CafeChatNoir

So, Forbes came out with their list of the 25 wealthiest counties in the United States, and my home county of Fairfax came in second. (Congrats to Loudon for coming in at #1.)

The median household income in Fairfax County is $106,785

Wow – sorry to my fellow residents for seriously dragging down the average.  I’ve lived and worked here for longer than I care to admit, and not even on my BEST year did I have a household income even within spitting distance of $106K.

Now, maybe it’s high because it’s a per household number and not per capita, and we have a lot of dual income families in the county.  Or, it could just be that I am a total slacker to never really aspired to much of anything.  :)

OK, not really weird, but I like the alliteration.

– YAY for having friends working at a decent auto service station!  They can tell you the best time to show up to get your headlight replaced so you’re only waiting for five minutes instead of three hours.  (And bonus points for him getting the job done in no time flat despite the fact that I was seriously hovering watching what he was doing – only to come to the conclusion that had I tried to do it myself, I’d have likely broken $750+ of other car parts in the process.)

– Spring training is underway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Enough said.

– Yet another “NBC, you do seem to WANT to lose $200M on the Olympics given the way you’re doing this coverage” annoyance.  I really enjoy Curling.  The commentators seem to like it, too.  They talk about how each throw can make a difference.  And yet NBC will cut to commercials and skip 4 ends.  That, and I have also seen the same damn interviews of the same damn medal winners multiple times.  Kids, you did good, but your 15 minutes are OVER the second the next event starts.  I don’t care how you did it for the time being, because I would like to see others do their thing to get a medal rather than an interview with you.  It’s nothing personal, I’m just trying to see as many events as I can, and your interviews are really screwing that up.

– And on another sports note, I finally can admit that I can see the advantage to HDTV.  I have a normal TV, and it’s fine.  They say HDTV is awesome for sports – my only experience with it has been up at the pub.  Yes, it’s great because I can see the scores much easier on the screen.  But I have no need to see every individual blades of grass on the field.  HOWEVER – when you’re watching Curling??!?  You can EASILY see which stone is closest to the center.  Yes, Curling of all sports has made me an HDTV convert.

– More Curling.  I didn’t get to see a whole lot of Curling in the Torino Olympics because I was still spending an inordinate amount of time trying to teach people how to use my company’s accounting software, and I was being taunted on a near daily basis by my brother sending me IM’s of “I’ve seen more Curling before 9AM than most people see in a lifetime.”  But what I did see, I really liked.  And this go round, I’m not the only one.  I have come to the conclusion that it is an Olympic event that people watch and say, “Hey, that is something I could learn how to do!” Not necessarily on an Olympic level, but it’ss something that looks fun and doable for your normal person with the desire to learn the game.  You can’t really say that about a lot of the other events.  (I would have said it about cross country skiing until Petra Majdic skidded off the course and ended up with four broken ribs and a punctured lung.  I’ll stick with being the girl at the lodge ordering everyone’s drinks.)

– Even more Curling.  It’s become a well enough known event that no one even batted an eye as I found myself YELLING at the TV at the pub watching the Canadian ladies versus the ladies from Denmark.  I even had people asking me if a point had been scored.  (Thanks to little bro for giving me the scoring/hammer refresher course when things kicked off.  There aren’t a lot of televised Curling events outside of the Games.)  OH CANADA!

– The Snow.  It really needs to seriously melt down.  We’re supposedly getting a wintry mix turning to rain on Monday, and I am all for it.  The awesomedog even moreso.  The poor little guy is losing his mind.  He has the track I cut for him through the backyard, and he is willing to go snowplowing through the rest if he sees something interesting, but it’s certainly not the same as having his whole yard to bounce around in.  So he’s going a tiny bit nuts.  As am I – I love that the snowcover makes everything brighter, which is great in the winter.  However, I am wondering about permanent retinal damage due to the snowblindness every time I look out the window.

– Lent.  It’s somewhat entertaining to watch the confused looks of people when you have given up/tried to improve/done a few more good things for Lent and you’re not Catholic  I don’t do it to mock, it just seems like a slightly better idea to try and improve things during the Lenten season than doing the 1/1 resolution thing that gets broken within a week anyway.  (Despite my lack of overt religiousness, I do still have a few shreds of faith left, so it works for me.)

– And tomorrow is Saturday, so I can sleep in with no guilt over it whatsoever.  Hoorah for weekends.

Well, less the boatloads of snow on the ground, but what a nice, easy, relaxing Sunday it’s been.

Watching the cats watch the coffee pot is wonderful entertainment.  (Yes, I am easily entertained, but so are they.  I suspect this is why they picked me at the animal shelter.)  Drank coffee, played some Scrabble and watched the Olympic Biathlon action.

Then off to the mall for a little retail therapy.  Paid what could be considered an exorbitant amount of money for a tube of mascara, but Clinique glossy is the only one I’ve ever used that doesn’t clump up and make you look like a tarantula is sitting on your eyes.  (Drug store stuff doesn’t cut it – I have found that Loreal “Voluminous” works by clumping all your eyelashes together into one big eyelash.  It’s not a good look for me.)

Popped into Bath & Body Works to discover a buy two, get one free deal on their aromatherapy stuff.  Well, Happy Valentine’s to ME!  Lemongrass Cardamom stress relief goodies.  (I don’t really know or care if it actually relieves stress, they just smell nice.)

Finished it off with a late lunch at La Tolteca over the latest copy of Vanity Fair.  (Fluff?  Maybe, but it’s at least written by folks with a strong command of the English language.)

And now I’m kicking back again with more coffee and trying to figure out how one actually steers a luge sled.  I’m thinking there is likely more to it than “close your eyes and pray.”

I LOVE the Olympics.  I spent the last week trapped in my house by snow, I’ll spend the next two weeks trapped by choice.  I just wish NBC wasn’t doing such a craptastic job with the broadcast – but given that they seem to be OK with losing $200 million on this, I can’t expect them to actually care about putting together good coverage.  If they cut all the damn human interest stories and in-studio commentary, they could *gasp* show more events.  Or take 2 minutes and show me how a luge sled works.  (That would be a story of interest to this human.)

I also love that it brings out such great national pride for everyone and it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with politics.  Just good old fashioned feats of strength, and you’ve gotta love that.

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I’ve put out a bunch of birdseed out on the snow on the deck.  The cats are going to lose their minds.  I really thought Carmen was going to explode when the squirrels showed up.  Speaking of the cats, I still do not understand how two rather petite felines (6 & 7.5#) can sound like baby rhinoceroses when they’re playing upstairs.  I’m never quite sure if they’re just having fun or if the roof is caving in.

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I’ve been playing a lot of Scrabble this past week on Facebook, because there’s not a lot else to do when snowed in and I figure it’s good for my brain.  I used to think I was a relatively intelligent person, but given my win-loss record and ranking, I’m starting to think that perhaps it’s unsafe for me to be left unsupervised.  Today I actually had to play the word cat.  CAT.  I think that automatically knocks 50 points off your ranking.

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We’re supposed to get more snow on Monday.  Just a clipper, maybe 3-6″ – basically a normal snowfall for around here.  I find myself completely scoffing at it.  This is what a winter with 70″ of snow will do to you.

Yeah, I know, it’s technically Tuesday, but the muse is still on PHX time.

– Carmen is about 91% back to normal. She still looks at the ceiling fans with a suspicious eye, but is back to hanging out in the living room, and decided food was the winner in the fear of ceiling fan vs. eating in the bedroom. It may seem silly that it worried me as much as it did, but it’s just a tiny bit heartbreaking to not be able to explain that the ceiling fan is not a predator. Lily still looks at the ceiling fans and then looks at me with an expression of, “Seriously, I don’t get the issue here.” Or it’s, “WTF, why is the fan off?” I’m not quite sure which it is.

– Is it wrong that when I come in and want to know where the kittens are I say, “Where are my single ladies?!” and then sing a few bars from Beyonce’s Single Ladies song? They do show up when I sing it. (And I use the term “singing” loosely.)

– Sharyn* called today, and I’ll admit my first thought when seeing her number on the Caller ID was, “WTF has my grandmother done???” Yes, I know I’m going to hell for that. But, it was just an update. First being that the hot water heater is ON – and to expect some calls about that. (I couldn’t even get her to voluntarily leave it on when we stayed with her. So I just turned it on and didn’t tell her.) But, she’s not been super great about showering of late, for several understandable reasons that I am completely speculating upon because she won’t actually tell anyone:

a) Afraid she’ll fall & hurt herself
b) Not like she’s out running a marathon
c) Doesn’t give a rat’s ass, cause she’s 87 years old
d) Hot water costs money

But Sharyn is getting her a shower seat (the shower has a built in bench, but she could quite easily slide right off it it – hell, *I* could slide off it were I not paying attention) and will be there so my grandmother knows if she has any issues, help is immediately there. (And as Sharyn said, “Hell, if she wants me to get naked too, I’ll do it.” God bless this woman.)

Additionally, we’d previously talked about Meals on Wheels for more hot food options**, but they’re kind of insistent on “coming in & helping” and my grandmother just is NOT comfortable having strangers about (which I think is a good thing) and Sharyn did a little more poking around and one of the local hospitals does a pretty kick ass meal plan that can be picked up, which is better for all helping out. Given my grandmother’s good financial situation***, it will cost……$4 a meal. Christ, our Chinese takeout tonight cost way more than that. And she was reading one of the menus to me – Swiss steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad & milk. Hell, where do *I* sign up for that?

I’m very glad she found this, cause she has been cooking up things to take over to my grandmother, which is awesome, but I’m really glad to have this off her plate (so to speak) because I do worry that she’s doing too much already, despite her protestations to the contrary.

* The angel sent from heaven to Sun City to prevent me from tossing my grandmother into the middle of traffic on Bell Road.
** My grandmother would live on sandwiches & ice cream if left to her own devices. I am at the point of “Whatever the hell she wants” but I am outvoted, LOL. She will eat *anything* you put in front of her, but will never admit that she’d like anything beyond sandwiches & ice cream. As I have said before, she’s taken self deprivation to an art form.
*** I have told my grandmother on more than a few occasions that if I had her resources at her age, I’d be ordering Lobster Thermador & a Cabana Boy every night. I will be getting the contact info for this hospital meal plan and a nice donation will be made so they can help a few more people who *can’t* afford it, because frankly, she’s being ridiculously undercharged for this service.

Hell of a decade and I’m thrilled that it’s in the rear view mirror.  (No, I’m not going to argue that it’s really not the end of the decade because there was no year zero, etc, etc.)

A divorce, 4 jobs, failed relationships, death, destruction, moving, general chaos & a good chunk of family drama.

On the upside, there were 2 of the best cats ever, 2 of the best kittens ever, the awesomedog, a great brother, good friends, and Guinness.  A lot of Guinness.

Hopefully the next decade will have more ups than downs.

I have hit the wall and I am just flat-out exhausted.

Little bro went off to see Avatar, and I was thinking about seeing Up In The Air, but I decided it was too likely that I’d fall asleep in the middle of the movie, or I’d have a coughing fit.  (The head cold is pretty much gone, now I will just sound like a TB patient for the next week and a half.)

I can only assume it’s just the stress of the trip – it’s not really easy to sit around and pretend like everything is just fine and dandy when in reality, my grandmother’s brain is turning to cement.  It’s not like we’ve been partying every night by any means.

The hotel has been a godsend, but it’s no substitute for home.

Him:  We need to find you a boyfriend, because you’re too cool not to have a really good boyfriend.  (This was not meant in a patronizing way, but in a “you should have someone to share the fun with” way.)

Me:  Well, that would kickass, but I have this seriously screwy thing going on with my grandmother, and I can’t realistically expect anyone in their right mind to put up with it, because it’s not their family, and she’s quite off the rails, and she’s still my responsibility.  (Especially given that none of my ex’s could put up w/her in her GOOD days, much less now – I am quite realistic in SOME of my assessments of the current situation!)

Him:  If he’s smart, he has already figured out that her problems are not your fault, and that you’re a really good person for caring and trying to fix it anyway.

Me:  Thank You.  But I’m pretty sure no one on the planet wants to take part in my little radioactive train wreck, but it’s really awesome that you think that someone would.

Granted, these comments tend to come from tethered gentlemen – committed relationships. engaged, married, what-have-you.  But still, as completely locked into the “single because I can’t drag anyone else into my horribly screwed up family dynamics, nor would I trick them into thinking it didn’t exist” status as I am, it really helps me to think that I *CAN* break out of it because there might actually be gentlemen that can see past this ridiculousness and say, “She’s fun, smart and funny, and I’d like to still hang out with her despite her insane relatives.”

I have a to-do list a mile long today, and very little interest in checking anything off of it.  Though, given that the kitchen appears to have been the site of an explosion of sorts, I probably should at least attempt to make a dent in it.

I think the kittens will soon officially be called cats.  They’re 5 months old and just shy of 6 pounds, which was exactly what Dr. Alt predicted.  (Damn, he’s good.)  Given that Target’s weight ranged from 11-13 pounds and Snoopy’s was between 15-18 pounds, Lily & Carmen are pretty tiny in comparison.  It’s like we have miniature cats!

Moxley & I do not have this problem.  We’re both experiencing the joys of middle age metabolism.  I REALLY need to get to the gym tonight…

It’s not often one can say, “My life is in better shape than Tiger Woods” but this week, I’d say there are a LOT of people who can say exactly that.

OK, off to get things done.  Or find something really interesting on the internet.

Upon hearing that Bravo TV was going to do a “Real Housewives of DC” program, I wondered what on earth would constitute a “real” housewife of DC?  Especially since I was fairly certain it wouldn’t be a Mom juggling 3 kids, a house, a budget, a husband and probably a job to boot.

Then when I found out that the party crashers at the White House state dinner were under consideration for said program, I had my answers.

Skanky attention whores with bad dye jobs.

So, it’s looks like it will be just like the rest of the franchise, but maybe with a little less plastic surgery.