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Cooking, Gardening, Angst and More. Including Job Search Tales and lifestyle tips about island living.

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Home » March 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Sleepless in Seattle

It may be cliche at this point, but true. 3AM and I'm wired. I don't know if it's all the beer I drank last night, the coffee I soaked up before going home, or the neighbors' dog woofing every 3.5 minutes. So Here I AM. This is meant to put me to sleep, not you.

I'm down here, away from the fam damily and the island which is my torment and my love, to attend the IACP conference. The first day is over and it was jam-packed. I ate way too much at the opening evening gathering which is also why I am up now--tipsy, wired and bilious. I have to be up in 3 hours to get an early start for breakfast.

I could be staying in a posh hotel downtown within walking distance of the Convention Center, but my poverty dictates that I must sleep in the subterranian basement of a friend of a friend, for my sins. It is crypt-cold here, easily 20 degrees cooler than outside.

Tomorrow--well, today actually---is a forumn on podcasting that I am looking forward too. I have a feeling, however, that more of this could take place and am dreading my reaction to said. Perhaps it is just the ghoul of indigestion chain-shaking between gut and brain. . . .

While attending a mentoring session to help innercity kids learn how to cook healthy foods today I sampled some fantastic cheese. Tonight during the taste of the town introductory fete I went to the cheese factory/shop. I think it reflects how much I miss the island--I bought a poster of a milking cow and how her anatomy gives us milk. Just thinking now, I should have bought two--one for me and one for my neighborhood dairy.

Ah, the internets' sonambulistic magic is working. My lids are drowsy, my brain numb. G'night internet.

posted by: ChefNeal at March 30, 2006 05:16 | link | comments |
iacp, seattle, mainland

Saturday, March 18, 2006
Watch for Depressed Storm Drains

Wow. Today I was deamed too depressed to attend a funeral. I've been left home on the island to "have a day off" and "sort myself out" and "have as much fun as I can while it lasts". OOOH. Where to begin. I think I'll have a colon cleanse, and have my aura read for starters.  The team of "French Maids" from the internet are on the way over to help me clean up my act--wow, the wife will be impressed when she gets home. . . .I've got the dog beside me--in the kitchen, shedding hair. I am sure before long we will both be farting as freely as we can. Actually, if he starts. . .he's out in the rain--woof. I don't know what goes on in the canine digestive tract but whoa. No amount of "French Maids" can clear that out of the nostrils.

So here I am, with the music cranked. No vehicle. It is pouring rain outside--there goes the 2 mile walk to the library--the DSL is up for the moment but will die as soon as I try to post this. I'm beginning to think the Funeral might actually have been fun.  Perhaps I'll go read the news to cheer myself up.

posted by: ChefNeal at March 18, 2006 08:35 | link | comments |
funeral

Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Drivetime

The ferry chugs ever nearer our destination.
Every wave and wake shudders the vessel under us as we buck the head winds off the coast. The steely grey March morning before us cracks to reveal the surrounding mountains hovering over the sound. Will that tug and crane make it in the wind? Where do gulls go on such a day?

The closer we get the more anxious I am. To be in the car, to start it. To get off this rocking, reeling, pitching yaw of a breakfast churner. To go to where I have to go, do what I have to do and return.

We make the final turn to the terminal. Fifteen minutes more of idle, exhaust, and drive. Will I make the light at the top of the hill or will some pillock dive in front of me and make me stop on yellow? Coffee and banking await the next 10 minutes. Drive fast but only just. Dodge the traffic and arrive. . .made it; coffee. . .ahhhhh. Goodbye.

posted by: ChefNeal at March 15, 2006 09:48 | link | comments (2) |
mainland

Saturday, March 04, 2006
Saturday

On the ferry this morning the mental midget in charge of parking cars on the deck tried to block me in so I couldn't open my car door. God I hate that. When I resisted parking as close to the wall as he wanted he got flustered and I made him park me on the opposite side where he should have parked me in the first place. Retard.
So I'm off on the mad dash. I'm supposed to get a 1:15 ferry back home--why, I don't know--but that only leaves me 4 hours to get the shopping done instead of the usual 8 which means I will have to fly. I hate that. Fighting traffic on a Saturday alone will take up 45 minutes or more. One and a half hours of driving alone just to get from the ferry to the Valley to shop and back--so, really, less than 2 hours to hit Costco, a grocery store, the organic coop, the feed store and a hardware store--I don't think I'm going to make it.

I didn't really want to come into town today anyway. But there was nothing to make the Wife's Birthday dinner with, and granola was running low. Chicken feed could have held out another week. . . .I'd really rather be working to get the garden ready as long as it isn't freezing or raining today.  As beautiful as the island is, I'd really rather live on the mainland at this point so all this shopping stuff can be taken care of on a daily--or nightly--basis as we go about our lives, rather than having to save it all up for two or three weeks to take care of all in one day. Oh, well, c'est la vie.

posted by: ChefNeal at March 04, 2006 09:44 | link | comments |
mainland