Wombat Rampant

Went out to Fairfax last night and met up with P for dinner at Moby's, which I won't be doing again soon since two hours later my blood sugar was still over three hundred. Holy crap. I blame the rice. Six units of insulin and eleven hours of sleep later, blood sugar is down to tolerable levels (i.e. not requiring a fresh hole in my torso) but still not great.

So: make a deposit at Suntrust, pick up drugs at Kaiser, drop off books at library, throw out more garbage. And watch part III of Dr. Horrible after everything else, because it is SO COOL. Except for Wonder Woman, is there anything Joss Whedon does that isn't awesome?

Is it still TV if it's only on the internets?

Slept very well last night, had good sugar this morning, and had enough time to pack lunch. Which is good, since the heat is supposed to be on this morning and the humidity with it. Unfortunately, I completely forgot my meds this morning. Well, since there's not much to do around the office today (since the senior controller is out and the boss is on the road to Portsmouth) I may just take off early and have a late lunch at home.

In other news, the spinach egg & cheese thing we used to do a lot in Minnesota also works well with chopped broccoli, although admittedly it's a lot harder to stir the eggs into the broccoli than the spinach. I should probably be eating more stuff like this and fewer sandwiches/hot dogs.

Deep-fried Bananas Foster on a stick, official food of the 2008 Indiana State Fair. Looks awesome to me; my pancreas is whimpering from just looking at it. Also from Radley Balko, America's third most violent city declares war on crack...er, I mean saggy pants. Who keeps idiots like this in office?

Best. Eel. Ever.
( OMG BEST SUSHI EVAR!!!111!!!oneoneone!!! )

joelrosenberg and his clan go forth tonight to consume the dead fish and rice in honor of the Heller decision.
Since I'm too far away to join them at Wasabi, I think this would be a good night to toddle over to Hana and see if their sushi chef lives up to the hype.

Finally got off my ass and went swimming. It was pretty good, except for stubbing one of the toes on my left foot and somebody's incredibly whiny daughter. Thank God the wretched little lloronita couldn't manage in the deep end, which is where I hang out until the pool closes.

After swimming I felt motivated to go get some ribs. The closest place closes at 9 on Saturday night (WTF?) so I wound up heading for King Street Blues over by the Default Wal-mart in Kingstowne. Service was very good, and the ribs were damn good as well, cooked so tender they fell off the bones if you shook said bones after picking them up. The steak knife that came with them was wretched overkill. Fries were fresh and unseasoned, cole slaw okay, beans mediocre and the apple crisp was a little overdone. Hush puppies had some strange green chili pepper-like objects in them, which sucked. I have to say, somewhere on my Evil Overlord to-do list is a pile of death warrants for cooks in rib joints who can't keep the distinction between "Southern" and "Southwestern" straight; there is entirely too much chipotle and other weird pepper bullshit getting into my barbeque and side dishes these days, and it needs to STOP. Hush puppies are lumps of cornmeal baked into tasty little nuggets that need no spicing up, dammit! It's almost enough to provoke me into driving all the way to Famous Dave's, but given the goodness of the ribs I'll forgive them this time.

So, yeah...ordered a couple replacement paddles for the bread robot, read some blogs, and that was that.

Came home to a message on my cell phone from my brother - apparently the problems Mom's been having these last couple of weeks were serious enough that she finally decided it was time to go to the hospital. Good thing, too - she's apparently come down with pneumonia again, which affects her blood sugar, which aggravates her arrhythmia...and from there it gets into a nasty little vicious circle. Kind of late to fight the traffic and get over to the hospital before visiting hours are over today, but they start tomorrow morning at 1100. So I have that on my agenda for tomorrow.

Noted in passing:


Does anyone know if it's common practice to drown bulgogi in a thick, sweet soy-based sauce to the extent that you can't really taste the meat?
I think I would have liked the bulgogi sub I got at Dilly's yesterday better without that sauce.

I really hadn't intended to do this, but I went out shopping again today, mostly to take advantage of coupons/preferred shopper deals, and I made out like a bandit. I had a 40% off coupon from Barnes & Noble, which allowed me to pick up a copy of the Rolling Stones' Some Girls for about $11, after which I descended on the Harris Teeter in Potomac Yards and took advantage of eVic specials and their BOGO specials. Interestingly, you don't actually have to buy two items to take advantage of HT BOGOs, since their registers are programmed to give you 50% off and don't notice whether you actually have two. SCORE. Three bags of groceries for less than $20? WIN.

Today's loaf of oat bread, on the other hand, didn't turn out quite so well. Add an egg next time? We'll see. I have plenty of oats, flour, yeast, molasses and honey, so I can experiment for quite a while. At least I was able to get the laundry done while the robot was flogging and cooking the loaf, to say nothing of mostly wasting several hours in a largely fruitless fleet op. Got my Raven blown up while trying to crash a gatecamp on the way to the rally point, but on the other hand I may be getting some blueprints to relieve the shortage of ships on the Goon Frontier.

Going to crash early tonight - well, compared to the last couple of nights, when I've been up until 0300-0400 playing internet spaceships.
Good night, Sesfan, wherever you are.

Today sucked - not badly, in the sense that something went horribly wrong, but I got no assignment from any of the agencies and after the 8:30 interview that kept me sitting in the lobby for half an hour (after I'd fought my way up the beltway to Tyson's Corner) I had zero gumption for doing anything but answering the one phone call I got from a recruiter.

Since I'd skipped breakfast, I chose to stop for lunch at a local diner and try their North Carolina-style BBQ sub. It wasn't that great. I ate the first half without sauce; the vinegar overtones were definitely noticeable, and there was no heat or even spiciness at all. It wasn't epic fail, it was just disappointing.

Went home, buffed the resume, re-read Robert Buettner's Orphanage, and fiddled with internet spaceships. That's it. Hopefully tomorrow will suck less; I definitely need to get to work and get some money in, what with Detour being a little over two weeks off and all kinds of bills being due in the meantime.

Despite rising much later than I originally intended, I successfully did laundry before heading off to Dutch & Brenda's to meet with P, RS, and therevdrnye for dinner at Roy's. Much conversation and good food was had. P thinks the onion rings at Roy's are better than those at Wampach's in Shakopee, which used to be the family gold standard; I'd like to have another shot at Wampach's before deciding. Brenda also introduced us to eggs pickled in beet juice, which are surprisingly tasty. Don't let the purple color of the former egg whites put you off. Things broke up about 2130 because everybody else had work or school in the morning; therevdrnye and I went looking for someplace to have coffee, hang out, and discuss RPGs, specifically Twilight 2000 and Traveller. This we did until 0100.
( For the benefit of the other rabid RPGers... )


*Listed on page 5.

This is the Spicy Baconator from Wendy's.
Had one today for lunch and was not disappointed; it has a respectable and persistent burn to it, even without the jalapeno peppers. I wish more places had pepper jack cheese as an option for cheeseburgers.
Speaking of spicy food, I'm heading out to Herndon tonight to join P for dinner at Angeethi, which is also full of hotness and win. Beef, not so much, but at least they have mutton. God knows I'm not about to pay that kind of money for chicken.

We could have had it at the , which is after all open 24x7, but since P and RS were still feeling unwell we elected to go in at 2100 and be out after what amounted to an extended proteinous snack. With kimchi. And Waldorf salad. :)
I stopped by the Shilla on the way home for delicious cake. Mmmm, cake.

Most of the day was spent eating Tylenol, fiddling with the Kharkov scenario, playing Internet spaceships, and browsing through the 4 GB of electronica and miscellaneous music P sent me home with last night. Final verdict: not enough Juno Reactor and too much T.A.T.U., which I have a whole CD of already. Still, it's good to have some cuts off the HALO OSTs, which I should really buy copies of anyway.

The thing about leftover sushi is that it's best not to look at it before you eat it. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

No plans to watch the Super Bowl; I don't think I've seen one since 2002, and finding someplace to hang out for four hours and watch it - like, say, a sports bar - sounds like more expense than I want to incur for something I don't really care about anyway. I'll probably either do laundry or put my feet up and read.

Speaking of reading, I blew through John Scalzi's The Last Colony last night. Excellent book, fast-paced and not hugely bloated by subplots and other nonsense the way so many SF novels are these days. This review is a pretty good summary of the book, even if I don't agree with the reviewer's criticism of the characters, and since I'm feeling moderately lazy this afternoon I'm going to link and not write my own plot summary. I'm currently reading David Kaplan's The Silicon Boys, for which thanks to RS.

Some asshole was inventing the canned cheeseburger instead of ironing out the production problems with the Panther. Sixty years later, a brave Goon takes his life digestion in his hands and eats one for the edification of the masses. Pictures highly relevant; once again, Professor Death delivers.

From the same thread, this awesome sandwich. Yow.

I've found another restaurant to avoid...unless, of course, I want to go face-first into the peach buns, custard buns, lightbulbs, and other Chinese sweets. The Dragon Sea Buffet in Springfield violates the plastic chair rule, but nonetheless has a decent variety of entrees, a good-sized salad & fruit bar, and a sushi guy who makes decent enough rolls. (I forgot to sample the tamago. ;_;) It's also cheap ($8.50 including beverage) and just ten minutes away from work, which is perhaps too convenient.

I'm glad I remembered Radio Hidebound, since I can't access pandora.com on account of Shockwave Flash isn't enabled on my workstation. BIG 100.3 was getting tiresome as they recycled the same Jeff Foxworthy sketches repeatedly throughout the day, and I only have so many mix CDs. Sure, I suppose I could lug the external hard drive to work, but getting out of the house in the morning is difficult enough as it is. Now, if only my fellow RH patronswould quit requesting "Everything Reminds Me Of My Dog" and "Don't Let Us Get Sick", things would be pretty awesome.

Apparently I ordered an extra CD when I cleared out my wish list on half.com, because in addition to the three CDs I was expecting (Cultosaurus Erectus, Fire of Unknown Origin and Mirrors) I also got The Revolution by Night.
( Memory is not what it used to be )
jamestrainor was in town this weekend, and it was good to see him on Saturday. No moving happened since the bed of P's truck was still wet from the rain on Friday, but that's all right. Mom was happy to see both her grandchildren, awkward conversation between the cousins occurred, and eventually he and I headed out with P to the Malibu Grill, a churrasqueria in Fairfax where much meat was consumed. After dinner we went over to Chez Seastrom for an exchange of books and farewells; I got home a little before midnight after stopping for coffee on Route 7 so I could be sure I would in fact arrive home. Stayed up way too late finishing A Small Colonial War and as a result slept in until after 1300.

No plans for today or tomorrow, but I'll probably be getting together with Mr. B for a long-delayed meeting with Charlie Groark later this week.

Well, I'm not quite to the point where I'm checking the floor mats of the Sportage for loose change, but I should have been a little less eager to throw money around this past week. I've got enough to cover the checks I need to write when I move into the new apartment on the 28th, but unless I want to borrow cash from somebody I'll have to hold off on moving most of my stuff there until mid-January when my first paycheck of the new year drops into my checking account. (I hope.)

All that raw meat yesterday (yeah, the kitfo was raw too, big surprise there) left me feeling under the weather today, so I didn't go out to shoot with P and RS. Next time I'll know better and be antisocially greedy with the shiro wot...or better yet, just not go. It's not like the shiro wot or the injera were that good*. :(

So I spent the day with my feet up playing EVE except when I went downstairs to eat soup and sandwiches (all approved by the Bland Institute^TM) and watch my blood sugar drop back into the acceptable range. I've had worse days.


*Oh, yeah - as for berbere, it's pretty lame. The dork who compared it to chili powder needs to have his taste buds examined.

Got paid today and headed for the bank over lunch, which allowed me to mail off the truck payment and the Haband order - I'm getting some sweats to replace my ancient & holy shorts, and some slippers to give my sneakers a break - as well as refueling the Kia and trying pupusas for the first time. They weren't bad, but the slaw was revolting and the sauce lacked fire. It was much like dribbling V-8 on the pupusas - not bad, but kind of meh. I wound up eating the sandwiches I'd packed as insurance against another payroll section fuckup once I'd finished the pupusas.

Thursday night and Friday afternoon will be taken up with company-related Christmas parties. I guess I better hustle out and get my Christmas cards tomorrow after work so I can get them done and in the mail by this weekend. onsenmark is getting one; anyone else want one? Leave a comment with your address, and don't assume I already have yours. Comments will be screened for privacy's sake, but if you want to be extra-safe you can always e-mail me.

Over at Goonfleet, the chatporn and consequent mockery continues as BoB begins to sound like every other alliance Redswarm has trashed this year. Sweet, sweet BoB tears!

Lunch today was from Red Hot & Blue thanks to a couple of our subcontractors, who apparently had the same idea at the same time...there was so much left over that they encouraged us to take some home. That's how I wound up bringing home an assload of ribs, some of which I'm now digesting with the help of a can of V-8. There should be plenty left for tomorrow.

Unsurprisingly, no paycheck today. Monday, they say. The payroll department is really doing its best to cripple my already feeble sense of corporate loyalty.

The change from Optimum Choice to Kaiser will actually make my life easier in one respect: only one doctor at the wound care clinic the nurse practitioner recommended takes OC, but all the rest are on Kaiser. I LOL'ed. Either way, no appointment until next year when I'll need a referral from my new primary care physician.

Since I'm full of rib meat goodness, I think I'll take a NyQuil and nod out. Laundry can wait for tomorrow morning.

It being the seventh anniversary of my father's death, P and I went to Arlington National Cemetery to visit his grave. I read some of the prayers from the Memorial Mass for the Dead, choked up partway through the Gospel part, and then got on with the rest of it okay. After that, we decided to do some tourist stuff and saw some interesting things: the USS Serpens memorial, the gigantic memorial to the Confederate dead, and finally the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We hung around to observe the change of the guard, which is pretty impressive if you're the kind of person who enjoys watching precision drill - and as a former drill team member, I am. Melody was amused that some of the tourists appeared to take offense when the Sergeant of the Guard announced that when the Cemetery closes, it becomes a restricted military area and therefore they need to leave. I LOL'ed. Stupid civilians.

Pho at the Pho Bistro in Ashburn with RS followed. I dropped some extra jalapenos into my pho ga, though I'm not sure it needed it. The spring rolls and peanut sauce were also A++++, would eat there again.

Came home to see that Carlos had done Big Shopping at Sam's Club or someplace similar; there were huge quantities of stuff everywhere. Mom says he bought so much meat that I'm on the hook for $80 of it, which I find a little hard to believe. Even with all the stuff in the fridge, I seriously doubt there's $160 worth of lunch meat in there, and if there is, he went overboard. *shrug*

Spent the rest of the evening ripping the four CDs I bought at Best Buy ( 2 Judas Priest, one Rush and one Scorpions) and the one I won on eBay. I'd forgotten that latter had a couple of songs that flicked emotional scar tissue, but that's memory for you. I'm going to change skills in EVE and then hit the sack so my sleep cycle doesn't get too goofed up...oh wai-