29 July 2008

The Miracle, The Quest and The Conundrum

This morning I was supposed to have taken some assessment tests for a potential job (knock on wood), but there was a conflict with their scheduling and I had to reschedule for tomorrow. I love it when things like this happen. If you know me well (and some of you do) you're aware that when something important or exciting is happening, the night before I rarely get any good sleep. I drift off into this delicate reverie where I'm neither quite asleep nor quite awake. I imagine this painful, annoying middle ground is as close to hell as I've ever been. Thank you unnamed bringer of employment for allowing me the luxury of deep sleep.


I've decided to give up television for the month of August. I think television is my old standby when things get boring, so if I take it out of the equation maybe I'll suddenly become more productive in other areas of my life, most notably the romantic area (hurry up ladies: The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants 2 comes out soon and someone needs a date! The queue forms to the left). So I'm giving it up under a couple of conditions. I am allowed to:
  1. watch Mad Men. Because it's amazing and I'm going to wait a year to watch it on DVD.
  2. watch movies that have been rented from either Blockbusters or Netflix.
  3. watch television if I am drifting off to sleep. Then it's more of a sleep aid than anything, so that's okay.
So there it is. No television for a month. I'll keep you updated. Feel free to play along.


Shouldn't it be called The Olive Orchard? Or The Olive Grove? I have no beef with Darden Restaurants, but the olive tree has been around for thousands of years. Trees do not grow in gardens. They grow in groves and when they bear fruit the groves are also called orchards. Not gardens. Gardens are not orchards. Gardens are for plants that thrive in undergrowth. If there are shit loads of trees around, there shouldn't be a whole lot of undergrowth. Again...their food is fine, but the name kind of makes me want to scream. Because olives don't grow in gardens.

3 comments:

Andy said...

Of course, the primary ingredient in Olive Garden food tends to be tomatoes. It's largely a southern Italian place while Olive Garden would suggest a Northern flavour. Really does the name Olive Garden even make you think of Italian? It makes me think of Greek food.

Also, do they really have a chef school in Italy?

Jim Eustice said...

If there was an Olive Orchard anywhere near where I live, we'd have to go protest. Or just to dinner.

Anonymous said...

Ha! My sisters and I are constantly debating the existence of the Olive Garden chef school in Italy. Tuscany, in my opinion, looks a lot like southern California. Not that I've been to either place, but you know.

I am going to be really, really impressed with you if you can give up TV for the month. Mostly, I'm looking forward to finally watching Series 4 of Doctor Who while I'm on vacay, and I might try to to catch up on Pushing Daisies before the new season. I'm also intrigued by Damages ... we'll see. I tried Mad Men for about 3 episodes and couldn't get behind it ... tell me what you love about it. Besides the cigarettes. Ooooh, the cigarettes.