Aneurysm

My 15 year old niece tried to give me a aneurysm about 2 days ago. On her little comment next to her name on messenger it said 'life sucks.' So being the caring auntie that I am, I IM her and ask her why life sucks. It seems a friend of hers who has graduated high school is going to the Naval Acadamy. "Don't worry, though, AJ" she says to me... "He's just a friend, not a friend with benefits." That's where I felt the blood vessel in my head swell to enormous proportions. I know she's 15. I know she watches TV. I'm okay with her knowing what a friend with benefits is (vaguely) but oh hell no, her having one is not okay. She's 15! I told her she nearly gave me an aneurysm and we joked about it. She assured me that that's the last thing on her mind right now and that she only had ever kissed the boy. I want to be the kind of aunt she can go to about this stuff since her mom died, her father is satan and I don't actually know anything about her step-mom except that she cheated with a married man whose wife had cancer (which makes her the wife of satan). I don't know that I'll be able to be this aunt though. The hard part about having nieces and nephews you never see is that even though they are getting older, they're still frozen in a certain place in time. She's frozen at about 7 to me. To think of her in high school is huge. And it freaks me out a little bit. In true double standard fashion, I've never worried about this with regards to my nephew. However, I don't know that it is because he's a boy. It is more that he is a geek. I love the boy. But he is the kind of guy to line up for Star Wars movies 2 days early dressed in Jedi attire. Those guys don't get laid. :)

Peeved Dream Snippets

I had a dream last night of which I can only remember two pieces.

1. I said to someone, "Jesus Christ, I am 30. How much freaking older do you have to be to do this job?"
2. I saw a broken wooden spoon.

According to dreammoods.com:

Age: To dream of your age, signifies you anxiety and concern of growing older. It may also represent some regrets or failure in your endeavors.

Job: To dream that you are looking for a job, suggests that you are unfulfilled and feeling frustrated in your current phase of your life.

Spoon: To see a spoon in your dream, indicates that you may need to give/receive nourishment. It may also mean that you feel you or someone is being given special treatment.

Wood: To dream of wood, suggests that you are feeling dead inside and emotionless. You may be behaving automatically and just going along with the flow. Or you may be acting out without fully thinking things through.

Am I jaded?

According to dictionary dot com...

Jaded:
1 - Worn out; wearied: “My father's words had left me jaded and depressed” (William Styron).
2 - Dulled by surfeit; sated: “the sickeningly sweet life of the amoral, jaded, bored upper classes” (John Simon).
3 - Cynically or pretentiously callous.

Gay virgin, of the cult of the virgins, and coworker have both called me jaded. Hmmm...I guess with that first definition, sometimes I am.

Pride Parade

On Sunday despite my best intentions to avoid all things Pride related (Margaret Cho notwithstanding, she wasn't billed as a Pride event - that's Gay Pride for those new to my world) I ended up at the Parade. V asked me if I was going and I hadn't seen him for awhile so I figured I'd go and join him and some of the other gays I haven't seen for awhile. Here are the sum of my thoughts on the parade...

1 - Three hours is TOO LONG for a local parade. I don't even think the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade lasts this long.
2 - Less politicians and the parade won't be 3 hours.
And 3 - Now that I've seen it once, I won't need to see it again.

But here are some pics I took:

This was one of the first things I saw as I walked to the parade. It amused me because my first thought was wow (and not a good wow), way to gouge the gays. I mean, 20 bucks to park?! Even Disneyland doesn't charge that much.

Presentation of the colors.

Pipers. Strangely enough I like bagpipe music. But everytime I see bagpipers I think of that scene in So I Married an Axe Murderer where there's a piper playing and the guy faints and the dad makes the announcement "There's a piper down, a piper down."

I like the Boeing Employees. I thought their little planes were cute.

Condom Statue of Liberty. I don't know why but I found this amusing.

The Seafair Pirates. They aren't necessarily the gays. And according to the guys in the chairs in front of me it was a big deal they were there. Like now the parade has 'made it.'

Synchronized book trucks. The library has a group that does this. I don't know why but it seems like fun. We never had that kind of fun when I worked at UAF's library. (Although we did have book truck races, hey we were 3 floors UNDERGROUND who knew we were down there?)

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. They scare me a tiny bit, but they do good work in the community.

"Help me Obi Wan Penobi, you're my only hope."

Of the like 4 or 5 real floats there, I thought this one was the best. I especially liked the fireworks! :)

Fighting dream.

I had a dream last night that I was in an argument with someone close to me. In the dream, at least, it was an all out screaming match about an issue that in real life is an issue between us. It was unsettling to say the least. As I walked away from this person in anger, I was bombarded with dirt clogs. There was a person throwing them over the fence at me. Eventually, those were lit and actually were little bombs like you'd see on TV. I ended up running into an apartment building and not going to my original destination where I ran into an old acquaintance I actually saw on Saturday, but otherwise who I hadn't seen in just about a year. And he comforted me because I was so upset by the whole event. Strange the way real waking life kept intersecting with the dream.

Argument: trying to resolve some internal conflict or some unsettled issue in your waking life. Consider the symbolism of whom you are arguing with and what you are arguing about. How does he or she reflect some person or some aspect of yourself in your waking life? (Not at all shocking)

Dirt (thrown): To dream that someone throws dirt at you, denotes that enemies will try to attack your character and harm your reputation. (Funnily enough, if I had this argument with this person in real life, it would not completely shock me if this person were to do something like this)

Bomb: To see a bomb in your dream, signifies that you may be going through a potentially explosive and trying situation in your waking life. The bomb could represent repressed desires and unexpressed emotions that are likely to explode or burst if not dealt with soon. It could be something within yourself, such as the desire to explode with anger over an issue that's affecting you.

Acquaintance: To see an acquaintance in your dream, signifies positive affairs in business and harmony in your home life. It also foretells that you will see or hear from them shortly after this dream. (Except I already saw him on Saturday which is why I think he showed up again. The person I had an argument with does not like this guy.)

The raspberry/caramel muffins are weird.

I've eaten them for breakfast the past 2 mornings and the best descriptor is weird. But they're not gross so I continue to eat them. However, for future reference, I will not try this again. I'm sticking with good old chocolate chip or banana nut. :) I have to toast them because they are too moist on the outside so this dries them out a bit.

The new kits seem to be settling in a little bit. Tess likes to take any treats she gets and hides them. She spent about 20 min on her first day with me climbing up on the sofa to get a treat, running and hiding it and then returning. Tess does NOT like the outdoors. I tried to get them to go for a walk yesterday and Tess wasn't having it. Which is funny because she paces at the screen on the bedroom window like a damn tiger in the zoo. She just THINKS she wants to be outside. Tess also likes to dig in dirt. I had a bag of potting soil, that I hadn't realized Rigby had knocked on the floor. I looked yesterday evening and realized the bag was moving. Tess was inside doing her damnedest to get the dirt out. I have an old container with a hole cut in the top to be a dig box. Mink & Bax never liked it much but I think I'll fill it with potting soil for Tess to dig in. Rigby is the queen of the cheweasels. I put one out for each of them, but Rig quickly took them both. She also has apprently scoured the apartment for any Baxter left unclaimed because suddenly she had 5 of them. She sleeps near them apparently to not let them out of her sight. She also has taken to biting my feet. So we keep going through rounds of a bite, then scruff, then "NO BITE" very stern in her face then a 3 minute time out in the carrier. If I have to take drastic measures, chili oil will be smeared on my feet, but when I did something similar to Baxter who used to bite like a bitch it backfired.* Rig does not, however, bite my hands or really any other body part. Just the feet. So that's definitely an improvement. They both tend to sleep in the carrier. I think it is a security thing for them. I caged them yesterday while I was at work, but didn't today. That could be a mistake. This morning I got Tess all riled up and when I couldn't handle her wrestling with my hand anymore (She bites when we wrestle so now I have several puncture holes in my hand, but that's playing not vindictive/meanness), I tossed Rigby on the bed with her. They wrassled for awhile and it was very cute. As they reached the edge of the bed I thought they'd realize and move away, not so much. Death grip on each other's throats, they fell on the floor. And I laughed. I might be mean, I know it. :)


*I had smeared tobasco on my hands (because Bax bit and held on) and Bax bit into one and then was enraged so she bit down on my thumb, through the nail and wouldn't let go. I had to pry her jaws off and then without thinking, I rubbed my eyes which had teared up in pain. I wanted to DIE! There's nothing quite like the pain of rubbing tobasco in both eyes.

Fa Mulan

Mulan is one of my favorite Disney movies. I think it is #2 in the hierarchy. Number 1 is Beauty and the Beast. But I think I love Mulan because she is so kick ass. Probably the only Disney heroine who kicks ass. You know Eddie Murphy's character notwithstanding.

Also, damn My Girl! Seriously, tears run down my cheeks from the bees all the way to almost the end.

In theory

So today I decided to make raspberry muffins. I wanted to have walnuts in them, but apparently I didn't have them. I also wanted to put a nice brown sugar crumble on top. Hm... I don't know how to do this, so I consult my mother who says butter and brown sugar. For future refrence when one asks this kind of question, ask for quantities. So I follow her vague instructions... mix butter and brown sugar and I sprinkle it on top of my muffins. Except I had too much crumble stuff so I kind of layered it on top of my muffins. And go about cooking dinner. While I'm cooking I'm starting to notice a wee bit of smoke coming out of the oven. Hm.. I check. The crumble has melted and dripped butter and brown sugar all over the oven. Hence the smoke. I open the window further, flip on the fan and close the dividing curtain between the kitchen and rest of apartment to avoid (hopefully) the smoke detector going off and put a cookie sheet under the muffin tin to hopefully catch the dripping, but alas it is too late. The butter & suger keep burning, eventually catching a small fire. :) I put it out with baking soda. Let it cook a little longer, while the smoke continues to build up. (I want them cooked dammit!) I take them out of the oven and let the smoke clear up with 2 minutes left to cook. Pop them back in to the oven to cook a little longer and finally they are done! After all that they had better be good!

A baking question

If I'm making fresh raspberry muffins, do I squash the raspberries and then mix the raspberry pulp into the batter or do I just leave them whole and mix in? Or do I cut them up to be smaller but not necessarily squash them? When I make banana nut muffins, I squash the bananas but those are different. Fresh raspberries were on sale at QFC this weekend and somehow raspberry walnut muffins just sounded really good.

Announcement...

Today I field tripped to Bothell to go to the Washington State Ferret Rescue Shelter. There I fell for two of the cutest little babies. Tess & Rigby. I had to take them. They'd been at the shelter for over a year! They are 2.5 years old. They both are bigger than Minka & Baxter ever were. They are very sweet and not biters! (Which should make Michelle happy). Currently they are exploring the crap out of the apartment. It is exciting. I'm sure if they poke around under the bed they will find left over Baxter treats. I'm pleased. Now to spend some time getting to know their personality quirks. Oohh... the guy who adopted them to me, HOT! And an owner of 10. Perfect for me right? Yummy, volunteers at the shelter, NOT GAY, loves ferrets... but lives with a girlfriend who also volunteers at the shelter. :S But it does give me hope. :D

Here's the girls:

Rigby (Pink Nose)

Tess (Brown nose)

M. Cho

Margaret Cho was funny. Much funnier than when I saw her at Benaroya Hall 2 years ago. She was political but funny political not like last time. We had Johnny Rockets for dinner. I love their chili cheese fries! mmm.... I saw my gay pothead bartending husband, but I didn't get a chance to say hello because we were on the way out. I miss him periodically. I may have to stop in either this Monday or next Monday to say hello. The search for the car was kind of ridiculous. Seriously, who doesn't remember what parking level and area they park in? The people I was with... had no clue. We walked all over that parking garage. I could've walked home in the time it took us to find the damn car.

Happy Friday!

Crows
I was walking to work this morning and I saw the cutest little ball of feathers on the ground. As I looked closer I realized it was a young crow. Not a baby anymore, because some of its longer feathers were growing in, but still fairly downy. Apparently mama or dada crow did not like me looking at baby because it started sqwaking at me and left its perch on the tree to fly closer to where I was standing. I kept walking to about the next tree and stopped again to look at it. Adult crow followed sqwaking at me and landing on a building above me and continuing to berate me. This continued on until I actually turned the corner to go up the next street. Apparently they're fairly protective. :)

Evaluations
I have to do a self evaluation for my job. I hate these. At Homestore I was there for 3 years and never NEVER had an evaluation. When I taught school, I had them many many times over the 1 year I taught. They were almost all bad because I was awful at keeping the little hellions under control. (Actually I was good with the projects and knew what I was talking about so that part was good, but always balanced badly by the big fat "sucks ass" rating when it came to keeping them under control which dragged the whole score way down. Seriously, a 24 year old should never try to teach 13 year olds.) At the casino I had 1 review that was mildly good, except for showing initiative. Apparently my failure to attend an OPTIONAL FIRE EXTINGUISHER TRAINING showed I lacked initiative. Did I mention I worked in the BENEFITS OFFICE? So now I have to do a self-evaluation for my job. I'm a little freaked out.

Movie update
I mentioned before how I worked doing transcription for Inlaws & Outlaws and how I was disappointed that I wouldn't get to see it at SIFF because I was volunteering during 1 show and then I was in Hawai'i for the 2nd show. Well, the director found my blog and sent me an email about how sorry he was I missed it at SIFF but did I know it was going to play at Cinerama on July 7th. If I was interested he'd hook me up with tickets. And would I be interested in volunteering? First - I was mildly embarrassed that he found this. I don't know why, especially since I've only said nice things about volunteering and encouraged people to go see the movie, but I was still embarrassed. Second Yay! Now I'm going to go and despite it being a violation of The Summer of Joanne, I'm going to volunteer for the other showing.

Summer of Joanne
I think the basic premise of the Summer of Joanne is that I'm not going to volunteer for any causes this summer. Except for ones that I've already committed to. Like the movie and the Seattle Paint Out. Of course if I never hear from the Paint Out people, I can't really be the First Hill lead, now can I? If I were a good volunteer, I'd email them. Obviously I'm not a good volunteer since I haven't. The other tenet of the Summer of Joanne is to get out and do stuff. Like going to Portland. But since Sunday adventures have to be curtailed to non-walking adventures I'm not sure what other adventures I'm going to plan, but there'll be other stuff. Definitely other stuff.

Margaret Cho
Tonight I'm going with coworker and a couple of other people to see Margaret Cho. I think she's here as a part of Pride events. I am not attending any other Pride events. I may even avoid the grocery store all weekend to avoid the gays. It isn't that I don't love them, because I do. But I don't really like crowds to begin with so the fact that an estimated 130,000 people are going to be here on the hill at some point this weekend pretty much ensures I will be hiding out in my apartment. That is when I'm not field tripping to Bothell to potentially adopt 2 more ferrets. And no, KTP, a 3rd is like 15 times harder than just the 2. Or maybe it isn't but to me, for some reason, a 3rd seems to cross an invisible line I don't want to cross.

Quick turnaround

Wow. I emailed the ferret shelter here and asked about the process and how they approve people and if there's a waiting time and apprarently I could go up this weekend and find one or two and take them home that day. That means mad cleaning before then though and some thought but I just may do it.

This does not bode well...

While walking to work in the rain this morning I thought today was Thursday. Damn I was disappointed when I realized it was only Wednesday.

A decision...

I think I'm going to adopt another ferret or 2. I know I always thought I'd get a cat once the Bax passed away, but the more I think about it, the more I want another little fluffy bundle of craziness that creates little furnace spots on the bed where they're sleeping. I just like them that's all. I have to clean up all of Bax's toys and bedding and stuff first and clean it as well as search around under the bed to see what, if anything, she stored there. That may be my weekend project so that I can then adopt a new ferret.

Vaguely fascinating

My job is vaguely fascinating. Sometimes. Recently we had a new employee come and ask about their spouse. It seems once upon a time they were opposite sex married couple, but at one point, one had a sex change operation. Now are they legally still married? (the answer is yes) and can they have the spouse on our health insurance even though we do not cover domestic partnerships? (interestingly after a lot of research, the answer is also yes) but I got to research that. And that was fun and interesting. Also apparently a few weeks ago a woman died. She worked for us more than 15 years ago so we have no records on her because the laws on record retention don't require us to go back that far. So I call our retirement folks, once I have her SSN. They at first wouldn't give me any beneficiary info, they would send the stuff directly to the beneficiary. I had to point out that this would be bad as they have not been formally notified of the death. I offered to let them call the ME's office directly but she kept screwing it up so she finally said she'd call me back once they pulled the info out of the archive. So coworker calls back the ME to ask if 2 days is okay for their timeline. Apparently the woman's been dead for weeks. So two more days won't make much of a difference. How sad. I fear that a little bit... dying without anyone knowing or realizing I'm dead.

Starry starry night

Last night MP & I went to eat some dinner and then we played backgammon until about 9ish in Starbucks. For the record, MP won but it was a bunch of tie breakers. I think he cheated. After that we walked up the freeway park stairs and just chatted. Neither of us were feeling particularly compelled to go home so we ended up on the patio of my apartment building talking. I haven't really wanted to be all alone in my apartment lately, I hate being in there now that it is just me and the fish. I know I didn't see Baxter that often because ferrets sleep a lot, but there was comfort knowing that she was there and I could go rouse her from her hiding place and pet her or get her riled up and wrassle with her. The fish isn't so fun that way. Anyway, I've digressed, it was just nice sitting on the patio talking to a friend and watching the stars come out. Well, planets first really. :) And I saw a shooting star and made a wish (of course). Turns out we sat there chatting until after 11. Now I may know more about MP than the little bit I know about Shane, Sparky not liking Pagliaccis and MP's birthday. :)

Fremont Festival

On Saturday morning I went to the Fremont Festival with the intention of just sitting and watching the parade and then coming home so that I wasn't necessarily walking more than I'm supposed to... best laid plans I suppose. But this was the first time I'd actually seen the parade and it was fairly cool. After the parade, coworker and her friends and I went to Dad Magoos and had lunch - their tatertots are to die for - then we wandered around the festival to see the art cars. I was going to pick up Baja Fresh and some Ice Cream from Coldstone since I was on that side of town, but as I was walking down the road the bus to come home was right there so I just figured I'd head for home. It was after 5 and I was tired. I did have a good time though! Here are some pics:



One of the notable things about the Fremont Parade are the naked bicycle riders. Some just ride naked, others do elaborate bodypaint. I got a few pics of different body paints I liked or I thought were well done.



Wonderwoman was especially well done. If you saw her from a distance you wouldn't realize she was naked.



The red villian was part of a whole group of The Incredibles. I tried to get others of that group but some of them ride pretty fast. :) I'm sure I would! There were a lot of different body shapes and types so it was kind cool to see all sorts of bodies out there being cool with themselves. The WORST part of the naked bicycle riders, this older guy was riding back and forth and he was fine, whatever, until one of his final rides by... erect. That was a little weird.



Great body paint I thought. Although could you imagine how hard it would be to wash that crap off?



She really went all out for hers. Rode by like queen of the parade.



One of the groups in the parade was this troupe of belly dancers. They were really good and again, all sorts of different bodies just out there on display. I know I wouldn't have the gumption to do that.



This little kid went up to shake the 'clown's' hand but didn't look too sure he wanted to do it. It just made me laugh.



Cute kids on top of a wedding cake. All the floats are man powered, there are no motorized vehicles in the parade at all.



Here I thought, wow a concession to 'normal' parades, a marching band. Yes, a marching band made of homosexual performers. Rock on.



A float about monsters destroying the city. I thought both the float and the monster costumes were really well done.



Oh Mr. Sun, sun, Mr. Golden Sun won't you please shine down on meee. This was actually the first float in the parade. Notice how it is towed by gladiators. I noticed when it went the other way, there were cheese puffs under the sun. Hee.



The end of the parade. Everyone singing This Land is Your Land.



The art cars were all over the place. Some were very cool and very well done, and others looked like they were just thrown together. I really liked this Mini that had been redone as a ladybug. I thought it was so cute and little!



The fish car was hmm... interesting. The whole thing is choreographed to music and the lobsters would sometimes rise up in song. It was kind of funny.

No More Sunday Adventures

For awhile. I went to the doctor today. It was my first field trip to Group Health. I was actually pretty impressed about how quickly and efficiently everything went. They actually entered all my medical information into the computer right then. My doctor was able to put my pharmacy request in while I was there and my pills should've been ready when I was done with the appointment, but they didn't have any in the pharmacy. I'm not too shocked about that. Dapsone is a rather unique drug and one not generally kept on hand. Bartell would have to special order it. They also did some blood tests and I should be able to get the results of those online later this evening. All very slick. Ok so why no more Sunday adventures... I have achilles tendinitis. So I have to cut back on all the walking I do. I also now have a medical excuse not to hit the gym. :) Which I was actually going to originally post that part of the Summer of Joanne was going to be getting my ass back into the gym. I'll have to check the pool hours, I could swim, but I think they are not at convenient times for me.

2 great things about summertime at my job...

1 - Since it is summer and most of the students are gone, we get to wear jeans every day! YAY for jeans!

2 - Since it is summer and most of the faculty are gone and things are usually fairly quiet, we have a rotating schedule on Fridays. 2 of us admins get to leave at 2:00 PM and one stays and minds the desk. So every 3rd Friday I'm here until 4:30 but all the others I'm outta here early! Yay for going home early!

1 bad thing about summertime at my job...
Food services on campus are severely limited so either I bring my lunch or I pay real money (as opposed to the soft money I put on my campus card to buy lunch 'out' once a week which really means I eat on campus but didn't have to cook it myself).

Random thoughts

Now that the Summer of Joanne is officially in full swing, I must ponder what that really means and what's going to happen. Sad to say, I still don't know really. But as the first weekend in the Summer of Joanne, I should do something fun, right? Well what I should do vs what I SHOULD do are 2 different things.

should do:
Something fun
Preferrably outdoors
Maybe with alcohol involved in the evening, but not required.
Visit a place I haven't been to before
Hopefully doesn't cost too much money
Perhaps check out solstice activities in Fremont
Maybe go fly a kite (I don't own one though)
Take a long walk
Check out a museum
Go to the movies

SHOULD DO:
Dishes (dishes are always #1 on the list because I abhor them!)
Put away stuff from Hawai'i vacation (yes you read that right I still have everything from Hawai'i in bags around my bedroom)
Put away stuff from camping
Clean up all of Baxter's toys/mess/treats scattered on the floor and put away her cage
(I don't know if I can do that one yet - I can do the mess part but I don't know I can put away her cage and her toys all away yet)
Laundry
Deal with recycling stuff

Walk down memory lane
Co-worker reminded me that this weekend is solstice and she would be doing the Fremont Solstice stuff. It made me think that when I lived in Alaska, Michelle & I would do the Midnight Sun Run. Not that we were all you know athletic or anything, we'd walk it. I'm sure at home I have about 3 t-shirts from my years of doing it. I also have some pretty cool pics of us at the finish line at midnight wearing sunglasses. :) So I was explaining this to coworker and I mentioned it started at the college and ended at Alaskaland. Ahh Alaskaland. It is now renamed Pioneer Park. That's just wrong by the way. The funniest thing about Alaskaland? There's a bar in the park. The Palace. It is known for its fun touristy revue... at least during the early evening. Late at night, it's the local gay bar. I've been there once with V. Coworker thought it hysterical that the tourist hotspot is also the gays' hotspot. Only in Alaska, she said, would a bar do double duty like that. :)

Picture Project

So I printed out all the pics for the kids last night that I thought they would like to make their collages... all told, in the short run it would've been cheaper to pay $.29 at Bartell Drugs than what I ended up paying to buy a USB AB cable and a color ink cartridge. Cheaper by about 1/2. BUT... now I have a printer that's up and working and I haven't had a home printer since I was on a Mac about 6ish years ago, so that's an improvement. And I can't wait to try and print out some of my Hawai'i prints to hang up in my apartment and convince me to go back. :)

I am thinking of going to Portland in July for just a weekend. Take the train down. See the sights. Check out that restaurant that was recommended to me by Chicken. Stay in a hostel. That sort of thing. Since MP claims this summer for him will be the summer of Matthew, I'm thinking that for me, it should be the summer of Joanne! :) I need a summer that's all about me after the year so far. (of course, I really don't know how to do this but I'll figure it out)

I might heart google...

I sometimes make my life hard for myself by deciding to do something at the last minute that would be totally cool, but now I have to figure out how to do it. So I decided at the last minute that it would be neat if I printed out a bunch of the pics of the girls from my digital camera and let them make their own collages or scrapbook pages tomorrow at our last meeting for the summer. Now for normal people, this might not be too hard, here's where it is hard for me. I don't own a printer. Well, I do, but I've never hooked it up. I only got it last month, an inheritence from V when he moved out of my building. It requires a USB AB cable. Now I know what a USB cable is. I have one for the MP3 player, but for some odd reason in my head what I need is different than what I own and I can't find what I think I need. So I head to google to do an image search get a picture of what I need... It is what I already own. Yay! I know I could've gone to like Bartell or one of those and had them printed there, but those pics are 29 cents for 1 4X6 yo. That's too much cash. So now I can do this at home tonight. Well, after I buy photo paper. :)

Further evidence of dorkiness...

I was just sitting in my office and I received yet another phishing email and so I forwarded it to WAMU's scam address. But it got me thinking. Does the band Phish mind that the verb phishing is now being used to indicate fraudulent attempts to get personal information. I posed that question to Peeved Michelle and she suggested I email them. So I did. :) I'll let y'all know what they say.

not my day...

so to add insult to injury, I'm standing at the front reception desk when with no warning, the lens of my glasses just falls out of my glasses and you hear the screw pop and go flying. Luckily eagle-eyed coworker who found the screw last time this happened found the screw again and I was able to repair them. Seriously, I'm crawling back into my bed and never coming out. :S

Irrational fear realized

Have I ever mentioned how I am frequently afraid of walking across Boren (the street my apartment building is on and it is very busy all the time) and having a bag I'm carrying rip and spill my contents out on the street while I'm crossing? I'm sure I haven't because I realize that it is weird that I fear this. I have a whole mental image of that scene from Fried Green Tomatoes where that happens to the Kathy Bates character (except it is in a parking lot). Also Boren is a big hill so in my imatination I can see cans of soup (except I rarely buy canned food) rolling down the hill. So this morning, fear realized. I'm trying to cross Boren on the brink of tears because I know the vet appointment I'm about to go to will be bad. So in one hand I have Baxter's carrier. I'm also carrying 2 paper sacks of camping supplies, my backpack has camping stuff in it and under my arm is a camp stove. Bag tears. Luckily it wasn't the bag holding the rubber bouncy ball. So now I'm standing in the street with a torn bag that just keeps tearing worse trying to pick up the lantern and box of pots that was in the bag and of course... the light changes. The van driver I was holding up seemed nice. He at least smiled at me as I scurried to drop crap on the curb out of the way and then waved him on when I had picked everything up. Seriously... craptastic day.

Baxter

Well, I left work this morning and turned right back around. I felt too worried about Baxter to just leave her at home. I called the vet and got her an appointment at 10. The vet looked at her and we had 'the talk.' I knew it was coming. I knew when I booked the appointment this morning what the outcome would be. I knew she was old and it was time to let her go, but damn, I didn't expect to feel this bereft about it. And that's really all I have to say about that.

Camping & Baxter

Well I'm back from camping. Actually I got back at about oneish and showered. Then I went to lunch at my favorite Gluten Free restaurant. Yum... chicken tenders and then I bought 2 cupcakes to go and some mozzarrella sticks. I'm planning on munching on the sticks in a little while and the cupcakes, already gone.

Camping - A rehash:
The kids arrived at varying times after 7 PM on Friday night. We didn't do much, had a snack of cookies and helped the other kids lug their crap across the field. We were as far from the parking lot as humanly possible. I have no idea how long it took me to trek back and forth across the field with stuff like food and our supplies. I had picked up my little Girl Scout about mid way through the afternoon and she helped, but we gave up towards the end because I was too tired. The nice thing about camping with just my kids and not as part of a big encampment is that we were on our own schedule. The kids didn't get up until 8:00 am on Sat morning. They cooked eggs and sausages for breakfast. It turned out very well. We cleaned up and went on a hike. We walked very slowly and looked at a lot of different things. I like that I know stuff... :) and can tell the girls. I imparted a variety of wilderness knowledge to them like about moss on the North side of trees (except in WA where it is too wet so moss just grows on the outside of trees.). We studied slugs and snails and trees and tree rings. We took about a half of the long trail and turned back to the cabins at the same place I stopped walking on the trail when I went on my own. That thing I thought was a waterfall, it isn't. It's a climbing wall with varying levels. One of the moms pointed it out and I felt dumb for not realizing it sooner. The girls cooked lunch too. We had tacos. The moms were impressed that we made that. :) After lunch it rained a little bit but we made our wish boats for our bridging ceremony. We played board games by the cabin. We also went out into the field and played kick ball. My feet got wet. The poor things didn't get to be dry until I went to bed after 11:00 PM. It was awful. They were itchy and pruny. Dinner was a whole other story. We were going to barbecue chicken and hamburgers and hotdogs and make potato salad. The potatos took forever to cook. We ran out of propane. The chicken took forever to cook. We started cooking at 4:00 PM... We didn't eat until after 6:40. We did manage to do our ceremony at about 7:20. Which was just in time so one of my moms who had to leave to go get her husband could go. The dads showed up at 5. We had 2 show up. They did not help. In the end they did not camp either. And one took his daughter with him when he left for the night and didn't bother to tell me. I was pissed. The ceremony went well. The girls did their poem and crossed their bridge and got their candle lit and put their wish boats into the pond by the bridge. It was all very nice. (as far as Girl Scout Ceremonies go...) We went back to where we cooked dinner and there was still fire going (not in a fire circle, in a rock bbq). We cleaned up the mess from dinner. (Did I mention it RAINED all while we were trying to cook dinner?) We had no propane to do dishes so we only used paper. I know I know but we did wash all our other dishes for each of the other meals. The kids had a bunch of marshmallows and 1 s'more each. Our whole day progressed much more like family camping than like Girl Scout camping... no real agenda we just played and did what we wanted to do. I think they liked that a lot.
We didn't get up until 9:00 this morning. (I had been up at about 7ish and was sitting outside reading my book). The dads (who left and were supposed to camp) arrived. We ate breakfast of doughnuts and fruit. We packed our lunches and we cleaned everything out. That took us until noon. And the kids left. I was so glad to see them go. I like them! Don't get me wrong... but I was so tired.

Baxter - I came back and she is much more frail than she usually is. I think this month (and maybe this week) may be her last week. I've decided I'm not going to rush her to the vet. I don't think there's anything the vet can do. She is skinnier than she was even 2 weeks ago when I took her to the vet for her monthly shot (and then she was thinner than she was when I took her last year for her condition). Bax is 7 and she's from the ferret breeder known as Marshall Farms. Their ferrets are not hardy. Age seven is usually their limit. Minka died last year at around what would've been her 7th birthday. I've known this is coming for awhile know. Unless she seems to be really suffering (which she doesn't right now), I'm going to let time do its thing. Although typing this is making me tear up, and it is entirely possible that I'm just being a drama queen. But my instincts were right on Minka and I suspect they'll be right on Bax too.

Camping!

Well, luckily this is the last weekend in a long while I have anything planned. I'm very excited to be done with things to do for a little while. I'm looking forward to a few weekends of me time where I can go to a park on a Sunday afternoon and enjoy the sunshine. Perhaps clean up this craphole I call an apartment. :) I know that all this is my own doing, and I do like to keep busy, but this has been ridiculous!

Tomorrow I pick up a rental car for the weekend camping with the kids. Who knew that if I charge the car with my AMEX card I am covered for loss and damage to the rental car. That's the most expensive add on insurance I got last time. Now I will only have to get liability add on. Very nice... and much cheaper. Tomorrow is going to be psychotically busy. I have to go to the Girl Scout office and get some supplies and exchange the damn vests for sashes. Apparently we want sashes now. Sigh. I also have to grocery shop for our trip, and gather up some more arts & crap supplies. I have to do laundry and pack up my own gear. I have to swing by the U to pick up our glue and other art supplies that I usually leave there. I have to pick up my usual brownie and feed us both some dinner since I'm not having the other kids eat at camping. And instead of working on that this evening... I'm watching Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban. :) Such a slacker I am. I can't wait though. We'll have a nice ceremony for the bridging girls. One more meeting I think and we're done for the summer!

Also...

It's a two coke morning! I'm having the worst time lately with getting up and going in the morning. My apartment is freezing because I have 3 windows open (Please, I know the logical answer is to close a couple of them, but I actually like it to be cold in the apartment when I sleep.) But it makes it so damn hard to want to get out of bed!

lurve is in the air?

According to all of the horrorscopes I read it is. Maybe the Tiki God of Lurve is working after all... :) (A girl can hope right??!!)


Quickie: Love is all around you. Learn to expand your definition, and you'll find that your life is filled with it.
Overview: Don't be surprised if your concentration is a little lacking -- you've got matters of the heart on the brain. Think creatively about jump-starting your romance, or, if you're single, starting something brand new.

More Pics

This was at the Polynesian Cultural Center. The woman in yellow taught us to make our cute little fishes.



Dark skinned Mormons. MP wanted pics because the only Mormon's he's ever seen were white. These are not necessarily the hot Mormon College boys. This was during the Canoe Parade.



The island out there in the distance is called Chinaman's Hat, for probably obvious reasons. I believe this is another of the zooming along in the car shots.



Regulars know my love for interesting trees. I liked these trees. I think they are Banyan (although it is entirely possible I'm wrong.) But they grow all these tendrils from the branches that reach into the ground and create more trunk. They look so cool.



A cute little crab in the sand at Lanikai Beach. I had thought it was dead so I flung a tiny bit of sand at it. It sucked one of its eyes in so then I felt a little bad about disturbing it.



Probably the fanciest looking dessert I've ever eaten. At the Tiki Bar & Grill. It was cheesecake with fruit salsa and that drizzle is of a yummy fruit that I can't remember the name of. Very good!



This is back to shore and the community of Haleiwa. It was a tiny community that I kind of liked. The type of place in my imagination I have always wanted to live in. The type of community that is better in dreams than probably in reality.



If you look closely, you can see me in the cage! :) Mostly you can see the snorkle. Also these 2 guys were the captain and first mate... hot and hot.



The King as part of the Canoe Parade. More dark-skinned Mormons. :)



I had never been to Hawai'i. I'd also never ridden in a limo. We called for a taxi to take us to the airport and a limo is what appeared. It's just a regular taxi so we didn't pay extra for the fancyness. It was kind of cheesy inside but whatever! :)



This too is on the road to either Lanikai or PCC. It also serves as an inadvertent self-portrait. :)



Sea Dragon at the aquarium. I think they're so freaking cool! They also have them here in Seattle.



I KNOW this was on the road to Lanikai. There is actually a mountain back there, but it is completely shrouded in fog.



Michelle took this shot while bobbing around in the ocean. The waves were rippling all over us. I think you can kind of see a boat in it.



I took this at the aquarium.



We saw this cute little lizard on the little path to Lanikai Beach.



There was a lookout point and this was a valley you could see from the look out. I'm not sure what the community is though.

You wanted pics? You got pics! (sorry HUGE post)

The pics are in no specicfic order...


This one was taken on the road to Lanikai Beach where we spent one afternoon. There was a scenic pull off. I have no idea what beach this is. In any event, it is the quintissential Hawai'i shot.



This is Diamond Head. The houses in the area are very expensive! But so beautiful.



Hibiscus flowers were prevalent. I really liked the yellow ones.



This is some little cove on the way to either PCC or Lanikai Beach. Actually, I took this one from the speeding Chrysler Seabring Convertible. I believe Michelle mentioned, but I'll reiterate... the Seabring Convertibles were EVERYWHERE! Apparently they were the official rental car of Hawai'i. :)



This is some island off Lanikai Beach. The water was so warm and blue but very choppy. The wind was very active. Michelle read later that Kailua beach which is right nearby is known for its windsurfing because of the tradewinds.



On the way to Lanikai I saw this paraglider off the mountain.



I believe this is Rabbit Island (although I could be wrong) :) Beautiful, just beautiful.



A secret little pathway into Lanikai Beach. There were houses all along the entire stretch of the beach so that in order to get in you had to park and go down the public access walkways. We had heard about Lanikai Beach from Citysearch. Unfortunately, what they don't tell you is that much of the actual beach has washed away so there is only a small strip of sand. It was so beautiful and secluded though. And the sand was so soft and totally unlike Waikiki Beach which was very rocky and caused cut feet.



Hee. Speaking of feet... I took this shot just to give a little perspective. That's my purple toenailed big toe and some other guy's foot looking down from the shark cage.



Shark viewed from the shark cage. These were all relatively harmless Galapagos Sharks. They still have teeth yo, but aren't likely to attack anytime soon. :) Apparently Captain Mike was patting one one day he wasn't paying attention and the teeth grazed his arm and it required 36 stitches. Michelle told me this but I missed the story because I was under water.



That's the boat we took out. There were 13 of us on board besides the 2 crew. The "hot water shower" the brochure boasted about... was a hose with a spray nozzle. I rinsed off at one of those external showers on the beach and changed in the grossest bathroom I've been in in years.



One morning I got up at about 5 and got dressed and slipped out before Michelle was up. I wanted to get a vague picture of the sunrise, not realizing that it really couldn't be seen from Waikiki. These are some sunrise surfers I caught at about 6:00 AM.



Conversely, here's sunset at Waikiki Beach.



Gorgeous view from our Lanai. Really there was enough space on the balcony for 2 chairs and that's about it, but who wants to sit in chairs all day? Although in the early morning when I was awake before Michelle, I'd sit out in them and read.



View from the Tiki Bar & Grill where we ate a fancy pants dinner one night and had drinks on our last day trying to kill time before heading to the airport.



Lanikai Beach again. See how the waves are right up to the rocky parts of the houses? That's how it is... there is almost no beach left. I think the section we put our towels on was maybe 8 feet to the ocean.



Hey that's me! :) I tried the 1 handed pic from inside the shark cage. Kinda cool no?



Finally, I don't know where this is but it was on our way to either the Polynesian Cultural Center or Lanikai Beach (same road to get to both). Another pic taken while zooming along in the car. :)