Happy New Year to MMMEEEE!

After this past week which I have spent with far too many people, I have decided that I am totally not going out tonight. I am going to sit at home tonight and spoil myself. (Well and be by myself which makes me incredibly happy.) I bought a steak for dinner and a potato for a baked potato. I'm going to sit on my somewhat comfy couch and watch movies and eat and be comfy. For the crap movie fest, I rented:


The Dukes of Hazzard. I know it isn't going to be great, but I'm excited. Even if it does have Jessica Simpson in it.




My Date with Drew. I am not sure if Drew Barrymore is actually in this, but I love her so I think this will be good. I was supposed to watch it with Michelle when I visited at Thanksgiving but we ran out of time.



The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I read the book on the plane and enjoyed it a lot. I'm hopeful that the movie is as good. It will probably make me cry. The book did. But I'm a sap.




And the best thing possible (This I didn't rent). The thing I'm most excited about... Fraggle Rock the complete season. I went down to check the mail this afternoon and there it was waiting for me. Michelle's mom, who rocks far more than my mom rocks, got it for me for Christmas. I am beside myself with excitement. :)

I also have some nice raspberry sorbet and I may head downstairs and grab a 7 up from the vending machine downstairs and I can have a sorbet float like we had as children.

Well, that's one way.

My mom and I had a particularly spectacular blowout on Thursday before I left. There were tears and screaming and yelling on the front yard. We left earlier than intended. It was awful.

Today she instant messages me as though nothing has happened. I suppose that's one way to deal. Of course in doing so, I spoke about the Great Family vacation as though it had not been cancelled and she said something about taking care of the dogs so I assume that means she is going to go too now. Whatever.

I'm home

And that's all I have to say about that.

The plane ride was awful. We had turbulence the entire flight and could not get up and move about and had our seat belts on the whole time. They didn't even do a beverage service because the flight attendents couldn't take out the carts. So that sucked a great deal.

I was surrounded by small children, even the people next to me had a baby. He was about 7 weeks old and for some reason I got this vibe that they had just adopted him. I don't know why, but I think it was because of how unsure they seemed about him.

There was a fascinating tableau unfolding in the row 2 rows in front of mine and then catty corner from mine. This little girl was on the plane with her youngish mom. The row in front of them had 3 small children who were sharing a portable dvd player. Youngish girl kept getting up to walk around to watch the video with the other 3 kids. The mom of the 3 sat 2 seats in front of me and she was trying to be helpful. She let the little girl join her kids until the seatbelt light went back on. So then little girl had to go back to her seat. And she howled. This went back and forth several times. And at no time did youngish mom really do anything about it. The trio's mom offered little girl some snacky things and a book. It was intriguing.

We landed at one gate, I had to go to the opposite end of the terminal to get my baggage and then back to the end to get on the bus.

Tonight I'm going to order Chinese food, sit in my jammies and not speak to anyone. (Verbally, I'll go online and all that.)

There IS 1 good thing about Arizona...

The Phoenix Skyharbor airport has free wifi. I love free wifi.

I'm done

I can't speak of it right this moment, but suffice to say I will not be visiting my parents again.

We partied A Z style.

And that means quiet and kind of less than thrilling. In one last round of sisterly bonding before I leave, the kid & I went out to the bars last night. This was difficult mostly because we couldn't find a place to go. The year I lived here after college (so after I was 21) I never went out. I taught school and sometimes in the evenings I worked at the group home (developmentally disabled adults) but that was about it. My sister has never lived here when she has been old enough to drink, so where to go was a distinct problem. I consulted with Citysearch but that was no good because we're too small a town to have much info. I did manage to find one review of one bar in town and we did go there for a little while. More on that place in a moment. We consulted with my nephew (who is 19 but does work in retail and maybe those people talk to him) who gave a suggestion. We also tried there. The night: a recap.

We started out at Famous Sams because, I'd been there once before and I knew they had pool. The nephew also recommended it. I didn't want to go to a stand and look pretty bar, although in retrospect I don't think the SV has those. So we went and sat at the bar and I had 2 drinks and the kid had a beer. Our tab was 8 bucks. One drink at the gay bar runs about 6 - 7 bucks so this 8 dollar for 3 drink bartab shocked me. I didn't know it was possible. Of course the drinks TASTED like they were only worth 2 & 3 dollars so there is that. It's been awhile since I've a drink that was truly only 1 shot of alcohol. :) We left there after that and headed to another bar. A real live saloon.

The Sorry Gulch Saloon is a staple here. It's been in business I think forever and when you go in it looks it. Outside there was a sign advertising that Exotic Dancers would be there tonight! Whee. How lucky for us. We went in and each had a screwdriver (at 4.50 each). I'm not 100% sure it was worth it. But we sat at the bar and people watched. There was this guy there who looked like the woman was giving him chiropractic adjustment based on the weird things she was doing to him. She looked like she was probably one of the exotic dancers based on her ensemble. One finally got up on the "stage" and danced around the stripper pole. Seriously, I could've done better. She was not especially good at dancing, she was not well endowed and she didn't remove any clothing. It was probably a good thing that there was no cover. We left shortly after we finished our drinks. We did see what was probably the most stereotypical Hollywoodesque pimp ever known to man. Think that episode of King of the Hill where Hank hires a prostitue and that guy comes in to town looking for her. He was with the bad exotic dancer.

Finally we went to the International Karaoke bar. We each had a shot of cherry pucker and then a soda. We played some pool. I went over and consulted the juke box... Voltaire! it made me sad. It was almost exclusively country western music. I managed to find about 6 CDs total that weren't and played 4 non country songs. I noticed after we were done playing pool and headed into the Karaoke part that the music went back to being country. What's wrong with Nirvana? :) We sat down to watch karaooke and were subject to about 10 country or bad ballads. About 7 of those were done by what I dubbed the Karaoke princess. She was blond and sang in this wispy bad voice. Sometimes she dueted with this other guy. There were two others in the group who would venture up to sing, both women, both much much better. Then the goth kids came in. About 6 - 7 of them and they signed up to sing. And most of them were pretty good. And they sang songs I knew! Yay! It was kind of funny to watch the Karaoke princess get more and more agitated while they were there. I don't think she sang again while we were there. It got to be pretty fun there because on some level karaoke is always kind of fun. At about 1:15 I convinced my sis that I was tired and we headed home.

Why does it always gotta be virgins?

I had a dream last night that I was living on this compound, we had lots and lots of money. I met this guy who was quiet and geeky and I was interested. We had a fairly slow flirtation. At some point in the dream he brought me yellow roses. And I ran down to the field he was in and kissed him. But it was awkward. Later I was in my building of the compound and in my room packing. This whole group of African American rappers came in and they were having a meeting in my room with a lot of seating. (Like a theater but it was weird.) They were talking about some drug thing and how they were going to punish this guy who was dealing. Apparently I was also into this one guy who was a rapper because he was leaning on me and I was rubbing his arm. But when nerdy guy came in he had a hurt look on his face and left and I went after him into my bedroom where I kissed him again and pounced. Mid pounce he said that he was still a virgin and I said "Oh isn't that always the way?" Kinda killed the mood. Later we fast forward a little bit and I have 2 friends helping me, but one of them sets fire to my hat collection to burn the whole place down. Rapper guy I was into and I manage to put out the fire but then one of the other buildings on the compound exploded.

Man: To see a man in your dream, denotes the masculine aspect of yourself - the side that is assertive, rational, aggressive, and/or competitive. If the man is known to you, then the dream may reflect you feelings and concerns you have about him.
If you are a woman and dream that you are in the arms of a man, suggests that you are accepting and welcoming your stronger assertive personality . It may also highlight your desires to be in a relationship and your image of the ideal man.

Roses: To see roses blooming in your dream, signifies faithfulness in love and the arrival of a much joyous occasion. Roses also symbolize love, passion, femininity, and romance, particularly if they are red roses. If you see a white rose, then it symbolizes virginity, pureness, and secrecy. It you see a yellow rose, then it refers to infidelity or jealousy.

Kiss: To dream of a kiss, denotes love, affection, tranquility, harmony, and contentment.

Virgin: To dream that you are a virgin, symbolizes purity and potential. In particular, for a married woman to dream that she is a virgin, signifies past regrets and remorse and a bleak future.

Fire: Depending on the context of your dream, to see fire in your dream can symbolizes destruction, passion, desire, illumination, transformation, enlightenment, or anger. It may suggest that something old is passing and something new is entering your life. Your thoughts and views are changing. In particular, if the fire is under control or contained in one area, it is a metaphor of your own internal fire and inner transformation. It also represents your drive and motivation.
To dream that you put out a fire, signifies that you will overcome your obstacles in your life through much work and effort.

Explosion: To see explosions in your dream, signifies a loss and displeasure in business. It may also mean that your repressed emotions and rage have come to the surface in a forceful and violent manner.

What an interesting hodgepodge of images. I especially like how I dreamed about yellow roses and that's what nerdy boy brought and then he got jealous and that's what yellow roses mean. Apparently my subconscious believes my mother's psychic visit.

Dispatches from the 'rents house vol 3.

I've been sitting on this bed for the last 1/2 hour or so playing with my sister's super huge tabby cat. Its name originally was Kitty but my father has changed it to Sweetums after the muppet.

(Right, that's Milton Berle on the left). Strangely enough, that is kind of what this cat looks like. It isn't especially fond of people but for some reason loves the bed I'm sleeping in right now. I think because the dog doesn't bother it in here and my niece sometimes doesn't see it so it is kind of left alone. We've been doing the string game thing with a piece of gold rick rack and somehow it is entertaining both of us. It is nice to do something that doesn't involve everyone else.

The little kid & I get along fairly well. Mostly because I'm playing the aunt role and spoiling the crap out of her. We've played more games of Scene it, Disney version and Connect 4 than I care to count. We discuss the strategy behind connect 4 a lot while we play it. I ask her to look at all the possible moves to think about what I may do in response. She seems to really be getting it. She beat my sister several times but she couldn't beat my dad. We also played Koosh paddle ball outside in the back yard.

Today was my mom's birthday and she got presents. She didn't even hate them which is a small miracle. My sis, the kid & I went to get manis and pedis. I now have purple toenails and kind of an iridescent yellow fingernails.

My sister and I took my mom to a psychic as well. I may have mentioned this before that she believes in them. I am ambivalent about them although I did once have a psychic tell me that I had the perception but I choose to ignore it. So the psychic said that one of us (my sister or I) will get pregnant in the next 2 years. Funnily enough my mother also chooses to believe that means a wedding will happen in that time frame. Apparently the psychic told her that both my sister and I will get married within the next 10 years I think. Oh and one of us will have an opportunity to open a business that will be lucrative. Does this mean I'm joining Michelle in the PYOP business?

Speaking of PYOP, (paint your own pottery), we all went and did that Monday afternoon. I got a kick out of it. And I liked their pricing much better than anywhere else I've been. Most places charge by the hour for paint time, but this place charges you for the piece (say 10 bucks) then charges you 1/2 the piece price for paint time and paint and all of it inclusive. And they're going to make sure we can pick them up Thursday morning. This time I made a butterfly windchime.

Tomorrow we are probably going to Tucson for shopping. That's what people in this town do, go to Tucson for our big shopping trips. Up until a few years ago there wasn't even a mall here. (and I use that term loosely. It is much better than the Bently Hall in Fairbanks, but cannot compare at all to a normal place.).

No family visit is complete without it.

Well, because no family visit is complete without a veiled discussion of my weight, today's statement from my mother (with no preface whatsoever we were not discussing this, it was just completely random) "You know, that Splenda isn't bad at all." To which I replied, "No." And then both parents had to tell me how not gross Splenda is and how much they like it. Now I don't give a rat's ass if it is or it isn't gross but I really really hate that.

2005 The year in questions:

I borrowed this from Jodi, who seems to have borrowed this from her sister. :)

January
1 - Did you have any New Year's Resolutions this year?
Nope, I don't believe in them.
2 - Who kissed you at midnight?
Lesbians or gay men or perhaps nobody. I can't remember.
3 - Does it snow where you live?
Nope. :(
4 - Do you like hot chocolate?
Sometimes I do. It depends.
5 - Have you ever been to Times Square to watch the ball drop?
Nope. It sounds like something that in theory sounds like fun but the reality would so much less fun. I do not so secretly want to go to the Rose Parade in Pasadena and camp out on the side walk to watch it live, but again that sounds like something that sounds like fun but probably wouldn't be.

February
1 - Who was your Valentine in 2005?
Baxter.
2 - What did your Valentine get you?
I'm pretty sure she got me some poop to clean up off the floor. Bax was good like that.
3 - When you were little, did you buy Valentines for your whole class?
But of course. Didn't everybody?

March
1 - Are you Irish?
Nope.
2 - Do you wear green on St. Patty's Day?
I have green by default, my eyes are green.
3 - What did you do for St. Patty's Day?
Nothing special I'm sure.

April
1 - Do you like the rain?
I must. If I didn't I wouldn't have moved to Seattle.
2 - Did you play an April Fools joke on anyone?
Oh good golly yes. And it was beautiful. And Matthew may never forgive me.
3 - Do you get tons of candy on Easter?
Nope, but since I work for a Catholic employer, I get Good Friday off. That's better.

May
1 - What's your favorite kind of flower?
Tulips I think. I also am partial to daffodils, irises and sweet peas.
2 - Do you like the spring?
Yes, I believe after winter it is my favorite season.
3 - Finish the phrase: April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?
Sunshine and happiness to my apartment.
4 - What would you think of as a spring color?
Yellow

June
1 - What year did you graduate from school?
High School - 1992
College - 1996
2 - Did you go on any vacations last June?
HAWAII!!! It was awesome!

July
1 - What did you do on the 4th of July?
Sadly, I had to check back on my blog to discover that I did NOTHING on the 4th of July.
2 - Did you go on any vacations during this month?
Nope, sadly.

August
1 - Did you do anything special to end off your summer?
I went camping in Oregon with my coworker and her roommate and a friend. It was fabulous!
2 - What was your favorite summer memory of '05?
HAWAII!!!
3 - Do you go swimming a lot in the summer?
Not as much as I'd like. Seattle has very few outdoor pools, imagine that, and I do not love the indoor pools.
4 - Do you go to the beach a lot?
No

September
1 - Did you attend school/college in 05?
Yes I took Physics 100 at the college I work for.
2 - Who is/was your favorite teacher?
My 1st grade teacher and my 3rd grade teacher.
3 - Do you like fall better than summer?
Yes, but since summer is my least favorite season that doesn't mean too much.

October
1 - What was your favorite Halloween Costume ever?
I don't know that I have one. I'm not a huge fan of dressing up in costumes for Halloween because I can never think of anything.
2 - What's your favorite candy?
CHOCOLATE!
3 - What did you dress up like this year?
A girl from the 50's. It is the same costume I wore last year. I only wear it to volunteer at the Pacific Science Center.

November
1 - Whose house do you usually go to for Thanksgiving?
As a single person, I don't really have any traditional place to go for Thanksgiving. Whoever invites me.
2 - Do you like stuffing?
No.
3 - What are you thankful for?
A job that I don't hate.

December
1 - Do you like Christmas?
Eh. It could be so much easier but it will never be.
2 - Have you ever been kissed under the mistle toe?
No.
3 - What do you want this year for Christmas?
Things to be slightly easier.
4 - What's the best present you ever got for Christmas?
Bert my Cabbage Patch Kid who was my alter ego for a very long time.
5 - Do you like cold weather?
Yes. I miss it. I wish it would snow!

Dispatches from the 'rents house vol 2.

So here are a few random photos from the trip thus far.

These bags are on the luggage carousels. I've never seen this before and I've flown into some rather large airports and checked luggage at them. I think it might be for the benefit of all the old people who live in Arizona.

Luminarias! My pops does them every year. I think it is a Mexican thing. He also has lights on the front of the house but for some reason he shuts them off when he lights the luminaria.

Christmas socks! They were given to me by a coworker. I have never worn 'toe' socks before. I will never again. My stubby fat little toes do not fit well into them. Oh and that's the same flooring we've had in the house since we moved in (hmm... I was about 5 so that's 26 years ago).

Black Forest Cherry Pie preparation. This is my favorite pie ever. Chocolate pudding, layer of dark cherries and then a layer of vanilla pudding on top. All of it is made from scratch, none of this jello crap here. This one is MY pie, designated as such because it is the only one of the 4 with a Gluten-Free crust. If you look very carefully at the bottom right hand corner you can see that same tile from the bedroom also in the kitchen. It was in all 4 bedrooms, the dining room and the kitchen when I was growing up. The parents have pulled it out of 3 of the 4 bedrooms and replaced the floor with hardwood. Currently the hall and the living room are cement subfloor as my pop has pulled up the carpet to replace the floors there. I won't tell you how long ago that was but suffice to say I lived here when he pulled up the hall carpet and the last time I lived here was in 1998. It is all very work in progress, especially as my mom keeps finding different projects for him to do, like redo the master bedroom closet etc but I totally digressed.

The finished product! It is ever so yummy. (Notice the olive drab countertops, that's the same counters they've had for the last 26 years also. At least at some point they got rid of the mustard yellow appliances.)

And finally because it just isn't the holidays without an argument about something pointless and stupid. I just totally caused a small one between my parents. I mentioned I wanted to stop by the grocery store for some food, and my mother asked me what I wanted. I said cheese for one thing since all they have is American (vomit) and mozzarella (not for what I want it for). She exclaims that they just bought cheese blah blah blah. So she stomps down to the kitchen and prowls through the fridge muttering to herself, 'if he's put it in the freezer I'll kill him.' You guessed it, he put it in the freezer. I'm sure my dad thought that since they have 2 other types of cheese out what more could we need so I think her reaction was a tiny bit over-reaction. But whatever. How many more days am I here?

Great Family Vacation

Oh golly, the Great Family Vacation is during the kid's spring break. It should've dawned on me the possibility that this would occur. My 21st birthday was during my spring break from college. But yes, oh yes, apparently I will be turning 32 with the family for the Great Family Vacation. Luckily, my father is no longer considering an RV as a means to go.

Dispatches from the 'rents house

Well I made it relatively unscathed. I'm not used to this many people around. It is kind of freaking me out. I may survive this trip. We'll see. I'll keep y'all posted.

Hope your holidays are going well. :)

Future Me

While cruising around I found a link on MSN for Future Me.org I'm not sure which is more fascinating, the thought that I can write an email to myself or the voyeuristic entertainment of reading other peoples' letters to their future selves. I'm going to think hard about this, but I'm going to write one. :)

Requisite 3 hours

I'm here at the airport having allowed myself 'extra time' because of the potential for delays due to holiday travel. I arrived at 8:15. Three hours before my flight. Ok, Ok I didn't have to get here this early, but I've been anxious about this whole trip so why not be anxious about arriving on time too? Basically I just didn't want to get stranded in a really long line at security. There was even a warning on the news that they were going to start searching more people blah blah blah allow extra time. Bah humbug. :)

Obviously they have wifi here. I paid 10 whole dollars for 24 hours worth of access. It is odd that I won't pay this at like the convention center, but at the airport, where I'm basically trapped, I've got no issues. Luckily I'm in like 2 tournaments on Its Your Turn, so I have plenty of games to play while I wait. And I think it's been awhile since I've read a recap at Television Without Pity.

I also have coloring! I received my Christmas present on Thursday from Michelle and Bryan. She sent me a coloring book and some paint by number greeting cards. Now, this isn't just some you know, Beauty and the Beast Coloring Book. It is from Uncommon Goods (who may be my favorite shopping site ever now) and is swirls and designs on fancy art paper. It is very very nice and I'm very excited to bust it open and start coloring. I even bought a new box of Crayolas for the occassion. :D I also dug out my box of oil pastels, both of which should prove entertaining for me.

I've invited my sister to join the blog so you may or may not see posts from her pop up periodically. Of course this means I can't bitch about her anymore. ;) (Just kidding kiddo, I never say bad things about you.)

In any case, hope y'all have a Merry Christmas! I may or may not be back here before then. Hard to say. :)

Oh this may not be good

I just looked at my paystub and looked at what I earned for the ytd and what I paid in taxes ytd to see how much of a refund I would be getting. Now of course, I haven't actually done the whole process yet and I could be wrong, but it looks like I may not be getting quite the refund I thought I was due.

Phew - nevermind. I looked at the EZ form and for some reason it has a standard deduction of $8,200 instead of the one on the 1040 regular that has $5,000 (I'm sure there's more for the 1040 regular to make it to the same 8200 that the EZ has but I just didn't find it in my quick look). So now I will be getting a refund of about $1,100. Much better. Oh wait, this means I CAN go on the Great Family Vacation this spring.

Movin' on

Bye bye work crush. You are out the next 2 days. We're all off next week. No move was made prior to New Years so now you are just a guy I talk to at work sometimes. No more hopin'. No more wishin'. No more talking about you and analyzing your behavior. I'm done.

But if you were to somehow get a clue, I'd still accept a date. :)

PYOP!

My hometown has paint your own pottery. I'm so dragging my sister and niece there when I visit!

Cooking experiment 1

Since I've been on this casserole kick lately (for some random reason) I had the brilliant idea I'd invent my own tonight. How hard can it be? Recipes have to come from somewhere. My first experiment in casserole turned out pretty well. I took a potato and grated it. (I also grated my thumb a teeny tiny bit.) Then I put it in a pan, with butter, parmasean cheese, cheddar cheese and whipping cream (since I don't have any milk.). I also threw in some salt, pepper, paprika, parsley, a little Mrs. Dash and maybe something else. Then I cut up some chicken and put that in the pan and popped the whole thing in the oven for 1 hr. I think it turned out pretty good. It was tasty and rather filling. And there's enough for lunch tomorrow at work and Thursday. Now I want to figure out how to make the sauce a little more cheesy and smooth than it was. It was, well... not gritty but not smooth. Otherwise, I'm pleased. :)

Potentially rhetorical

But if you know the answer, please share. I've been obsessed with pasta baked dishes lately. I want to make one but don't know how blah blah blah. So I go online just now to find a recipe for baked ziti (now that I know the name of a potential dish it makes it so much easier, just searching baked pasta dish doesn't get you anything really useful). So here's my question, if you're cooking the noodles and the meat beforehand, what's the point in putting it into a pan and baking it in the oven? I thought the point was that you didn't have to pre-cook anything and just tossed it into a pan. If you have a recipe for something like this that doesn't require pre-cooking please let me know that too. :)

Santa baby!

Happiness is a secret Santa present! I signed up for a Secret Santa at this site and sent a Secret Santa present last week sometime to some other random blogger. Yesterday I got mine! Yay for me! :) Thank you Secret Santa whoever you are! :)

New Year's Goals

I never make resolutions. I don't believe in them. (And yes I realize I'm a week early) but I've thought of some goals for the New Year that I would like to accomplish. I think if perhaps I reframe them into goals as opposed to resolutions they'll be more likely to happen.

1 - I am going to work on being more accepting of those whose priorities are different than mine. Not be so judgmental about them. I hate it beyond hate when someone tries to change me, so why do I do the same to them?

2 - I'm going to find a yoga class I can afford to go once a week. I need to strengthen my trunk so I stop screwing up my back.

3 - I'm going to go back to meal planning every week like I did. When I went to the grocery store on Saturdays or Sundays my life was easier, but now that I only do it sporadically because I'm not supposed to be field tripping any more than necessary, I find that I don't want to cook and I don't have any food that combines well to make a meal. Ie I have a ton of meat in the freezer but not much else.
Sub goal 3 - I have to do dishes more often. I never want to cook because there's no space. There's no space because it is a tiny kitchen and all flat surfaces are covered in dishes that need to be washed. Sigh.

4 - Find a new crush. Michelle's deadline is fast looming and although I don't have to do what Michelle tells me to do, the reality is if I'm unwilling to do the work, which I am, then I need to find someone who is interested in me. Which wc may or may not be. In any event, I don't want to be the girl that the guy goes out with because she wore him down. We knew that girl in college. She was pathetic, and I don't want to be her. So after Jan 1, I'm not going to be actively interested in him. If he chats with me great, if not life goes on. I'm going to be actively looking for a new crush. (or even better an actual guy to date.)

Yay the trip won't be so bad.

My sister has just made my trip to Arizona about 64.3% less anxiety inducing for me. She'll be there the whole week I'm going to be there. My mother was under the misguided impression that she had to work so would be in Phoenix that week. My sis doesn't so she'll be at the house. This makes me a tiny bit happier since I won't have to deal with my family on my own. I may be able to drag her out to a bar one night to entertain ourselves. :)

Funny little glasses story

Yesterday morning when I woke up, I put on my glasses like always. I couldn't figure out what the problem was, but I totally couldn't see. My vision was blurry and I thought hmm, is it time already to get new glasses? So I closed each eye to figure out the problem and in my left eye it was as though there was no lens even in because the vision was so bad. Hmm... no lens even. I reached up to take my glasses off my face to look at them and realized the problem. The left lens had fallen out. This has been an ongoing problem, at least twice before the lens has just popped out because the screw gets loose. So I have a momentary panic attack that the lens and screw has fallen somewhere in the chaos that is my apartment currently and then decide to be calm and start on the bed where the glasses live when I'm sleeping. There it is. The lens and the screw. PHEW! Then belatedly taking Michelle's advice, I put the screw in but put a drop of clear nail polish on the threads to hold it in place. I'm done with this damn thing falling out!

Sometimes living alone sucks

Yesterday I got sick. I don't know what caused it. I felt steadily crummier all afternoon. Finally around 7:30 I decided to cook some dinner because I thought perhaps it was because I was hungry I felt so bad. No. In fact it was the opposite. I took 2 bites of my dinner and raced to the bathroom. In all honesty, I can't remember at all the last time I threw up. I know there was a time in Alaska, but that would be like 10 years ago, and I probably have since then. (I know the time in Alaska because this was when I discovered I'm allergic to vicodin. Violently allergic to it. I spent 2 days throwing up.) In any case, I didn't get the lid & seat up quickly enough. There's little more disheartening than throwing up and then having to clean up the mess yourself. :(

This morning I woke up and still felt iffy. I wasn't sure if it was because I had no food in my belly and hadn't had any since yesterday or if I was still planning on being ill. After a can of soda I was feeling better. I went to lunch with my coworker. We went out to my favorite restaurant. :) I bought some bagels for breakfast for the next few days and some ginger cookies. We got back to park the flexcar with 2 minutes to spare. It was closer than I like it to be. :) I need to do dishes before I go visit the fam. I had also meant to do some cleaning before I spent yesterday ill. I hope we get to go home early on Friday that will give me a little time to get stuff done.

Big gay cowboy movie

I went and saw the big gay cowboy movie with a couple of friends tonight. Big R was very excited to see this movie and bought the tickets like a week ago. First thing, since we are a 'select city' it hasn't been released nationwide yet, there was a line. I got there an hour early so I could stand in this line. Already I might be a tiny bit grumpy. Especially since the gays can never start anything on time. We must be fashionably late. (Ok this may not actually have anything to do with the gays. It is totally the theater's fault. But the movie was supposed to start at 9:50, at 10:00 we were still standing outside in line.

It should've dawned on me when I was reading about the movie that Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams are married in the movie. I know I actually read that somewhere but it didn't permeate into my fuzzy little brain that this is basically a movie about extra-marital affairs. I am completely against a movie whose sole story is basically an affair under the guise of a 'love story.' I wouldn't have watched this if I had realized that. Also it is long and depressing. And although Heath Ledger does a great job acting, he is nearly incomprehensible. He cannot rid himself of that dead sexy Australian accent so it was weird. The cinematography is amazing. Fabulous. Gorgeous even. All in all, I'm glad I saw it. I probably won't ever see it again, but I mostly enjoyed it.

Darn my procrastination

I was going to bring the babies home with me to visit the folks instead of leaving them alone in the apartment all week long. Unfortunately when I called just now, they already have 2 animals flying in the cabin, so no pets for me. :( I didn't ask about checking them because I think that's icky and cruel. I don't know if they even do that anymore. The kittens will just have to stay in the apartment and party themselves silly.

Rigby fell in the tub again yesterday. In retaliation (or more like in response to the fact that she pottied several times in the tub and then walked through it so there was poo on her) I bathed her yesterday evening. She smells all fruity (since I use some random brand of kids' shampoo) and fluffy. I love it when they are freshly bathed. Now if I could only catch Tess & do the same thing. She's a little more slippier.

2 Thoughts before going to bed.

1 - I made the cutest little pizza tonight. I baked a bigger one on the pizza stone for the potluck tomorrow. But for mine, I used a pie pan and it turned out very well. And it was perfect for me for dinner. In the future, I may have to set aside smaller balls of dough for pizza and do this again. To use one of Michelle's phrases: It was so cute and little. :D

2 - I'm in pain. It is my own damn fault and I'm well aware of that. I stood all afternoon, wrapping presents. I stood during the hour of my meeting tonight. And worst, I walked home from work tonight. I did not get out to catch the bus in enough time to not have to wait at least 20 or 25 minutes (depending on my bus choice). There are only 2 that go by my apartment that would not require me to hill climb, or basically walk as far as I would walk if I just walked from work. So while I've been much better and more careful about not walking and hill climbing, I can't do it 100% of the time like I'm supposed to. I ended up getting home at 7:45 which is when the 1st bus would've been just picking me up. (Provided it was on time.)

Yarn angels

The girls & I made yarn dolls tonight. To make them into angels, we took some very wide sparkly ribbon and tied it in a bow to make it look like wings. They turned out very very cute. I wish I had remembered my camera so I could take pics, although I spent most of the meeting helping the girls. The girls liked them and at least 1 wants to put it on her tree at home. That's all I really am looking for. This fulfilled a requirement for one of the try its for the brownies.

We were talking today at the meeting. The girls really want to do the sewing badge. I don't have enough mad skillz to teach them, so I thought about talking to the Stitches owner (which is where I learned to sew) about doing a class. This is a brilliant idea. Except. And this is a BIG except. Stitches is next door to a sex toy shop. A sex toy shop that displays all their wares in the windows. How do I get the girls into the sewing shop without going past that? I may see if she'd be willing to come to us. We can come to the store from the other direction (which would be the direction we would need to come anyway) but I just worry a bit. I mentioned to the moms that this would be a potential problem. I will cross the bridge when we get there I suppose.


I'm supposed to be cooking pizza for my potluck tomorrow. I haven't eaten dinner yet so that will also be my dinner. Last year I made it for the potluck and dropped the whole damn thing on the floor when I was heating it up and so no pizza for the potluck. :(


I think I was cock blocked by Matty this afternoon. I was in my office after work waiting for the meeting. Matthew stopped in to chat. We chatted. WC walked by and did something. Then went back into his office. Then about 15 min later he left. Sometimes he stops in and chats with me. He totally did not today. I've mentioned before that I have a gay friend. I'm sure he didn't necessarily put 1 + 1 together and come up with Matty being the gay one. Now I will have to find a way to work that into a conversation. Technically, if I follow Michelle's timeline, I only have 1 week to go. Think I should go all Love Actually and say that since you are supposed to be honest at Christmas here goes... :) (I jokes Michelle I jokes! I totally won't do that!)

Carless in Seattle

It's been 2 years since the brakes died on the beloved Bronco and I made the surprisingly difficult decision to go completely carless. I don't look back with any regret though. I now do a lot of public transportation and Flexcar. I have some free time coming to me on Flexcar so I am thinking of going for Gluten Free food this weekend. I wouldn't go if I didn't have the free time, but since I do, I may as well use it. :) It expires the end of December and I leave next Saturday so...

One thing I've noticed now that I don't drive very often. I'm becoming a bad driver. Maybe bad isn't the right word, but I'm becoming overly cautious. And that overcaution means, at least to the drivers on the freeway, bad. I was never a great driver. I was a good driver, but not necessarily a great driver(to my way of thinking anyway, but good/bad driver is all relative. I think Michelle is a bad driver, but I know she considers herself to be a great driver and thinks I'm a terrible driver. Of course she zooms up and down the freeways of LA with all the other LA drivers, and I drive on 1 freeway in Seattle so... Relative.) Now I get too nervous when I'm on the freeway. I don't like it. I am not sure how to fix this. Part of the overcaution is the knowledge that if I damage the flexcar in any way, there is a $500 deductible. I don't have 500 bucks floating about. Of course in retrospect, I never wrecked the Bronco in the 5 or 6 years I drove it. I've never been in an accident on the freeway. The last car accident I was involved in was when I was in high school. So in reality, the odds are good I won't be involved in an accident on the freeway. But trying to convince my brain that seems to be a whole other Oprah.

I got my flexcar bill in the mail yesterday. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Sometimes when I know I'm not going to make my end time, I call and extend the time. That's usually not a big deal. This time it was. I was late and there was someone waiting for the car. I called and talked to the operator and he called the person and I was only about 8 minutes late, but late is late. I was expecting a bigger fine. I thought it was like $25. It was only $10. Still, it is a waste of money, but not as bad as I expected. I think I never really read my Flexcar terms & agreements since this is twice I've been wrong on numbers. I used to think the deductable was $750.

Cribbage

Matty P was volunteering at the big gay center tonight so I hung out with him after having taco Tuesday at the lesbian bar. It was probably psychosomatic but I could swear the tacos and the soda tasted much better without the cloud of smoky haze that usually fills the bar. Well, that and the new cook who made the tacos this time. It tasted like she didn't even use a taco seasoning packet (which I always find way too salty.)

So we went over to the center and played Phase 10 first. I kicked his ass as usual. Then we changed to cribbage. I've never played cribbage with a real person. I've played it on my gameboy, but I didn't really get the logic or how the points worked. The first game I kept showing my hand and asking matty which ones to discard. He kicked my ass soundly. Now I won't accuse him of cheating per se, but he did slaughter me. The 2nd game, I beat him. I will say that I did not show him my cards this round. Coincidence... Possibly. The 3rd game I think he won by 2 or 3 points. Again I didn't show him my cards. But cribbage was fun. I'd play it again.

Healthy ability to laugh at ones self.

It is really good that I have that. Because I am ever so bad at all the things I enjoy doing. We had the office bowling party. I love to bowl. I am AWFUL at bowling. But I broke 50 both times so that makes me happy. That's all I need. :) I think I may have even made a spare. :D I also enjoy pool which I'm terrible at. I love to do arts & crafts which I only have a 4th grade skill with. Matty P & I play games and I all the time but the only one I can win at with any possibility is Phase 10. Tomorrow MP & I are going to play cribbage. I shall be combing the net looking for info on tips and strategies for playing cribbage. :)

So here's the lockt for my mom with the 4 leaf clover in it. When my pops & I were driving back from Indiana, we stopped at a rest stop where there were tons of them. I have 6 (now 5) of them dried in my apartment. They haven't been so lucky but I can have faith.

This is an attempted picture of my new red hair, but I don't think you can really tell how red it is. It just looks like I have dark hair.

Officially all done

I am now officially all done with my Christmas shopping. I just got my mother's and my sister's Christmas presents in the mail today. Yay! I will not say what I'm getting my sister because she reads this sometimes (I think, she may not anymore). But I got my mom this necklace from uncommon goods. I hope she likes it. I have a 4 leaf clover I picked on my way back from Indiana with my pop and I'm going to put it inside of it. It is bigger than I thought it would be but I think it is pretty.

Not working this week...

Apparently I am not working at all this week. Ok I am, but I have 4, yes FOUR, parties to attend this week during work hours. This afternoon is our team's holiday bowling. Thursday I am getting together with our division and we are wrapping the presents we all bought for our adopted family. After that one ends, I have another one to go to sponsored by a different division. Then on Friday is the potluck between the HR office and the controller's office. That one is kind of like a lunch 2 hours. Then 1 more week of working and a week off! Whee! Even if I AM spending that week off with my family.

Happiness is...

Did you ever see those books? Anyway, today happiness is finding a can of forgotten waterchestnuts in the cupboard so that my home made ginger chicken will be especially yummy. :D

Today is do gooder day apparently. I first did some work on the encampment, for which I am the director. Now I'm working on the calendar for the girls' moms to let them know what is happening when. And later I'll be working on my trainer application since I'm going to become a trainer.

Yesterday I volunteered to be an usher for Googlewhack again. I didn't stay for the show again since I was so tired. I had spent the early part of the day shopping with the girls. I bought my mom a couple of books for her birthday and the gift card for the last tag I pulled off the giving tree. So I am officially all done buying Christmas presents. Ooh, and I have bought Christmas cards. I may actually get them sent this year. I need to use up my child abuse stamps that I bought while I was in California before the postal rate goes up.

And finally, mad props to the Clorox bleach pen. My hair is still giving off dye. I totally didn't think about that when I put on a new white shirt yesterday and my hair was still damp. Just before I left I looked and I had several spots of black cherry kool-aid color on my new (just bought over Thanksgiving weekend) white shirt. Fuck. But I rinsed it and then used the bleach pen and the color is gone! Yay!

Matty 2 Joanne 0 & Oh yes I AM invisible

Oh yes I AM invisible
Apparently I am not only invisible to cars, but I am also invisible to men pushing desks in shopping carts. I was standing there waiting for the light so I could cross the street. My mind is on my tunes. I'm standing fairly close to the button to push for the walk signal. All of a sudden BANG! I have pain in my upper right ass cheek. Why? Because this guy has just pushed his cart into me. And then proceeded to say that he thought I heard him and blah blah blah. I am both stunned as hell at getting hit and in a little bit of pain since the guy was cruising along and it was the corner of the desk that hit me. My eyes started to well and I had to catch my breath. Christ, I'm going to start wearing a huge flashing light on top of my head to make me obvious.

Matty 2, Joanne 0
Matty - 1: Matty knows I do not love the jazz. I rather dislike it since it sounds just like a bunch of disjointed noises to me. Yesterday night with the girls I had a plan we were going to listen to different types of music. (And yes they were all essentially western types of music. No tribal chants or Japanese pipe music). So Matty loaned me a jazz CD to play for the girls. The soundtrack to Charlie Brown's Christmas. I never would've thought of THAT music as jazz. The girls loved it. One kept asking me to play it while the other girls went to get water or went to the restroom.

Matty - 2: Today was our company's holiday party. (Matty is temping there). I happened to be talking to Matty at a drink table when WC turned and chatted with me. Worlds collide! This is not allowed! We made chit chat for a few minutes. I introduced Matt to him. (Forgetting that I'm supposed to introduce him as Matthew.) And after WC left, he just smirked at me. As I dug myself a hole and got more and more embarrassed. He thinks that perhaps there may be something there. :D

And in final news, WC did compliment my hair. :) Yesterday I was ready to give up on him because he went the whole day without saying anything, but today he redeemed himself so I'll continue my crazy crush a little longer. I am a fickle girl I know.

A bunch of photos that should've been posted sooner.

So as promised some time ago, here's the pics of the arts & crafts Michelle & I did in California.

These are the magnets I made for my girls. Some of them. I made one for each of my gals, the Brownies in brown uniforms and my 3 Juniors in green. They are really cute!

The process of grouting our mosaics was not pleasant. This is mine with the black grout added. I kept mine. It is in a bag in my bedroom. I intend to finish cleaning off the black sooner or later.

Michelle's coasters. They had cute potential, but were so coated in grout that it was impossible to find the glass underneath.

Michelle's coasters pre-grout. They had such cute potential!

My box part way through and definitely pre-grout.

The lesson we learned is definitely that mosaics are not fun.

So this would be the new hair color. I know it is an ass picture but my girls were even less able to take a picture of my hair than I was. I'll try to take a better pic maybe over the weekend.

Fucking awesome!

I went today to get my hair cut and colored. It looks fabulous! It was just a trim, but the color... Kind of a dark mahogany. I love it! It looks awesome! I would take pictures but apparently I am unable to accomplish this. I usually take my camera to my meetings so I'll get one of the girls to take it.

An Unseen Bonus

My new coat from my folks for Christmas is actually 2 pieces. There's the outer weatherproof part with a hood and all that. Then another jacket zips inside and is the toasty warm part. The outer is navy blue and the inner is yellow. Very yellow. When I wore the inner part by itself the other day to work, I got the following comments: "My, that's a statement." and "Wow. That's Yellow. If I wasn't awake before, I'd be awake now." I like it so what do I care. It makes me happy. AND as a total unseen bonus, for a change I'm not invisible when I assert my city given right as a pedestrian to walk across the street and not get hit. No driver can claim they didn't see me when I'm wearing that! Kate (from college) would be impressed I'm wearing yellow. When in college I hated yellow with a passion. Now I can dig it.

Parting of ways

The physical therapist and I have decided to part ways. We just agreed that it was going nowhere and she just isn't fulfilling my needs.

Yesterday (was Monday only yesterday??), when I went in she asked me what I wanted to do. I do not subscribe to this method of doctoring. If you tell me to make an appointment in 3 weeks and I do so, you should have a plan for that appointment. Don't ask me what I need, you are supposed to know that. (I had the same problem with the chiropractor. She & I had a parting of ways also, although more because I got sick and failed to go to an appointment and never made it up.) So, my physical therapist and I discussed the benefit of seeing her. This is part of the ongoing achilles tendonitis that will apparently never heal. She did hmm... what's the word... ultrasound around my heel for a little while. Then we discussed the potential that it isn't tendonitis, um it is. All the previous stuff indicated that. The current pain indicates that. She thinks that because the pain is pretty specifically located it could be like a heel rubbing issue. It has been swollen long before I started wearing my new shoes that currently rub. Anyway, we've gone past her abilities. I may possibly see some minimal improvement if I were to go in 3 times a week for like 3 - 4 weeks and she did the ultrasound stuff but she doubted it would be worth the expense and time. She did encourage me to go see a sports medicine doctor on the hill. So I guess that's the next step. Maybe after January I'll go do that.

In other random statements, chocolate cool-whip is yummy.

And Oh My God. the cheesetacular made for TV movie Friends til the End is on! I'm so watching this tonight!

The things I learn...

We were talking today at lunch about ribs and baby back ribs. Ok we weren't talking about ribs but through some course of conversation I sang the baby back rib song from Austin Powers (which I know is from an annoying Chili's commercial). Then we really were talking about baby back ribs and pondering where they come from. I said that perhaps they came from the back section since the ribs go all the way around and this would be the part that connects to the spine, but I wasn't sure. So when I get back from lunch, I google it. And first I come up with that it comes from the loin of the pig, which I send off to the 2 people I was discussing this with and one replies that ribs only come from cows and the other replies with a Homer Simpson quote about a magical animal that has bacon and ham and ribs. :) So I go to Ask.com and discover that I was actually correct. It is the ribs that are attached to the back (hence the baby back duh). I rule sometimes.

Rigby's very own post.

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So that's that. I don't know what she is trying to tell the world, but it seemed important at the time.


In non Rigby thoughts, how is it that statues of naked men always fall and have the penis fall off? Seriously. I know it is comedic hilarity, but of all things to break when a plaster statue falls, that seems like the most difficult piece to break.

Disappointment & redemption

Disappointment
I'm pretty even keeled. Matty is laughing at this I'm sure, but it takes a lot to really rile me up. When driving I never ever honk the horn, I hate it. I think people use it way too much. So today, I'm on my way out to my favorite restuarant and happily driving along when a brand new car decides to come into my lane... where the front part of my car still happened to be. The car behind me was far enough back so I hit the brakes and hit the horn. Meep. MEEP?? That's it? That's all I get to vent my 'holy shit asshole you almost caused me to hit you?' Meep. Pathetic. Damn Honda Civics.

Redemption
Since moving up here, most of the Fred Meyers stores I have been to have been somewhat disappointing. The one that used to be near my house (which got shifted out to be a giant QFC grr) was weird and disjointed, but it at least carried what I needed. The one in Edmonds that I go to when I go there for lunch was trashy at best and now under construction so it sucks. There was another one I went to in Lake City that was eh. So imagine my joy yesterday when I went into the one in Ballard. It was beautiful. It had everything the Fairbanks one had. It was like the Fred Meyers of my dream. It was clean and shiny and pretty. I loved it.

dun dun dun dun! Imperial

I was on the bus yesterday when a woman reached into her many bags and pulled out a box of Imperial margerine. I was afraid she was just going to start eating the margerine right there, but she didn't. Slightly weirder. She leaned across the aisle and offered me one of the sticks. I politely declined.

I my apartment last night at 7:00 to go volunteer at The Moore Theater for their show Googlewhack. I have absolutely no idea why the plea for more volunteers went out. There were only about 100 people in attendence of the show. And there were already 2 other volunteers and 2 regular ushers. Since I'm volunteering on Saturday again for the show I decided not to stay this time and watch. So I head out to wait for the bus. (Sigh the bus) and I waited and I waited and I waited. I was about 1/2 hour out in the freezingass cold. (The bus was at least 10 minutes late) When it was my stop I totally didn't want to get off the bus where it was warm.

Yay gluten free restaurant for lunch today! :D

A meme from my sistah

So I received this from my sister, as an email, but I did change 3 questions beacause they were about if this was being emailed. I borrowed the questions from MindSprite.

1. What is your full name? Freida Wilhelmenia Miller (oh wait that's the fake name I give out sometimes.)
2. What color pants are you wearing? Blue jeans
3. What are you listening to right now? Commercials. :(
4. What was the last thing you ate? Dibs (mint chocolate ice cream type)
5. Do you wish on stars? bien sur, and drop coins in fountains and and and...
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? fuschia
7. How is the weather right now? Cold
8. Last person you spoke to on the phone? A coworker
9. One of your scars, how did you get it? I have one on my knee from when I was camping with my Scout troop when I was maybe 5th grade and I was jumping over a folded up tent and my foot caught on something and I landed knee first.
10. How old are you today? 31
11. Favorite drink? Rum
12. Favorite sport? hockey!
13. Hair color? Brownish reddish brown
14. Do you wear contacts? No
15. Siblings? 1 younger and 1 older sister
16. Favorite Month? January
17. Favorite food? Tacos!
18. What was the last movie you saw? In the movie theater, Harry Potter 4, at home 50 First Dates
19. Favorite day of the year? I don't have one
20. What do you do to vent anger? The Peevery!
21. What was your favorite toy as a child? Bert, my Cabbage Patch Kid alter ego
22. Summer or winter? Winter
23. Hugs or kisses? kisses
24. Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate
25. What annoys you the most? Random Stoppers!
26. If you could put 5 bands together to perform a concert, who would you choose? Pearl Jam, 27. What books are you reading? Son of a Witch, although I have a huge stack from the library waiting to be read.
28. When was the last time you cried? Yesterday while watching The Apprentice because Randal seeing his wife was so sweet & cute.
29. What is under your bed? Better you don't ask, but storage boxes and maybe a sleeping ferret or 2.
30. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Kate
31. What did you do last night? Worked on my paper, watched TV, IM'd Michelle
32. What are you afraid of? Insects and the dark
33. Plain, buttered or salted popcorn? butter
34. What is your favorite car? Hybrid
35. Favorite flower? tulips
36. Number of keys on your key ring? 5
37. How many years at your current job? 2 1/4
38. Favorite day of the week? Sunday, Sundays are for adventures!
39. What did you do on your last birthday? Dragged Michelle to Disneyland.
40. How many states have you lived in? 5
41. How many cities have you lived in? 5
42. Favorite Disney Character? Belle, or Mickey or Eeyore. I have to pick only one?
43. What is the first thing you think when you wake up? Christ it isn't even 6:15, go back to sleep until the alarm goes off!

A forgotten benefit

I was in the elevator going up to my apartment the other evening and I smelled a wonderous smell. A smell I had almost forgotten about. The smell of a live Christmas tree. I love live trees. I know it probably violates all of my tree hugging tendencies but growing up we always had live trees and some day I will have one again. Currently I use a fake tree I bought in Fairbanks in 1997 for 20 bucks from Pick and Save. It looks like ass, and every year it looks a little worse. So, one thing I am looking forward to when I visit the fam, a live Christmas tree. AND and and... how could I forget? My absolute favorite pie, a black forest cherry pie. Yum!

Ok the link to the pie is totally not the right recipe, but it gives you kind of an idea. Although the inside is full of vanilla and chocolatey goodness with a layer of cherries between the 2 and then cherries on top. Oh so delicious.

I'm no fan...

But couldn't they find a better picture of Jack White to use in the paper?

It is snowing!!!!!

How cool is that?! I hope they send us home early because of traffic or whatever.