time for a new purse

Wow, has it really been over a week since I last put up a post? I'm a total slacker. My apologies.


I can't remember if I blogged about how I got iced tea in my purse a couple of weeks ago. Well, yesterday morning, it was worse. I stopped at the local Starbucks for a gingerbread latte (nonfat, of course), and proceeded to dump half of it into my purse. Hmmm, how is this possible, you wonder? My purse was on the floorboard next to the gear shift and my arm knocked the aforementioned beverage. Knocked it right into the purse. Damn. Looks like someone will have to hit the Target to buy yet another inexpensive handbag. And thank goodness for the $12 purse. Granted, my mother and best friend will hate it--it's the beautifulness that is army green! Looks like something a high schooler might carry. Then again, considering how rough I am with them, I need something I don't mind replacing! Since this one is fabric, I may be able to throw it in the washer if necessary. Wait, no--when necessary.

Let's see--what other goings on are there? Funny how many times during the day while I'm driving or otherwise engaged I think to myself "dang, I gotta blog about that." Then I finally get the chance and ... what was it all about? Damn getting older and getting forgetful. What was I talking about again?

But one thing I do remember:
Happy Birthday JCC!!! Enjoy your youth and your mindfulness while you can!!!

when it rains...

So I had this one date Saturday night. Now all of a sudden, I'm uber attractive or something. During the date, some other guy hit on me with the Joeyism of "how you doin?" Tonight I stopped by the Starbucks to get a tea refill, and another guy was all "Do you live around here? Do you come here often?" I swear to Buddha he said that! Funny thing, these have not been unattractive men--in fact the Starbucks guy was hot! It's a mad mad world.

tritones and triplets

I have to learn this Vivaldi duet for Christmas Eve. I'm working on it over at a friend's house (who happens to have a kick arse new piano), and I hit this section where there is an interval I cannot hit correctly to save my life. I even tried playing both parts to see if it made more sense. Considering I can't play the piano to save my life either (sorry, Mom--lessons never stuck), that in itself was interesting. I still couldn't hit the c# after the g. That's when it hit me--tritone! I don't care if you want to call it a diminished fifth or an augmented fourth. I call it evil. Hardest freaking interval for a singer to sing, and it's even harder if you passed your only semester of theory because of a lot of praying to the Lord Almighty. And I thought I was having problems with the triplets. Man, they are CAKE in comparison.

And yes, Heather, I went on a date this weekend. It was nice. He is nice. I'm not wobbly in the knees, but I enjoyed talking with him. Nice to finally meet someone intelligent for a change. I'll blog more when I've decided if he's worthy of further encounters with me. Until then, peace out.

the blackness of it all

What in the world did people do at night with no electricity?


So I finally pulled in my driveway last night about 6:30 or so and noticed that my front porch light was out. Hmmm, I guess it burned out again. I carefully unlock the door in semi-darkness and get in the house. I flip a few switches--nothing. Okay, now I'm starting to worry. I light a few candles, get the step ladder and find the fuse box. When I flip the main breaker--nothing. Damn! I notice my cool as ice neighbor is home so I go over there to look up the number to call for power outages. Well, when I call, this computer voice tells me my power has been disconnected. WTF?!?!?!?!? I call the service desk (thanks be to God they were still there) and they say I've been disconnected because of non-payment. Excuse the *bleep* outta me??? Hell no! After I get all that biz-nass resolved, I tell them I want the priority reconnection. Chickadee in the service center tells me that will cost between $89-189. I said to sign me up, but I flat out refused to pay the fee. She was all discombobulated, but I don't care. At this point it was about 7, so I decided to go ahead and go to choir rehearsal early.

When I got out of rehearsal, I took the plunge and called my mother. I asked if I could use her place to get ready for work in the morning, and to my delight (and answering my hope), she told me to come over and stay the night. YAY! Light and warmth! A good time was had by all sitting on the couch in front of her TV watching Law and Order. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep all too well. It wasn't my bed and my pillows even if it was my old room. Such is life! I'm just glad I was warm.

I left her place this morning about 6:30 so I could run by my house, feed the cats, and get my crock pot back from my next door neighbor (it was churning away when the power was cut, so she let me finish it over there). When I drove up, lo and behold, there was light emanating from my living room. Guess that was one of the lights I didn't get turned off in my flipping frenzy the night before. Now I have the power!!! All is well in my world now. Thanks again to the rawking dog awesomeness that is my mother!

OOGIENESS!!!

OMG, I am sooooooooo grossed out right now. You know that your cat loves you when he brings you presents. Cornelius just came up to me with something in his mouth. Usually it is Duckie (his favorite toy) or a ball of Thomas's fur after a fight. Not tonight! No, instead he decided to bring me a bug. A large, legs still wiggling and squirming, waterbug. There are days I can't wait to move away from the water! Now he is dropping the thing, batting at it, making it run for its life, and grabbing it with his mouth again. Then he just moves to another room and starts the whole procedure over again. Part of me wants to put the danged bug out of its misery, but the rest of me is too grossed out to do anything about it. I can tell you one thing: I won't sleep until I see that thing dead!

UGH! *uncontrollable shaking and oogie feelings abound*

oh dear Lord, please...

today's horoscope:

The good luck pendulum is swinging back toward the business and financial areas of your life today! Look for either a big expenditure to suddenly disappear, a new source of income to show signs of growth, or a new opportunity for upward mobility to arrive on the scene. Whatever the reason for this sunnier weather in your financial universe, it will put your life on the pathway toward a bigger lifestyle full of complicated -- but welcome -- changes.

guillotine, anyone?

At this point, I'm so ready to cut off my head. I've taken 2 days worth of Claritin so far today, and I'm still sneezing my head off. I also could really go for some nose tampons. Where can I find some? I keep having to tilt my head backward so my nose won't drip down my face. What the poo, man? I thought allergies were supposed to let up in the autumn. Of course, it's now November 9th, and it's over 80 degrees outside. Global warming, my left butt cheek--it's just living in Texas.

more quirky things in my world

Why is it that there is nothing express about Central Expressway at 7pm?

Why is it that when I'm taking a short cut through a neighborhood, I get behind a convertible with "Turbo" scrawled all over its car hiney, and it's only going 25 mph?

Why did the Hbomb get a craving for cheddar peppers/poppers (whatever) from Sonic? Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Why do the Stars always play on the West coast when I have an early week at work?

Arrgh! I need a good night's sleep. Bring on the Benedryl (so I can quit sneezing long enough to actually get that sleep).

*splat*

First off, the good news. The tinting on my sad little car windows is getting so bad I can't see out of the back window well at all. I finally called the dealership where the car was purchased by my mother 11 years ago. Turns out, since it was done there for the purchase, the window tinting has a lifetime warranty. They will replace it for FREE!!! Woooooo-hoooooo!!! That's gonna save me about $300. Sweet!

Second off, the hilariously disgusting news. Luckily I was on the phone with the Hbomb so I have an "ear witness." I was over at a friend's house feeding her 2000 cats. When I was leaving, I felt the urge to sneeze. I held the phone away from my face as to not deafen my friend, sneezed, and heard a "splat" on the tile floor. Yes friends, I sneezed something icky outta my mouth onto the floor. Trouble was, then I had to find said splat to clean it up. It was hard to find through all the laughing I was doing. Sometimes I love the disgusting ickiness of the human body.

to kill the mockingbird, I mean time...

So, I dyed my hair last night. Now it's dead. Bwahahaha!

Okay, sorry for that. I'm really not happy with the way it turned out. I made the mistake of trying a different brand. Here are my observations:
#1--it didn't smell nearly as good as the old stuff (Garnier)
#2--it is supposed to be "dark auburn" but to me it looks orange. NOT COOL!
#3--it was a faster dye job, but I should've taken the time for something I actually like
#4--never pick a brand or color based on what some "beauty consultant" from an average company tells you; believe in yourself!

One good thing: it TOTALLY colored the grey really well. Now if it were only a color that didn't look totally fake on me....

blargh

Holy crap am I tired. Iwoke up this morning with the drippy sneeziness of allergies. So what did I do when I got to work??? Ya, I took a Benedryl. Sometimes I'm not as smart as other times. The following are random comments for your enjoyment and/or perusal:

I saw my first Christmas commercial on TV last night. Well, at least they waited until November 1st.

The Hi-5 was supposed to alleviate traffic. WTF? Worthless piece of concrete.

Why do things always go wrong at work at the end of a Friday when you have things to do and places to be? I'm sitting here waiting for slides to dry so I can stain them. This is only slightly more interesting that waiting for paint to dry.

I noticed a nick in Thomas's ear. This means that the spats between the cats (hee hee, it rhymes) is getting fierce. Go Corn! Tom finally looks like an honest to goodness Tom cat.

I love my H-bomb, but bless her heart, I still hate cleaning my house. I could seriously hire her if I were wealthy.

Why does PMS have to suck sooooooooooooooooooooo much?!?!?!?!?!? I could eat an entire bloody cow right now.

Yay for Blue October tonight!!!

Ya, that's all I've got right now. There was a ton more, but lucky for you, I can't remember it right now.

ahh, blogs

I saw this on one of my favorite blogs. I share it with you along with the blog address. I think I am one of the "only" to which they are referring....

http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/

pity me

Okay kids, I'm an idiot. For those of you who may have already been of this opinion, this will solidify it for you.

So as I'm finishing up for the night, I've got one more task to do: FIBs. All that involves is spinning some blood in the hematocrit centrifuge, heating it up, spinning it some more...blah blah blah. A trained monkey could do this, right? Well, maybe a trained monkey, but not me. I get to my last spin step, put all 8 tubes in the centrifuge, close the lid and hit go. As soon as I do, I hear glass smashing and breaking and gears grinding. WTF??? I turn off the power, wait for it to stop, and then realize I never put on the screw-on protective lid thingy. DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT!!! All 8 tubes shattered beyond all recognition. I had to take the entire rotor off the thing to get all the little bitty glass pieces out of that thing. Arrgh!!! Good side: the centrifuge looks like new.

Now I'm sitting waiting on the last spin again. Wish me luck guys! I hope you enjoyed my miserable last 30 minutes at work.

can I trade in this model?

I've decided my body is a dud. Not necessarily because I'm overweight or not as pretty as Hollywood and the media would like me to be. I think I was given a dud. As a child I had too many concussions (partially my own fault). My allergies have always been haywire. I've got a bum knee that soccer and cross country didn't help. But now? Now it's all gone to hell in a handbasket. And where in the world did that phrase originate anyway? Since August 20th, I've had too many things go wrong. The stupid hospital visit, painful ears, bronchial nastiness picked up on the plane back from Paris. Now! I already talked about the human pin cushion in a prior post. That danged pneumonia shot...! The arm I got it in is swollen, red, and hot. I've run a general fever since Friday (it's been much better today), and I can hardly move my danged arm without wincing in pain. Thank the good Lord for Tylenol 3 and the left over prescription from the hospital stay. When will it end???

kismet?

So I was having feelings of emailing my former choir director and asking (basically begging) for my old singing job back. I miss the good music, my church, and my friends in the choir. That and I really need the money. I gots bills to pays! (yes, bad grammar on purpose) So I talked with a mutual friend (known him longer, likes me better) about how to approach it and if it was even a good idea. We chatted about it, she said she thought it was a good idea, and I have no problem eating a little crow even if it's not deserved. I just miss singing!

Anyway, as soon as I hung up the phone with the friend, put the phone in my pocket, and had time to think about looking in the microscope, my phone rang. It was a number I didn't recognize, but I answered it anyway. Turns out it was another choir director asking if I was available for All Saints' Day and Christmas services. WOO-HOO!!! Of course I said I was. Then I asked when I needed to show up for rehearsal. I'm so bloody excited I can hardly stand it. She said she can't offer me a full time singing gig now, but she hopes to be able to soon.

Now I've got to go to bed. Stupid pneumonia shot made me sick and gave me a fever. No, it didn't give me pneumonia, I'm just "susceptible" to maladies from immunizations.

human pin cushion

OMG! Two posts in one day! Will the madness ever end?

So check this out: yesterday I got my flu shot. Today I got a pneumonia shot, blood drawn, and an IV for a contrast MRI. I feel like a human pin cushion! One shot in each arm, and both needles to take stuff out or put it in in one arm. At least I didn't have to pay for the MRI. Ah, the joys of being a guinea pig for research. ;-)

And yes, I am STILL doing laundry. Tee hee!

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

I FINALLY hooked up the washer and dryer! Today, my one day off this week, will be full-o-laundry. My Lord, I'm happy. Now I just gotta get the scaredy cat used to some of the noises the washer makes. When it does the spin to rinse thing, it sounds like a UFO taking off. Okay, granted I have not a clue what a UFO sounds like, but if I did, I'm sure it would make this noise.

I had to get up early because the electrician was supposed to be here between 8 and 10am. I rolled outta bed at 7:54am, threw on jeans and a sweat shirt and called it a good day. (Now the jeans are in the washer!) He was here by 8:30 and gone by 9:30. He switched out the outlet in the utility room from a three prong to a four prong. I asked if he had a dolly in his truck which he didn't. Then he pulled the macho thing and said he'd move my washer for me (it was still stuck in the roomie's old room--long story). When he tried to pick it up, I just stood aside with a smirk. This thing's an Asko, meaning it has its own built in water heater. There was NO WAY he was gonna move it on his own. He finally let me help him after I told him the situation. He smiled and said he was trying to be macho. What a sweet guy! We got it moved to the other end of the house and hooked it up. When we turned on the water at the source, it spewed all over the wall. Eek! We switched out the hose to the spare, but it did the same thing. At this point I was ready to crawl back in bed. Instead, I paid the nice man and went to Home Depot. I had to return the plug I'd bought a couple of weeks ago trying to hook the dryer up on my own. So I returned it and bought a new washer hose. Would you believe I had $0.01 left from the trade? Crazy. When I got back home I screwed on the hose, turned on the water again, and --lo and behold--there was no leakage! I started yelling "it works! it works!" as I ran through the house. Poor cats. Scared the crap out of poor Corn.

And now, if you need me, I'll be doing laundry. :-)

why oh why

Why am I having this major craving for a man in my life? I think it has something to do with the shortening of the days, the slight chill in the air in the mornings, the fact that I'm totally over the ex. Took long enough. He really threw me for a loop. At least I can admit it freely now. Anywho, I went out tonight with a "friend" who I would love to be more than a friend. He has, unfortunately made it absolutely clear that it will never happen. I'm not pretty enough for him. He didn't have to say it out loud for me to know. Typical for me. Why do I fall for the egocentric guys? I don't mean to; it just happens. Maybe it's because I know there is no chance. Ergo, I can't get my hopes up and then have them dashed to pieces.

No more Harp on an empty stomach for the naughty mouse. That and Aqualung make me all

misty.

during research...

I am trying to figure out what kind of beetle invaded my house last night on the internet. Do you know how many varieties of beetles are in Texas??? A gabillion! Anywho, I've got it narrowed down to a few--luckily there aren't that many freakin' humongous ones around. Just in my house.

Anywho, I found this picture on one of the sites. I will post it for your amusement.

now I've seen it all

Last night as I left the abode to venture to Home Depot, there was this super ugly big black beetle on my screen door. I tried not to disturb it, but it fell to the porch as I closed to door. Lo and behold, it was waiting for me when I got home. Furthermore, it ran inside when I opened my front door. Ugh! Icky bug in the house! That's okay. I have cats that love to chase bugs and play them to death, right? Ya, let's make that no. I called the cats to come and do their thing. Thomas, poor stupid cat, comes running over and sees the bug. As he's thinking about making his move, bug rattles its little wings and moves toward him. Thomas runs away like a baby! Damn cat was scared of a little bug. *rolling eyes*