You guys always praise my outlook, my disposition, whatever you want to call it…but you always say how positive and upbeat I am. Well I’m here to tell you what makes me cranky (like WAY cranky).
Heat.
I am so not a hot weather girl. My dream vacation is Alaska, not Hawaii. I love winter. Not once did you hear me complain about the snow drifts over four feet tall, never did I utter a negative word about the well below freezing temperatures. But today? When it is 81 degrees in my house at 10 PM? Entirely too fucking hot.
[Small interjection to say that I might blame the heat for pushing me over the edge when I went to comment on my friend Adam's blog the other day. I seriously lost my shit on the poor man. Sure, I feel passionately about the subject of water and recycling, but still, this not-a-rant-kind-of-girl *totally* went on a rant. Sorry about that. And I still love you, Adam! Especially when it isn't 80+ degrees!]
Normally I would crank my air conditioning down to 68 and be happy, but dammit, I refuse to turn on the air in early April. Especially since tomorrow is predicted to be a comfy 66 or so. Instead of turning on the whole house air conditioning I have three ceiling fans and two large box type fans going. And I came here to bitch.
Which just somehow reminded me of the other things that make me cranky: being hungry or being tired. And woooo, child, Lord help you if there is any combination of hot, tired and hungry! heehee
BUT…and here’s the thing…this post isn’t about me being hot (thankfully I am well rested and just had a fantastic dinner excursion). This post is about something that IS making me crazy happy: Coal Miner’s Granddaughter, Heather.
Friday morning I’ll head to the airport entirely too early and transfer planes in Charlotte so that I can arrive before 11 AM in Atlanta, GA. I have business there, but thankfully will have some down time on Friday to enjoy the company of one of the most interesting and amazing women I know. I’m thrilled. And willing to brave the Atlanta heat for the pleasure of Heather’s company. Best part? I won’t even notice the heat. THAT should tell you something about how incredible she is.
Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending time with Donnie Van Donnie’s family. Drove about five hours on Friday up to the middle of nowhere (across the PA line into the woods of New York). It was exactly what I needed…to do a whole lot of nothing.
Well, I did love on this little pup:
And I did go for a walk with two boys…one 10 and one five. A few paces from the house we found a shovel and apparently that is quite entertaining to those of the male persuasion. Also interesting? Their fascination with, and love of, a hatchet. Due to it being the first day of deer season in NY we couldn’t walk too terribly far, just around the pond and over to a line of pine trees, but it was still fun listening to those two talk and watching them work together to dig a hole. When I went back to the house to go get my camera they hid in the tress to scare me upon my return. Fortunately the dog gave them away or I would have had nightmares and had to beat the kids. Yes, I am totally a chickenshit and yes, everything shows up in my dreams.
Maybe it was the inevitable worm find that made digging the hole all worthwhile?
One of the guys (Amish Henry who went with us to a football game) shot a deer. It was the first time I watched a deer being skinned and beheaded. It didn’t disturb me like I thought it might. Actually, the whole process was quite educational and not gross. Maybe because Henry was quick and clean, I don’t know. All I know is that at one point Donnie stepped into the view of my camera to give me the shocker. Coz we are classy like that.
Donnie also has a sheep on his property that I was intrigued by. She was incredibly shy and would run if you looked at her too long so I couldn’t get close to get a decent photo, but she sure did eat a bunch of grass. Wonder if I could just borrow her long enough for her to get my grass manageable. Hmmmm.
I needed the getaway, but my two boys get sad when they see me packing. They are so pathetic when the realize I am preparing to go away. See? Pathetic:
(Yes, the previous owners put orange carpet in my bedroom. No, I haven’t done a damn thing about it. Hush!)
A friend posted a photo on her blog of Limoncello. Instantly it reminded me of a time several years ago when I watched the (total chick flick) Under the Tuscan Sun. That movie made me take a special trip to the liquor store for a bottle of Limoncello.
Unfortunately I couldn’t remember the brand name the characters consumed in the movie. I bought whatever was on the shelf at eye level. Mistake. Blech. Give the bottle away terrible. Like Pledge mixed with rubbing alcohol.
Then today I stared at Finn’s photo and its caption “quite possibly my favorite italian import” while thinking of how much the movie’s characters enjoyed the drink. Finn replied to my comment saying that maybe I had to take one more sip. I emailed and asked the brand name she likes, which resulted in a nice little conversation.
Where am I going with all of this? Well during the emails Finn said, “Too bad you can’t just pop over and try some.”
How fucking cool is the internet?
(Hey Finn, when I buy a bottle of the brand you suggested I am going to call you so that we can have a drink together, k? xoxo)
Nobody escaped Iowa for a week, but unfortunately got stuck several miles south of Pittsburgh proper. Without a car. Poor guy! We met the other night at The Sharp Edge Creekhouse (my favorite beer emporium) and agreed that I would play Tour Guide Becky and drag his ass all over Pittsburgh. His coworkers are not exceptionally fun people, a fact made evident at the Sharp Edge the other day, so he ditched them and I picked him up. Drove him through the tunnel which opens up like a window to my city. Blam, there’s Pittsburgh! He was kind enough to humor me with a “wooooooooooooooooo” that was appropriately timed.
Plenty of driving around, looking at stuff, then I went up to Mt. Washington and made him get out of my vehicle to look at the city. I can’t work my own camera, as is quite obvious from that photo above. There were two nice guys up there with a fancy camera and a tripod so I figured they could take a decent photo. Of course I walked up and asked them to set my camera up so that I could capture the scene and they went one better, using my camera to take photos of us.
(Thanks, strangers!!)
We were starving and Nobody wanted a steak while I wanted a beer so we headed down to the Church Brew Works. It is an old church that was slated for destruction until a wonderful guy with a vision purchased it, spruced it up and turned it into a microbrewery. I haven’t been there since another blogger was in town entirely too long ago and I think my tastes in beer have changed since then. Today I was in love with a porter they had (special brew, not normally on the menu). I did a sampler, then bought a pint of the tasty porter. Nobody drank the closest thing he could get to a Budweiser, a brew I used to down in large quantities. I tried to be artistic and failed:
We both had cold mashed potatoes and veggies with our steaks so the waitress gave us free dessert. Oh my fuck, was it tasty. This photo doesn’t even begin to cover it.
One thing that was pretty funny about the whole adventure was that Nobody’s coworkers were all freaked out about him meeting a female in another city that he didn’t know. They were so worried about his wife. (Don’t worry, she knows that we were gonna hang out! She is way cool and had no problem with the fact that I rescued him from the hell they had him trapped in.) I mean, when they came to the Sharp Edge for dinner, I was at the bar with Cinderella and Doodle and the coworkers would not even look at us. As they were heading for the door I hollered good night or goodbye or something and only one of the two turned around to half wave. Either they are way antisocial or they have some deep loyalty to Nobody’s wife. I am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt!
Regardless, I hope Nobody brings them both to the Hofbrauhaus tomorrow for happy hour. I’ll only fuck with them a little bit.
