Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

See? See? This is what I have been saying for two years!

Anybody been to a Caps game lately?

Anybody want to give me a hard time about my beloved Washington Nationals?

(Rhetorical questions both.)

From a Washington Post chat today:

Falls Church, Va.: I don't understand the Nationals. This offseason is shaping up like the Homestead spring of 1995. So why don't the Nationals overpay on a bunch of one-year contracts, with bonus money to lower the actual salary itself? Then in June and July, trade off the guys who do well, or harvest the picks when they leave as free agents. That maintains flexibility and gives you some assets to use this season.

Dan Steinberg: "Overpay on a bunch of one-year contracts" = not part of The Plan.

The one thing that keeps me from being incessantly critical: so much of this resembles the Caps, right down to the No. 1 pick in a year when you really, really want to be picking No. 1. Is Strasburg the Southern Cali Ovechkin? It's not an impossible thought.

Bowden did say over the weekend that signing free agents who would bring those compensatory picks if they leave is something they have and will continuie to consider.

Fingers crossed

A few years ago, I had somebody interview for an open position and halfway through the interview, I was thinking this kid is smarter than I am.

She didn't know everything I knew about my job, but she knew more than I did about some aspects of our field. It did cross my mind that if I hired her, she might expose me for a fraud, they'd fire me and promote her, and I'd be living in a box.

I hired her anyway, she picked up the job very quickly, and when she exceeded all of her goals, I got to take credit. When she left, it was to take a job that's basically mine at another company.

Today I interviewed somebody smarter than I am. I'm hoping lightning will strike twice.

My favorite line

"...as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself..."

Not exactly live blogging the rebroadcast of We Are One

When I checked to see if I could get HBO today, I found out that I could have watched it live. D'oh...

I am watching now. And Caleb Green, the Master Sergeant who sang the national anthem? I've seen him sing that a million times. He's a regular at sporting events around here.

And it hit me.

The Lincoln Memorial, to me, is a place to use the rest room before a bike ride on the Rock Creek trail.

Every spring, I get annoyed by the tourists who show up and can't use the farecard machines. It mystifies me why they come...what is so special about my hometown, that people feel compelled to show up and screw up traffic? Can't they go to Disney World or something?

A few years ago, I met a woman who'd moved to D.C. from California to go to college. Her first trip here, she was surprised to find neighborhoods and grocery stores. She said it never occurred it her that people live here.

I err in the other direction. It doesn't occur to me that people around the world see the monuments and memorials as symbolic of America, freedom, democracy. It feels dorky for me to even type it. But I'm finding myself getting a little misty-eyed, and feeling oddly proud, watching this show.

I imagine that Tuesday will be this times a hundred.

I'm even less upset about the traffic.

Some little thing going on downtown

I guess I needn't tell you, that with my love of cold and of crowds, I didn't go down to the Lincoln Memorial for the concert and speeches this afternoon. I've been watching football, although if I can get the free HBO rebroadcast of the concert, that might be more appealing than the Ravens (boo) and Steelers (hiss).

What little I've heard, though, it sounds like it was impressive. And I feel like I am being sort of stupid to ignore my chance to see this live.

Then I look at the traffic cameras.

I don't need no four-day weekend

Back on November 5 or so, I thought I've never been to an inauguration. Maybe this time I'll go.

I live just outside of Washington. I was thinking I could hop on the Metro mid-morning (there is a station across the street from my office), go see the swearing in, catch the start of the parade and be back at my desk before anybody missed me.

Yeah, I'm not sure what the hell I was thinking, either. Obviously that naive plan went out the window by about November 6.

The first inauguration I remember is Jimmy Carter's. We were off school that day, but I sort of think it was the one-day semester break we always had late in January. I do remember watching the parade on tv.

After that...well, in 1985 I was offered a chance to be in a Girl Scout color guard for the parade, but I didn't have a full uniform. I can't recall if I declined because I didn't have time to get the uniform, or because the uniform was so hideous I didn't think marching in the inauguration parade made it worth wearing it. (Also, Reagan was no hero of mine, so that might have affected my decision.) It was so cold that winter that the outdoor parade was canceled anyway.

And that's about it. It's not like I'm politically indifferent, but until this year, inaugurations haven't really made lasting impressions on me. I like the orderly transfer of power, the bit of pomp and circumstance, but I guess the fact that we have one every four years has made me sort of blase about it, too. Wow, has it been four years already? I better leave early for the hockey game, traffic will be a mess.

Traffic this year is likely to be beyond a mess...I have actual concerns about getting to my office, which is 20, maybe 25 miles from the Capitol...but I think I'll be remembering this inauguration for more than the traffic.

TGIF

No, wait...

Friday is my presentation. It's lame. Of course, it's not like I'm graded on it, exactly...it says in my objectives that I have to give a staff science presentation, but it didn't say it had to be good.

Then I have to conduct a job interview. Which you'd think would be less stressful that going on a job interview, but not for me.

Once that is over, I'll be glad it's Friday.

baby, if you ever wondered, wondered whatever became of me...

I'm short staffed; I need to do reviews for the staff that haven't quit; I need to deliver a presentation; I'm interviewing; the dog has a weird cough; half the rats are on medication and all the rats are old.

The work stuff is excruciating for someone like me...well, being shorthanded is only a minor pain, but all that interacting with people is draining my energy completely.

And I don't have a four day weekend coming up, because I don't work for the government. (Why oh why didn't I try harder? I'd have been a great civil servant.) I have vehemently defended our company's decision not to close on inauguration day, but now I'm sort of secretly hoping that traffic on Tuesday is so ridiculous that I end up having to stay home.

Soundtrack Meme

Ripped off from Karen, who has a more ecelectic iPod playlist than I do:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. When you go to a new question, press the next button
5. For every question, type the song that’s playing
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool. (That really takes all the fun out of it. DON’T DO IT!)

A little order-switching would have made this even funnier, but I play by the rules.

Opening Credits: Highway Chile, Jimi Hendrix
Waking up: Taxman, Stevie Ray Vaughan
First Day of School: Fools Fall in Love, The Drifters
Falling in Love: Vehicle, Ides of March
Fight Song: The Losing End (When You're On), Neil Young
Breaking Up: Where Do You Think You're Going, Dire Straits
Prom: Happy Ending, Joe Jackson
Life: Hallelujah, I'm a Bum, Dan Zanes
Mental Breakdown: Doolin' Dalton, The Eagles
Driving Song: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, The Platters
Flashback: John Barleycorn, Traffic
Getting Back Together: The Real Me, The Who
Wedding: Crimson and Clover, Tommy James & The Shondelles
Birth of a Child: The Birmingham Turnaround, Keith Whitley
Final Battle: Tea for Two, Nat King Cole
Death scene: Eclipse, Pink Floyd
Funeral: One for Lenny, Danny Gatton
End Credits: Rollin' Stone, Muddy Waters

Why I didn't go into marketing

I was explaining to Victor that I buy my pants from one particular store because they offer a fat ass style that actually fits me.

He suggested that "fat ass" might not be the actual name of the pants.

I said maybe not specifically, but they did describe the pants as being one size larger in the hips than in the waist.

Silly me. I looked at the catalog...it's one size smaller in the waist than in the hips.

A pirate looks at 40

Oh, wait, that's not me...no desire to be a pirate. (I may have made enough money to buy a condo in Miami, but I pissed it away so fast...)

I hit 40 at 4:30-something this morning, and I was in fact awake, since I have a nasty cold that is interfering mightily with my ability to lie down, which is interfering mightily with sleep.

Forty doesn't feel any different than 39 did.

A lot of people have asked me what I am doing to celebrate this birthday...apparently you should go on a safari or bungee jumping or buy yourself a sports car for turning 40. A Mustang would be cool, but I just bought a new engine motor mount for the Focus, so I might as well stick with it. Besides, it's paid for.

We thought about going to Ocean City this weekend so I could have a birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant, but today's weather report wasn't promising, and the dog got sick, and now I'm sick, so I'm glad we stayed home.

I may venture out to a drug store for Sudafed, or I may stick with herbal teas and watching football from the couch. It's still a happy birthday.

I could do without the cold, true. But at the risk of sounding melodramatic or maudlin, I spent last September worried that I had cancer. Getting the clean pathology report back did wonders for my perspective on getting old...which is to say, it beats the hell out of not getting old.

Skippin' Jenny

According to Wikipedia...and is there a more authoritative source in the world?...leftover Hoppin' John is called "Skippin' Jenny," and promises even more good luck when eaten on January 2.

Well, hot damn. I'm hoping the increasing luck continues out through the week, because I still have about half a vat of it. This year I waited until New Year's Eve to do my grocery shopping, and the store was out of canned and frozen black-eyed peas. (When will I learn?) So, I bought dried beans, and lucked out in that black-eyed peas do not require 8 hours of soaking. However, one pound of dried peas yields about a metric ton of cooked beans.

As basic as cooking dried beans is, I'd never done it, because the time factor made it seem like a hassle. Now that I've seen it really isn't, maybe I'll make planning ahead and using (the much cheaper) dried beans a resolution.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Anyway, though, my luck for 2009 is already looking pretty good. I came in second in the dead pool and won a hundred bucks, and today at the vet, the three hundred bucks of diagnostics did not reveal anything lethal (or even more expensive) with the dog.