the biggest frying pan ever (and my poison freezer)

Last night Jess and her husband dropped off some stuff for the jazz fest so that they don't have to worry about hauling it all in their car saturday morning. One of the things they're storing here is their special frying pan (and guess who gets to clean it for saturday...I'm hoping ME! I've never cleaned a big frying pan before).

this pan could make the most bacon ever - I put mine next to it for scale - and yes, I finally made an appointment to get my new swamp cooler installed so that box will be out of the garage in a week

We packed everything in my garage and then went into my house so we could take measurements to determine how much stuff would fit into my refrigerator / freezer.

This morning they came by again to drop off some frozen shrimp and chicken. My freezer is now LITERALLY packed with food I can't (shrimp) or won't (chicken - chickens roll around in their own feces so no, I'm not going to eat one) eat.

Jess d asked "does it feel weird to actually have food in your refrigerator?"

On Friday they're dropping off the batter and the other half of my refrigerator will look like the freezer. And Saturday I promised (and you know, I am really NOT a morning person) to be ready at 645 am to help take everything over to the jazz fest. And I'm going to help at their booth, though I'm not sure what I will do. Jess wondered if I was still against trying to cook and I told her that having food in my house and getting up early on saturday were enough changes for one week.

If you are interested in trying some brazilian street food now's your chance! The sandwich they make, acaraje, is pronounced AH cah rah tay.

on stalkers and their impact

A friend of mine was telling me Friday night about a stalker who has been bothering her 20 something daughter. He hasn't done anything violent (yet) but has been doing things like breaking into her house, breaking into her car (he  threatened to put sugar in her gas tank and the next day she found the gas tank ripped open - he did not put any sugar in that she is aware of), tailgating her on the road, calling and facebooking her incessantly, and, when she blocked him from her phone and facebook, sending emails to my friend.

The daughter has called the police but all they will do is file a report. The stalker's parents, who are friends with my friend, called her and asked why her daughter was filing police reports against their son! They have had behavior problems in the past with their son but are in total denial. They also seem to be blaming the daughter as if she is somehow doing something to this kid to make him act like a total asshole. The daughter is wondering if she did do something to set this guy off.

I was reminded of an experience I had in the past with a work colleague who stalked me, showing up at the JHU campus at 10 PM as my class was letting out and following me to my car, and on numerous occasions threatening me physically in meetings (he was once restrained from punching me and another time told me in front of other colleagues that he knew where I lived and was going to put a bullet in my head). Why did this colleague feel so negatively toward me? Because I was brought in to take over his job because he apparently had "nerve problems" and was on so much medication (oxycontin, back in the day when it was hardly prescribed) that he couldn't function at work. At the meeting where he had to be restrained I had merely asked him if he had any documentation from the customer that I could look at.

And yet, when things finally got to the point where I felt this guy actually might do something to me, I had to answer a bunch of questions about MY behavior toward him to see if I might have done anything to justify him stalking me! AS IF! What could I have possibly done? Murdered his family (presume they would have heard about that)? Run over his dog? Put a voodoo spell on him???

The bottom line is that there is outlier behavior that should not be excused. Even if I had been totally rude to that guy in a meeting (I wasn't, since I was new to the project I was trying to be friendly to everyone) does that REALLY justify him threatening to kill me???? And if the daughter had had a romantic dalliance with stalker boy before deciding he was crazy does that justify, in anyone's mind, him stalking her because she doesn't want to date him??? Then why should he be allowed to make her life such a living hell that she's thinking to move to a different city where he can't find her?

The advice I gave my friend is, if a guy acts crazy toward you maybe you did something to set off his crazy, but that doesn't change the fact that he's still crazy and that isn't anyone's fault but the guy. Most people show their crazy early on in a relationship (friendship, romantic, colleague, whatever kind of relationship). As soon as you see the crazy get out of the relationship. Unless you're a profession shrink you aren't ever going to change that person's behavior and it's best to keep their crazy out of your life because it will drive you crazy too.

End of soapbox speech.

To be fair, it's not just guys that are crazy. I watched "Play Misty for Me" last night (got a box set of clint eastwood movies, 3 for $2 at target on saturday).

I'm working, really

Been a while since I posted anything but I swear I have been super busy the past week...

Where to start...well, I got pink highlights in my hair. Yes, pink. REALLY pink. They look so cool but amazingly people I know don't notice them at all until I point them out. They're called "peek-a-boo" highlights but seriously, when I walk down my street or am walking around Target people stop me and compliment my hair so why my friends don't notice I'm not sure. Note that my friend Cam noticed.

Next, I have a leak in my garage roof. I think I know where it is and how to fix it but wasn't able to get to it this weekend because of the rain/snow. I don't know why I keep saying "my last project in the house is done!" because there's ALWAYS another project. I also had to remount a bracket for my bike because it kept falling off the garage wall. It's fixed now. And I moved out my old work table and put a new one in and then cleaned the hell out of the garage because my friend Jess who started a food business is going to use the garage (and my refrigerator) to support her booth at the Jazz fest this saturday. I'm going to be a volunteer for her and she said I'm going to learn to cook brazilian food (ha. ha. ha.).

She was also like "are you sure you'll have room in your refrigerator?" I sent her a pic of my frig and she was like "oh, yeah, plenty of room". I have 5 beers, 5 sodastream sodas, a tub of yogurt, and salad stuff in one drawer in there at the moment. Oh, and a box of feta cheese. It's empty like Houston streets after 6 pm.

Someone tried to jump over my neighbor's fence that I just fixed and it's broken again...so I need to fix it...again...

And the incline on my treadmill isn't working. I tried to fix it and suspect a pinched wire. I called Sole and they are sending replacement wires and a technician out to fix it for free. I think something may have happened when I moved it to my office but we'll see. I did some research to see if it was a common problem and to prepare for an argument with customer service but they were super nice about the whole thing. Note: send in those warranty cards! It made everything simple. He typed in my phone number, brought up my info, and got the wires sent out in about 2 minutes.

Work has been crazy. I came up with an idea for a medical product for people with chronic diseases and I made it through the first meeting with the senior VPs. Next step is to get in touch with the venture capital group at my company and see if I can get funding for it. I feel like this is like trying to get my book published (almost there and then it will end in defeat) so I'm trying to not get my hopes up. But it would be cool if they even just prototyped it.

And I've been working on my gardening chops. I got a $70 amazon gift certificate and have so far managed to purchase 8 gardening books for a total cost of $20 (3 of the books were only a penny). I'm going to sign up for a hunter safety course and an avalanche course and might do the motorcycle safety course (getting in this time of year is a disaster - classes are full). I'm learning a lot about how to grow and pick plants. We'll see what happens once I get my vegetables in. I'm planting arugula, cucumbers, tomatoes, blueberries, blackberries, cilantro, basil, chives, spinach, and maybe one more herb.

Oh, and I found a great pho restaurant a little more than a mile from my house. Very excited I don't have to drive to federal for a pho fix. It's called pho-natic. I'm looking forward to trying some of their other dishes besides pho because I haven't figured out how to transport pho on my bicycle without spilling it.

And I just finished a 48 lecture class on the civil war and am about to start one on meteorology.

So that's my boring little life these days...