Pavlos’

Happy Sunday to one and all. If it’s Sunday when you read this. If it isn’t, er, nevermind.

Anyway, it was a decent Sunday. I stayed in bed until the last possible moment before getting up, getting dressed and heading out into the world.

On the docket: taking JC and EC to visit TC in Auburn. As followers of this blog know, I have made this trip a number of times. This time, we had a different plan. Because TC enjoys watching football and JC is happy to spend time with TC doing that, EC and I dropped them at their preferred football watching place and headed off to a new-to-us-both place that I had on my radar.

The place is called Pavlos’ and is an old style diner. It is in an unassuming building. Not a lot of seating that I could see. The place was crowded when we arrived. One of the servers assured us that we would love it. Everyone loves it, she told us. And boy howdy, did EC love it! (I liked it and would happily go back)

They have a pretty extensive menu. They are knonn primarily for their breakfasts, though they are open for all three meals (I think). Since EC is a vegetarian, there is always the concern that she won’t be able to find something tasty to eat. Luckily she eats eggs. So she ordered a two egg omelet with spinach and feta. And she raved about it. She also loved her hash browns, which I had requested (for both of us) to be crispy. I ordered a Reuben – which was decent. I thought there was a little too little sauerkraut and not enough swiss cheese, but overall it was a good version. And my crispy hash browns were also tasty! Oh, I had home fries (hash browns?) instead of fries because, for some reason, they don’t turn their fryers on on Sundays.

A view inside Pavlos’

The owner himself, Pavlos, came and chatted with us for a bit. Turned out that he is Greek. He came here in 1966 and has run Pavlos’ for 47 years. I said my one word of greek to him, he responded with the other word that I know and then started saying stuff that I had no clue about. My Greek is basically non-existent.

All in all, a good experience. I brought home the other half of my sandwich. And half of EC’s omelet – which was too big for her to finish. I am not sure when I will eat them, but they are going to be worked into my dining schedule somewhere.

We headed back to Kostas to check in on JC and TC and they had just recently gotten their food. The place was dead, so I have no idea why their food took so long. But it was what it was. EC and I sat in my car and talked about Rubens, who I know very little about. Still interesting, though. Eventually I went back inside and they were packed up and about ready to head out. We had a little fire drill because JC couldn’t find his debit and credit cards. Eventually their whereabouts were ascertained. Phew!

Since we didn’t have access to funds (no cards) we skipped the trip to Wegman’s this time and headed back to Geneva. We dropped EC off at the house and I took JC back to his rehab place.

I came home and did…nothing. Well, not exactly nothing, but you get the picture.

Soon, it will be time to eat. I have a lot of leftovers, I just need to decide which ones I would like to eat this evening!

Augustus for President: Maybe we will need two screens and therefore two computers – one with a running close captioning of what everyone is saying. And the other one for data and information. I also want to make clear at Town Hall type meetings that I am not there to debate, I am there to listen and to perhaps inform here and there. I have also decided that I will write to all the sitting governors and tell them that I will be visiting their fine states and ask for five minutes of their time to answer three questions – the same three questions that I will ask each and every member of congress when I become president. Will any of the governors answer? Doubtful. But it doesn’t hurt to ask. No answer is still an answer.

Still looking for an administrative assistant. It would be nice to find one who would be willing to go on my first trip with me. Separate rooms of course.

SURVEYS

Morons and Assholes

Flers

I am trying to switch up my curses when cursing drivers I perceive as bad. I used to use words that I don’t like all that well. So, I have changed them to the title words – Morons and Assholes. And sadly, there are a lot of them out there. Or maybe I am just getting grumpier the older I get and the longer I dash. Grr.

Yes, it was a two dash day. I quit earlier than I have been quitting from both shifts to try to avoid getting the terrible final dash that the AI or algorithm likes to give me. And I managed to avoid it both times. Woo hoo! Decent dashing day other than that.

I spent most of my lunch break reading and doing reminders. Like finding the posts I bought. I plan on buying a HELP WANTED sign and putting it up in my yard. It is frustrating that I can’t find someone to do the crap I don’t want to do. Which actually makes sense since it is crap and no one really wants to do it. Though I might find someone who actually likes to paint. And likes to do random yard work or things around the house. I haven’t seen the woman (except to wave to) who said that the kid helping her mother might possibly be interested in helping me. Hope springs eternal. If I can find someone soon enough, maybe they can help with the demolition of the pantry – which might save me a shekel or two on the bathroom installation.

The kitchen floor is still wet from the second time that my boarder let the faucet run. Sigh. I have now ordered a pair of water alarms that I hope will alert us to the water issue before it gets too far. Like far enough to drip into the kitchen. Maybe after this second time, though, she will have learned her lesson. It can’t be fun for her to try to navigate through the kitchen with the rug and pad flipped up here and there. I know it isn’t pleasant for me…

I did not call the NYCERDA people today. Poo. I have added it to my reminders for tomorrow. I am hoping to get information saying what hoops one needs to jump through in order to get the tax break. I wonder if they can tell me about the Federal program as well.

I am home and I have done my duolingo. Since I get to pick SM up at the ROC airport late tonight (I think the flight is supposed to land at 11:30pm or thereabouts), I’ll basically just read and maybe watch something until it is time to go – around 10:30pm.

Ok, time for dinner. I am having my left over Reuben and fries from Monday. And I am going to have a side salad. And I think I will cook up the artichokes since they might go bad otherwise. I haven’t made artichokes French in a while so will need to look up the recipe again. I am pretty sure it doesn’t include vanilla…

Look, I ate Cake!

My “birthday” cake

Yes, I bought myself a birthday cake. But I was not so lame that I put a candle on it and blew it out. That would have just been way over the top sad. I did, though, eat half of it. In three goes btw. I did not just sit down and eat half of it! I will probably try to finish it tonight because most cakes get stale really quickly once they are cut into. It was pretty darn tasty. Thank you Wegman’s.

I took another day off today. Mainly because yesterday was kinda lame. Only in that I was thwarted in what I wanted to do by the weather and a chicken-assed masseuse. Other than that, though, the day was pretty pleasant.

And today, more of the same. I managed to get all the dishes, and glasses!, washed. And the pans. I did not clean the stove top. That will wait for Friday or Saturday.

Part of the reason I stayed home today was because there was a flurry of activity around GLO and getting things (tickets for the show (in July) and banquet (in May)) linked to the home page to sell. All I had to actually do was to add some links and buttons to the main page of the GLO website. But it all took an hour of me doing it and thinking about.

And for some reason, the urgency behind the mailing list amped up from 0 to 100. I had gotten a message saying that we were sharing our mailing list with someone by April 18. The date she actually requested. Then suddenly she wanted it for April 9 apparently. And the person who had taken over the mailing list threw up their hands and said that it was now my responsibility. I told them, fine, but I won’t be able to get to it until this weekend. And they sent a pile of crap to the poor woman. Sigh.

I will still work on it this weekend. The mailing list as designed is way too complicated for most people to use – especially people who aren’t comfortable with complex spreadsheet design. My plan is to take all the info that we have. Sort and cull. And then make the sheet way simpler. And go forward from there. We shall see if that happens.

Other than that, it was a quiet day. My soc sec check arrived so I spent a bit of it to help me smile. Not that I need much help since I am quite a happy person for the most part. Happiness is, mostly, a choice. In my humble opinion. Again, no reading. I will try to crank through the book this weekend as well.

Oh, and it is duck weekend. I am so excited! I still haven’t decided whether to do a Chinese style duck or a french style. Leaning towards French.

I played some more Wasteland 3 today. Of course there are things I haven’t figured out, like how to cure poisoning. Still, learning the quirks of a game is half the fun in my humble opinion. (imho). I’ll play more over the weekend.

Ok, time for some Duolingo. And then either quiche or my leftover Reuben from the other night. I want to add some more swiss cheese to it and see if that helps. The corned beef was weird. It sort of had the mouth feel of already masticated food. That wasn’t pleasant. And there was not nearly enough swiss cheese. I wonder if there was any…

Better Today!

Art (short for Arthur)

Woo hoo! My mood was vastly improved after a terrible night’s sleep. What? Yes, that’s right, I slept badly. Mostly because I had an early appointment (with destiny) and I didn’t set an alarm.

Ok, so it wasn’t a meeting with destiny. It was with a task for a friend. I guess she didn’t want to drive all the way to Stanley, so I did it for her. I picked up an old TV at her house and took it to a recycling event. They asked if I was her and I said I was. The checker didn’t blink an eye. Mission accomplished!

Since I had a shopping list that had some Chinese Market type things on it, I headed to Rochester next! I was debating whether or not to get some duck. Or some roast pork. Or some Chinese BBQ pork. Or all of the above. Or none. Or…well, it didn’t matter. When I got to my favorite Asia Market (in Henrietta) they only had some tea chickens. Maybe I was there too early in the day. Maybe? I don’t know. But that settled the question for me – none of the above.

The items on my list were: spring rolls (I got a different brand this time – S wants to know if they bake up crisp – I think the others would have – we will see if these ones do); crab rangoons (no sale – the guy who ended up helping me find things told me that crab rangoons are for non-Chinese – not surprising – I don’t think the Chinese use a lot of cream cheese in their recipes); shrimp chips (he had to get them for me as I couldn’t find them – I thought they would be frozen, they weren’t – these are weird things that when tossed in oil, turn into edible styrofoam); and chicken broth powder (he pointed me to a huge tin and then showed me where a smaller tin was when I said I didn’t want the large tin)(very helpful – and he spoke to me in Chinese all the time which was kind of him).

Meanwhile, back at the homestead, my roofer came and tried to fix the leak in the red room. Here’s hoping he succeeded where two other roofers have failed. He is also going to give me a price for cleaning of the roof on the East side of the house. It has a lot of moss on it and doesn’t look happy. Maybe if it looked happier, the house in general would look happier. We shall see.

On my way back from Rochester, I stopped at a pizza place in Phelps that I had seen and thought looked interesting. It was ok. I got their two slices and a drink deal – one pepperoni and one some sort of veggie slice – and a root beer. I might try a whole pizza from there one day to see how that is. The slices were decent.

After lunch, off to Lowes for me. I got six stakes so that I can mark out the line between me and the Colleges on the West side of the house. I don’t know if I have a mallet or a sledge hammer big enough to pound them in. Or someone stupid enough to hold them while I try. But I have six of them, which is more than I had before today! That will be plenty to stake out the line from the plumbing fixture to the start of the fence in the back. Baby steps.

I also got a new toilet seat. The person who criticized my old toilet seat was right – it was time to replace it. While I had the old one off, I did some deep cleaning of the whole toilet. It was definitely in need of some TLC. I am thinking of painting the catch plate below the toilet too at some point. Maybe. I don’t think I can remove it or replace it easily since the toilet sits on top of it. Anyway, I bought myself an oak seat – I have always thought they were cool. I will probably test it out tomorrow. So excited!

And now I am getting ready to do my Duolingo (German, I think) and then cook dinner. I am making a Reuben. I will also have fries and a few shrimp chips since I will have the fryer going. And a side salad. More Chinese (well, saucy nuggs) tomorrow night – is the plan.