Month: March 2009 (Page 5 of 7)

I get carry out menus stuck into my door every couple of weeks. I always know the places that are leaving menus, so it’s not ever notable. But yesterday, I got a menu from a place I didn’t recognize. It had all kinds of tasty looking things on the menu. Its address was down Harford Road in the area of Safeway. A lot of revitalization has been taking place down there, so I thought this must be a new little restaurant down there.

I ordered a half pound of steamed shrimp with Old Bay. Mmm… steamed shrimp with Old Bay… When I got to the place, it didn’t look very new. And instead of looking restaurant-y, it looked kind of bar-y. And the shrimp wasn’t very good. It was over cooked, so it was kind of tough and it tasted like shrimp shells instead of tasting like meat.

Disappointment.

For now I’ll just stick with my two beloveds: Zorba’s and Big Bad Wolf. They have plenty of tasty treats for me.

My home equity loan has gone through. I’m rich! I actually signed the papers last Wednesday, but there was a three-day recission period where you’re allowed to cancel the contract with no ill effects. I had no intention of doing that: I need a roof!

This visit to the bank was a little less stressful. I didn’t really have to answer any questions this time. The thing I am most proud of is that I bumped up my automatic payments from 360-something to 400 per month. I wasn’t sure if the extra would go toward interest or principal. The bank woman said principal. In fact, she quick typed in some dummy numbers on her computer and showed me what would happen if a $2000 loan with $60 payments were upped to $100 payments. It shortened the life of the loan by one third. Outstanding!

I realize that 35 extra dollars per month isn’t going to shorten my loan by a third, but at least it’s something. Look at me being responsible. I’m a responsible thousandaire! Woo hoo!

We’re planning a prayer vigil at school. Brady is doing the lion’s share of the work, but I’ve been working on some “prayer stations”, where people can experience prayer in a variety of ways: things like kneeling, praying while touching the cross, etc. One of the stations is going to be about prayer and incense. I thought people might light some incense while they pray. But twelve hours of constantly burning incense could get pretty intense, so I wondered if there was such a thing as low-scent incense.

I knew exactly where I would go: the witch store. I was sure they would have a wide variety of incense and that they would know how to advise me. It was quite an interesting place. There were lots of crystals and such. There were a fair amount of witchy home decorations too.

The woman at the front counter didn’t really know what to tell me when I asked her for a less fragrant incense, but a woman came from a back room that seemed more knowledgeable. At first she asked if I wanted the incense for fragrance or if I was performing a ritual. Then she just suggested I get something that smelled nice. She said a scent called “Angelic Visions” would be a good one. I knew it would still be too strong, but I felt like I should buy something after all the trouble.

After thinking about it for a while, I’ve decided that I’ll get the loose granule kind of incense from the Catholic store, put it in a bowl, and have people smell it. That way the library won’t be filled with overpowering smoke and I won’t be using something that’s labelled for “Intuition, Ecstasy, Purity, Celestial Music, Mystic Knowledge” for our prayer vigil.