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WDSU of New Orleans is doing live local news streaming on the web. We're watching this constantly and the images from this storm are breaking my heart. The devastation is almost too much to believe.
The storm is over and it is still getting worse.
I don't even know what to say. The mind boggles waching this.
David's parents are safe in Arkansas and for that I am grateful.
I'm about halfway done with editing my pics. I accidentally hit a button when switching between apps and it set off a domino effect so vast that my computer actually crashed. The thing about OSX is that it rarely completely crashes, usually you just lose a program here or there and restart the program. And really, the whole thing didn't crash but the 4 program clusterfuck was beginning to take up resources and was not righting itself fast enough for my impatient tastes.
Word of warning, do not accidentally hit the 'iDVD' button in iPhoto when you have your 4000 picture library open. It will try to export every one of those 4000 photos to iDVD and there is NO cancel button (stupid). Things get very ugly for a while.
So, yeah, half way done with my pics and I'll get them posted. soon.
Still no word from David's parents. Marshall called earlier today to say that his house was destroyed. He left a message so we were not able ask questions or anything, so I'm not sure what the details are. He declared his love for David over the phone. Marshall, if you're going to steal my boyfriend you better get me lots (LOTS) of Elvis gifts from Graceland or I'll really kick your ass. And I want 'Fat Elvis' stuff, no 'TCB' or early, young, healthy Elvis bullshit. Fat, sick, drugged out Elvis is the king of the elvis world.
Why am I so cranky today? I don't know but people are pissing me off and everyone I know is cranky and pissed off. We need an international punch-fest or something. Asses need to be kicked. Hard.
Good luck to Lily on her tonsil surgery! I promise that in the international punch-fest I will not be punching you, babe!
Alright, I need food to put in my belly and arms to wrap around me.
Dang, yo. I don't have the energy to recount the party. It was a lovely time, so much fun, no sleep til 6am and I had to get up at 8am to get Alex to the airport.
The party was a success, I was late getting food out but no one really noticed. It was crowded, people had a good time. There were virtually no leftovers. I don't know if it's because I did not make enough or if the food was that good. I'm hoping it was because it was that good but I know that's probably not it. I was so flustered all night I hardly ate anything. I was sad to have missed out on most of my cheese plate!
Pictures and details later. Alex DID make it in for the party! He was in lovely minnesota for all of 18 hours but it was a fun packed 18 hours. Julie, Meg and Tuan all made it in safely and back out to their home states or countries!
Now we focus on hurricane Katrina bearing down directly on David's family home. They've evacuated New Orleans, things don't look good. Even David's friend, Marshall is getting out of town and he's the guy I'd count on to sit on a rooftop punching the hurricane. Good luck to David's family and to Marshall and his family.
No leftovers...what will I eat?
I am sitting here in the midst of HUGE mixed emotions.
This weekend I am throwing this huge party. My friends are all coming, I've got people driving and flying in from out of state, and even from out of the country for this party. I am so excited to see my friends and feed them and present them with all this food goodness.
I'm positively giddy about it.
On the other hand, Hurrican Katrina has attacked Miami and at this time it looks like Alex will not be able to make it. My heart is so heavy right now. We waited and planned and scheduled this party for a weekend that he could be here.
I'm a jumble of happy and sad.
But my panties and my hair match (blue).
48 hours of no deep sleep, when I doze into a nap I dream that the house is empty of food and full of people. I am desperate to find the food and feed the people. I will fail if the people do not eat.
I am slow to respond to emails right now. Sorry. I just can't be very coherent.
Also, Hurricane Katrina is going to piss me off in ways I can not express.
I'm going to go get my hair cut and then dye it. I'm thinking blue. Maybe orange.
I am officially over-stimulated. Way more stimulated than I can handle.
I took my massive shopping lists and headed out of work early (my boss rules). I picked up my sister (and got to see the new little hedgehog) and headed to lunch (mmm chinese buffet. 2005 is totally the year of the chinese buffet. I need to shoot myself now). After lunch it was Costco. Talk about overwhelming. It's a lot like Sam's Club only bigger and cleaner and it had better lighting. I thought Costco would be the perfect solution to throwing a huge party, but it's not. I mean it kind of is, I got huge amounts of asparagus, green beans and avocados for cheap, but for the most part I would see things I needed, artichoke hearts, for example, and even though I needed them for the cheese platter, i did not need a gallon of artichoke hearts.
I managed to get quite a few things, but towards the end I was wandering around, mumbling to myself and my hands were doing the weird 'one-hand-clapping' thing that do when i get all overwhelmed. April was a shining star, though. Seriously, if you need someone to take control of a situation, to manage every detail, you call my sister. She. Gets. Shit. Done.
Back to her place, we split a beer (it was 2:30 in the afternoon), we split a cigarette (I was out) and we chatted a bit. I told her how I glued my eye shut the other night!
After I got home and put stuff away and read the instructions for upgrading to Tiger (it was delivered today) I sat down to rewrite my grocery list for a regular grocery store. Sit down. Rewrite list.
What list?
Where's the list? where's my notebook? Where is the notebook that I had with the menu, the food lists, the cryptic shorthand telling me all kinds of information about each thing I have to buy (4 checks next to scallions means 3 bunches, but 2 checks next to mascarpone means buy 2. An X means it's on the other list as well, a circle means it's on the specialty store list, a circle with a line through it means...aw fuckit). Where's my notebook? Not in with the groceries I just brought in, not on the sofa, not in the car, not in the trunk, not under the sink, not in the back yard.
Oh fuck me pretty!
Yeah, lost the notebook. The single (SINGLE) most important thing in planning this party gets lost somewhere in a Costco parking lot. What the hell is wrong with me? I have 43 rsvp's! 43 people said "I would like to come to your home and eat your food and chat amiably with you and your friends. I hope the food is good because I've got no other reason to be there" and I lost my menu. I'm throwing some fucking cheetohs and onion dip on the table on saturday!
The menu is gone, the lists are gone.
Yeah, okay, so I recreated the menu, recreated the lists, made a new shopping list. Calmed down. David is amazingly calming.
David went to the grocery store with me, which I appreciated as I know he doesn't really care to go to the grocery store with me and would rather go alone or not at all. Thing is, David's a lot of fun at the grocery store once you get used to his method. he spends a lot of time inspecting certain things and I used to get impatient. Now I know to leave the cart with him and wander off to get this or that. You never want to take the cart and leave him alone, leaving the cart with him makes you go back to the cart and inevitably he has something cool to show you.
Today's coolness was the Jelly Belly bulk display. Every flavor was seperated (they also had a bin with the mixed ones) and we took a bag and went flavor by flavor and added 2 or 3 or 4. We didn't want to get a giant bag, just a little bit to share. It was fun. I wandered off again and he picked up little bits of this or that bulk candy. Good fun.
I got overstimulated at the grocery store too. It was really strange in there. I hate when I don't know the layout of a store and nothing is where it belongs.
Home, groceries away, the dogs are being asses, dinner was greasy and unsatisfying. I'm tired.
BUT shopping was a success, i got the things I needed, David was helpful. Things are going to be fine.
So I had big plans for tonight, cleaning and whatnot, but a certain kidney decided to play havoc on me this weekend. I'm tired, so very tired. Shopping and cleanign will have to take place tomorrow. It's 10:30 and all I want to do is sleep. I don't go to bed this early! I feel like an old person.
Also, if my dog just vomited behind the sofa on the newly shampooed rugs I will kill her and I will sell her carcass to the first person who promises to eat her.
The other dog, the little guy, is curled up next to me passed out. Lately he's become rather insistent that I participate in a little Ghengis time every day. So I make sure to clear some room on my lap and get him up there and tell him how wonderful he is and how happy I am to have him around. He seems to enjoy it and I do too.
Ghengis smiles, I'm positive.
This evening I had a freak out about the party. A minor one. David said the exact right things again. You have no idea how happy I am to have him around, too! He says the right things, he tells me that not everything will be fine, but most things will.
And he hugs me while I sleep.
I made my shopping list. It's huge. HUGE. It's also an involved process. First you make the menu. Then you take each menu item and break it down into all of the food you need to make it with ball park type quantities. Then you take that list and you make third list where you copy down only the things you need to buy from the store (I already have vanilla! no need to buy that). After that you make your 4th list which is where you organize everything into actual grocery store sections to make shopping easier. The 5th list is anything that needs to be bought at a specialty shop or liquor store or cheese counter where flavored cheese spread is NOT that high water mark.
So I didn't succeed in doing everything I needed to do tonight but I am okay with that. I need to be healthy by this weekend or the party won't happen and that would be a travesty of the highest order.
This chochobo is going to bed!
three) Be careful when applying fake eyelash adhesive to your eye. Mishaps including, but not limited to can include gluing your eye shut, gluing your lid open, burning the shit out of your eye. On the other hand, I'm keen on the glitter.
II) Finally saw "Punch Drunk Love" all the way through. Loved it for all it's quirky WTDedness.
Uno) Everyday I see things I wish I could photograph but then they're lost. They're the visual ephemera of my day. here...gone...no record of them ever existing. The dogs are lying together right now in a pose that would kill you for how cute they are. To get my camera would distract them and the shot would be lost. Maddie is sleeping on my, Ghengis is curled against her watching David put dinner away. Gone..
try to remember things, people, remember that Lena Leonard was in 206...
So I was desperately searching Photoshop for a specific feature that I know should be in there, I want it to constrain my crop to a ratio equivilent to 4x6. I know it has to be in there but I can't find it. The pictures my camera takes are not to the same height/width ratio as the 4x6 photo paper that I have which means either the top gets cut off or there is a white border on the sides. I accept that cropping with have to occcur, I just want to be able to control what gets cropped. Also, I don't always want the entire picture, I just want a part of it but I still want that part to fit on 4x6 paper.
Can't find it, no one knows how except to crop pixel by pixel until it fits. People suggest downloading this software or that software, but I don't want different software, I don't want to have to learn something new (and that smug "meh meh meh meh my software is so l33t I could kill 10 pumas with it" attitude makes me want to steal your software and shoot it in the soul. If it had one.)
So I do that and another curious thing happens. I open a photo, crop the top edge off, save it and print it and the color quality goes to hell. I can't figure it out. I didn't do anything to the photo except crop the top off and suddenly my sunset is printing up all shitty.
Sigh.
So I do more searching and guess what I find? iPhoto has cropping constraints! What the hell, why didnt I notice this before (because I am retarded as highlighted by my photoshop follies). iPhoto gives you either a 4x6 frame to move about on your photo or keeps your custom crop box to the right ratio. Simple! and the quality does not degrade in any way when you print them.
I'm a printing fool. I've filled all but two of my picture frames! I need to get more. I need to fill my house with pictures. I need to resist the urge to print every picture of the dogs that i have!
And so, after printing like a maniac we got ready and headed over to the 14th anniversary extravaganza for Balls Cabaret which is the longest continuously running midnight cabaret or something like that. If they had a website I'd link to that. We go there semi-regularly and last night was truly one of the best times all around. There was partial nudity, there was barry manilow, there was full frontal nudity, there was humor, hitler, best friend fucking and loads of aftershow chocolate and cake. Someday we'll get David back up there on that stage (though, I mentioned earlier he's been doing Song-o-Rama on Wednesdays and I'm pretty happy about that. Hey, David, finish the lobster song!)
Halfway through the show at Balls I felt the old familiar pain in my back and this morning woke up with my good friend Mr Bladder Infection pounding away at my kidneys and bladder.
Birthday breakfast with my sister and then a trip to urgent care. My sister got a combo Christmas/Birthday present but I didn't want her to feel all forgotten or anything so I gave her the one present that anybody would want, A framed photo of my dogs. Oh yeah! Ghengis and Maddie together for her to proudly display.
I was in pain and cranky at breakfast, not very good company at all. Sorry, April, I'll make it up to you.
Urgent care was completely unbusy and I was in and out of there with antibiotics in hand in no time (well, 'no time' in a sort of Einsteinian relative sort of way, David was probably pretty bored and he probably felt like it took forever. he's a good chochobo though, and we did the crossword puzzle while we waited.)
I got home thinking I'd be lazy and chill for the rest of the day but I had a surprising amount of energy so i popped some alleve and vacuumed twice (I love my Dyson vacuum, have I mentioned that lately) and then decided that I did have enough energy to steam clean the carpets.
First of all, the steam cleaner will not remove blood from the carpet. This is a pain. Secondly, I was struck by the thought the list of people I could make in my mind that would stop me part way through the process and tell me the 'right' way to do it. They'd tell me to stop being so random, to go from one end of the place to the other, to stop walking over the spots I had already cleaned...to work in a fucking pattern. You know what? I didn't care. The best thing about my life is that I get to live it. I did this totally messed up, random carpet cleaning and it worked and my carpets are clean and they look better and I didn't get bored while doing it.
Of course how could i get bored when the mixer mechanism that attaches to the sink started leaking without me noticing and the water ran down the hose onto the floor and flooded the kitchen and leaked into the basement? Aaaah, good times. Cleaning that up make my kitchen floor the cleanest it has been in a long time, though so that's a good thing.
Then I cleaned the bathroom all over and admonished David to keep it clean (which is not a reflection of his habits, he's not messy, just a stated rule that no one can make the bathroom messy until after the party).
Then I wrote this.
And now this chochobo is going to wander into the kitchen to stuff food in her mouth as she hasn't eaten since breakfast and the antibiotics make her woozily.
bolochobo out!
I very much want this strike at Northwest Airlines to be resolved soon. I have tickets to fly to Austin TX next month and I am not keen about the idea of crossing a picket line so to speak. I want this resolved so I can fly without guilt because I don't think other airlines are going to honor my tickets. I know, most people don't support unions anymore, and that's fine, there are probably a number of reasons why that seems like a good idea. I'll never argue about it. I support them, I have my reasons.
and to shift gears completely...
An insalata caprese should NEVER be dressed with balsamic vinegar. Ever. If you see one with balsamic vinegar you can be sure that they are doing that to hide the lifeless quality of cheap ingredients. Also, if you go buy balsamic vinegar and it's a lot like, say...vinegar, and it was cheap, then it was not balsamic vinegar it was just regular stuff with caramel color added. Real stuff is slightly sweet, syrupy and nothing at all like the $3 bottle you picked up under the flickering fluorescent lights of your local Food Barn.
My god, what's up with me? I am really in a mood today.
Okay, I saw a recipe for an insalata caprese and it pissed me off. The point of the salad is to showcase the amazing flavors of very fresh tomatos, basil and mozzarella. In years past I have gone to the store and purchased the mozzarella (the real stuff, not the blocks) and then as i was coming in from the car I would pick my tomatos and basil from the garden. I'd assemble the salad and eat it and the tomatoes would still be warm from the sun. It was heavenly. You put vinegar on that and you lose the subtle flavors and the distinctiveness of each ingredient. Sigh.
short, pointless post today. I need to finish this up and get to shampooing my carpets for the party! go me!
Got one thing done! Went to IKEA! Jetsy (betsy and jessi) went with and were phenomenal at their duties keeping in line. Picture frames, a few geegaws, some wooden coat hangers, napkins!
NAPKINS! I have this thing about IKEA napkins. When I go I HAVE to buy a pack of each color or design I run across and if you've been to IKEA you know that they have about 2 metric buttloads of napkin designs that change out regularly. I'm sick for the napkins, I love them, I coordinate them to the food I am serving. I bought napkins, but Jetsy made sure I only bought napkins for the party. And that's it. 3 packs of cocktail napkins and no more.
I bought many picture frames. Joy. Now I can print up fun pictures of the boy and the dogs and my travels. Jetsy tried to encourage me to be creative by buying the plain wooden frames and painting them, but I'm not creative and I know when I attempt stuff like that it looks...wrong.
My morning was very very bad. Not bad in a depressing way, but bad in a kafka-esque workplace kind of way. Absurdly bad.
I went to Cupcake for lunch today and that made it a million times better! Brought home many many cupcakes today. Cupcake makes a bad morning better.
The bad morning was so bad and I was so bored* that i was forced to...SHOP! Okay, I bought 2 things I (sort of) needed. I needed to upgrade to OSX Tiger (grrrrrrowl) and the IT guy reminded me that I get the school discount through Apple. DUH! I completely forgot about that! So I got Tiger for cheap. Then I needed memory and while I do get a discount from Apple for that, their idea of a discount is to use lube before grinding in. I did not purchase my memory from Apple.
These things should be arriving soon and my computer will become space age.
Go me.
Okay, bubbo out, I'm off to bed early.
* Technically, I'm not allowed to say I was bored because admitting I was bored would make the security guards look bad and certainly we wouldn't want to make them look bad. Honestly, though, I'm not sure that anything I said could make them look any worse than they are managing to do by haranguing the IT guys to install chat programs on their computers so they can chat with their 'girlfriends' while they are at work. I thought I had little to do at my job, but my god, it's not like I have time to chat! Oh yeah, they're fucking powerhouses of hard work up there writing their novella length love letters, talking on the phone, cooking food on a fucking george foreman grill and now CHATTING.
Here's some advice from me to you, it's asdvice that should seem obvious, but I'm retarded and I have to believe that statistically speaking there are other retards out there that need this advice. Anyway...If you find a stray xanax in your purse, a xanax that was not prescribed to you, don't think "man, my anxiety has been rather high lately, I will take this pill!". It will make you hyper and also kill your sex drive. Like kill it dead for something like 3 days.
Pretty hard to kill my sex drive, the little pink pill succeeded.
I'm sure everyone in a 3 mile radius is pretty pleased at this development and is sleeping more comfortably.
yeah? well screw you, pink pill wore off!
And now the time has come for the lists. Every time I have something big coming up I have to make lists and of course I must post the lists on here so that you, my faithful reader (all 18 of you) can see how mundane my life is...
* move fish tank to basement. There's just no way I can get it set up in time and the thing with a 55 gallon aquarium is that you can't just put water in there and then dump some fish in. You have to put in the water, treat it, get it to temperature, buy 2 fish, let them live and eat and poop in there for a few days, buy 3 more fish, let them live and eat and poop for a few days. Soon, enough poop builds up to feed the bacteria that eats the poop and ammonia and whatnot and keeps the tank happy. If I were to set up now, I'd probably have like 4 fish in there by the time of the party. So, the tank goes in the basement for now and that clears up space for standing.
* move the tv out of the living room. We can do this closer to the day of the party, but it takes up room that could be used for standing or sitting or eating.
* grocery shop. I need to find a way to bribe/coordinate with my sister so that I might go to Costco with her and use her membership. My sister's birthday is coming up, please wish her a happy birthday and all that. April, I love you and you are pretty and I love that you got a hedgehog!
* IKEA shop, I know I said I shouldn't go to IKEA because I will buy party geegaws, but you know what? I want party geegaws. I like them, I want them, it's my party and I'll geegaw all I want. I'll go with a couple coworkers who have promised to keep me on track with the frames and geegaw hunting.
* Get hair cut, bleached and dyed. Next wednesday. It's cutting it close, but that's where it's at. Still trying to pick a color.
* Clean carpets. That's saturday. Carpets must be cleaned before guests arrive.
* Quite often I start a post and then go somewhere and then come back. We just took the dogs for a walk. Did you miss me?
* Pick out serving dishes. People think I'm a freak for this, but I pick out my serving dishes in advance, i write the names of the items I am serving on to little post it notes and stick the notes to the dishes. This way I know things are going to be laid out well and I'm not trying to stick half a salmon in a souffle dish because everything else is being used!
* Talk to neighbor about losgistics. I don;t want her to be angry with me for us being too loud or something, so we'll figure out how to have the best laid out party ever. Smokers to the front of the house and all quiet at the back. That should work well.
* Make a liquor store list. My well stocked liquor cabinet has been dwindling for a while now and my last party (a year ago) wiped out a lot fo reserves. Mostly I'll have wine and beer and soda, but i figure a few people might want a scotch and soda or screwdriver or something. I aim to please!
* Make sure david knows I appreciate him! He's been super mr helpful and I really appreciate his help with this and a bunch of other stuff.
* get a bow tie for Ghengis. he's totally handsome, he'd look great in a bow tie.
I am pretty sure this is going to win for most boring post ever.
Oh! Congratulations to Yakuza Mary on the adoption of her lovely new dog, Fletch! Good for you, Mary and Chris, now we can go to the dog park together.
Song-o-rama is tonight. If you're in town come see David perform. Tell him to sing the damned lobster song!!!
beebo-lo-reebo!
A pictorial by heather
Look at me, I'm actually posting pictures of something! You can thank Flickr! I've been futzing on Flickr for a bit and came to the conclusion that either I'm really missing something or it's not offering me anything easier than the set up I've got here. So, I had these photos in a folder waiting for some sort of Flickr magic and I just couldn't find it (this doesn't mean it's not there, just that i am a-tarded). So I figured I had them there, may as well edit them and write something snarky.
David executing his mad paddling skills. I also have the mad paddling skills, but there is no flattering photographic evidence of such.
This is David's dad, Don. He has mad kayaking skills and mad dinner making skills.
This is David's lovely sister, Mary Alice, she has the indespensible mad doctor skills and can keep us from dying.
And this is me. I have mad sausage grilling skills!
Blueberries! Wild blueberries and they're everywhere. This is a quart and we picked this in no time. Next time we go camping I'm bringing pancake mix.
He's kind of cute, don't you think?
These are my feet in a canoe. Why? Why not! My feet are cute.
My feet are cute even in giant clunky hiking boots standing by bear turd.
This is the spider that lived on the toilet that I had to use. I should have put something there for scale like a VW Bug or a dimetrodon. Seriously, that spider was HUGE and stubborn.
Oh shit! The ferns ate him!!!
This is me on a beaver dam. That's right, i'm just walking on a beaver dam. What are they going to do about it? Nothing! You know why? Because beavers are major pussies. or something like that.
Hot cocoa with toasted marshmallow. Anything better? Probably not.
I totally miss it and I want to go back.
Edit...
David: Where's the picture of you with your hat on sideways?
Me: not in here.
D: Why not?
M: I look retarded
D: Who are you trying to impress? These people know you got problems!
Listen, you just HAVE to come to the party, I'm making too much food for you to not be there. Dolmades, stuffed croissants, crostini, veggie sushi...good lord, how will I cook this all?
And how will I fit it all in here?
Today I spent a good half hour talking to an animal behaviorist about Maddie. Got some very good advice. With that advice I spent 45 minutes walking in and out of my house pretending to leave. Except the problem is that the dogs kind of knew I wasn't really leaving and just hiding at the side of the house listening for barking. I got an anti-bark monitor. The pheromone is helping her with the chewing, whining, pooping and peeing, but it does not help with the barking. We'll get there, it's going to take a lot of work, but we'll get there.
She's worth it, and besides, at this point I can not think of anything crueler or more horrible than making her start over again.
Besides, I don't think there is anyone in the world who would treat her like the princess that she is.
Thank you for your emails...yes...photos soon.
It is apparent on days like today when anxiety creeps up and crankiness seeps out that I should focus on those things that I love.
I love being alone in the house for short periods of time. I especially love this when I am feeling motivated enough to get something done.
I love making up my own version of aloo mutter paratha (indian flatbread with potatoes and peas) for me and onion kulcha for him. I love the methodical act of chopping, of mixing up the spices, of heating the cumin seeds and mustard seeds first, adding the cinnamon, the ginger, the cardamom, the ground cumin, the cayenne, and the turmeric. Sauteeing the onions and garlic. I wanted potatoes and peas on mine (I don't like onions). I had a small bag of potatoes but earlier today I discovered that the potatoes had died and leaked potato juice all over a bag of whole wheat flour. Had I put the flour in the cambro I bought for it this would not be an issue. I did not love that.
I didn't have potatoes, but I did have tater tots. Yes, I took 6 tater tots, microwaved them, hacked them up a bit and sauteed them in a myriad of spices and butter. I put our respective toppings on our flatbread (tortillas, i'm so ghetto when it comes to cooking lately). I loved the process of making a vegetable biryani.
I loved having dinner ready when David got home.
I love my mug that says "please go away" and it has a bunny on it.
I love my dogs. Of course you know that because I write about them almost constantly. I love watching Ghengis navigate his world. He noses through his toy basket until he finds what he wants, he pushes the bad choices out of the way. Ghengis adores David, follows him around like..well...like a puppy. I love Ghengis' little trot with his ears perked up.
I love Maddie for all of her whacked out attachment and loyalty. I love that she is the perfect size for cuddling.
I love tea with milk and sugar.
I love that even when I am cranky for most of the day David will still buy me an ice cream after the show just because I mention it.
I love that people would come in from out of state and even out of the country just to celebrate my housewarming.
I love when things fall into place.
I love Sebastian Joes mint mocha ice cream.
I love that David fixed my space bar on my computer.
Today, I decided I need to get better about sharing. I used to be good about it, then i stopped, now I have to get better with it. It's like a habit or something, you get used to it but if you stop it's hard to go back. Even simple things i've become very possesive and selfish about. And a good many of you are familiar with my 'politics of ice cream rant. I won't reproduce it here but suffice to say, no one has ever written more words on the issues revolving around a bite of ice cream.
Anyway, what I'm saying is that I think it would be good for my soul and my karma and my well being to share more.
Oh, and also, I think I just need to accept that sometimes I have bad days and it's not because of any deep seated issue or stress or pms. It could just be because I'm having a bad day. I think I need to stop apologizing for them.
I love my bed.
Let's see, the first and pretty much only order of business is this:
There is now an official moratorium on eating breakfast with me downtown. It's just not worth it. I love you guys dearly, but two weekends in a row I had to start my Sundays off snapping at my boyfriend and cursing the pull of the urban center. Uptown, Longfellow, Northeast, Franklin, Dinkytown, Lyn-Lake, South...any of these places! They're great, fine, wonderful neighborhoods to get a bite to eat and the reward balances out better with the journey.
The problem is this, there are good and fine restaurants downtown, but driving and parking is a hassle. No convenient place to park that isn't a ramp trying to suck next week's paycheck out from under you. So you drive around and around and around. You drive down one-way streets, you have to strategize your journey, go too far down 7th and suddenly you have no choice but to cross hennepin and go over to 1st and things get a little futzy for a few blocks. When you drive down a 2 way street you focus on the parking on your side. Drive down a one way and you have to freakily pay attention to the car in front of you AND both sides of parking and inevitably, if a spot presents itself it's on the far side and you'd better be willing to cause a major traffic disturbance to get over there because it's not like you can just circle the block. You leave that spot and 2 Cooper Mini's will have wedged themselves in there by the time you return.
You will find a spot, 1/4 mile away. You will be late to breakfast. You will snap at your boyfriend and secretly blame him for the Marquette-Nicolet-Hennepin aves one-way scheme fuckedness. If you go down 7th (a one-way headed west) you eventually hit Marquette, a one-way going north, after that comes Nicolet, logically that should be a one way headed south. It's not. You're not allowed to drive on it. It's for pedestrians and buses and homicidal bike messengers. After Nicolet comes Hennepin, a one-way that goes north. huh. Now you must cross Hennepin, which in your mind is the dividing line that takes you out of downtown and into pointless-town (it also makes clear to you that you will be late and this road configuration is clearly your boyfriend's fault).
All of the restaurants that everyone wants to eat at are located on 8th street (a one-way headed east) just east of hennepin or nicolet or marquette. No parking, no easy navigation and the food at the places just doesn't have the excess of plus points that bring us above even.
I can stay in bed and break even.
And this leads me to another concern of mine. I'm becoming cynical. Nothing dazzles me anymore. Nothing is new and exciting. In everything from food to performances to movies I see artifice and method and gimmick. I'm especially getting irritated with restaurants lately. I'm just not DAZZLED with the food. The food is only 'okay', more often than not all I see is gimmick. And I'm not talking about chain places or fast food, we can all agree that the food there is mediocre at best. You eat at Chilis or Applebees you get exactly what you deserve. I'm talking about the places where you have a chef, someone who creates dishes and menus, places where they craft recipes, not places where they throw a frozen steak on the grill and serve it in a lake of cheese.
I'm tired of big portions shoved in front of me as though that's the trade-off for artistry. I'm not amused by neo-pseudo-fusion cuisine anymore. It's wonderful that you want to be creative, I do indeed want new and exciting combinations, but don't just plunk 3 disparate ingredients in front of me and expect me to be impressed with the novelty. I'm not going to sit there and eat it and think "i know I should like this, a professional made it" I'm going to thing "you're just trying to be amusingly different but you've come across as inattentive".
and I'm tired of being that person! I want to be the person that gets excited by food again. I want to go see a movie and love it from beginning to end for all it's flash and color.
I want to look at things and see the possibility for success and joy. I spend too much time and energy dealing with people who too easily see the distant disaster.
I was going to also write a great big long thing about how much I love my dogs but now I'm cranky and Ghengis is barking and Maddie has the foulest breath I have ever come upon. And I have to go make dinner.
Today's surefire cure for the hangover...15 minutes with mom and half a bag of dill pickle chips. I was still tired and poorly motivated but the sickiness and headache went away (of course the two alleve and 4 shots of espresso probably helped).
David found a notebook for me, hallelujah. Of course, once I got the notebook I was completely incapable of finding the motivation for listing food and making grocery lists. But i have the notebook and that's what matters. My living room is strewn with cookbooks, my email is full of links in emails with subject lines reading "recipes" or "here".
The highlight of the day was a call from local superheroes Dena and Levi inviting us over to celebrate the new fire pit they installed in the back yard. It was beautiful. It truly was the nicest fire pit i'd ever seen. Dug out of the ground, lined with bricks around the outside, layer of gravel on the bottom and previously hidden/recently found river rock pavers edge the top of it. We also got to sit on the sturdy little benches that Levi had made just minutes before we got there.
I love eating food made over an open fire! We had veggie burgers and corn and potatoes!! They also got a s'mores kit with hand made marshmallows in it. So very good. handmade marshmallows taste like frosting!
I also got to swing on Dena's special swing that levi made for her and set up in a tree. It was fun but my fear of heights and being out of control took over. Sad.
Came home to discover that things were not bad. Nothing chewed, no pee, nothing broken. It's early, but I think the hormone/pheromone doohicky might actually be working. As I wrote this she made a deeply contented sigh. I love how many people told me (and rightly so) that perhaps Maddie would not be so issue ridden if I didn't put rabbit ears on her for fun.
they're probably right.
I'm off to bed early. I need to have some actual, non-drunken sleep tonight.
Special thanks to the super-duo for inviting us over for the maiden voyage of the S.S. Firepit! We had a most excellent time.
Another thing to add to my list of things that i'd never done but now I have...
Went to a 21+ punk show last night. I'm not a huge fan of punk music, it's very loud and somewhat nonsensical and most of the songs sound the same and everyone drinks PBR because it's cheap and it's very very bad. We knew the people in the band so what the hell, we went and drank and had a good time.
and drank...
and the afterbar was across the street in a garage and you had to pay for the cup if you wanted to drink and we did, so we did.
A lot of stuff happened and suffice to say you probably won't hear about it from me. The tamest thing was me drunk dialing Ireland at 4:30 in the morning (i'm pretty sure it was 10:30 in the morning there).
So taday is 2 alleve and 4 shots of espresso over ice and quiet. Even Ghengis looks hungover. I'm in the final stages of planning the food for the party. I went to go write out lists and I realized I don't have a single notebook. Not a one. Anywhere. I think all the notebooks were kept in the desk and the desk and it's contents went with the ex by default. I was at Target the other day and considered buying a notebook and didn't. Lord, I can buy body glitter marketed to an 8 year old but a notebook? oh no, not a notebook, that's just a waste of money. I'm sure David has one somewhere, hopefully he'll wake up soon.
I think the food for this shindig is going to be the best I've done, yet!
If you've not been invited you should ask yourself what you'd done that was so ill-mannered that I would not invite you!
yobo out!
oh, PS to the guy with the Saturn coupe...sorry, dude.
I get in my car yesterday and under the windshield wiper is a note. I get out to read it and it's a fucking creepy note addressed to me. It's written in block letters to hide the handwriting.
It's amazing what one single creepy sentance can do to you. I filed a report with security and they are investigating it. Now i am sitting here viewing each of my coworkers suspiciously. I've told a few people so they could keep an eye out.
Part of me is pissed off and I want to yell "this is not the way to attract someone!!" but the rest of me knows this has nothing to do with attraction or flirting or whatever.
One note. One incident. I'll stay calm for now.
Then I had a freaky Target experience. First off, they were having some sort of weird clearance and I ended up getting a 4 pack of toilet bowl cleaner for $4. I have 4 big things of toilet bowl cleaner. That should last me 87 years! They also had a 3 pack of toothpaste on sale for $4. and giant clothes detergent for $3! WOO!
Then I was feeling like i needed to treat myself to a little girliness so I bought my panties (the blue set) and a couple cami's and went wandering off to find the PowerPuff girls body glitter that the waitress had the other day. No luck finding that, but I did find another body glitter set that had adhesive and everything. Little girls get the coolest stuff.
I leave and of COURSE someone stops me in the parking lot. He is out of gas and needs to get to Bemidji...look he has a daughter...isn't she cute. I have no cash. Part of me feels bad because I do want to believe this is real. The rest of me knows it isn't and I hate him for using his little girl like that. He doesn't want cash, he wants me to drive him to a gas station and buy him gas. Okay...no. You're not getting in my car, little girl with you or not. I hate being paranoid, but there are just enough fucked up assholes in the world who wouldn't mind pulling some shit even with their kid in the car.
Fuck.
So I go home and re-excite myself with the body glitter! I go to try it on and find that the adhesive has turned into a solid, stinky rubbery blob. SAD!
Talk to my sister on the phone, she's getting a hedgehog! YAY! I told her my woes and she said she could get fake eyelash adhesive! That would probably be even safer to put on my eyes than whatever this thing came with!
I just met with the security guard from the Art Institute (they own the ramp that I park in) and they showed me the best places to park so that my car would be under surveillance and gave me permission to park in special parking for a while so they could keep an eye on me.
I am glad that people are taking this seriously and taking measures to make sure I am safe. I should not have to feel unsafe at work!
So I'm making my shopping list for Target. The problem is that I keep thinking of this that I need from target and not writing them down and now I am going because everything is critically low (toothpaste, conditioner, deodorant etc) and lately I haven't been doing things until the critical point (my car refused to even register the lack of miles left in my gas tank last night). So i'm trying to make my list and I know I am forgetting something super important (you forgot the fucking crown jewels again?? asstard!!). ANYWAY! I need underpants and I have to put that on my list but I know if I write anything liek that on the list one of my coworkers will see it and then it would be all "heather needs underpants!!!" and "wwwooooooo why do you need new underpants?" or even worse "you wear underpants? i thought girls wore panties!".
Most people would tell you to write something in code, but I know if i write something in code I will find myself wandering the aisles of Target trying to figure out what the fuck i meant by 'Stampeedums!' or 'chiblettes'. My solution was to write the brand name of my underpants on the list...but what is it...what brand underpants do i buy? they come in a 3 pack...I can picture the tag on the front left side of the panties..i can see the tag...WHAT DOES IT SAY???
20 minutes I sat here trying to remember the brand of underpants I wore. I could go to the bathroom but I knew I would remember the name halfway dow to the door and there's something not quite right about someone who gets so close to the bathroom and then decides to not use it. I freak my coworkers out enough without them pondering my bathroom issues.
Then I remembered and it went on the list!
Most people get paid to do work...
I didn't eat lunch today which means I will buy more snack food than I should. David asked me if I would be creating a meal of the snack food I bought and I said "yes". I'm not going to lie. I go to a semi-ghetto Target now, they don't have the double swank new ass Targets that have groceries but aren't Super Targets.
Which reminds me, I need to go grocery shopping soon. I need kale. I gave someone a recipe for kale risotto today and I was thinking about it then David mentioned kale and I knew it was time to stock up on the leafy greens. Go me.
It's final.
I am the worst dog owner ever. Seriously. Who does this to their dog?
It was one of those stupid busy mornings. Everyone was asking for something and I couldn't just sit at my desk and do my fidgety busy work. My boss kept asking me to do things, then he asked if my fidgety busy work was near completion and I pointed out that I could only really work on FBE when he wasn't asking me to do other things.
Slightly relatedly...I will happily order food for any departmental function, however, if you feel the need to complain about the price or ask me for cheaper, lower quality food, i will tell you to do it yourself. I KNOW what the budget is for food for departmental functions. We do not exceed this budget. If you want Pizza Hut pizza then YOU pick the pizzas. I'll call, but that's it.
We were so busy i was an hour late calling davidusan. Damn.
Also, had I known the sad, pouty face worked on my boss as well, i'd have employed it YEARS ago. Seriously! It was like magic.
Okay, so, party in august, texas in september, NYC in October. How does that sound? Sounds perfect.
okay, later, we talk about toys.
am I seriously arguing with someone about the origin of the word 'pissant'? I am!
Are my dogs the best dogs ever? THEY ARE!
Ghengis sleeps with his head hanging over the arm of the sofa. I never have my camera by me when he does this. He looks like a little drunk puppy sleeping it off. He's sleeping with his eyes open, too. Creepy!
So I have at least 3 people with their plane tickets booked and possibly 2 more that really shouldbook their tickets (hint....hint....). I'm totally getting stuck on details..."this person lands at this time, I get off work at this time, that's exactly 5 hours to eat something and bake a cake...if we go to the mall and eat dinner at this place we have this much time to cook until person lands!"
I get stuck on details!
aaaagh.
Also, now is not the time to shift from insomnia to whatever the opposite of insomnia is. Not narcolepsy, i'm not falling asleep at inopportune times (like SOMEBODY), I'm just sleeping a lot. All I want to do is sleep.
Maybe I have Trypanosomiasis!!! (god I love the internet).
Today I pickedup some doggie pheromones that might help maddie with the anxiety. I'm not holding out too much hope with this one. I think stuff like this works with people because the power of suggestion is really strong, but I can't really suggest to my dog that this should work. I can hope, though.
Otherwise it's puppy prozac. Or a behaviorist.
yeah, not so much to write, i'm off to bed.
a block from the house I get a stabbing pain in my skull. Manage to park the car, get inside and take pain killers. I try to look at cook books for party food ideas and fall asleep. The dogs curl up with me and I dream about drunk driving, the largest dinner ever made for a family reunion and shunning reconciliation.
Now i'm groggy and slow, my head still hurts, though not as sharply as before. David's getting dinner for me. Sweet guy, that david.
Talked with the vet for a long time today. We're set on a plan for Maddie, starting slow with easier treatments including peanut butter and pheromones, and working our way up as needed. She assures me that this is not surprising given what Maddie's been through. I totally figured getting an adult dog would be easier than a puppy. No housetraining, no teething, no obnoxious jumping when you are trying to snuggle with your boy. Yeah, we don't have those issues, we have others that are equally as time consuming.
Also, I have to set her up with an opthamologist to get her eyes looked at.
For the first time ever I saw her choose a toy and play with it tonight. It's a remnant of a stinky dinosaur. Ghengis is jealous as that was one of his favorites (though he never plays with it anymore). Now they are play-fighting over it. Not only does it make him crazy to see her playing with his toy, he just can't stand that she's playing alone and not with him.
Jackasses
Two people were shot and killed at the end of the block where I work. I feel so ghetto. Initial reports made it sound like a botched robbery which upset a lot of people on campus since we sort of regularly (not so regularly but often enough) have people mugged at gunpoint as they leave campus. More than one of my coworkers has dealt with this. Now it looks like this was more of a work related/inside job sort of murder. It has nothing to do with the campus or my coworkers.
Normally I can't hear outside noises in my house, it's sealed up too tight and insulated too well. This morning the thunderstorm to end all thunderstorms woke me up and scared the shit out of me. Not so cool.
Alright banjoheads, i'm off to put my head down and await my dinner.
The terrible thing that david does
by Heather
The terrible thing that david does is he feeds me ice cream but he makes me take bites that are too big for my mouth. My mouth is small and too much cold ice cream makes my teeth hurt. Also I get it on my lips. This is the terrible thing that he does and someday I might kill him in his sleep. Or not.
It's good to keep him around since he can lift and carry things (like me).
He asked if I wrote terrible things about him.This is the terrible thing I wrote.
In other news...
Maddie's seperation anxiety is reaching all new heights. Tonight he ate through the bars in her kennel. No lie. We call the vet and ask about pills or something. She needs to be comfortable and happy when I leave home, she also needs to not be destroying things.
Went to see Dance in the Dark. It was fantastic to watch. I've never seen many dance shows, I always feel there is something fundamentalabout it that I just don't understand. I usually like them when i see them, I just feel like I could be getting more out of it if I understood it better. I'd tell you to go see it, but it was the last show. You lose. I win.
okay, this is MC 900 foot bubbo signing off and heading to the bed! Goodnight my chochachos!
Met Alan and his new girl at Hell's Kitchen for breakfast this morning. I got a glimpse into why people accept the shitty generica of the suburbs, it took me 30 minutes to find a damned parking spot and it wasn't exactly close by. Luckily there wasa long wait and Alan got there early enough to put his name in but notso early that he lost the table because we didn't get there in time.
Sure, the food in the suburbs is shitty and generic but at least you havelarge, easy to maneuver parking lots to negotiate. I don't know, the whole neo-pseudo-fusion cuisine trend isn't really sweetening the downtown deal for me.
The food was marginally good but somewhat gimmicky and overpriced. The waitress was a peach, though, and she had the best eye shadow. When I asked about it she told me it was PowerPuff Girls body glitter! I'm on it! I have almost $300 worth of MAC makeup sitting in my bathroom but I'm totally gonna go buy $2 kiddie make upto complement it! Go me.
Alan's new girl is totally sweet and a lot of fun! Just a doll. Good for Alan I say!
Fringe Festival is goingon right now. Saw the Scrimshaw Show the other night, I'd give it a 75% funny, but also sort of predictable and a little flat in places. The interpretive to that fucked up Toby Keith song about Uncle Sam and his boot up someone's ass was fucking hysterical. I'd never heard that song before and the only thing I can say about it is that I am shocked and surprised that it can be sung without the slightest bit of irony. It's fucking beautiful satire without even intending it. And they say satire is dead in America. PSHAW!
At Balls last night they had Fringe previews for some of the out of town acts. If you're in town you must go see Never Surrender!! They rocked harder than you can imagine. One of the funniest things I'd seen in a long time. The most talented preview, though, was Mythed. Funny, witty, smart as hell and super talented, very entertaining stuff and I hopeto see them.
This guy, not so interesting. I don't know, he just sort of rambled on and on. It was totally that gen X/gen Y navel gazingwe've gotten so used to. He kept telling us he was in the top ten of the Toronto Fringe Festival and I figured that either said a lot about the quality of the Toronto Fringe or he was leaving out an important element such as 'Top 10 Boring' or 'Top 10 Shows to see out of pity'. Perhaps I didn't get to see enough in the 5-7 minute vignette and maybe I just saw the worst of it and the rest was a million times better.
Now we have to decide what else to see. Betsy's brother is in a show, and I want to see that. David knows a few people either in shows or who have written them and I'd like to see those too.
Ah well, the day's getting away from me and the dogs need to run and play at the dog park.
Today I look like a mongoloid Jeffy. I need a haircut!
Dear uterus,
I know you know I don't really care for you. I know we battle a lot. I know it bugs you that I imagine you look like a bosc pear. I know you have this warped sense of the world. What I don't understand is why you feel it is necessary to spring the monthly reminder of your existence on me whenever I get new underwear! Nice, brand new pair of underwear to be relegated to the 'that time of the month' pile in the back of the drawer. What is it with you? Do you sense the new panties and think it would only be polite for you to go introduce yourself to them? My panties don't need to meet you! They can't even see you! You're tucked neatly inside my body. You don't see my colon sending out a 'welcome to the neighborhood' basket with every new pair of underpants, do you? NO! Good lord! I realize now that it is useless to track your activities on my calender, you refuse to listen. No, from now on I will just know that if there are new panties you'll throw your usual fit and re-create the latest Rob Zombie movie in my pants.
I hate you.
Dear everyone else
I know i owe a lot of you emails and I am sorry. Someday. Soon.
So all weekend long I was beating myself up over the stupidest things. No one has a magnifying glass as strong as mine when it comes to finding flaws. over and over again I was forming entries to type up that were pretty much "the problem with me is...".
I'm lucky, though. If I am sad or grumpy and I tell David that I just feel really unattractive he's really nice about it. he doesn't just tell me I look pretty or tell me to buck up, he says other things, the right things. He says the things that make me remember that I don't always feel this way.
I remember that I feel this way whenever my uterus decides to stage a rebellion. This seems to happen every 28 days. weird.
I need to hang up my artwork and decorate my house now. I am missing a couple prints that I was sure I packed. Where did I put them? I don't know. Fuck. I also need to go to IKEA and buy frames for things. My birthday card from Dena and Levi featured a dinosaur that Levi painted, I need to get a frame for that and for a few other things. I dread going to IKEA because I know I will spend money. Lots of it. I know I will be drawn to the section with the party supplies and I will buy them out of napkins and plates and geegaws to spread across the house. I know I will find more serving dishes to use at the party.
I know I should never go shopping with my hormones like this.
Tonight I plan to super chill with the dogs while David is out. Maybe lay out the stuff that needs to be hung up and figure out what needs frames. Who wants to go to IKEA with me and be responsible for my actions?
Anyone?
It'snotperfectly clean in here but it's notnearly as obnoxious as it was. It seemsa shame to waste a beautiful day like this staying inside and cleaning, but it just had to be done.
and it had tobe donein rabbit ears. Don't ask me why.
Have I mentioned how much I love my vacuum cleaner? If not, letmetell you,I love this thing. It's an amazing piece of machinery AND I got it for less than half price which makes it even better.
You know what else I got for cheap? My camera and printer. The printer can hook up to a computer and print or you can attach your camera to it and print from there. not only can you do that but you can edit your photos on the camera itself before you print them. HUZZAH. Today I actually took the time and figured it all out and printed a picture of a close up of Ghengis' face. Now I need picture frams and lots of them. Lots of them. And I need places to stick all these framed photos.
I think IKEA is calling my name...saying 'heather...come buy frames from me...' and I am saying 'yeah...okay...'
The problem with having a digital camera is that you photodocument everything without worrying about film or anything. Today I memorialized the process of making 2 americanos for breakfast (hot for him, iced for me). I have a billion dog pictures. I have a macro-photo of the sushi on my purse. I am snap-happy (which is not the same as snapper-happy).
Once I get the USB cable I can start printing up old pictures. I'm pretty excited about that. I don't know how long the ink tanks last. They're fairly cheap to purchase so i suspect they don't last long. Surprisingly, Amazon has the cheapest prices. I'll probably order some just to have on hand for when I do run out. What I like is that each tank replaces seperately so you're not tossing out partially full tanks just to replace an empty color.
Last night I heard the two filthiest, most obnoxious jokes ever. I couldn't ever repeat them. Just terrible. I laughed so hard. I am so wrong.
Okay, the house is clean, the pictures they do print, I'm hungry!
I have to go get the laundry and do the dishes. Exciting?
someone's been feeding dimes to the crazies again!
I love love love my new little camera! I can make the stupidest little movies and send them out. I sent a hugely unattractive one to Lily yesterday.
So, we were all talking about car accidents. I don't want to be injured in a car accident, I'd rather die than be disfigured. Now, granted, the Volvo makes a tank of a car that cannot be destroyed, my car has airbags, supplemental airbags, side curtains. Damn thing's safer than my Saab! Anyway, I still don't want to be disfigured in an accident.
I figure at the slightest impact I'll just lose my will to live and die right there. The officers will be confused, but what the hell are you going to do? I don't want to spend my life speaking at high schools about the day a drunk drive changed my life forever.
Lily and I exchanged videos, mine was my interpretation of me having to speak at a high school assembly. Hers was considerably less distasteful and featured her rocking out, if only for a few short seconds.
Love this camera I tell you.
Okay, the rumors about me being a total pig are true! I went to Evergreen for lunch with Mike. Had the tofu skin salad and the curried rice noodles, Mike had the Mandarin beef. We ate a little less than half and brought the rest home. Mike didn't like his so I took it.
Came home, hungout with the boy, discovered that i was so impossible hungry and we cracked them open and ate them (I mostly ate the meat as he doesn't). In 45minutes I'm going to eat chinese food with Dena and Levi! David Fong's, BABY!
Man, I thought I had been to Evergreen with David. I guess I was wrong. We'll to go.
Okay, time to put on some pants and go eat with the pals.
Keep your pimp hand strong you batshit crazy motherfucker!
Dear person who decided that it was a very good idea to allow telemarketers to call cell phones.
I sincerely hope that during one of your boring, weekely, predetermined, missionary position love making sessions your partner moves funny and bruises your testicles causing pain and swelling for some reason just won't get better.
I hope the swelling continues for days. I hope when you check your bank balance after the direct deposit of the check that pays you for the work you do to be the most evil and corrupt human being on the planet your balls throb as they strain against your cheap wool blend slacks.
I pray that every time your phone rings it is at least two half brain dead college kids desperately trying to pay for beer, tuition, weed, rent, pizza and more beer on the sub-minimum wage salary they earn. I hope they keep you on the phone trying to wrangle you in to answering a few questions about your satisfaction with your checking account. Did you know you just won 2 tickets to Cancun?? Did you? All expenses paid! Two tickets to Cancun! They just need your credit card number and your soul. Oh, right, you don't have a fucking soul.
You will get so many calls that you will go over your alloted cell minutes quickly and then not only will you take it in the ass from all the telemarketers who want to tell you about this fantastic business opportunity but also your cell phone company will want to get in on the action.
It'll be a financial DP and I hope I'm there to film it. The money shot should be killer.
I hate you.
On the bright side I get to freak out telemarketer kids. I've gotten 3 so far (and I'm on the fucking do not call list).
So...busy!
1) dog park. Went with the new camera and shot some video of the dogs being dogs. It's hard to capture ghengis in his glory as he goofs around out there.
2) ice cream social. I was disappointed that there was less adventure involved in finding the ice cream. Hell, they even put out signs directing us. On the other hand they had mint chip ice cream (the king of ice creams) along with cookies, sauces, clementines, peanuts and bananas. We had to listen to them talk about preserving the river gorge, but that's perfectly fine by me.
3) Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus, a documentary of sorts about the deep south. It had some truly beautiful moments, but for the most part it was unfocused and without direction. Definitely a good watch though, if it comes to your town, catch it.
um..let's see, what else.
Maddie has some seperation anxiety issues that are getting worse. Luckily, she takes to kenneling just fine and that seems to be alleviating some of the stress. You have never seen a dog get so excited when it's owner comes home. I swear she'd come out of her skin if given the chance. I do think she was calmer today when I got home, if it's because of the kennel then all the better.
We're also working on her being less thuggish at the dog park and that seems to be going well. Now the only dogs she really wants to fight with are the ones that harass Ghengis.
Having one of those days where I worry about everything and question myself completely. My poor friends, they have to bear the burden on these days. Sorry guys. I'll make you little canap�s with spanish queso de cabra and spiced apricots. (yep, thinking about party foods).
I know, I owe pictures. Sorry. Soon. Really. I'll take a day this weekend and work on them.
yeah, I'm a tired tiger. chochobo!
Like communion, every night he hands me a vitamin and the water and I take my vitamin and he makes me drink more water.
My space bar is still fucked. I need some compressed air or something.
Went to CompUsa and insisted that they give me my 16mb card for my new camera then I bought a 128mb card. I won't actually use the 16 ever, but it was the principal. The kid PROMISED that the card was in there, even after I threatened to call him out to Thunderdome he assured me it was there. He was wrong. I had to drive all the way back there in the traffic and the heat and with all the same old music in my car. Also, everyone there was dumb. Really dumb. It was annoying.I was going to buy memory for my computer as well, but 1) he insisted that all mac laptop memory was exactly the same and 2) it was twice as expensive as anywhere else.
I love my bathtub. Ghengis is chewing on some sort of Nylabone fist of power.
Yesterday, one of my coworkers asked me if I was vegetarian since I was talking about tofu. I told him I was not, but didn't eat a lot of meat at home. He said, "oh...i was gonna tease you with my steak...ha ha ha". First of, I eat meat and that leftover, overcooked, cheap-ass thing you call a steak would tempt no one and secondly, what a fucking foul thing to do. What, you think you;re the big man because you can tease a vegetarian with meat? Someone who chooses to not eat meat is not going to feel bad that they can't eat your microwaved nastiness.
grrr. He's also one of the guys that can't figure out that the bright red flashing symbol on the copier might actually be directing him to action and not just warning him to take cover. Also, he spent 20 minutes trying to fax his resume yesterday and it would not work. He blamed me, said I broke the fax. I faxed immediately before him and then immediately after him. I had no problems. He insists that everyone be aware of his masters degree in english education. That's all well and good, mr 3rd rate security guard at a 2nd rate midwestern college, I'm glad you're doing something with that. I dropped out of college and still I can fax, photocopy and I make more money than you.
You shot for the moon and landed on someone else's roof.
Why am I ranting about this guy? Who knows.
oooh! myth busted! My coworker went to buy a car the other day. Brand new expensive mobile. He makes good money, has excellent credit, middle aged white guy. A loan officer's wet dream. He got financed through the same credit union I did. My interest rate offers were 4.99% on a 5 year and 4.75% on a 4 year. He was offered 6.25% and 5.75% respectively. What the fuck? I'd say it was the cleavage, but the loan chick couldn't see me through the phone.
Tonight was one of those nights I wish I had musical talent. Also, the french toast with fresh cranberries at the Hard Times Cafe is really really good.
Tomorrow is the ice cream social! I hope we find it!
I'm sospoiled with my mac. there's so much plug and play going on here that I have pretty much forgotten how to configure things. I don't really know how to configure a wireless card on a pc. Sad. Spoiled. Wish I could be of more help to the boy.
Ghengis is a year and a half now, and still I love watching him sleep. So peaceful and calm. Unlike earlier this evening when the two of them worked together to destroy a newspaper by the front door. Thanks, guys, you could have atleast shredded it small enough so the vacuum could get it. Sweet angels sleeping, giant monsters when awake!
So, in a fruitful turn of events...
I'd been researching digital cameras lately. I like mine but it's pretty old and has plaster dust inside the lens and I miss/like the Canon I used to have. I did some reseach, found a nice, no-frills Canon in my price range with the features that I want. It's not top end, it's not low end, it's a quiet and affordable upgrade from what I have now. I found the best price online (which would have made me buy the camera with a color sheen on it instead of standard brushed silver - ouch - silver was more expensive) and was going to order it. David had to run to CompUsa to buy a wireless card for his PC and I tagged along as the promise of mexican food was hanging in the air. I'm easily bored and I wandered off. I found my camera, but the price tag kept talking about the printer. I was confused. I looked and read and tried to interpret what was going on. The price was the same as the color models only this was in silver, so I was prepared to buy I just needed to figure out this weirdness on the tag.
The weirdness is that this is a close out, they're getting rid of the camera AND the printer and all for the price that I was willing to pay for the camera! Go me. Only problem is that I have to take the demo which means no boxes and all the documentation about the stuff is in a fed ex envelope and the memory card is missing so I have to go back tomorrow, but I'm okay with that.
So now I need to figure out a way to set up my printer so I only have to plug it in when I need it. I don't want to be attached to a printer all the time.
The cool thing is, I was just lamenting that Inever print up my digital pictures and I would love to just fill frames and put them all over the house. I could have a wall of dogs! I could have a ledge of vacation shots! I could have a special butt potato area.
The possibilities, like my posts, are endless.
In other (party related news) I have been given a list of desserts and tasked with the impossible job of paring it down. it's hurting me.
I also might wait to fill the fish tank until after the party just to give myself the extra room in the living room.
I don't think I can go camping until after the party, i just don't have the time! Oh well, party first then camping.
Tonight for dinner I had the most delectable chicken mol� enchiladas! I love love love mol� sauce and this place had the darkest, richest, tastiest mol� i've had in a long time (word of warning, avoid Pepito's mol�, it's bad). While eating my dinner I got to watch the Latin American version of MTV (though not MTV proper, which I think has some sort of Latino version). The first hour had the perfect blend of boy band knock offs, Beyonce knock offs and Cypress Hill knock offs. The second hour was "MUY CHIDO!". I don't know what Chido is, but I'm pretty sure it involves 5 guys in cowboy hats and an accordian. I think the 'MUY' refers to their waistlines, but I could be wrong about that.
Jesus, I have so much to do! Anyonewannaclean my house for $12 cash and a black cherry yogurt?
Todo con medido!
So much going on this week including (but not limited to) the secret hidden River Gorge ice cream social. You have to find it and when you do you get an ice cream treat! Pictures!
Why do i promise pictures? I don't know! I never get around to posting them. I never posted my key west photos, I probably never will. I suck. Camping ones have to go up. House warming party pictures are already intimidating me.
I need a band of oompah loompahs to do my picture work.
Remember the show "My Two Dads"? What a fucked up premise that was. 'Sorry kid, your dead mom is a slut, we don't know which guy is your dad and even though we live in one of the most medically advanced countires in the world we won't actually find out." I'm pretty sure I wasn't gay before I watched that show.
Before I went camping my mom gave me a compass that you pin on your shirt. I wore it religiously and pointed people to north as often as possible (seriously, I only have 3 talents and none of them are useful in the woods...oh wait, I can email from the woods!). I pinned the compass to my purse as we were driving home. It's still there. I'm still pointing people north.
A promo for the next 'Fresh Air' on NPR just played. It was about a guy who joined the army to pay for college and right before he was discharged he was sent to Iraq to fight a war he didn't believe in and now he's upset. I'm sorry, I don't care for this war, but seriously, getting to pick and choose what you believe in before you fight is sort of antithetical to the whole 'army' thing. If the army wanted you to have an opinion about what wars you might believe in they would have issued it to you when you joined. You cavalierly joined the army thinking you'd get an easy peacetime ride to the front steps of your college education. You figured 'meh, we're not at war and besides, wars are easy in this neat new modern era.' Don't get pissed off that you were wrong. If you join the army you have to assume you will be called to fight in a war as that is the essense of the army. You can not get a job at Exxon and then be all offended that they're raping the winderness or something.
If you don't want to fight in a war, don't actively pursue a job where they teach you to fight in a war.
My car payments get sent to a credit union with the longest name on the planet on a road with the longest name on the planet. They sent me mailing labels but I forgot to bring one to work.
I'm off to the farmer's market and national night out (we're taking back the streets from gentrification!) and doing some laundry and maybe buying jeans. phew.
Saw Willy Wonka tonight. Woo. The Oompah Loompahs make the movie, but Johnny Depp is superbly creepy, he does emotionally half-baked perfectly.
It's playing at the Imax here and I think I will go see it again just tosee iton the very big screen.
We went out with April and The Keev tonight. Hit Quangs for dinner. Don't know why, but I was totally thinking nice light Vietnamese food. I get there and much to my trouser's chagrin I got the 'excessive soup' (the 509, formerly the S9). This is the soup that comes in 3 bowls and has everything except tripe in it. Why did I get it? I don't know.
Also, my sister always manages to announce that my ass looks fabulous in precisely the pants I hate on my ass. It's somesort of cryptic turnaround. I don't know. Anyway, I still haven't done laundry and I almost called in this morning for not having any clean pants (hence the wearing of the pants that hate my ass).
As for the camping pics, I just promised my boss that I would get them posted and so I guess I will get them posted! Soon!
For the next 4 weeks I will bore you with 2 details: 1) party menu 2) the state of the organization of my house in preperation for my party. Sorry. I came up with a menu that has too many items on it and will pare it back as time goes on. I have 37 people RSVP'd for this event, so I need to have a lot of food on hand (so many bites per person per hour etc). I will conceivably have 4 people in from out of town (possibly 5 if mr small distant possibility comes through) and 2 of the out of towners will be cooking so I need to have as much of my food done ahead of time as possible. I'm looking for do ahead recipes and the like. I'm pretty sure the stuffed croissants can be made ahead and frozen. If this is the case we will be eating A LOT of those!
There will also be a flow problem in the dining room. I may have to rearrange so that people can visit food, drinks and desserts seperately without things jamming up.
I don't know where 37 people will sit, but we'll see how things go!
Alright bandidos, bed time, I'm a tired tiger and I need my rest.
Conversations I have with my pants:
Pants: stop eating so many scones
Me: but I have to, I can't just charge $1.50 for my coffee. I have to add something in there
Pants: use cash
Me: I never have cash on me, I end up using it up.
Pants: Using it up on scones?
Me: Shup up.
