YOUR Going to Flip ME Off? Really, Bike Dude?

I am going to take some crap for this one. Not many but a couple people.

I am a considerate driver when it comes to people on bicycles. I think that it is a great way to exercise and a wonderful alternate form of transportation. I make sure that I don't tailgate them on back roads. I pass them carefully if needed, I don't gun my engine.

So when some jackass who thinks that he is Lance Armstong or just has his ego, decides to flip ME off for cutting me off in an intersection when I have the right of way (see that left turn signal, buddy it's for people make LEFT TURNS, NOT GOING STRAIGHT!) I get really fired up.

Who do these guys think they are? They are on a moving vehicle which is subject to all the traffic laws that we in cars are supposed to abide by but they are almost NEVER ticketed for things that would warrant HUGE fines for drivers in cars. They blow stop signs, red lights, use turning lanes as their own personal line jump at traffic lights and are a generally selfish bunch.

Share the road? Yeah, I'll share the road when they decide to share it.

No excuse for this kind of behavior at all.

Burning Question

I was running this morning and there is a stream of thought that I could not get out of my head. In the movie "Animal House," when our heroes are standing in Dean Wormer's office as he reads off their grades to them I wonder, which was worse, D-Day's "has no grade point average, all courses incomplete" or Bluto's 0.0? I mean, D-Day probably could have just retook the classes and had no failing grades (if he didn't fall off the face of the earth according to the end of the movie) but Bluto and the other guys with crazy low GPA's would have to spend the rest of their college careers trying to bring up that GPA. I mean Wormer seemed pretty disgusted with them all but I think D-Day had the least worry.

What do you think?

Heartsick and Scared

A long time ago there was a young girl who found everything about the ocean magical. The more she learned the more she wanted to learn. She played in tidal pools with hermit crabs, searched for starfish on the jetty rocks and swam underwater with her eyes open until they stung from the saltwater.

Eventually, she learned about the wetlands and estuaries from a marine science camp and fell in love all over again. She learned how the wetlands act as nurseries for many of the aquatic creatures she'd come to love and how they protect the mainland from bad weather coming in from the ocean. It thrilled her to see how all of a sudden the grassy salt marsh hay stopped and the longer, beach grass started. Watching fiddler crabs scurry from hole to hole dragging their big claw was comical and always brought a smile to her face.

She went to college for Marine Biology and learned more and more. While there though she realized that this love could not be translated into a job. Many of the professors turned her off to the program and she found other interests. She sill loved the ocean, the wetlands and all it had to teach her but she wanted to learn about it on her terms.

Today, she stares at the pictures from the oil spill and watches it kill everything the wetlands she loves. She feels a murderous rage for the people that allowed this to happen. She is even more angry at the people that try to play it off as some sort of natural occurrence. Watching the oil creep towards the shore and spread out in the currants reminds her of 'The Nothing' that was consuming Fantastica in 'The Neverending Story'. When she thinks of the death that will cover the wetlands for years to come tears spring to her eyes and her heart feels as if it is being squeezed by a horrible meaty fist.

That girl is me. I am heartbroken at the knowledge that not only will so much death blanket the area but that it will continue to do so for years and years. The ecosystems will be changed forever and while amazingly resilient, their recovery will not satisfy the instant gratification this world craves. I worry that after a year, people will look at the area and decide that it is then ok to further poach the wetlands for MORE oil. They will not give the area the time it needs to heal and it will be lost and dead forever. I am very scared for what this means for all the wetlands and oceans. This is what 'drill baby drill' has gotten us.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

I think I may have clicked "New Post" a half a dozen times today trying to figure out which topic to tackle. The one that is foremost on my mind right has to do with a difficult decision I need to make.

Do I quit Lottery Yarn or stick it out?

YL has lost it's allure now that I am required to work a set number of hours and have been denied days off when I have requested them over a month in advance. I don't need the aggravation of trying to find people to cover a shift when my husband needs to go out of town or if I want to do something more fun than stand around at YL on a gorgeous day.

Have I gotten anything out of it? Honestly, not as much as I thought I would. I have been there four years and I was able to get some furniture for the bedroom and a leather couch and odds and ends. I got a few gifts at good deals too. What seems to be happening now though is I am putting in more than I am getting out.

I teach their design classes and the regulars are always coming back and really seem to like what I do. I bring coffee for them and morning goodies (which I was told I was no longer going to be reimbursed for). I research the topics ahead of time to get more info because the outlines are terrible. I have enjoyed doing it and I get high praise from everyone in the store, you'd think I'd be a bit more of a valued employee but no.

I take the job seriously although I have another full time job that takes priority. I don't cheat the YL job just because it is not my full time job. I just think that I deserve the same respect and I don't think anyone there is getting that respect. For example, they scheduled a mandatory meeting after hours on a Sunday. That would normally not be so bad but that particular day is FATHER'S DAY. Who does that? Who tells their staff of whom 90% is part time that they need to be around for a mandatory meeting from 6pm to 8pm ON FATHER'S DAY?

The flip side is, I enjoy just about everyone I work with and I enjoy helping most customers. I am just thinking that the $8.70/hour plus discount really isn't worth what I am giving up anymore.

Thoughts? Help? Suggestions?

Whole Foods Sells Crack

Just sayin'...

Lazy

I was over at Mommy Melee (that's right, I can read Mommy blogs and not be a mommy) today and was reading her opinion on some things having to do with ads and blogging. Now there were somethings on that post that really steamed me but what I was really wondering is...

Am I lazy because I don't really care that much about ads and PR?

When I started blogging, I was in a freshman class with some talented people. Many of them have really taken off and are doing incredible things while I took an ...ahem...hiatus. They have great sponsors and are going to conferences and doing cool giveaways.

Then there is me, trying to find the time, trying to come up with something good to write about while simultaneously trying not to feel bad that I can't build stuff like the ladies at Knock Off Wood or Remodelholic. Where is my time being spent?

I will admit...there was a time period during the winter where I watched too many reruns or Bones on TNT but I stopped that eventually but the time still does not seem to be available to me.

People say to 'make the time'. That is physically, and I mean in terms of physics, impossible. I added up the hours I have during the week recently and I was STUNNED at what was available to me outside or job 1, job 2 and sleep. It didn't seem like much.

So what to I need to change in order to feel like I am getting the last drop out of the time I have.

How do you do it?

Foodie Weekend Part 2

So since I had busy Saturday, I knew I would not be able to do Mother's Day justice. So, I turned to a place that I knew would; The Spring Mill Cafe in Conshohocken.

*I took this pic through my car window a couple years ago*

I have a personal connection to this place or rather P does. He has known the proprietors since he was about three years old. The owners, son, Ezra and P would spend time there after school. P remembers eating the sugar cubes on the tables. Now, Ezra runs the place and his mother still is the chef but she also travels a good deal Still, the kitchen is absolutely wonderful and very consistent.

We had been many times but never for brunch. OH what we were missing! What was so great was that even though it was brunch, they had some of the specialties like their house make pates and chocolate mousse. There were a few other things that I don't usually see though like the brioche and berry mousse that I had as my appetizer. First you have to know that the breads are all made on site so this brioche was fresh out of the oven, hot and sweet and the perfect match to the berry mousse. P had the house pate plate; truffled chicken liver mousse, rillettes and country pate. Their pate is the best I have ever had. I go there to get it if I am bringing an HDO to someone's home. P was nice enough to give me a little. :) Mom got a fruit plate which she liked but was...fruit. :) For our main course I had their version of Eggs Benedict with pancetta and fresh Maine crab. They poached the eggs so perfectly that when you punctured them, the yolk perfectly enrobed the dish. P had Steak a cheval (steak and eggs). He made fast work of it, no taste for me. :( That's ok though. Most of the table had chocolate mousse for dessert. Here's the thing about the chocolate mousse, ethereal. That is the only way to describe it. It is an experience to eat it. All in all, it was a a fabulous meal, not surprising because we always love it there.

A note on the wonderfulness of the restaurant manager, Ezra. On Valentine's Day, as P and I were leaving the restaurant, Ezra gave us 2 chocolate mousses to take home because he knows how much we LOVE them. How awesome is that! I highly recommend going as soon as possible!