For those interested in the absolute minutiae of my life (and those people are out there... I know because I've seen them freak out when I bought new sneakers) I went shopping at Target today. It was part of my devious plan to collect strange bottles. I bought some ponytailers, a jar of olive-and-pimento cream cheese (in a nice short square jar), and a pair of black khakis (the ones I have now are starting to get a little shabby-looking).
I was also considering buying another bike lock. Herein is the problem: Previously when I've been hauling my bike around on my car, I've locked it down to the tow-hook thingy on the underside of the car when unattended so it doesn't get stolen. This is the first time I attempted this since buying the Prius, and I discovered the cable doesn't quite reach, nor would it fit through the gap if it did. So my problem is twofold: I need a cable long enough to reach the existing cable, and also narrow enough to string it through the gap in the tow-hook thingy.
While I was there, I noticed one of those combination locks where you set numbers for the lock. Except instead of numbers, it had letters so you could set a word as your combination instead of trying to remember a number. Brilliant! So I played around with the letters on the lock until it said "FART". This pleased my inner 12-year old to no end.
That's an obscure inside joke based on a funny (for once) attempt to troll me. I had posted about my biking adventures on another blog once, and an anonymous someone replied "ha ha, you ride a bike. what are you 12?" I'll admit, that was funny, but probably the best example of a troll backfiring had to be when someone accused me of "pulling a Xydexx" because I don't, y'know, live on the internet. Hard to believe, I actually do crazy things like, uh, go outside.
You know... outside. Fresh air. Exercise.
I mean, seriously, I still haven't come up with a response to that. "HA HA, YOU GO OUTSIDE!" Um... yes. Yes I do. I'll send ya a postcard when I bike the entire 184 miles of the C&O Canal later this year. -=)
On the subject of baking and such, here's a bizarre cake covered in pink ruffles and green slime. Mmmmmm.
Rigel and I went out to see Mom and Renfield and Renfield's new girlfriend Cheryl out at Caligula's in Winchester. Renfield is living in West Virginia with Cheryl now and is very happy. Seems like he's finally getting his act together. Cheryl is very nice. Mom approves. -=)
I mentioned in a recent LiveJournal entry that a new mall is being built down the road from us. There's also a new residential/commercial development called Oaklawn, just off Battlefield Parkway. Nothing's there yet, but eventually Hope Parkway will go all the way through and connect with Battlefield Parkway. It will have ten restaurants. Also, Rigel mentioned the other day it will have an amphitheatre, so we might be able to see... I dunno, whatever they have in amphitheaters... maybe concerts or something.
As per my previous ruminations elsewhere on buying a new external hard drive, I finally settled on one: An Iomega Prestige 1 TB. I found it on Amazon.com for $177. Plus, free shipping! I was going to go with the 500 GB one originally, because 1 TB is waaaaay more space than I really need, but my current computer has an 80 GB drive and when I got that I thought I'd never fill it up either (I currently have 5 GB free).
My Amazon profile picture is hilarious, BTW.
And people say I have no sense of humor. -=)
While blogging about Recipes That Time Forgot, I got sidetracked (as I often do) and started thinking about dusty old memories from the more cobwebby parts of my brain. I pieced together little bits of memories from 1983-1985. I'm thinking maybe I should do more of that.
So, my grandfather, Arnold Jorgensen, Sr., (born April 3, 1903, died May ? 1983), lived in Hartsdale, New York on Central Avenue (425 Central Avenue, White Plains, NY), site of the now-closed former Kentucky Fried Chicken. The two houses immediately east are the exact same model as their house was. He lived there with my grandmother, Johanna Jorgensen (born February 27, 1908, died February 27 1992). He was a cabinetmaker by trade.
They both moved to Beacon, NY some time before 1983 (I was 15). Mount Beacon Incline Railway was still operating when they lived there, because I remember we went on a trip up it once before it closed. The incline railway was destroyed by fire in 1983.
I remember we drove up Route 9D to get there to visit some weekends, going through the tunnel at Breakneck Mountain and passing Bannerman's Castle on the way up. Years later (from about 1987-1997), I would lead excursions out to the island by raft.
And now it's time for Cooking With Xydexx!
This batch of oatmeal-raisin-cinnamon cookies turned out much better than the previous recipe, which resulted in rock-hard blocks of inedible non-cookie. I've modified the recipe slightly from the original to come up with the following:
ingredients
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 c. Quaker Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 c. raisins
instructions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, and cinnamon; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets. Move to wire rack and cool completely
servings
About 3 dozen
Rigelkitty likes these.
The second recipe is over here.
I'm currently deployed to Gaithersburg, MD. My commute consists of little two-lane country back roads. It's an hour each way, but at least there's little traffic.
Obama was in Leesburg the other day for rally at Ida Lee Park. Wish I could have gone, but I got into Leesburg just as it was ending.
They repaved our street. No parking in front of the house until tomorrow.
Mom's staying over tonight, flying out of Dulles tomorrow morning for vacation. I get to drive her to the airport. I should probably go to bed instead of procrastinating all over the internet.
Supposedly it's going to rain tomorrow, so I probably won't be going biking. Blah. But possibly getting together for gaming in the evening.
OH NOES! The Sarah Palin Action Figure!
I'm back from Lynchburg, where I was happily serving my corporate masters.
Idea: Xydexx Pronks The Planet. Yay! Get pronky!
I've been updating my biking blog at Milepost 38 with various bike rides I've been taking this month. By the beginning of September I had only logged 542 miles YTD, which gave me two months to make up the remaining 458. Proposal work was keeping me busy, however, as I was working seven days a week and missing opportunities to go biking, I had to ride whenever I had free time.
On September 2, I rode out to the Route 28 bridge and back, bringing me up to 562 miles YTD. I didn't have a chance to go biking again until September 20, when I made a trip out to Purse Of Evil and back, bringing me to 588 miles YTD. On September 22, I combined my two previous trips and rode out to Purse Of Evil, out to Route 28, and then back---a respectable 40-something mile trip that brought my YTD mileage to 633.
September 23 found me in Herndon, making a stop at the former Hard Times Cafe and getting a picture of Misha the macaw at Fox Mill Pets for Bennie, bringing total mileage to 663. September 24 was a shorter ride, a mere 20-something miles, bringing total mileage to 688.
Weather is likely to be rainy the next few days, though I'm hoping it will clear up for the Lovettsville Oktoberfest ride.
My next goal is PiaNoWriMo in October; see if you can push 100,000 pianos into the Grand Canyon in one month.
Idle hands beget the devil's work, as the saying goes. So I was browsing some random website and saw this ad, and I thought it said eating babies helped fight heart disease.
Alas, it didn't. But I thought it should anyway. And hey, we can solve the overpopulation problem and fight heart disease in one shot. Awesome!
And now, another sprawling tract of internet real estate to develop and promptly abandon: Encyclopedia Llamatica
There is no real purpose to the site. It is based largely on a
babelfished translation of another, less funny site known as
Encyclopedia Dumbatica. Scientists have discovered by taking
Encyclopedia Dumbatica's unfunny content and cycling it through
Babelfish we've discovered it can actually be made funny. This is
considered by many to be a great technological breakthrough because
being funny is something Encyclopedia Dumbatica has never been able to
do.
Because lulz is what's left after all the humor has been sucked out of a joke.
But don't take my word for it. I sold my sense of humor for some MAGIC BEANS.
Xydexx's Pronk-Powered Webpage
Everyone wants a pronk-powered springbok! Or a reindeer. Or a robotic pony, because those are the best. I need to get my office clutter more organized. My stock is up to $110/share again, so I think I'll sell it off today (more funding for the robotic ponies, y'know). We've been having nice weather lately, so I've been going biking a bit. Here's a picture of the abandoned farmhouse ruins out by Ashburn.
on Xydexx Pronks the Planet