using my noodle

liz is coming down to visit me this afternoon. i'm pretty excited. so before she comes, i wanted to accomplish a few small things like get the garbage to the road and do the grocery shopping. then, i realized i didn't need to go grocery shopping today. so i'm watching another episode of My Name Is Earl instead.

no worries, the garbage still made it to the road.

next, i'll start a load of laundry. because clean clothes are good.

snow?

there's white fluffy stuff falling from the sky. it's pretty. it's cold, but it's pretty. regardless, i took it as a sign that it was okay to go ahead and turn the heat back on.

giving away a million dollars

if i had a million dollars that i had to give away - i wouldn't tell anyone i had the million dollars to give away. instead, i'd cash it out in $100 bills, and i'd give them away randomly and anonymously. is $100 enough to change a person's life? maybe not. but i could give 10,000 people a reason to smile a little bigger and have a really good day. maybe the $100 would help them pay their rent. maybe it would help them buy a plane ticket to go see family. maybe it would pay the dinner bill at a nice restaurant as a special treat. whatever they wanted to use it for, it's $100 they didn't have yesterday. and i can't think of too many people who wouldn't enjoy having an extra $100 to spend.
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flickr account

when i first started my flickr account, i got the pro account for free because my internet service was through at&t. then flickr decided they weren't offering the free pro acounts anymore, and i went through this mental debate about whether to pay for the pro account or not. if i downgraded to the free regular account, i'd have lost most of the photos i had on there. i think it worked out to something like $2/month for the pro account, so i bought it. it's up for renewal again, and i'm back to debating. i haven't used it much in the past year, and the past few days of debating haven't given birth to any new ideas that would cause me to use it more in the coming year. so ... hmmm.

almost 6 months

i have blogged daily for almost 6 months. today, i don't want to.

oh. i guess i already did.

sunday sunshine

my parents are on their way to spend the day with me. yup. today's gonna be a good day.

vd'o - full metal jacket

i'm watching Full Metal Jacket, and given Vincent D'Onofrio's small roles in his first two films i was assuming the same for this one. i was wrong. his part is pretty major, at least for the first 45 minutes. now it appears he'll not be appearing in the last 75 minutes, so i'm going to pause and get ready for work. i wasn't sure what to expect with this one, but so far i've ... enjoyed it? i'm not sure enjoy is the best word. it's definitely holding my attention, and i find it intriguing. intriguing. yes, that's a better word, i think.

courtesy not so common?

every night when i close at work, i find myself questioning what i generally consider to be common courtesy. did no one else's mother teach them that if you're leaving a parking lot with a group of people you always wait to be sure everyone else's car starts before leaving? especially at night? we all leave the store together when we close, but most of the folks jump in their car and speed away as quickly as possible. what if someone can't get her car started? no one should have to be there alone, in a dark parking lot, waiting for a ride.

do these same people, when dropping someone off, simply drive away without waiting for the person they dropped off to get inside?

it baffles me.

good morning

i didn't sleep well wednesday night. i blame it on late caffeine and sugar consumption. so i went to bed fairly early last night. i set my alarm and promptly turned it off and fell back asleep. then my roommate's alarm started going off, so i got up. why? because she's at a conference this weekend, and if i didn't turn it off no one would. and since turning off her alarm involved getting out of bed and walking across two rooms ... i was awake enough to stay up.

i'm not complaining about her alarm going on off, i'm just pointing out that i'm up and moving at a decent hour. her alarm going off was a good thing.

i submitted the electronic payment for my state taxes this morning. i think it's a little silly that they charge me $8 to send the payment online. sure, the convenience and security to me is worth it - but i would think it would be worth it to the state, too. they're as glad as i am that my check's not getting lost in the mail. and it's as helpful to them as it is to me to have an electronic trail to follow if anything does go goofy with the payment. and the instantaneousity (yeah, i made that up. say it. it's fun) of the entire transaction can't only benefit me. silly processing fee.

i also printed out my backup copy of my tax returns. i still need to package them with my other tax forms and actually get them filed away ... but one step at a time, right? first, i believe i shall make breakfast. it's the most important meal of the day, you know.

taxes and birthday presents

i did my taxes this week. i had some concerns about how they would work out, but in the end it's not so bad. in fact, it's enough not so bad that i'm considering buying myself a late birthday present. i have this tendency to buy myself birthday presents. it's like once a year i get this itch to spend some money. so this time, i'm contemplating a new laptop. my current laptop is about at the end of its usefulness. it has two main jobs: surf the internet and provide storage for photos when i'm away from home. it's still doing a good job of storing photos, but it's not doing so hot with the surfing part. it needs a flash update, but i can't update it because the operating system won't support the current version. the battery is completely dead, so it has to be plugged in all the time. this is especially frustrating when i move and accidentally unplug it. like i did while typing this post. :) it doesn't load some of the pages i'd like to read on a regular basis - like brian's and katie's. it gets stuck on fancy scripts that i can't describe because it won't load them for me to describe them. and it can't comment on facebook posts. that's right - my facebooking options are limited to reading & looking at pictures. so ... yeah, my laptop's pretty much at the end of its usefulness.

so i was thinking of buying a laptop comparable to what my parents are using. i know they work well on facebook. and i tested a netflix movie on one of them, and it streamed quite smoothly. but then my dad mentioned looking at dell's inspirons. did you know they make them with interchangeable lids? i know there are adhesive skins - but this is so much cooler. it's a hard plastic lid that snaps into place like it was meant to be there. and they've got some of the cutest choices. of course, it costs almost four times as much. it is brand new, as opposed to used from ebay ... but four times as much?

this is why i limit my large purchases to once a year. it takes me about that long to decide to actually spend the money. and once i make the decision, i have to act quickly before i change my mind.

excellent drive home

today has been a gorgeous day. on my way to work, it really looked like we were going to get some great thunderstorms. it may have rained for a few minutes, but an hour later the clouds just disappeared and the sky was completely clear. when the clouds returned, they were fluffy, white and beautiful. on my way home, i skirted the very edge of storm clouds. my windshield was getting wet, but the sun was shining. it was the perfect mix of sunshine and storm clouds, rainbows and lightning.

i love that color that happens when the sun is shining on trees and fields with a backdrop of dark, heavy clouds. i've never been able to capture it in a picture, but that's okay. some things, i think, are better off only being fully experienced in person. it reminds me to be glad that cameras have limitations. to appreciate the experience because it won't be the same in the pictures. to put the camera down and just breath in what's happening around me.

i would think ...

i've been watching the tv show Monk recently. i've got some family who loves the show, and seeing as the lead detective is often described as quirky - i figured i'd really enjoy it. i don't know that i'd say i'm really enjoying it, but the show is growing on me. apparently i like it enough to keep watching. i'm on episode 8.

i suddenly realized i may have already mentioned that i'm watching Monk. have i mentioned it already? because i was getting ready to point out that it's set in san francisco, which is part of the reason i keep watching it. and that makes me think i may have already told you i was watching it. anyway, most of the time, the setting is pretty generic - it could be anywhere. but sometimes it's very obviously san francisco. that makes me smile.

but the opening scenes perplex me a bit. there are two scenes that show him fixing household items that are out of place. (do you know enough about the show to know that Monk is slightly ocd? yeah. just slightly.) anyway, he fixes the improperly ordered clothes in his closet and the wrongly hung umbrella in the walkway. there's no drama involved. he just fixes them and moves along. but they're in his own house. i would think that simply finding those items out of place would drive him nuts. i mean, how did they get out of place in his own house? he wouldn't have put them in out of place. so ... hmmm.

slow monday

i got to have homemade cinnamon scones for breakfast this morning. fresh from the oven. with my family. there can be no complaints about starting a monday morning that way.

now i'm sitting on my sofa, waiting for my clothes to finish in the dryer. i got a call from work as i was driving. they need me to come in as soon as possible because of a scheduling mishap. i'm glad i needed to do laundry. i'm still going in as soon as possible, and i'm still getting to relax a bit because i just can't make the dryer go any faster.

top all of that off with the fact that i'm off work tomorrow, and things are good. very, very good.

today for lunch ...

i had a hot beef sandwich and cool ranch doritos. followed by a brownie topped with mint chocolate chip ice cream & fudge sauce for dessert. yum.
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a good saturday

i just barely made it to work on time this morning. i had great plans to leave early enough to get gas, grab breakfast, swing through the bank and do a little shopping at cvs. instead i left at my regular time, which allowed me to get gas, grab breakfast and clock in at the very moment i was supposed to start work. all in all, a decent start to the day. :)

work was busy. busy is good. the day went quickly and smoothly. no major upsets, no horrible drama. i did listen to a coworker complain about the quality of the water from our water fountain, followed by the same coworker complaining about the price of the bottled water we sell. my issues with this are two-fold. A: there's nothing wrong with the water from the fountain; i drink it all the time. and 2: when there are two sources of safe water available for your consumption, don't complain about them both. it's unnecessarily negative. silly coworker.

after work i went to trader joe's. i've never seen them so busy! the chap at the register was quite friendly, though. he was also quick and efficient, so he gets a gold star in my book. has anyone seen my book?

but wait - there's more!

i took my parents out to dinner tonight. it was great. it's very hard to believe that it's been almost 10 months since i moved south. and while i don't regret the decision, there are definitely times when i really wish i was close enough to spend more time with my family. i love being home. home is filled with good people.

today i'm grateful for (part 3)

- chicken ramen. :)
- surprise appropriateness from corporate america.
- being able to breath just a little bit easier.
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today i'm grateful for (part 2)

- paychecks through direct deposit. :)
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today i'm grateful for (part 1)

- waking up without an alarm clock.
- birds chirping outside open windows.
- finding shamrock shake gift certificates in the mail!
- remembering to start the dryer before it became a last-minute-before-i-run-out-the-door thing.
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daily topic quandary

i wonder if consistently following a daily blogging topic will eventually deteriorate my ability to post randomly about the things that are actually going on in my life.

how would you make the world a better place?

home delivery of root beer and doritos. ice and water dispensers within easy reach of every sofa. availability of all law & order episodes on netflix. and more flowers.

what? not serious enough for you? okay. i'd break down the social and economic barriers that currently keep us all from relating to each other in a respectable manner. i'd cure the broken people who wreak havoc on the lives of those around them. i'd concoct the magic antibiotic that's just waiting to be eeked from the brains of cockroaches, curing the world of all its illnesses and diseases. and more flowers.

there's nothing wrong with aiming for that which we can accomplish.
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coffee house gaming

have you played the game Set? each card has four distinct qualities - color, shape, number and shading. players make sets of three cards from a pool of twelve on the table. to be an acceptable set, the three cards have to all share or all differ on each of the four qualities. for example, they must all have the same color or be three different colors - you can't use two red and one green - and so on for each of the qualities. i played a game yesterday with greg. it's been awhile since i played, but it didn't take long to remind me that the game is capable of making me simultaneously feel both smart and incredibly stupid. i sit there just staring at those twelve cards thinking, "there has got to be a set in there ..." and then suddenly it's so glaringly obvious which three work together. i'd be interested in playing a series of back-to-back games to see how both playing time and feelings of stupidity decrease as the mind adjusts to studying those four qualities. maybe i should just play it solitaire style as practice. :)

greg also introduced me to a new game called Jambo. it's a card game where players are buying and selling wares, unleashing animals on each other and using various utilities to supplement their game. it was quite enjoyable, and it's specifically designed for two players, which isn't all that common. or, at least, not with the games i have. most of my games can be played by two players, but are better played with a larger group. and some of them are simply impossible for two players (Beyond Balderdash, for example. and Hilarium, Snorta!, Partini, The Game of Things ...) i think with a double set of cards, Jambo could easily be played with 3-4 players without disrupting the flow of the game - but it was a great two-player game. and i learned last night that there are two different expansion packs available. i do love me a good expansion pack.

speaking of expansion packs, yesterday was the first time i got to play Zombie Fluxx with the flamethrower expansion pack. the new zombies are pretty fabulous. and i still won. ;) well, i won the second game. the first game was won by the zombies. those li'l buggers are crazy.

our next visit to the coffee house (did i mention we found a great coffee house to sit at and play games? i even enjoyed - wait for it - a cup of coffee. that's right. actual coffee. i did not order a hot cocoa ... i ordered coffee) will include the game of Agricola, which is a Uwe Rosenberg creation. i'm a big fan of his game Bohnanza, so there's no reason to think i wouldn't enjoy Agricola, too.

sigh. i love game playing.

would you rather

be stung by a jellyfish or fall in that big tub of worms at the bait stand?

i'd rather be stung by a jellyfish. because if i fell in the worm tub, i'd feel like there were worms sliming all over me for days afterward. it wouldn't matter how many showers i took, i'd still randomly get the creeps for days thinking i felt one in my hair or on my leg or something. and what if i fell all the way in? and had worms on my face? ugh. can you imagine on of them guys sliding across your lips? or up your nose? or in your ear? so gross. i'd definitely prefer the jellyfish sting. definitely.
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motivation

i can boil down my motivational stimuli to a fairly concentrated pool of options. and the more i analyze my own actions, the more that pool concentrates. it's interesting, really. but then, i like to analyze.
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built-in lie detector

if you could have the ability to tell if the folks around you were lying or truthing, would you want it? i definitely would. at some point would i wish i didn't have that ability? i definitely would. but i like knowing things. and i hate feeling like i'm being taken advantage of. so ... this way i would know what was going on. and again, i like to know things. plus, considering the fact that most situations aren't very serious, it would be fun to know when people are lying about silly, inconsequential things. the key, i think, would be to not let people know i could read them. because then, i'm pretty sure people would hate me. which would be silly. they could just be honest, instead.
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if you had a wish, would you wish for more wishes?

yes. yes, i would. to me it just makes sense because there's no way i could settle on just one wish. and then i wonder, what would it be like to have one wish at the tip of my tongue, ready for the wishing? i'm way too unfocused for that. if i was forced to only wish one wish? i'd probably go with a very large sum of money. because most of my other wishes could be accomplished with that sum of money. perhaps i'd wish for an unending supply of money. yeah, that would work.
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apples

there's a granny smith apple sitting in our fruit bowl that's lingering on the edge of acceptable freshness. i'm impressed with it's staying power. it's been in that bowl for quite some time.

i bought an apple charm at work last night. it's for a project i'm planning to start soon, but i don't want to talk about it. ;)

i opened a can of applesauce the other day because i ran out of canola oil and was making a cake. i'm not a big fan of eating applesauce, so i'm unsure of what to do with the leftovers. i'm guessing it doesn't have the same staying power as the granny smith. and i don't really need to make another cake.

remember the scene in The Brady Bunch where peter is saying "pork chops and applesauce"? i mentally replay that scene entirely too often considering how long it's been since i've seen it.


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vd'o - adventures in babysitting

ahhh, vincent d'onofrio as thor. this movie came out 4 years after The First Turn On, but i can't get past how young vd'o looks. in fairness, there aren't a lot of close-ups in TFTO to really study his age, and he's in the midst of a bunch of other young actors and his height makes him seem older. in AIB, however, he just looks like a baby! i mean, you can tell that he's clean-shaven (as opposed to not needing to shave), and you can see that he has chest hair, and he still has his ridiculous height (the man is 6' 3") - but he looks so young. perhaps it's his skinniness coupled with his skinny jeans (which are too snug to be outside his work boots) in addition to his flowing blond hair? regardless, those are three minutes of cinematic beauty.

as a side note, marlana says we can't name our dog vincent, but we can name him thor. i'm comfortable with that.

and no, we don't have a dog.

irish dreams

for our "i wish i was" topic, marlana wished she was in ireland. that trip was, without a doubt, amazing. i want to go back later in the year so the trees have greened up a bit. maybe stay somewhere further north so we can explore that end of the country more. maybe do one of those driving vacations where we get to choose our b&b destination each day instead of having a permanent home base. yeah, that's what i was thinking about tonight.

and then with just a few clicks, i learned we'd save $350 each by flying out of chicago instead of indy and into dublin instead of shannon. and even with upgrading to private bath b&bs and an automatic car, it would still be cheaper than the last time we went. really? that's interesting. hmmm.

memory in my thirties

i can remember all sorts of random facts and stories, but i tend to forget words in the middle of sentences. it seems to happen most often with adjectives. strange, right?
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crochet creations

my oldest niece's flower fairy. she sits about 4.5" tall. (the original pattern from which zombie and ninja are based)



my youngest niece's dodecahedron thingymabob. it's a bit smaller than annabella's and sits approximately 4" tall.



ninja, who has a sword slung across his back, sits about 4.5" tall, too. the main change to the flower fairy pattern was adding beefier arms and legs. no one would take a ninja seriously if he had the floppy appendages of a fairy.



a happy coffee cup (or hot cocoa mug!) that sits about 2.5" tall. if you want a smiley cup o' joe, just let me know. i'd be happy to mail this li'l guy out to you.



and a smiley bumblebee for my friend who's expecting a baby girl this summer. he's got a cute li'l stinger butt and super soft wings. he's about 8" long.

i wish i was ...

in san francisco right now. the other night at work, there was a distinct san francisco aroma in the air. it was something about the rainy breeze mixing with the restaurant exhaust from across the street, i think. it smelled fabulously like sitting on pier 39.

able to find my facial scrub. it appears neutrogena may have stopped making the facial scrub i've grown to love. i've looked at multiple stores, and no one seems to have it. this is sad.

100 pounds lighter. hey, if i'm wishing - let's be honest, right? ;)
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million-dollar competitions

today's topic asked what competitions i'd participate in for a million dollars. the truth is, there are a lot of competitions i'd participate in for the chance to win a million dollars. so instead of listing them all, i'm going to give you two that i'd like to see someone organize so i can sign up.

1. Crochet Crazy: the crocheter who hooks for the longest amount of time wins.

2. Pizza Party: the contestant who partakes in pizza goodness at the most eateries in 30 days wins.

yup, these competitions i would sign up for in a heartbeat.
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if i were the teacher, i would ...

enjoy summer vacation and making painty messes for a living.
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birthmark

i have a birthmark that's shaped like a guitar pick on my left ankle. i've always wanted to play the guitar, but i've never tried. perhaps i've missed my calling in life?
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facebook

as much as i enjoy facebook, i'm quite glad the movie about its founder did not win the oscar for best picture. i did not enjoy that movie. it bored me, which was disappointing because i was looking forward to seeing it. i spent most of the movie feeling like i was waiting for the movie to start. that happens to be the same feeling i had last year when i watched The Hurt Locker. but all of a sudden, the last 20 minutes of THL made the whole movie worthwhile, and i totally understood why it won the oscar. the facebook movie missed the close. does that mean it's going to be around forever? my enjoyment of online snooping would appreciate that.
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a joke that makes me laugh

A pirate walks into a bar wearing a paper towel on his head. He sits down at the bar and orders some dirty rum.

The bartender asks, "Why are you wearing a paper towel?"

"Arrr..." says the pirate. "I've got a Bounty on me head!"
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if i had a theme song

and it played aloud each time i walked into another room ...

okay, now sing that to "if i were a rich man" from fiddler on the roof. it's kinda funny, right? but no, i don't want "if i were a rich man" as my theme song. stop talking such ridiculous nonsense.

if i had a theme song, i would want it to be something instrumental and weighty. something with power. something that really made people take notice. like the theme to star wars. or m*a*s*h, though it has lyrics and they're depressing. to go another direction, perhaps pink's song so what? or mahna mahna from sesame street?


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today's oil change

this afternoon i sat in the jiffy lube waiting room with an older gentleman who wore shoes like my dad and a younger woman who may have been a college friend of my mom's youngest sister. (no, of course i didn't ask. have you met me? c'mon.) as we waited for our cars to be serviced, another gentleman walked in who could have easily been the brother of a former co-worker. the entire experience was a bit surreal.

oh. i also caught a couple of minutes of a news broadcast. is there something going on with the government?

if i could get anything at all for my birthday ...

it would be a check for $33 million that doesn't bounce or require taxes being paid out of it. don't misread that to mean i think money can buy happiness, but i do think i could get rid of a lot of other pressures to make room for more happiness with $33 million.
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