Weekend of the Vacuum
2006-09-25, 3:36 p.m.

Day 764 Weekend of the Vacuum

Ugh. One word summary of the weekend.

Golfing Friday was a good time. Hit a few good shots, hit a few more questionable ones. Nobody got hurt, except maybe my pride when that photo of me exiting a ladies room surfaces . . .

Saturday was consumed by a trip to work in the morning. That trip stretched into early afternoon. Ultimately got done about � of what I intended.

Rest of Saturday? Vacuum. Mowed the lawn. Put woodchuck #17 to rest up in the woods. Running out of room to bury them up there. Soon as we get the winter squash harvested I�ll stop caring for a while. Of course, they�ll be hibernating then too. Not seeing them in the yard necessarily curbs the desire to eradicate them. Temporarily.

Sunday? Bah. Did some mundane crap. Prepped stuff for another wicked batch of turkey gumbo. Went to the gym, watched part of the Bills game on the video monitor attached to the elliptical, listened to the rest of the game on my mp3 player while doing Nautilus.

Went home, found Cindy had already chopped the veggies for the gumbo. I had been teasing her about not letting her cook the gumbo because she almost screwed up the last batch. Before the last round of meat was added, she thought it looked a little thin. She added a flour & water mix to thicken it. It took another quart and a half of turkey stock to thin it back down. I was livid. We have never, ever, ever added that to gumbo. Adding in all the turkey & sausage in the last � hour of cooking gets it plenty thick & rich. Besides, the way we make it, it�s all based on starting with a roux anyhow - no need to add thickeners. (Plus she was 3 sheets to the wind at the time and has no recollection of adding the flour. At least, she makes a Reagan like claim to have no memory of the situation. Denial or black out � either way . . .)

Anyhow. Even the kids teased her about it. Bad. I should have called a stop to it sooner, but my enlightenment training hadn�t reached a sufficient level of cranial penetration yet. Apparently it still hasn�t. Back to the train of thought. When I got home, I found Cindy had already chopped the veggies for the gumbo. 2 cups of onions, 1.5 cups of sweet peppers, 1 cup of celery. The way she goes at it (with too small a knife), that�s a significant amount of chopping. So big, dumb, me, upon finding this nice pile of veggies all ready to go says �you measured this out and chopped the right amount, right?� Why didn�t I just grab the nearest fork and stick it in my eye?

We know what the correct line there is, right? Something along the lines of �Gee honey, thanks for chopping up all the stuff for the gumbo� might have been nice. Or �wow, thanks for getting all that ready� Basically anything positive and appreciative with just a hint of gratitude. Not my, �holy shit, how�d you manage to not screw that up?�

So, yeah, the enlightenment training hasn�t sunk in yet. Does it show much?

Zach was sorta home for the weekend. With Jill�s birthday earlier in the week, he came home for a minute, picked up Jill and headed to her folks house for the bulk of the weekend. Perfectly understandable. They arrived back at our house last night, hence the big batch of gumbo for dinner. He�s due back next weekend to work in the Weggies warehouse for a couple of days, so we�ll be seeing him again soon.

Been very bad (really, terribly bad) about getting to Al Anon meetings the last two weeks. Sunday�s just suck for trying to get out of the house at 7:30pm. I am going to have to find another night. The limitations seem daunting. I will no doubt have to sacrifice something to make another meeting fit. It�ll be worth it, once I pick a night.

One other weird thing about this weekend? I don�t think Cindy was drinking. If she was, it wasn�t much. Friday she was chaperoning the schools homecoming dance and I was in bed when she got home, so that didn�t matter much. But Saturday & Sunday I don�t think she drank. If she did, she hid it well. It was still a tense weekend, even before my blunder Sunday. She just gets into these snippy little moods, and I have to fight pretty hard to not slip back into sniping mode myself. Of course, I drop my guard just a little, and that gem like I uttered Sunday afternoon falls out of my mouth. Priceless. That really helps the mood, ya know?

PMS is nothing next to menopause. Just wanted to throw that one out there for free.

Another freebie? I need a haircut. A really good haircut, and in the most urgent way. Got a free one coming at $upercut$ - but I said I wanted a good one, didn�t I? Free is good, right? Hmmm, have enough singles to leave a reasonable tip � maybe I�ll hit �em up. Might even get lucky and not have to wait. Just have to hope that one of the more experienced girls is there. Yean, I like my girls with experience. At cutting hair.

Should I just shave it all? Some folks think my dome is too big for that. Plus, winter is coming, it�s going to be cold soon. Might like the added insulation.

I think my software tools are trying to do me in. I gotta go really, really concentrate for a few hours. (I hope it only takes a few. I really need a haircut.)

Updated stats:

Weight start: 206.5 on 1/1/06 (265.0 on 1/15/05)
Current weight: 186 on 9/25/06 (?!? Musta ate too good at the golf tourny)
Next weigh in: 10/2/06

New target � Aim is 180, by Halloween.

The Keep on Truckin goal: (idea stolen shamelessly from Marn�s Big Adventure)
Miles at speed 9/21/06: 753.45
Miles with cool down: 828.77
Target for 2006: 1000 miles
Plus 161 miles biking so far. (160.99 for you choosy mothers)

If you use a pop-up blocker, hit "Ctrl" when you click to leave a comment