Ah the weekend

The weekend, which Loverboy assures me we're all working for, is my time. It's my time to run errands that got away from me during the week, my time to get a haircut (not a very good one it turns out), my time to fruitlessly track down thrift shops where I can give away old clothes, and my time to well, spend a few hours at work.

I started the weekend with an outing to the bank. Closed on Saturdays thank you very much, but since I only wanted to deposite the last paychecks from CR, I coped with just an ATM.

Here I am looking dead concerned about the environment

Then, it was off to the recycling center. In my new building there's only recycling for cardboard, and you have to cart it to the dumpster (tip for the UK audience) by the exit of the underground parking garage. However, since Al Gore has spoken to me via powerpoint, I want to recycle everything. I found a very nice little place nearby where I can recycle all the usual recyclables, and went there.

I even ran into some other people equally worried about our fair mother earth, and one lady who might have been totally mental, but I didn't hang around long enough to ask.

....Because I was setting off for Herndon. Herndon is quite nearby Reston, and it's been described to me as where the people who clean and chauffeur and valet-park for Restoners live. Sort of the Morlocks to our Eloi (because, *spoiler alert*, we Restonites are delicious!). I went there in the hopes of dropping off some clothes at the Salvation Army.

A very apologetic man there told me that the enormous SA thrift shop just couldn't take a bunch of clothes from me and I'd have to go to a very-out-of-the-way Salvation Army outpost (bunker?) if I wanted to get my hands on any Christian Charity. However, he did helpfully pass on some totally incorrect directions to another thrift shop where I could give away clothes.

Utter bunk! I later found it on the Internet and I'll go there when I get a chance.

Finally, I dashed in to work where I spent four hours not getting any work done. Ironic since Evan and I had planned to go in on Saturday precisely because we'd finally be able to focus just on what we needed to do.

I mucked about with SAS and then went for a haircut. A very mediocre haircut. Then, looking mildly coifed, I went and bought no-wrinkle, iron-free shirts. I'm skeptical, but I'll let you know.

Awesome storm

We had a fantastic hail storm in Reston today. It came on super quick and there was horizontal rain, lightning, thunder, and hazelnut-sized hail stones.

A lot of us went outside to have a look because it was so incredible. It was raining 3 hours later when I left.

One of my co-workers said he was glad he hadn't washed his car over the weekend. I told him how glad I was I hadn't thrown handfuls of pebbles at my car as I actually thought how glad I was to have the stupid car insured. Turns out my car is hail-proof, at least at the level of hazelnut-grade hail.

The lesson I learned is, always take your camera. A little video would have been better than my crap description.

The good news is that I'm in storm country again. One of the things I loved about Michigan was that when it stormed, it really opened up and stormed. New York has tame little storms that suck. Nothing scary about most NY storms. I like my terrifying weather events to be safe, but to make you wonder, like rollercoasters.

Okay, everybody back to work!

Marmite - Now for . . . baking? Surely not!

Attribution: bunchofpants

This post will amuse only my English reader(s?) and those otherwise familiar with marmite (or marmoset as my friend Mike Elkins likes to call it).

I was in the grocery store today looking for sugar-free brownie mix (with no bloody luck, I'll add). Predictably, I was in the "Baking Needs" section of the supermarket. Less predictably, somewhat troublingly actually, I ran into Marmite there. It brought me up short, I'll tell you.

For those of you who don't know, Marmite is yeast extract British people spread on their children's bread to acclimate the wee darlings to a lifetime of eating horrible British food. It tastes rather like slightly bitter salt and you should probably never ever eat it unless you were raised on it. I love it!

I was excited to see some Marmite in my local grocery, since it's not always available and for God's sake, I live in the South now. I was horrified to see it in the "Baking" section though, because it goes about as well with cake as Marie Antoinette.

I worked out the odd logic when I noticed it was surrounded by Fleischmann's yeast, so I told a somewhat uninterested shop manager that he might have a miscategorization on his hands, a miscategorization that could lead to a violent revolution involving beheadings if anyone tried using Marmite as yeast for . . . well for anything.

As an interesting side note, Marmite and mashed banana on toast is lovely. Shut up, yes it is!

Also, take a look at Marmite's own site. This ad is pretty right on the money, although the amount she puts on her toast could probably kill a grown horse.

P.S. - while I was looking for an image of a marmoset, I found this adorable site. Look at it!

Fire alarm(s)

I'm at work earlier than I'd like to be. (I may be lazy, but I was also here for 4 hours yesterday on Sunday).

It's probably not a bad idea and I sort of wish I'd planned to be here at 7:30 on my own. However, what really impelled me out from between the covers this morning was a fire alarm. It's the second I've enjoyed since moving here 3 weeks ago.

The first one took me by surprise. It reminded me of work at CU. It's building-wide, the klaxons are loud as hell, doors close automatically, and I think lights flash. I scampered out my door, looked for neighbors doing the same, and followed them to safety. It turned out that some doofus backed into a sprinkler head in the parking basement and set off the alarm.

The one today I know less about except that it happened (thankfully) after I got out of the shower and was just thinking, "gosh, I'm up early, maybe I'll lie here for a moment and listen to NPR". Now I'm at work instead.

I talked with some neighbors standing like refugees in the rain outside and they tell me it happens rather a lot. When I worked at CU, we had a lot of fire drills. Many of them were popcorn related (don't ask), but many were also the indirect results of lab tests. We all grumbled about them, but you know, it seemed justifiable.

Now I'm in a residential building that seems to be matching pace with a business that occasionally test things by burning them.

On the plus side, Starbucks wasn't packed to the gills.

So, good morning! And remember, only you can prevent forest fires.