Category: Everyday Life

Sunday Routines

Posted on by Markman
Not having a case of the Sunday Scaries

Today was somewhat of a typical Sunday, finished reading a book I’ve been cranking on (I love reading out back under this patio umbrella I got at Xmas Tree Shop), wrapped up some text on the proposal, pulled out the grill for future summer cooking, and spent some time down at the Sanctuary (Ladydoc has to get her goat brushing time in!). It really is a peaceful place. We managed to hit a Little Library on the way back to return some read books. Crap shoot on what you’ll find – I might read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. I remember having to read it in high school but that was long ago, back then I didn’t want to read, and I retained practically nothing of it, so it might be good to reacquaint myself. I grabbed it anyways just in case.

One of our Sunday routines these days is the food prep for the week. I actually don’t mind doing the chopping and slicing of all the vegetables and fruits and such. Tonight we made salmon on top of a bed of lettuce from the garden, along with pieces of peach, watermelon, cucumber, tomato, and roasted corn with a balsamic glaze. Pretty easy to make actually, which I put together while also making LD’s go to dish of tofu with red peppers, zucchini and spinach for her lunches. Then after eating I had to go water all the plants, which actually takes quite a bit of time to give them all the attention they require. What can I say? I do it all! (not really). LD supervised while watching endless repeats of Beverly Hills 90210.

I feel Sundays these days pretty much move too fast. Before you know it it’s 8:53 pm and we’ll have to start getting ready for bed in order to get up early enough on Monday so as not to be late and let the realization set in that another week is on the horizon. When you feel the dread of this thought, is when the ‘Sunday Scaries’ set in. I used to get those all the time – then I got comfortable in my place and projects and it wasn’t bad for me. I think that’s why winning this proposal would be so important for me – it would give me a sense of security and allow me to continue to be my own boss. Losing it would mean having to find other stuff to do which possibly might not make me happy. I’ve come to realize I can’t really control what the future holds, so I’ll just do the best I can, put one foot before the other, say a little prayer, and get on with come what may. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself now.

Simple Saturday

Posted on by Markman

Nice to have an afternoon where I could just sit out back and get to reading my latest book for a few hours – would love to finish it this weekend if at all possible. I am finding it to be a enjoyable read. We did have a massage earlier in the day, which was nice. Even had another friend come over during it but she didn’t stay long, which in a way was also nice. The timing of that getting over was good as my boss called a little while later wanting to go over some of the text of the proposal we’re working on. Basically my section is too long so I needed to pare it down some. But what do you get rid of? Don’t want to ax something that may be important. Well, I’ve come to the realization that we can only do the best that we can, if we lose this project, well, I’ll have to find something else to do, even if it is a bummer for me. I can only control what I can. Probably wouldn’t lose this job on anything I wrote anyway – most likely it would come down to cost – doesn’t everything?

Now I’m heating up some more panko chicken dinner for us, while the annoying neighbors kids next door keep screaming as they belly flop and splash into their pool.

While putzing around the yard I noticed and was pleased to see some of our pumpkins are starting to sprout from their seeds (Sean Connery’s progeny – Sean Connery being the name that the pumpkin had that the seeds came from – we didn’t come up with that, the steward of Sean did). I also noticed some strangely colored butterflies (but didn’t get a chance to see up close unfortunately) and even a hummingbird visiting the fuchsia! Maybe tomorrow I’ll be lucky enough to catch it again. Maybe I’ll finally pull the grill out too.

Grads to a New Career

Posted on by Markman
Mortarboards and Tassels Sweets

Ugh… good night but probably drank a little too much. Anyways, on with the show. Our friends are in the process of getting out of their current careers and heading for a brand new direction – starting a gym of all things. The current fields they’re in either isn’t doing well in his case, and in her case she’s just fried, burnt out, and done and needs a change. Nice thing is, if it all works out it won’t be all that far from us – same town! Anyways, to celebrate this occasion of ‘graduating’ to the next challenge, LD themed the house party around graduation themes. There’s more to the reasoning but I’ll just leave it at that.

This is what we drank our spiked punch out of

It was a fun night, learned a lot of new things, and had a lot of laughs. We also made some turkey sliders with home cut potato fries and panko chicken, they brought a salad. Nothing too difficult. I think they had a good time.

From the ‘Where are they Now File?’

Posted on by Markman

The VP guy at my previous employer who had this certain accent so when he said “We need to focus” it sounded just like “We need to fuck us.”

And what happened to another guy named Richie? Not sure if that’s his real name, but it’s what everyone calls him. He always wore what appeared to be a firefighter’s jacket. He can’t be a real firefighter though. For one thing the patch isn’t on straight. I’m pretty sure the fire department uniform department would be up on something like that. He also doesn’t strike me as the courageous type. If he ever saw a fire he’d run like the hills, of that I’m pretty sure. I do miss when he had his scooter. He had this crazy looking helmet, all white with a dark face plate that covered his whole head, like some astronaut in a real bad cheesy sci-fi movie from the 1950s. I know he had a big crush on my sister but… no.

The girl in the old coffee shop, which no longer exists. The counter girl that was so unnerving to me. It wasn’t the one with the rose tattoo on her neck just below her left ear and the cute ass (also what happened to her?), but the little Indian girl, with the stud jewelry in her nose. What got to me was the way she spoke. As people waited in line and the next person up to be called, there it was. “Can I help you?” in some high pitched squeal. “Something to eat? Stretch that out as you say though – Somethiiiiing tooooo eeeeeeeeat???? Arrrgh. “You neeeeeed traaaay?” Also the pitch rose as the sentence came close to it’s climactic ending. It’s was an unnatural feeling to me, like nails against a chalkboard. Probably moved back home for all I know.

There’s the Diddler. So named because he always walks around with his hands in his front pockets loaded with jingling change. He always seemed like a lonely guy to me. We saw him not too long ago at the theater when I won two free tickets to see Jack Nicholson ‘s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He appears to have a friend now. That makes me glad somehow. We all deserve some happiness.

Then there was the old woman I saw a couple of times in an Irish tavern called The Burren. I’m not sure why but I was having breakfast or brunch there one weekend years ago. I can distinctly remember her ordering pancakes and dark Guinness beer. This is at like 9 in the morning! She must have been in her late 80s. Anyways somehow she got to talking and wouldn’t stop saying how Jackie Onassis was one big no good whore. Maybe this woman knew JFK back in the day? Not sure what beef she had with the lady but she was adamant about it. She must be gone by now.

Oh, there are many more I wonder what fate befallen some of these folks. The ‘sheriff’ – some dude who thought he was a cop, except his police badge is something that a 6 year old boy would pick out of the toy section. Maybe he finally got busted for impersonating a police officer? Or ‘Elmer Flood’ – a guy who kind of looks and acts just like Elmer Fudd. Actually, still see him around occasionally walking by. The woman who resembled Lynda Carter who worked at the counter of the old Richdale’s next door to the pizza shop and was secretly(?) screwing the neighbor (who thought he looked like Elvis but I didn’t see it) around the corner in his driveway while his wife was cooking pasta upstairs, and if you happened to pass by and casually look over there you would’ve seen a sight. Elvis has left the building! Connie, the Irish lass who lived behind the pizza joint where she worked, and let us hang out one night. Years later I think she was dating one of my high school buddies but that’s long past. Dottie, with the glass eye, who at a dive called Sligo’s would pop it out and put in a glass with ice to freak everyone out.

What a bunch of characters. The best one though would have to be the guy with the goatee and glasses, just quietly looking around. He seemed like he was a normal, wicked-pissah cool guy, but who knows what he’s thinking.

Proposal Writing

Posted on by Markman

I haven’t had much time to update the blog because I’ve been involved in helping to write a proposal for a project we’d like to win that’s up for a recompete. Meetings and rewrites and trying to reword sentences that don’t sound like you just copied it out of the RFP, all while keeping things within a certain page count and making sure you hit all the points and how you’ll do the task. Thank God I’m not involved in the pricing and all that other stuff – just the technical details for me. I’m finding it rather difficult because I’m discovering that that kind of writing doesn’t appear to be in my wheelhouse. Still it was one of my goals for the year, mostly because I had to put something down that was different from the last few years. It’s good to grow a bit though. More importantly, is that I hope we win this project because it means a lot to me, and would really help me along moving forward. Cross your fingers for me!

Trying Out New Old Things

Posted on by Markman

Let’s try to get caught up on a few things that have been going on since the last real update. In no particular order: Last weekend just browsing one of those Buy Nothing Facebook Groups I saw this bike available. So I threw my name into the hat, and wouldn’t you know I got picked!

So I went to meet the woman giving it away and came away with this sweet cruiser. A little banged up and serviceable. I spent part of last weekend fixing it up a bit, getting rid of some stuff she had on there that I didn’t want, such as a broken rear view mirror. Overall it seems to ride pretty well. I saw that Somerville is having a Bicycle Committee Community Bike Ride today so I’m going to go down there with the group and really give it a go. I think this will make a nice companion ride to my old mountain bike. Great to have options!

In other news, in case you were wondering, I did finally get the blade off the mower and installed the new one. Cuts really nice now, should be great going forward.

Speaking of moving forward, the Ladydoc finally decided to get some real home improvement work done over the last week. Namely, redoing the bedroom with newly painted walls, and finally removing the age old carpet which had great hardwoods underneath. They needed to be sanded and buffed and all that but they were in great shape to begin with. I guess being under that carpet so long preserved it! Apparently most of the house has these hardwoods but the previous owners covered much of it in carpeting, which naturally has been left, at least up until now. Also went down and got a new ceiling fan that’s made of brushed nickel and looks pretty cool. LED lights and all. Still need an electrician to come in and install a recessed light that LD wants over a chair in the room by the window to assist in reading.

In the plants realm, I did break down and buy and plant a new butterfly bush to replace the one out back with looked like it was regrowing and then suddenly went kaput. Not sure what happened there, although I think one night last winter when it got crazily cold may have put it over the edge. Otherwise, everything else seems to be blooming like crazy, especially the rose bushes, columbines, and clematis. Also the raised box vegetables are really starting to grow now. I love it when a plan all comes together!

What else? Well, last night while going out to dinner, we did see a red tailed hawk just sitting by the road. Majestic looking creature. Sadly, upon closer inspection he had what appeared to be a recently deceased baby bunny under his talons. He stayed there for quite a while as folks got out their cell phones and took some shots of him. We did too, until we saw what he had done. I know it’s nature and all but it kind of put a damper on it for us. What can I say? We’re a little sensitive.

And finally, speaking of dinners, I did get a chance to take my mom to a place called Earl’s in Assembly Square last weekend. I must say I was impressed with the decor of the place. (We had gone there after visiting my grandparent’s gravesite). Probably the most stunning thing about the visit though was our waitress who legit looked exactly like Jennifer Aniston. She said she gets that all the time and dresses more like her for Halloween. Well, if Jennifer ever needs a younger double, she’ll know where to look!