I didn't get a whole lot of pictures yesterday at the march, as I was busy trying to videotape and march, as well as take photos. I'm sure some of the folks I was marching with will add send some, and I'll be putting together some video on YouTube. Till then, enjoy these!!
I logged onto www.gather.com this morning, as it's just the most fascinating site! Every morning, they have a featured article, as well as a featured group, featured members, and featured photographs.
This morning, my picture of the Iwo Jima Memorial in DC is the top featured photograph!!!
So if you haven't checked it out yet, go on over there, scroll down to "featured images" and you'll see me right on the very first page! :-)
I'm so excited! I put my pictures up there in the hopes of getting them seen and critiqued by a larger audience, and hopefully this will jumpstart that!! WOO HOO!!
It's 12:18AM here in Fredericksburg, a day of crappy assed weather is passed us. Looks like I'll have no excuse about going to work later on this morning, the plows have been through and as long as the sun comes out and melts the ice, I'll have no choice but to go and get in the car and drive up to Fairfax for another thrilling day.
I'm feeling depressed tonight, for reasons I can't figure out... I mean, a lot of petty crap is annoying me right now, but nothing that would contribute to my overall feeling of malaise.
You ever just have those times when you're in a funk? I hate it!!! AUGH! I absolutely hate it.
Ok, so here's a brief list of the petty crap that's pissing me off right now, without getting into too much detail:
1. The Patriots lost today. Granted, they played football like a bunch of blind kindergartners, but, as I said, it's petty.
2. Today was my husband's birthday, and we had tickets to go see the Capitol Steps. So instead, we get a snow and sleet storm and are housebound all day. We wind up playing Yahtzee and another dice game, called 10,000, which I HATE!!!! Oh my God, do I hate playing 10,000. I HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT. It's the most boring freakin' game in the universe.
3. I'm reading this month's selection for the book club, and I hate the book. And I hate that I hate the book, because so far this year, I've loved all the books. But this one? I hate. And what really pisses me off is that I lost my copy of the book, so I went out and bought another copy of it, and then today, opened the Yahtzee box, and some genius (probably me) had put my first copy of the book in the Yahtzee box. I mean, honestly, who the hell puts a book in a Yahtzee box!??! So now I have two pristine copies of this stupid book I hate.
4. I took a nap this afternoon and now I can't sleep.
5. I know a marvelous group of women here in DC, and they all complain that they haven't got any friends that they can hang out with and they miss female companionship, and then I try to make plans with people and everyone's too busy. GOD DAMN IT!!!! Just one of the things I absolutely hate about living here. But when I take a stand and say I'm staying in Fredericksburg with my husband, since no one wants to do anything, everyone thinks I'm pretty much a slavish little hausfrau who is looking to the man in her life for permission. And now, the one person I can always count on, my sister, is probably going to leave and I'll be stuck here, alone, without her. And the thought of that is killing me. Absolutely killing me. But I have to suck it up, and be supportive of whatever she has to do to get by.
6. I am so sick of working on my NaNoWriMo book, but I'm trying to get it ready for a writing competition. The story I've written is great--the plot is great, the characters are great, but the putting it together more or less is becoming a huge headache. Now there's some debate as to whether it's easy to follow or not--somehow my sister couldn't follow what was going on, and my husband had some trouble with it, but most other people didn't have any trouble. But for EVERYONE who's read it so far, it needs to be fleshed out more. And quite frankly, I couldn't give a crap if the whole cast fell in the Mississippi River and drowned--quite a feat considering they're living in Illinois. And I haven't gotten diddly squat done on it this weekend, because my in-laws are visiting, and I'd much rather spend time with them.
7. I bought the Little House on the Prairie books to do some research on the time period for my novel. I got the 5 book boxed set, and read the first 2 books, and went to read book three, and in someone's infinite wisdom, the box set includes books 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. So I guess that whole "The first 5 books of the Little House series" thing on the box was a pile of crap.
8. I feel like I'm being a lousy mentor to the girl I'm mentoring for the Orphan Foundation of America.
9. There was one person who did not call Michael for his birthday today, and it REALLY pissed me off. I'll be damned if we're calling this individual on their birthday. If I have to rip the phone out of the wall. Michael has really put himself out there for that individual, and to me, this is a real slap in the face.
10. The windows in this house SUCK. This is the last winter we'll weather with these stupid windows in the house. Period. I don't care if I have to sell my plasma to afford new windows. These puppies are coming out. I'm also sick to death of the flooring in this house. It's going.
Okay, other things that are going on in my life at this moment...
1. My mom's divorce is final. Sayanora, Jerry. I hope this was the wake up call you so desperately need.
2. My aunt's mother died. I knew her a little bit, not very well, but feel sorry for my aunt, and my cousins who have lost their grandmother.
3. My in-laws are here. They're leaving tomorrow. We've had a really nice visit. And I think they're impressed with my cooking skills. And I "helped" my father-in-law install a new ceiling fan in the upstairs office. Tomorrow when they leave, the TV is probably going to take a much needed week-long hiatus and cease to work. And I won't know what to do with the silence. I always feel the same when my dad leaves.
4. Our dishwasher has been repaired. It somehow got broken on January 6th after our 3 Kings party, which meant that we had to wash all the pots and pans by hand. Rather, I had to wash it all by hand. And it took until Friday to get the stupid thing repaired. And then it cost twice as much for the labor as it did for the parts. I'm in the wrong business, when I could be making $100 per hour as a dishwasher repair guy (yes, this dude owns his own repair business, he doesn't work for Sears or anything like that).
5. I've started on my own little diet plan--nothing extravagant, but damn it can be a challenge not to slip back into my old habits. And I get cranky when I can't sit down and just mow through 3 cupcakes and a glass of coke. It's pretty much basics--no soda, no snacks after dinner, try to eat breakfast, healthy snacks during the day if I get hungry, and tons of water. This week I'll try to start getting on the treadmill. I feel better--but cranky. I guess I miss the sugar highs. But I'm not crashing the way I was--I used to come home after work where I had tons of sugar to get me through the day and wind up taking a two hour nap. That seems to have stopped, and I think that's a very good thing. But damn, Slimfast shakes are nasty.
Well, it feels pretty good to get this all out there. I'm still not tired, and am afraid of waking Michael up, so I'll probably sleep in the football chair tonight. He got to bed late on account of the freakin' Patriots game running till after 10pm, and then has to be up by 4, so I'm not going to be the one to wake him up. Thanks for listening.
I apologize in advance if this offends anyone—if you love the President and think he’s a great guy, go ahead and quit reading now! If you think the Iraq war is a good thing, quit reading now. And please don’t send me any nasty messages, I’m just trying to get the word around, since I didn’t know anything about this until yesterday.
On Saturday, January 27th, a huge anti-war protest is planned in Washington DC. I only heard about it yesterday on NPR, I had no idea it was going on, but was wondering when people would start taking to the streets. I guess I know!
Beginning at 11am, people opposed to the war are going to assemble on the National Mall, and march on Washington to show Congress and the President (who will probably be out of town that day!) how the majority of Americans feel about the war. In addition, on Monday, 1/29, there will be the opportunity to meet with your elected officials on Capitol Hill and discuss the matter with them.
For more information, please visit: www.unitedforpeace.org or www.winwithoutwarus.org.
Judy and I will be there, although I don’t know how we can make plans to meet up with anyone, other than cell phones and making plans to meet at Van Dorn St. If you’re an out-of-towner and moved to come, you can always crash with us for free. And finally, please help spread the word—you probably know many more people than I do and can help get the word out, even if you don’t march! Maybe I am living in a cave, but as I said, I knew nothing about it.
I have a new website that may just take over my life...
Gather.com is a gathering place for writers, artists, etc., set up similarly to MySpace.
There are places for you to post writing samples, photography and art samples, and to connect with others who are doing the same.
I'll be entering my NaNoWriMo novel into their writing competition as well, so maybe I'll walk away with a prize! :-)
Check it out!!! My username there is katekosior.
My mom has a friend in Colorado, who just sent the following message around and I found it kind of intriguing... Granted, it's comparing meteorological apples and oranges, but still, there is a point to it.
Up here, in the "Mile-Hi City", we just recovered from a Historic event--may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.
FYI:
George Bush did not come. FEMA did nothing. No one howled for the government. No one blamed the government. No one even uttered an expletive on TV. Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit. Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else. Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either. CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit or report on this category 5 snowstorm.
Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards. No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House. No one looted.
Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something. Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.
No Larry King, No Bill O'Reilly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera. No Sean Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.
Nope, we just melted the snow for water. Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars. The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny. Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families. Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.
We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns. We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die". We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.
Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.
"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."
It does seem that way, at least to me.
I hope this gets passed on.
Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living. The Government and Tax $ are not your insurance company.
Last night we hosted our annual Three Kings dinner party, which marks the official end of Christmas. It's always an extravaganza of epic proportions. Last year, we had a good bit of trouble with the cooking, and this year we were so organized, we had an hour for naps and showers before really kicking off the cooking.
Judy and Joe arrived on the train Friday night and we did the major shopping. By which I mean that we bought the stuff that cost approximately $50 more in total than the Saturday morning shopping trip, which still didn't cover the additional $50 we spent on ice, serving ware, and incidentals.
When we got home around 9pm, the grand unveiling took place...
I was not able to post this sooner, because it was a surprise for Judy, but when my uncle came to visit from San Diego last week, he bought Michael and I a new television set. A 42" plasma HDTV to be exact. So she went downstairs and saw it, and all was well...
We got cookin'. Friday night is always reserved for 2 things: baking and chopping onions. We like to get both out of the way so that we can do the hard core cooking the next day.
The lemon bundt cakes refused to cooperate this year, they kept coming out of the pan all broken up. So I told Judy the mini-bundts were out this year, we'd have to make cheesecakes in the morning. She agreed, sadly, we spent an hour chopping onions, concluded (correctly as it turned out) that we didn't have enough, and moved on to preparing the presents for everyone. This year, we bought sparkling cider and wine and printed out our own labels and affixed them to the bottles. We got a couple of boxes of wine goblets and gave every couple a bottle of wine and two glasses. All the kids who were coming would get the cider. After that was over, we went to bed. (at 1:30 am)
The next morning I got up at 7 and went back to the store to finish up the shopping as best I could. When I got home, Judy was up and running, so we made the cheesecakes, she finished up chopping another 5 lbs. of onions, and I gave the bundts another go--successfully this time!
The rest of the day was spent arguing with each other--yep, everyone was fightin'--and cooking. The weather was so crazy, we briefly considered turning it into a picnic--probably the only time we'd get away with doing it. But unfortunately, the ground is so soggy, we weren't able to pull it off. It was the first time I've prepared for this with the windows open, and wearing shorts.
Our menu this year was:
Appetizers:
Chips, bread, vegetables, and crackers with an assortment of dips (dill, french onion, and holiday blend)
Shrimp
Homemade egg nog
Dinner:
Beef stroganoff
Haluski (egg noodles sauteed with onions and butter)
Pierogi
Kielbasa
Chicken Paprikash and dumplings
Polish mushrooms
green beans
salad
Dessert:
Lemon cakes
Apple cakes (brought by Nancy)
Cheese cake
Everyone arrived quite promptly, and we had a huge crowd again this year--twenty one, including 5 kids. Poor TomTom took the brunt of it as young Zach fell completely in love with TomTom and kept shoving him in a cardboard box and toting him around. I looked into the box at one point and TomTom was glaring up at me with a "You're going to pay for this" look of utter disdain. But he survived.
Everyone left around midnight, we went to bed around 1am, and I had to get up at 6:45 because the Best Buy guys were supposed to arrive at 7am to finish hooking up the TV and DVD player correctly. Unfortunately, they didnt' get the 7am memo and didn't get here until 8:10, but whatever. Everything is working correctly now.
It was a great party, I really enjoyed myself, and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. Today all the Christmas stuff comes down and I'm treating myself to a pedicure.
...I'm already ready with my first book review of the year!
And it's a non-fiction.
Last year at work, my coworker asked if I liked John Grisham. I had never really read his books until I met Michael, who is a diehard fan, and I started reading Grisham books with him on long car trips, and yes, loved the books. So she recommended we get his new book, "An Innocent Man."
I picked it up for Michael for Christmas and we read it over this past long weekend.
Unbelievable.
I've been leaning away from the death penalty for a long time now, but this book 100% cemented it for me. It's shocking how crooked police, prosecutors, judges and lawyers can be--and they weren't all entirely crooked, but some of them were just not paying attention.
And consequently, two innocent men were in jail for 12 years, one of whom had serious mental illness that was not treated most of that time.
The sick part?
The criminal who committed the murder for which those two were convicted actually testified against them at trial and helped convict them!!!
It was an incredibly fast paced book, not one boring part in it. I highly recommend it. It was absolutely great.
My goal for this year is to read 100 books. 99 to go.
...but without it, this picture wouldn't have happened.
And here's some video of Heather stuffing 20 grapes into her mouth...
Michael and I wrote out our somewhat annual holiday newsletter and it spanned 4 pages... YIKES! Who knew such a year would be so crazy... Anyway, I'm posting it here--God only knows when we'll get it in the mail.
Michael kicked 2006 off with a bang—he earned his GS-13 with the defense department and earned the title “Deputy Branch Chief.” In addition to his fancy title, he got to become a supervisor for the first time. He also went back to his beloved ham radio, with the help of our neighbors, Roy and Jack, who braved the mud in our crawl space to install his huge radio antenna. All this and he was another year older! WOW! We also welcomed our bunny TomTom to the family! We had the chance to rent a cabin in a ski resort town with friends Heather, Steve, Nancy, and Gil in Maryland in mid-January, and had a great time hot tubbing, and hanging out, relaxing.
I kicked off February with a bang—literally. On Monday the 13th, I fell while taking the trash out (I had been remodeling our living room and the trash was full of old wallpaper, etc.), when I slid on the ice and immediately I knew I had broken my leg. My first ambulance ride later, I was misdiagnosed and my sister Judy and Michael got to take me to my first orthopedist. I had a compound spiral fracture and all kinds of torn and ripped tendons and ligaments and such (it’s never good when the doctor takes the cast off, looks at your leg, yells “Oh sh**” and walks out of the room!!). Two months and two surgeries later, I was able to walk again with the help of a plate and seven screws that are permanently embedded in my leg. We are forever in debt to our family and friends who came during that entire time—all of our parents made the trip to Virginia to stay for a week each, my sister moved in with us, Joe was our back up “babysitter extraordinaire,” Nancy brought TONS of food and sat with Mom and Judy during the first surgery, Heather brought me books and videos, and Trent scrubbed my floors and made burritos. In the midst of all the brouhaha, Michael, Judy and I went to see Billy Joel in concert in Washington DC. It was an amazing concert, and even though I had to do it on one leg, they helped me stand for “New York State of Mind”—the tears were flowing!
APRIL: We spent our fourth anniversary quietly at home, but are planning a bang up blow out for our fifth. The big news from April was that we became “grandparents” to four baby bunnies. My sister’s bunny turned out to be a girl, although the breeder swore she was a boy, and Valentina and TomTom created Rocky, Suisse, Rambo, and Nimmy. My college roommate, Kerriann, also came to town and Joe and I went to meet her and spend a day in DC. It was wonderful to see her after 10 years!
In May, we traveled to North Carolina to spend some time at another rented house, this one with our friends Brian and Lara, in Sunset Beach, NC. Sunset Beach is a great town right outside Myrtle Beach, SC, where we honeymooned, so we took time to go back to Myrtle Beach for the memories. We spent lots of time cooking, eating, reading, geocaching, playing games (especially skeeball), and catching up with Brian and Lara and doting over their daughter, Emma. For Memorial Day, our friends Mike and Lesley came up from Charlotte and we again went for the third year in a row to see “A Prairie Home Companion” taped live at Wolf Trap. Michael and Mike also spent lots of time building me a new computer, and now I have a computer of my own and my own office space in the basement, so Michael and I don’t have to fight over the computer any more!
June was Relay for Life time, and may I thank all of you again who contributed to my fundraising!!! I raised over $1000 for the American Cancer Society. It was a great time—we got Michael out there too, and he stayed up all night while I fell asleep with a blanket wrapped around my head—it was FREEZING!!!!!!!!!! Michael and I attended our first book signing without Judy (who was in Israel for work), this time meeting CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who was most gracious even when I said the stupidest thing imaginable (“When I was laid up with a broken leg, your face was EVERYWHERE on TV.” His response? “I hope you didn’t get as sick of it as I did.” )
July we traveled north to bring contraband fireworks to my dad for the 4th (smuggled from South Carolina, where they have REAL fireworks). We set them off to critical acclaim, and only one of the neighbors called to complain about it, which only made my dad light them up with additional fervor. After the 4th, we visited Hank and Sheila in Rhode Island and caught up with our rapidly growing nephew!! When we got back to Virginia, Judy took me to meet Food Network Chef Alton Brown at a book signing and promotion for his summer show, Feasting on Asphalt. Judy, Michael, and I also went to see our third Dave Barry book signing—pretty soon he’ll know us by name!
Sadly, in August, our friend Tim passed away very suddenly, and we traveled up to Indiana, PA for his funeral. Interestingly enough, Indiana is the hometown of actor Jimmy Stewart, and the funeral home was built right where Jimmy Stewart was born, so we took a brief minute to go outside and see the historic marker. While we were terribly, terribly sad about Tim’s passing, it was wonderful to meet his family and they were so gracious and included us in everything.
When we got back, everyone threw me a wonderful surprise party for my birthday! The theme was fondue, and we had seafood, pizza and cheese fondue for dinner and 2 different chocolate fondues for dessert. WOW was it wonderful. And Michael bought me a power staple gun for a gift, which I desperately wanted and which has been more fun to use than any gift I can remember getting for a while.
In September, Michael, Joe and I went with our friend, Melissa to tour James and Dolley Madison’s Montpelier. It is completely under construction, so it was interesting to be able to see into the walls and walk through doors that will be turned back into windows and such. It was a great tour, and we had a great guide, and look forward to seeing it when it is completed! Mid-month, Judy and I went up to Bethesda, MD to meet actor Alan Alda, who was in town to celebrate his book “Never Stuff Your Dog”. It was a GREAT book signing, and he took the time to sit and chat with each person who came to the table. Since I got there early, and we were 6th in line, he even personalized our books for us, which was great! (There were over 1,000 people there.)
My mom came to visit and we went and enjoyed the National Book Festival on the National Mall. We got to hear two speakers, Christopher Buckley and Khaled Hosseini, speak about their wonderful books, and about writing. We visited the hall of states and the PBS tent and it was a great event. We really enjoyed it.
October brought with it another signing, this time with actor Harry Shearer. It was a much quieter affair than anticipated, only about 50 people showed up, but Judy and I were third in line for that one and he posed for a picture with us. Michael and his cousin Matt Carroll caught up for the first time in 18 years and spent a great evening reconnecting in Alexandria. We look forward to welcoming them to Fredericksburg sometime soon! It was a fairly quiet month otherwise, the only really amazing thing we did other than the signing was to go to the Bazaar Rus at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Washington DC. Judy helped us choose Russian meals that were delicious—beef stroganoff, sausages, vegetables, you name it. Incredible.
November was the start of the real craziness. National Novel Writing Month kicked off on November 1st, and Michael had the patience of Job to deal with what that month had in store. I decided to try my hand at writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, and while that did happen, it was at the expense of everyone and everything around me! Dishes piled up in the sink, we ate lots of take out, I locked myself in the basement for hours at a time… It was intense. But in only 24 days, I had written 50,000 words!!! I’m hoping to publish the book by the summer of 2007. So far, Michael has loved it, as have his parents!! So I’m waiting to get some feedback from my parents and sister and then I’ll be sending it around to see what others think!!! November was also the year-end wrap up for my book club, and we are now in our 3rd year. It was a good year for 2006, although we lost a lot of members, but we’re starting 2007 with eight new members, which I think will be a lot of fun!
We also spent Veteran’s Day weekend in Kentucky, visiting my good friend Tim, his wife Staci, and their two daughters. Tim and I met 7 years ago in Little Rock and have remained friends since. He lives in a huge house in Franklin, KY, and has a huge yard, in which he taught Michael to drive a golf cart!!! It was a great opportunity to break in our new video camera, so if you go on YouTube or have access to it, let me know and I’ll send you a link to his driving expedition.
We also went with Melissa to check out Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home in Charlottesville, VA. We were fortunate to have 2 wonderful tour guides, who let Michael feel priceless antiques that belonged to Jefferson himself, a rare experience. The house is set on top of a beautiful hill and the view was spectacular. We loved our trip there and hope to bring our family members back for tours sometime.
For Thanksgiving, Michael headed up to Rhode Island and I stayed here to spend time with my dad. Michael got to catch up with the family and spend even more time with Ethan, as well as his cousins, the Martins. When he came back, we spent the next day traveling to New Jersey to see Rutgers University take on Syracuse. My dad is a Rutgers alum, so we screamed and hollered for the Scarlet Knights, and afterwards, revived ourselves at White Castle.
December has remained busy. I spent 5 days in Florida visiting my mom, where I saw the space shuttle launch, and met Food Network Chef, Paula Deen, at a book signing there. I also helped her revamp her house and computer, and spent time with her 3 cats and her new dog. Upon my return, we only had a week to get ready for Christmas, so busily put up a tree, baked way too many cookies, wrapped presents, and the like. Christmas was special—Dad came down again and Joe was here as well, as he was unable to get back to Buffalo for the holidays. My uncle Glen arrived from San Diego on Tuesday and stayed with us for two days, which was great fun, as apart from my parents and sister, no one from my side of the family had been to the house yet. We showed him around town and he seemed to enjoy it here. For New Year’s, Michael was sick with the Plague which had been bugging me since Thanksgiving, so he stayed home and slept, while I went to Maryland to spend the evening with Heather, Nancy, Steve, Joe and Judy. We all missed Michael, particularly Joe and Steve, who were outnumbered!
Other little tidbits include:
• We finished remodeling the living room and my mom brought a bunch of furniture up, so we now have sofa beds in addition to our guest room. Now we need more company!
• Michael made a lot of upgrades to our technology infrastructure here—we now have Vonage for phone service, and a wireless internet network throughout the house.
So that’s our 2006 in review—we are exhausted just thinking about it!! We wish all of you a very happy 2007 and hope to see or speak with you all soon!
I for one, am happy to say goodbye to 2006! Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2007!
I just found this article on Yahoo News.
Arnold Schwarzenegger breaks his leg so badly, it requires a surgical repair, and he gets a nice 4 day stay in the hospital.
I break my leg so badly it requires repair, the nurses are sitting me up while I'm still doped up on anesthetics, dress me, sit me in a wheel chair and make my family wheel me out of the hospital the same night.
It's good to be rich and famous in this sometimes-stupid country.
I've been collecting for a couple months, and hope you find this new collection just as entertaining.
Hoarded T. Crinkly
Militarize T. Importunes
Mangiest F. Seawards
Bagel S. Hearken
Erratas A. Pestled
Blanchard O. Doll
Retype B. Agree
Jockeying V. Contrast
Earthlings F. Landslidden
Hauptmann U. Citadel
Pendulum U. Dam
Suitable E. Inhalation
Grandstanding U. Postponed
Yelling H. Activates
Woodpeckers L. Louver
Clarion Q. Orly
Mayes L. Paddy
Homered S. Sony
Throughways R. Ration
Switchbacks S. Investigation
Floy F. Hays
Freebies R. Jubal
Administer D. Ireland
Medically I. Inception
Heartache F. Confirmatory
Grapnels V. Ascendant
Photocopies S. Casually (my 2nd personal favorite of this round for some reason!)
Senegal U. Stanchions
Firms I. Fundamentally
Relational E. Unwarier
Belief U. Therapies
Adulterates A. Biker (my #1 favorite this round)
Moistly L. Framework
Hunching E. Maternally
Interns T. Saucer
Cleanser A. Unpretentious
These really fizzled out for a while, but now they're starting to pick back up, so I may have some more soon. I hope everyone finds these as amusing as I do, but you all may just think I'm a nerd. Oh well. hehe
I just want to wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas!! I hope it's filled with only good things...
I'm here, surrounded by three of the people I love most. If the other two were here, life would be perfect. :-) But even now, it's pretty damned fantastic.
Love you all.
AUGH!
Yesterday was one of those days when NOTHING goes right.
I took my car in for an oil change and the state inspection. Should be easy enough, right?
Wrong. Poor Glerrts needed about $540 in repairs to be streetworthy by Virginia's standards.
So, fine, I"ll take the tire, the brakes, do what you have to do, just make my baby run!
And do it early, I have a doctor's appointment.
Ok, so it's all done, and I'm invited to the back room to come and pay for it.
So I whip out the old checkbook, and write a check. The woman runs it through a machine, and the machine beeps, and she gets a message prompting her to make a phone call.
She makes the phone call, and talks to someone, and when she hangs up, she says, "Your check has been declined."
Uh, excuse me!?
Me: "Can you tell me why?"
Her: No, there's nothing wrong with your account, everything seems to be fine, but they won't accept your check. Your account came back with no negatives, but they won't take it.
Me: Who did you talk to?
Her: I don't know. You'll need some other form of payment.
Me: Did you talk to the bank or someone else?
Her: I'm not sure, I'm not the regular cashier.
I hand over my Visa check card. BEEP! It's soundly rejected. Ok, this is ridiculous.
Her: Well, don't you have some other form of payment?
Me: No, I have a checking account, which is full of money, because Mr. Man got paid Friday. I don't understand this.
Her: Well, I don't know what we can do about this situation.
Me: I'll go over to the ATM across the street and bring back cash.
I drive to the ATM. I do a balance inquiry. As expected, everything is A-OK. Plenty of money in the account. I try to withdraw the money to cover the car payments.
ATM: Sorry, this amount exceeds your daily limit for withdrawal."
Me: GODDAMN IT!
ATM: Would you like to try again?
Me: *Sigh*
Finally, I deduct my limit of $400 and go back to the dealer.
Me: Here's $400. Now, you run my card again and see if it'll accept the other $140.
Her: (whipping out calculator) Ok, so I'll be charging... *crickets chirping*
IT'S A NOT-SO-ROUND ROUND DOLLAR AMOUNT MINUS A ROUND DOLLAR AMOUNT AND CHANGE. YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THIS IN YOUR HEAD!!!!!!!!!
Why can't people do simple arithmetic??
So she runs the card, and lo and behold, it works. Saturn has their money, I get my car and my license back.
AUGH!!!!! And don't you know, I was late for the doctor?
So, last night was the Rachel Ray book signing.
On top of the grand disappointment that was the Paula Deen book signing, I was hoping for a little something more.
Instead, I think, if possible, I got something less.
No pictures within 5 feet of her. She did not so much as look up from the table when it was your turn. At least Paula Deen said, "Hello, sweetheart." When I said "Thank you" to Rachel, she more or less grumbled, "you're welcome"... I mean, this from Little Miss Sunshine? HELLO!?
Seriously, I was so disappointed. My book got handed to two of her handlers on one side, then it got passed to a handler after it was signed, and that final handler stuffed two stupid bookmarks in it to promote her shows.
But to treat the people who watch her shows so dismissively, I mean, seriously, that was just wrong. Considering I sat in line for 3 hours, to be rushed through with not so much as a "HI, thanks for buying my books and watching my shows" was beyond the pale. Honestly.
The only good thing about it was Melissa came to keep me company starting around 5:30--and since RR was an hour late due to DC traffic, well, it made the time go by a bit faster.
AUGH!
I mean, for crying out loud, Alan Alda, a revered veteran of stage and screen, gave me a full minute of his time. And he had a thousand people to get through.
Well, I've finally gotten some sleep and I'm rested and ready to write about my trip!
I left Friday night to go to Florida and of course, I got stopped at the security gate, and my toothpaste was confiscated. The Colgate mafia is probably looking to bring down planes all over the country, and they can't be too careful, so my beautiful tube of toothpaste is now consigned to some level of airport hell.
On the plus side, my flight arrived early, and since I didn't check any bags, once I found my mom, we were able to walk right out and head for home! The Orlando airport is a lot easier to navigate than the Tampa airport, in my humble opinion, so I was feeling pretty good.
Although I was still pissed off about my toothpaste.
So we get home and I got to see BUSTER the wonder cat, who now weighs, I would say, a minimum of 20 pounds, and I bet he's pushing 25. For anyone who doesn't know, Buster was the cat I took in when I lived in Arkansas and since Michael's allergic, I decided he would move to Florida. And I have to say, of all the cats I COULD have rescued, Buster has been 150% personality and just a fantastic choice. We all just love him. Plus his two sisters, Bianca and Hermia, but I must confess, I did not see Bianca in 4 days with the exception of about 15 seconds where she gave me the eye and fled back under the bed. Hermia has become quite affectionate--she used to be the "hide under the bed cat" but now she's all purring and cuddles, which is nice. And my mom's new dog, Sidney, is just the most hilarious little dog. He's a chiuhuahua (however the hell you spell that) and he is Mr. Personality in a 4 pound package. yes, Mom has a 4 pound dog and a 25 pound cat. Go figure.
So anyway, Saturday dawned bright and clear, and we decided we'd spend the evening at the beach to go check out the space shuttle launch, but first a tour of the beach! So we went over to Mom's favorite IHOP and then went down to the beach.
Let me tell you something about Vero Beach.
For some reason, the waves come in to a point, and then they stop. And what happens is a big, 2 foot wall of sand builds up, and then there's a plunging cliff. But since it's made of sand, it's not particularly sturdy.
So we decide to shoot some video of me, in the ocean, in December. I give Mom the camera, walk down to this cliff and it crumbles beneath my feet and down I go and the waves are coming and the beach is full of jelly fish, and I get up and run into the oncoming water, and hop back out and yell to find out if mom got the footage, because there was a jelly fish swimming over my foot (how stupid are jelly fish? Every time I go to the beach, I see dozens of them washed up on shore. Can't they navigate?)
So I look up, and Mom's coming down the stairs and I'm trying to climb back up this cliff, which you guessed it, continues to crumble, and she's standing there, laughing, and I'm covered in sand, plus I'm wet, which is charming. (And the water was absolutely FREEZING) And Mom says she's not sure, she could only see herself in the camera. Hmmm. So we get back in the car, and I turn on the playback feature and discover that my mom has video taped her feet.
Oh, there's a bit of footage of me, from the waist up, but you can't tell really that I'm in the water, and then mom drops the camera to her side and films her feet.
It's a minor masterpiece. I may leave the thing in its entirety and post it on YouTube as is. An artistic view of my mother's feet, and not my own.
So we spent the rest of the day shopping for Christmas decorations and then Mom decides what she really needs is a new computer. Christmas is generally a good time to get a deal on a computer. So we go to Office Depot, where we disappoint the little old man who is the greeter, by not purchasing anything after he merrily points us in the direction of computers, and then go to Best Buy, where a very nice guy talks us almost into buying a computer there, but it doesn't come with a monitor that's flat and mom only has a small desk and the upgrade is a teensy bit more than she wanted to spend. But the General gives his blessing on that particular machine, so we tell him we'll be back if Circuit City has nothing better to offer.
So we go to Circuit City. And we find a machine that looks plausible--a bit cheaper than Best Buy, and a bit more bang for the buck. Plus for only $70, you can upgrade to a flat panel. So we're waiting, and 3 salesmen are wandering around helping ONE GUY, and ignoring us. And Mom's getting hot under the collar, all "I guess they don't like serving women" and all and I was getting a bit cheesed, but then this young guy comes over and asks if he can help us. Now, I'm telling you, this kid looks like he's all of about 10 years old. So we point to the computer we're thinking about (which also gets the general's approval) and ask about it, and the sign says it costs $349, and we tell him we want that, plus the $70 upgrade to the flat panel monitor. So he pulls all the stuff out of the shelves, and we go up to the cash register, and he scans it all in, and the bill comes to $813.
So our eyebrows shoot over our heads and we're kind of like, "Wait a minute, this sign says $349."
To his credit, even he appears a bit confused, so he hits a button on the register and unfurls a pile of register tape and starts making calculations on the paper, and during the five minutes he is figuring out the price of everything, he actually (I swear to God I am not making this up) stands there and counts on his fingers.
Well, I guess the Yankee in me starts getting a little uppity, because I was getting impatient and I grab the $349 sign and I ask him, "What about this price right here? Can you just tell us what we have to do to get this price?"
And he looks at me just as angry as he can and says, "Wait, I'm not finished yet" and grabs the sign out of my hand and starts counting all over.
I look at my mom and she looks at me, I just about lost it. I was laughing that silent laugh when your whole body shakes from the effort of not bursting out laughing. Her mouth dangled in disbelief and then she had to try and hold it in too.
So eventually, he finishes up his complex set of calculations, and shows us how to get the $349 price, sort of. There are 2 mail in rebates worth $240, which drops the price to $573. The $349 + $70 upgrade is $419, and the rest is apparently made up in various taxes and whatnot, although frankly this is never made quite clear.
Well, not surprisingly, Mom doesn't have $800 to drop on a computer, so we tell him "Thanks anyway" and head out.
We go back to her house in time to get a phone call from the General who has considered the situation and says "Don't buy the Circuit City computer, it's not good" after all. So we dodged a bullet.
Mom's friend Judy comes over, and they decide to go be nosy. The town where my mom lives is getting all built up, although for no apparent reason, since at the moment no one is moving in. There is a place nearby where they are building homes that "start" in the $400's, and the two of them have been dying to go check them out. So we go on over there.
The realtor was a snot, and while the model itself was beautiful, I'm not sure I would have bought one. Some of the tiles had fallen out of the tub, there were various small flaws in the construction that I think they should have been embarrassed to show the model with those flaws showing. So Mom and Judy are busy exclaiming over the decorating and I was sitting there kind of fuming about it, because frankly, their furniture was way nicer than ours and it's just for display and that really gets me pissed off that they can afford to buy nicer furniture than I can and their furniture is not ever going to be used for anything. So I decided that if a couple of bars of their fancy French milled soap happened to fall off their granite vanities and happened to land into my pocket, I wasn't going to do a thing about it, and that is precisely what happened.
So we got back in the car, and Mom and Judy were hashing it all out, and I just burst out, "Well ladies, we can't afford their house, but it looks like we can afford their soap" and handed each of them their own little souvenirs of the place. Mom almost drove off the road.
Saturday night we went down to the beach and watched the space shuttle take off. It was an amazing sight. We were about 60 miles or so south of Cape Canaveral, and it was night time, and it was windy and cloudy and we were hopeful that the launch would happen, but we couldn't sit around at home and wait, since we had a little bit of a drive to the beach to start with, so we sat in the car and listened to the NASA transmissions on the radio and then hit the beach. Wow. When the thing finally lifted off, what an amazing sight to see. All of a sudden, the northern sky lit up like a brigh orange sunrise, and then this flaming dart shot out of the middle of it. Unfortunately due to the cloud cover, we were only able to see it for about 15 seconds before it disappeared, but it was mesmerizing. Definitely cool. And I shot the footage on that, so you won't see Mom's feet. :-)
Oh, and we went back to Best Buy and bought the computer there, which in total, with a flat screen monitor, came to $510. And God bless Best Buy, the guys who work there are all gorgeous.
On Sunday, Mom had gotten us tickets to see "A Christmas Carol" on stage. We spent the day channeling our inner Kathy Bates, yelling "TOWANDA!" and pulling down all the crappy blinds and shades in the house and letting in the sunlight. We installed curtains, cleaned out the garage, decorated Christmas trees, put up lights, listened to Christmas music, and put up the new computer and changed all Mom's old passwords. All of this is helping Mom reclaim her life from Asswipe, and I was only too glad to be a part of the transformation. Particularly when I got to wield a hammer.
So, we drive to the school where "A Christmas Carol" is being held, and Mom all of a sudden stops dead in the parking lot and says, "Did you see that?" Nope. She backs up, and there is a huge crab skittering across the lot. He/she was definitely lost. So we parked and stood around it until it safely reached the grass, figuring that was the best it was going to do. It was really neat to see, though!
So, we were given seats up in the "stadium level" of this school's auditorium. It made me weep to see what a state of the art facility they had. If I'm ever a quadrillionaire, I'm totally refurbishing Clifton Fine's auditorium. This place was gorgeous. So we people watched for a while, and then this dude in a tweedy coat goes down to the front and says in the most condescending voice you can imagine, "Now what's the first rule of going to the theater? We must do what?" and everyone replies like a bunch of stupid apes, "Turn off our cell phones." I rolled my eyes. I couldn't believe this guy was going to get away with that. Then he says, "And remember, no pictures, and only record your memories in your mind."
Yup this guy was up for the Mark Twain Award.
So, OK, the show starts, and to tell you how great it was, the two old ladies behind us fell asleep.
It's not that it was bad. It just wasn't well written. The acting and singing and the sets were great. But there was no point to the way it was all put together. For instance, when Ebenezer and Belle break off their engagement, she says, "I release you from your obligation, Ebenezer" and then breaks into a five minute song about how he's broken her heart. I mean, dump him and leave. Or sing to him and then dump him.
Towards the end, when Ebenezer learns whose grave he is at, and his name flashes up on the tombstone, rather than dramatically cutting the lights with only the tombstone showing and the sound of his sobs, he breaks into a five minute song. It could have been one of the most dramatic scenes in the show, but it was ruined by some idiot's desire to have a song thrown in there. Now, don't get me wrong, I *love* musical theater, and I *love* "A Christmas Carol" but it just didn't gel well. The only times the singing was appropriate was when the Fezziwigs had their party (although, frankly, Mrs. Fezziwig's sole character trait appeared to be that she would wave her head in the air to cause her pigtails to waggle back and forth) and when the Cratchitts had their own celebration. But again, I certainly don't fault the cast, they sang the hell out of it. It was just not a great idea.
Monday and Tuesday were spent on more remodelling and decorating, and Tuesday also included a very healthy nap. Also on Monday, I was tremendously excited to go see Paula Deen do a book signing.
I had sent my mom to get a ticket after she found out that tickets were required. Now, the tickets were free, and all the signs said if you had a ticket, you could get two books signed. Two book per person maximum. No problem. I wanted one for myself and one for someone else. So Mom bought me a book there to get our ticket and then I went over to Borders and used my holiday savings and their 30% discount and got a second cookbook for 4 whole dollars. So we go over there and I told Mom we needed to go early, since I know how these things are, and we left home at 4:30 and got there at 5:00 and there was already a line. There was nowhere to sit, and they wouldn't let you inside for the signing--everyone had to wait outside in line. So I decide to go in and scope out the situation. No podium, no anything, just a table. So I was like "Well, I guess she won't be speaking." So I go outside and we're standing around and Mom's talking to the people in line, and she sends me around the back of the building to the strip mall to get some drinks while we're there. Now, I don't want to sound too crabby, but there was nothing back there so I had to cross the street to go to a nearby Panera. And it was a 5 lane highway, with no signals and no crosswalk. Fortunately, it was not very busy. But people are honking at me while I'm standing on the freakin' median. "Um, hello, I'm not moving, so just drive your car and leave me alone." It was ridiculous. All for 2 pepsis. hehe
So I get back and around 6:30, they start letting the line move into the store, we're wending our way around the shelves like the chutes at Disney World, and then this woman comes through to check tickets. She grabs my bag and tells me that since I have only one ticket, I can only get one book signed. I asked her "What do you mean? It says two books per person?" and she says, "No, you need a ticket per book" and storms off. Now, the people behind us didn't qualify, because they didn't buy the right books. So wound up that they had extra tickets and agreed to get my book signed for me. But it was just wrong.
So 7pm, and out comes Paula Deen and her husband, Michael and literally, you got 3 seconds with her. She said to me, "Hello, sweetheart" which I missed responding because I was trying to get my mom to take a picture, and then passed my book to her husband, and that was it. That was it. I stood in line for 2 freakin' hours to meet this woman and didn't get to talk to her. It was a complete waste of time. I was SO disappointed.
So next week I'm going to go meet Rachel Ray and it better be an improvement over that one, I must say! My mom said she would not go to a book signing again, and I was also disappointed about that, since as you know, I've been to many amazing book signings in the past year. I mean, even Alan Alda took time to talk with me and personalize my book, and there were definitely more people at that book signing than at Paula Deen's. But her goal was to be done with it in 2 hours, and it led me to wonder, "Why bother?" I mean, what a disappointment for fans. I wasn't a big fan of hers, but I do enjoy watching her show and she does make some recipes that I've used that have come out really well, and this left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Oh well.
So now I'm back home and relaxing. Heading to Orange County today and I'm so excited to do some rural driving. :-) It's nice to know that the bunnies survived without me and it sounds like Judy, the General and Joe all had a lot of fun while I was away, so I'm glad it worked out--I was a bit nervous to be gone so long. :-)
Till next time.
...I don't have it within me to blog about my trip to Florida tonight, it was a BLAST despite my initial worries about it. Mom and I did some pretty great stuff, and I had a marvelous time. I can't really do it justice when I'm tired, so I'll write about it tomorrow or the next day.
I also shot some fun video that I'll be putting on youTube, and I'll post the links here, if not embed them, when I get them uploaded. Again, the editing process is not going to happen tonight.
Why?
Basically, we got up at 4:15 this morning to head to Orlando so I could sit on the runway while DC's fog lifted, and when we finally landed, we got to sit on the runway some more because there was another plane using our gate.
And I had a meeting to get to, for which I was 25 minutes late.
*Sigh*
On the plus side, we're getting our Christmas cards done tonight. :)
See you all soon.
Just yesterday it was Thanksgiving... I have no shopping done for Christmas, nor do I have any of my cards sent out, or my indoor decorating complete. I haven't listened to Christmas CD's nonstop, nor have I baked all the cookies I need to. And on Friday, I leave for 4 days in Florida, smack dab in the middle of everything!!!
It's been crazy. In November, I got sick, and with NaNoWriMo, things got REALLY backed up around the house. I cleaned the daylights out of everything before my dad got here, but of course, Hurricane George and Hurricane Judy simultaneously swept through, and pretty much laid waste to my hard work. But I haven't done a whole lot to make up for it--the circulars from black Friday are STILL strewn around the coffee table... Too much energy to pick them up.
Plus my cold has been dragging on and on and on. To date I am mostly fine, although I do have a nagging frog in my throat.
I've been busy sending "the book" around and trying to solicit feedback from it. My in-laws LOVED it and Michael LOVED it, but haven't heard from my own family yet. I'm working on a little worksheet to give the people who read it and then I'll send it out to a few folks. I found an option for getting it published and copyrighted, and I'm hopeful that it might work out, but I have some work to do on it still. If you're interested in possibly reading it, let me know. We had our "Thank God It's Over" party last night here in Fredericksburg, but actually, I'm kind of disappointed that it's over. I don't know what to do with myself, and until I get some more feedback, I don't have any real ideas about areas for improvement. My sister gave me a couple of suggestions back in November for just one of the chapters, and I was able to add 3,000 words in one sitting, so it's definitely valuable to hear what other people think. Oh, and I read an excerpt at the TGIO party and was well received. So that's good.
I've started YouTubing for real, and have posted 5 (?) videos to date. I love the new video camera--it's tons of fun.
And before you ask, no, I don't know what I want for Christmas. :-P
Otherwise, it's quiet. I'll spend tonight cleaning the house and then tomorrow Michael and I are going to see "For Your Consideration." Then Friday night I fly out around 8pm. I haven't been to the Orlando Airport in a LONG time, so it'll be interesting to try and find my mother there. And just as I was getting Tampa down pat. DARN IT.
When I get back, fortunately it's a pay week, and so I can do the Christmas shopping for real, and will probably spend all day on the 22nd doing the baking. Cards, I just don't know... It's even a pain at this point trying to get to the post office. UGH.
So that's the update for now... Ta ta!
...did I finish writing my 50K word novel in 30 days, but I also managed to read it to the General. :-)
I called my mother-in-law today after I got a message that she wanted to talk to me about it... She got a copy yesterday evening and had it finished by 11:30 this morning. I called her and got glowing reviews.
Now if only I could get my own mom and sister to read it...
(I'm still too nervous to send it to my dad, if he hates it, I'll be devastated)
