August

Well, August is nearly over (I think tomorrow is September 1st, actually), and I've not written one entry. I've had lots of good thoughts, but not really a lot of time or extra energy. So what have I been doing? Let's see: I moved all of my furniture to my basement (and by 'I' I mean my dad moved nearly all of my furniture to the basement) and had my hardwoods refinished. The floors are amazingly beautiful. I am really pleased that I had them done even though getting them done was a huge pain. The original company I hired flaked at the last minute, but I found another company who were able to fit me in. They did a wonderful job, and I am so thankful that I found them. I then painted my baseboards and installed quarter round right before leaving for vacation. Upon my return from an amazing trip to Banff , I threw myself a birthday party, which was great fun. I've since been getting caught up at work, which has been killer lately. As if that were not enough, I resigned my current position on Friday. I will start teaching a few writing classes in a couple of weeks. Needless to say, I'm exhausted. I'm hoping that in September I might get to type out some of the things I considered writing about in August.

Spike!

Isn't he super cute!? The buns rarely sit still long enough for a good photo, but I snapped this one the other night while he took a break from munching on his hay.

Kickball

The Dolls and Balls (actually 'Dolls n Balls' but I refuse to not spell 'and' out) won our first game last night. I cannot believe just how fun playing kickball really is. I'm not sure if it would be as fun if our team wasn't so great. Sure, we are decent kickball players, but when I say great, I mean as a bunch of people. We worked together as a cohesive unit. Everyone was helping out, cheering and generally working together. It was a great display of teamsmanship, if I do say so myself.

I wish I was as savvy a sports blogger as some I know, and could go into great detail about what happened, but I cannot. Here are the most salient details of game one, in my humble opinion (that means they are all about me, just so you know!):

1. We won!
2. As second base person I got tons of people out, which rocked.
3. I jammed my finger, which sucked. I'll be sure to take a picture and post it cause it is NASTY!
4. I have a tendency to kick right to the pitcher, which means I get out; however, I am getting better with my tactical kickball kicking skills.
5. Did I mention that we won?!

I am really looking forward to game two next week. Here's hoping it isn't rained out...

Two New Addictions

I have recently added two new internet addiction to my growing list: Single in the Suburbs and Befouled

Single in the Suburbs is on MSN's Dating and Personals section. It is the account of one 40-something woman's dating experiences after having been married for twenty-three or so years. I really love reading about her exploits in on-line dating. I guess it is sort of refreshing to see how her experiences mirror my own, despite our age difference.

Befouled is a blog. I don't know the author. I don't even know where he lives, but my god, I enjoy reading his posts. He doesn't even write about things that are of interest to me, but I find myself captivated by his tales of coaching his son's baseball team and fishing with his friend. I feel sort of strange reading his posts since it appears most of the readers (or those who comment anyway) know him personally. It feels sort of voyeuristic, but I can't stop. I need to more!

Election Day

I had a nice realization today while voting. This was by no means the first time I've voted (that was in the 1996 Presidential Election -- back before the Republicans stole America), and the issues on this election day weren't as potentially earth shattering as other elections in which I've cast my ballot; indeed, this was just a local election, but to me it was a big deal. Why? This was the first election in which I felt like a member of the community in which I was voting. I've been transient for so long, and it felt so good to know that my vote may actually affect me.

In my fridge...

Okay, Chip, here you go...

My fridge is really sad. So are my cupboards, as a matter of fact, but here is an exciting list of what is usually in my fridge:

• Organic Hormone Free 1% milk (while I like to support local farmers, I think milk tastes better in cardboard than glass, so I no longer buy Shatto milk)
• Lite Silk Soy milk
• Campo Lindo free range brown eggs
• Misc. cheeses (right now I have two Irish cheeses, Jarlsberg and some organic cheddar)
• Whole Wheat English Muffins
• Whole Wheat Bread
• Butter
• Misc. Jams, but always Polaner All Fruit Apricot and some sort of raspberry. Right now I think I have raspberry pecan
• Fruit and veggies for Spike and Buffy. I always have organic carrots and celery for them (how special those rabbits are!), and I usually have apples too, but I sometimes eat the apples
• I think there are some condiments in there also, but I don't use them regularly

I hope that was exciting for everyone. If any of my fellow bloggers want to make a list of your fridge contents, please do!

Halleluja!

Spellcheck Works! It's a miracle! I can spell again (or at least I can look like I can spell again!)

Haircut

I got my hair cut this morning during an ice storm. Perhaps this wasn't the best idea as the haircut was rather poor, but I had an appointment, so I clearly had to go. Maybe the stylist was distracted by all of the ice? Whatever the reason, he did a crap job of it. He cut off a lot, which is what I wanted, but the style was all wrong AND rather than trim the hair around my ears, he simply tucked it behind my ears. When it wasn't tucked it looked all wrong, and it wasn't long enough to stay tucked. Groan. When I got home this morning (after running by my office to get some stuff to work on from home), I took my scissors to it. I am not a trained hair stylist, but my god, at least I gave it a bit of style! I really should have taken a before picture, but the above is after I fixed it. I just couldn't stand to have it like that for very long. I will get someone who does know how to cut hair to clean it up soon. I am now on the look out for a new stylist. I really wish I could afford to fly to Florida to get my hair cut, which was my mother's very helpful suggestion.

I need my spellcheck!

For some reason the little spellcheck button isn't working, and it is making me upset. I am a horrible speller. I just am. And misspelling words makes you look stupid. Bah.

Dexter

I don't know how I missed this show. Okay, yes, I do. I don't have cable, so even if I had known of its existence, I couldn't have watched it. It is really good. And troubling. I can't believe how sympathetic the main character, who is also a serial killer, is. I really like him and am bothered by him at the same time. The show also makes me wonder how many sociopaths I've encountered in my life. It was once suggested to me that my ex husband might be a sociopath. It wouldn't surprise me. Not the murdering thing, but the not feeling thing. Anyway, Dexter is good, and it is on DVD and streaming video on Netflix. You should check it out (but not you Kristy, you don't like blood -- not that I like blood, but I am not bothered by it in movies -- crap, maybe there is something wrong with me too!)

Dreams

I frequently have weird dreams. Perhaps everyone's dreams are weird, but so few of us remember them that the ones we do remember seem especially odd. That being said, I seem to remember nearly all of my dreams, or at least pieces of them, and they all seem odd. Some, however, are stranger than others, and I am constantly wondering what they mean. The logical part of me assumes that if I dream of ice cream it is because I like ice cream or I was thinking of ice cream before I fell asleep -- it just seems so irrational to believe that a dream about ice cream means that I am satisfied with my life (which according to the Dream Moods Dictionary, it does) -- how do all people on this planet automatically know that ice cream is indicative of happiness in one's life? Do all people in the world love ice cream? Why doesn't cake mean contentment if one dreams about it? Don't all people like cake? (FYI: "To see a cake in your dream, indicates that you need to learn to share and allocate your workload instead of trying to do everything yourself. Cakes also symbolize selfishness or the feeling of not getting your fair share.")

Despite my reservations, I have a history of dream analysis being correct. A few years ago I dreamt I was swimming nearly every night. The dreams otherwise varied, but in each one I was swimming. Sometimes I was in a pool, sometimes in the ocean -- the only common denominator in the dreams was that the water was never scary or uncomfortable, and that I was swimming. I had these dreams so frequently that I even asked my therapist if she knew anything about dream analysis. She didn't, and I had a lot going on, so I didn't worry about it. After the dreams ended, I looked up the meaning. According to every single dream 'dictionary,' dreams of swimming are extremely common for people going through therapy. Voila! For the year that I had the swimming dreams, I was in therapy at least three hours a week. After this experience, I was hooked. Logic be damned.

So, what have I been dreaming about lately? Well, I had two dreams with alligators in them and two with spiders. Those are the only themes, and they aren't great ones. In the first alligator dream, a huge alligator was trying to break into my grandmother's house. (Isn't it funny how things that don't make any sense in real life make sense in your dreams?) My sisters and I were the only ones home when this was happening, and we went upstairs to hide in the bathroom. I can remember feeling the house shake as the alligator tried to force his way in. I realized my cat Finnegan was in the hallway, so I ran out to get him and then I woke up. (On a side note, I only ever dream about one of my cats... isn't that odd?). In the second alligator dream (which happened a few nights later), I was at Wal-Mart getting my oil changed. The waiting room for oil changes was the same as the taxidermy department. All of these people were standing around waiting to get their animals taxidermied by the Wal-Mart taxidermists, but the animals were all alive. They looked dead -- all limp and lifeless -- but they weren't. When I saw all of these dead deer looking at me, I freaked out and started to run away, and just like in horror films, everywhere I turned were more living dead animals. It was soooo scary. The last one I ran into was an alligator that attacked me. It took a hunk out of my thigh.

So, what does all of that mean? I'm not sure. Here's what the Dream Moods Dictionary says about it:

To see an alligator in your dream, symbolizes treachery, deceit, and hidden instincts. It may be a signal for you to take a new perspective on a situation. It may also represent your ability to move between the material world of waking life and the emotional, repressed world of the unconscious. Alternatively, the alligator represents healing powers and qualities.

To dream that you are running away from the alligator, indicates that you are unwilling to confront some painful and disturbing aspect of your unconscious. There is some potentially destructive emotion that you are refusing to acknowledge and owning up to.

According to biblical interpretations, an alligator suggests that leviathan is king over the children of pride. (Psa 74:14, Job 41:1,Isa 27:1)

In the first of my spider dreams, I had to eat this huge nasty spider to stop something bad from happening. I did, but it was horrible. I had that one a few weeks ago, but a couple of nights ago I had another spider dream. In this one I had to wear this costume that had this poisonous spider in it. I don't know why I had to wear it or why it had to have this spider. I was told there was no way the spider could hurt me, but it did. I had this horrible bite on my chest, and I was told I would die and there was nothing that could be done. I wasn't in any pain. All I remember was that I wanted to tell my mom that I loved her.

Here's what the Dream Moods Dictionary says:

To see a spider in your dream, indicates that you are feeling like an outsider in some situation. Or that you may want to keep your distance and stay away from an alluring and tempting situation. The spider is also symbolic of feminine power. Alternatively, a spider may refer to a powerful force protecting you against your self-destructive behavior. If you kill a spider, it symbolizes misfortune and general bad luck.

To dream that you are bitten by a spider, represents a conflict with your mother or some dominant female figure in your life. The dream may be a metaphor for a devouring mother or the feminine power to possess and entrap. Perhaps you are feeling trapped by some relationship.

In the first spider dream I killed the spider by eating it. In the dream I had to, but according to this, it is bad luck. In the second, I was bitten, but I wanted to find my mother. How odd.

Chica Blanca Bathroom Progression

Chica Blanca Update!

As many of you know, I've been renovating my bathroom (and by "I", I mean the contractor). The demolition began on December 3rd, and except for one little thing, it was finished last week. Not surprisingly, the project was not on time or under budget (thank god I am not paying for it!). Now, I only have one bathroom in my house, so having the project take so long was a tiny bit difficult, to say the least.

Here you can see just how beautiful the bathroom was before construction began. Notice the mismatched tiles by the bathtub! Oh, and the ceiling was glossy aqua blue as well.

No Blogging

Wow, I didn't realize just how long it had been since I last posted something. Honestly, I don't know why I wasn't posting anything in December, but I'll use the holiday excuse: I was just so busy with the holidays, and blah blah blah. However, I do have a great reason for not blogging in January... this month has been INSANE! Work has been out of control, and with all the writing I do at work, I just didn't have it in me to write about my life. I didn't even have the energy to talk about my life! January is almost over, and my life is nearly back to normal, so I will now attempt to go back and blog about some of the interesting things I have observed or experienced over the past two months. Cheers!

Edited to add: I realized why I hadn't been posting... my mom broke her hip, so I was going to my parents' house all of the time. That, coupled with the holidays and the bathroom reno, caused me to be super busy from Thanksgiving until now. Wow, I did have a reason!

Pharyngula Mutating Genre Meme

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”. Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

— You can leave them exactly as is.

— You can delete any one question.

— You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change “The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is…” to “The best time travel novel in Westerns is…”, or “The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is…”, or “The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is…”.

— You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”.

You must have at least one question in your set, or you’ve gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you’re not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.

Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.

My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Flying Trilobite
My great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is A Blog Around the Clock.
My great-great-great-great-grandparent is Shakespeare’s Sister.
My great-great-great-grandparent is Excuse This Mess…
My great-great-grandparent is Saying Yes.
My great-grandparent is Really Small Fish
My grandparent is A Drinking Song
My parent is oklahomeless.com
My siblings: overlyverbal, What’s Bubblin’ in Dublin, Kittenpants, Matthew

1. The best cult movie in scientific dystopias is: Dr. Strangelove

2. The best sexy song in rock is: I really have no opinon on this, but I'll go with Pour Some Sugar on Me.

3. The best play in absurdist fiction is: Waiting for Godot

4. The best dead comedian in American comedy is: Phil Hartman

5. The best moment in live television was: I can't think of any in my lifetime... most of them are pretty bad. I guess maybe the moon landing was pretty amazing (for those who were alive)

6. The most disgusting of all the salt-cured meats is: ham. yuck.

7. Most reviled of all the elements on the Periodic Table: Plutonium

Okay, Blomquist Family and Seth Peck, you have been tagged.

I have nothing to say.

I really have nothing to write about. I have no clever ideas or interesting observations. That sentence makes it sounds like every other time I write, I do have a clever idea or an interesting observation. I believe that is a gross overstatement of the truth.

Part of why I have nothing to say is because I've been replying to all the dudes who sent me messages on yahoopersonals. I am trying to be nice. I figure if they email me I should have the courtesy to email them back, but sometimes it is really hard. What do you say when someone tells you they think you have a lot in common, and you look at their profile and go, yeah? What? I've had to become really creative with some of them. The interesting thing is this is not the norm for me in real life. If I am out, I rarely (if ever) have guys come up to me, so I am not used to it. I think online dating makes it easier to start up something with someone you would never go up to in a bar. I think this is both good and bad. Right now, for me it is mostly just work.

With that, I shall leave you, gentle reader... (assuming there are any of you!)

I have a headache.

Waking up with a headache is unfair. Whoever came up with that idea is a cruel meanie. Getting a headache later in the day is one thing, but waking up with one? That just sucks. I have many things I would like to accomplish today, but this whole head pounding thing may just suck the motivation out of me.

Daylight Savings Time

I personally don't like the whole time change thing in the first place. I think it is mean. When I wake up tomorrow an extra hour will have magically disappeared, but in the spring an hour disappears. That is just not fair. I know I'll get that hour back come fall, like I will do tomorrow, but by then I won't care. An extra hour isn't as important as a MISSING HOUR. Plus the horrible Daylight Savings Nazis are going to steal one of my evening day light hours. Who runs this place? I am so going to move to Arizona.

And before anyone lectures me on how energy is saved by DST and it increases revenue and blah blah blah, just let me have my moment where I ignore the fact that in the summer I get a little more light at night. It isn't summer now, so I have a right to be irritated that it will be dark when I get home from work. Sure, it'll be light when I go to work, but what does that matter? Bah.

On top of all that, I still can't figure out this whole Daylight Savings Time Change -- not Daylight Savings Time -- that I get, but the change of when we do it. Who up and decided to move it this year? Seriously, is there a group of guys who get to decide this? This isn't just an American thing, after all. Does this bunch of (probably) guys get to change holidays too? Are they scientists? I want to be in the cool we-get-to-move-stuff group. Where do I sign up?

New Location

I've been blogging quite sporadically on *groan* myspace for about a year now, but I don't like it there, so now I am here. I mostly don't like that I can't spell check. I am a notoriously bad speller (thanks Dad!), and it is some times embarrassing to have people (even those who love me) read my bad spelling.

I shall move some of my favorite posts over, so they can live on into perpetuity. Everyone knows that is a good idea. And I will attempt to write every day, following in the footsteps of my friend Seth Peckquist nee Peck. These daily posts may suck, but I really need to try to write more. My brain feels better when I do! Plus, I write in my head nearly every night before I go to sleep, so maybe I could just try to post here before I go to sleep and get all of those thoughts out. Before you go, you write in your head? Yes, yes I do. Quite literally. I think with punctuation and everything. I am sure that this alone makes me crazy.

How and why I kick ass (11/16/06)

I am really kick ass.

Okay. Now I am assuming you want to know why, but first I need to say something. I honestly hadn't intended on having a blog. I believe I outlined the reasons against me blogging in my first blog. I really wish there were other words for blog than blog because I am currently using the word too much. Okay, I digress... I am continuing this silliness because apparently some silly best friend of mine likes it. So, now on to why I am really kick ass.

There are two reasons I am kick ass this week. The first is that I helped a friend fix his garbage disposal. Apparently it had been broken for a while. And who knew how to fix it? That's right -- yours truly. Ms. Kick Ass.

THEN, as if that wasn't enough, I figured out how to light the pilot light on my water heater. Now I am sure this is run of the mill stuff for some of you super geniuses, but for this SG, it is not. Let me give you the oh-so-exciting background: I woke up this morning looking forward to a nice warm shower on a cold day, but no, there would be no nice warm shower for Ms. Suzanne today. Today there would only be cold water. I was very upset. I'd just had a plumber out yesterday to hook up a gas line for my new gas fireplace logs, and apparently he did something to unlight my pilot light. I've never lit a pilot light. I've never seen anyone light a pilot light, but low and behold, I did it! Woooohooooo!

The moral of the story? Suzanne kicks a lot of ass. Now you know.