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The unpleasant, acrid smell of burnt poetry.
Young Men in Spats, 1936

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July 31, 2010

6:25 a.m. - Up at 5:30 this morning for class. Waaay to early, if you ask me. It's going to be a long day, and a hot one.

July 30, 2010

7:22 a.m. - Jennifer & Self just got paid, and I just paid down a huge chunk of bills. Yikes! I hate the feeling of starting the morning with a pile of greenbacks, and before the sun even has a chance to rise, it's all gone. But I like the feeling of a neat pile of bills ready to be mailed, minimal debt (and that through a lot of hard work, discipline, and sacrifice on the part of wife & self), and we can look every man in the eye and ask no favors of anyone.

Quiet Thursday evening last night. I picked up fast food take out (blech) for dinner and we had a quiet night. Tonight is the first evening of my motorcycle training class. Tomorrow, the riding part of the class. That will be scary, but fun.

Shots of downtown from Leahy Mall (Click on each picture to see full size)

July 29, 2010

6:59 a.m. - Jennifer was up early and out to work by a quarter to seven for an event, so I took the dogs out early. Disrupting their schedules is never a good thing, because they run outside at 6:00 a.m. barking and yelping and chasing squirrels. I took them out again at 6:30 or so, and again with the barking. My apologies to any neighbors whose repose was disturbed by the beasts. They are finally quiet. Percy is sleeping on the black chair, Arabella in her usual place by the air conditioning vent, and Gryffindor is presumably downstairs on his pillow.

Last night, Jennifer and I met my mom at Matsu Sushi for a fantastic dinner. I loves me some sushi. I could eat that every week. We always order too much, and of course I never know when to say when, so I ate about 3 rolls and then some. This time, I let Jennifer order without offering more than a bit of input. Last time I tried my hand at ordering, we had waaaaaaaay too much. This time we just had too much. I was utterly stuffed afterward, and fortunately we parked on the other side of the park, so a short walk was just what the doctor ordered after that mighty feast. By the time we got home at 8:30, I was exhausted. Ten o'clock didn't come soon enough, and I was out like a light about as soon as I hit the pillow. Of course, I woke up at 5:30 this morning (though I drifted in and out of awakeness until 6:00).

July 27, 2010

9:28 p.m. - Quiet evening at Casa de Evans. The A/C service guy came by to inspect the unit, and it continues to be in good shape, in spite of getting banged up in that windstorm 2 years ago. Jennifer made that dish with rice, pork, and tomatoes, and a side of unleavened corn bread (to remind us of when the ancient Hebrews left Atlanta). A great dinner, and I was stuffed. With the dishes cleaned, we adjourned upstairs, alternating between watching TV and playing online. Jennifer went to bed around 8:30ish, and I spent some time researching the history of the Scottish Rite in Omaha, without learning anything particularly new for my efforts. I'm beat, and in 30 minutes the dogs make their final trip outside, and I am going to bed. . . I keep waking up automatically at 5:00 a.m. Maybe I need to go to bed sooner to make up for that lost hour.

July 26, 2010

7:08 a.m. - My brain has entered daylight savings time, and I keep waking up at 5:00 a.m. It's near impossible to get back to sleep at that point, but I'm still too tired to actually get out of bed until 6:00.

July 25, 2010

Mad Men, Season 4 - This is going to be a great season!

9:56 p.m. - Wow! Mad Men came out with guns blazing. Here we are in November 1964 , about a year after last season, and Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (SCDP) is a scrappy upstart firm. Don Draper clearly is not the powerful mover he was a year ago, both in the office and out. Getting the ladies is not as easy as it was for him when he was married, and in the office, he's losing more accounts than he brings in. When the bikini company asks for a wholesome image, and Don gives them "a wink, not a leer," they still think it's not wholesome enough. Rather than offer more options for their business, he simply throws them out of his office. When Peggy's publicity stunt goes awry and Don berates her, she gives him back everything he throws at her. I hate to say that Peggy Olson embodies the feminist movement of the 1960s. She may be a representative of the movement, but Peggy is a representative of the Peggy movement. She's her own woman now, not Don's shadow, and damned if she's going to be his trained poodle or office girl anymore. Three years ago, you could see Don's genius as the gears of his mind churned out a brilliant campaign. Today, Peggy falls into that trancelike state and she's creating campaigns on the fly. SCDP operates in a small office and it's a hive of activity and hustle - staff members lie about a mythical second floor to impress clients. The days of martini lunches and leering at the secretaries are over. Joan Harris has moved from overseeing the secretaries to being an office manager with her own office and her name on the door. These guys are working hard - and working every angle - to maintain old accounts and get new ones. We're going to have a great season this year, and I'm looking forward to Sunday nights!

Despicable Me -  a funny movie!

John and Blu - he's a cute little stinker!

7:31 p.m. - Ahh, a nice perfect weekend. It was warm without being too humid. Jennifer did a brief stint at work, followed by some car cleaning with Julie across the street. I participated by bringing over a bucket of cleaners, and watching from the comfort of a folding chair in the shade. They did quite a thorough job, and managed to give my Toyota a bit of a scrub as well as Julie's Accord and Jennifer's Smart car. We sat on the porch for awhile afterward, and John came over with baby Blu, and I spent the time playing with little Blu - he was very wiggly, and I'm sure I've caught some baby cold from him with his spittle-laden hands and runny nose - and generally lavishing attention on the little stinker. He had fun unlacing my shoe laces - for a 7-month old, he was very dexterous - and trying to eat either them or a spittle towel, which I had tied around him like a handle so I could hold him and prevent him from falling off my lap.

We came home around 1:00 or so and had a bit of leftover pizza from last night (I had picked up Papa Johns, which was a horrific mistake since I had horrible, horrible heartburn and a sour tummy all night), and watched a bit of Doctor Who on DVR before heading to see Despicable Me at Marcus Theater.

I preface my review with the fact that Despicable Me does not rise to the level of most Pixar movies, but it was very good. Steve Carrell voices Gru, the villain, not that you'd recognize him under the Russian accent that was a mix of 1960s Peter Sellers and Boris Badinov. His main rival is Vector, a nerdy kid in an orange track suit, funded by his father, an evil executive with the Bank of Evil (formerly Lehman Brothers). Gru adopts 3 adorable orphan girls to enlist their help in stealing a shrink ray from Vector in order to shrink and steal the moon in the ultimate caper. Of course, the 3 orphans change Gru's heart along the way. The visual jokes along the way are worth as much as the verbal jokes - Gru's Gothic mansion (think the Addams Family) in the middle of the suburban beige cookie-cutter homes, Gru's "minions," little yellow blobs with goggles and arms and legs whose antics are pretty funny (and worth a spinoff of their own), and his scientific mastermind, Dr. Nefarious, capably voiced by Russell Brand. (You'd've thought it was Michael Caine), and the villains' weapons which may as well have come from Wile E. Coyote. I thoroughly enjoyed Despicable Me, but I have to admit that the current trend in 3-D is obscenely annoying. This movie had no need for 3D, and is purely a vehicle to charge $10 more. 3-D makes my head hurt, and I look forward to the trend going along it's merry way.

Quiet evening afterwards. Jennifer has been playing on the computer, and I've been channel surfing and playing with the dogs. The house is uncharacteristically warm, and I'm sweating like a proverbial meatloaf. The high point of today is in t-minus 54 minutes with the new season of Mad Men beginning. In spite of knowing what happens and reading the reviews already, I CAN'T WAIT!

July 24, 2010

3:53 p.m. - A weekend without any events, meetings, or projects. I could get used to this. I really, really could get used to living like this. Last night Jennifer and Self went to see the movie Salt at Marcus Theater in Midtown Crossing. I love going to Midtown Crossing. It's like having everything I could possibly want to see all in one place. One day, we'll have two motor scooters and be able to simply hop aboard and ride there. No matter, we went to see Salt, starring Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber and some other people.

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT: Click here to by-pass the review.

90 minutes of Angelina Jolie-laden testosterone keep the fanboys engrossed in what would otherwise be a lame movie.

Lets look at this movie from two angles. On the one hand, Angelina Jolie kicks ass for 90 solid minutes, without so much as a break for coffee. She leaps, jumps, scales buildings, leaps from a motorcycle off a bridge onto a speeding semi, off another bridge onto a tanker, defying the laws of physics. She kicks ass like Matt Damon in the Bourne movies, and a roomful of trained CIA operatives with machine guns are no match for her. And the best part is, she comes out of it without so much as a scratch and still looking better than you did on your prom night. I'm winded just watching her.

As far as the plot and all that kind of stuff go, the movie was a B- at best. So Evelyn Salt, CIA agent, may or may not be a Russian sleeper agent, trained during the Cold War by KGB operatives straight out of a 1960s novel on such standard American fare as The Brady Bunch and sent to infiltrate American society, and she may or may not have been sent to kill the Russian President and precipitate a new Cold War. The movie opens with her being tortured by North Korean agents as their prisoner before being released to the Americans. All this is for thoroughly unknown reasons, and really serves no point other than to establish her bona fides as a CIA agent. Or perhaps it is a set up to explain why she married some wussy guy who studies spiders. You'll need an explanation of why she has poisonous spiders around the ol' house later, and this explanation will suffice. Shortly thereafter, Salt is unmasked as a Russian agent by a defector who promptly kills his escorts and escapes. So Salt, questioned by the CIA, also kicks ass and escapes with a rocket launcher made out of office furniture and various cleaning fluids. I ought to have been a chemist. Liev Schreiber, her erstwhile co-worker and partner, takes the role normally reserved for Tommy Lee Jones and goes after her. Turns out that Liev Schreiber is not entirely all that he seems, and they play cat and mouse for a while, before an ending that is not so much surprising as it is a set up for the sequel. The problem is that the movie is a rehash of all the other highway chase/mistaken identity movies. Bourne's done this. The Fugitive has done this. James Bond's done it. More movies than I can think of have had the climatic chase scene on the highway or in the subway before the bad guy is revealed as the good guy and the good guy is revealed as the bad guy. For 90 minutes of fighting and chasing, the "Who is Salt" mystery keeps the film moving along quickly - is she heading to New York to kill the Russian President or prevent catastrophe?

Saturday has been a pleasant day of rest and fun. We both slept in - at least, "slept in" for us. Jennifer was up around 7:30 and I at 7:45. She went to work briefly and I did a bit of house work and generally puttered around. When she got home, we went down to Midtown Crossing for the farmer's market. With various purchases, you got a certificate good for a Chik-Fil-A sandwich, which is catnip to a southerner like Jennifer. We bought some doggie treats and some wasabi-flavored soy nuts, and collected our sandwiches. Afterward, we went to in●grē●di●ent for breakfast. Jennifer had a really good biscuit and gravy, and I had a sammich with an egg, cheese, and bacon, and a bowl of steel cut oatmeal. I really didn't need the steel cut oatmeal, but you can't get it at the grocery stores and I do love it so much. Midtown Crossing is swiftly becoming my favorite place in town. It promises to have a great farmer's market - with live jazz, great vendors, room for the dogs to sniff around, and all without a commute - along with restaurants (Delice's, Cold Stone Creamery, Ingredient, etc), the movie theater, a gym, a laundry, Wohlner's grocery, etc. And it's so close, we really could (and should) walk there.

Afterward, Jennifer spent an hour visiting with Julie next door and I did some light house cleaning. We both took an early afternoon nap, and she's gone back to work for a few hours while I have been watching TV and playing with the dogs. Arabella is passed out on her mat, Percy in my black chair, and Gryffindor is under the computer desk.

July 23, 2010

7:19 a.m. - All I can say is, whatever I did to pull some muscle in my back, I sure worked a number on it. I could barely sleep last night, and tossed and turned in a febrile manner.

July 22, 2010

9:27 p.m. - Came home, changed into a suit and tie, and jetted down to the Scottish Rite at 5:00. And just as I got there, I wrenched my back so badly, I could barely breathe. I had to run a very truncated Centennial Committee since I could barely breathe, I was in so much pain. The 3 Aleve ibuprofens aren't working (or perhaps I'd even be in all that much more pain without 'em). Afterward was the Century Club dinner, for Scottish Rite Foundation donors. That was a fun affair - I've never gone to it before, believe it or not, in spite of being a Century Club member for the past 5 years. First class buffet, first class dinner, and I sat with a fantastic group of Brothers and friends. My back hurt so much, that I had to jet out of there as soon as we were done.

Jennifer was relaxing when I got home, watching something about Roy Rogers on the new RFD cable network. That's "Brother" Roy Rogers, a good and loyal member of Hollywood Lodge #355.

July 21, 2010

9:52 p.m. - Busy day, True Believers. As soon as I got home from work, I changed into shorts, big my wife hello and farewell, and shoved of for a Friends of Scottish Rite committee meeting. We seem to be making progress on the dinner and auction, and things will come together nicely. I have my marching orders, and I can happily say I've delivered about 95% of the things I said I would: community calendars, the website, draft of letters to send out, etc.

On my way out, Greg showed me an Omaha Bee newspaper from 1913 which the construction guys found in the floorboards of the auditorium during the renovation. How interesting is that? A newspaper from the original construction of the building has been there for 97 years, left by some long forgotten workman. Through World War I, World War 2, the cold war, the first men on the moon, the falling of the Berlin Wall and the end of apartheid in South Africa, the technology age, 9/11 attacks, that paper has been gathering dust, forgotten, inside the floor. It is a time machine, reminding us of Omaha when she was barely 60 years old.

Jennifer made chicken Alfredo and Texas toast for dinner, which was excellent. Afterward, I looked in on Nebraska Furniture Mart. They had a 40" flat screen, HDTV for $430. All well and good, but it didn't qualify for their 36 month, interest free financing deal. It was the old switch and bait. Fine, let's look at the $600 version which *did* qualify for interest free financing. But it would cost an additional $55 for delivery. But they would throw in delivery if I upgraded to the $800 television. Well, I'll be hanged before I pay $55 on this upgraded TV, especially to keep being upsold on higher end models. If they won't meet me half way and throw in delivery, forget it. Jennifer and I agreed to walk away. If deal had allowed for the $430 television and an additional $200 or so in other non-television stuff, I probably would have got a small laptop like Jennifer's since. But they were being unreasonable, so they get nothing. I can wait to enter the 21st century, and our 36" giant cathode-ray tube television continues to work just fine.

July 20, 2010

5:40 p.m. - Hooray! They picked up that tattered, torn, ripped, and desiccated paper yard waste bag. I thought it would rip and I'd be picking up last week's tree branches from the front walk. But apparently not, and the tree branches are all gone!

Click to see full size May 2010 - I found this picture of Jackson Square, New Orleans on my cell phone camera. I didn't even realize I had taken this!

7:18 a.m. - I've got to learn not to take garbage to the curb before a Lodge meeting. I always get there utterly sweaty, exhausted, and filthy! I was completely wet with sweat last night - I hate summer. Fall can't get here soon enough. Great Scottish Rite meeting - we watched "the Stonecutters" episode of the Simpsons for discussion. Interestingly enough to me, most of the audience - those in their 40s and up  - were too old for the Simpsons and those in their lower 30s and younger were too young for the Simpsons. I was among the very few belly-laughing throughout the episode. The Simpsons debuted when I was about 17, and was a formidable part of my high school, college, and post-college years. When they speak of something being "my generation," the Simpsons truly hit that note. There was not much discussion of the episode, but it is a classic!

I slept reasonably well, but I got up at 4:00, and then again at 5:00. Thinking it was six, I stretched, sat up, and would have headed downstairs when I realized I still had an hour of rest before me. Good grief, as Jennifer would say. So I slept in little fits and starts and 10 minute increments until 6 before getting up again. . . . Made PB & J sammich for lunch today, with a peach and chips. Not great, but beats paying $6 for something from the convenient store.

July 19, 2010

7:09 a.m. - I kinda-sorta slept like a baby. Out like a light at 10:30 last night, but I woke up at 5:00 this morning and could not get to sleep except in five minute increments here and there until the six o'clock alarm went off. I'm moving s-l-o-w-l-y this morning.

Looks like we're in for some rain this morning, and isolated thunderstorms throughout the week, with the weather in the mid to upper 80s. At least it's not those scorching upper 90 degree days!

July 18, 2010

10:16 p.m. - Little to report for Sunday. I napped. I watched an episode or two of Mad Men, Season 3 on Cable-on-Demand, I worked on my essay for the Scottish Rite Master Craftsman II program, which took about two hours of reading and re-reading, interpreting, and reflecting on some of the degree work. I'm not certain it was a brilliant essay, but having been sitting on this project for about 2 or 3 months, I'm just glad I finished it. So about - what? - five exams left and I'm done! I did a bit of yard work in the late afternoon, and baked in the 90° sun before hitting a well-earned cold shower. Around 3:00ish, I roasted that chicken that has been in the fridge for a week and then picked Jennifer up from work. We had an excellent chicken dinner with roasted carrots and mac & cheese. I've been stuffed all evening! Quiet otherwise. Time for bed. I'll sleep like a baby.

9:26 a.m. - Dropped J off at work and picked up some light groceries at No Frills Supermarkets - eggs, milk, etc - and am generally lazing this morning. I'll tackle some projects. . . later.

July 17, 2010

Midtown Crossing Click on the pictures to see them full-sized.

7:37 p.m. - Picked Jennifer up at 5:15, and we made a mad dash to Cornhusker Beverage at 85th and F to pick up supplies for Railroad Days tomorrow. Afterward, we went to the new restaurant Ingredient at MIdtown Crossing. It's ultra-hip, so that means it spells it's name "in●grē●di●ent." How hip. (Reminds me of that Family Guy where Stewie had a nightclub called "pLace.") You can have some of their hip salads and pizzas and wraps and sammiches, or you can build your own using their fresh in●grē●di●ents. Regardless, it was damn good. I had a steak sammich with some kind of bleu cheese sauce and fresh greens. Jennifer had the chicken chili soup and a wrap, and her co-worker Les also had some variety of wrap. It was really good, and their breakfast menu looks excellent! Afterward, we looked in on Les' apartment overlooking Midtown Crossing, which was beautiful. His overlooked Mutual's main building and faced west up Farnam Street. I'll have to find a picture of that same view from the 1920s for him. If Midtown Crossing existed in 2002 when we moved here, I can honestly say we'd've bought a condo overlooking Turner Park.

Gretna Days parade pictures Click on the pictures to see them full-sized.

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It's still ultra hot and humid outside. We worked up a sweat walking twixt the restaurant and Les's apartment entrance a half-block down. It is a blast furnace out there, and I'm glad we're inside cooling off. Even with the air cranked high, the house is still warm. . . . I washed Arabella's stuffed toy and she's busy thrashing it around the floor!

4:50 p.m. - Gretna Days parade today. It must have been 92° today, and we were more or less in the sun from about 9:30 until 11:30. My arms are a bit pink! The parade was, as they all are, a blast, and even though I had a few problems with the mini-'57 Chevy I was driving, everything was perfect. The kids love it when you high five them as you drive by, and they love the loop-di-loops and blaring "ahooga" horns. Of course, so do we.

I was a bit annoyed, though. Someone told me that we might not be back to Gretna, and "they didn't want us back." Not knowing who "they" are or who really said what, I don't know if it's true or not, but the Shrine parade units have been bumped by Fremont Days, the September Fest parade, and a few others. Some only want union parade flats - whatever that means - and others want us to pay a fee to enter. So they would deny their community of a group of guys who do this for fun, who bring literally a million dollars in equipment, gear, and man power, and hundreds of volunteer hours - FOR FREE, mind you! - and deprive their kids of a first class parade experience? I find that so hard to believe. We do this because we want to. We're not there for anything other than to make hundreds of kids happy in their community parade. It's a sad commentary if they don't want the Shriners in their parades, and unfortunately, it seems to be the way things are heading.

At any rate, I was glad to get out of the searing heat by 11:30 and I skipped the oasis to come home, take a shower and a nap, and relax. I've got plenty to do while Jennifer is at Railroad Days, but I've been watching Mad Men and generally doing nothing.

July 16, 2010

9:42 p.m. - Went to see the Leonoardo DiCaprio movie Inception this evening with my next door neighbor. Jennifer has a long day and wanted to get some rest for a longer day tomorrow. Well, I've come full circle with Leonardo. When he first broke out in movies, I thought he was the worst actor in the history of ever. Leonardo DuuuuhCaprio. But his mad skillz have grown on me. The lad can act, though he is best at playing a suave sophisticate as he did in Catch Me If You Can. He'd never be any good playing a grubby, down-at-the-heels bum. You just wouldn't believe that guy is some schlub just trying to get by, though he does a really good job as hoodlum Billy Corrigan in The Departed.

At any rate, the problem to me was that the special effects in this movie - which were awesome, by the way - overshadowed a weak story. Basically, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, who invades your dreams to steal information (or plant information) from a dream world populated by the subject's subconscious. Great concept! Newton's Laws don't necessarily apply here, and the effects of cities folding over one another and fights in zero-gravity are amazing. Really cool, right? Well yeah, but most of the time our intrepid heroes are slipping between layers of the subject's subconscious (ie, dreams within dreams) which involve gun chases through city streets (cue the guys with the plate glass window and fruit carts to begin crossing the street), chic hotel lobbies, and a brutalist-style snow-covered mountain fortress, presumably designed by Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles. But Cobb's own issues keep interfering with the job at hand, and boy howdy, does Cobb have issues!

The functional problem with a good movie is that the cool special effects of each level of the subconscious dream overshadow the plot, which is really fairly mundane. The story just isn't fascinating, and it comes down to a lamer version of an Ocean's 11 caper (with Cobb and his all-star team of crack mind thieves, or whatever they call themselves, in lieu of George Clooney) except instead of being in Las Vegas, they are in the guy who played Scarecrow in Batman Begins head. The ending leaves a certain degree of interesting ambiguity over what happened, but the audience is not left pondering the metaphysics of it. In director Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight, you at least leave the theater pondering over Batman's lame-ass sense of right and wrong - he can blow up a city block chasing the Joker, but having caught him, he won't kill him (thereby assuring that Joker will break out of Arkham Asylum and begin the process all over again). At least you get that moral debate to chew on, about whether Batman should kill the killer. But all that metaphysical nonsense aside, Inception leaves you with nothing but a sense of relief that after 2 1/2 hours, you are awake from your own dream.

Oh yeah, and I wanted to beat that guy behind me who kept sniffling every 30 seconds to death with his own left leg.

11:09 a.m. -  The market had a couple of beautiful "up" days, followed by a good old-fashioned American drubbing today, down nearly 200 points as of 15 minutes ago. Ouch! What gives?

7:30 a.m. - I'm still completely exhausted from yesterday and dragging this morning! I was out like a light at about 10:30 p.m. and slept - more or less - like a stone until about 5:45 this morning.

July 15, 2010

9:28 p.m. - So a company hosted a fundraiser for us today, and I was there from about 10 a.m. until 7:00 p.m., mostly outside. The weather was perfect, the company was excellent, the donors generous, and the event was stellar! You couldn't ask for anything more perfect than today, and I made some new friends. My co-worker knows some of the coolest people, and we had a grand old time all day long. But effectively 6 hours outside in the sun works a number on a fellow, and I'm stiff, sore, and exhausted. My feet are very tired, and I'm hobbling around the house eagerly awaiting bedtime!

         

From last week - a co-worker brought in her 3 week old Shih-Tzu/Poodle mix, Sugaree. It was the daily squee for the entire office. She was a-freakin'-dorable!

7:07 a.m. - What a day yesterday! The weather was in the upper 90s all day with oppressive 90%+ humidity. Ugh! Got home from work, changed, and ran off to a Membership committee at Scottish Rite until about 6:30. I seem to have some meeting or another at SR almost two to three days per week all month, with no chance of letting up anytime soon!

All was quiet when I got home, and I had a dinner of spaghetti and fried chicken. I was hunkering down to watch a bit of Mad Men Season 3 while Jennifer was playing on the computer when we heard the tornado sirens go off. Sigh. . . Switched to Channel 7 and watched the radar show a band of heavy wind and rain moving east. Within 15 minutes, we had 60 to 80 mph straight line winds, drenching rain, thunder, lightning, and mayhem. Despondency and dismay were thrown in gratis. After the destructive winds 2 years ago, this is serious business. Jennifer ran outside to take down the umbrella over the backyard table before the wind carried it away. We stood at the door and watched our front porch furniture blow into the yard amid the torrential downpour while tree limbs (small ones) came down and someone's garbage cans blew down the street . It was all over by 8:00, and fortunately no major damage this time. I couldn't deal with having to replace the roof and paint the house all over again, having just done it after the 2008 storm! I spent some time after the deluge picking up tree branches, but luckily there was nothing significant broken. The porch furniture was utterly soaked and banged up quite a bit, but since it was in poor shape anyway, I can live with that damage.

         

And wouldn't you know it, by 8:30, the clouds were clear and it was a nice summer's evening with a rainbow and perfect sunset. If you don't like the weather in Nebraska, wait five minutes!

 

July 11, 2010

Great turn out for the Reunion cast barbecue! At least 75 to 100 people turned out for barbecue and fun!

The third boy said "I'm going to join and be with my Dad." The first boy said "I'm going to join and be by myself."

A shot of the stage torn up during the theater renovation.

9:36 p.m. - Yet another quiet weekend at Casa de Evans. Jennifer picked up some amazing bratwursts from Stoysich on Friday, and I had a late dinner of brats and sweet potato fries. Saturday was reasonably quiet. I had a KSA meeting in the morning, and spent the rest of the day doing laundry, cleaning, and picking up in the bedroom while watching the Gene Wilder/Harrison Ford movie The Frisco Kid, from the late '70s. Jennifer had a long day of work, and went to bed early - I don't blame her a bit - so I spent Saturday evening watching TV, playing online, and doing plenty of nothing. She worked today, and I continued house cleaning and picked up a few things at Wal-Mart. When I got home, my neighbor said she was supposed to check whether I really got the things on Jennifer's list (bread, Diet Coke, toothpaste), or as Jennifer would say, bought all kinds of useless crap. Well, duh. Of course I bought all kinds of useless crap at Wal-Mart - rawhides for the dogs, peaches, a binder for my Friends of Scottish Rite committee files, garbage bags for the kitchen. The real issue is how much useless crap did I buy at Wal-Mart. I was on my best behavior, and confined my useless crap to about $20 worth. Normally there would be a full load of groceries, including $50 worth of cleaning supplies which upon closer inspection we already had in the cabinet, a DVD of some movie I'd only watch once, bags of dog food, another pillow for the puppies, and another two or three bottles of shampoo. I'd say I did pretty well this time.

Jennifer got home around 2:00 or so, and I took a brief nap. She did some great cooking for the week ahead, and I went down to Scottish Rite for a Reunion cast member barbecue. Excellent pulled pork sandwiches, great company, and a lot of fun! I wish Jennifer hadn't been so tired after her long day and had come, but at least she got some peace and quiet while I was out.

Quiet Sunday evening. She's watching TV and I'm doing my usual late-Sunday puttering around, getting ready for tomorrow. It is really hot in the house, in spite of the air blasting, and I'm utterly wilted right now.

July 8, 2010

7:05 a.m. - I calculated last night I have 14 extracurricular meetings, committees, and events this month, of one nature or another. This is one busy month, and I'm not certain it will get any lighter in the foreseeable future! I was exhausted last night and had intended to go to bed early, but when I did finally go to bed, I couldn't sleep a wink and kept tossing and turning all night. I woke up around 5-something, thinking it was time to get up, and when I realized I still had 40 or 50 minutes left, I'd fall asleep for 5 minutes, wake up with a start and check the clock, fall asleep for another 5 minutes and wake up with a start. . . all the way to about 5:50 when I figured I may as well shake the lead out, as they say, and get up.

Quiet night last night. I grilled burgers and we had the last of the fries, and while I had fired up the old char-king, I grilled pork chops for tonight. It's always better to grill them fresh, but they will still be tasty this evening with green beans. Jennifer made shaved steak sandwiches for lunch today, with fresh fruit and edamame. I am already looking forward to lunchtime noms!

So on Monday evening, I lugged out the recyclables - a bin brimming with soda cans and bottles. I can always gauge the economy's swings and turns by how fast someone paws through the bin for what they can take. Shortly after 6 am, someone had emptied out all the soda cans and carried them off. I really don't mind, but I hope it was someone who truly needed the 5¢ they can get in Iowa rather than that seemingly middle-class guy who took them all a month ago.

July 7, 2010

7:20 a.m. - Late night last night with the visitation for a friend who passed away very suddenly last week. He was an executive officer with OHB and a very good man, a good father, and a good Mason. He spent his entire life caring for the boys at OHB and was a mentor for many of them. He had been a great friend for me, and one of the first Scottish Rite Masons I met back in 2003. Somewhere between 75 and 100 Masons came to his visitation last night, and even though it was a hard occasion to be at, it was nice to see so many friends I  don't see but once or twice per year. I got home around 8, and Jennifer was visiting with Julie, so I came upstairs and watched TV for a while, played with the dogs, and went to bed. 

July 6, 2010

7:15 a.m. - Wow, Independence Day is over. That means the year is half-way through! Who'd've thunk 2010 would go this fast! Wasn't it just winter a few days ago? . . .

Last night's fireworks were fantastic! We have a perfect view from the front steps, and can see them over our neighbors' houses across the street. The downside was the mosquitoes all seemed to view my neck, arms, and legs as the perfect rallying ground in the neighborhood, and I'm a giant welt this morning of itchy bug bites. The neighbors' kids a few houses down were having a get-together on their porch, and at one point they came out to the street, in front of our immediate neighbor's home, and lit off some kind of M-80 firecracker. It let of a huge BOOM! and they all cheered. I must be getting old(er) and crochety(er) because I wondered a) what the point of the thing was other than to be annoying and b) why would they do it in front of our neighbor's house rather than their own. It probably woke their baby and was just plain rude.

July 5, 2010

Me and Jennifer - she looks hawt in my Sox hat!

This is the final year for fireworks at Rosenblatt Stadium, before they go over to the new ballpark downtown. I'll miss the Garden's family get-together at Kennefick Park to watch the fireworks.

2:27 p.m. - Quiet and peaceful 4th of July weekend in the River City. Friday was quiet to the point of utter boredom. Saturday, I went out early for a haircut, sundries, and to get a refill on the dogs' heart worm medicine. Not too many years ago, that would have set me back about $45 for 3 boxes of heart worm pills. Now, they are $38/box! Thirty-eight per box! For six heart worm pills. Six! That is over six freakin' dollars per pill! And the vet tech says "Your dogs would do it for you," as if that makes six dollars per pill palatable. No, my dogs would leave me wallowing in my own blood, if the tables were turned. I bought two boxes, which will last 4 months, but I was a bit chuffed at the whole thing. Six dollars per pill! What a racket! We'll be getting their heart worm medicines online from now on, and pocket at least some savings. The vet tech also had the nerve to remind me that Arabella was due for her shots and that I could bring her in on Monday. She is my little girl, but her rabies shot may have to be postponed well into August after this!

At any rate. . . The rest of Saturday was quiet. I got home in time to find out that the Field Club parade had just ended. Because the 4th is on Sunday and some people have a prejudice against missing church for a parade, they moved the little neighborhood parade to Saturday. Of course, Field Club Neighborhood would never condescend to tell us in the Ford Birthsite neighborhood that the parade date had been changed, so I ran down there with Percy just as everyone was heading home. This is the first time we've missed it in 8 years living in the neighborhood.

4

I took Percy down and just missed the end of the annual Field Club parade, the first time we've missed it in 8 years.

It was so warm and humid that I had to take a shower after getting home, and after cooling off, I grilled steaks for lunch. In the evening we went to Kennefick Park to watch the fireworks over Rosenblatt Stadium with the rest of the inmates from the Gardens. The clouds were gray and it kept threatening to rain, but fortunately the breeze was cool and the weather held out perfectly for a fantastic fireworks show among friends! Sadly, this will be the last time since they are razing Rosenblatt and moving the whole thing to the new T.D. Ameritrade Park downtown. A waste, if you ask me, but you aren't. So there goes my fireworks viewing event. I doubt Jennifer and I will pack up the old charabanc and head downtown to watch the fireworks from some adjacent parking lot. It's just not the same thing as friends, co-workers, and neighbors getting together to watch the fireworks. This was a great send off for the final year of fireworks at Rosenblatt, and I'm glad we were there for the show!

Sunday was utterly quiet. We slept late and then went down to Lauritzen Gardens for their $1 hot dogs for lunch. Jennifer fussed around of course, and I tried my best to avoid rolling my eyes. It was a quiet afternoon, and we had a light dinner of chicken salad and fries. Around 10, I stepped outside to see the neighborhood fireworks. Because of the earlier rains, the air was thick with mosquitoes, and I've never seen the smoke so thick with fireworks. Perhaps it was the humidity hanging low over town, but you could have brushed away the smoke from all the fireworks. Most of them were down the street, and the view was none too spectacular, so I came in and we watched TV until about 11:30.

Quiet day today, as well. J was called in to work for an early-morning crisis, and I puttered around cleaning, vacuuming, and straightening in anticipation of a friend who was coming to town. I found out around noon that he couldn't make it after all, which was disappointing but the house needed cleaning so it was good that I had done the work anyway. Jennifer made a shrimp Creole, and after such a magnificent feast, we both took a well-earned nap. Jennifer and the dogs are fast asleep, and we're still staying home and enjoying some well-earned downtime, peace, and quiet.

July 2, 2010

8:27 p.m. - Picked up Greek Islands for dinner tonight. J has retired early, as per her custom. There had been some rumor of movies and "date night," but in lieu of the exciting Friday our hero might have enjoyed in his twenties, we find our hero puttering around with the dogs, reading news online.

July 1, 2010

9:10 p.m. - Wow, it's July already! Who'd've thunk we're standing on the southern slope of 2010? I've been stressing on the stock market today, as it plunged another 100 points before "recovering" to close another 40 or so down. Based on my calculations, the value of my 401(k) dipped $8500 or so in the 2 1/2 months since mid-April when the DJIA was flirting with 11,000. But, says you, there is 29 or 30 years left to go before you begin dipping into the old oaken chest in your golden years. Yes, says I, but that doesn't mean I won't ponder my savings every waking moment for the next 10,592 days before I retire. What can I say? It's my thing.

Our neighbors house, decorated for Independence Day, c. 1898. Ours is the beauty on the left. The point I'm trying to convey is that this is how I'm going to decorate our house for July 4.

Meanwhile, quite a nice day. I got home, kicked off the shoes and slipped into a pair of shorts, and when Jennifer got home, I fired up the Bessemer and grilled some barbecued pork ribs. They were tender, but I am convinced that I fell short of the mark and they needed about five more minutes to be absolutely perfect. Still damn good if I say so myself. Jennifer made some ravioli and sweet potato fries to go with it, followed by the sweetest caramel apple pie ever made and vanilla ice cream.

She has retired early, as is her custom. I watched an episode or two of Mad Men on DVR, and have been playing online this evening. It's quiet at Casa de Evans, and Percy is fast asleep in his little space and 'Bellie is snoring in front of the air-conditioner vent, her favorite place.

Tomorrow, if my calculations are correct, is Friday. Yay for Friday, and all the more so for Independence Day, my favorite holiday! I propose this year to decorate the house with festive red, white, and blue bunting, and acquaint myself with the front porch, a good book, and something in the lemonade department.