I just went outside to ambush another yellowjacket nest and remembered something that I read on the plane to Atlanta earlier this month…
Only female mosquitos bite, the sting and itch is from a chemical in their saliva. Female mosquitos generally lay 300 eggs at a time, they can live for up to 3 years and usually don’t leave their “home”, which is approximately 1 square mile.
Mosquitos are attracted to moist carbon dioxide (human breath)… so keep your damn mouth shut!
I was coming home from work today and swung by the mailboxes, as I always do. I rode past a set of dumpsters and saw a PC and monitor. I hurried home and got El’s truck – went back to the dumpster and scooped up the computer. The whole time I’m thinking: “Yes, now I don’t have to partition one of our harddrives to install Linux.” The short of it: somebody dumped the computer for a reason. I couldn’t even wedge a floppy into the a: drive to try to use a startup disk.
If anyone has an old computer they want to get rid of (old can even be as in Pentium 100), let me know – I’ll give you cash… or you could just kindly donate it to “Josh’s Continuing Computer Education Program”!
That’s the one good thing about apartment dwelling – dumpster shopping. I’ve gotten a good Weber grill, some patio blinds and a wooden bedframe that I converted into a swinging chair. Call it white trash, I call it semi-resourceful.
Anyway, time to put on my stained undershirt, grab a 16 oz. Busch tallboy and some pork rinds… it’s a double header in NBA land – critical game 5 for both the Lakers and the Celtics.
I finally have a free weekend! Wooooohoooo! I was just checking the calendar… I haven’t had a free weekend since February 16th.
We just watched Vanilla Sky… ehem… I’m going to have to watch it again. I think I was just too tired to pay that much attention to it.
In other news – I’m working on a ‘Campus Updates’ website for sw – that’ll keep me occupied for some time, and give me a chance to do a little development. It’s actually an exciting project.
In case I haven’t mentioned it before, S&W is dumping a lot of money into facility renovations and technology. We’re building the “Pavilion”, the Center for Advanced Medicine and TAMU2 – Scott & White is A&M’s teaching hospital.
And… in case you’re running out of ways to discuss others:
01. A few clowns short of a circus
02. A few fries short of a Happy Meal
03. An experiment in Artificial Stupidity
04. A few beers short of six-pack
05. A few peas short of a casserole
06. Doesn’t have all his Cornflakes in one box
07. The wheel’s spinning, but the hamster’s dead
08. One Fruit Loop shy of full bowl
09. One taco short of a combination plate
10. A few feathers short of a whole duck
11. All foam, no beer
12. Body by Fisher, brains by Mattel
13. Has an I.Q. of 2, but it takes 3 to grunt
14. Warning: Objects in mirror are dumber than they appear
15. Couldn’t pour water out of a boot with the instructions on the heel
16. Too much yardage between the goalposts
17. An intellect rivaled only by garden tools
18. As smart as bait
19. Doesn’t have all his dogs on one leash
20. Doesn’t know much, but leads the league in nostril hair
21. Elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor
22. Forgot to pay his brain bill
23. Her antenna doesn’t pick up all the channels
24. His belt doesn’t go through all the loops
25. If he had another brain, it would be lonely
26. No grain in the silo
27. Proof that evolution can go in reverse
28. Receiver is off the hook
29. Several nuts short of a full pouch
30. He fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down
31. Not the sharpest pencil in the box
32. Lights are on but nobody’s home
33. As sharp as a bowling ball
34. He’s not playing with a full deck
35. As useless as a fart in a wind storm
Hmmmm… The Lakers lost tonight. I kind of hoped they would. What Josh? Yeah, I hoped they would – that makes for a much more interesting Game 6. The Sacramento Kings won tonight, 92-91 to take a 3-2 series advantage (7 game series – whichever team wins 4 games wins [duh]).
Yeah – and now I have a “basketball” topic… that’s how nuts I get in June when the NBA finals come to life.
A lot of my friends say: “Josh, why do you like the Lakers so much? They have Shaq … He should play football, not basketball”.
I don’t care about Shaq – I’ve been a Lakers fan for as long as I can remember. Actually, yesterday I was trying to find a picture of me from the 7th grade – when Bellville Independent School District was liberal enough to allow “Hat Day” – there’s a picture of me with my Lakers hat on. I have two words for you: Magic Johnson.
Anyway – nothing really new today. I cooked my not-yet-famous-but-should-be chicken fried steak tonight (per El’s request) with mashed potatos. El made pickled cucumbers and onions.
And for the record… there is no need for an intervention – El and I don’t beat each other. I was bored last night when I wrote what I did. Though I do appreciate your concern.
On Sunday I kept thinking to myself: “You know, I should just call in and take Monday off.” I kept going back and forth with myself. Then I finally thought: “Nah, because everyone else will be at work on Monday and I’ll be the only one taking off.”
Guess what?… The office was dead today. Most everyone took the day off. Oh well.
El and I both couldn’t fall asleep last night. We went to Subway for dinner and both had Cokes. Caffeine doesn’t usually have that effect on me. I don’t know what time I finally fell asleep, but I was dragging ass all day.
I made tunafish sandwiches for dinner. El makes them better than me. I try to make them the way my Mom used to make them, but they never turn out the same – you know how it goes.
Anyway – I thought this weekend would be a stay-at-home-do-nothing weekend. But the Republic of Texas Rally & Races is being held in Austin this weekend (gigantic motorcycle rally). We’ve experienced this phenomenon for the past 3 years. Guess we’ll have to see if we’re up to it again. I guess we could just go on Friday night. If you want to see some really great motorcycles, just go down to 6th street anytime this upcoming weekend – and bring a camera!
I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!!! The Lakers won! Or should I say, Robert Horry won. 0.5 seconds in Game 4 of the Western Finals, the Lakers are down by 2 points and Robert Horry made an amazing 3 pointer to win the game. I’ve always liked watching Horry play basketball, especially when he played for the Rockets during their 2 year championship reign back in 94-95. Wooo, I’m stoked. This is turning out to be a great series.
Anyway, El and I just got back from a relaxing weekend in Horseshoe Bay. We spent Saturday night at Terri’s Uncle Jerry and Aunt Linda’s lake house. I took my nephews, Grant and Adam and Elise out for rides on the Waverunner.
Today, we went out on the Waverunner again, then went to the pool/beach. Being out in the sun really takes it out of you!
And what would Memorial Day weekend be without an ugly car wreck? Sorry, don’t mean to make light of the subject.
As we were heading home this afternoon, we got stuck in standstill traffic for about 45 minutes. There was a terrible accident involving 2 trucks and lifeflight was called in.
Tonight El and I went to Mardi Gras – a seafood restaurant here in Temple. We will never go there again. I would really like to be objective in my review of this establishment, but I can’t. It was horrible. Honestly, the worst food I think I’ve ever had. Jumbalaya with sour cream?
And to make things worse, the Lakers lost… 103-90. The Kings lead the Western Conference series by 2. I’m sure game 4 will be really good.
Tonight I made steamed dumplings, stir fried shrimp w/ snow peas, carrots and pineapple and sushi rice in record time.
The dumplings were the best. I used ground pork, shredded carrots, scallions, fresh ginger & garlic, soy and sesame oil.
I made a good sauce too w/ soy, sesame oil, garlic and scallions.
I have to take back the part about steamed dumplings – I wound up boiling them. I tried steaming them in a wok and they stuck to the steamer grate.
Sorry, no new 4 o’clock pictures — seems as if the plant’s growth has been temporarily stunted because it’s been a little chilly here.
Lakers won game 1 of the Western Finals!
I’m off to Atlanta tomorrow for the Greystone Client conference. Should be fun.
El surprised me last night with tickets to see Episode II. All I can say is – Go Yoda!
I wasn’t in a ‘Star Wars’ mood when El told me “Get ready, we’re going” – but I wound up really enjoying myself. I had planned on seeing it after the hype died down. Episode II isn’t as cheesy as Episode I – but there is a significant cheese factor.
Our weekend went pretty well. On Friday evening, we just took it easy at home. Our friend Victor came over and we just watched the tube and had pizza.
On Saturday, I woke up early and put some stuff on eBay. Victor came and scooped me up and we went over to our friend Tommy’s house to watch boxing on HBO On Demand. Tommy grabbed this time of economic hardship by the throat and landed a job as a financial analyst in the marketing department of Time Warner. One of Tommy’s perks is getting free digital cable and Roadrunner (broadband internet connection).
That night, El and I went to see Donnie Darko. Um… Um… Um… We both liked the movie a lot, but I know I’m going to have to watch it a couple more times. It’s been almost 24 hours since we left the theatre and I’m still trying to figure it out. They had a special screening of Donnie Darko at the Alamo Drafthouse. Said movie won some awards at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001 and is scheduled to be released on video next month.
So, we came home and went to bed. This afternoon, El kissed me as she was leaving to go to work, 2 minutes later, she comes storming back in screaming that her truck was broken into.
Sometime early this morning, someone broke the right rear passenger window (not the actual window, but that small ‘triangular’ window), reached in, unlocked and opened the door. The culprits broke her CD player. That’s all they did. So, we’re pretty upset about that. El still had to go to work, so I had to wait for the Crime Scene Investigation unit to come and take fingerprints. Then I spent 2 hours cleaning shattered glass out of the inside of the truck.
Now we’re going to have to scrape up whatever we can to get the glass replaced… uh!! It never seems to end. We’re going to have to wait a while before we can replace her CD player too. I guess El can practice on her singing while driving in the meantime!
El was pretty upset about having to move because of my new job, but I think she’s becoming more okay with the notion of leaving this place! Speaking of apartment dwelling, be sure to check out www.aptratings.com if you live in an apartment. There, you can rate the apartments in which you’ve lived, and read others’ comments from various apartments nationwide. Here’s one of my reviews of our current complex.
Having said all that, I think I’m going to go catch some basketball on the old tele and just take it easy. I have to get up and haul on out to Temple tomorrow to take my physical for Scott & White.
Happy Mother’s Day!
This is Elise authoring this entry by-the-way. That’s right! This is my first official entry on Janicek.com!
Josh and I traveled to Mom and Dad Janicek’s house this weekend. We had a nice time (as we always do). It really is nice to get out of the city and into the country. I love being able to see the stars. I know it isn’t nice to brag, but I feel so fortunate that I have such wonderful parent-in-laws. (And no, I’m not trying to suck-up. I’m just speaking from my heart.)
We had quite an action-packed weekend. Saturday, Josh and David hauled a bunch of furniture and odds and ends to a consignment shop in New Ulm (about 7 miles away). When they got back it was time to “work the cows”. This entails rounding them up into a pen, one-by-one into a shoot, trapping them in the shoot, squirting anti-worm medicine on their backs and then releasing them out the gate. (David also had to tag a couple of them.) This is pretty much a four or five person job. I’d say the four of us pretty much have our system down so to keep things interesting we traded jobs this time. I usually work the gate, but I personally prefer being in the pen helping to shoo the cows into the shoot and trapping them there. Other than all of the mushy piles to avoid, it’s quite fun.
Today I learned to shoot a shotgun. I first shot a .22 rifle last fall, also at Mom & Dad J.’s, but today I shot a 20 gauge and a 12 gauge. We shot at clay pigeons and I hit 4 or 5. This was not so much out of skill as it was luck because I think my 4 or 5 hits were out of 15 or 20 attempts. It was fun and worth the proud look on my husband’s face…or maybe it was amusement. I think he’s trying to make a cowgirl out of me. I do feel that I’m ready for my big belt buckle, or cowboy hat.
I also have a new hobby to learn. Janice and I started talking about afghan blankets and I told her that I’ve always wanted to learn how to crochet. She pulled out a bunch of books and magazines on crocheting and gave me a couple of them, and she gave me a needle and a ball of yarn so I can practice. I really hope I learn how to do it because it’s one of the items on my “lifetime list of things I want to do”. Sorry Josh, looks like the housewife thing is starting to look more appealing (see May 9th entry). Just kidding. I promise I’ll keep it to an evening task.
Okay, that’s about it. I’m sorry the reading is long, but it is my first entry…eh…who am I kidding? I’m never at a lack for words am I?
– Elise
Not a whole lot to report today. I’m doing a lot of site development research for janicek.com… hmmmmm.
Today, David and I spoke at a Marketing Advisory Counsel meeting – we both agreed that it went quite well. We introduced our design ideas for the new Scott & White website.
A couple of years ago, my Mom gave us a plant called 4 o’clock. I just went outside and this thing has grown exponentially since yesterday. I’ll try to post a picture of it everyday so you can see its progress. It has really pretty flowers that bloom every day (around 4 p.m. – duh!)
Last night El and I went to Bruckbauer’s for pizza, beer and to watch the NBA semifinals… what a combo!
This past weekend we went up to Ft. Worth to visit John & Christine. It was really good to get away for a while. I think we were really avoiding unpacking.
While in Ft. Worth, we went to the stockyards, did some window shopping and ate bbq. Johnny and I looked like a couple hillbillies eating the $9.99 all-you-can-eat beef ribs. Then we went back to their house and played PS2 for most of the night.
Sunday we all got up late and at kolaches. Then we tried to go to the Mayfest, but they wouldn’t let us in because we brought Wesley along (Engler’s dog).
And, I would like to take this space to apologize to anyone who has been offended by what I write on my site – I’ll try to censor myself better next time…
