Month: March 2006

* * * Lordy. Yesterday was a big errand-running day for me, again. I had a 1:30 appointment with the nutritionist, and after that I stopped at Target to return a mirror, Michael’s to buy a mirror, and the pet store to buy cat food and some cat toys (DESPERATELY NEEDED, I assure you!). By the time I got home and was unloading the car, Fred got home from work, so I made him carry the cat food upstairs since I’m not supposed to be lifting heavy stuff. (Don’t ask how the cat food got in the car. I think it was magic!) (I’m going to end up popping a hernia, and y’all will be “MmmHMMM, I KNEW that was going to happen, the dumb bitch was lifting shit long before she was supposed to!”) Anyway, it was nice to be out and running errands, because yesterday was gorgeously sunny and warm out – despite the forecasts that claimed it was going to be cold and rainy – and I drove around with my windows cracked and the country music a-blaring. The mirror I returned at Target was one I bought last week because I desperately need to hang a mirror in the bathroom in a location I can get very close to without having to lean over the sink – I can get up close and personal with the mirror over the sink, but it’s an awkward position to be in, and I’m prefer to be standing upright. Why, you are asking (unless you’ve fallen asleep), do I need to get very close to a mirror? Because at night before bed, I take my contacts out, and then I can’t see to put my rosacea cream and moisturizer on. And I don’t like to do it before I take my contacts out, ’cause then I’ll get goop on my contacts, that’s why. So I bought the smallest mirror they had at Target, but not soon after I bought it, I thought “I’m an idiot. I don’t like the mirror, and it’s too damn big for the space! Plus, Michael’s would probably have a mirror I’d like better and would work better for me.” Anyway, after I returned the mirror at Target, I went over to Michael’s, and would you believe that all I could find were big, full-length mirrors? I was frustrated and spent about half an hour browsing through the store before I stumbled upon some 5×7 and 8×10 mirror pieces with beveled edges. 5×7 was pretty much the size I was looking for, so I picked that up and went looking for a frame. I found a plain black frame, and voila! A simple mirror that I could hang, perfect for the space! Of course, I haven’t hung it up yet. I’m sure it’ll have to sit on the bathroom counter for a couple of weeks before I get around to THAT.

Currently reading: Plain Truth, by Jodi Picoult. I’m enjoying it – it’s about Amish people in Pennsylvania, and it’s really making me want to go up to Lawrenceburg, TN and visit the Mennonite community up there – but what bugs me about the book is the constant change of perspective. Sometimes it’s from the lawyer’s point of view, sometimes the detective’s, etc. It’s kind of jarring, and it annoys me a little. That said, I’m still liking it. * * * First, you sit there, and you just kind of feel like something’s not quite right. And then The Daddy comes along and messes with your head… “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope.” “How YOU doin’?” “Who’s pickin’ a banjo here?” All of today’s uploaded pictures are hither. * * * Previously 2005: By the way, Erika: who watches your kids while you’re busy reading PEOPLE and firing off those indignant letters? 2004: You all have to refer to me as “Journaler and (soon-to-be-published) AUTHOR Ethan Hawke Robyn And3rson” from now on. I insist! 2003: Ah, you poor damn AOL users. 2002: No entry. 2001: No entry. 2000: See? I always say “Thank you” to the freaking servers at fast food places. Yet all I get in return is rudeness.]]>

So I had a hair appointment yesterday morning at 9:00, and I had to be home by 11, because we were waiting for someone to come from the furniture store and fix the couch (a bolt underneath fell off and this is the second time it happened; the repair guy said that if it happens again to call him directly and he’d get us a new couch.). I left the hair fixin’ place at 10:45, which gave me plenty of time to get home, so rather than stopping at the grocery store – the grocery list was 63 miles long – I came straight home. And of COURSE the repair guy didn’t show up ’til almost 3:30. But all was not lost – when he hadn’t shown up by 2:00, I left and got groceries anyway. While I was waiting for him, I installed all the software I needed to install for my Brand! New! iPod!

I call him Bob. It came Tuesday night while we were watching American Idol, and I left the box on my desk to open yesterday when I’d have time to do everything I needed to do. There was a ton of software I needed to install and update, and then I looked through the book, and then I got all pissed off because I wanted to upload some podcasts to the iPod, only they weren’t in iTunes and when I imported them to iTunes, I couldn’t get them to go into the “Podcasts” directory and I couldn’t find ANYTHING ANYWHERE to tell me how to get something from, say, c://tmp/Podcasts to my iPod. So I called Fred and bitched for a while and he pretended to listen to me while surfing the web, then suggested that I ask y’all for help, and we hung up. Then I thought of a solution myself – I created a new playlist in iTunes, called it “Pods”, imported the podcasts, and uploaded it to my iPod. Problem solved! If y’all know of a less convoluted solution, let me know, would you? So far, I like Bob. No, scratch that – I LOVE Bob. My walk was much easier this morning, listening to skip-free Grey’s Anatomy podcasts. I’m not crazy about the ear buds, though, so I switched ’em out for the pair that came with my CD player. Oh, and I’m going to get Bob a yellow silicon cover, so he doesn’t get all scratched up. Have I mentioned that eBay rocks? * * * I think I’d like to find a new design for my site. I like this one – especially the color – but I’d like to have two sidebars, and I hate the way there’s a huge space between the title and list of each set of links. If anyone’s seen a design they think is very “me” (I can’t seem to find one I like, on my own), let me know. I like this one not only for the color, but also because it’s a simple, uncluttered design and I can change the header graphic every month. * * * Tuesday night, the oddest thing happened. Well, I guess it mostly started in the early afternoon. After I got done with all my cleaning and took my shower, I started feeling really tired. I thought about taking a nap, but decided not to. I stayed tired all afternoon, and then when we were watching American Idol, I realized I was cold – FREEZING cold. I had goosebumps and my teeth were chattering, and I was shivering. I turned on the fire for a little while, but that only warmed me up a little. I pulled the quilt (a lovely heavy old antique quilt Fred found in an antique store a few years ago: ) over me, but that didn’t warm me up much, either. The only thing that helped was to pull my arms into the inside of my shirt and warm them up under my boobs (an excellent spot for warming cold appendages), and even that didn’t help very much. When we went upstairs at bedtime, I was still shaking, and Fred was starting to get worried. He asked me about a thousand questions and seemed somewhat relieved to hear that I wasn’t in any pain. I was still shivering so hard my teeth were chattering and I felt a little nauseous, but I felt no pain anywhere. We couldn’t find the thermometer anywhere, but I thought maybe it was a low blood pressure issue, so Fred got out the blood pressure thingy and my blood pressure was fine. I brushed my teeth and got into bed, and Fred spooned with me, because he was really hot – the house was over 70, which to him is hot and to me is cold – and he figured he could warm me up and I could cool him down. He started sweating pretty quickly and I was still cold, so he put a quilt over me and I pulled the covers up to my chin. After a little while, he said “I could go to Walgreen’s and get a thermometer.” He did – he was there and back in, according to him, eight minutes. The thermometer said that I had a temperature of 100.3, which to me ain’t no fever – I don’t think it even counts ’til you get to 101, personally – but Fred got me some Tylenol and made me drink it. We talked for a while longer, then he went to bed, but not before putting a second quilt on top of me. I finally started to warm up a little, and then about two hours later I woke up, and I was very, very hot. I kicked off the quilts, and was just fine for the rest of the night. Wednesday morning I woke up just fine. I have no idea what was up Tuesday night; Fred hypothesized that I overdid it with the housecleaning, which I suppose could be true. I’m not supposed to be lifting anything over 10 pounds until I’m 6 weeks out from surgery, but I did carry the vacuum cleaner downstairs, so maybe that was not such a good thing to do. I think I should take the rest of the week off from housework just to be sure I don’t overdo it again. * * * Pardon the eye booger. I bet Tommy could jump high enough to catch one of those birds that keep teasing him. I love the ears-back look. All of today’s uploaded pictures are here. * * * Previously 2005: Bouncing like that just can’t be a good thing. 2004: “DAMN it’s cold in here, give me some ass!” 2003: No entry. 2002: No entry. 2001: Let’s just hope she wasn’t preparing him for the slaughter. 2000: No entry.]]>

new logo! This one was created by the lovely and talented Chrystal, ain’t it great? Thanks, Chrystal! Those of you who have sent me logos, don’t worry – I still love ’em, and they’re still in the queue; they’ll show up sooner or later!

* * * Today’s earworm: Let herself go on a singles cruise, To Vegas once, then to Honolulu. Let herself go to New York City: A week at the Spa; came back knocked-out pretty. When he said he didn’t love her no more, She let herself go. (She Let Herself Go, by George Strait.) * * * I discovered yesterday that there’s a Super Suppers in Huntsville, and I spent a good ten minutes looking over the site and drooling. And then when I was cooking dinner (how awesome am I, cooking dinner I can’t eat? Luckily it’s something I’m not all that crazy about.) Fred came downstairs to put green beans and almonds in the microwave, and I said “Do you know what Super Suppers is?” “No,” he said. “It’s this place where you go, and they have all the fixins ready to make dinner, and you make it and bring it home and freeze it and eat it when you want.” Silence. Silence. Silence. “And this makes you a sucker?” he suggested. “No,” I said, laughing. “Super SUPPERS.” “Oh! I thought you said Super Suckers.” I totally need to get a job, so I can afford to (1) Hire cleaners, because GOD IN HEAVEN do I hate cleaning house and I don’t do it nearly often enough and (2) Visit Super Suppers once a month or so because GOD IN HEAVEN do I hate cooking, and I’ve had most of the last month off from cooking for Fred and the spud, but still? Hate it. HATE. I might have had the weight loss surgery, but it doesn’t deter me from going for the world title in laziness. I might have been beaten out by a tenth of a point last year (STUPID judges, “leech” does not equal “lazy”, there’s no WAY Kevin Federline deserved that title!), but this year I WILL PREVAIL. Anyway. It’s funny that I talk of how much I hate cleaning, because yesterday I spent about two hours cleaning, between scrubbing down the bathroom (which I JUST cleaned last Sunday! Did you feel the earth stop turning on its axis?) (PS: Those Mr. Clean Eraser sponges ROCK; I don’t know the last time the shower was that clean.), vacuuming the entire house, and doing laundry. The bad part about the cleaning was that I got a little too close to the cleaner fumes when I was in the shower, and I coughed so hard I shot a lung across the bathroom, where Sugarbutt grabbed it up and took off with it. I don’t know where it is now; either he ate it, or it’s sitting under a bed, covered with cat hair and dust. Good thing I have two of ’em! Still so much cleaning left to do, though. I haven’t mopped my downstairs floors since the day before I had surgery, and they’re in desperate need of cleaning. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow after I have my hairs did. Speaking of Fred misunderstanding me, I called him on Friday after I started reading The Working Poor, specifically the chapter on how people get screwed over by H & R Bl0ck. “Did you talk to the accountant about the fact that we shut down Thr3e T0es Pub1ishing, Inc?” I asked him. “I sent her an email. Why?” “Because I’m reading this book and the chapter’s about how people get screwed over by H & R Bl0ck, and it reminded me of taxes.” “Is it a good book?” he asked. “So far it is,” I said. “But it makes me feel like a bloated rich person.” (Not working makes me feel guilty when I read about how hard some people struggle just to make ends meet. But then, if I got a job I’d be taking it away from someone who needs it, right? Um… right? And it’s not like I’m wasting my ivy league education or anything. These are the justifications I give to convince myself I shouldn’t feel guilty. Doesn’t work, though.) Fred started laughing. “Did you – what did you say? Because what I heard sounded awfully funny!” “That I feel like a bloated rich person*?” “Oh,” he said, still laughing. “I thought you said ‘bloated French person’.” Either he needs a hearing aid or I need to be more careful about enunciating what I’m saying. *We are not rich people. We are not poor people. We are middle class-ish. If we were rich people, I’d HAVE cleaning people and a cook and would be driving a yellow mustang. (Not that I don’t love my E’gar. He’s a good little car!) I have no cat pictures for you today, so I thought I’d post some pictures of Sugarbutt and Tommy so we can marvel that they were ever that tiny. * * * Previously 2005: Tony: Yeah, sure. Jack: Okay, fine. 2004: This is my new boyfriend. I call him Jimmy. 2003: No entry. 2002: No entry. 2001: “If you get a package that’s too big for your box,” he said carefully, “we. will. put. a. yellow. slip. in. your. box. You. should. bring. it. up. to. the. counter. and. we. will. get. the. package. for. you.” 2000: No entry.]]>