Random Potential

star light, star bright

2008-09-04T09:31:00.003-04:00

Two Saturdays ago I was in the car with a friend. We saw a shooting star, and I almost asked if he made a wish, but didn't since I would have been disappointed had the answer been no.
When I go past a fountain in the mall, if I have a penny in my pocket I flick it in, I still cross my fingers for luck, and if some one has a magic eight ball I'll ask it a question.

I left the grocery store Tuesday night and saw a lone star, after making sure it wasn't a plane I made a wish. It was after all, the first star I saw that night.

Monday's are for Coffee, C is still for cookie

2008-08-25T11:37:00.003-04:00

The cat scolded me this morning when I hit snooze, I think he knows I'm not a Monday person. It was a long, but fun weekend with roller coasters and lots of food, of the fried, grilled and homemade sorts.

The angry guy at work was apparently told on Friday he wasn't going to get the paperwork until today. But he complained to me about not getting the papers, and that he didn't know what was going on, and while I had no control over it he still felt the need to follow me around and complain to me. He hasn't talked to me today yet, I think he knows that I know about him knowing that he wasn't going to get the paperwork. Thank goodness most of the people I work with are nice and normal to me. I'm an engineer's daughter, so normal is definitely relative.

friday rant

2008-08-22T15:49:00.005-04:00

I like most people, and most people seem to like me. I've tried to figure out what it is that makes it so I don't like someone. If I don't like someone it's almost instantaneous, just a sentence or two out of their mouth and boom, their on my nerves. I think it's a sense of entitlement these people share, you can almost feel it radiate from them. If I have to hear one more sigh of woe is me I'm actually being required to do work-and mind you I'm not a violent person-I may have to smack someone on the back of the head.

There are various super powers I would like, but the power to cause laryngitis I think would save me a few splitting headaches.

three years

2008-08-04T11:10:00.002-04:00

It didn't hit me until I turned the calendar Saturday, that it was August. Today, three years and about an hour and a half ago, I got the phone call.

Things have gotten easier and time tends to do. Mother's Day still sucks.

i've actually seen a few movies this year

2008-04-01T13:12:00.002-04:00

It all started with "Sweeney Todd".
I enjoyed it, and that's the kind of thing we were in the mood for. Nothing like a good bloody movie that takes it motivation from revenge to help a friend deal with a break-up.

Then I went out on a date and saw "Strange Wilderness." I was hoping it would be funnier, it was a fun date movie, not going to win any awards.

Another date was to see "Definetly, Maybe." That was a great movie. Sure I could predict the end by half way through, but it was about how the movie got to the end that I really enjoyed.

Then I went to Florida and saw "Enchanted." It was at a second run movie theater and only cost 2 bucks to get in. THat was fun, even cuter was the 10 year old boy in the theater who at the critical moment of the movie said "well, kiss her already", that just made this movie even sweeter.

This past weekend on a second date, with someone new I saw "Miss Petigrew Lives for a Day", it's a fun movie with a great cast, and has some seriousness to it that isn't advertised, I liked it even better than I thought I would, plus I was there with a guy who fully understands the need for popcorn at the movies.

I also finally saw a few movies on DVD, including Shrek 3, I'm pretty sure I've seen more movies in the theater this year than I did last year. I'm think I'm going to try to keep track of them here.

the internet is braking

2007-10-24T09:26:00.000-04:00

Lazylaces is down, I only get the header for Notes from the trenches and Donor's choose, what's going on? Is it the weather?

Something cool and totally unrelated-I tend to put my business card in those win a free lunch fish bowls, and I actually won one of them. We have to sit through a five minute speal about financial planning and then the guy buts the whole front office lunch. It sort of makes up for the broken internet.

over the weekend

2007-09-05T10:16:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend I got to meet this little guy:

He's my brand new nephew Declan. He has socks on his hand's because they were cold but he refused to keep them in the blanket and my sister didn't have any hand covering thingies that weren't attatched to an outfit. So socks it was, and he was fine with them.

This one is earlier that same day, right when he came home from the hospital:

Both of their cats are a bit scared of him. The one that's more my sister's cat is a little braver and will sit near my sister when she hold him. I've been told by several relatives including my sister that he looks a lot like me when I was a baby. I'm getting a scanner so if I find my baby book I may be able to an actual comparison.

on a lighter note

2007-08-16T10:11:00.001-04:00

I could ask why there are doughnuts in the lobby, or I could just accept the fact and take one. I took a Boston Cream.

another year farther from the memories

2007-08-06T10:54:00.001-04:00

It’s been two years. Last year I didn’t want to be around people who knew. This year I went to a Partylite party at my best friend’s place and a barbeque at my neighbors. A couple family members called, but I was out and I didn’t return calls until the next day. Didn’t really feel like talking to anyone about anything like that.

it's just a ...

2007-08-02T10:49:00.000-04:00

I've had a few of those moments this summer where I just want look at someone and say, get a hold of yourself, by making this a bigger deal than it is, you're stressing everyone out. Mostly it's just two people. It's just a baby shower, it's just a play. I want to scream "stop making this about you, this is in no way about you"

First my aunt who said she would help with my sister's baby shower and then tried to take over, and we ended up with way too much food because she somehow decided that all the food that I ordered wasn't going to good enough since it was just platters from the grocery store. The shower went fine, I pretty much only sat down to write down what the presents were. The next day at my cousin's birthday party, my aunt didn't say two words to me and when I was telling her and another of my cousins something, my aunt walked away, my cousin and I just looked at each other.

Second, and more recently, it's an actress in my current play. She's driving everyone crazy. She's complains that other people don't know there lines perfectly, yet she doesn't know hers perfectly. She complains about the set not looking like what she feels it should look like, but we did research and we have things as historically accurate as we can on the limited budget we have. On Tuesday when she started moving things that had been already preset, and we were supposed to start in five minutes and she wasn't ready, I came close to yelling. I just settled for repeatedly saying "you need to go get ready." I'd still have been annoyed if what she was doing would have looked good, but it's just rude to undo a bunch of work that someone else has already done.

Both of these people have had personality changes since I've known them. Other relatives have told my aunt she should talk to someone about her anxieties, but she hasn't. I don't know if anyone has said anything to the actress. I feel like I should say something to her or at least somehow ask what's going on since she just doesn't seem like the person I used to know. It's aggravating dealing with them, and frustrating to feel powerless to help. If they refuse to get help, what can anyone do?

prom night the musical:

2007-06-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

or things that have freaked me out a little lately

1. No, seriously "Prom Night the Musical". I was flipping through the channels and caught a commercial for it; it's this week on One Life to Live

2. I was sitting at my computer and the shade on the window next to my computer was up. I saw this light out of the corner of my eye and turned to look out the window, but nothing was there. I quickly went back to my computer and saw the light again, looked and again nothing was there. When it happened a third time I looked for a bit longer and realized it was a firefly. I think the overhead light was sending mixed signals.

3. Something that was not a deer. Living in, and driving through wooded areas I am always on the lookout for animals, deer are one of the ones this time of year. I pretty sure it was just some shrubbery, but it got my adrenalin going.

4. The fact that for about a half hour I was trying to sign onto my mortgage account even though I never set up online access. I was using my login for my credit card…the sites have a similar set up. Yeah, or at least similar enough to me at just about bed time.

cool lady

2007-06-12T14:53:00.000-04:00

I am apparently the “cool lady” of my neighborhood, or at least of my road and the road that horse shoes my road. I was chatting with one of my neighbors and she told me that the kids on our two roads refer to me as “the cool lady”, because I’m single, don’t have any of my own kids but I’m still nice to them. I think it’s also because I gave out good candy at Halloween.

When I left work yesterday it was lightly raining and sunny, but there was no rainbow, I looked. We are having one heck of a rainstorm here right now and the lights kind of dimmed. I'm going to try to update more, but right now I need to back up everything.

slush

2007-04-16T22:27:00.000-04:00

This morning there was slush but about a month ago there was real snow, it postponed the lacross game I was going to(we went this past friday), the oak tree that didn't finally lose all it's leaves until last week left a few leaves in the snow.

When it snows, or rains or it's a bit windy (the wind Sunday night blew some of the siding off my work building), kitty cat gets a little wonky. He doesn't always look like he has ears.

He loves his toys, sometimes he leaves them for me in the bathroom and sometimes he just leaves them for me on the stairs, with their tails hanging over the ledges

quirky

2007-03-27T14:23:00.000-04:00

I find it kind of funny kind of great that one of the largest frogs ever found was found in a place named Darwin.

I'm also enjoying the car commercial that uses Menah-Menah. There are commercial I ignore, there are ones that make me change the chanel (I'm talking to you cavemen, you were sort of funny the first commercial, and now you just annoy me), and then there are ones like this car commercial that make me stop and sing along. There were those Joe Boxer commercials awhile ago that had the guy dancing, I would stop and watch those. There are just so many bad commercials out there.

bloggystylin'

2007-03-09T10:09:00.001-05:00

Sunday my car was parked next to another car that was a ‘Scion’. I realize I’ve driven a ‘Focus’ and I presently drive a car that isn’t a word, but what car was this one detached from. I don’t think this is a hybrid car, because the grafting thing that scion can mean would totally work for it…I just did a little research, it’s a company not car name, still, for me, the name only works if all you’re selling are hybrids.

***

There are days that having asthma is no big deal, then there are times like last night where I just couldn’t get a deep breath, even though my inhaler helped, I still wasn’t quite breathing right, because I think I’m heading towards bronchitis, which, with asthma I’m prone to, so, all that to say having asthma is no fun. And I don’t like using my inhaler in front of people, because they always ask the same questions “Are you Okay?” and “Can I do anything?”, which I get that they care, and that’s good, but I have to hold my breath for as long as I can to let the medicine work. So I need a little laminated card that says, “I’m fine, nothing you can do, please don’t make me laugh, and yes, I’m intentionally trying to hold my breath.”

***

I tried to get a picture of Kitty Cat roaming the house with his new toy in his mouth, purring away. I picked up a few new toy mice (they rattle) for him, and retired a few of the more chewed ones (which I may have originally typed as ‘chewn’ because I grew up near mountain people). Anyway Wednesday night he carried around the pink one and kept walking up to me and rubbing his head against me and then going back to whatever he was doing. Last night he was carrying around and playing with the green mouse. Oh and mister tail fetish chewed the tail off the blue one within five minutes of first getting a hold of it. I’m going to keep trying to get a picture.

my side's still sore from shoveling

2007-02-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

While shoveling the lovely ice and snow mixture my neighbor commented, “I’d like to know whose brilliant idea ice was.” And just now on shuffle, It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas started playing. That’s just cruel.

sometimes you have to do something twice to make sure the first time wasn’t a fluke

2007-02-20T09:37:00.000-05:00

Except I should really know by now that once my sister starts driving me crazy about something, she doesn’t stop. This is when I need my mom to turn to my sister and tell her “Your sister’s an adult, stop treating her like she’s five.” Since that’s not an option, what do I do?
1.Have a very intuitive aunt who calls at just the right time, who has experience being a younger sister.
2. Have her take my mind off of it by giving the update on my very pregnant cousin, whose baby decided to turn again, so she might have a c-section Thursday, or if the baby turns again, she’ll probably have him this weekend.
3.Decide that you both are going to give up ten pounds for Lent.

randomness #242

2007-02-15T22:57:00.000-05:00

I don't enjoy killing bugs, but when is agitating the cat to the point that it's agitating me...the smack of the shoe is rather satisfying.

tvism

2007-02-08T15:07:00.000-05:00

On the radio I heard a clip from Top Design “You just can’t design a room around a cat” said one of the judges. Um, apparently she’s never been in my living room. The cat toys strewn about, the couch throws bunched up just so, the end table next to the window so Kitty Cat can either sit on it and look out or walk across it to the window for easy access. Granted it didn’t start this way, the living room just sort of evolved into this, and when I pick up the toys and straighten the throws, they magically get put back to Kitty’s liking.

and we're off

2007-01-28T21:21:00.000-05:00

I just watched Grease TV, and I kind of feel bad for the two people they brought back. It kind of feels like they just brought them back to get knocked out the first round, and maybe they did, so that the others would get two weeks of letting us see them. Maybe they brought them back because they tested well with test audiences and all the rest who made it are experienced actors, dancers, singers, who have done Broadway tours and/or regional work, and the powers that be wanted to have underdogs. Well the underdogs didn’t do so well. I really liked the first two guys (Derek and Austin) and the final girl (Ballerina Ashley), the first girl wasn’t bad (Allie), she’s only nineteen, but looked a lot older, but that may have been more the makeup department than her.

ten

2007-01-26T12:41:00.000-05:00

…the °F my car said it was this morning

…the number of months it took me to realize my grocery store has the hostess display at the end of the aisle by the tampons

…what I taught Sweat Pea last night as the number of fingers she and I each have

…the channel that told me we were supposed to have snow even though we didn’t

...the number of minutes internet was down as I kept trying to check the weather forecast for tomorrow

how to have a slumber party (as a grown up)

2007-01-22T09:51:00.000-05:00

1. Have a best friend who needs to get away from things and thinks a slumber party is a good idea.

2. Have a selection of chick flicks and funny movies available

3. Order Pizza

4. Pick up another movie on the way to picking up pizza, because you have a coupon

5. Eat pizza and drink wine coolers while watching the news because there’s snow coming and you need to know how much

6. Make hot chocolate in the Cocomotion, add marshmallows and watch first movie.

7. Start second movie (if the first was sort of a downer make sure this one’s funny)

8. At first bathroom break make ice-cream sundaes

9. Once done with sundaes paint nails

10. Once the second movie is done, do some cleanup and talk about how you’re going to try to stay up and watch some of SNL

11. Actually make it through weekend update

12. Get to sleep in your own bed and put best friend in the guest room

my socks don't quite match

2007-01-17T08:36:00.000-05:00

They're both dark blue and they're the same style sock, but they're different dye lots. Didn't really care, with boots on no one can tell :)

When I updated to the new non-beta blogger, something happened to my profile, it changed the year I was born to 1756 and made me 250 years old. I'm intruiged why it chose this.

vacation soon

2007-01-10T09:14:00.001-05:00

The cat know I’m about to leave for vacation, and he’s not happy. First he was in the suitcase I was packing, he apparently got tired of me telling him the bra straps were not toys and moved onto laying on the clothes I laid out for the plane ride. (I have to wear something that I won’t die of heat in once I’m in Florida, but something warm enough with a coat that I won’t get hypothermia while waiting for the shuttle from economy parking at the airport) Once he got tired of the clothes he pulled his ultimate guilt trip, he went and hung out in the tub. He mostly does this right before or after I get back from someplace or if I’m on the computer and he’s not getting my undivided attention.

I can print my boarding pass in less than an hour, yay.

the cat isn't making weird noises, that's just the rain

2007-01-08T15:30:00.000-05:00

I went to an audition last night, it went very well, it was for V-Day. Anyway towards the end I leaned to one of my friends who was there and asked, is that the heat or is that rain, and she said she was wondering the same thing. It was rain, and I was not parked close to the building.

Three days and counting until Florida. It’s going to be in the upper 70’s to low 80’s, guess I better pack the capri’s.

happy new years

2007-01-03T12:18:00.000-05:00

I've heard about the wonderfulness that is Karaoke Revolution and Dance Dance Revolution but before New Year's Eve I hadn't played them. Love. I helped unlock a new song. Much food but Dance Dance helped and the various long walks I've taken.

For Christmas from one of my friends I received the Cocomotion. It looks like it might be absurd, but it is fabulous. I've used it twice, it makes great hot chocolate and it seriously is the perfect temperature. It's somewhat embarrassing how wonderful it is.

why i shouldn't watch children's programming

2006-12-29T14:36:00.000-05:00

I have the day off today and I was flipping through the TV when I came across the Count on Sesame Street. He has a different voice than when I was little, it was a little disconcerting. When I was little I wanted to be a Grouchketeer, then they added Big Birds little wannabees, but they weren’t nearly as cool as Oscar’s group.

what i did on my christmas vacation

2006-12-29T14:12:00.000-05:00

[wrote this yesterday but was updating to blogger new which took forever]

On Saturday I drove up to New York and went to my uncle’s for a family cookie bake, we of course had to taste the broken ones. I also got to see cars for the second time (I didn’t watch it fully this or the two other times it was playing over the week). Sunday I went to another uncle’s house for our annual Christmas Eve celebration. We do a Pollyanna gift exchange and a grab bag Yankee swap, with our own house rules, things can get a little heated. A couple people brought coffee and that was the big hit this year, quite a few years ago when chia pets were new, one of my aunts brought one and chants were started. I got a handheld electronic solitaire game, which I’m happy about. From my secret Santa I got The Green Eggs and Ham cookbook that I wanted and the new Barenaked Ladies CD and an iTunes gift card. Christmas morning my dad came over and I got a digital camera, yay. My sister and brother in law got one of those over the chair back massagers that they wanted. We got other stuff, but those were the things we most excited about getting. That afternoon we went over to my cousin’s house, some of the family was there, we played apples to apples which is a really fun game, and works best when you really know the people you’re playing with. My cousin’s little boy, who is two, loves trains; his Grammy (one of my mom’s sisters) got him a train engineer outfit.

He was most willing to wear the hat for the longest out of the costume.
Kitty Cat was happy I came home.

the apple doesn't fall far

2006-12-18T09:11:00.000-05:00

I’m a combo of my parents. My mother was the nurturing nurse who was very good on Chemistry and Biology, my dad the logical engineer for whom physics is like breathing. I got both their aptitudes for science and math, and just like my mom for some reason little kids and animals just love me. In a lot of ways I think I’m a bit more like my mom but sometimes I am my father’s daughter. Such as yesterday morning when he called about five of ten to tell be that Sunday Morning was doing a piece on the Roman Aqueducts, and I was able to tell him that I was already watching it. Sunday Morning is one of my Sunday morning memories. We’d get back from church or be on our way –depending on early or late service-and my dad would be watching it. There was one time when our cat Sneakers was still a kitten, and the show ended with a shot of some flocking birds, and the cat went as far as climbing on top of the VCR, which was on a shelf under the TV, to try to get the birds.

Some more randomness

2006-12-14T14:06:00.000-05:00

Somewhere in my house are two packages of ornament hooks. They’re the packages I bought the previous two years. Guess what I’m buying on the way home. There’s a role of masking tape somewhere as well.

People at work keep asking me questions while I have my headphones in, when I keep having to ask the same person “What?” you’d think they’d figure it out that they need to get my attention before they start speaking.

There is a new musical coming to Philly called Nerds://A Musical Software Satire
I’m pretty sure I need to go see that.

weekend update

2006-12-11T11:24:00.000-05:00

31 days until I leave for Florida, which when I’m there I need to get photo’s of flamingos. Sweet Pea had a flamingo on her shirt Saturday, when I asked, she knew what it was, but when I asked her if she knew where you find flamingos and told her it was Florida she no. I asked her “Then where do you find flamingos?” Her reply: “In the zoo.”

Between caroling and seeing a Christmas show this weekend I drank a lot of hot apple cider. Good stuff. Somewhere I have mulling bags for individual servings. Need to buy some more apple cider, yum.

how many of you are there

2006-12-08T16:30:00.000-05:00

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
16
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

last taps

2006-12-05T11:17:00.000-05:00

Last night was the last tap class for the season, and she worked us good. It’ll be offered again in the spring, probably along with a jazz class. Jazz at 7:30 tap at 8:30, don’t know if I’m crazy enough to do both, but I might be.

Saturday I did a bunch of Christmas shopping, I did online research on some things first and discovered that amazon had the best prices on a bunch of things. So some store shopping some online shopping and I still don’t know what I’m getting my dad. After dropping stuff at home I got my tree. Before going Ipulled out the tree stand and rearranged the living room to fit it, Kitty Cat got very excited and was very happy when I got the tree home. When I left for a show that evening he was laying on the couch staring at the tree. This morning when I left for work he was laying under it.

And I’m slightly twitchy from fixing a project at work. I like working on a project from start to finish. Coming in three quarters of the way through to fix someone else’s mistakes is kind of a pain. I’ve done where we come in just a couple weeks into a project and just restarted it because it was quicker. But this one was so far along that I’ve just made it workable. 13½ work days left until vacation. My brain is tired, it would like to go to the Caribbean, it’s going to have to settle for upstate NY and south east PA.

lights, really bright lights

2006-11-30T10:39:00.000-05:00

Monday night I had my first of the season ‘Oh my’ moments about Christmas lights. On one of my neighbor’s houses they have, in lights, a train with the wheels and steam moving, and Santa and his reindeer with Santa’s arm with a whip and the reindeer’s legs moving. It’s a lot of moving lights. Another neighbor has these snowflake lights that I think are supposed to look like they’re twinkling, but the blinking lights are blinking a little fast to look like light is shimmering off of the snowflakes.

Then last night I drove down my town’s Broad and Main streets…it was an experience. There are sections that are just very bright, and many blow up figures. I don’t really know what a light house has to do with any of the upcoming holidays, but okay.

I’ll be putting up my Christmas flag and getting a tree this weekend. And unless they peer in my windows, that’s pretty much all the holiday decorating the neighbors will see from me. I have lots of Christmas and winter decorations, but they are all for indoors. I may eventually get lights to line my roof, but I love the look of just a tree through the window. I can’t wait to get my tree. Part of me wants to leave work a little early Friday and get it, and that way it has all night to acclimate to the indoors before I decorate it.

what i learned over thanksgiving

2006-11-27T12:53:00.000-05:00

1-Sometimes my sister and I are the same person, as emphasized my the fact that we picked the same Christmas cards this year

2-Sunday 10:30am is my breaking point for listening to my sister complain about her in-laws. It’s not that I don’t think she has a right to complain about them, because believe me she does; it’s the incessantness of it that drove me crazy.

3-Kitty Cat has been with me for three years, and no matter how many times I have changed my sheets in that time it is still a big game to him. Only one of his shaky mice gets him that wound up.

4-In deciphering recipes in my mother’s hand writing I realized my messy hand writing comes from her. It’s only in the recipes that were written fast that look like my writing.

5-My family can hear me think, I know I do it to them, but I just have to think of asking a question and once there done speaking to whomever they were talking to they ask what my question was. We’re a little freaky that way.

6-My cousin is a skater boy, he skateboards, has the haircut and the last letter in his name is an ‘S’ which he turns around when he writes it. (We put our names on cups at family functions, it’s just easier that way) He’s the same age I was when he was born (14), I changed his diapers and now he’s only an inch shorter than me, and has gone out on his first official date, to the mall of course. I didn’t date until two years later than him, but I did in fact go to the mall.

my inner klutz

2006-11-22T09:54:00.000-05:00

I am a somewhat coordinated person. I've taken years of dance, played softball and soccer. I've worked on being coordinated and I have a pretty good sense of balance, but sometimes my inner klutz comes out. Like Monday night at tap I stepped on my own toe and when you're in steel toed tap shoes it really hurts. Also we were attempting these heel kick things and we all kicked ourselves in our ankles a few times. Last night while packing for going up to NY I tripped over my own two feet, I caught myself before I fell, but I get the feeling while I'm making pies tonight I need to be extra careful, my sister's kitchen floor doesn't need any chocolate pudding.

tonight i pack

2006-11-21T14:18:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I drive.

Instead of packing for my Thanksgiving trip last night I cleaned. A neighbor is watching Kitty Cat and I don’t want the house a mess for her, at least not the downstairs. As for what I’m thankful for at the moment is that we haven’t had anymore fires at work, but we could use one in the ladies room or for them to turn the heat back on it there, I know they’re doing electrical work, but it started yesterday, enough is enough.

Driving thoughts: It’s going to suck. Although, because people travel on several of thel days leading up to Thanksgiving, Wednesday won’t be nearly as bad as the Sunday return trip. I need one of those massage chairs in my car, or just one of those seat cover type ones.

they've gotten to me

2006-11-17T10:44:00.000-05:00

As I was strolling through the grocery store aisles I realized I was humming Christmas carols. The grocery store wasn’t even playing Christmas music, but enough places are that it’s in my head.

OUr server at work decided to take a nap every afternoon. Internet, email and the internal server have stoped working for several hours after lunch since we movedc to the new building. I'm loving the commute, but the people at my new coffee place aren't nearly as nice as the one's at the old place.

like smoke and gossamer

2006-11-15T15:18:00.000-05:00

I didn’t start the fire but my need for a heated office led to the events that started the fire in the baseboard. Everyone is fine, the room is aired out, the electrical panel will be replaced, and the above is what I thought the Office Manager said it smelled like, ‘and gossamer’ turned out to be ‘in Ol’ So and So’s room.’

i need a vacation from my weekend

2006-11-13T10:53:00.000-05:00

I got up Saturday morning at the time I usually get up for work so I could drive up to Queens. My Grandma’s in the hospital, hopefully for the last time. The hopefully part is for her sake, over the past year she’s gone downhill. And maybe it comes from being the daughter of a nurse but I can tell that Grandma should make it through Thanksgiving, but most likely won’t make it through the end of the year. Anyway grandpa did tell a few stories from the war that I hadn’t heard before. He was on a ship in the South Pacific (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Alabama_%28BB-60%29), everyone got to do a month of KP duty. When you were on KP you didn’t sleep in your quarters, you slept down there in hammocks. The CO told them that you will fall out of the hammock a couple of times before you got used to it, grandpa said he fell out twice.

I drove home in the afternoon, saw the aftermath of a big accident on one of the bridges, but otherwise was not a bad drive. It’s nice driving when it’s not a holiday. I got home, whipped together a batch of cookies for Sunday’s baby shower and went over to a neighbors house for dinner. My friend's little girl ‘Sweet Pea’ is two and a half and has a repertoire of dances she has created. Of course we showed her off to the people who hadn’t seen them yet. After we went through them, the ones we knew about at least, she said “and the Hula Dance”, we asked what that was and she proceeded to do a little hula dance. We’re pretty sure she got it from Lilo and Stitch.

The baby shower was nice, lots of food, and it managed to be a surprise. Last evening I went to an audition, it went well. I don’t know quite what the director is looking for, if it’s caricatures then it won’t be me, but if she wants more real, then I have a chance.

An update on the flag: no one had one, so I made my own. I got some fabric with leaves on it. It looks nice but because it’s not nylon I don’t know if it’ll make it past this one season. It’s good for now and next year I’ll know to look in September for a Thanksgiving flag.

thanks savvy

2006-11-10T10:02:00.000-05:00

all I want for christmas is some thankgiving decorations

2006-11-10T09:11:00.000-05:00

Tuesday I went shopping at lunch for a baby shower gift and to look for a new flag for outside my house. I have a Halloween flag and then the next appropriate flag I have is a Christmas flag. AC Moore is next door to Babies R Us so I ran in there to find that they only had Christmas, Chanukah and general winter flags. The only Thanksgiving looking items they had were some fall colored leaves and a mailbox cover with a turkey. Then on my way to actually getting something for lunch I ran into Home Goods and that store didn’t carry flags.

Thursday after work I needed to get kitty litter bags, so off to Target I went. To tangent off for a moment, know how sometimes you read something too quickly, well instead of ‘cat box liners’ I read ‘boy cat liners’, which made me reread it a little slower, I have my dyslexic moments. Back to topic, after grabbing the liners I went to see if I could find a flag and maybe a nice decoration or two, I have decorations for other holidays, just not this one. I see all the Christmas stuff and figure on the edges there may be some Thanksgiving stuff. Nope. I ask an associate, they don’t have any Thanksgiving decorations and she’s pretty sure they never put any out. Yup, they went straight from Halloween to Christmas. Then I run to Party City and bless them they have a whole wall of Thanksgiving stuff: plates, platters, tablecloths, table decorations, wall decorations, door decorations…but they don’t carry flags. I grab up a table decoration, which is currently looking very nice on my coffee table. Last stop I run to Michael’s. They have Christmas flags and some very summery looking flags, but none for Thanksgiving.

In my errands after work tonight I’ll be going by Wal-Mart. It may be futile, but I’m going to give it a try.

* V * O * T * E *

2006-11-06T11:09:00.000-05:00

Bush said "Saddam Hussein's trial is a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law."

I think he may find the vote on Tueday is a milestone in the American people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law.

Sometimes during a Presidential election a single vote doesn't seem like much. But there are a lot of local races happening this year. Districts for State Senate and State Representative aren't very big, and these are people who are helping make laws too.

Vote, or don't complain about the state of the country.

thwop thwop thwop…thwop thwop thwop

2006-11-01T11:33:00.000-05:00

That’s the sound that caused me not to be able to fall asleep, and freaked me out a little. It was just Kitty Cat, who decided it was time to attack the lint ball on the bathroom rug. Thanks for that shot adrenaline. Speaking of Kitty, I got a trick-or-treater who was all of four, whom after I gave her her candy she just stood there and looked at my door (I was sitting outside handing out candy but the door was open with the glass door shut so Kitty could look out) and I looked at her and she asked “Where’s your kitty cat?” I told her he was hiding because all the people scare him a little. She nodded her head and went to the next house. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her before, but she’s seen Kitty Cat.

Props for costumes to the middle school aged boy dressed as Raggedy Ann. Also to the 3 year-old dressed as a train engineer and especially to his dad who was coordinately dressed as a train conductor, that combo was very cute. One ‘where are the parents’ moment about a drunk teenager, at first I thought he was just doing a good impression (he was dressed as a hobo) until the neighbors said that they could actually smell the alcohol on his breath. They knew which house he lived in and unfortunately didn’t sound surprised.

Two certain little girls I know were dressed as Nemo and a Kitty, they were a cute combo. They’re each only 2½, but had among the loudest “trick-or-treats” of the night. You don’t get candy unless you say trick-or-treat.

trick or treat

2006-10-31T08:25:00.000-05:00

Apparently once I moved and figured out what my best route from work to home was, it was light out on my way home. Well since daylight savings time ended, it’s fairly, but not completely dark on my drive home. I know all this because last night on my way home as I was passing one of the churches I go by, I saw towards the top of the road side face of their building a bright red neon sign that says ‘Jesus Saves’. I’m pretty sure I would have noticed that had I seen it before. There something about it being in neon that bugs me. If it was in stained glass, no problem, but it’s the neon that just seems wrong, especially since I didn’t even see the sign that said which Church it was, I just know from my drive that there’s a church there.

Being Halloween I’m wearing my Halloween socks, though I may also wear my cape for handing out candy. I think for sanity and waist line sake I need to hand out the candy I really like first, sniff, good bye Whoppers and 3 Musketeer bars.

yay it's almost halloween

2006-10-27T14:20:00.000-04:00

-Went shopping for carpet for work this morning, the office manager and I went to three different places, and what surprised me was how rude the woman in the 2nd store was. I have a friend who works in the business and we were looking to order what would have been a good weeks worth of commission for someone. There were other sales people on the floor, if she didn’t feel like helping people this day, she should have let someone else help us.

-I finished my cape last night, except for the ribbon tie, but that was because I’m not sure were I put it. I may just use some scrap fabric.

-I got a stare down from the cat last night. I had taken away the couch throw so that when people came over to my house Tuesday they wouldn’t be sitting on copious amounts of fur, and I figured it needed a washing anyway, but then I promptly forgot about it. That is, until last night when the cat was glaring at me from the middle cushion of the couch were the throw usually resides. I quickly washed and dried it, and returned it to its rightful position, and then the cat stopped staring at me.

a little something more

2006-10-25T09:51:00.000-04:00

I had a theater board meeting at my house last night and while I was prepping I wondered if I should make cupcakes, and then I asked myself if I was crazy, it was after all, almost six, and people would be there in an hour and a half if not a little sooner, and then I asked if there was really a question since I’d already gotten the eggs out. Now it was from a box so it wasn’t like it was from scratch, because I’m only slightly nuts. And of the two dozen cupcakes (well 21 I never seem to quite get the 24 from the box) there are only 6 left. I think I made the right choice.

bug

2006-10-19T12:00:00.000-04:00

A bug of some sorts -I didn't get too close-got into the house, and a certain someone was very pleased with this :)

deep fried goodness

2006-10-17T08:32:00.000-04:00

Saturday I went to Six Flags with my friend Lis from college, and it was the first time in a long time that it didn’t rain at some point while we were there. It was fright fest, it was fun and best of all I had Butterfly Fries, a bit of deep fried goodness. We walked a lot so I figure it balanced.

After Six Flags I went to a karaoke party at the house of a woman I’m in choir with. This could have the potential for disaster, but it was lots of fun and when you get a bunch of people together who can sing it’s great and even if they can’t sing (husband of the house) they can still do Bust a Move and bring the house down. No fried food here, but good food that included chocolate cup cakes.

Sunday I went over to Savvy’s house to bring her, her birthday presents. I stayed for the Eagles game and her folks made some more fried goodness.

Last night I had Tap class, this helped make up for the weekend. Tap is fun, and I’m only a little bit sore today. There’s seven of us, five women two men. We’re having a blast.

shopping

2006-10-13T10:34:00.000-04:00

I went shopping after work. I needed birthday presents for two friends, I needed (yes needed) to buy books with the gift card my Dad gave me for my birthday and the bookstore was having a coffee tasting.

To kill some time between the mall and coffee tasting I went to Panera Bread for dinner and saw a good moment of parenting. While waiting in line there was a family in front of me with a baby who looked about eight or none months old a girl who looked and had the verbal skills of a four year old, maybe four and a half. Anyway she ended up having a melt down while in line and her dad turned to her mom and said, “we’re going to go outside for a little while”-which everyone in line who was trying to avoid getting hit my the keys the girl was wildly swing and listening to her shriek was grateful for. He took her outside so she could throw her tantrum outside and not in the confined space of the restaurant and the tantrum went on for long enough that her mom ended up taking her to the car so she wouldn’t disturb everyone outside. I appreciated how the parents handled it, they didn’t scream at her, but they didn’t just let her keep shrieking and almost hitting people. Earlier I had seen a women let her seven year old be extremely rude to her in the Disney store and he ended up throwing a fit that had my sister or I thrown would have entailed us leaving the mall right then and there without buying anything.

The coffee tasting was neat, and I got a piece of chocolate with it. I got lots of books including Where the Wild Things Are. I love that book, and my friends in my neighborhood each have little girls who are just old enough to enjoy that book when they come and visit.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Going to Six Flags tomorrow, it’s going to be cold, but that’s perfect for freight fest, and it’s what layers are for.

just another wednesday

2006-10-11T09:42:00.000-04:00

Last night I saw a commercial for Mr. T’s new reality show and well…oh my.

After work I went for a walk with one of my neighbors and her little girl and when I got home Kitty Kat had become one with the couch. He had smooshed himself as much as he could against the back cushion and into the seat cushion. It’s one of the reasons I need to get a digital camera.

My aunt wrote a family newsletter and emailed it to all of us, it was mostly about all the nieces and nephews. I did not sign off on the info given about me, this is what she said: Not much from Random Stuff, however, I do know she held a "cast party" at her home on her Birthday, despite the fact that their facility lease ran out and the cast wasn't able to perform after all! You'll be happy to hear, though, that Kitty Kat adapted to his new place without a hitch! Did you catch the little guilt dig in there? Apparently I haven’t called enough. The exclamation points and quotes are all her. Plus she mentioned that my high school age cousin and his first girlfriend have broken up, because he really needed that to be announced in a newsletter. There were other things too, it was just…I know she meant well, but…saying that my cousin in Florida could tell us soon whether she’s having a boy or girl is rather presumptuous, last I knew, they didn’t want to know. Now there’s going to be family members asking. There was also a quick thing about my cousin in Colorado. That’s he’s still there but for how long. What? He loves it out there, he needs to be where there’s lots of snow. Then she mentioned making this a monthly thing.

my weekend and monday

2006-10-10T14:03:00.000-04:00

FYI: A bar of soap is not easy to use when you’ve gotten use to using a bath poof.

My sister and brother in law came down for the weekend; he fixed my down stairs bathroom, yay for two functioning bathrooms and yay for him for always being able to fix what ever I've broken since the last time they visited. We went to the big mall and to the closer smaller mall, I got new sneakers, a nice broiling pan (the previous owners took the one that came with the oven) and a dress for going to the theatre and a banquet.

I’m taking an eight week Tap Dance Class, the classes started last night. I had my first tap lessons about three years ago; I got a couple lessons for being in a musical and then took a 6 week session afterwards. I’m taking the class with one of my neighbors so we’re car pooling. The flooring in my upstairs bathroom is getting rather warn looking but there’s not enough room to practice up there. I’ll have to put something down in the kitchen to protect the nice floor.

another plate

2006-10-06T10:48:00.000-04:00

ICEBERG
I don’t know if it’s that they like lettuce a lot, or if it’s their last name, or if their car reminds them of a big block of ice.

I had to go to our new building for work this morning, which is when I saw the license plate and found out that leaving at 8:05 will put me behind a school bus for a while. Lesson learned.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I saw a show last night. I had seen it two weeks ago, but there had been substitutions and I didn’t have a great seat, so last night I had a better seat and got to sit next to a friend who hadn’t seen it yet. The leads were great, their acting and singing were all good. We both agreed the set was a problem, there almost was none, and part of the set was held together with black gaffer tape. It was a musical, there should be a great glorious set, or at least a set that’s painted more than just black.

i don't get columbus day off

2006-10-05T09:06:00.000-04:00

There are lots of vanity plates out there and sometimes they’re cute and sometimes I think people have them just for the sake of having them. IB4E is the one I saw the other day that made me think is that really better than a regular plate?

My sister and brother in law are coming down for the weekend. We originally planned on going down to WV to visit sis and my Godparents, but then G-mom’s mom ended up in the hospital (which happens to be the hospital I was born in), so plans change. While we’re disappointed that we can’t go visit this weekend, we have made plans to go to the big mall. Hmm…and maybe I can get them to help me get some summer stuff up into the attic.

Speaking of the attic, I was walking under the pull downstairs when I heard this noise like water hitting metal. It was pouring out, but I have a wooden roof, so not a good sound. I thought for a minute and then decided that yes, I did in fact need to check it out. So I pulled down the stairs, went up and realized it was the rain hitting the exhaust fan at apparently just the right angle to make the noise, but no rain was coming in, thank goodness. The one thing I miss about apartment living is the ability to just call maintenance to fix things.

is royal blue the new white shirt

2006-10-02T11:26:00.000-04:00

I remember when a guy in a nice white shirt was ‘it’. If a guy could pull off that look, it was just…yum. Over the past couple weeks I’ve been seeing guys in royal blue, and I know this isn’t a new color, but guys are wearing it like it is, and I’m not complaining, I just find it interesting.

**********
I enjoy Halloween. I have lots of decorations for it. I love a good Halloween party. I don’t start decorating for it until October though, and I realize that for some people it gives them something to look forward to once summer ends. So if you have to start decorating at the first day of autumn, I’m not going to judge, you should see how long I leave my Christmas decorations up for. Anyway the one thing I do think it’s too early for, is the carving of pumpkins. One of my neighbors has two pumpkins freshly carved out on their porch, I saw them yesterday. A carved pumpkin rots. This is science.

**********
I miss my mom. Some days I miss her more than others, my birthday was defiantly one of the more days. Disney Princess lip balm and several presents that involved chocolate helped though.

i shouldn't have to tell you not to squish my chips

2006-09-27T15:59:00.000-04:00

I seem to remember from high school friends who were baggers at grocery stores had a set of guidelines they were given for bagging. Is this skipped now?

And to totally switch topics...

If you’ve ever seen For Love of the Game there’s a scene where Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston are on a date and she says something about being able to only ask three questions on the date. And then there's Craig Kilborn who said he had five questions for a woman on a date that if they could answer correctly there would be second date or something to that extent. Anyway I can think of three that need to be answered correctly:

1: Do you have any fetishes? (The correct answer is no, and maybe I’ve seen one two many CSI’s, but no, no.)

2: Where do you keep your dictionary? (If the answer is you don’t have one, bye. Personally I keep mine under the bed so while I’m reading I can look up a word if I don’t recognize it)

3: Do you like your job? (This lets you know a little more about their psyche, if they seem nice but become this totally other person while talking about their job, how much they hate it but can’t do anything about it and they prefer not to talk about it and become all miserable, bye. If they don’t like their job but are taking steps to resolve that, fine. The answer of “yeah, I get to do such and such, this other thing can be a pain, but most days I like my job”, that’s a very good answer. This can also tell you a bit about how together they have their life)

What would you ask if you could only ask three to five questions to determine if there was a next date?

karma

2006-09-25T09:35:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure what I did, but I've had some good luck or good karma the past couple days. Saturday was community day in my town and while there was the threat of rain, it held off. In fact, we had fairly clear skies for the fireworks. Then on Sunday I went to Hallmark and the Grocery store after church, there was a sprinkle on the way but the deluge held off until I was in the grocery store, and had stopped by the time I was ready to leave. Then this morning I had forgotten that one of the roads I take to work was supposed to be closed off today, but it hadn't been yet, so I didn't have to back track.

huh

2006-09-21T10:59:00.000-04:00

Somehow the url for the photo changed, maybe with archiving, I changed the link and got Kitty Cat to show back up. I wonder how often I'll have to do that.

Anyway, going to Fright Fest in three weeks, yay. With two weddings and everything else that happened last year I missed it, so hopefully I'll get to go twice this year.

The new color scheme on iTunes is taking a little whoile to get used to, everythings a little more greyscale, so all the checkboxes looked greyed out, as though they weren't checked. I have not found yet if I can change the color scheme, I'd like to change it to purple.

I have an evening to myself, there are two shows I'd like to watch tonight, they are both on at the same time. Seriously, either put CSI or Grey's Anatomy on at 10. I get not wanting to put either earlier, but switch one with their after show. I'm hoping once one of the 10pm shows starts doing badly they'll switch them. http://www.brilliantbutcancelled.com/deathwatch/ shows neither of the 10'oclock shows as in danger, yet.

i went to the theatre

2006-09-18T09:59:00.000-04:00

I went and saw a friend in a show, the show itself was great, the audience left something to be desired:

If I don’t know your name, but recognize your comb over from other theatre audiences, it’s time to let it go. If you really don’t want to look bald, get a toupee, the comb over is fooling no one.

If you sit in the front row it is your duty to not fall asleep…during both Acts. If you know you’re a sleeper, go sit where everyone can’t see you.

To the talker behind me: Everyone can see it’s a unit set, it takes place in about twelve locations, sometimes two of them at once, so if they are moving pieces around it’s to give the allusion of the area. I don’t need you to keep count how many times they moved various set pieces, the crew did it quick and efficiently, calm yourself down.

To the talkers in the rest of the audience: It's a small theatre, the stage isn't that far away, everyone can hear you, yes especially the people next to you who keep sending death glares your way, and then talk about you openly during intermission. It was an interesting technique that everyone but the people it was intended for understood.

heh

2006-09-13T11:12:00.000-04:00

'What" will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

seriously

2006-09-12T15:49:00.000-04:00

I'm on the 9/11 show. Gah. It's interesting to hear the guys in the begining though, one of them is a volunteer fire fighter from Jersey and was one of the many fire fighters who went to NY in the days following. I sound different than I have on other recordings, I don't know if it's that it was at night or it's the podcast recording, if I didn't know that it was me, I wouldn't have guessed that it was me. I ramble, I interupt myself, I'm a dork, but here we go.
Episode 1:16 http://yourneighborhoodstage.libsyn.com/

edit:I'm at a couple points throughout not just the first bit. They didn't use everything we talked about. Including what I think the best tip for being an SM, which is to Remin Calm no matter what's happening. Also I shared some prop stories, which they didn't use.

an update on me

2006-09-12T09:56:00.000-04:00

Maybe I’ve had a little much caffeine today but I keep trying to double letters in words that don’t need to be doubled, I have spelled the word image wrong several times now, I want to double the ‘m’, not sure why.

I have a flag outside my front door, but apparently that area is a wind tunnel, whenever I look the flag is billowing in the wind even when it doesn’t feel like there’s any wind out. I think I need to put weights in it since it keeps flipping around the pole, and then I have to drag out one of the kitchen chairs and unfurl it.

Part of me knows that I don’t have the time or money to go shopping for some nice new fall clothes, the rest of me wants the pretty. Ole Betsy gets inspected this weekend, I guess it’s going to depend on how much that costs to determine whether I get one new pair of slacks or two and how many new blouses.

I got my hair cut Sunday, chopped about 3” off, maybe just a tad more, I told the stylist a generous three. The next morning I weighed two pounds less on the scale, I’m guessing a pound of that was hair.

random rambles

2006-09-07T21:50:00.000-04:00

I totally had a post thought out in my head on the way to work, and then I got stuck behind a school bus and forgot it.

I just did an interview for a community theatre pod-cast and I'll link to it when it comes up. I hope I don't sound like a total dork. Geek would be fine, I'm a theatre geek I admit.

My local Home Depot is awful, they almost never have what I'm looking for, and yet I keep going back. The one closer to work is better, has sales people who don't give blank looks when you ask them questions, guess I know what I'm doing during lunch tomorrow.

Had first Choir of the new season last night, she kicked our buts with singing. We're going to record a Christmas CD this year and we only have two months to rehearse the songs, some we already know, last night we started learning two we don't. Nothing quite like singing Christmas music in September.

rain, rain with a side of rain

2006-09-05T15:58:00.000-04:00

We were supposed to have a garage sale on Saturday, but Ernesto decided that wasn't going to happen. It's raining for the first day of school in this area. Someone at work mentioned that the summer seemed to go by fast, we had a cool start, it rained for a month, and then we had a draught for almost a month. I hope we have a really nice Indan Summer. Oh and there's a certain type of bug that keeps finding its way into my house, Kitty Cat keeps trying to catch them, I don't know what type of bug it is, it flies, it's atracted to light, it's gray. I'll keep searching.

edit:I do believe it's of the shield bug/stink bug variety.

random thoughts as usual

2006-09-01T10:41:00.000-04:00

The nice thing about being the first appointment at the dr's is that you get in right away, in fact a few minutes early. Then all my asthma meds are prepackaged, so at the pharmacy it takes them five minutes to fill the order. This was a good start to this weekend. I still had to go into work for a little bit. I will be leaving at noon for my trek north. Ernesto looks like it won't hit this area until after I leave. If it would nicely just veer out into the ocean, that would be nice. Not that we couldn't use some rain here, but 3-6" over the course of a few hours is a little much. Kitty Kat decided he wasn't getting out of bed this morning. He tried to get packed in the suitcase last night, but no such luck, so instead he just watched me as I got ready this morning giving me the guilt looks. There's a reason he has so many toys.

thoughts for labor day weekend

2006-08-28T13:31:00.000-04:00

As I prepare to drive 4½ hours to my sister's for Labor Day weekend I have some thought for my fellow drivers

*I hear your side of the road/lane is just as nice as mine

*Stop signs are not optional

*No matter how close you get to the back of my car, I refuse to tailgate the police car in front of me

*EZpass has been around long enough that you know what it is, so don't get in the lane if you don't have it

*As the signs say 'Don't Block the Box'

*Pay attention to where you exit is, don't almost kill me because you have to cut across three lanes of traffic

*Don't block the entrance doors at the rest area, and don't suddenly stop walking in the middle of the parking lot, you're going to cause an accident

*Have some common sense, common courtesy and common decency

*Recognize that the police will be out in force, getting pulled over causes traffic slow downs

*Don't make me hurt you

Love, Random Stuff

kitty cat

2006-08-21T16:36:00.000-04:00

I'm attempting to make him my icon.

eta: It worked, but I was corrected by a friend, kitty is my avatar, but that doesn't mean he can't become an icon, he is already beloved.

fixed

2006-08-21T15:58:00.000-04:00

After I killed the keyboard I got to use a clunky old one for the rest of Friday and for this morning. I am now working on my new -yet another spill proof- keyboard. It's ergonomic correct though, and it's throwing off my not great to begin with typing. It's got some cool buttons though.

Kitty Cat is very protective of his yard...from inside the house. Every time I looked for the cat while the neighbor kid was mowing the lawn, Kitty was watching him. I think Kitty Cat wanted to make sure none of the birds were being disturbed. And while I think it's nice that my next door neighbors put out bread for the birds in the area, sometimes the caterwauling my cat does wanting to get out to the birds on a Saturday morning at 6:30 am is a little much.

knew it would happen

2006-08-18T11:32:00.000-04:00

I killed my keyboard at work. I'm a klutz, and even though the keyboard was one of those moisture resistent ones, I have spilled enough things around and on it that it finally gave up. It got the 'L' stuck on and that's how it ended. I'm now on a keyboard that feels a lot like a type writter, I really have to press the keys to make them work. I think they gave me a kid proof one. I only use sports bottles to drink water out of now.

thoughts

2006-08-16T09:42:00.000-04:00

-I wish the shirtless beer-gut man in my neighborhood wasn't...shirtless that is, he seems like a fine neighbor otherwise.

-I plan on flying in January, I'm hoping that the insanity of recent will drive down ticket prices.

-I grew up near a place that gave helicopteer flying lessons, when they started up each year, it was truely summer, so I never used to give a second thought about them. Now when I hear a helicopter, it usually means there's a major acident on the near-by highway.

-I wonder if we're going to have a winter like we have had our summer, lots of precipitation for the first half and almost none in the second half.

-It's Hallmark's fault I'm thinking about winter, I went in for a birthday card and their ornament display just throws me into Christmas. I only bought one ornament, it's the forth in a series I have, the only ornament series I have actually, and the store was out of the ornament I wanted, so they got it shipped in from another store, but they were out of a few ornaments, it's August.

-To pick up the ornament I had to go back to Hallmark yesterday, yup, such a tough life, and since I was in that shopping plaza I went to the grocery store I used to go to, it was a little over five minutes from my old place, now not quite 15 from the new one, I had forgotten how much more I like it than the one that's most convenient to my current place.

-Kitty Cat used to make sure I was awake as soon as or right before my alarm would go off, he now complains if I don't hit snooze quick enough. I think I like it this way.

some random stuff

2006-08-14T13:32:00.000-04:00

-I am glad there aren't any clients here right now, because I caught myself rockin' out to the music in my head on my walk to the ladies room

-Yesterday I was weeding the front plant bed and I felt like someone was watching me, I looked up and saw Kitty Cat staring down at me from the living room window, with a scowl, because I went outside without him.

-Last evening I was reading my friend's two year old a book, and after I said The End, she said "I'm still reading", and she proceded to "read" the back cover.

-I presently know two pregnant women, I'm waiting to fin dout who the third is, I rarely know fewer than three pregnant women.

movie night

2006-08-11T09:29:00.000-04:00

Last night my boyfriend and I watched two movies, Walk the Line, which is lovely, and only knowing a little bit about Cash and Carter’s lives, it was totally enjoyable. We also watched Syriana, which wasn’t as difficult to follow as I was led to believe, but then again we had the pause and rewind buttons for a couple spots and I put on close captioning, because they whisper a lot in this movie and I was sitting next to someone who when asking a question while watching a movie can’t seem to remember to whisper. What is that, I know so many guys who apparently have the ability in there somewhere but never think to actually use it, seriously I’m trying to hear, if you want to ask a question, pause the movie and ask, I don’t mind, but don’t make it so I have to rewind the movie so I can hear the part you just made me miss, because I’m going to be answering a question about it later. Anyway, at around 11:05 Kitty Cat* comes downstairs, I usually am heading upstairs or am already upstairs at this time and if I’m not he comes down to see what the hold up is, he sighed, flopped on the floor and cleaned himself for the next half hour, and then he gave up on me and went upstairs. The movie was almost over so I didn’t make Kitty Cat wait forever.

Big church BBQ this weekend, should be lots of fun and the weather seems to be cooperating

*His name has been changed to protect his identity, but it’s the same number of syllables

i went to a funeral and it was okay

2006-08-06T18:27:00.000-04:00

Friday was the aniversary of my mom's death. I took the day off of work. I slept in for as long as the cat would let me, about 8:45, got coffee, went shopping, went to a paint your own pottery place-I'd never been to one before, it was fun-went to Panera's and then went home and took a nap. Saturday I went to a funeral. It was for the 82 year-old mother of a friend of mine, she'd been ill, but it's still sad. I did the viewing, the funeral service, and the lunch, but not the internment because I didn't think I could haddle it just yet. This was the first funeral I'd been to since my mom's.

garlic in the kitchen

2006-08-02T11:24:00.000-04:00

I used my garlic press Sunday, but the clove was oversized and I got garlic juice on my fingers, so my hands still smell slightly like garlic. It’s Wednesday, that is some potent stuff. I’ve scrubbed my tub so my hands smelled like Tilex mildew remover for an hour or so, and then the garlic came back. Seriously, bleach doesn’t kill the smell, lemon scented Joy helped, but it’s in my cells I think. I love garlic, but this is even a little much for me.

Savvy got to go up in this:
She described it like this “Rode to the top in this insanely small claustrophobic car that is part train, part elevator, part Ferris wheel. Super scary ride but that thing is so amazing when you see it up close. It is truly breathtaking. The view from the top is incredible and it's just such a cool thing to look at the top when you get down and think ‘I was just waaaaaaaaaaaaaay up there!’”

http://www.gatewayarch.com/

from the icebox that is my office

2006-08-01T12:34:00.000-04:00

There is a family of birds that live on the roof of my work near the vents for the bathrooms. And on days like today where they are making lots of chirping noises, I check closely to see that they aren’t actually in the bathroom. I like nature, I just prefer it when it stays outside. Which is why when I walked past my dining room last night and saw the cat with his face half under the hutch, I got a little concerned. I bravely looked under the hutch and thankfully only saw a handful of cat toys. I got the yard stick from the kitchen and got the toys out, including his precious shaky mouse, for which he insisted on helping me, to the point where I had to pick him up and move him since he kept getting in front of me.

Ever have at work where someone starts basically dressing you down in front of someone else and then you defend what you did and prove that it was the only way that that piece of the project would work within the constraints of the project, and the person just goes “oh”, and doesn’t bother to apologize? My workplace is usually good, but once in a while I have the strong desire to smack a few people.

It is going to be hot into the night tonight, enough so that I'm not cooking. I haven't had McDonalds in months, I think that might just change tonight.

argh (but in a good way)

2006-07-31T13:19:00.000-04:00

Pirate’s was good, definitely worth seeing on the big screen, I suspect the makeup department will get nominated for an Oscar. The third looks to come out Memorial Day weekend of next year, I was hoping Christmas time.

I was trying to figure out when I would mow the lawn this week, it’s not a bad length right now, but a few nice days with sun and rain would make it needed to be mowed. Then I watched the weather forecast, we’re in a heat advisory just about all week, no rain until Thursday afternoon, so I’ll be mowing Friday if my lawn hasn’t completely died my then. And the weather forecaster said we still have more heat waves to come. I’ll be spending some more time by the pool.

Had rehearsal last night. There’s a woman who hasn’t been to rehearsal since read-through, I’ve been reading and walking her part, I have all of her blocking. This was the part I really wanted, and could be doubled with the part I have. I’m trying not to hope she’ll drop the play, but every rehearsal she’s not there makes me want the part that much more. I bet she’ll be there next time.

Pirate's tonight, yay

2006-07-28T14:29:00.000-04:00

It is hard to coordinate with someone who is out of the office.

When I got home from work last night I went for the Advil since my sinuses and humidity + low pressure system, just don’t get along, and as I’m shaking out the pills, I suddenly feel the cat tapping on my bottom (he’s tall when he stretches). I tend to shake his treats to get him to come over, and I think he thought that that’s what I was doing, so I went and got him some treats, which he gobbled up like he doesn’t always have food available 24/7.

It is raining really hard right now and has dropped 8 degrees in the last half hour. I hope none of the roads I need to take tonight are flooded.

by the numbers

2006-07-27T08:44:00.000-04:00

There's a house across from the place I get coffee, it's number is 2324, I like that. I knew a guy from High School Drama Club whose house number was 911, we had a lot of fun with that. And my bus number, orthodontists office number and my piano teacher's house number were all 163. Which I always felt was weirdly neat.

I'm hooked on So You Think You Can Dance, and what's even better is that every time the theme music plays, my cat gets all excited and he starts playing with his toys and bringing them over to me to toss them down the hallway. I watch the show and he dances to the music.

the savvy

2006-07-26T13:56:00.000-04:00

My best friend is having one of those days. She's one of those office manager extraordinares and as she said, "I think they need to create a new word for what I am". So I made her into a Super Hero and called her The Savvy.

She was created using www.jengajam.com/r/Create-A-Superhero

any given wednesday

2006-07-26T09:11:00.000-04:00

When I turned on my car to go home last night, the first cord of Green Day's Brain Stew played, I like when that type of thing happens. The bonus being that I like the song.

Had a theatre meeting last night where we were given the blurbs that will go in our next season's brochure. It was pretty obvious that the person who wrote them hadn't read all of the plays. One was just wrong, to the point where a few of us said, wait, that's not what that show's about. And another where half of it was right but the first half wasn't.

Have rehearsal tonight, we're blocking act two, the theatre this play is at is not air conditioned, must remember to change into shorts after work.

The happy thought that will get me through the rest of the week: I'm going to go see Pirate's on Friday with my boyfriend. I get to spend time with him and see a movie, should be a nice night.

to start

2006-07-25T15:47:00.000-04:00

I was visiting my sister and she asked if I had a blog, since I read so many of them, and when I said no, she said why not and that I should. Now, I don't always take her advise, but sometimes I do.

A little about me:

My mom died almost a year ago, it sucked. I have some awesome friends, including one who talked to me on my cell the entire drive from my office to my apartment, and then later picked me up to go to another friend's house for dinner and watching of Willie Wonka and the chocolate factory, another who brought me chocolate mouse pie, and another who drove me the 4 and half hours to get back to where I grew up. My friends are awesome, I try to tell them this whenever I can.

I bought a house, a town house in a development, with a pool, yay. Oh and central air, for which I am grateful.

I do community theatre, I work a real job too, they each have a habit of driving me insane.

I have a cat, he greatly enjoys the central air and ceiling fans as well.

Hopefully this will be something interesting and at the very least an outlet for me.