Category: Uncategorized (Page 6 of 114)

Thanks for coming on over. I hope this font isn’t too tiny. Let me know if it’s a PITA. (I’ll make it even smaller. That’s my favorite way to deal with complaints. Exacerbate the situation!)

Nearing An Anniversary…

On July 15th, I will have been doing this blogging thing for 4 years. I probably could’ve set that date to move on over here, but hey, I need the pressure to get things fixed up and get all my links transferred and updated.  Right now, no links. Lameage abounds. But! I’m here! And eventually, I’ll haul four years’ worth of blogging over here, and I’ll also clean out the garage, and organize my craft room, and gosh, now I just need a lie-down thinking about everything I have to do. :)

This is going to be a crazy week – I’ve got lots of work stuff going on, including travel (with no internets! For two days! My fingers freeze at the thought!) plus laundry and thank-yous and then the sleeping. So I realize I just had everyone shuffle over here at a time I won’t be posting regularly, but I figure it gives us all time to get used to it.

And speaking of loathing change, we’ve finally got a dog in the house who hates it more than I do. Tripper can’t stand anything out of his routine, and let me tell you, the list of Things that Drive Tripper Crazy is ever-growing.  Balloons, for instance. (We made the house festive for the big 4-0.) And boy, he sure doesn’t like horses on television. I thought we’d never get through Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid!

As for my birthday – there was a little wistfulness, a little melancholy – I think because I woke up and for a split second, imagined I’d be talking to my dad that day. He rarely called me, it was always on me to make the phone calls, but I could always count on him to call me on my birthday, greeting me with a “Hey, kiddo…” It was nice to hear his voice in my head, but a little hard on my heart. Time gives us perspective, and it allows us to see what we have, what we’ve lost, what’s changed…. and it also gives us wisdom. I told my Auntie Karen that I’ve reached an age where I’m much quicker to separate the wheat from the chaff, to see what I want, what matters, what’s bullshit, and what I choose to invest my energy in. I’m probably always going to be nursing some wounds – recent and old, but I am grateful to have the earth steady and solid under my feet, and of all the things that occupy my mind, the ones that matter most are the things that are flourishing.

So, there you have it. Welcome to my new blog abode. I appreciate the extra clicks to get here.

My poor husband. He had a rough day yesterday, and I can only hope that whatever planetary-star alignment thing he had going on has been swallowed up by a black hole and the crazy has moved on to another block, city, or continent.

His truck has been… finicky. It’s got over 190k miles on it, and as many things do when they get older, has taken to making its own decisions here and there about what it will or will not do. Like start. Or turn off. It reached a point that he just routinely would hook & unhook the battery to co-operate with the truck’s New Method of Running. But yesterday, the truck decided it would not play with the routine any more. And this decision took place in the Lowe’s parking lot.

Now, as James observed, if you’re going to have a vehicle breakdown, the place to have it is in the Lowe’s parking lot. Three men immediately appeared to help, and they pushed the truck down an incline so he could get it into gear & rolling again. (As someone who is only knowledgeable about car styles and names, this is all very magical.) I was telling Beth about it today, and we were joking about other sorts of breakdowns, like what the best parking lots would be for those. I think a nervous breakdown would be best in a Target parking lot. Anyway, he has determined it’s the starter, and is outside installing it as I type.

But that wasn’t all. Last night, we had major storms – lots of lightning, thunder, rain. I went to bed a bit later, and it was challenging to fall asleep, what with the noise and flashes of light. And the dogs kept barking. Mostly Polly, but she’d get Suzy going and Tripper, who stays in his kennel & has the StopBark by him, just whined, because he knows barking=ultrasonic badness. At one point, James asked me if I’d heard the doorbell. I hadn’t, and replied as much. But the barking continued, over hours. I started incorporating all the noise into my dreams, and finally awoke as James, beside-himself-crazy, flipped on the hall light and asked me where the doorbell chimes were. I directed him to the old ones, which he’d already investigated & ruled out, since it didn’t have all the batteries inside. I then remembered that a couple years ago, I’d replaced that unit with a plug-in device. I found it, unplugged it, and went back to bed. Apparently, something with the storm was setting off the doorbell, which in turn set off Polly, who set off Suzy and Tripper (Bark & Whine). Suzy finally gave up, because that’s how she rolls, but James said that at one point, Polly GOT UP ON THE BED to get our attention. (I have no recollection of this, as I was in my dreams wandering around complaining about “all the racket”.) She’s vigilant, my dog. I’ll give her that. But man, we’re both tired today! And the power’s out at the office, so I can’t check my email from home. I think I feel a nap coming on & a fresh start to the weekend in my future!

James was laughing at me last night, as I was chattering on about my birthday present to mahself, which I bought with Christmas money I’d tucked away. (It sounds far more noble that way, and, bonus, it’s true.) I was talking about what additional things I’d like for it, and he asked how much those cost, and I quickly tabulated “about $75. And I am WORTH $75, James.” Oh, he noted quite quickly, I’m worth much, much more. ;) He laughed about me having a “birthday week” and I immediately corrected him: “Birthday MONTH, my friend.”

So here it is – I got one helluva deal on this, too.

It’s the KitchenAid 6, which is the biggest one they make. (Well, I think the parent company makes industrial mixers, but really, we’d have to convert the dining room into a bakery. And have a serious discussion about upgrading the oven!)

Anyway, I got it in the color shown above, pearl metallic. I bought it at my local Mar-Beck, which is a treasure trove of refurbished items, and it came with the same warranty as if I’d bought it new. They told me most of the mixers they sell have just had dinged-up boxes or missing a beater or something, and besides, they’re the place it goes if it has to be fixed under warranty, anyway. The price was fabu, AND I had a coupon! I know they are offering free shipping on orders over $200, so if you’re in the market for one of these, consider buying from them. It’s bad-ass. I can’t wait to make some dough and not hear the sad grinding of my little KitchenAid’s motor. I may save the mixer to give to one of our nieces one day, just to keep it in the family, or else we’ll see what CraigsList can bring us…speaking of which, SOMEone is now the proud owner of a fishing boat! Yep! James came out while I was floating in the pool (yes! A pool! I’m spilling all our purchases) and informed me he’d found his dream fishing boat. He did a little negotiating, and in keeping with our plans to stay-cation, we spent the money on something that will be around for years and didn’t make us feel queasy to buy it.

For whatever reason, a trip to Mexico just left me nervous…queasy… it just didn’t quite feel right. So, the first compromise on staying home was to buy one of those inflatable pools. Of course, that in of itself required compromise, as I wanted something like this:

How can you not love a pool called the “Parthenon”??? Ok, OK, it’s a little … big.

SO, I came home from Wal-Mart with this pool:

It’s 12′ wide, it’s 36″ tall (but the water is about 29″ at the deepest spot – we have a concrete patio that’s slightly slanted for runoff). Relaxing and fabulous. I’ve been in it every day since we put it up – yep, even when it was just being filled, straight from the hose! I’ve always been a water junkie. I love pools, I love swimming, tubs, water in general. Something peaceful and transcendental happens when I float around in a tub of water, and I decompress. It’s nice. I’ve always wanted a pool, my whole life, and would lobby for a motel with a pool whenever we traveled. I even wanted a pool more than I wanted a moped, which is saying something. Alas, it was never to be.

So there you have it. We’ve actually been pretty frugal lately – dining out has taken a nose dive, and it helped that all of the above were really good deals. Someday – maybe someday – we’ll have the Parthenon, but that will require a pool boy. (I’ll work on the application process! And we’ll have to convert the workshop into a pool house.) OH, and before you even ask, NO, the dogs are not allowed in the pool. It would be fun for about 30 seconds and would turn into a major nightmare, not to mention the fact they’d tear up the vinyl with their claws and there goes the pool. It’s just high enough that they can’t really see in it, and they’ve left it alone. So, here comes Summer, and for once, I’m ready.

Try it yourself here!

So, ya, regular readers will remember that last Fall, I did that whole International Scarf Exchange, and as the due date neared, my secret pal bailed on me and never communicated a reason why or anything. But I was fortunate enough to get an angel in Taiwan, who swiftly knit something up for me, and sent along some lovely goodies as well.

I decided I could give it another go, despite all my bad luck with swaps. But now we’re back at the “email us if you still haven’t gotten anything” point, and I just feel stupid. STOOPID. I even volunteered to be an angel this go-round, because I thought HOW could it happen again? And who knows? Maybe something happened, maybe there’ll be a package arriving tomorrow, maybe maybe maybe. But I hate writing like I’m a petulant 14-year old, and it’s stupid to get my feelings hurt, but there you have it. And the only way to prevent this from happening again is to STOP participating. I apparently have terrible luck with these things and I can’t keep thinking “this time will be different!” So. I’m not doing another one of these. I’m doing a swap with my ‘net friend TussahSilk, and we’ll get around to sending each other care packages of yarny goodness. (See, we don’t set a deadline or really any ground rules? But I’ve already gotten her a couple of things, and eventually, I’ll reach the point where I say, “Yeah, that’s good”, and then we’ll email some more and then we’ll both fulfill our respective ends of the deal.)

Grumble. I’m sooo glad it’s Friday. Hubs finished summer school today and he couldn’t be happier. I’m gonna get my toes done tomorrow, and prepare for my last week as a 39-year old!

I had lunch with Kyra today. We drove by a Wendy’s billboard & I asked her if she’d seen the pic I’d posted on my blog, and she had – we were laughing about it, and she said she’d had an English teacher who had showed them a full page newspaper ad that said something to the effect, “Your On The Right Track”.

Two hours later, she text messaged me to look at her Flickr. Yup. This is going to put me in the nuthouse, some folks look for the second coming or a rapture, but my alarm bells are signs like these, pointing to the decline of language and writing in this country. Hell, I almost prefer text-message spelling, because it’s at least a puzzle and doesn’t pretend to be proper English.

Alright, I think I came off way more despondent than intended in that last post. I got some really nice private messages & I hate thinking I made anyone worry when it wasn’t merited. (Last week merited worry. Today I’m just feeling like emotional fly paper. Which I’m actually quite proud to have coined, it’s totally who I am. You are angry and you are blue! Whatever you’re feeling sticks to me like fly paper glue!) I’m just sick of all the panic and doom & gloom with the economy and hearing the phrase “X prices going up further”.

I’m actually in a pretty good mood this afternoon, despite some of the drama swirling.

I think I need a vacation. Or some blender drinks. Maybe both! Together!

Oh, and I betrayed the sisterhood today. I actually explained women to a guy friend at work. His mind exploded in front of me. More on that tomorrow.

We watched the Dana Carvey standup special on HBO last night. It seemed fitting, since the Church Lady had come up in conversation at work on Friday – and then Wayne’s World was on that afternoon.

Extremely disturbing. After about 30 minutes, I figured out why. Dana Carvey has had some work done, and now he looks like Clay Aiken.

Tsk, tsk. Good thing I’m still in love with Eddie Izzard.

I have been getting my geek on. Only in my case, it’s more like “gecko”. I am such a wannabe, I roll my eyes at myself! That said, I have been working on my own domain, which I’ve owned for quite some time, and the battle royale of yesterday was getting WordPress installed – I actually did it, but grew so frustrated trying to run the script that I finally submitted it to WP’s fabulous team of “install-for-free” volunteers, and then I got a whole new set of parameters and steps to wrangle with. As in, hello, how DO I get the screen to log in as the admin? I spent at least 30 minutes with the wrong address, getting an error message, so I continued to edit my config file, and then finally, blessedly, something clicked. Intuitive, this shit is not.

So! At some point – now in the not-so-distant future – I will be moving Ye Olde Blogge. Right now, when I think about moving all my archives over, I just roll my eyes. Uh, yeah. Lemme get a few more things sailing smoothly before I take that route, mmmkay?

That’s one of the things cookin’ here at Chez PlazaJen; the other is that those DPN holders I made? Are soon going to be for sale at the Loopy Ewe! I KNOW. That’s one of the aforementioned “SQUEE”s. I about passed out from the sheer excitement when I got that email! And then I recovered, and placed a frenzied order for more devil duckies. Which turned into its own nightmare of sorts, as I selected “expedited shipping”, and the seller used DHL at Home, which takes its sweet time to get your package to your local USPS who in turn delivers them to you. Uh, yeah. So instead of 1-3 days, it took 6 days. It goes without saying, I was Not Happy. (Oh, and I got the shipping charges refunded.) So, this little bit of excitement goes hand-in-glove with the website, because even though I don’t want to delve into e-commerce, per se, I would like to have a few pages with my photos of the holders, and anything else that might be joining the “Wants & Kneeds” line of quirking knitting panaceas. Because yes, there’s something else. (But that announcement needs to wait!)

In other news, because lordy, I have been a little distracted from blogging, we are fully embracing the notion of a staycation. However, I am also highly resentful of the staycation. It’s sort of a love/hate thing – I know we’re doing the right thing by conserving our cash and we’d be grumpy if we went somewhere and spent too much money, BUT, I’m just resentful of the fact that this is happening, the economy is tanking, and gas prices are being jacked with (because seriously, OPEC says there is no supply issue, so what gives? Someone’s making a shitton of money AND having a lavish all-inclusive vacation! That’s what gives!) So my answer to all of the above is quite simple: Blender Drinks. They’re a mini-vacation in a glass.

And, quite honestly, all that’s kept me from throwing the computer out the window this weekend.

More soon, with extra SQUEE! :)

As this four-day weekend winds down, I realize that I’ve been a bit lax in blogging. Maybe because I was pretty lax all weekend? In any event, I’d say one of the highlights of the past few days was seeing a precocious six-year-old try out boxing on the Wii for the first time – and while her opponent was knocked down, and all the adults (barely able to breathe because we were laughing so hard) were screaming, “Don’t stop! He’s getting up!” and she cocked her right arm back, at the ready, to take that mo-fo boxer OUT. Our instincts to survive and protect are with us at the get go, eh?

I took Friday off, to extend the holiday weekend, and spent a good chunk of it “Austin-Powering” my way down Metcalf Avenue. You know, the scene where he’s trying to turn a small go-cart around and he’s going back & forth (to nearly infinity) in a tight spot? Well, all my little stops on what is arguably one of the most unpleasant main drags to drive on in the area felt exactly like that. I went to Macy’s, and was terribly disappointed in their selection of handbags. I went to Michael’s, and bought the wrong-sized bags for my DPN holders. Then I went to the Asian market, and that was at least successful, and after that, CostCo, which is always successful. :)

We went to see Love Tusk on Saturday night, along with some other local bands vying to be the opening band at Red White & Boom – egads, a couple of the bands were rather dreadful. And I heard those exact words ala Simon Cowell the entire time. But, our friends rocked our faces off, we stayed out later than we have in eons, and just a tip for those of you who frequent Davey’s Uptown? The back bartender makes some very strong drinks! I was inspired by the Bombay Sapphire to treat James to a diatribe on my opinions on government standardized driver’s tests. As in, I think we should have them! Did you know that Missouri is one of like, seven states that forbids turning left on red, even from a one-way onto another one-way? Seriously. Everywhere I’ve lived allows this – Iowa, Minnesota. And I can understand some tweaks – there are sections on snowplows in the MN driver’s test, but generally speaking, I think there should be more consistency. It could also be I still harbor some resentment for getting the MO test question wrong, pertaining to how long something must be extending from your vehicle, before you tie a flag on it. Really? How about “just about any amount”? That’s logical. And works for me. Anyway, I know my dissertation was a real treat for James… ;) (I thought I should edit this to add: James was very sober & doing all the driving – no worries for irresponsible behavior here! And it freed up my hands to wildly gesture while I made my points….)

My pal in Oxford got his scarf & most all of the goodies I intended to send him – you’re so understanding, Stephen! It was a real joy to knit his scarf, as the yarn was scrumptiously colored and super soft. I took some pictures, but I think they’re on my external hard drive at work, so I’ll post those soon. But! You can go to Stephen’s blog & see everything – in a whole ‘nother continent! It seems more exciting to me, anyway.

I also did some cooking this weekend, most notably, the first pesto of the season. We have basil running out our ears already, and we’ve hardly touched the six varieties of Asian basils! I used the regular Italian basil to make the pesto, and was instantly reminded how much better fresh pesto is, compared to storebought. Oh lordy. It was de-lish! I also tried my hand at Mojitos, as the mint has come on in full stride. We ran out of time today, so another round of pad thai will be attempted tomorrow; I may adventure with the stronger-flavored purple stem basil for that! (I really need to take a cooking class from one of my favorite Thai restaurant haunts. I fear a standardized class just wouldn’t be the same.)

Now, I just have to try and remember what day it is, and what-all I have to do this week. I love being this relaxed, but I also get a little nervous that I’m forgetting the six most important things I need to do! Like put on pants.

Here’s to pants, all week long. What’s left of it, anyway!