silentbill1814's Xanga

4th of July

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:56:02 GMT

It's a quite morning so far that hides the fact of how much I have left to do. But I got my bathroom scrubbed down last night and I've almost got everything in place. I've tasks for Jason & Cristie both today to help me out. We got some much needed rain early this morning and I'm hoping the trend will continue for about a week or so.

I think most of the great discoveries in history were by accident, like cheese, penicillin, and NutraSweet. I accidentally discovered this morning that you actually can cook in the style known as seviche (pronounced se-ve-chay). The process involves no heat in order to cook food, rather through the use of citric acid. We peeled & deveined shrimp last night & I put them in a marinade including a hellova lot of lemon juice. When I got up this morning to stir the shrimp, instead of raw grey shrimp I find very pretty pink seafood. I'm not about to eat one till it comes off the grill, but I'm interested now more than ever to find a restaurant that utilizes this cooking technique.

Anywho, have a safe & Happy 4th of July, whether you're in America or not!!

Free Pictures from DrewpyDraws

Free Pictures from DrewpyDraws

Free Pictures from DrewpyDraws

T-minus 46 hours till Boomsday

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:11:48 GMT

Well, that's not exactly accurate. Boomsday occurs in Knoxville during Labor Day weekend. But for here it works.

2 hours of yardwork tonight. Tomorrow night it's the cleaning of the bathroom and Cristie is coming. Lemony-fresh victory will be mine.

Shand & Donnie are bringing a "surprise" Friday night. Pray for me.

Hey, there's actually a table holding all that junk.

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:15:21 GMT

I managed to get my fireworks bought today. I'm terrible at doing math in my head so I ran $3 over but the chick was cool and let me have all my stuff anyway. Actually, that's 2 days in a row I've gotten something unexpected for free. Yesterday when I (finally) left the office, I was ravenous and Taco Bell sounded better than anything so I went through the drive-thru. I sat there for quite a while waiting at the window but being a very patient person (no, really!) I didn't think anything about it, and didn't bother to check my order when they handed it to me. After I had pulled out & was heading home, I noticed there was nachos & cheese dip and a nacho chicken chalupa in the bag that I certainly hadn't ordered. Let's hear it for free food!

I managed to get my kitchen table and the coffee table in the living room clean and cleaned off. Honestly, the coffee table had so much assorted junk scattered hither & yon that you couldn't see the top of the table itself. But now it's all shiny with a nice assortment of magazines for company. Like those heatherns ever read. I'm hoping to get yard work done tomorrow evening. Still so much to do, buy, & clean.

Oh, if any of you would care to donate to the party fund, just drop a line & I'll forward my mailing address.

Do not agitate the bear

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:38:52 GMT

That should've been the sign by my desk today. Oh what I foul mood I had. And it wasn't helping matters one bit that my first new patient was late, which made me late the rest of the day. Add to that the fact that my doctor decided to not only drag-ass around but ordered blood draws that required me to stay and wait for them to finish spinning (they had to go in the freezer & couldn't wait till tomorrow) while he went ahead & left. Grrrr...my 10 hour day turned into a 12. Not happy, not happy was I.

My stomach hurts and I can't figure out why.

I started getting the house ready tonight, even though I was an hour later getting home than I should've been. I'm hoping to get a lot done tomorrow since I should be getting home at my normal time. I'd be doing more right now but I'm just so tired. I think I need more sleep, although to be honest I've slept better the last few weeks than I have in a long time. Fortunately, we've had a very mild summer thus far in this part of Tennessee. Daytime temps have been in the 80s and lower 90s, the night time temps are in the 60s. For several weeks now I've not had to run the heat pump so that's gonna be a big help on the electric bill. The Sunfire still gets great gas mileage and I'm able to get plenty of coupons, so thankfully I'm keeping my head abover the water for right now. As I read over the financial pages on the net I realize how lucky I am in this respect. Oh I'm still getting squeezed right & left but so far I'm makin' it.

Hear me now, germs!

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:20:25 GMT

Gonna be a busy week. Gotta clean, clean, clean. The 4th is fast approaching & that means I've gotta hustle. Fireworks to buy, groceries to get, house to clean, outside furniture courtsey of Cristie that must be cleaned...oh I got so much to do.

Jason has started re-vamping the Borg costume for upcoming Dragon-Con in Atlanta. Fortunatley there's not as much work on that end as he was afraid of. But it means bits & pieces scattered all over the house. Ah well, if it gets him pictures on the Web I'm happy. Speaking of being on the web & different media...X-box 360 has clips of "Attack of the Show" with a best of that chick Olivia. Well they included the bit from Celebration IV with yours truly in it. So now I've been shown on cable, YouTube and now the X-box. Yeah...it's good to be the king.

Recieving good service (or not).

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:40:11 GMT

Okay, I stole this from Emancip8 Blog. Enjoy! :)

1) Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The title of the page will be the name of your band

2) Go to http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four words of the last sentence of the page will be the name of your album

3) Got to http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/ The third pic, it doesn't matter what it is, will be the cover pic

So I come up with...

I admit, as I get older (but at least I don't look as old as Cristie) I understand a little more about how "adults" feel in regards to certain matters. Me and Jason ate out twice this weekend, once with Cristie & Chris from Louisville and then by ourselves on Sunday night. Both meals were very good (ok, the Riverhouse was fantastic! Those crab cakes rocked my face off.) but the service left something to be desired. I understand that being a waiter/waitress (server for you more p.c. types) is a tough job and I respect those who do it and do it well. Our waiter from Saturday night was very cute but sadly a little scattered. But he tried to correct all his mistakes and though they were several, none were bad enough to ruin an otherwise thoroughly pleasant and highly enjoyable evening (except maybe for Chris when the guy brought creme brule instead of the tirra masu...but he corrected that too). He even explained he was new to his job and thanked us for being so patient. I'm not about to make myself an ass when someone is trying their hardest to do a good job (I reserve that for dealing with insurance companies). But Sunday night was a completely different story. We ate a local restaurant and though the food was good, the waitress just didn't seem to care. Oh she was nice enough, but we had to ask for silverware, had to ask twice in a row for drink refills, Jason had to ask for dessert spoons, and I think there was something else but it's escaping my mind. It was just a huge difference in service and I think it's the first time I got annoyed with someone in that line of work. I remember what it is like to be that young (yes, both parties were younger than I and no Cristie that does not account for 99% of the population!) and not be thinking about job performance. There are days now I don't give a crap about job performance (today for example...ye gods it was unpleasant) but I still have to put my best face forward and do the best I can because I realize how much of an impact it has on my professional apperance. Oh the wisdom found in dining out.

Long lazy summer days...

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:14:03 GMT

I have the feeling that this will be the perfect week temperature-wise around here. It's supposed to be in the 80s all week and even down into the 50s a couple of nights. Just need rain is all. The patient load is light at the moment but then it always is this time of year. Next month I expect it to start picking up. Wish I could spend a few days out enjoying myself but that mortgage doesn't pay itself.

Anywho, yes we had a great time in Abington. Our innkeepers Janice & Jim were wonderful to us and we got along with everyone else who was staying there but the first two couples who were there for the weekend like us were more personable. Also, I think they realized they were sharing space with a (gasp!) gay couple. Truth is we didn't find many gays in the village. Although, we did find the one requisite gay boy in an antique store and he was FAB-U-LOUS! Speaking of fabulous, we did some fine eating while we were there. Janice is quite a cook and breakfast both mornings was a treasure. There was a soda shop that just recently opened and I was able to get a real hand-jerked (and I'll thank each and every one of you NOT to make a crude comment about that!) root beer. I'd forgotten what the real stuff tasted like. Saturday night we ate a place called the Tavern where I got to try smoked salmon for the first time and had stuffed filet mignon. Dear heaven was it ever good. We had a great time at the play as well. I still blame Jason for getting us caught in the rain and having to walk 4 blocks back to the inn. Oh well, it was still worth it. So, on to pictures:

That's Jason's head on the left & his foot on the right. I miss that swing.

I had us an anniversary cake & wine waiting. Said wine was in the 'fridge at the time.

Heaven help, he looks so gay.

Out by the train tracks there's a place called the Artist's Depot. They have resident artists who work & sell pieces there. Jason, having a background in pottery, chatted with the potter & bought one of her pieces. Next door was a lady who does weaving. I was stunned at the depth & quality of her work. She can do 3-D pieces such as these. I put Jason between them to give a reference for size.

Jason happened to ask if she dyed her own yarn. She actually buys carpet remnants, which is why there's very little yellow (it went out with the 70s) and not much green, although she said green made a comeback in the 90s.

Weekend for 2

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:44:48 GMT

I had really, really wanted to update earlier 'cause I've got something that I want to talk about, but I'm pressed for time here so I'll just let you all in on what's goin' on this weekend. Mine & Jason's anniversary fell in the middle of the week this year and since he took me to Louisville for V-Day, I thought I'd do something nice for us for our anniversary. Well it wouldn't work out on our actual anniversary day, so this weekend was as close as I could come to getting everything to work out. Turns out that there is a lot of other stuff going on this weekend (Adventrue-Con in Knoxville, my sister's birthday, decoration at my mother's family cemetary) and I hadn't thought of ANY of that when planning this. Oh well, such is life. Anyway, I can talk about this here now 'cause I figure there's a 99% probability that Jason won't read this till all is said & done. He says he doesn't know what I've got planned, but if he's snooped any on my computer then he's bound to know. But I'll play along.

Anywho, I'm taking him for a weekend in beautiful Abington, VA...home of the famous Barter Theater. We'll be going to see "The Cure for Love" on Saturday night. I wanted to see "Don't Cry for Me, Margaret Mitchell" but that didn't work out. We'll be staying at a bed & breakfast called the Summerfield Inn. This is our room:

Dogwood- Enjoy the springtime feel of this large gustroom overlooking the gardens. Furnished with antique cherry armoire, cheval mirrored nightstand and desk. Relax on the loveseat or pewter iron queen size bed. Whirlpool/shower bath.

I've never been in a whirlpool before. And all across Xanga-land there was a sudden "gasp & clutch the pearls". I've gotten a shocked response from everyone at work when I said I'd never been in one. Oh well, guess I'm sheltered. Anyway, I love Abington and have been to Barter on several occasions but never got to stay overnight. I really wish we could stay longer than 2 nights, but it'll be a nice weekend for us I think. Heaven help me though...that town is crammed with antique stores. Sigh...where's my comfy walkin' shoes?

Picture of my life

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:59:53 GMT

Actual Xanga post tomorrow. This is enough for today & you get a story tomorrow. Enjoy!

The concept:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.
4. Tag as many people as you like.

The questions:
1. What is your first name? Billy

2. What is your favorite food? right now? tacos

3. What high school did you go to? Forge Ridge

4. What is your favorite color? Blue

5. Who is your celebrity crush? Hayden Christensen

6. What is your favorite drink? Sprite

7. What is your dream vacation? Scottland

8. What is your favorite dessert? cheesecake

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? satisfied

10. What do you love most in life? Star Wars

11. What is one word that describes you? funny

12. What is your flickr name? fried dumpling (Jason's pet name for me. Silentbill turned up nothing)

And the result...

1.) intense sadness, please burn a candle for Billy--2.) tacos--3.)old house tinted, Forge Ridge, TN--4.) blue skies smiling at me--5.) Hayden Christensen--6.) Sprite sunrise--7.) Somewhere in the highlands of Scottland--8.) raspberry swirl cheesecake--9.) Day 89: Satisfied Staying Single Day--10.) Star Wars Last Supper--11.) funny pictures of cats & kittens--12.) fried dumplings Noodle Kingdom Russel St.

Billy is happy.

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:32:05 GMT

Nothin' especially noteworthy has brought this on. I guess maybe I just figured I should do something "positive" here on this site o' mine. So I dedicate this post to you, the faithful few who wonder just what the hell it is that makes my little mind tick. If you are reading this, then it is a personal message to you, and some of you will know what's directed right at you:

It is you who make me smile. It is you who make me think. It is you who challenge me to question who & what I am and make me a stronger person for it. It is you who are there for me to share my joys and offer comfort for my sorrows. It is you who make me laugh, and it is you who make me cry. It is you who is there for me to talk to when I need someone. It is you who allow me to view the world from multiple view points. It is you who give me the strength to carry on one more day. It is you who I am proud to know. It is you that I give thanks for. And it is YOU that makes this world worth living in.

And for something just to make you laugh, cause I used to sing along with this as a kid: