2000-09-12 - 10:20am

On the internal soundtrack: "Cruel Summer", by Bananarama. A little while ago it was "Amazing Grace". Wacky.

So, I had a very busy Friday and Saturday in NJ. Held some babies, who are getting cuter by the minute. Had lunch with Pop-Pop. We were very happy to see each other. Lots of kisses and hugs.

Now that A&M have been able to move into their first house, I got the tour. The house is almost identical to my parents', except it the wall between the dining room and kitchen has been knocked out. This makes for a REALLY COOL large room, definitely the highlight of the house. Well, except for the purple room. That was a highlight, for me. Walls and ceiling are all a very deep lilac purple. Gotta like that. A says they will be painting over that, much to my disappointment.

Their backyard is already fenced, has a nice little pool, and a cool swingset. Kiddie and dog heaven. And mature trees. And a screen porch. All very lovely, and once they clean up ten previous owners' worth of dirt and grime, they will be very, very happy.

I helped out on Saturday morning doing some cleanup around the house. It would appear that A and M are the first people who have bothered to really clean anything. It's a little scary. I didn't see the worst of it, but apparently my mother cleaned about an inch of grime out of the dishwasher last week. She speculated that perhaps at some point, someone tried to wash auto parts in the dishwasher.

Ah. I never tire of hearing of the endless variation in the ways human beings choose to live their lives. Washing auto parts in the dishwasher! What a clever idea!

Oftentimes I wish that I could be smarter, or have a particular talent, or have more of an inclination to do remodeling work around the house. This is usually triggered by being around someone whose abilities I admire, but do not share, so I feel inadequate. Everyone around me puts me to shame in the home improvement department.

Conversely, sometimes I look at other people's habits and feel better about myself. The dishwasher is a good example. I can proudly say that my dishwasher will never, ever be that dirty. Another example is my clutter problem: I have packrat tendencies, plus it's a constant struggle to keep our house free of clutter; however, my problems don't even begin to approach the magnitude of the folks one street over in our old neighborhood.

They apparently ran out of room in their house and it spills over into their yard. In addition to children's toys scattered willy nilly, I have seen lamps out there, dining table chairs, appliances, and my personal favorite, a rack of clothes. Inside the house, if you peek in the windows (and yes, I am a peeker -- if you don't want people glancing into your house when they walk by at night, pull down the frickin' shades), you can see the rooms piled high with STUFF. Even the center stairwell, which you can see through the glass storm door, appears to have stuff all over it, to the point that I don't see how anyone could get up the stairs. I wonder if they only use the downstairs because the upstairs rooms are too full.

Wow. It definitely makes me feel a little better about the pile of magazines beside the couch.

Took A and M and the kidlets to Stewart's drive in for some root beer and delicious fried foods. They each had PORK ROLL. I had forgotten it existed. Anybody out there reading know what pork roll is? If so, please e-mail me, and tell me where you're from.

The availability of this delicacy seems to be confined to the Delaware Valley. No one here at the office had heard of it. Then they asked me "What is it?" and I could not explain. It's, uh, some kind of processed meat (pork, one would assume, or hope) with a very distinctive flavor. Somewhat reminiscent of sausage, but the texture is not at all crumbly like sausage is. You fry it up in a pan and melt cheese on it. I haven't had it since I was in high school (I'm not real big on it) but it tasted exactly as I remembered.

previous index next