"Your last Christmas gift came!" WM exclaimed as I came home from work one day last week. He offered me a large, flat cardboard box. I opened it and smiled. He hung it up outside of the kitchen. For the non-Disney/Pixar initiated, it's the sign from the bistro at the end of Ratatouille, which is my favorite of the Pixar movies. You should watch it ... it's magical. It should go well with these little guys in my kitchen passthrough window... And this framed photo that's in ...
What's new?
Been a while, eh? I was reminded I had a blog by Google Webmaster tools. I don't check my pageviews anymore, but it helpfully let me know my database was inaccessible a few days ago. I tweaked a few settings and now we are back and error free. I hope. So here's the rundown since August: Mom and I went back to Virginia Beach. WM and I attended Philly Diner en Blanc. I turned the big 43. WM went back to school. Doctor appointments. Hooray. More setting up the house. I replaced my dead laptop ...
We bought a house!
Reason # 1298437 why my blog will never make money -- when Big Life Events happen, I stop writing. I can't help it. I'm always afraid I'm going to jinx things. Short story: We finally found a house, bought it, and moved in last Saturday! Longer story: I never thought we'd find a house we'd both agree on. Seriously. We put in an offer on a house that we knew we'd lose just so we could put out into the Universe that we were ready to buy. That we came to play. (warning: Youtube video) But back ...
The cat days of summer
Congrats Joe from Stratford! I was at Home Depot! The store's playlist really boggled my mind. I thought that a home improvement store would have more...manly...music. (No offense to the Wandering Minstrel or any other guy who digs girly power ballads.) I was expecting George Thorogood, Bruce Springsteen or the Rolling Stones. Music that would inspire someone to take up his power tools and "git-r-done!" Instead, I get easy listening. Oh well. Had to take the picture down because of some rule ...
Update in photos
Easter, sadly, doesn't really mean much to me anymore. I'm still trying to find my way, religion-wise, so I didn't observe Lent or go to Mass. I don't go to church on a regular Sunday, so I'd feel hypocritical going on Easter. In any case, it was a nice spring day, capped with dinner out and some time with Mom. And Chipper. (you'll notice that my nice brown haircolor is fading. I can't win) Chipper's doing well. He's a non-stop bundle of energy (read: he's tearing Mom's house to shreds), ...
relief
Every time I wake up after an illness...and feel the coolness on my skin that only could mean that a fever had come and gone... Every time I wake up after an illness...and feel the distinct absence of discomfort and maybe the slightest tinge of hunger... Every time I wake up after an illness...and can breathe and think clearly... I think to myself: Creationism, evolution, Intelligent Design...does it really matter? In the end...the body is a marvel. ...then I think that had this been 200 or ...
as i lay wasting away
I called out sick today. I don't like to do that. I will drag my butt to work most of the time even when I'm sick, but there are certain types of ailments where I immediately cry "Uncle" and not go in. Today was one of those things. Besides, the last time I went into work this way, my car ended up being nicknamed the "Vomit Comet" for about a year. It's a cute story. I'll tell it to you sometime. I spent most of my day on the sofa. And thanks to laptop technology, I'm still there. At this ...
chirp
It's been hot here. In mid-July, that is to be expected. But it's also been extremely humid - almost jungle like. It was actually nicer weather in "The South." (All things on the Southern front are much improved, by the way.) Our bedroom is the hottest room in the house. I don't know why. The air condiditoning vent works. We keep the ceiling fan on and the shades pulled to keep the sun out. The big, beautiful, once-used and forever-closed-to-maintain-its-beauty guest room is nice and cool. ...
The Day After
Today Thor and I put up most of our outdoor Christmas lights. All we need now is to borrow a ladder tomorrow to finish them. They look beautiful and magical. What's even better is that this year we OWN the property that we're festooning. Only twenty-nine years and six months to go!I just hit the 40,000 word mark on my crappy novel, Tumble Dry. For padding's sake, I just had the main character (whose name I changed from Anne to Meg) find out that her newly outed lesbian sister and her boss (Anya, ...
It’s a 5:00 world!
Another week survived, and not much new to report on the homefront other than: I'm being 75% good with the healthy eating plan. Thor has torn down all of the first layer of wallpaper in the guest room, and a lot of the 2nd layer. The 2nd layer is actually paper based wallpaper (present day wallpaper is vinyl-based) and GLUED DIRECTLY TO THE WALL. We have a bunny nest in the backyard somewhere...I saw two baby bunnies (eyes closed, very little hair, teeny ears the size of my pinky tip) rolling ...
Does the Pope Pray?
Today I managed to escape from work only 30 minutes late. Driving home in the sunshine with my new (prescription) sunglasses on, windows rolled down, and Dave Matthews in the CD player (5 days left!) put me in a very good humor. After greeting Max lavishly, I hopped upstairs and tiptoed into the bedroom. Thor was sleeping, so I quietly began to change out of my "Junior Executive" costume into something more comfortable. "BAM BAM" went the knocking on the door downstairs. ...
Charlie-boo
Crazy work-day yesterday, topped off by the fact that I managed to leave my briefcase home! Mind you, my briefcase contains my red binder of management goodness, which contains every single thing I've learned on the job since December. Surprisingly, it has stuff in it.As I teased in the prior entry, Charlie (cat) is getting more comfortable in the house. At first, he only appeared at night. After I turned out the lights and crawled into bed, he'd leap on the bed with a thud, stayed for a few ...