office. Editing. It's all Customer Service. 

I know that some times you get busy and you drop a ball or two. And that you have to push through and get things done. So I'm prone to giving a lot of leeway to most people in that kind of position.

And, with this in mind, on October 3rd I sent off for a proposal from a company whose food we really like. We've toured one of their venues and met some of their staff and thought they could be a good, fun fit for us. Having not heard from them for a few days, I followed up the next week, and received a kind of snippy email saying, in essence, "I've been busy, I'll get back to you."

Today, however - after waiting a month for that proposal - I tried calling the company's main number, instead of emailing the person I had been going back and forth with. The woman on the phone offered to have me talk to the same person who has ignored me for the past 4 weeks. I re-explained my situation, and flat-out told her that if that was my only choice at this point, then I would go to a different caterer. The person on the phone didn't sound happy when she said she'd have someone else get in touch with me. No apology. No "not sure why it's taken so long." Nothing. 

I'm trying my best to not completely write them off right now (after all, their food is good - and the pricing that we've seen so far was also good), but at this point... wow... that proposal better be stellar - and fast.

   
UPDATE: Barely an hour after my phonecall, I received a very polite follow-up call from someone else in the office. No apology, technically, but a guarantee that if I send him my info today (not sure why he can't get it from the other person...) he'll get me a proposal by the end of the day tomorrow. It's a start.

A Bulb Went Off...

No, really.

Not like an imaginary light going off over your head like they have in the cartoons. An actual bulb. A little, teeny-tiny light bulb with two little prongs that stick out of the bottom and into the flashlight.

It happened a few weeks ago.

I turned on the mini-Maglite flashlight that we keep in the kitchen so that we can use it when we take the pup out for walks in the dark (not only is she black, but... well... it's hard to clean up after a dog if you can't see the ground) and after more flash than light it was dark.

I looked at the bulb and the lower half of it had turned a kind of milky white. (I do not mean it became the cow from Into the Woods. I mean that the clear bulb turned kind of translucent white.) (Feel free to google it - the cow, not the bulb.)

Today I finally had a chance to stop at the hardware store for a replacement. Just in time, really, because starting tomorrow - thanks to the end of Daylight Saving Time - our evening walks will be in the dark.

So I stopped in and said "I need a new bulb" and the guy behind the counter - who has obviously dealt with this way too many times responded with "Are you sure it's not the batteries?"

I showed him the milky white bulb (again - not the cow), and he said "Oh. Yeah..." and we headed off to find a new little, teeny-tiny light bulb with two little prongs. I stuck it into my flashlight and proceeded to try to blind myself.

Sadly, sometimes that other, imaginary light bulb is just a tad slower in going off.