post-thanksgiving feast

ever have one of those meals that you wished would never end?

i just ate a sandwich i tried to eat as slowly as possible just to make it last.

kris took some leftover flank steak from dinner, caramelized some yellow onions in balsamic vinegar and a little sugar and served it up on a toasted english muffin slathered on one side with some lo-cal swiss cheese and horseradish cream on the other.

it was lovely to look at, but after her first bite, kris said maybe we should eat them over the sink so the deep burgundy-colored onion topping wouldn't drip on the white table cloth.

i told her the secret, as with giant, kitchen-sink cheeseburgers, was to not set it down after the first bite, that way you can hold all the innards together until the sandwich is down to a manageable size.

it also helped to ensure the steak slices were also pointed downhill from your mouth; this helps make sure all the guts came out from just one direction instead of two.

my mouth was so happy, it told my brain we had to document this right away for sake of our home's culinary posterity.

meantime, kris was baking a practice pecan pie ahead of the bake sale for our paper's seasonal charity. (it was indeed full of sweet, gooey nuttiness. yeah. yummers.)

she was inspired enough by the result that she's now starting to bake some cookies.

i thank the Lord i married well.

a little christmas?

on a day that used to mark a silly exercise in good, old-fashioned, american consumerism -- the post-thanksgiving bargain shopping spree -- things went horribly wrong in our temples of commerce.

in new york, a seasonal walmart worker was trampled to death by shoppers wanting to save some money. in california, two people shot each other to death during a dispute in a toys 'r' us.

the cliche of american excess rears its ugly head in greed and violence.

meantime, here in almost heaven, thank the Lord i suffer only from deflated expectations as my mountaineers' less-than-perfect season suffered yet another setback, this time at the hands of our arch-bastard rival pitt panthers.

while the stakes were considerably lower -- a third-tier bowl berth, versus the national championship game last year -- the desire for sweet revenge, already blunted by pitt's own bungled season, went wholly unfulfilled in this loss.

i think i'm slowly making my peace with returning to the humble satisfaction of being merely above average and shelving the dream of gridiron glory. it was nice little run we had there. i suppose i should be glad we got to experience its tantalizing thrill.

kitty with string
Originally uploaded by grumpnet

kris -- after weeks of railing against the retail sector's efforts to pull off its own christmas miracle in this crappy economic climate by starting its marketing nearly a month before thanksgiving -- decided the time had come to make the house a holiday home.

after getting a free christmas tree appetizer server at the fruth drug store, i think she got inspired to start stringing up lights, hanging stockings and getting the house all christmased up. merry merry.

as you can see, i think the smidge is really going to enjoy this season.

turn the car around

kris sent me a quote from filmmaker michael moore on his answer to the auto industry bailout question. 

moore invoked fdr's world war ii edict where the commander-in-chief told the big three exactly what kinds of machines they were going to be manufacturing. 

this time, moore envisioned a president obama enacting something like: 

"We're going to put the companies into some sort of receivership and we, the government, are going to hold the reigns on these companies. They're to build mass transit. They're to build hybrid cars. They're to build cars that use little or no gasoline."

now i dunno about that . . . and yet, it's a germ of an idea . . . .

while i'm not for soviet-style auto by committee and love too much the sense of individuality and expression that american car companies are still capable of creating, i definitely agree there should be a short leash, i.e. strings attached to any cash infusion.

i really don't know what to think.

do our guys ride this one out and come back lean and hungry? does the government step in and make what becomes a gutsy investment in the country's economy? or does the american auto industry go the way of electronics and textiles to manufacturers beyond our borders?

i can only hope the answer is "yes" to one of the first two because i simply cannot fathom the possibility that the epitome of all that is american, the automobile, might one day cease to be produced here. 

i still can't wrap my brain around the idea of the financial dominoes that fell to create this season's wall street meltdown. 

but i can look at gas prices on a sign and cars i covet in a magazine and guess why there aren't more than a handful built in the u.s. that appeal to me. 

i understand there are shareholders who wanted big returns on their investments and car companies that wanted to keep them happy and grow rich themselves. 

i also knew that rather than plow their money into short-term money losers featuring smart, efficient design, like the rest of the fuel-strapped automotive world, our guys chose to take the easy route of making low-concept, high-profit cars the way they always had and pocketing the returns. 

well, that kind of thinking came to bite them on their collective butts once the price of gas shot up. 

(the consumer can't be let off the hook, either. supply had to come from demand; and with easy credit and the desire to consume conspicuously, we lived larger than large, if not downright bloated.) 

with their fortunes suddenly tanking amid this fall's credit firestorm, the big three went to washington, hat in hand, seeking the same kind of help the financial sector got. 

problem is, no one seems to want to give any. (hell, if i knew the same kind of short-sighted thinking was going to stay in the heads of our automakers, i wouldn't either. )

still, though, what irks me about the lack of support for a bailout of our auto industry is, yeah, they made their bed and maybe they ought to have to sleep in it. 

so why didn't the high rollers of wall street have to as well? 

why do white collars trump blue? because ultimately, all those workers who found a good life not through college, but skilled trades, are the ones who are going to be turned out onto the street.

is it because the arcana of high finance is so convoluted, confusing and easily obfuscated that rather than get to the bottom of who is to blame, the feds just signed a blank check to make it go away?

(whereas, i suppose, the old model of manufacturing and supply and demand the big three practice is easier to follow and, thus, criticize and punish.)

maybe this is an act of seppuku -- slashing the guts of one of our last heavy industries -- to atone for dishonoring american ingenuity and work ethic.

we'd had our warning shots after the oil embargo of the early '70s. the country looked overseas for fuel-efficient cars since we didn't make them here. 

we had our chance to make good in the '80s, but we just quit trying once gas stayed cheap and lucrative SUVs became all the rage.

or maybe it's our politicians punting -- giving up on advancing the cause of u.s. manufacturing in the face of formidable competition and letting the global marketplace fill the void.

(plus it kills two birds with one stone -- we get cheaper cars -- for the time being --and hamstring big labor at the same time.)

i'm probably being hopelessly naive and romantic about what the strengths of this country should be. 

despite our tremendous strides and preeminence in this information age, i still believe we can turn out sophisticated, high-octane dream machines better than anyone in the world.

while we can have brains of silicon, i think it would be a mistake to move into the future without a backbone of steel.

first scrape with jack frost

jack frost wasn't teasing today.

after sunday's wafting hints of snow, enough came down last night that i had to turn on the defrosts and break out the ice scraper. seems like it's only been a few weeks since i did this last.

it was about 35 degrees out there.

this was kristina's first day back to work. after a day and a night of regular nyquil -- not the cough formula that kept her tossing and turning all sunday night -- she shot up with advil cold and sinus and mucinex tabs.

that was a good combo for grossly productive coughs and some pep from the symptoms of whatever it was she had. (she said she felt like she had a fever break in the wee hours of this morning, but as far as we could tell, she wasn't running a temperature.)

there were great lots of skids and crashes this morning, which kept our cops reporter busy. i kept hearing scanner talk about folks taking turns too fast, then braking too hard. you'd think no one had ever driven in the stuff before.

despite the automotive mayhem and traffic snarls, things did feel holiday-like watching the big, swirling flakes outside the newsroom this morning.

given the workday grind, though, it's hard to remember thanksgiving's just over a week away.

(of course, given the state of newspapers these days, every day we have a job ought to be thanksgiving day.)

baby it's cold outside

owing to a lack of skill and/or more sensitive equipment, this photo of otto will have to convey that it is cold out and that the lightest flurry of snow was wafting about a little after nine this morning. for what it was, it's the first good bit i've seen this season.

it's 37 degrees and kris is sick in bed. i ordered her back after she got up and told her to take a shot of nyquil and hit the sack. i made her a large mug of green tea with milk and sugar. (not sure how the milk's going to work with green tea, but i couldn't find the regular kroger decaf.)

the fact that she didn't argue just shows how much she really is ailing.

there's a lot work ahead. it's a good day for it.

homestead grays

dishes are piled in the sink and there are a few loads of laundry to be done.

somehow, though, on this cool and dreary saturday, they weren't reason enough to get up off the couch/bed and out from under the covers.

i did get most of the bills paid, though, since that could be done via the laptop and the internets. it was a good day for things, like money management, that could be done sitting.

and i'm embarrassed to say i spent more time on facebook than a middle-aged man should.

it began innocently enough.

i got up early and used the occasion to set my fantasy football league lineup on the site. (we'd used yahoo the last two seasons.)

so while i was putzing around to guess my way to the most points i could get out of my team, i caught up with a handful of friends, colleagues and acquaintances i knew on the site.

next thing i knew, kris was up and it was time to make breakfast and coffee.

luckily, the bill paying ensued thereafter and life continued for the remainder of the day.

but if you'd trace my cyber-footprints from the course of those hours this morning, you'd see them hopping virtually from minnesota to florida to california and getting into everyone's business that they choose to post online.

and as much as it gladdens -- and sometimes saddens -- me to catch up on their happenings and observations on the web, it's a little disturbing that this virtual life can keep us from the needs of the actual world.

besides dishes and laundry and housework, there's simple social interaction with real people outside the box, even if it's just shopping or talking on the phone.

if kris and i hadn't gone to watch some friends in a local performance of "the producers," i'd have spent the whole day pretty much in one room.

i suppose we're all due days where we simply lie fallow and turn over and mix the week's events with whatever foolishness catches our fancy as we rest. 

i can only hope this wet, leaf-strewn compost heap of a day will provide fertile soil for something good to take root in the days to come.

autumn finally falls

it was 26 degrees when kris and i left for work this morning.

i'm not sure why the leaves are clinging so tenaciously past october, but they are. maybe our dry, windless autumn has simply kept them undisturbed.

kevin, our resident naturalist at the office, says some just drop off later than others, which i accept.

still, though, the color this far into november has been impressive. my nephew from florida was kind of amazed at seeing the bright colors on the trees when he visited a few weeks ago.

(and i think i'm done pressing your leaves, carrie. expect them soon.)

the bright, indian summer we experienced seemed to reflect the newness of the world after last week's historic election. everything seemed in sharp, clear focus.

then my mountaineers lost saturday night and everything kind of went to hell.

seriously -- when is this team going to come together? it moves with the fits and starts of someone learning to drive a manual transmission.

i suppose this is the test of faith; we're not out of the conference title race, but we sure did make things harder on ourselves.

the weather turned cold saturday as a drizzly curtain of rain drew a partition from summer. i pretty much spent the day trying to catch up on the weird sleep from working the election day schedule.

by most accounts it could be considered wasted, save for the two loads of laundry i got through, having spent it on the couch and the internets; too tired to do housework, too jazzed to nap. a classic lazy saturday. now if we had cable tv, i could have been a complete couch potato . . .

the gray and the cold must have been the final, good grip autumn needed to complete the turnover on the seasons.

as a cold-weather lover, i welcomed it, as kris and i eased our way back into a semblance of a fitness routine. i'm taking very short routes outside just now. kris stays indoors on the yw aerobic machines.

the bonus of the chill, though, was the great reason for kris to use the oven. she breaded and baked catfish friday and made meatloaf and mashed potatoes saturday.

the house was warmed and smelled like heaven.

(the meatloaf, by the way, represented the last of an amazing gift package from omaha steaks that my college roommate and his wife gave as a wedding present. kris took the hamburger patties and turned them into the loaf. thanks to brian and lisa for keeping us well-nourished and convenienced as we establish our household. this also reminds us that we should celebrate thanksgiving by doing our wedding thank you's before christmas.)

top off the weekend with french toast and bacon for breakfast sunday morning and a treat of hot cocoa in the afternoon, and we are out of the starting gates for the cold month eating season that doesn't end until super bowl sunday.

thank God it's cool enough for comfortable running outside to maybe even out the caloric intake.

(and i can't believe the football season i was praying for in july is almost over, yet i can't bring myself to watch a game. i really must have been expecting a championship year.)

messed up

WV_CDM
Originally uploaded by Barack Obama

this is so cool.

it's like, i dunno, taking a leak as a guest in the lincoln bedroom at the white house.

i'm blogging off the president-elect's flickr page featuring the layout i put together wednesday.

i'm in barack obama's freakin' online photo album!

of course, so are about 50 other people . . .

our police beat writer pointed out this page to me friday during a work-break surf.

it looks like mr. obama's staff made jpegs of newspapers representing each state. seems our paper is west virginia's entry.

it feels like an honor, but if, as i suspect, they got their images from the newseum's online gallery of front pages from across the nation, there were only three other papers in the state that the group accepts images from.

and for some reason our neighbor across the hall didn't post a new one that day. so it was like choosing between us or the papers in huntington or morgantown, the latter of which didn't even run a picture of the winner on its front.

eh -- i'll take it.

meantime, the president-elect held his first press conference today. kris was eager to see what he had to say, for some reason.

we were in the newsroom and i was still doing some work, so i was kind of half-listening as a couple of our younger staffers joined to watch and critique.

i'm telling you, it was like listening to parents watching their child in its first school play what with the "ooh's" and "aww's" and "what are you thinking's?"

seriously, they're like groupies.

i get home and click on the cnn site -- which i never used to do -- just to see if there were any reaction, sort of like looking down from a high-rise hotel balcony when you're afraid of heights.

their panel of pundits was mostly supportive and appreciated his poise -- the adjective "presidential" kept getting bandied about -- although the token conservative took the occasion to cock his arm to cast the first aspersion of flip-floppery. (the right sure does seem to love its buzzwords. it will be curious to see which ones will stick to mr. obama.)

seriously. so much scrutiny for so few minutes.

the president-elect right now seems to be that new pair of sneakers fresh out of the box, all crinkly with white wrapping tissue and smelling like fresh-tanned leather, rubber and chinese sweatshop.

i think his supporters are dreading the first scuff that will mar their newly unwrapped object of affections.

but, y'know, while we'd all like them to stay pristine, shoes that get any real use will inevitably show some wear.

the question is whether they were chosen to just look pretty and not much else or for purpose and utility.

i'm betting -- and hoping -- that he's a pair of triathlon trainers or work boots. mud flecks and scratches look like badges of honor on them.

time for change

this is what you might have found in front of the charleston newspapers building around 3 this afternoon.

i wanted sort of a souvenir of how our papers looked on this historic day and how the gazette and daily mail chose to document the event. (that's my design in the green box on the far right.)

the hardest part was finding the right image. i was too amped to sleep long last night and wound up checking the ap wire for photos around 2:30 from home. 

i kept track of the ones i liked and e-mailed a list to myself at work, printed them out when i got there and presented them to our publisher, whose input made weeding easy.

i put together the page on which the stories continued with a handful of additional speech and reaction photos and somehow six hours passed.

i'm pretty pleased with the results.

i'm so tired right now, though, that the enormity of what's happened hasn't totally registered. 

what did hit me was an observation comedienne marsha warfield made back in the 1980s, after vanessa williams was crowned as the first black miss america: "we have a miss america named 'vanessa;' that's like having a president named 'darnell.'" 

dude, if we elected a fellow with a moniker as exotic and non-anglo as "barack hussein obama" to be president, there must have been some kind of change going on in the 20-some years since ms. warfield's line.

that's encouraging, right?

let's hope this guy's on to something.

the main event

at some point, i'd like to stop being too anxious to sleep. seriously, it's like waiting for christmas morning to arrive. but i've got to get some rest before 4 a.m.

it's been this way all day -- electric.

folks were out on all four corners at the bottom of the south side bridge with signs for their candidates. horns were blowing. supporters were hooting. 

i don't think i've ever seen that much give-and-take enthusiasm outside of the blue lot at mountaineer field on game day; it's a vibe of anticipation on a hair-trigger.

me? i was excited about today's front page mostly because, well, it looked cool.

on monday, our managing editor wanted a sort of catch-all of this historic election with mug shots of the candidates in hotly contested races. 

with about 4 hours to work, it seemed the perfect time to whip out the boxing fight card design.

after a quick google search, i stole a nice-looking graphic from a myspace profile that ultimately linked to a philadelphia citizens action group.

after some inspired verbage from one of our editorial writers, some wonderful cleanup work from our graphic artist and some pushing the bounds of silliness on my part, we wound up with something not so run of the mill for these parts.

(i'm proudest of my description of one sarah palin: "the thrilla from wasilla.")

i thought i was done for the day after cranking out a quick life section front for wednesday, but our publisher wanted me to consider a commemorative edition-style front featuring the presumptive front runner.

while i thought that was counting chickens before they hatched, i cobbled together something that was bold but basic.

at some point, watching the reactions of the younger staffers peeking over my shoulder, it began hitting me that there could be something special going on, that history really was going to happen -- and i was going to help chronicle it.

the sense of resignation among our more conservative editors made me think they thought election was over.

i don't know. i've watched my favorite sports team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory too many times to not believe anything was over until the clock read 00:00, which pretty much makes me a believer without a lot of faith.

maybe i don't like drama. (which is why i agree with the missus that she'd rather see whoever wins do so with a clear-cut margin.) maybe i can only handle the kind of tension that arises in a half-hour sitcom versus, say, a hitchcock thriller.

unfortunately, i can't stay up to watch the end of this one, which is why maybe i should start powering down and get to bed.

all saints

it's not even noon yet, but i'm pretty much done with what i needed to do today.

i voted.

with kris having jumped the gun thursday, i went alone today, the feast of all saints, a.k.a. the last day of early voting. she figured 10 minutes before the registration office opened was early enough time to get there.

well, as you can see above, i had a bit of a wait.

actually, it wasn't too bad. met a fellow from another precinct in my neighborhood who was actually born in my hometown of beckley. we talked newspapers and music just about all the way to the door. it was a pleasant way to pass the time -- a little more than 45 minutes or so to wait.

(and if you ever want to get rid of the elvis and beatles records, robert, you know where i work.)

the weather was cool and the clouds were burning off in the morning sun. 

i think everyone was a little amped and chatty, seeming to sense this was a special election. (the more i think about it, though, i'd suppose all general elections are -- the chance to chart the next direction of the country being at stake and all, right?)

it was like waiting in line at a football game where fans of both teams have to get along before picking up hot dogs and sodas. no one was too loud and it was nice no one talked politics that i could hear. 

the sight of the line stretching down quarrier street was daunting, but it was also encouraging to see people caring enough to show up and have their say.

there was an older lady ahead of me talking to some guy in a car -- a son or husband to her companion -- who was telling her to vote tuesday and maybe skip the line.

she replied that her hip was hurting, but she didn't know how much worse it would be tuesday and that at least she was standing there now.

the woman in front of her assured her she'd been this far back before and the wait wasn't as long as it looked.

so the lady stayed.

having lost my registration card, i was glad to know my license was enough to get me to the voting booth. 

the room was packed with people and voting equipment. the staff was busy answering questions, herding voters and helping them work the ballots.

i was nervous and actually worked to make sure i filled the right bubbles the right way; i even assumed the "test-taker crouch" over my ballot to discourage prying eyes. 

i could hear my neighbors getting instructions.

"you fill in the blanks; you don't have to punch holes." 

"take your ballot over there."

the lady who took my form stuck to script to tell me what was happening with the tallying machine -- my choices were being recorded on a chip and the hard copy was going into a bin. she and her counterpart were perfunctory and dutiful in verifying my ballot. 

it was early in the day, but the volunteers seemed chipper and proud of their roles and pleased to see the public exercising their rights. (the first woman i spoke with said she wished everyone was this active in every election.)

oddly, despite the presence of voters of at least two stripes milling inside and outside the registration office, i couldn't help but feel this terrific sense of unity and purpose, that we were all integral parts of what's still basically a good machine.

i can only hope the direction in which we point its wondrous action will be forward.