The Pilver

You know all the lyrics to the song that represented this fantastic television sitcom from the 1990’s.  Did you know that Google Maps does too?

Found this on Geekologie today.  Clever.

The Carlton.  A dance I will never attempt.

Some facts from imdb:

As it required on-location shooting, only one shot of Jazz being thrown out of the house was done (with only a few exceptions). Therefore, to avoid continuity errors, it is made sure that Jazz is always wearing the same shirt in episodes where he’s thrown out.

The show was originally canceled by NBC after the fourth season, with the series finale being the episode where Will moves back to Philadelphia. However, fan reaction and letters written to Will Smith and NBC persuaded them to renew the show and it ended up continuing for two more seasons.

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The character ‘Philip Banks’ was ranked #34 in TV Guide’s list of the “50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time”

Why did this show become and stay so big?  I’ll bet it was the sideways hats.

There is no real outline or flow to this blog, I just wanted to show the map, and then I kept going…Happy Weekend to you!

The other day, someone I know who never has and never will contact or join The Church of Scientology received yet another unwanted letter from the relentless religion.  They are unsure of why the organization contacts them frequently, most letters are thrown in the trash and never read.  This envelope for this one, however, was hand addressed with a real pen, and we decided to see what was inside.

Well, that was a load of BS.  But consider the fact that so many people in the world are in that situation right now.   They get this letter and happen to be naive.  “The Church Of Scientology KNOWS me!”  they conclude.  Nice.  Well done church.  You tricked people into thinking you know their problems and are offering them advice on new topics as well! I’d go on about how corrupt TCOS is and how they use religion to make money, but I won’t.

In conclusion, barf.

I need to please people I will never see again in my life on a daily basis because if I don’t, I don’t get paid.  Just today, I had a table at the restaurant I serve at with a reservation for five people.  I had a beautiful set-up for them, overlooking the lake and right by the flowers.  Sometime in between the time I set the table up, and the time I sat the party of five, another customer had grabbed one of the menus off the table, thus making my setting incomplete.  The leader of the five-pack said to me upon arrival at her table, “This is not for us, we asked for a good table for five and this is set for four.”  Her demeanor was (sorry mom) bitchy for the rest of her visit dispite the fact that I bent over and kissed her rear for the next hour and a half.

This woman allowed a minor detail to an otherwise fantastic meal in the most beautiful setting ruin her experience.  WHERE do these people come from?  In any rational conversation with anyone I have met, they could see that nothing was offensive or inconvient about waiting thirty seconds before a menu was in front of them.  The other four strangers in my life had zero problem with it.  For some reason, the hostess of the party of five decided her job of entertaining her guests with a luncheon had been comprimised because of this.

This blog is not about the sassy customer I dealt with today.  There’s one or two every day.  (Side note:  don’t be a crab-ass to your server at a restaurant, they want to help you and be plesant far less when you do.)

This blog is about those who demand perfection in the way they expect others to please them.  Stop it.  Life is a grand adventure where the small stuff ain’t supposed to be sweated.

Today, I ate dinner at The World’s Crappiest Seafood Restaurant.  It said that right on the door.  It should have anyhow.  They charged premium prices for low quality frozen then deep fried fish.  I hated every bite of the bland and gut wrenching meal.  But no part of me wanted to make anyone elses life a little more miserable because the food sucked. Why?  Because the establishment was under no obligation to provide me with a tasty meal.  They were to bring the food I ordered, and they did.  They did it with a great attitude as well.

Anyhow.

To those of you who crap on everything and feel the need to nit-pick minor details that never will matter in the long run:    Put on your effin’ party pants and grow a smile on your face.  People in this world who actually do fall victims to circumstances do not do so because meals are not correct, or because they have not been shown enough whoop-dee-doo at their arrival.

Life is a quick blur and your attempts to ruin it for the rest of us is down right sad.  And, your not accomplishing your goal, you’re just making us wonder why you don’t band with the other crazy unsatisfiable people and create your own society where misery reigns and complaints are gold.  Or better yet, decide to be pleasant and pleased.

End rant.

The Max had his first sleepover last night.  He is next door at the neighbor’s house.  They decided to sleep in a tent, but I wonder how long they made it before retreating into the house.

I cannot hear him tromping around the house, so I started playing some videos of him.  This one is from a couple years ago, he was in Kindergarten.  I used to give him a ‘time out’ when he misbehaved in the car.  Being as he could not get up and move around anyway, it was basically a weak punishment where he would have to only not talk.  On this day, he fell right asleep when he began his time out, and I thought to myself, “Sleeping is not punishment and I really don’t want to have to punish him when we get home.”  So, I demanded that he hold his eyes open so he could not fall asleep.  It didn’t work.  I had my camera with me so I pulled over on the side of the road and taped him, cause it was that funny.  My mother told me this was a bit cruel, and I should not share this video. That is why I never blogged it before, but I think I am safe from CPS on this one, so here it is!

A few people mentioned they might send stuff for me to review for the August Party.  Wasn’t sure if it would happen or not.  It did.   A vlog was in order.  I sound really quiet at times, and there is some grease on my arm I did not notice before taping, because the check engine light went off in my car today and I thought I’d pretend I knew how to go about “checking” the engine.  The light is still on, and I have enough oil and radiator fluid, so I gave up.

Amy is a hip, hip lady.

Side note:  This is what X-E’s Blog page looks like today. The Pilver’s August Party may be done soon!

Moving from Minnesota to Washington held the promise of hot, dry, and hopefully boring summers in regards to weather.  Typically, here in eastern Washington, the rainfall is light to non-existent in the summer months.  I can dig that.  It’s not muggy, no tornado sirens, and few heavy thunderstorms sound like a good time to me.

That trend ended last week.  Currently we have had several days of heavy rains and thunderstorms.  Rain is great, I have to move the sprinkler less because of it.  But cloud bursts bringing a huge amount of rain in a short period creates landslides which close down roads and make for a snowed in effect, only with mud.  They even remove the mud with snow plows, which I found out when trying to get home the other night during a landslide which was not as severe as the one shown here.

It’s a bit difficult to tell what you are looking at.  But, this is a landslide not far from my home.  It is blocking the road to the nearest ‘city’.  There’s two other much longer routes to get to that city; one is open and adds 45 minutes to the commute and the other is covered with more mud than the one in this picture.  Needless to say, I am not going there today.

So, that’ll get cleaned up in the next day or so, and life will go on.  But there’s another natural danger, fires.  From living here in the past, I remembered wild fires, but I never remembered them as bad as the ones we are having this year.  Just yesterday a fire blazed up right over there (imagine me pointing out the window.)  It’s still burning, but we’re told it is under control and not critical at this point.  However, if it did become OUT of control, some residents on this road would have a landslide on one end of the route to evacuate and a fire on the other.

Yesterday I noticed a fire helicopter hauling water and dumping it on my fields of dry, dead weeds.  Scary.  This continued for a couple hours so I drove up the road to see what was going on.  A large field, just like mine and only a mile away had burned completely and the fire was moving up the mountain burning trees and shrubs along the way.  All the neighbors were out in their yards and fields mowing like crazy the weeds surrounding their houses in efforts to keep the flames (if they spread) from engulfing their homes.

So, thank you to the man or woman who flies this thing.  Also, thank you to the men and women who hiked up the steep mountain and fought (and are still fighting) the fire.  Last night we had a huge lighting storm and there are little poofs of smoke scattered here and there on the mountains, hopefully at the end of their burns.

Supposedly the XE party begins tomorrow, I cannot take any credit for Matt’s decision to emerge from hibernation, but I am going to anyway.  When it begins, my party is over.  Doesn’t mean I won’t write more this month, just means I can stop thinking of names for my scab internet party.

At the ripe age of 14, I discovered my favorite food to prepare, Pizza Bubble Bread.  This is not at all my favorite food to eat.  But, start to finish you are consuming hot grub in less than ten minutes.  This relates to summer in that the meal is prepared in your microwave, therefore not heating further your already toasty abode.  I learned this recipe at Fred Moore Middle School during Home Ec Class.  I’ve been a part of many conversations with former Fred Moorians regarding Pizza Bubble Bread.  The conversations are short and boring, but they existed.  Everyone appears to remember the funky food with fond memories.    Ladies and gentlemen, let’s make Pizza Bubble Bread!

Four ingredients!  You probably don’t even need to write them down…Pizza Sauce, Mozzarella Cheese, Pepperoni, and Pillsbury biscuit dough. (The small ones, not the Grands). You will also need a medium sized bowl (make sure it fits in your microwave) and a very small bowl/cup/I-used-a-ceramic-shot-glass to place inside and upside down in the bowl.

This is your pizza/bread pan.  Make sure it is not made of any metal.  Please don’t make me tell you why.

Here’s the best part: Open the roll of biscuits.  POP!  Whee!  OK, the fun is over and it’s business time. Cut each biscuit into fourths.

Dip each piece of dough into the pizza sauce and arrange evenly on the bottom of the bowl.

Now it’s time to nuke.  Three minutes in the microwave on high.

Take the super-hot-don’t-burn-your-fingers bowl out of the microwave and add all that cheese and pepperoni.  Then pop it back in the microwave for another three minutes.

And it’s time.  Eat and enjoy this white trash classic meal with a plastic cup of grape soda and for dessert, Ding Dongs.  Mmm…can’t beat that.  If anyone tries this, let me know.  Or better, send me photos to thepilver@gmail.com and I will post them here.

I now have a house and with a house comes a yard and with a yard comes the determination to make it beautiful.  The past four months or so I have realized that it takes a lot of dirt, digging, and water to accomplish this.  Some things are easy and gorgeous, and some are ugly and die.  This episode of August Party-pallooza I will show you some photos I took around the yard and garden today, with my cat Popcorn constantly under foot.

I have over 100 sunflowers growing around the yard.  This is the first one that is starting to show some promise of a giant yellow flower head.  I love them.  Also, the animals cannot seem to find a way to kill them.

I have one flower bed dedicated to the red, orange, and yellow end of ROY G. BIV.  Here’s an unusual flower whose name I could not tell you.

Here’s another great flower from that same bed, partially covered by your favorite frisky cat and mine, Popcorn.

Onto the vegetables…CORN!

Lettuce!

One of roughly 35 tomato plants.  I pretty much rock at tomatoes.

Basil, which I need to be picking instead of photographing.

Squash, which I actually like more than I thought I did.

While peering over the previously mention squash, Popcorn decided she was not getting enough attention and began a terrible episode of hairball coughing.  It lasted a good ten minutes.  I was concerned as she sounded though death was near so I decided against video taping it.  I did not want to document her death.  A teeny ball of hair was produced and we moved on.

So, along with the successes there have been failures.  Most challenging is getting the two dogs to not lie in the flower bed.   There is one area where they smashed several rounds of plantings and now I give up.  If you come over to visit, please note the area with smooshed flowers and a dog sized imprint.

Seems like everyone around here has an extra toilet in their yard.  Why should mine be any different?  I put a bunch of flowers in ihe requisite broken porcelain throne and placed it in an area that is way over grown with weeds.  Thinkin’ I should move it to the front step so more people can look at it.

Happy August 2nd.  Twenty nine days remain, friends.  We can make it!

If I had to rank months from my favorite to my least favorite, I would put August dead last.  It’s hot, I don’t love the heat.  There are no great holidays.  It’s National Psoriasis Month, which is a skin disorder I don’t care to have.  The month of August usually seems to last the length of three months in anticipation for the sweet sweet glory of September and it’s crispy fall glory.  And I know that many people who I share blog lovin’ with feel the same way.  (dohopoki’s summer fandom is irrelevant).

Combine my distaste of August with the lack of posts by Mr. Caracappa at XE could result in a void of the annual-ish August Mega Party on his fantastic website.  So, I decided to start my own.  It feels a bit cheap to steal this idea from him, but we can call it something else…uh…August Monster Party?  August Super Party?   I dunno.  It’s a blog party in August.

So, it’s day one.  I have to sand 3400 square feet of logs and stain them today, but I will put that aside until I nail out a post.  The Mega Party from Matt always celebrated summer, and I am going to attempt to do the same.

DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince give us this classic tune and remind us there is a time to drive 2 miles an hour.

Summer Girls by LFO…so we know what to wear to impress guys with lots of hair gel.

Lovin’ Spoonful and Summer in the City.  Great Song.  In fact, I can’t think of a better summer song at this point.  So I will end with it.

Want to hear more great summer songs?  Click here. It’s the XE Summer jukebox.  Then tell me your favorite summer song.