Dirty Jobs

Home again home again jiggety jig

~ thedailydish ~ 1 Comment

Returned from Atlanta last night, about 1 am. It was a LONG trip. 13-1/2 hrs there and another 13 back, and it rained both ways. I don’t mind driving, but 800 miles in a torrential downpour is a test of wills. I made a point of renting audio books from the library to pass the time. We listened to Charlie & the Chocolate Factory on the first leg and a Wrinkle in Time on the 2nd. I enjoyed both greatly, but Wrinkle seemed to terrify as much entertain my older daughter and had her asking questions a little too perplexing for a road trip. Is it possible to condense a rudimentary explanation of Evil into a 5-minute potty break at a rest stop?? Note to self: throbbing disembodied brains not for 7-year-olds.

Christmas itself was lovely. We got way too many presents, my mom & I cooked and we all feasted merrily.

The rest of the week was spent relaxing. We hit the wine cellar, did a little mindless shopping, ate out a few times. Explored my parents’ property. Watched TV (my parents have CABLE!!) and I especially loved the holiday Dirty Jobs marathon. We also watched a bunch of episodes of Arrested Development from my sister’s box set (*Annyong*) – that show is absolutely hysterical. I got a new board game called EAT IT! which is a lot like trivial pursuit for snack food junkies. My mom, the eternal gambler, staked a $5 Starbucks card for the winner, which turned out to be my sister, Queen of Cookies. We played quite a few games, which we haven’t done as a family in a long time, and it was really fun.

Today we did just what you want to do after spending a day and a half in the car. We drove to Bucks County & back, returning the rented minivan and picking up our beloved pets.

Don’t I look thrilled? I think I may have carbuncles. Fortunately, we do have a whole host of new CDs to listen to. I have to say the best of new order is awesome. I must be old.

Unfortunately, we spotted this poor creature by the side of the road:


You might be able to swing this into a joke about Santa’s sleigh or some such nonsense, but I will not. I took it simply as one more reason to get the hell out of the car.

For the rest of the photos, click HERE.

Dirty work.

~ thedailydish ~ 2 Comments

Just a quick post b/c I have tons to do for Thanksgiving, but last night we watched the FUNNIEST DVD. It’s a show from the Discovery channel called Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe – you’ve probably all seen it a million times, but as we’re cable-less we haven’t exactly been keeping up.

All I can say is if you’re like us and haven’t watched it – GO RENT IT TODAY. The show is crazy and incredibly entertaining. The premise is this semi-cynical every-guy Mike goes around the world living a variety of nasty jobs-for-a-day, most with some sort of poop angle (he seems to either be standing in it, cleaning it up, or regaling us with how bad it stinks). So there’s definitely a huge gross-out factor, but it’s also really educational. We watched Mike & crew tackle a bunch of psycho monkeys in South Africa, work a pig farm (even artificially inseminating a sow), shovel pigeon poo off roofs in NYC, wrangle ostriches, and more. And we still have sewer inspector, chum chopper, and necropsy technician – not to mention casino food recycler – to see! YAY!!!

It really makes you appreciate the people who do these extremely vile, yet totally necessary jobs upon which so many of us depend.. So in honor of tomorrow’s big DAY o’ THANKS, I just want to give a shout out to all the garbage collectors, janitors, bathroom attendants, proctologists, and more who make this world a far better and cleaner place for us all. Here’s to you!

PS: I do NOT recommend watching this show before or after Thanksgiving dinner. Thank you.