Curmudgeonly about loyalty.

This isn’t about anything that’s happened to me lately, but where the heck has all the loyalty gone?  We’re only loyal to brands now?  (I ask with four Timbuk2 bags in my closet and dozens of Moleskine products everywhere.)

I grew up a disloyal person.  I blame having two siblings close to me in age and the rivalries that led me to become a backstabber in my early teens.  What one has to do with the other, I’m not sure.

I’ve tried to be a loyal person my whole adult life, and it’s the stuff of jokes at times.

I rode home with my Dad today because we work near one another and got off at the same time (read, we both kicked it at 4:30).  After he dropped me off, someone on a crotch rocket cut him off.  I threw a bottle at the man’s head, causing him to hit a tree and break in half.

Wait, no I didn’t.  I just yelled bad words that he probably didn’t hear over the rocket he was riding.

Cars, not kidnappers.

If you’re going to worry about your kids, worry about your car!  Check out this article on what parents fear most, and what is actually most likely to kill their kids.

Based on surveys Barnes collected, the top five worries of parents are, in order:

  1. Kidnapping
  2. School snipers
  3. Terrorists
  4. Dangerous strangers
  5. Drugs

But how do children really get hurt or killed?

  1. Car accidents
  2. Homicide (usually committed by a person who knows the child, not a stranger)
  3. Abuse
  4. Suicide
  5. Drowning

Been having too much fun to blog much.

We had a fantastic end of summer weekend, with swimming (even though the weather was cool), grilling, beer, coffee, movies and fun times with Charlotte.

Also, and this is no insignificant thing, I received a food dehydrator as a birthday gift from my parents. “What the hell would a 31-year-old want with one of those?” you ask?

Well, immediately, I can dry a lot of the chilis and basil I grew/am growing this year. Also, well, holy shit, those babies are awesome! No more trail mix full of crap I hate and also without fruit because the stuff at the market is not great (not enough to spend the cash on anyway). Meals ready to eat? Yes. When we go camping, I take my own food so as not to be a pain the ass, since I’m the only vegetarian. This means that I have to lug it all myself, with a cooler to boot. Not if I learn to make my own dehydrated vegetarian cuisine!

This is not to mention that Charlotte and I can make all sorts of delicious things.  I’m picturing her taking bags of dried fruit all over Baltimore during  the winter, from delicious things I got at the farmers market in the summer.

I was raving to my mother a few weeks ago that I grew too much basil this year and had to freeze a lot of it and even murder a plant.  I said I wanted to diversify next year and get a food dehydrator to keep myself (and family) stocked with home-grown herbs all year.  What I didn’t think of until last night is that the chilis that don’t normally dry well and get frozen instead can be dried this way and used for all kinds of excellent goodness!

My mom listened.  My mom rocks.

Writing supplies?

I should include a photo with this (and borrow Mrs. P’s camera).  But why, oh, why, are there retailers/shops that specialize in art supplies, but not writing supplies? Or, maybe there are, and they are for offices.  But I mean writing!  I realize that a lot of creative writing (especially professionally) has gone digital.  But, if I’m correct, so has professional “art.”