From Our Department of I Already Regret My Poor Choice

Even though my company pays all meal expenses when I’m on the road, no way am I going to submit a receipt that reveals that I had a Peanut Butter Banana milk shake from Sonic for dinner.

Lazy Susan

Don’t get me wrong – it’s not like I don’t have anything to do. It’s that I don’t have anything better to do than moon over dishes on the internet. Inside, I could be sorting through the piles of clothing that I don’t wear anymore and bagging up various garments for removal from the premises. Outside, I could be pulling weeds or planting the last patch next to the driveway. But instead, I’m trolling the internet for china tea sets. Or parts thereof.

Q: But Suzette – don’t you already have a china tea set? And more dishes in general than you can ever possibly use?

A: What’s your point?

Here’s the thing: I find it soothing to look for things that I might possibly gift to (some unidentified) somebody at (no particular) sometime in the (vaguely defined) future. Unfortunately, in real life I am surrounded by vulgarians who do not wish to clutter themselves up with unnecessary household goods. I don’t understand it but there it is. And so I have to just content myself with the cyber version of window shopping.

But look what I found. Swoon! And I wasn’t even going to mention this because I still harbor the smallest glimmer of a notion that I might find someone to gift this upon. But what the heck here it is.

A breathtaking set of fine china; perfect for Tea/Coffee & Dessert or as a Luncheon Set  $35.00

Someone has so skillfully put together three different complimentary patterns from three different manufacturers that you have to look hard at them to realize it. This is just the kind of thing that kills me, especially since tea pots and sugar/creamers are still plentifully available to make this a full set. And can you imagine all this beauty for only $35.00? In the world of pieced-together china, sets this is unheard of.

So there it is, cyber buddies. Take it away. Pale pink roses, grey leaves and stems, platinum trim. * le sigh*

Okay. I confess. My Never Rests Neighbor, as opposed to my Volatile And Angry Neighbor on the other side, has been out there for hours doing things – big things – to maintain and improve his property. Which happens every day. But today I’m trying to focus on being lazy and he is right under my office window pushing his power mower around at breakneck speed. It made me so nervous that I had to step away from the keyboard and throw a couple of stained shirts and an old slip into a black garbage bag. If he keeps it up out there,  I might have to put away the winter nightgowns.

Societal Change As Reflected On Judge Judy

When I first started watching Judge Judy, a lot of the cases revolved around someone  using someone else’s cellphone and the resulting enormous bills from outrageous data charges. Then unlimited data plans happened and that kind of case fell completely off of the schedule.

Now I see that homelessness is trending upwards on the show. The actual complaints are still about who took something that didn’t belong to them, or who’s dog attacked somebody else’s dog but now these things are happening while the defendant was sleeping on the plaintiff’s floor or staying on a couch for weeks and weeks between permanent housing.

Other trends or shifts noted:

Xs denote frequency

Second Of The Ninth

Ok team – who among you can recommend a really good recording of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony?

I had a really satisfying CD of it when CDs first came out but I can’t remember the conductor or the orchestra. I would have gone out and bought the first famous name I came across in the Amazon music section but a friend told me to choose carefully because each conductor tries to make his mark  and they are all different from each other so now I’m paralyzed with indecision.

I heard a fabulous version on WQXR a few weeks ago but it was during one of my weekend evening gin relaxing sessions on the deck* so I didn’t catch the details. YouTube is not good for this because the comments, no matter what you are listening to, revolve around Justin Beiber. The most you can get out of the  non-Beiber comments is someone impudently calling the composer Louis of the Beet Garden and others that claim  “The first 3 min holds healing energy for the healing of the cells of your body!!!” Admittedly, the cells of my body could use some work but I don’t think this is going to do it. Lots of erudition about Beethoven’s deafness: “ The Maestro could read. Toward the end that is how he had to communicate with everyone.” and an imaginary but wholly mesmerizing dialog between Beethoven and Nikolai Tesla.

Gawd, I miss the YouTube commenters.

Anyway, all I want to listen to is the 2nd movement. I could take or leave the Ode to Joy part. Any recommendations?

*On the same evening, I heard Polovetsian Dance No. 2 coming out of the radio. It made me sad that I never invested in 120 Classic Masterpieces when I had the chance.

Hyperventilation

So blah blah rain / stupid creek project / flooded basement and my son went downstairs to clear out junk to prepare for another yet ill-conceived solution from the creek project “engineer”. This one involves involves cutting the concrete basement floor. But this is not another kvetch – this is a moment of great excitement.

Great breathless excitement.

I’m not one to talk about the internet search terms that bring people to my blog but I’ll tell you now that from the moment I started blogging about them in early 2010, “Dixon- Ticonderoga Executive Mechanical Pencil” is the #1 search term. I’ve gotten visits every single day because of it.

I can’t tell you how many mechanical pencils I’ve tried since discovering this one. None suit! I did recently buy a 2-pack of 0.9 mm Office Depot pencils and while they are unlovely, I am appreciating the 0.9 lead size. So back to the basement clean-up – put on your cartoon eyes so that you can bulge them in and out while saying gnong gnong gnong as you gaze upon this:

Can you even breathe? I can’t ! I cannot even breathe.

I don’t even know what I want to say next about this. Are you seeing that from the sky basement dropped not just one but two Dixon-Ticonderoga Executive Mechanical Pencils? And that one of them has a 0.9mm lead? I didn’t even know they made that.

I am going to make a concerted effort to locate my 2013 Daily Planner -which I abandoned in March, as is my usual behavior – and use one of these to write in it. Every day. I swear this time.