Sauced and buzzed

Is there a tomato's anonymous support group? I think I may have a problem. I've taken my tomato obsession to work now.


Work at the house is turning into a daily Where's Waldo excercise. What tiny miniscule changes happened today? Like removal of the old heating vent pipe.


Notice something different? The window screens are gone. They were harshly white and clashed with the overall pseudo historical-ness of the house. We're going to swap them out with bronze ones. I'm so anal retentive sometimes. Work is slow, and I never see workers anymore. I think I will give them Where's Waldo striped shirts to wear because they are so elusive and hard to locate. I'm not sure they'll get the joke though.


Planted seeds a couple days ago. I guess it was wishful thinking to expect seedlings. I've already forgotten what I have planted in which compartment. And yes, there are more tomatos in there somewhere. A bit late in the season to start seed, I'm hoping SoCal's long growing season will make up for the late start. We'll see what happens. My mini-greenhouse project months ago turned out to be an utter disaster. Will try again next winter, hopefully with heat in the house.


Woo Hoo! Volunteer growth from when the neighborhood skunk ransacked the chili pepper bed. Unexpected tomato seeding! Must have unearthed some tomato seeds left in compost. I'm going to let it grow and see what develops. Is it yellow pear? Orange cherry? Perhaps sprouted from that pint of green zebra's from Trader Joe's? Or some unknown commercial variety from salsa with my burrito? Or from marinara sauce that developed green fuzz?


A biplane buzzed the office building today. I don't even question events like these in my life anymore. Surreal things happen all the time that I find it normal now.

Carbo loading

Sigh. Memorial Day at the office again. I think I did the same thing last year. Sigh.

On a lighter note, I relieved myself of $99.57 at the Whole Foods tonight. Even bought some tomato seedlings to feed the newly developed 'mater addiction. And wine. A couple bottles of wine. But that's feeding an existing old addiction. I'm house sitting Mom and Dad's house this weekend, and I've got all this pent up cooking energy bottled up since returning from Italy. Energy that needed to be released in a flurry of chopping and banging pots.


Spicy broccoli rabe, turkey sausage, shell pasta, with cheese. Perfectly al dente. Tender greens. Savory turkey. A kick of chili pepper, and chili pepper infused olive oil. The shape of the pasta holds onto the other ingredients. Plus, I used 3 of 4 burners on the stove tonight. Always fun to play with fire.


Tuna, cherry tomato, shallots, cannellini beans, and fresh herb pasta salad. Chopped up habenero pepper surprise inside. Squeeze of lemon from my tree. Fruity, fresh, and sprightly, but mostly an excuse to play with the pepper grinder. The heat from the just cooked pasta softens the tomatos and wilts the herbs just enough to release flavors, but still keep the uncooked freshness of raw ingredients. Absolutely anti-atkins tonight. Absolutely starving this past week. Need to put on some pounds. I will need it for the crazy work weeks ahead.


Swiss chard risotto. Fresh swiss chard from my garden, reward for my labors in the yard over the past two days. Fittingly, the risotto tastes like earth, but in a good way. Sweet onions, broth, and rice- therapeutically stirred and stirred and stirred. Secret risotto ingredient- an eensy splash of soy sauce for subtle complexity. And cheese. Cheese makes everything yummy. I made a giant mess of the kitchen. Always a good sign of a job well done. Yummyness nearly always happen when one cooks with abandon.

Desperate houseboy

Weekend custody of Preston again. Yay! He's been very well behaved lately. Baby Eli came to stay with us yesterday. I discovered that Preston loves little babies. He's always liked playing with kids, but hasn't been around many babies. When Eli cries, Preston goes to check in on him. It's very touching. Sadly, I'm nowhere near having anything to do with babies in my life. Sigh.


Tomato vines are now gigundous, taller than me now. Little yellow flowers popping up everywhere like pimples on a pizza delivery boy. I'm still tremendously jealous of Aaron and Jenne's fruitful tomatos. It drives me nuts. The anticipation of vine ripened 'maters. Patience young Davy. Patience.


Baby 'maters. I shall coddle you until you've matured. And as soon as you've matured, I will devour you right there in the garden, juice and seeds dripping out of my mouth and all over my shirt, like a bloody horror movie zombie. And I will be happy.

God and venereal disease

What does the bible say about coveting thy neighbor's mulch?


Someone's been naughty and modified this sign. A friend did it. Yeah. That's it. A friend. I will stick to that story.

Filling in holes

Hole in the wall gone. Hole in the wallet remains.


Vent installation. Attempt #4.


Messy goopy plaster time again. Carpenter's got the trim work mostly done.


Paint, where are you?


Nerdy Davy printed out location photos of where all these light fixtures should be installed. And artfully attached each marked photo to it's corresponding box. I'm pushing the envelope of communications. But mostly because I'm lazy and this is faster and clearer than typing up a list of instructions.


Shiny new sprinkler valve. I estimated this repair to take me an hour and a half to finish the valve transplant. But it took me only 10 minutes this morning. So I had some spare moments to print up and mark up photos and attach them to cardboard boxes. I must have some untapped talent for piecing together PVC pipes.

Waffles and rockets

Waffle brunch at MK's this morning, and then caravan-ing to NASA-JPL's open house. Delicious. Highlights include creations like neon blue swirl waffles. And my favorite, waffles with peanut butter chips, hershey's chocolate syrup, and raspberries. It's like eating reeces peanut butter cups in waffle form. And bacon. Lots and lots of bacon.


In case anyone is lost, the Universe is to the left. We were going to arrive with our astronaut friend Story in tow, but alas, he's out of town this weekend. We would have nerds worshipping at our feet all day. But maybe next year.


They could totally pimp this ride. Put in chrome dub spinner rims. Tint the windows, slam the suspension to the ground. Neon undercarriage light kit. And plasma screens instead of the photo-electric panels.


Stereoscopic image from the Mars Pathfinder mission. That scientist is very 3D.


Look. Do you see 3D now?


The next mars mission reconnaisance probe looks like a pokemon.


Here we have JPL's robotic team hard at work testing their newest pick pocket machine.


Rocket scientists have special recycling bins. They've got to sort for magnesium and titanium in addition to aluminum cans.


With all the Phd brainpower here, this is best they've come up for shading the sun from the tv image. Our tax dollars at work baby.


There must be a rampant problem with waxing offices.


To cut down on obesity, their vending machines dispense drill bits and clamps.


Thermal imaging camera. I now have scientific proof that I'm smokin' hot.


When not in demo mode, the mission control center watches Everybody Loves Raymond on all five screens.


I found the Universe.


Oh, my gardenia is finally blooming today.

Invasion

Pneumatic nail gun. The carpenter's been by, but I never see human bodies anymore. Just bits and pieces of stuff, circumstantial evidence that something is happening. It's like those tiger traps in Southeast Asia. You never see the tigers, but you see footprints and tiger poop every once in a while. Though, if I see carpenter poop anywhere, I'm going to fire their ass.


I'm holding their tools hostage until they finish the house.


Prickly pears blooming. This one has orange flowers.


This one has yellow. I will make prickly pear cactus margaritas when the fruits are ripe.


Flock of parrots have moved in the backyard. I counted 11 today. And the numbers keep growing. Noisy, but parrot antics are amusing.

I have toilet and I have wood

Tedious exhausting meeting in San Diego yesterday. Transportation courtesy of a crazy Frenchman. Who drives like a crazy Frenchman.


I have toilet! It's been so long since there's is a toilet upstairs that I'm absolutely ecstatic to come home to one. I kept drinking lots of liquids just so I could use it. No electricity yet, no door, no sink, but I must have flushed 10 times last night. And they didn't think it would fit in the space because they didn't account for the thickness of the tile wall. We've got 1/16th of an inch to spare from the toilet to the wall. Plenty of space I tell ya. Who needs the regular inch and a half?


And a shower that drains. I will have to grow long hair and test to see if it clogs.


And I've got wood.

Xmas in May, Santa's watching

Paranoia. They setup traffic monitoring strips at my driveway. I think I'm being watched. They'd get no valuable data really. But if they shared their data with me, I'd have proof that nobody is coming to my house to work.


The little box that records the data. I am tempted bring home the magnetic deguasser from work and erase all the data in this box. Or maybe get one of those giant rare earth magnets and just set it next to it. They're watching me. I'll have to go make my tin-foil hat now.


It's May 11. My neighbor is only now throwing out their christmas tree.


Yup. They're watching me. Traffic monitoring equipment at the end of the driveway. And now they're washing my office window. Coincidence? I think not.

Bawling

We had the company suite at Angels' Stadium Friday night. But I think I prefer the cheap seats. Something about being around the unruly drunken masses goes hand in hand with baseball. Ready access to booze. Easier to throw peanuts. The "luxury" suites seem to just insulate you from baseball. But I'm not complaining. It's still fun.


Can you imagine growing up with the name "Colon?" Who's laughing now.


My name in lights, courtesy of Verizon text messaging. Didn't see any marriage proposals on the screen, I guess it's still uncouth.


There's a cow on the field.


Hhhmmmm.... America's favorite past time has some subtext.


I was very sad at the slow pace of progress, so I moved some things into the kitchen cupboards. Yes, I will have to take everything out again. But it's been so long that I need to pretend I'm using the kitchen, even if it's only putting dirty cups and garbanzo beans in the cabinets.