Tag!

A speedy blog post, perfect for a lazy Sunday:

Saw this on Michelle's blog - a quick, fun tag:

1. Pick up the book that you have most handy
2. Turn to page 161
3. Find the 5th complete sentence
4. Cite the sentence on your blog
5. Pass it on to 5 other unsuspecting blogger friends.

From The Secret History by Donna Tartt, which I am currently reading:

"He lit another cigarette."

If you're reading this and you blog, consider yourself tagged!

Hump Day!

Man, time flies. It's already Wednesday? We're busy this week finishing up all the monthlies - let's get em done and bill em out!

Yesterday we were downtown at a friend's house and saw the coolest thing. The building behind his place is all about alternative energy and they were putting up the first windmill in our area. The girl we were talking to called it an urban turbine - it's about 60 feet tall and the blades are 10 feet across. We got to watch them hoist it up with a crane. My camera was low on power and wouldn't let me take a picture, bummer. Tomorrow there is some big ceremony with the mayor and such. With the wind power and solar panels they plan to be at net zero by the end of the year. How cool is that? I want a windmill!

I'm almost done with my first amigurumi project - a crocheted purple octopus. He's pretty damn cute.

Also working on my rainbow swap cards, painting is fun and messy, love it. Did a little crackle action on these.


Hasta!

Master Of My Domain

That's right, you can just call me webmaster from now on. Or webmeister if you're funky. Spent the better part of yesterday on our website, junked the fugly old one and started from scratch. I think it looks pretty good. Check it out!

The Office last night cracked me up, the Hillary Swank bit was classic. And 30 Rock was good too. I was giggling as I crocheted flowers for the rainbow atc swap on SIS.

The cat is OUTTA CONTROL with the ribbon snatching. I need to find the lids to the jars I keep it in. Every morning I find ribbon all over the place, and of course at least one in the water bowl. Her habit is escalating.

It's raining again - two days in a row is some kind of record around here. We've got some more inside work to do, and a big inside job tomorrow so it's all good.

Our buddy Kent is taking off for Alaska, happened so fast we didn't even get a chance to throw him a going-away party! We'll miss that dude! He needed a place to park his bus, so the view out my office window has changed a bit-

Later-TGIF!

Check It Out Now

This happens all the time. Ashley (the cat) gets ribbon from my scrap table in the other room, brings it into the kitchen and puts it...in the water bowl. Today she chose two lovely coordinating red ribbons.


Oh, and check my new grillz yo-


It's super hard to smile with these suckahs in, especially since the candy on the back is crapnasty! So, I decided to do a more serious photo-



Respect.

Stuff

• Car update: waiting on estimate for a new engine. Yep, just a little minor repair. eyeroll. Dealing with being a one car family for now.
• Scored a 19 pound turkey for $7.00, so tonight we are having Thanksgiving Part II. Since I can't drive anywhere, I will spend the day cooking and working on some crochet projects. Beth, if you're reading, I will be making your pears by special request from everyone.
• Need to get to the library. I'm reading a John Grisham book that we had at the house, not expecting a whole lot. It kind of stresses me out not to have another book waiting. Weird?
• Speaking of books, The Motel Life was so good. Sad, but wonderful. Why are most of the really good ones such heartbreakers? Maybe it's just that when it's good you really get into it and feel it more.
• Watched Heros last night, thinking the entire time, "why am I still watching this?" The first season was so good, but I've definitely lost that lovin' feeling for the show.
• Shopping for a wii for Christmas, a combined family gift this year. Hope it's not too hard to find. It's going to be a "small" Christmas, but I don't mind. I find those are the best actually.

Random Blathering

• It's Friday, the sun is shining, and my spirits are up.



• Work is staying steady, feeling cautiously optimistic.



• Pretty pissed off about the bailout package and the changes being made to it now, after congress passed it. Shaking my head really.



• Stunned that Sarah Palin is everywhere these days, apparently the new Britney. And every interview hinges on this: will she run in 2012? Were y'all listening?
  
  
  
  
• Getting a little stressed about Christmas gifting. I will be making most of the gifts this year, which means a lot of crocheting. It's good because I get my crafting fix and my loved ones get a handmade gift. Plus, it's pretty thrifty. The secret is not taking on too much.



• Making stocking hats for the family Christmas photos, one of 5 complete.



• Haven't scrapbooked in ages. I think this weekend I will make an effort to clean up the scrapshack so it's more inviting. Have a few projects floating around in my brain, ready to get to it. I've made some ATCs lately but that's about it.



• I really don't get adults baby talking. It freaks me out. Unless you're actually talking to a baby, knock it off!



• Did Heros hire the writers from Lost?



• Hopelessly addicted to the Bubble Words game on facebook.



• Really looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. My favorite thing on the weekends is to wake up nice and slowly with coffee and a book in bed.

Happy Weekend!

I Love Saturdays

My favorite day of the week!

-Woke up slowly over a couple cups of coffee while looking through the awesome crochet book I picked up at the library yesterday.

-Whipped up a German pancake, got rave reviews.

-Hannah is having a friend sleep over tonight.

-Shane is kayaking downtown, freezing his balls off. (it's 35 degrees out)

-Got the results of my postal service exam: I passed and am eligible for employment. Could be months or even years before I get the call, but at least I'm on the list.

-Rented Forgetting Sarah Marshall to watch tonight.

Have a good one!

TGI Saturday!

It's been almost a week since I blogged, crazy! I've been out working with Shane every day, totally exhausted. Glad to be saving on payroll but still.

Enjoyed Thursday's VP debate. We went to a friend's house and played this to keep it entertaining. I call it a win for Obiden.

Discovered this ice cream. Yumma yumma.

Made a cute little purse for myself. Needs a longer strap though.

Reading this book. It's good, but makes me cringe. I'm practically yelling out loud, "don't do it!" at the main character...thing are going to get ugly.

My car has a brand new battery in it so I won't be getting stuck anywhere (like Carson City on Monday) again, hopefully.

Favorite bumper sticker of the week: "When Bush took office, gas was $1.48." Enough said there.

Trying to hold it together while being constantly bombarded with stress. Need to turn off the TV and radio, do something fun, and focus on the good stuff.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Shane called to tell me that he won his division in the kayak race yesterday! Woo-hoo! Wish I could have been there to cheer him on. Can't wait to hear all about it when he gets home tonight. I'm really missing him this weekend, bummed that we can't do this stuff together. And not looking forward to next weekend, another out-of-towner. Hurry home, babe!

Meanwhile, back at the home front: grocery shopping today. Yippee. We have no food in the house so it's gonna be a big one.

Later, taking the kids and dog on a hike at White's Creek.

Tonight I'll be watching the new episode of True Blood on HBO. Not completely sure about it yet, it's a vampire thing. Really just curious since it's by the creators of Six Feet Under, my favorite show of all time.

One disc into Dexter, Season 2. Digging it. Another Six Feet connection, go figure.

Saturday Stuff

-I am so tired of calling up 800 numbers to speak to "customer service" reps who end up making my blood boil. They are not there to service customers, they are obviously there to service the company they work for.

-Enjoying the nice fall weather. It's sunny and a bit cooler and I love it. Ready for a hike up in the mountains where the leaves should be starting to turn.

-Shane is at the Mokelumne River Festival, competing in a downriver race. Go get em honey! You can see the race locale here.

-Had a fun dinner with friends last night, feeling the effects of too much food and drink. Planning a lazy day with some kind of kid activity thrown in.

-Maybe I'll do some scrapbooking this weekend. I need to get busy on the Napoleon Dynamite theme ATC cards - should be fun but I'm just not feeling it right now.

-Project #1 on the agenda is le petit pouchette part deux. Lesson learned: do not put items with velcro in the dryer with pieces you are felting!

Nice Look!

Guess whose hair Hannah is braiding...

'Night

It's been a good day. I've been pretty productive, which feels really good. Got the office straightened up, ran a bunch of errands, did some laundry, and...got my etsy shop up and running! There's a link over on the right if you want to check it out. Couldn't have done it without my lovely friend who let me borrow her camera.



See that? I took that picture just now! So cool to have a digi camera back in da house! Many thanks my dear, I know you are reading this even if you never comment. (hint, hint)

Tagged

Last week my pal Linda tagged me, finally getting to my answers.


7 Strange Things About Myself

1. I am really grossed out by worms.
2. I like olives in my beer.
3. I like the smell of gasoline.
4. It takes me a long time to wake up in the morning.
5. I can't fall asleep unless I'm on the left side of the bed.
6. I get grumpy when I haven't done anything creative for a while.
7. I haven't read the Twilight books.


7 Random Facts About Me

1. Once I start a book, I have to finish it.
2. I am a terrible housekeeper.
3. I don't like movies or books where little kids are hurt.
4. I hate Cheerios.
5. I'm happiest at home.
6. I think I'm addicted to diet Pepsi.
7. I am schizophrenic when it comes to music. I listen to everything from smooth jazz to Bob Marley to Tool.

And now I'm tagging
Kate and Sharon

Sunday

*Survived five circles of hell yesterday helping Hannah clean her room. It was bad. I lost my temper. She cried. Not a good scene. From now on, she will be cleaning up every day and since everything has it's place now it shouldn't ever get that bad again, right? Right?

*Keeping an eye on the hurricane - it's so sad, and so scary. I can't even imagine living like that. We have earthquakes and wildfires here, I think I'll stick with that. Seriously, between that accident the other day, politics, and storms - I'm a leeetle bit stressed out.

*Update - we have been invited to join one of Shane's teammates at his private table at the Rib Cook-off tomorrow. This means all we can eat AND drink all afternoon. Wooo-hooo! Note to self: do not wear white. And instead of Night Ranger (no thanks) we will be jamming to The Mark Sexton Band. Sweet! Check 'em out:

Drive Safely!

Saw a gnarly accident this morning. Shane was taking me to pick up my car from the shop, just after 9:00. Traffic wasn't too heavy and we were just riding along on the freeway, discussing McCain's odd choice of running mate when I saw a pickup truck about 4 cars in front of us swerve. I said, "look out!" and next thing I knew, a white SUV was in a full spin-out, doing at least one full 360 before slamming into ??? and finally coming to a stop. I'm not real clear about what it actually hit because I was halfway covering my eyes and screaming, "holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit." Shane reached over and held my arm and told me to calm down, I was all shaking and a little bit crying. It was intense. It seemed like the car blew up almost, glass and debris flying everywhere. The Freeway Assistance vehicle and a couple motorcycle cops were there immediately, I think they were working an accident just up the road. It probably took 15 minutes or so for the ambulance and firetrucks. The driver seemed to be ok, and that's because the only part of the SUV not demolished was the front left side. As we drove past the wreckage (after I had given a written statement) we could see that the entire right side of the car was gone. GONE, opened up like a freakin' sardine can. If anyone else had been in that car, they would have been toast. I seriously do not think I could have handled seeing bodies flying like the misc. car parts. It's so trippy, that false sense of security you have inside your vehicle. Scary.


***
Moving on: got my pictures back finally. The cool thing about using film is the surprise factor, not knowing exactly what will be in that envelope - especially if you have kids that don't understand the meaning of "don't touch my camera."


This shot cracks me up. She looks like some barfly at a jazz club.

What's Up?

-with work, or the lack there of? Business has dropped off so much that we had to lay off one guy already this week. It's way too early in the year to be so slow, and it has me worried. Is it just back to school business and Labor Day plans that is keeping people from calling us? Or is the economy in such bad shape that no one can afford our service? Being self employed is like a real life horror movie, on the daily.

-with Walmart? Do they only hire rude people or is that just a side effect of working for Satan's empire? Was shopping today, having a minor panic attack as my $214 worth of weekly groceries were being rung up and watching all the burners gearing up for the playa. If you don't know about Burning Man, educate yourself here. Anyway, of the three employees that I spoke to, 100% were jerks.

-with stuff breaking around here? I seriously cannot deal with fixing/replacing one more thing. Let's take care of our things, people!

-with my timing? Every time I use a public restroom it is obvious that someone has JUST taken a dump in there. I do not like this phenomenon.

-with Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos? They are really freakin' delicious.

Monday, Monday

*Dropped Shane off at the airport, he's on his way to Vegas for the pool tourney. You can somehow track their progress here. Bring home the $$$, Daddy-O!

*Seven days until school starts, but who's counting?

*Vacuum is broken. Bad news: yet another unexpected repair/replacement of household item. Good news: unable vacuum.

*Today Hannah asked me why farts smell bad.

*Today Evan asked me if there will be snakes on daddy's plane.

*Thoroughly enjoying Big Brother, as always. This show never fails to deliver drama and "holy crap, I can't believe he/she actually said/did that on TV" moments.

*Ditto I Love Money. The trashiest of the trashy reality TV "stars" duelling it out over cold hard cash. Real high-brow entertainment.

*NBC Olympic coverage - besides showing a TON of some sports and nothing about other events, it hasn't been too disappointing. They seemed to hold back on the dramatic athlete back stories a bit. But, yesterday the track coverage was awful. They picked one racer, zoomed in and talked about her and didn't even show the rest of the field AT ALL. It was weird, like she was running the race by herself or something. This happened twice while I was watching. I thought it very odd.

Have a swell day.

Hump Day

Today in a nutshell:

-Biked to the post office, which I've been trying to do most days. Today Shane came with me and we took the long way home, about an hour and fifteen minutes round trip. So nice just to be outside, even though it is over 100 degrees out. We were talking about how different it is to ride through a neighborhood rather than drive - it just feels friendly somehow. Other people on bikes always say hi, I like that. Way more interactive than driving.

-Took the kids to the mall for back-to-school clothes shopping. I really don't like shopping (except for scrapbooking/crafting stuff) and I pretty much hate the mall. But, it wasn't too bad, the sales were good and they are happy. Chilled out with an Orange Julius after the shop-a-thon.

-Won't get teacher assignments until next week, which is also when we get the supply list. Let's hope it's not like Jordan's first grade class. I will never forget spending $50 on school supplies for him that year. Jeeez.

-Turned in some film for developing today. So weird to go back to that. At first I thought digital was weird, now I can hardly function without it.

-Getting ready to watch some Olympic action. I've really enjoyed the swimming and gymnastics so far. Shane promised me a foot rub - he's the best guy in the whole wide world.

Over and out.

Just Stuff In My Head

Hot August Nights is in full swing. It's a huge classic car show and celebration of all things '50s that takes over our town every year. Not being a huge car person, and not really into poodle skirts, I find that the event is more of a traffic jam than anything. But, keep on coming, folks...it stimulates our local economy.

And, seriously...when did chow mein go from crunchy fried noodles topped with veggie or meat goo, to soft noodles with chunks? Just curious.

I'm about 2/3 through The Book Of Lost Things. It's pretty cool, if you like fantasy. A little bit Narnia, a little bit Pan's Labyrinth - dark and full of mysteries. Evil creatures abound.

Off to check out some Olympic action.