DFW was eh

Yes, Mom, I will write a blog, though life has seemed largely un-comment-able. Frank and I took a roadtrip to Dallas-Fort Worth, to conduct a little reconnaissance. It left us rather cold, despite the heat. This is Dallas:

There was one house that was o-kaaay. Largely because it was different from the rest of them:
Because the others looked like this:
Which may have been fine, except they ALL look like this. And they all have the same brick mail box. It seems to be a thing in Texas: http://www.beautifulbrickmailboxes.com/ And when they didn't have mailboxes in front of the houses, they had mausoleum-like mailboxes at the entrance to the subdivision. Imagine the line of traffic at 5:00pm as everyone is stopping by to pick up their mail. Yes, we did see a couple people doing just that when we were driving by.

You know the old saying, "No shirt, no shoes, no service?" Well, this used car lot had a different spin on things in Fort Worth. The sign read something like, "WE FINANCE - no driver's license, no credit, no social security - NO PROBLEM." Interesting.

Me driving:

We stopped for a night in Little Rock, AR on the way home. I found this sign curious--it was in a bar/restaurant we ate at:

Little Rock was one sleepy town, but they do have a nice looking riverfront:
In other news, Frank has a race in October. Hopefully his car will be in good working order when the time comes. Once that weekend is over, we'll start tearing this apart:

My dad's old motorcycle that sat in a barn for 30 years. Every inch of it seems to be rusty. I can't even imagine what a project this is going to be. It's a 1967 Honda CB160, apparently it was quite a popular bike in its day, and still has quite a cult following. Here's a taste (and, yes, I have forbidden Frank from racing this thing, should it ever get running. Thankfully, he is not interested):

I've started my welding classes. I'll take some pictures of my work soon.

Sig seems to have a rodent ulcer, not cancer, as it is slowly responding to the most recent shot of steroid treatment. He's super annoying lately though--he's VERY talkative and wants to go outside all of the time. I'm thinking we need to move somewhere with a barn so he can just be a barn cat.

I've got a lot of availability in my work schedule right now, so if you know any people in Peoria, recommend they come see me for massage. I'll take good care of them. :)

Burglars Busted!

If you've been concerned about our neighborhood thief, put away your fears, the perpetrators have been caught!  The story even made the cover page of the Local & State section of the Peoria Newspaper (see above).  It was a much larger ring than we had suspected with 36+ break-ins and at least 6 people involved.  You can read the article here:  Peoria Journal Star.  There is also a more detailed story in the East Peoria newspaper, you can read that here: East Peoria Times Courier.  So, we're back to parking in the driveway, which is a good thing because we're picking up my dad's old motorcycle this weekend from my mom's house.  It hasn't been ridden in probably 30 years, so it'll be a big pain the ass or a fun project or maybe a little of both.  

Sig (my orange tabby cat) is having some medical problems.  Either a rodent ulcer or cancer, and the vet wants to do a biopsy...this could be a long story, but I'll just say I haven't completely decided on a course of action.  

I'm totally craving Ethiopian Diamond (the number 5 thing I miss about Chicago, I think it is).  Below Sara is modeling the food, from the last time I ate there, 2-3 months ago.  That's the longest it has ever been.  :(  Oh, Diamond, how I miss you so:

Frank and I are planning a reconnaissance trip to Dallas next week.  I'm really excited to be going on a roadtrip!  We found some really good deals on some really nice looking hotels with Priceline and Hotwire down in Dallas (like $42/night including fees and taxes!).  Probably because it's hotter than the gates of hell down there right now, and who would want to go there, right?  But, at least they have pools!  :)

It's been more than a month already!

Well, its been over a month that I've been here in Peoria and life is good!  Here's some of what has happened since I've last written.  

I've started working at a massage clinic called Balanced Health Concepts.  It's an independent contractor sort of situation and so far I think it's what I'm looking for right now.  I've finished designing my first-ever brochure, flier, and coupon!  :)  Now it's time to recruit some new clients!

My sister and her boyfriend have visited.  She took some photographs of me doing massage and Thai massage for brochures and future website:

We also did a photo shot of Frank's band.   This was a lot of fun!  At an old gas station:

And on some railroad tracks:

And a photo of Matt being goofy when we were checking out some garage sales:

Sara has also visited and we went up a tall lookout tower in Peoria Heights...

Chicago is 127 miles away:

Not close enough to see...

I did the Batavia Triathlon on June 14th.  Frank super-surprised me by showing up 1) to the race and 2) to multiple places along the course.  Here are some photos he snapped.  On the bike:

And on the run:

 

Frank and I have been mulching and doing some landscaping.  Here's a before picture:

And here's an after: 

(See little Sig check out the newly pruned bush.  Sig and I both prefer the wild-jungle-look, but, we don't live in the country country and neighbors seem to like this highly groomed look.)

Frank took his Echo racing at Autobahn Country Club.  Making adjustments pre-race:

Little Echo on the track with all the fast cars:  

But after one 15 minute run on the track, the little car couldn't hold up and a wheel bolt broke:

Hopefully, now that Frank's Mustang is in working order again, it won't meet the same fate next weekend when we go back to Autobahn.  Check out his new light-weight aluminum hood!

Kitty update.  Look how everyone is getting along.  Everyone say awh...  :) 

Cuties!

Frank cuddling Bodhi...awwwh...

Pot Purity Experiment and other news

There are a few things that I don't like about East Peoria, namely the lack of shoulder and bike friendly roads, but there are redeeming qualities.  Like the pretty bridges that cross the Illinois River/Peoria Lake!  I suspect I'll be taking more photos of them and drawing them too when I find inspiring places to sit.    

Heading home on the War Memorial/Route 150 Bridge from a job interview.  (Yes, that's right, I'm looking for work.)

Home is where...you have two near-matching Toyota ECHOs?!  Yes, apparently it is. Frank's is pictured on the left and was inherited his from his father; it's a 2003.

I visited the Natural Grocery store today in Peoria.  Hmm.  I don't think I'll be frequenting this place...

...cause if you look closely, you will see that a can of beans is $2.49!! Some food items were up to two dollars more than I would expect them to be!  Crazy!

*****

As requested and promised, here are some photos of Ms. Mabel, Frank's 10 year old cat who is still not totally down with the uninvited invasion of my two rascal kitties:

Mabel on the top shelf of her cat tree.

And Mabel in profile.  She was growling in this photo as Sig was circling around my feet when I was taking this.

*****

And now, for the much awaited Pot Purity Experiment!

Frank has two sets of pots and I moved in one.  So the question arose one night, which pot would boil water the fastest?  We decided to do an experiment.

Frank very carefully measured out 1 cup of water per pot, and we used the three large burners on the stove, all on high.  Do you want to guess which order they boiled in and at what times?

The first three pots...and they're off!

At 3m 0sec, this lightweight steel (magnetic) pot (on the front right burner) brought it's water to a boil first:

This stainless steel (non-magnetic) and heavy steel bottom (magnetic) pot (on the back left burner) was quite a distance behind at 4m 30sec:

And the glass pot finished last with 4 m 45sec (front left burner):  

This was the order that Frank had predicted, though they took somewhat longer to boil than he had estimated.

Isn't it interesting how different all their boils look?  Go ahead, look again.  :)

But then we realized that the first pot had an unfair advantage because it had a larger surface area, so we grabbed a different pot of the set.  Shorter this one was, but with an equal surface area.  We brought 1 cup of water to boil, and for this lightweight steel (magnetic) shorter pot, it took it 3m 10sec.  So just a smidge longer (10 sec) than it did for its lightweight steel counterpart.  It also had a very similar looking boil:

Interestingly, after we removed the heat source, the water stopped boiling in the pots in the same order they had reach boil.  The lightweight steel pots lost their boil virtually immediately, but the stainless steel/heavy steel bottom pot held its boil for awhile (we didn't time this part), and the glass pot held the boil for the longest.  The steel and stainless steel pots are conductors of energy whereas the glass is an insulator.  So, if I'm getting this right, the glass pot has the greatest thermal inertia so retains heat the longest. 

Tonight I'm going to try cooking some Red Lentil Dahl from the Sri Lankan cookbook Matt gave me for my birthday awhile back.  I wonder what Frank will think...  :)  I plan on also cooking WHITE rice, which should help it be more Frank-Friendly.  AND, to some extent, halving the spices the recipe calls for.  I'm thinking I may do something with a bag of collard greens as well.  

Mostly a CAT Progress Report

Well, unfortunately, Frank's band did not get to play for the 1/4 Scale Tractor Student Design Competition Friday night.  That would have been pretty cool.  And only now is that the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake in the oven, which, of course, I'm happy about as it'll soon be around for eating.   

The cats have been making progress adjusting each day.  Sig has been enjoying going outside on a leash.  I'll try to get some pictures of him soon; I think he looks pretty funny.  I tried to bring Bodhi outside the other day but ended up terrorizing her.  I'm feel a bad cat mom, and she may not be venturing outside again anytime soon.  

It's been fun watching the cat skirmishes and interactions while they're learning to live with each other.  Sig and Mabel have kind of cooled off with their posturing, but Mabel had been doing a lot of hissing and growling at both  Sig and Bodhi.  Bodhi had been mostly running and hiding, but in the last two days has started standing her ground more hissing back a little as needed.  Sig is mostly non-reactive when Mabel initiates something, and kind of annoying-little-brother-ish other times.

Here are some pictures of some cold-war-ish state of things the last few days:

That's Mabel on the left, Sig on top of the chair.  I think he was antagonizing her here with his presence, she was growling.

Sig, again, antagonizing Mabel, and trying to ambush her tree.  

I've been feeding them yummy wet food in the morning, and plan to slowly bring their bowls closer together.  The first day I did this, when Sig approached Mabel's food, she gave an old fashioned slap across the face.  He didn't respond or move at all until she'd finished eating and left the area of her dish.

But this one I just took a few minutes ago:

That's Mabel behind the curtain, Bodhi coming out from behind the chair, and just a few minutes after this was taken, Sig started licking Mabel's tail.  (!!!!!)  Mabel was making some grunting noises, but no hissing or slapping.  I think we're really on a path to success!  

*****

In other news, I've spend a good deal of time cleaning my car the last two days.  It's now cleaner than it's been in 6 years (I've had it 7).  And Frank walked me through changing the oil in my car, added air conditioning refrigerant to my car (yay! for A/C), figured out why my engine light was on (some tubes connected to an air filter chamber weren't connected), AND, maybe most importantly, Frank figured out why my horn was not working and fixed it (the vibrations of a honking horn vibrated a wire loose).  This does not mean I intend to use it excessively, however; I am not in Chicago anymore, afterall.  :)

There's also a Buddhist/Insight Meditation group in town I want to check out on Thursday.  This a group that Bhante Sujatha of Blue Lotus Temple, with whom I went to Sri Lanka three years ago, is going to be teaching in August.  So, if there are Buddhists in Peoria that are my "sort" of Buddhists, these will likely be them.  :)  

Tomorrow I've decided to start looking for work.  Vacation is over.  :)  More on that later...

One more day and a wakeup!

If this were a military training scenario, we'd be happily saying, "one more day and a wakeup."  Tomorrow I have a very very full work schedule followed by a walk-through of my apartment followed by a final "mid-week run" (this to be importantly distinguished from Saturday's last "long run"); today was my last day to really get stuff done.  Of course, I could always add another day on in Chicago to *get stuff done*, but I don't really want to do that, and, knowing how I tend to operate, the last days would be the same whether they are now or 3 weeks from now.  

Matt and Sara came over to help clean, sort stuff, provide moral and mental support (I have a tendency to get really distracted like a honey bee when I'm trying to do this sort of stuff by myself).  But, first, we got bagels!  I really wanted bagels from the New York City bagel place on North Ave. and Sheffield, but that was too far away, so we settled for Einstein's in Andersonville.  There's a certain appeal to eating on the floor when you have no furniture:

How many addictive substances do you see pictured here (below):

 

(We came up with: Hemp milk (kidding! it's not really, no THC here), chocolate (in the hemp milk), carbohydrates (a la bagel), poppy seed (kidding!), dairy via cream cheese (serious about this one), coffee (obviously true)...which is a slightly humorous total of 6.  Now, that's a ways to start the day!  Green smoothies?  Heh, not on a day of cleaning.) 

Then we had a little Sig-in-a-basket photo shoot:

Me and Siggy-boy.  All this moving has been really hard on him; he's a smart, curious, and sensitive guy.  Being in this little basket seemed to calm him.

And then we got to work.  Sorting storage-crap into To Peoria (very small pile), Joey, Sara, Matt, Thrift store, Free/alley, garbage...  Things like this I find so much easier with friends.  I sold my scuba fins and the butcher block (finally!).  A little estimation challenge:

Me (sorting through my fridge):  When do you think this Miso expired?

Sara:  2004

Matt: 2004.  No...2006.  

Me:  Actually, you guys were right with 2004.  What month?

Sara:  May!

Me:  Holy sh*t!  You're right?!!  May 2004.  

Which means, I moved this expired Miso into my place 3 years ago.  It wasn't moldy or anything, just really potent smelling.

Sara and Matt spackled my nail holes, I cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed floors, cleaned out the fridge, etc., etc., until the apartment looked like this:

So as not to end this blog on a sad-ish note, I have a funny-ish story:

Matt & Eric and I were discussing our run for tomorrow night.  For almost 3 years Matt and I have talked about getting french fries from the White Castle that's 2 blocks from my place after a run, but never have. Tomorrow's run has got to involve some fries! I also have about an inch of tequila that should be imbibed before I head off to Peoria.  So...is White Castle BYOB?! I consult my supercomputer (a.k.a. iPhone), and proceed to call White Castle System Inc (that's the official name, according to my phone).

White Castle Employee #1 (male): Hello?  White Castle.

Me: Hi, um, I was wondering, are you BYOB?

WCE #1: Uhhhhhhh, I don't know, just a sec...

(At this point I realize this sounds sort of like a prank call, though I started out with perfectly good intentions.  And I start to feel the need to do the potty dance as I am trying very hard to not laugh out loud out of semi-embarrassment, and this is very difficult...)

White Castle Employee #2 (female):  Hello?  Can I help you?

Me (completely now aware this sounds like a prank): Um, yeeeaaaa, I was wondering if you were BYOB...?

WCE #2:  (silence)  Uh.  No.  This is *White Castle.* (which I'm sure was followed by a tacit "dumbass")

Our First Night Together

I'm smitten. It's true. I can hardly see past the stars in my eyes. Last night I came home and let him out of the bathroom where I'd left him to keep him safe and out of trouble. He ran around the house a bit and then I put him on my bed. He jumped off and ran around and vocalized a lot. (Like he's doing right now--I'm looking forward to his sister coming home so they can play together.) After I turned off the lights though he climbed into bed with me and started to burrow against me. I think he was looking for my nipples! Yikes! He liked being under the covers and seemed to want to go down my shirt as well, but I wouldn't let him do that. And that's how we slept, all night long, him curled up, body to body against me. Yum. He's a cuddlebug. Just like me! And he does the snout nuzzling thing that Indy used to do though not yet to the extent that Indy would. I think it comes from the nursing instinct. He purrs a lot and audibly. He seems to like to be touched everywhere. (He let me clean his ears yesterday without any fuss!) And he likes to sit on my lap, but when I'm typing he's very curious about the keys and the screen...the last 5 sentences have taken awhile...to get right. Oh! And, he grooms himself a lot, which is good because he smells a bit like a horse. Maybe that's Anti-Cruelty Center smell?

He ate some kibble this morning for the first time. Yay! He's adjusting to being here. :)