Enginerdiness

So... how's this for weird? I was outside this afternoon in the "smoke shack" taking a break. I don't smoke, but it's got benches and it's in a shady breezeway, and it's covered in case of rain, so it's the ideal spot to sit and take a break. I could NOT stare at my monitor for another second lest I tear out my hairs by their tender roots. So, I'm out in the smoke shack and one of the smokers comes out to have a cigarette. She and I get to talking, and she starts telling me how my potential is being wasted in my current job and I should think about looking for a better position closer to Dallas. How am I supposed to tell her that I have a phone interview tomorrow for just that purpose? Anyway, I thought that was weird. The good news is, I have an phone interview tomorrow! I just got the e-mail setting it up today, although I had a rumor of it from an anonymous source two days ago. Anyway, I think it would be a good company to work for, so I'm very keen to find out more about the specifics of the positions.

As for my weekend, it was great. I played softball with my work team on Friday night, and we WON! We've lost two games so far, and this last brings our record to 2-1. Yea! I played pretty well, I fielded a couple of balls that came to me off the bat and I caught a couple at second to get the runner out. I had a really hard time with the pitcher, though. He had a weird pitch that had a lot of "hang time" and a really quick vertical drop over the plate. I don't want to sound like sour grapes, or anything, but it was a bit much for a slow-pitch, co-ed, 4th-tier league, in my opinion. That said, the pitcher himself was no peach. By the end of the game all his own teammates wanted to string him up by his toenails from the field lights, so I guess he's got bigger issues than whether he's putting too much heat or spin on his underhand pitch. I generally do pretty well at the plate, and I'm sort of what you'd describe as a "giant amazon", so I can usually smack the ball pretty far. Okay, I'm what I would describe as a giant amazon. Maybe you'd use another term, something like: Jolly Green Giant's Wife. I dunno. Point is, I was endowed by my maker with some really long limbs, which give me a really good moment arm for rotational motion, which in turn translates to a high linear acceleration rate when I transfer that rotational momentum... oy. Enginerdiness overcame me. I hit the ball hard. K?

Saturday I went on a motorcycle ride out to Hico, Texas with my friend Rose and her motorcycle club. That was a fun trip! The sun was warm, but not too hot, and the breeze was cool, but not too cold. The wind was pretty strong but nobody got blown off their bikes, and all the bikes stayed on the road, so I guess it wasn't that bad. We met up with a motorcycle club from Austin at a restaurant there in Hico, and I had fried pickles for lunch. Okay, I had something else, too, but it wasn't very memorable. The thing that WAS memorable was that I had fried pickles. yum!

Sunday was Scarborough Faire. I got my hairs braided, and they looked like this: That's an arrangement called a "Star Crown", if I recall correctly. Anyway, I had a good time at the fair. We saw several shows, some juggling, some bawdy tavern wenches, Ded Bob, and The Mud Show. Highlights: the tavern wenches, Iris & Rose (Wild & Thorny) sang a song about circumcision in honor of their Jewish patrons, since it was Easter. That didn't make any sense to me, either. I think it was just an excuse to sing about circumcision.

Anyway... at the Ded Bob Sho (which I highly recommend) I noticed that Bob had a new dummy. Ded Bob is not your run-of-the-mill ventriloquist show. In this show, the puppetteer is silent and wears a bag over his head while the dummy does all the talking. In fact, since the puppetteer wears a bag over his head, he might not even be a ventriloquist at all. Anyway, the puppetteer used to be named Smudge, and I would swear that this year Ded Bob was calling him Pudge. That's not the good part, though. The good part is that I got to be BobZombie #1!!! If you've ever seen the show, I'm the one who is shy, petite, and virginal and who ends up hopping mad. (You're welcome.) I think one of my friends took pictures. If so, I'll see if I can get a copy.

Finally, we saw The Mud Show. This was very different from before, when it was titled "The Sturdy Mud-Eating Beggars". I guess the beggars have eaten enough mud that they were able to retire, because I didn't recognize any of the players from my first several years of fair attendance. The new show features a lot more splashing in the mud (picture the first few rows of the Shamu show at SeaWorld), and a lot fewer potty humor moments. That aside, it's still good, dirty fun. The show was a re-enactment of the epic saga Beowulf, and I highly recommend it. Look at your bench before you sit down, though, and note that if there is any mud on it, you WILL become dirty at some point in the show if you sit in that spot.

Last bit: my dog got sick over the weekend. I would complain about how distraught I am over this, but really, she's a lot worse off than I am. She had the 'squirts' for three days, and has been on a rice diet since Sunday as a result. She had a much better day today, but she had to wake me up in the middle of the night a couple of times to get her outside. As unpleasant as that is, I far prefer it to her letting me sleep and then waking to find she's squirted on the floor. Yeah. ugh. Enough of that.

Those are all my thoughts for now. I'll say something profound about the job interview when it's over with.