Shiny!!

I think the official Random Tuesday Thoughts meme died, but I'm doing one today anyway just because.

***
The neighbors behind us are having their landscaping guys do their leaf-blowing today.  It's a good day for it, because (a) it's a weekday, and everyone but me is at work, and (b) miraculously, it's not raining.  But, here's the incredibly stupid part (you knew this was coming, right?) - we live in the woods, and the dudes are leaf-blowing the wooded area.  As in, not lawn, WOODS.  Where the leaves are supposed to be.  *facepalm* I don't know whether to blame the homeowners or the dudes with the noisy backpacks, but either way - some people just should not be allowed near nature.
***
I finally broke down and bought two tee-shirts yesterday, thanks in part to Lucy and the Betties' discussion of great geeky shirts.  Holy crow, were there some awesome ones!  But these particular two that I bought have been on my wish-list for a while now.  I bought this one for B:

http://www.snorgtees.com/sugar-skull-trooper

And this one for me!

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/womens/bb00/

(It's hard to see, but the speech bubble says "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"  If you don't get it, you need to watch Firefly and then Serenity.  Look it up on Netflix, and thank me later.)

The one I REALLY want is this one:

But when I went to place my order a whole HOUR ago, the size I need was backordered.  NOW, when I go to get the link for the picture, it's in stock.  BOOO.  (Also, hint hint! I made a wishlist for the website!  Because I'm subtle like that. ;) )

***
Work has been going well, thanks for asking.  This initial project I've been working on is coming along smoothly, and while the *coughimpossiblecough* deadline won't quite be achieved, everyone is on the same page.  I'm not sure where we'll go from here - I'm hoping they'll keep me on for more projects, which sounds like a very real possibility.  But, there's another opportunity lurking in the shadows too, and I hope I won't have to choose between the two.  But I won't jinx it!  I won't!

I will say though, that I have an interview Friday for a part-time spot that's open at Barnes & Noble (the one in Akron where I worked before - I'm glad I stayed in touch with some of the people there!), so that will fill out my days nicely.  It'll be good to get out of the house too.

***
Why yes, Friday is my birthday!  How kind of you to remember.  :D  Oh, no big plans really.  We're going to see if we can get a table at the new B-Spot, Michael Symon's burger/brats/beer place.  Since we do live in Michael Symon's hometown after all... sorry, inside joke... okay I'll explain.  There was a commercial on Food Network or the Cooking Channel or something, with Michael Symon as the new spokesperson for Calphalon, and they were advertising a contest: "Win a trip to Michael Symon's hometown!!! And now we'll distract you with these SHINY POTS AND PANS!!"  Never at any point in the commercial did they mention that, well, that's actually Cleveland.  Yep, in Ohio.  No, there's really not anything more there, except OMG MICHAEL SYMON'S HOMETOWN.  When we saw it, B and I absolutely died laughing.  We could just imagine the winner: "WHOO HOO I WON!!  Wait, Cleveland??  Seriously??!  Ugh." 

But back to my birthday.  I'm turning 31.  THIRTY. ONE.  *shudder*  And yet, I'm buying myself tee-shirts with dinosaurs and geeky movie quotes on them.  I've got a death-grip on my youth, dammit!
Edited:  Oh holy snotballs people, I'm turning THIRTY TWO.  3-2.  Math was never my strong suit.  *headdesk*

But really, the only thing I want for my birthday this year is a house.  But I'll settle for gift cards or something from that wish list I mentioned.  (KIDDING.  No one had better get me ANYTHING.  Except B.  I want a house.) :P

Randomness is all I got

You'd think an RV filled with two cats, a large dog, and two adult humans would be horribly uncomfortable and crowded, but you'd be wrong.  Of course now the weather is starting to turn cold, so that might prove to be an issue...

***
I have an interview next Monday down in Bend, and I'm excited and nervous and mostly excited but still pretty nervous.  It's with a solar panel company, and it's a sales support/marketing job, so it's totally up my alley.  Now I just have to convince them of that.  Eek!

***
Satellite reception out here in the boonies is hit-or-miss, so I was heartbroken when it crapped out in the middle of 'Castle' last night.  But thank the digital gods, it was posted on Hulu already today.  I need my Nathan Fillion hit for the week.

So. Cute.

***
Something somewhere linked to Tumblr, so I bounced over there to see what the deal was.  I think I like it better than blogging.  I place lower expectations on myself for content length and quality.  So you can find me over there now too.

***
Yep.  The whole content length and quality thing is in evidence today.

A Random Random Tuesday

I haven't been doing Random Tuesday Thoughts in a while, mainly because it wound up being the only thing I would post, and I thought that was pretty lame of me.  So instead, I just don't post.
***
Last night I dreamt that I was in Target, trying to decide if I wanted to steal a Superman action figure for a craft project.  But none of the action figures were the original Superman in tights with a red cape - they were all "futuristic" with chrome jock straps and night vision goggles, so I decided not to swipe one after all.  As I was leaving the store a little cream toy poodle walked in the door by himself, so I cornered him and was trying to find a tag with his owner's info on it, except he had so many tags on his collar I couldn't figure out which one was current.  I somehow looked up his ID number online and got a list of even more owners, and it just made me sad to think that this poor dog (who I distinctly remember had cataracts and a gray muzzle, so obviously a senior dog) had been through over a dozen homes in his life, and had been named some really stupid names like Coors Light.  I mean, what kind of jackass names a poodle Coors Light?
***
There's a 14-day backorder on our new iPhones from AT&T (yet apparently the Apple Store has them in stock - grrr) so I've been putting together my wish-list of apps in iTunes.  Seriously, Cowboys Vs Zombies?  I'm on that like white on rice, baby.  If anybody can recommend some good ones, I'd love to hear about them.  I have the basics - my bank, The Weather Channel, Mapquest, Movies, Tweetdeck - and I want a good grocery shopping app, one that scans barcodes and maintains lists.  I'm going to test Grocery Gadget Lite, and maybe Shopper too.
***
(Just checked the status of our orders, SHIPPING TODAY!!  WHOOT!!)
***
I've been loading up my Etsy shop with jewelry, some lovely things I might add.  I even had little business cards made with my shop logo (thank you Vistaprint for freebies!).  I'm going to have to slow down for a bit though, until we get settled into wherever we're going.
***
Can anybody recommend a good moving company for a cross-country move?  I'm getting quotes from United Van Lines, Mayflower, and Budget Van Lines - and of course there's U-haul as a last resort.  Is there any place else I should be looking into?
***
I can't get enough of this commercial:


Frickin' hamsters, ya'll.

Out of sight, out of mind

Distractions have been easy to come by.  I've hardly been online these past few days - Google Reader is overflowing, I post to Twitter maybe once a day, and I give Facebook a once-over in the morning with my coffee and that's about it.  I've been watching NCIS from the beginning, crocheting, and the weather has finally turned spring-ish too.  I've been spending my days outside planting things that will more than likely (a) not come up at all, (b) get dug up by squirrels, or (c) freeze when we get hit with a freak frost in May.  But at least I'm getting some sun!
***
The countdown begins...
B and I have started the job search.  He had a phone interview today for a job that would send him out in the wilds of central Oregon for three months this summer.  I sent my resume to Starbucks for a marketing job, emailed a prof I knew vaguely about a potential new position at my alma mater, and I keep looking in Seattle, Portland, Bend, Spokane, Missoula, you name it.  I also keep my fingers crossed that something good will happen at my old workplace and I'll get a happy phone call one day soon.

Lovely Landlord is putting our house up for sale in the next couple of weeks.  We've made arrangements with her to show the house ourselves, plus we still have a few projects that we promised to complete too.  Tomorrow I'm going to try to scrounge some boxes from the old workplace so we can start packing, and put a few things on Craigslist.

In unrelated news, we think Jake may have figured out how to nose open the clasp on the gate to our kitchen.  He managed to get in there last night and couldn't get out again... so he of course got into the trash, ate the cat food, mistook the basement floor for the toilet, and now he has the nastiest gas ever.  My dog may have a cast-iron stomach, but holy lord, he's melting the paint right off the walls!

Sunshine can be deceiving.

 

I know, I know. All sorts of free time, but no time to write. Things have been uneventful... no word yet about going back to work, but the unemployment checks are keeping a roof over our heads and groceries in the fridge (including Haagen Dazs Vanilla Honeybee Ice Cream, OMG YUMMM) so I'm not worrying yet.  

***

It's a beautiful day today. Makes me want to dig in the dirt and plant things! Except it's still 40 degrees out there, and still freezing at night, and I guarantee that as soon as we put plants in it'll freeze again. But I do have some seeds started indoors, in a sunny spot on my craft table, and I have my copy of the new Gardener's Supply catalog burning a hole on my coffee table. I keep telling myself to not go overboard this year, that we won't be here through the whole summer, and to save my money for new plants wherever we move to. Easier said than done...

***

I took up a new crafty hobby a couple weeks ago (like I need another!) and tried my hand at crocheting. My first attempt was a bit wonky, but looks like a scarf. Unfortunately I used a tight stitch so it's a bit stiff - it looks like a wrap-around popped collar or something. I bought a new skein of yarn yesterday to see if I can make a lap blanket to match our bedroom. Yes, I know I'll need more than just one skein to do this, but I didn't want to buy 10 skeins only to burn out on the project. My craft closet is already overflowing with half-finished cross stitch projects, I don't need to add to that pile.

***

I have this great picture in my head of what our next living room is going to look like. I want it to be centered around this photo my brother-in-law took.

It goes with our existing black & red decor, and opens up the color palette for new furniture. I want to make a quilt throw in plaids and tweeds to go with. Of course this is all months and months down the road, so I have plenty of time to oogle furniture (like this awesome couch!!) and change my mind a million times about the fabrics to use in the quilt.

***


I spent a day last week sorting through our CD collection, reorganizing them in their binders and ripping a few more into iTunes.  I came across the very first mix CDs I made in college, when the shine was still on Napster and I'd rounded up a ton of crappy oddball songs that I thought I wanted.  Holy lord, is it ridiculous.  I actually had to Google the lyrics of a few of them because I not only couldn't remember the artist, but the name of the song escaped me as well (and some I still can't figure out).  That's how craptastic these songs were.  So naturally I added all of them to my computer.  

(Daggum narrow columned set-up...)
Yeah.  Awesome, right? 
I'm just bummed that I still can't find my "Monster Ballads" CD.  That thing had some kick-ass tunes on it, like the stuff you'd request to hear at junior high dances then get your friends to go ask your crush to dance.  Sad.

Second verse, same as the first

I could title this post the same as the last... it's snowing again, and it's a Random Tuesday Thoughts post again, and I'm not feeling particularly creative.

***

Holy weird dreams, Batman. Last night I dreamt that a co-worker was having a dinner party at her house, but to make it more interesting she had her house moved to Santa Monica during the party, with all of us in it. She told us that she did this often, but that the IRS had caught up with her about paying property taxes in both Ohio and California, so she couldn't do it anymore. While we were in Santa Monica it started to rain, and the city started to flood. There was an Infantry company based in an underground bunker beneath the city, and they told us it was zombie skeleton pirates causing the flooding, and they couldn't be killed. There was a giant zombie greyhound guarding the entrance to the bunker, but we cut off its head with a sword and it died, so we knew the zombie pirates could be killed somehow too. We were in a baseball stadium with the soldiers and the zombies were down on the field, and I kept yelling "Where's the damn Browning?! Somebody tell me you have a Browning!" We finally found it propped up against a wall (the rifle was painted bright blue for some reason) so I grabbed it and climbed up on top of the press box and started shooting at the zombie pirates. I figured out they could be killed by shooting them straight through the heart, because their blood had been chemically changed and that was what was keeping them alive.

Somebody do a dream analysis on that shit.

Stopping by blogs on a snowy morning*

This particular brand of organic instant oatmeal? More like instant glue. Just add hot water, and voila! Use it to stick your cat to the ceiling!

***

It's an especially lazy day today. I thought yesterday was lazy - but yesterday I actually did the dishes. I can't even get motivated to do that. Which may not sound like a big deal, but I HATE dirty dishes in the sink. BUT! I got motivated to post, so that's a win at least.

***

Portion of a chat convo earlier this morning with a friend from work:

Him: so what's the snow like at your place?

Me: white. and cold. and blowing like Jenna Jamison.

Him: that's so not right. funny, but not right.

Me: I'm never right.

***

I finished season 1 of Lost last night. I think I'm hooked now. Or I could be honest and admit that it's just Sawyer. Holy dimples, batman.

***

I had some money left on a gift card to JCPenney, so I got on their website this morning to scour their mega-winter-clearance-sale for a new coat. My poor leather jacket is looking pretty beat up - I mean, when you can take one look at it and know that I carry my purse/laptop bag on my left shoulder, and that I pack waaaay too much into it - then you know it's time for a new coat. I found a super cute wool jacket, black & white plaid, for $19.99! SCORE. I'm glad I saved my Christmas gift cards. I can still go shopping despite being broke.

***

I made my daddy's peach cobbler this weekend, and it turned out exactly like I remember it - sweet and gooey and doughy and yummmm. I'm going to post the recipe on Tasty Kitchen today. If you haven't visited this recipe site yet, go! It's the Pioneer Woman, so of course it's awesome. I've posted a few recipes there already - look me up!

***

*I really do love this poem. Hint to family members that need birthday gift ideas: a collection of Robert Frost, please.

Another Tuesday, another...

It's Tuesday already? Lord. If I'm not careful, my entire blog will consist of RTT's.

***

I need a new pillow. Not that mine is worn out or anything, but it's definitely not right. I've had consistent neck and shoulder pain for a long time now, and I think it's about time to do something besides bitch and moan and wish for a massage. I sleep on my stomach and on my side the most - I don't really need a pillow when I'm on my stomach, but I need something really supportive when I'm on my side. Anybody have any suggestions?

***

Ashley from The Accidental Olympian sent me a bag of Oly Rollers coffee as a thank-you for helping her pick her roller derby name (Ash & Burn!) and holy cannoli, is it good. Strong and dark and just right for waking my sluggish ass up in the mornings. Thanks Ash!

***

I'm trying to be better about accepting compliments. My Inner Critic doesn't like it, and doesn't believe it when people say something nice, so the automatic reaction is to laugh it off or deny it. I've found that the simple act of accepting a compliment does wonders for my self esteem. Yesterday a co-worker really buttered me up, and it had me literally buzzed on an ego-high all day. It was awesome. The Inner Critic is still there of course, but I'll try to use her to keep me grounded rather than letting her bring me down. It'll be hard to do but I think it's a good goal.

***

I hate being on the verge of a decision, but not being able to make the decision. It's like sitting on a precipice, trying your damnedest to keep your balance for just a little longer, until you really know which way to step. And all the while you have something flying around your head, buzzing and whirring and bugging the ever-loving shit out of you, trying to knock you off-kilter. I'm going nuts, trying to wait and be patient, when I just want to know what's going to happen and what I need to do next. I'm over-thinking things (as usual) and it's just making my emotional state even more of a roller coaster. So I'm reading a book on how to reign in the over-thinking side of me - and hoping it gives me something to grip, and a fly-swatter.


***
I always seem to be one step behind the music scene. Just in the last few months did I catch on to Muse, The White Rabbits, Vampire Weekend, and today, Rodrigo y Gabriela. LOVE.

File under: RTT

Ladies, you know you're having a bad hair day when you can't even get it back into a decent looking ponytail.  My biggest problem with my hair is the fact that I have two cowlicks on the back of my head which generally results in a bald spot, unless I back-comb the crap out of it and beat it into submission.  Oddly, I find that my hair cooperates more when I wear it down than when I try to pull it up.  It drives me insane.

***

I had a very vivid dream last night, about an old friend of mine.  "The one that got away" in my book.  He has very bright blue eyes, and while supposedly dreams are never in color, I distinctly remember that blue in my dream.  Weird.  On top of that, it was another zombie dream.  Apparently, they can't surf.  Wha?

***

Speaking of T.O.T.G.A., do you ever look back on your life and think, "God, I was such a naive little idiot"?  I'm hard on myself in that way - I was only 18 for pete's sake - but I really was an idiot.  Not just about this guy, but about school and life in general.  I totally missed out on a lot of stuff, just because I was naive and self-centered, all wrapped up in my own little world and not paying attention to what was passing me by.  And now I look back and really regret a lot.  I just hope I can make up for some of it.

***

I finally broke down and bought a small humidifier for our bedroom, and holy crow has it made a difference.  Even the cats love it - they were both sitting right in front of it the other night, blissed-out looks on their faces, little noses working over-time.  But then Lily's curiosity overcame her and she tried to tip the effing thing over.  I don't know what her deal is with things that hold water - she always has to dump it all over the floor.

***

I also broke down and got on e-bay.  I've never tried buying anything from it before, but I was missing an ornament in my collection of Hallmark carousel animals, and I'd also missed buying the carousel itself when it was available in stores.  So I did some digging and found a couple of auctions with decent starting prices and reasonable shipping, and I won!  I think I paid a decentt price for both the ornament and the carousel, including shipping, so I emailed Mom and Sister to tell them I'd bought my present from them already.  :-)

***

B and I are spending Christmas Day on our own this year.  (We're celebrating with family on the weekend after New Year's, when his brother flies home from Montana.)  And at Christmas, I like to do something different for dinner than turkey or ham (to me, turkey is Thanksgiving and ham is Easter), so I ordered some game steaks from Cabela's.  I've had elk before - one of my absolute favorite things EVER, and if you've never tried it YOU SHOULD - but the package also comes with antelope, wild boar, and venison steaks.  So we're barbecuing for Christmas, with sweet potatoes, sauteed green beans, and pumpkin cupcakes.  Yummm.

***

I spent the better part of the day yesterday fighting with my blog, trying to find a stupid book list that had a widget that was compatible with Wordpress.  NONE.  Stupid WP.com and their restrictions on java and flash.  The only thing I could find was on Goodreads, and it's just a button that links to my list on their site.  All I want is one book list that posts to both Facebook and here, in a pretty little widget.  GAH.

I was still l considering switching back to Blogger, but (a) now that I have the work blog set up on here too it's more convenient to have them both in the same place.  I'm all about convenience.  And (b), frakking WP doesn't import into Blogger.  So I guess that idea is out anyway.  And no, I'm not going to pay to upgrade to WP.org - why would I do that?  I'm not some big writer-type with profound things to say and a massive readership.  I can't justify it, at least not yet.  So I'll just bitch and moan and drive everyone bonkers instead.

RTT: Minimalist

So a while back I entered one of the bazillion blog contests out there - the leave-a-random-comment-and-we'll-draw-your-number kind of thing - through BlogHer.  Mona's post about her fart-iferous household made me bust up, and I didn't even pay attention to what the prize was, I just wanted to share a laugh.

So about a week ago I'm sorting through a boatload of junk email that I hadn't bothered looking at (until I realized that my comment notifications from this blog were being filtered there.  Whoops.).  Lo and behold, I come across an email from someone at BlogHer, saying essentially that, out of the kindness of their hearts, they'd been holding on to the prize I'd won until they heard back from me.  Holy cannoli!  I won something!

How fitting, that a post about farts would win me a box full of Febreeze!  So thanks Kirida & BlogHer, for a very fun and sniffy little prize!

***

Why didn't anybody tell me about Angel sooner?

Hello.

***

We put up our tree the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Earlier than we usually do, but I'm glad we got it done.  Christmas decorations make it feel so cozy.

I'll add better pictures later.  I'm too lazy trying to think of other things to talk about.

***

Thanksgiving dinner was a success, although the raspberry jalapeno chutney was a little too zingy I think.  The Christmas Potluck is coming up at the office, and I signed up to bring a cake.  Not my usual fare at Christmas, so I'll have to find something creative.  Chocolate zucchini maybe?  Or pumpkin?

***

Yeah, my creative juices are sapped today.  Sorry folks.

Eye and ear candy

I've got nothin' for the usual Dear So & So on Friday.  But I've got little bits of random shit that might be enough to justify a post... and since my inspiration and motivation for NaBloPoMo went right out the window after last week's hiatus, this is all I can pull out of my butt.

***

I listen to just about every type of music, except gangsta rap and death metal - I do like old skool hip hop (Hieroglyphics for example, or Jurassic 5) and some metal (Atreyu, Rise Against), but I hate the crap that passes for music on the pop stations and in da clubs, blasted from some kid's ghetto speakers in his '85 Chrysler so loud it makes his license plate vibrate, etc etc.  How the hell can you consider it music when (a) it's all sampled, (b) every other word is "uh" and (c) you have to use auto-tune to make the 'singer' sound halfway bearable?  Ugh.  My other rule is that you should be able to understand what they're saying, so scream-o is out too.

But I'll listen to everything else.  Really, everything.  I'm still a little picky about it though - if I can't distinguish your voice from everyone else's then I'm probably not very interested.  I like music with a distinct sound to it, something that makes it stand apart.  I'm getting braver about finding new music, thanks to iTunes, friends with expansive CD collections, and the local library that surprisingly carries a pretty good variety.

So today I will share two artists that, while you might recognize their names from television, you might not be aware that they're incredibly talented musicians too.  Christian Kane, and Born as Ghosts.  Kane you might know from Angel (Lindsey the lawyer) and currently, Leverage (Elliott Spencer - yummmm) - but he's an AWESOME country musician too.  No full-length CD yet, except for a live album from a concert in London, but you can check out some of his songs on myspace.  He has a sexy, rough voice that I LOVE.

Born as Ghosts is a SoCal band, and the lead singer is Eric Balfour whom you'd recognize as Milo from 24 (before he got shot in the head... boooo).  The band is VERY SoCal, with a sound kind of like a hybrid of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sublime.  Catchy and fun and unique.  They're also working on a full-length CD, and some of their songs are available for download on both myspace and facebook.

And of course, it totally doesn't hurt that both of these guys are SO. HOT. OMG.  See for yourself...

[caption id="attachment_394" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Hoooooo boy. Um."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_395" align="aligncenter" width="256" caption="Yeah. Er."][/caption]

(Images courtesy of their respective myspace pages.)

So there's my shameless hot-guy/little-known-musician plug for today.  Anybody else have some good, perhaps little-known tunes you're into?  Hot guy or not.  Either way.

 

Attack of the RTT

So yesterday I had INSPIRATION and MOTIVATION, and I WROTE, DAMMIT.

Today, I've got this:

[caption id="attachment_326" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Insert LOL caption here..."][/caption]

I can't even think of a good LOLCat caption for it.  Help me out here people.

For the visitors from Keely's, this is Gyro (as in Gyroscope, not the flatbread sandwich).  He likes "helping" me with my quilting.

***

Temerity Jane is hosting a challenge during NaBloPoMo: Becoming A Person Who Comments.  I think I do a decent job of commenting, but how do I GET people to comment?  Yesterday I had NINE WHOLE HITS on my post and NO ONE commented.  (NINE!  I KNOW.)  Most of them were from my link on Facebook, so they're people I really do know, so why don't they comment?  Was yesterday's post unworthy of comment?  Well.... probably.  But still!  SAY SOMETHING DAMMIT.

***

I'm having fun with my camera lately, can you tell?

[caption id="attachment_327" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="To-May-To"][/caption]

Think I need to start working on photographing people, though.

***

Archer Farms Kona Blend is my new favorite coffee.  At least until we open the Buttered Rum flavor.

***

There are people who are so perpetually pissed off, rude and disrespectful to everyone they encounter, that when they're rude and disrespectful to you, all you can think about is how to piss them off even more.  Let's just say, "It's on like Donkey Kong."

***

Today is Election Day, and I'll be hitting the polling place after work to vote for Ohio's Issue 1, in which veterans of ODS, OEF and OIF get additional compensation from the state in honor of their service.  In other words, B gets a little extra cash, which he totally deserves for all the B.S. he's had to deal with.  Boo.  Yah.  Oh yeah, guess I'll vote for Mayor too.

***

Am I the only person who HATES when people bring candy/cookies/donuts to work & puts them out on the community counter?  I might bring homemade cupcakes but I only share them with people that I know aren't dieting, and only occasionally rub it in the faces of friends who are.  But putting stuff out on the counter is just plain insulting.  Also, irresistible.  *NomnomMilkDudsnom*.

Tuesday Bluesday

I think I'm going to start wearing gloves at work.  There's no happy medium, temperature-wise, in our office.  The main cube-farm area is always freezing (high ceilings = energy inefficiency), the lunchroom is usually too hot, and the rest is either one extreme or the other.  The exception seems to be the accounting department, where I used to sit, where I used to complain about sitting because everyone forgot I was there, and where I now wish I could sit again because it's so nice and quiet and halfway warm.  Ugh.  The grass is always greener...

***

I'm on a new music kick lately and have been loading up on CDs from the library to stock my iTunes.  Free is good, even though one in five discs are scratched beyond hope.  Anybody have any good recommendations?  I'm open to anything except gangsta rap and scream-o death metal.  I do like SOME rap - Jurassic 5 or The Roots, and some old-skool like Hieroglyphics - and SOME metal - Atreyu, Coheed & Cambria - but otherwise I'm not very picky.  Anything from bluegrass to classical, new rock to techno.

***

I love wearing long-sleeve tees, but why do the sleeves always shrink just an inch, so they don't quite cover my wrists?  I wash everything in cold water and dry on low heat so I know it's not anything I'm doing... I'll be looking for some trim at the fabric store this week to see if I can lengthen them just a little.

***

I had a very depressing dream in between snooze alarms this morning.  (Anybody else have the weirdest ones during those 10-minute intervals?)  I dreamt that B & I were fishing on a river, and when he cast he got a Barn Swallow tangled in his line.  The line was wrapped around the poor bird's neck, and I was crying and telling him to cut the line and let the bird go but he wound up killing the bird.  It was strange in and of itself, but even stranger was how upset I was when I woke up.  It totally ruined my day.

***

We cleaned out the veggie beds last weekend, which included harvesting the salad greens and brussels sprouts.  I'm still not entirely sure if I'll work up the nerve to cook the sprouts, but the greens... SIX GALLONS.  Iceberg leaf lettuce, arugula, & mesclun.  I brought two gallon bags worth with me for lunch today to share with my dieting friends.  I didn't bring any cheese out of respect for them, but I'm already regretting not smuggling some for myself.  Salad just isn't salad without a little cheese.  At least I remembered the croutons.

Do or Die

I've been meaning to write this for a while now. It's my Bucket List. I was finally inspired enough today to stop and think about all the things I want to do or see or try or learn in my lifetime, and this is what I've come up with so far... and I get the feeling that this is just the beginning.

See Live:

Flogging Molly on St. Patrick’s Day

Handel’s Messiah at Christmas

Kenny Chesney

Alison Krauss

Penn & Teller

A Seahawks game

An NHL game (no team preference at this point)

A bluegrass festival

An honest-to-god Highland Games

Travel to:

The Outer Banks, NC

Walt Disney World/Orlando (again)

Greece (Art History Tour)

Italy (Art History Tour)

Paris (Art History Tour)

British Isles (Art History Tour)

New Zealand

Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon, American SW

Yosemite National Park

All the lakes/places Dad liked to go (Fly Fishing Tour)

Christmas Island (Fly Fishing Tour)

Boston – Sam Adams Brewery Tour

San Francisco – New Belgium Brewery Tour

Try:

Snowboarding

Sea kayaking

Hike-In Camping

Cooking a turkey

A new food or recipe once a month at least.

Learn to:

Ride a horse again

Quilt

Crochet/knit

Make cheese

Sew clothing, not just handbags

Live in (possibly):

Bend, OR

Any little coast town in WA or OR

Virginia or Maryland (Chesapeake Bay)

Chicago

Sandpoint, ID

Montana

Do:

Throw an honest-to-god dinner party that doesn’t involve chips & salsa

Design & build our own energy-efficient & eco-friendly house

Use my camera more, and try selling photos & other crafty things on Etsy

Be in shape enough to run for an hour at a steady pace

Contribute to a CSA or Farmer’s Market

Run an animal sanctuary for pets that wouldn’t be adopted otherwise

Own & operate a gift shop in a touristy town, selling my handmade items

Stop drinking pop, and start drinking more wine

Work for a college/university in the art department, event coordinator, sustainability, whatever

Have a house-rabbit, and chickens, and maybe a pygmy goat

Have a big, sunny, airy studio in the upper story of a barn

Take a pottery class

Take a stained glass class

Get at least one meaningful tattoo

What's a month, give or take?

I have been completely overwhelmed lately. Life is like... I can't think of a good analogy right now that really fits, but I guess kind of an invisible Rock-'Em-Sock-'Em Robot, I just feel beat up but I can't really pinpoint the source. I am glad to say that I've found a great psychologist though, and have my second appointment with her tomorrow. So hopefully this will help me learn to fight back against an unknown opponent.

***

Speaking of, in my first appointment my new doctor pointed out that for a person's mind to never be at rest - to be constantly thinking and planning and worrying and daydreaming, mind spinning and churning at high velocity 24/7 - apparently this is NOT NORMAL. Oh. Crap. Now what? It's kind of overwhelming to think about. Wait... shit.

***

Just like the hits, the tomatoes just keep on comin'. I have made salsa and marinara and even a vodka tomato cream sauce, all of which are stockpiled in my freezer. I haven't worked up the nerve to try canning yet - but Mom is coming to visit in October so I might take some lessons from her while she's here. Then I can blame any botulism outbreaks on her. (Kidding Mom!)

***

Our neighbor has a new puppy. A Great Dane puppy. A blue merle Great Dane puppy. I met him over the fence yesterday and officially have a case of puppy envy. How can you not, with this face? If he had blue eyes, I would steal him and name him something goofy like Gonzo.

***

Last week was spent in Vegas. Not fun-Vegas, but work-Vegas. Sure, we stayed on the Strip (New York New York has some great friggin deals right now!) but I was essentially there on my own since my co-worker isn't exactly a party-animal (oh ok, neither am I. Who am I kidding?). So I spent the majority of the time in my room watching season 1 of The Wire on DVD. Holy crap is that show GOOD. I'm now waiting on season 2 from the library.

***

I beat Plants Vs Zombies last night. I just started playing it this weekend. Does that tell you what kind of holiday I had? But I did take time out to bake cupcakes. Unfortunately even though these cupcakes have zucchini and carrots in them, they also have real butter and several cups of sugar, so any potential healthy-factor is voided out.

***

I need to write more often. Not just WANT to, but NEED to. I need to journal more. I think that might help the whole gyroscope-for-brains situation, if I have a way to funnel it into some sort of containment system. AKA, the interwebs.

***

Random somewhat-related factoid: my cat is named Gyro, short for Gyroscope, not the Greek flatbread-sweaty-meat-and-yogurt sandwich. As a kitten he was in perpetual motion - chasing his tail, chasing the dog, chasing flies, chasing laserbeams... his favorite toy is still his own tail, but he's much more of a cuddlebug now.

Daisy, give yourself away...

The past couple of days I've become conscious of the fact that every morning, without fail, I have a random song stuck in my head. Sometimes it's there as soon as I wake up, sometimes it pops in my head while I'm in the shower, sometimes while I'm doing my makeup. I've decided to Tweet about this phenomenon every day to keep track of it (maybe create an iTunes playlist based on it?) and see what, if anything, it tells me about myself and the craziness in my head.

So since this past Wednesday, it's been the following:

John Mayer - Daughters

The Killers - Human

Switchfoot - Daisy

So what does this tell me?

#1 -- When 'Daughters' popped into my head while showering on Wednesday, I realized that the lyrics are really kind of screwed up. The bridge goes like this:

Boys, you can break

Find out how much they can take

'Cause boys will be strong

Boys soldier on

But boys would be gone without warmth

from a woman's good, good heart

This is a truly ridiculous statement to make. Boys are tough, you can berate them and beat them down and they're like the Energizer Bunny, they'll just keep on going! Ugh. Bullshit. I don't think I even need to say anything more.

But why did this come into my head? Maybe to reiterate the fact that I need to have a warmer heart, especially towards B...?

#2 -- Are we human, or are we dancer? I have no clue what this means. Am I human? I'm not a dancer, I know that much. Although it'd be fun to take some ballroom lessons with B maybe...

#3 -- Let it go, Daisy let it go

Open up your fists, this fallen world

Doesn't hold your interest, doesn't hold your soul

Daisy let it go

Why do I care so much about what other people think of me, of the work I do, of the life I live? This fallen world doesn't hold my soul... I need to worry about ME, about MY happiness and who I am. I think. Sounds good, anyway.

Psychoanalyzing yourself isn't very easy, especially through somewhat incongruous song lyrics. To be continued...

To Whom it May Concern...

To the Office Cleaning Staff -

Learn how to load a frickin' dishwasher. The idea is to spread things out so that (a) they don't bang against each other and chip, and (b) the water and soap actually reach the surface you intend to clean. Jamming everything into 6 square inches on the top rack is not conducive to actually washing the dishes. Also, quit forgetting to put the detergent in.

***

To the Toledo Fire & Rescue Department -

Apparently your EMT's need to take some basic driving classes. When entering the freeway, you do not STOP on the on-ramp. You ACCELERATE. You MERGE with the traffic. This is not an intersection. Also pay attention to the fact that there are cars behind you that do not wish to provide work for you by being rear-ended by the other people who expect to gun it up the ramp.

***

To the Dog -

Yes, it's raining again. Let's not have another episode like last weekend, where you kept trying to sneak past me to the basement to poop, and eventually I had to forcibly drag you outside in a downpour, then stand in the rain for half an hour waiting for you to do your business. Maybe it's a result of you not having any balls, but please, MAN UP. You aren't going to melt.

***

To my Cell Phone -

Keep it up and I'll drop you in the parking lot on "accident" then watch in joy as my co-workers with their big-ass trucks run over you repeatedly. (Note: phones with 'touch screens' do not equate an iPhone. Samsung, the Glyde is a wonderful idea, but you really need to work on it.)

Subconscious, what?

I've been having some bizarre dreams lately.  See if you can follow this...

Two nights ago, I dreamt that a plane crashed in my backyard, barely missing me.  As I'm laying on the ground with my eyes squeezed shut, trying not to wet myself, I hear this weird noise and open my eyes to see zombies clawing their way out of the plane.  No wonder the plane crashed, I think (in my dream) and take off for the house.  There's this FBI dude at my house for some reason, and he looks like the FBI dude from Prison Break last season, but he doesn't run fast enough and gets partially eaten.  I get into the house to find that my mom is there, and she's opened the gun safe and laid out all of B's guns on the kitchen counter (there are a lot more in my dream than we own in real life too), but she forgot the ammo in the other room.  I go to grab it but the zombies are already in the room so I run and hide in the linen closet.  The end.

Last night, I dreamt that I met Linda of All & Sundry, one of my favorite bloggers, because I had discovered that her husband was my long lost cousin (not that far-fetched considered I've never met about 70% of my extended family) and we were going hiking outside Seattle.  On the way back to her house, the city was hit by mortar fire (I remember being able to see one shell falling through the air and take out the bridge in front of us, it was very vivid...) and Linda and I were kidnapped (along with a ton of other people) by the terrorists.  The terrorists kept saying that they were the REAL Al Quaida, and that they were sick of these other terrorists claiming to be Al Quaida when they were just a bunch of posers, so they kidnapped us to blog and Twitter about it and tell the world that the REAL Al Quaida were a bunch of pacifists.  And I got into an argument with them about it because hello, they just bombed the shit out of Seattle and killed a bunch of people, how could they call themselves pacifists?  And Linda was like, shut UP and WRITE.  The end.

I don't get it.

Trying to be random is not always easy.

I twittered yesterday about the nastiness of this particular flavor of Vitamin Water. Pineapple? Not so much. And ever since I tried it, my tastebuds have been out of whack. Even my bowl of cereal last night didn't taste quite like Corn Chex... and my normally excellent Caruso's Coffee this morning was very bleah. I brushed the crap out of my tongue this morning, but it still feels gross. Tranquilo... more like Ass-ilo.

***

My hand is almost completely healed already, just one little scab left and a couple of nice shiny scars. Finally finished off the stimulant-laden antibiotics on Saturday night, and the past two nights' sleep have been WONDERFUL. Too bad I've had to get up early for work, so I can't truly enjoy it.

***

Someone should notify my neighbors... it's Independence DAY, not Independence WEEK. Actually, from the looks of my friends' post on Facebook, maybe this is something that should be announced on the national news. CNN, get on that. No more fireworks, dammit!!

***

I am trying my darnedest to get to the gym at least once a week. Last week I skipped due to the injury, but I got back on the horse yesterday and might even go again on Wednesday. Setting my goals a little lower seems to have helped - I feel like I've accomplished something for once! Now to up my time spent working out... right now I'm at 15 minutes on the elliptical, 15 minutes using the weight machines (upper body/core muscles only). Long term goal: a half-hour each, 2-3 times a week. Short term (easier) goal: 20 minutes by the end of the month...

***

I want to work at a college or university someday, just so I can take classes for free. I'd take all those art classes that I missed the first time around, and maybe some literature or history ones too. Just for fun. But for now, I want to try to get into some classes at the Toledo Museum of Art. They offer a silk painting class that sounds like fun. Gotta save some money for it!

***

Jason over at Pet Cobra is working on his 40/40 List - I'm thinking I might make one too. Considering I would have 10 years to accomplish it, it might actually be feasible. First thing would be to get a tattoo - actually I'd like to do that before I'm 35. Maybe a 35/35 list instead? To be pondered...

***

It's amazing really, how many things there are on the dotoledo.org events calendar. The Dragon Boat Festival later this month is penciled into my planner, and the Wood County Fair is in red Sharpie for next month! Who'd have thunk it, that there were actually FUN things to do in Toledo? Doesn't make me like the city any more, but at least I can kill some time.