Friday, October 8, 2010

Its been a long time... I think I should be going

It is rapidly closing in on two weeks since my last post. An unintentional lapse sparked mostly, I believe, by my brief but rabid dedication to Les Miserables, which I finished on Wednesday night. I was reading that book in all the times I would normally be writing blog posts. I am sure a lot has happened since my last post, but I am not entirely sure what, or which things are interesting enough to blog about.

Some Highlights (and low lights for that matter):
- first beef stew of the season
- OSU football w/50 pack of McNuggets
- DH got a new wool coat, it looks great
- Nestie Dinner in Dublin
- Two Nights of Trivia (one of which we won)
- Review of Mansfield Park (see good reads, I am quite proud of that review)
- Les Miserables
- Found Money
- My first overtime/raise paycheck
- Low productivity at work- my first substantive quality assurance return
- Middlemarch: the movie
- the motorcycle vs Fools Rush in Bet
- "Shiver" book messing up MN
- "Forever" book taking Forever to read.
- DH's lost wedding ring.- last minute trip to St Louis (pending).

See? Things Happen. But nothing that is so amazing it dictates it's own post. So, you get some rambling. I am sure you are used to it. She was not able to reach the clmt.

I am currently on hold with Binder and Binder. Their hold message is really annoying. It is one of the Binder's talking in a low, calming voice, about how you might be eligible and they have a large staff that will be with you shortly. Let me be honest here. Binder and Binder is probably the last company I would go to if I wanted to file a disability claim. My opinion may be biased by my position on the "other side", but they are hard to work with, they don't allow us to speak to the clmt and they are not consistent at calling back with information. They do not respond to call-in letters. It is annoying.

I have been reading a lot lately, clearly. It is nice. The main reason DH and I made the challenge concerning Les Miserbables and Pride and Prejudice is because these are books we wanted the other person to read. I wanted Aaron to read Jane Austen, he wanted me to read Les Miserables. As far as I can tell, it is his favorite book. I spent a lot of time while I was reading Les Miserables complaining about it. First, about the long historic narratives of things I did not care about, then about the abuse of coincedences in forming the plot, then about the pages and pages harping on particular points, beating you over the head with ideas that could have been offered covertly with as much effectiveness (if not more). Victor Hugo wanted to be SURE that you knew what the book was about. He was not taking any chances of it being misinterpretted. Anyways, after all that complaining and whining, I ended up giving the book four stars. DH was surprised. The fact is, despite all of these annoyances, the book was chalked full of philosophy and interesting ideas, the part of it that actually concerned the characters was gripping and even a page turner, and it has an emotional satisfaction to it. Now, if I could, I would edit out 500+ pages, but I can see why it is classic and why DH likes it. I am sure we will soon watch the Mini-series version of it, and then perhaps the musical. Anyways, this reading challenge had nothing riding on it.
Another bet, however, had a bit riding on it. DH wants a motorcycle. I am OK with one from most perspectives, but would like to make sure that it makes sense moneywise. Would DH get as much utility out of a motorcycle as we could get out of using the money to go to Europe or fix up the house? I don't know. And so we have been debating the motorcycle. Well, trivia last week they asked a "casting call" question: What movie features Matthew Perry, Salma Hayek, and Jon Tenney? DH said "its that one movie that you own, where they get married fast and go down to south America." I told him I had no idea what he was talking about and I had never seen a movie like that. I told him I own the movie "Three to Tango", which has Matthew Perry, Naomi Cambell, and that guy from Law & Order. He did not believe me. We made a guess, which turned out to be wrong. The correct answer is "Fools Rush In", a movie I have heard of but never seen. DH continued to insist I owned it, until finally we made a bet. It was DH's idea. He said that if I owned it, he got to choose if he got a motorcycle, and if I did not own it, then he would not bother me about it for a year. Worked like a charm. I OF COURSE do not own it. DH cannot bug me about the motorcycle anymore. So, tell me, why do we put something HUGE like a motorcycle on a stupid little thing (whether I own a movie?) and put nothing on a big challege that we both have control over, like a reading race? I don't have a clue, but hey, whatever works.
I should go back to work. Bis Spaeter.

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