I have come to an understanding, why it is that Barb and I got along just dandy without a dishwasher for so long, even though everyone thought we were nuts. As I washed dishes this morning, I counted what CAN'T be put into the dishwasher, all of which we have in abundance:

1) The silverware. We put this in at first, but realized that the harsh abrasives were WEARING THE SILVER PLATE OFF. Fortunately, it's only marginally ruined the daily-use silver, and not the good stuff, which we've only used once or twice since getting the dishwasher. So now that gets hand-washed again.

2) The forged knives. These will get rusty.

3) The stoneware. This cannot be washed with soap at all, and must be scrubbed with a stiff brush only. I suppose if I ran a load without soap, it MIGHT work, but I doubt it.

4) The cast iron. Like the stoneware, you can't wash cast iron with soap, and it MUST be wiped dry so it doesn't get rusty.

5) The good china. It's gilt edged, and so are some of my wine glasses. Should have realized that what could happen to gilt edges could happen to silverware, too.

6) The hand-blown glasses, the etched glasses, and the hand-painted glasses.

7) The teflon-coated cookware.

Since the above is roughly half of what we own, that's why we never felt the lack of a dishwasher.

For what it's worth, neither of us have ever bothered to fix the air conditioning in our vehicles, either.

On an unrelated television note, just watched the season finale of Primeval. Holy cats, the Beeb had BETTER allow another series, because that is probably the worst place to leave a show since... possibly the series finale of Farscape.

Yesterday I spent the whole day backing up stuff off the small hard drive to my external backup drive, which took a lot of time for transferring and copying (transferring TiVo saves to plain M-PEG files), but got it done and cleared off some of this drive. Did the Mom's grocery shopping, picked up some birthday paper to wrap sillymagpie's gifts, then took her out to dinner at a wonderful little Ecuadoran restaurant, where the food was to die for delicious -- everything we tried, all around, was superb, from the appetizer Ecuadoran tamales to the Guanabana dessert, which was a very light whipped custardy thing with chocolate drizzled on top. The Ecuadoran flan (coconut flan) was unlike any Sonoran flan I've ever tried, but it, too, was incredible. Then we came home to gifts and watched Coraline, which was one of said gifts. Nifty little movie!

Had something happen with one of my (now adult) dragons that I've never seen before. When she "gendered" (that's the point when a hatchling gets its wings or grows a little bigger), I named her -- then last night she no longer had a name, and I couldn't give her the one she'd had before because it had already been used. If you scroll over her picture here on LJ it shows that original name, but on my scroll it's the new one. Very odd...

* * * *

Happy Birthday, sillymagpie!!!

I just finished re-reading Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart; a guy at work got a copy for his birthday and asked me if I'd read it, and I replied that it had been a long time. I didn't really realize HOW long, I told him, until I dug out my copy -- it's a First Edition. And his eyes got big and round and said he'd seen First Editions selling for $800 on eBay. I myself found it selling for around $350, but I think I'll keep my copy... The dust cover is even in good condition.

There hasn't been any mail delivery for two days. This is strange and somewhat troubling.

( Chapter Two )

I need to wrap up sillymagpie's birthday presents. At least, the ones that are here (again with the troubling lack of mail).

My back hurts. Not sure why.

I finally did it! :

Friday: Work, a brief stop at the Asian market for noodles (and some other things - although they were totally out of Pocky, except for "desert Pocky," which turns out to be like the BEST flavor of Pocky ever - chocolate & orange!), then home to make noodle soup with chicken and shrimp. Watched Gangs of New York, which I liked, with enormous reservations - it was a good idea with good actors that was handled rather poorly. A good hour or so could have easily been cut, and the pacing could have been handled far, far better (far be it for me to out-direct Martin Scorsese, but... yeah). At least the soup was good.

Saturday: Got up early and cleaned the back yard. Archaeological dig in one's own yard - I re-discovered the stepping stones we put in, but somehow forgot about - one of them was buried under a good two inches of dirt. And this is how entire civilizations are lost. I dug them all out and re-set them while Barb trimmed the grass and mowed. It was very hot (and humid - do not let "dry heat" of Arizona fool you). Came back in, showered, and tried to cool off for a while before going out shopping, a quick run to Home Depot to get some things we needed, then groceries for The Mom, then back home to dress for dinner. The gang took me to The Stockyards for dinner, a Phoenix landmark I've always wanted to eat at - and well worth it, absolutely awesome place. Excellent food, impressive service, just all around terrific. We sat in a dining room with a very cool stained glass wall, I had a THREE-INCH-THICK cut of sirloin with mashed sweet potatoes, and they gave me a free dessert, which could seriously be the best chocolate mousse I've ever tasted. Their biscuits were to die for. Nice conversation with everyone. Back to our place for the next installment of The 10th Kingdom and my loot. I received a bundle of Household Saints, some Spooky Hollow figures, a new Laurel Burch handbag, a pretty plate for dipping oils, some books to read, and all-important bookmarks. A very good birthday, indeed.

Sunday: Woke up with a headache and very sore back, likely from the dig yesterday. Headache has mostly resolved itself, hooray. There are a lot of things I should be doing, like cleaning the house, but instead I'm sitting here writing on LJ and watching Psych. Was looking up stuff on 10th Kingdom on IMDB and am trying to figure out why none of the trolls are listed in the cast - including Ed O'Neill. In reading the message boards, I found out that it's currently being run in 45-minute (one hour, w/commercials) episodes on ION-TV, Friday nights... and apparently, they've added scenes that aren't on the DVD!!! I wonder if they ever plan on releasing it with the expanded scenes on DVD... Apparently, while it did appallingly in the ratings (which is why the proposed sequel never got made), it has quite a fan base and did well in DVD sales. Go fig. We fen are a strange and unusual people...

I should be studying. My test is on September 10. I don't fear it (I really do want to pass, though; I get a $150.00 bonus for completing this series), but I shouldn't just go into it blind.

I wonder if I can get some studying done, vacuum, maybe steam-mop the house, and at least hang up those clothes. Yeah.

I surprised a lot of people yesterday when they'd tease, "So, turning 29 again today, eh?" and I'd reply, "Forty-four." With pride. I'm freakin' 44, and I feel (and look) fabulous. I was such a fat, lazy slug at 20 - why would I want to be 20 again? (Fairly certain I looked even worse at 29.)

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes!

It's official: My insanely finicky cat will not eat Fancy Feast. I set down a lovely dollop of this rather expensive cat food and he looks at me with those gigantic lantern eyes as though I've tried to poison him. *sigh* At least this time he's still eating the various flavors of Friskies we picked up (fortunately on sale, so buying individual cans was actually cheaper than picking up the "variety" boxes - which don't have enough variety for Mr. Finicky). Sometimes I have to work to convince him he does, indeed, like chicken. But he'll happily lick all the blue cheese off my plate when I finish my salad...

We went to Black Angus last night for a little birthday supper since they'd sent me a "free dinner" coupon - very nice! I didn't think I'd eaten that much (half my meal, the New York strip with baked potato and veggies; we split half of the big chocolate cake), but I felt VERY full for the rest of the night. I'm still down to 160 pounds. Twenty to go! (I have to dig through my old posts to find my weight ticker and see how I'm really doing.)

It's Friday!!!

( I know everyone's sick of these, but... )

Happy Birthday to edgedancer, who never ever posts or probably reads LJ at all!!! We'll be taking him out to dinner later.

We went to the game last night. There was no action for six innings and then we lost spectacularly 5-1. They only sell Pepsi. The Cold Stone Creamery closed after the 7th-inning stretch. We were in a bad place for the fireworks. AND I HAD THE BEST TIME EVER!!! It was just fun! I was bouncy as we left the ball park.

Yesterday of course I watched 1776, but for the first time it kinda depressed me because, Dude, who stole my country? Then I watched most of Stripes, grilled up a steak and some corn (burned that a little, oops), and had watermelon.

A very good Fourth.

Hope everyone else had a good day, too!

It's my birthday, too, yeah!

And I'd like to give all my wonderful friends on the Flist who wished me a happy one a big THANK YOU and a hug and all that great stuff!

(Okay, I'm too busy - lazy? - right at the moment to thank each of you individually, but I'll get there... *g*)

I can't believe I forgot to wish nutmeg3 a HAPPY BIRTHDAY on Monday! I'm so lame!

My father and uncle both have March 5 birthdays (although admittedly Dad's been gone for some years, I still remember), and Mom's birthday is tomorrow, so I'm usually up on the March birthdays. I knew there was a LJ Friend birthday coming up, but for some reason I flaked. ANYWAY...

Nothing much happening in the wider world for me. Haven't heard anything about the job, haven't heard from Potential Agent, haven't really done much writing (although plodding along with young Matthew's ramblings), did some of my studies on Sunday and got a 65% on the practice quiz... that's not good, is it? Stupid formulas. So I need to do some more studying tonight and tomorrow, at las- will be over (for good or ill) and I can get back to my oh-so-important regular reading. I'm reading a Doctor 8 book that's kind of interesting in that it's never once been from the POV of the Doctor or his companions. Seeing them from the outside is always cool.

I can't get off the plateau. No matter what I eat or don't eat, what I do or don't do, every week the scale mocks me. *whimper* It's not like I have that much left to lose.