Month: October 2005

The Ramp of Doom Returns!

Usual spot at the SB 405 – NB 133 interchange, just after the ramp on the 133’s bridge over the 405. Three cars, including a Jeep that looked OK from behind, a car in front of it that had completely flipped over, and another car in front of that one that I couldn’t see very clearly, because I was watching the guy standing out in front waving his hands to make sure people slowed down and didn’t plow into the scene. It had clearly just happened, since neither police nor ambulance had arrived.

At least I hope that’s why he was waving his hands. It certainly looked more like “Hey, watch out!” than “Please, stop and help!” Damn, I didn’t even think of that until just now.

Current Mood: 🙁guilty

Lunch Lessons Learned

  1. Smoothie-and-sushi, while an excellent combination under summer and fall weather conditions, is less than ideal for a cold, wet day.
  2. Even if you’re convinced that it can’t possibly start raining enough to warrant an umbrella in the next 45 minutes… bring it anyway.
  3. Check the soles of your shoes once in a while so that you discover they no longer have any tread before you find yourself slipping every few steps on a wet sidewalk.
  4. With #3 in mind, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf isn’t particularly close to the food court at the Spectrum. It’s really too bad they kicked out the Diedrich’s instead of, say, moving them into the food court.
  5. Frosty doesn’t know how to pronounce the word chaste. As I got out of the car, they were having a big argument, with listeners IMing in to tell him that Heidi and Frank were pronouncing it correctly and Frosty insisting that he had heard the word more often and therefore knew how it should be pronounced.

Back to UCI (sort of)

I went to see my allergist this morning for a re-eval. I was actually supposed to go in during the summer, but I forgot about it and misplaced the “you’re due for an appointment!” postcard until earlier this week. As it turned out, she had a medical student from UCI shadowing her today, so I got to be both patient and teacher’s aid. (They asked me up front whether it was okay.) It was an odd experience, partly because there was an extra person, partly because she looked like she was close to my age or maybe younger, and partly because my allergist was narrating everything.

While I was there, I got this year’s flu shot. I don’t remember having to sign a waiver last year. Actually it wasn’t so much a waiver as a “Yes, I’ve been informed of the possible side effects, and I know it’s produced using eggs, so if I’m allergic to eggs, I’ll just stop and not get the vaccine, thank you very much.” It may be explained by the fact that the flu vaccine has been added to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. I didn’t know this program existed. (Ain’t the intarweb grand?)

Wiping beer off the kitchen wall

It’s one of those things you just don’t expect to have to do.

I cleaned out large chunks of the refrigerator today. Among the things I threw out were the remnants of a 4-pack of Murphy’s Stout that I bought for St. Patrick’s Day and never finished. Now, if stout isn’t chilled, it’ll foam out and overflow the can. Apparently 5-month-old stout overflows even if it is chilled, because when I opened the cans over the sink, they sprayed foam onto the wall.

So I wiped the beer of the wall, then went back to cleaning stuff out. Then I noticed that there were brown spots a bit farther away, so I wiped those off. Then I noticed that it was all over the side of the coffee maker, five feet away from where I was opening the cans. Then I noticed it was on the wall on the other side of the coffee maker!

The moral of the story: Finish your stout on March 17.