How Thoughtful

I was working in this lady's house, installing some tile the other day (big surprise), and somehow the topic of farmer's markets came up. Now I've only been to the farmer's market downtown once this year. I like to try to go about once a month, this way you get fresh veggies when they come in season. Well, I had expressed my disappointment to her about not finding any beets so far this year. She hadn't seen any either, and she sided with me in our adoration for the lovely purple veg. I returned this afternoon to finish her job, and she surprised me with a gift from the Village Point farmer's market, you guessed it, beets! I just thought it was such a thoughtful act to pay attention to what I was saying, and not pass it off as small talk. Everybody does it, but not many act on it. How cool. It just dawned on me though, I hope she doesn't think I will work for food:) Anyway, if you find yourself in Des Moines, IA, check out the farmer's market downtown. Rumor has it, it is the second largest in the country!

Man vs. Woman

I'm thinking of doing a series of blog entries involving the differences between a man and a woman. This is a man's perspective, so it should be somewhat biased. Sorry girls, you'll just have to play along. First noticeable difference I'd like to point out is body heat. My wife seems to have none. This time of the year, when the temperature and humidity are battling for the top billing for the day, I usually wear just enough clothes to remain legal. When I go to bed at night, it's down to the whitey tighties with no blankets or sheets. Do you have that image burned into your mind now? Good. There's nothing I hate more than perspiring in bed. My wife - the opposite sex, for those who just got here - is fully jammied up with at least a sheet, one blanket, and a comforter. I'm melting at just the thought. When winter rolls around, this is a brutal time of the year, here in the frozen tundra of Nebraska. Any sane person makes sure to wear extra garments, i.e., mittens, ear muffs, scarf, jock strap, boots, two pairs of socks, turtle neck, - whatever it takes to keep the appendages from turning blue and falling off. So on those bone chilling nights, when I tuck myself in, sometimes I'll slip on an undershirt. This time of the year, it would be foolish to not sleep under the covers, so I layer myself, a sheet, two blankets, and a comforter, to form a bedtime lasagna. My wife looks as if she's ready to go play in the snow, except for her feet. She slips in rather stealthily, and nestles up beside me to sap all my body heat, and then she hits me with two frozen bricks of ice, she likes to refer to as "feet", that almost send me into hypothermia! Have you ever touched dry ice? It will burn your skin, it's so cold. Same difference. I guess you could label us "fire and ice". Obviously, opposites attract. See ya for round 2.

Yesterday Was Just... Weird

My day started off in the crapper! I don't care to elaborate, because this is "happy" hour, not "blow steam" hour. After that, I went and set up shop at Joslyn Castle, to do some tile restoration. I'll be there for the rest of the week, and then in the future, when we find the correct tile to work on two other areas. So, I'm sitting in the foyer of the castle (as referred to by the employees), on my butt, carefully chiseling out 100+ year old broken tile, and being extremely careful not to break the good pieces. The tile is an unglazed, very extravagant 1/2" square mosaic, with a handmade border in different colors. To do a tile & stone job of this magnitude today, would be so expensive most people would opt for lesser quantity or quality. Two small tours were given while I pecked away at the broken stuff. The people visiting just poked their head in and acknowledged my presence, not really that interested in what I was doing, or wanting to help. Late in the day, a group of musicians arrived to set up for an evening gig. They were enthralled with the castle. The woman working there gave them a quick tour with a brief history and some facts about the castle. One fact of note, the woodwork on most of the main level, which words can't describe, is Cuban mahogany, which is either extinct, or just illegal to ship to the US. I didn't quite get that part of the explanation. I must have been making pinging noises with the hammer and chisel at the time. The band was an extremely curious bunch, wanting to see what I was up to, almost walking on fresh set mosaic. I almost had to go postal, fortunately, it was a cute little blond - that may have saved her life! After the close call, they were asking all types of tile questions, and me, being the walking encyclopedia of tile, tile products, tile history, and BS, was happy to oblige. I stepped out of construction worker mode, and put on my tour guide cap. Three of the members, Rachel, Brandi, & Sam, stood and gabbed for about 15 minutes. Brandi asked if the style of the house was Arts& Crafts, or Art Deco. I didn't think it was either, because the time the castle was built was before both of those eras. I thought it was Victorian, but then it dawned on me, it was Art Nouveau! We all agreed. Well time was dwindling, so I thought I had better clean up, and get out of the way before people started showing up for the performance. I got home and told my wife about the "fun" portion of my day, and realized I failed to get the name of the group that was performing. She looked it up, the name of the group is The Dixie Bee-liners. They sing a pretty cool rendition of blue-grass. There is definitely one song I've heard that's had radio play, and I don't really listen to that type of music. Check them out. All I've got to say is, I'm glad I didn't just go home and curl up in a ball after the rocky start to my day. I stuck with it, and it brightened up by the day's end. http://www.myspace.com/thedixiebeeliners

Hot for Teacher

Recently, a teacher at the high school I graduated from, was in the news. She was involved in an accident and lost her life. I did not have her as one of my teachers, though I knew who she was. This incident led to me thinking about my former mentors. Many a times, my wife and I have had discussions about former teachers, who influenced us, which ones were duds, who was the meanest, so on and so forth. As a young man speaking, there are certain teachers who may have caught the eye of their young pupil. I think, scratch that, I know my first crush on a teacher, was in the third grade. Ms. Koley. Sorry, I had to pause for a moment to relive those magical years. She was young, single, cute, and she played the guitar and sang in class. How cool was that? Then there was junior high! What a blurry time in a young man's life - girls too! I had a math teacher, Mrs. Hines, who was a head turner! For some reason, you really didn't mind getting in trouble in her class, and having her yell at you. Finally, she noticed me! By the time I got to high school (sometime in the 1900's), I think my teacher crushes wore off, and I finally took notice of the girls my age. Apparently, I've always been attracted to full sized Barbies, and not Skipper. My favorite teacher of all time though, drum roll please, was Ms. Stolen. She was my senior English teacher. No, there were no sparks there, trust me! She just made class fun and interesting. She was the epitome of the cool teacher that connected well with her students. I don't know what she was doing at the time, but there is a picture in our yearbook of Susan (she actually let us call her by her first name), putting on an astronaut uniform. She wasn't afraid to jump right in and have fun with the class. Not too long after graduation, she married and moved to Chicago to teach. If she found out I were blogging about her, I would probably blush. Anyway, kudos to my vote for teacher of the year, Susan!

Stressed

Sense stress is very important when reading something out loud that you've written, and want to convey the point you're trying to get across. If you take, for instance, anything I've written about "the dog", you need to apply a little deeper and louder tone to the key words, to get the correct understanding of what that piece of canine puts me thru. You have to be careful with sense stress though. If used in the wrong spot in the sentence, your thought may come off a little weird. If you were to say, "I always wear my seat belt.", that's just stating a fact. If you stress the word "always", you've given importance to the frequency of wearing your seat belt. If you were to stress the word "belt", it sounds a little masochistic. You should also be careful to not over use sense stress throughout your reading. This will leave your audience exhausted. When your done, they will have felt like they've just done 200 reps on the bench press. Too much of a good thing adds stress to sense stress.(Scratch your head after that sentence). Still , you don't want to speak in monotone either, unless you're reading a bedtime story to small children. You don't want to have to poke your audience with a stick after you've read them something. Reading in monotone can kill an exciting piece of writing, while using proper sense stress can sell a rather boring subject. So learn to moderate, because sense stress, in the wrong hands, can "stress out" the "sensitive", and cause either "sensory overload", or "sensory deprivation", depending on how you appeal to the "sense" of hearing. Whew! I may need to find a piece of bubble wrap after that run on:)

Anti Cold Play

Last night we went to a little get together at a friend's house. Quite a few of our friends were not there because they had tickets to see Cold Play at the Qwest Center. Those of us at the party did not go for the very reason we are not fans of Cold Play. So our theme for the party was Anti Cold Play. Oh, there was music, but nothing resembling Cold Play. When they first made their splash on the scene, I really didn't mind them. They were one of those bands that could be background music, and not make my teeth grind. But, the song "Yellow" became a huge hit, and next thing you know, every station that plays top 40, was spinning it every other song. "Yellow" was turning me red! I would like to thank those radio stations for turning me off to Over Play - I mean Cold Play. I like many different genres of music, but Cold Play falls into the genre of, "music Kevin doesn't like - a lot!". Then, to top off their arrogance, they charged $97.00 a ticket! You couldn't pay me $97.00 to sit through that, what some have labeled, "wuss rock". I'm afraid, if subjected to their music for that long, I would now have to sit down to pee. I understand my taste in music doesn't have to coincide with everybody, but I'm glad there was a support group last night who understand my feelings towards rock that doesn't rock. If you ask me, there is a classic case of "money for nothing, chicks for free". Where have I heard that phrase before? Oh yeah, a REAL rock n roll band!

Free Lunch

Yesterday, I happened to find myself in need of a tool I had been contemplating purchasing for quite awhile. So yesterday was going to be the happy, and of course, necessary purchase. Really, no man should be denied the pleasure of buying a new tool. So, I drove to a tool warehouse named "Tight On Tools". They have so many tools, I walk in wanting to purchase tools I don't need, nor will probably ever use. It can be a dangerous place with a blank check in your hands! While I was there, they were having a huge tool sale, with reps from all their different lines of tools on hand, to throw you a sales pitch. But one of the added bonuses was free lunch. Nothing extravagant - hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, chips, and a cooler full of red dye #5 to drink. Now, I got there at 11:05, and the line to the food was already long. It's just amazing the people, mostly men who work with tools for a living, and a few who just like to own tools, who turned out for this event. There was a group of carpet layers (I know a carpet layer when I see one), who arrived right behind me in the chow line. The whole time they're talking about work, the jobs they're on, the tools they can't afford, and how good free lunch is going to taste. Myself and the "fuzzy side up" crew acquired our pro bono lunch and sat down at the same table to feed. Most of them finished before I did - I was too busy people watching, and looking for fellow workers I knew. They got up from the table and left. When I finished, I walked inside the store to embark on my tool quest. I realized the "ruggies" had dined and ditched. They were there for nothing other than the free lunch! I'm aware the mooch factor is quite high among floor covering people, but I think you should at least pretend to be interested in purchasing something. To top it all off, the tool warehouse was all out of the tool I needed. I guess the moral of the story is; Don't expect much from a free lunch, or, of the people who attend.