artykins

So I have to start out by admitting that I haven't been writing my half hour a day as I said I would. Somehow I feel that if I admit it here I'll be held accountable to some more stringent standard than my own. I'm not sure why I think that. I have one of the highest standards around. To be fair, I haven't been writing because I've been utterly knackered. Matt will witness to this: last week I would get up, go to work, come home from work, nap for an hour or so, get up and scramble dinner together, nap for another hour while Matt cleaned the kitchen and then sleep a full night. It was insane. Even for me.

The reason I was so tired was because I was pulling some extra time and LOTS of extra energy to get the standardized testing we're required to do, done. Getting materials from fifteen districts, going through everything to make sure I have all the necessary items, re-ordering them so that the teachers can test the kids in specific groups according to their needs, checking the materials in and out for three days all the while keeping them locked up and 'secure.' Although I'm not sure why they think a lock would stop a determined teenager.

Still, none of the kids were disgruntled enough to mess with my lock, so nothing was compromised.

Anyway, at the end of testing I had to collect all the tests, all the materials and separate them according to district again, go over the master list yet again to make sure everything that was sent was there and then package and ship the little buggers. Except I can't say I shipped anything. My boss did that.

Speaking of which, she's been a right hag as of late. She's on one of her downward, destructive slopes and she's taking everyone at work with her, but since I have the distinct pleasure of being her right-hand-man, I get the brunt of her wrath. It's not been enjoyable at the office the last week or so. I'm back to entertaining thoughts of leaving, but then my common sense sets in and I sigh and go back to my numbers.

Jeff and Jeremy provided some much needed comedy for me yesterday. After a hellish day, they stopped by to 'kidnap' me even though I willingly went on their adventure. We went to the old navy base to scout out some filming territory. I guess the boys are working on a mob film for their next project and they need some good old fashioned mob-looking docks, so it was the abandoned naval base.

There's actually some really cool stuff there. Some companies have taken over some of the old hangars, but most of the buildings on site have remained empty. And they've remained a kind of creepy empty. If you look into the barracks, it's like the people just up and left without taking anything with them. The only thing that's proof of them being old is the peeling paint and un-attended weeds growing outside.

My favorite part of the afternoon was, by far, driving by and walking around near the old control tower on the old landing strips. There were WWII era anti-aircraft guns positioned at the base of the control tower and everything smelled deliciously old. I can't describe it much better than that. It smelled ancient, like that one spot had stories to tell, ones that will never be heard by anything apart from the weeds poking up through the cracks in the landing strips. It smelled like old, rusty, seaside metal. It was distinctly metallic, but in a faded sense. It was amazing.

Anyway, the boys, I think, settled on an area very near the old control tower. The navy built a couple little harbors off the base and these harbors are separated from the bay by small mounds of rock and rubble. It wouldn't surprise me if the mammoth rocks came from the quarry that used to be operational in Oakland. It's a giant scar in the side of a hill that can be seen from all over the area. It's a point of direction for many people. It's kind of like using the Eiffel Tower as a point of reference for the rest of your walk through Paris.

The harbors still hold a few naval ships that are docked there. The USS Hornet is one of them. It's an aircraft carrier that's technically been in service since 1775. The current one is a WWII craft that's open to the public as a museum. There are stories of it being haunted, but I haven't given my stamp of concurrence to that one. I have to visit it again (I went as a child) before making a decision. Anyway, the most current incarnation of the USS Hornet earned nine battle stars in WWII and recovered the capsules of Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 when they came back to Earth. The navy has kept the name alive, though, but instead of a ship, an F-18 strike fighter carries the name.

Quite an impressive history.

I've also been enjoying the fountain in the courtyard the last few days. There's a window of time about 6 o'clock where the sun hits it at such an angle that the streams of water flowing from top to bottom just sparkle. I've been tempted more than once to go out there and run my hands under them to make sure they're real.

While I've been enjoying that, I have to say I haven't been enjoying the weather lately. It's been too strange for my liking. Today is was raining and darker in the morning, but then sometime between 10am and noon, some sunshine broke through and made everything warm and humid. It's never humid here. NEVER. And when it is, there's almost always an earthquake of some kind. So needless to say, I'm not a huge fan of what's been going on the last couple days or so.

In other news, a spider has taken up residence in my living room curtains. Matt has promised me he'll find a new home for it, so for now it's been saved the wrath of my vacuum cleaner. I wouldn't actually hoover it up. Spiders are amazingly resilient little buggers and the last thing I want is for one to survive inside my vacuum and nest there to later release its little minions. Yeah. Not so much. I'll have Matt locate said little beastie and then vacuum the remnants of its home.

Dinner tonight was a bit disappointing. By its very nature it was a salt lick, so I think I'll have to try it again at some point with some modifications to take the intensity of it away and make it more balanced. The topping was delicious, though. It called for bread crumbs, but I found I didn't have any on hand (which is odd for me as I always have some in my freezer), so I improvised. I used crackers and took a rolling pin to them. That was a lot of fun. And when those were crumbs, I got to add some pine nuts and do it all over again!

I love my French rolling pin.

Anyway, a little olive oil, salt and pepper and I was good to go. It went on top of this baked pasta dish and toasted up really nicely. I was very pleased. But then again, I love toasted pine nuts. I love most nuts. I really can't think of any that I discriminate against. I also like seeds, my current favorite being Mexican pepitas that have been roasted and salted. Those are freaking delicious. I might incorporate them somehow into dinner later this week. I'm making Puerto Rican pig candy (which is just my name for a piece of pork whose skin has gone all crispy and nice).

I've also been getting a lot of compliments on a new necklace I have. I got it on holiday up north. There's a little glass blowing co-op in Ft. Bragg, which to those of you familiar with the area shouldn't be a big surprise. Ft. Bragg is almost entirely peopled by hippies, but they're not the in-your-face hippies. They're the mellow ones that do what they do because they like it and get on with life.

This little co-op has several artists that make different things. I, personally, would have loved a hand blown glass jellyfish lamp, but I didn't exactly have $5000 sitting around, so I settled on a necklace made by one of the artists. It's got handmade glass beads that she fashioned and put together. My favorite bead is a little yellow one that looks like a leopard got stuck inside it. My second favorite is another yellow bead, but it's much larger and looks as though a piece of honeycomb has been suspended inside it. It's actually quite breathtaking in the sunshine.

So I've worn it a couple times and it always garners compliments, which pleases me immensely. I like wearing it. It's indelibly unique and since this particular artist never creates more than one of something, it's wholly and completely mine. No one else has it or will be able to have it. I also like it because it has a pearl effect, by which I mean it's got some nice weight to it. I like wearing pearls because they're cool and because they're heavy for such small things. You know they're there. So although the glass beads inevitably warm up against my skin, they still have half of the pearl effect.

Righty then! I should be off. I've got a glass of wine that needs to be refilled and an episode of Foyle's War to watch with my favorite guy. Some Mai Tai's might or might not be involved a little later. Woo!

- Arty