Yay! Blog! v1.0
Category: What's Going On?

My queendom for a Vicodin or any other prescription drug that will take away this godawful pain in my head. It's time for my annual holiday sniffle fest and sinus headache. Blah. I have 1/2 mg of Xanax. I wonder if that would help. I hope I feel better tomorrow.

Oh good lord... I just turned on the TV to get ready for the Holiday bowl and there's 1 minute left in the final quarter. I thought it started at 7:00 p.m.

Oh wait... it's ESPN classic. I hate that channel. It's kinda fun to see Major Applewhite again, though.

Will someone come take care of LilyDawg and all her evening demands while I lay on the couch and watch the Holiday bowl and recuperate from my woeful illness? Please.

I just got back from shopping. The purpose of the trip was to buy a fan at Walmart, but I also wanted to see where the adventure would lead.

First I found myself at Chik-Fil-A. There was a man with a very tall ladder right in front of the drive thru speaker, so I had to go inside. No big deal, really... just sayin'. I broke my good "no caffiene" habit, though. I can't go to Chik-Fil-A without getting a big cup of unsweet tea. Yummy!!

Then to Walmart where they didn't have a fan. They had ceiling fans, but no portable fans. Boo Hoo. They had plenty of space heaters and one even had a cool fan setting, but I'm kinda scared of space heaters because I accidently melted a trash can with a space heater once.

So with Walmart being a bust, I decided I needed to do some good feeling shopping. Next I found myself at Borders Books and Music. There was a guy in a wheelchair who had a fluffy dog. I asked if I could pet the dog, and the man said "Absolutely!" Awww... cool fluffy dog.

I looked around Borders, but I just couldn't get excited about anything. I almost bought Book 10 in Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series, but then I remembered how long the checkout line was last year and decided I could just as easily get it at Amazon. Plus I couldn't remember if it was on my Amazon Wishlist, so I was afraid I'd buy it and then get it as a Christmas present.

Then I headed for Bath and Body Works. I found a couple new (to me) scents... Mango Mandarin and Lime Coconut Verbeena. Yummy to both! I didn't buy anything, though.

Unsatisfied by my shopping thus far, I decided to go to the grocery store and buy stuff to make treats. I miss my Mom's Christmas treats. She used to make Fantasy Fudge (at least one batch with no nuts for me), Peanut Butter Bars with Chocolate on top, and Chocolate Tarts which were like tiny fudge pies. She would put a giant pecan piece on top of each Chocolate Tart so I could pick it off easily.

I ended up buying stuff to make fudge and stuff to make Magic Cookie Bars. It's odd that I like Magic Cookie Bars because they have walnuts and coconut in them, but I do. My friend Kelley made them before. The only thing I did wrong, though, is I forgot to buy butterscotch chips. Boo Hoo. I'll either make them with all chocolate chips or wait to make them until I go to the store again and get butterscotch chips.

Anyway... I still don't have a fan. I've been sleeping okay without one, so I guess I won't bother until it gets to be warm again and the stores put fans out for sale. Funny thing... one of the checkers at Walmart had a fan blowing at his station.

It's been a while since we talked, eh? I mean... I've been posting memes and search strings and links to things I've found interesting, but I really haven't talked about what's going on. Probably because there's so much going on.

Today I went shopping. Woo-Hoo! I thought it would be a nightmare, but it was fine. I only went to stores that I could get to by a secret back way.

First, though, I went to Starbucks. Very disappointing! I so count on Starbucks' consistency of quality. But they didn't have any individual Cranberry Bliss Bars, so I had to settle for a not so great looking Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffin. It tasted okay, but I also had to settle for a nasty tasting iced mocha. They put too much chocolate in it and the coffee tasted burnt. Yes... there is such a thing as too much chocolate.

Next, I went to my favorite little clothes store and bought a bunch of new clothes. I hadn't been in a while, so they sent me a boatload of coupons in the mail. Now I need to do a 27 Fling Boogie in my closet to make room for the new stuff!

I also got some Christmas shopping done. Yay! Bed, Bath and Beyond (B³) wasn't really very crowded. Kohl's wasn't very crowded, either. Did everyone finish early or is everyone waiting until Wednesday? Or maybe they were all at Walmart? That's the one place I need to go that I'm avoiding like a hungry rabid coyote. I need to buy a little fan and that's the only place I can think of that would have one. I was hoping B³ would have one, but no.

If you're wondering about where all the new music is... I'll be recording a tune this weekend. I'm not sure if it's a secret, so I won't say what tune and with who. But when it's done, I'll let everyone know.

If you're wondering about why I don't update my picture blog... I just got burnt out. I like taking pictures, but processing them makes me tired. I'll get back to it one of these days, but probably not as a daily thing.

I hope everyone is relaxed and happy and ready for the upcoming holidays. I know I am!

I am back from a weekend road trip with an iPod in hand! Christmas came early this year!

Uh oh... hard drive failure on my PC. I'm desperately trying to copy stuff over from the PC to the laptop, but it's touch and go. Boo Hoo. My biggest problem is that I can't focus enough to figure out what I really need to copy over. You know... priorities! Well... I better get back to it. Say a 'puter-prayer for my hard drive to stick it out long enough for me to copy stuff over.

4:00 a.m. I can't sleep. Work stress. Blah.

I just took Lily out in the backyard and was amazed at the sky. The clouds that made things gloomy around here for days finally dissipated. The stars are so bright tonight! I saw Orion. It always takes my breath away. I saw Cassiopeia. And Sirius was almost blinding. The moon is bright, too. It was casting shadows on my lawn. So I turned on the computer to look at the Star Map.

I'm yawning so much it hurts, but anticipated conversations keep running through my head. I just wanna sleep. Back to bed to try again....

I heard on the radio why there's no Starbucks at the Austin airport. The city council has said no to Starbucks because they want to keep the airport "Austin-y." They would rather see a local business have a coffee shop there. That's okay with me. There are no less than 5 Starbucks I pass on the way home from work (that's about 1 every 2 miles!). Now that I know there's no Starbucks at the airport, I'll just stop at one on the way. Yeah right... like I go to the airport often!

Anyway... the deejays were saying they're not sure any of the local coffee shops could afford to have a shop in the airport. Wouldn't that be a kicker... Austin City Council saves room for local business at the airport and the rent puts them out of business!

The re-org at work was painless. At least for me. Two people I used to work with and a guy from another division were merged into my section. The same three people who will be doing the bulk of the work with me on the two major projects I'm managing. So it's a good thing.

One lady is being forced to use a PC after using a MAC all her career, though. She's not very happy about it.

This afternoon, I got a lot done on the java application I'm working on. Usually, I have a lot of interruptions and can't concentrate and get frustrated. But today things were pretty calm. I love it when that happens.

There's a lot of stuff going on at work. Tomorrow is a division meeting where a probable reorg will be announced. From rumors I've heard, I think the reorg will be a good thing. Something else is happening that could mean a promotion for me at some point, but there's a project I have to finish first. I won't finish until probably next Spring. And I'm not sure I want the promotion, but I'm not ruling it out. There's something else happening that I can't even hint about right now that's stressing me out a little bit, too.

Then at home, I have tons of projects I need/want to work on:

I have 3 more photo galleries to build from my Arizona trip.

I want to totally rebuild the Strange Sandwich Music site.

I also want to change the home page of my website. It has a spot for new songs I recorded, but I haven't recorded any since February, so it's making that page pretty stale. Maybe I'll replace it with daily random songs.

I've got lots of photos I want to use to make more free wallpaper.

I'd like to make a halloween themed stylesheet and banner for my website. (I just thought of that one this second!)

I need to clean up and rearrange my back bedroom to make room for a new bed. Then I need to get rid of that durn futon I sleep on.

Of course, instead of doing any of that stuff, I just watched some TV, surfed some blogs, checked out some Connect 8 projects, and made a new Kim's Place banner with Lily Dawg's newest picture.

There's lots more stuff, too. But right now, I'm going to bed. Maybe I'll have a freaky dream to write about tomorrow. That's always fun!

I got behind on my scheduled meme blogging, so I'm catching up today. I also posted tomorrow's Sonnet today because I might not get to it tomorrow. I see a zoo in my future. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Sorry I'm so silent. I'm real busy with work. It's a roller coaster ride...

Things are getting interesting and stressful at work. I've been in a bit of a depression since I got back from my trip, but for the last couple of days, my adrenaline has been too high to allow those kinds of feelings. Or maybe it's all the chocolate and sugar I've been eating. hehe

Anyway... I've been assigned as a project manager to make an extranet so. I haven't been given a server or anything. I guess as project manager, I have to figure out how to get one. Beg another division to use theirs or beg budget to let us buy one. And all the software to go with it. All I have to do for now, though, is make a plan.

Then there's the whole reorganization thing. Reorg doesn't bother me so much except for the part about not knowing who the manager will be. I think the group would be pretty much self-sufficient without a manager, but we need someone to do the administrative stuff. That way we can concentrate on the technical stuff. It's just that when someone is assigned to do the administrative stuff, there's a risk they will get all bossy. That just sucks.

Anyone out there have experience setting up an extranet?

Late Sunday night once again, and I wonder where the weekend went. I had a nice one, though. I went to The Cheesecake Factory on Saturday. Woo-Hoo! I got the Chicken Madeira and a slice of Chocolate Tuxedo Cream Cheesecake. It was all delicious.

When I went back to the car, people were getting in the white SUV parked next to me. The lady got in the passenger side, but before she did, she checked to see if there were any door dings. I'm glad I'm not that anal. Not that I'm not anal about other things.

I watched a lot of football. I only got to see one of my 4 favorite teams play, but that was a great game. The Texans beat the Dolphins!! Yay!! The Longhorns didn't play. And the Arizona teams (Sun Devils and Cardinals) weren't on TV here. I also wanted to see Jake Plummer and the Broncos, but it wasn't on TV here. I heard a sports guy say that the Broncos won "despite Jake Plummer." Phooey on that sports guy.

I went to Threadgill's for lunch today, and I got pot roast. It was tasty.

I processed 60 pictures from the day I drove on the Apache Trail. I haven't built a web gallery for them yet. Maybe tomorrow night if I feel up to it. I still have about 250 more pictures to process. By "process," I mean crop and do color and brightness correction and stuff.

It's real nice to relive the trip through the pictures. I've been in a post-vacation depression since I got back. I think it's more than a regular old post vacation depression, though. I'm starting to worry about the future and money and retirement. You know... the serious stuff. Blah.

I hope you all had a great weekend. And I hope the next weekend comes around quicker than you can say "Yay!"

Here I sit in "Outlook - Beyond Mail" class. It hasn't started yet. I love these kinds of classes because there's a good chance I'll learn at least one thing I can use. Unlike other classes where I don't learn anything useful (like "Who Moved My Cheese?" or "The Secrets of Shared Leadership")

The chairs in our classrooms are awful. I wonder if they paid a lot of money for them. They have no back support. If you lean back a little, you really lean back. That's okay, I guess, if you just want to sleep, but they generally frown upon us sleeping in class.

No one has sat in the chair next to me yet. I'm hoping it will be someone real quiet, so I don't have to talk.

There's a message from the instructor on a monitor in between my computer and my neighbor-to-be's computer. It says, "Put cell phones and pagers on stun Feel free to use Web Email." That must be an old message because we're not supposed to use Web Email. They blocked it because of all those mean people who are spreading worms and such.

This is my last day of work until next Tuesday. It's really cool that I get to spend the afternoon in a training class that I like. It's almost like I'm already on vacation.

I better go ahead and pay attention now. Later Gators...

It's been a great weekend. I reached my first weight goal, which was to lose 17 pounds. I actually lost 18. Woo-Hoo! So I went off my diet.

Actually... I've been wanting to go to a Chinese and more buffet that they opened near my house this year, so I tried it out. Awesome! I don't generally like Chinese buffet, but this was better quality food than I've had at other buffets. It had sushi, too! I love the salmon. My favorite thing was the tempuri fried veggies, though. I could eat a billion onion rings.

Today, I went to Threadgills to hear some R&B music from the Gospellaires and eat great food. I tried their all-you-can-eat brunch. I had migas, garlic cheese grits, bacon, biscuits, hash browns and pancakes. Yummy!

I'm back on my diet now, but only for a couple of days. You'll find out why later in the week.

Today, I found out that some anonymous person in the world is annoyed with me because I don't like subtitles in movies. Apparently, I'm a typical american and idiot all rolled into one. So judgmental some folks are, I tell ya.

I got some home improvement things:

• new mini-blinds to replace the ones that my Lily monster tore up.
• new lamp shades to replace the gross ones I've had for the last 17 years.
• a new table thing to put in the entryway to hold Lily's leash and some umbrellas

I've got a little headache this evening. I think it's from going off my diet. I hope a nice juicy steak cooked in some butter and worcestershire sauce will make me feel better.

How was your weekend?

Since I started my diet, I've been changing some of my routines. I used to go to Starbucks for breakfast. But now I cook 4 slices of bacon before I leave for work and take it with me. When I get to work, I go to a cafeteria across the street to buy some scrambled eggs. Then I eat at my desk while my computer is booting up.

I also take cans of Diet Rite Cola to work with me because they don't sell it in any of the machines there. I've been drinking one can a day. It's great stuff! Nutrasweet makes me feel ill, and Diet Rite is the only soda I know of that has Splenda in it. Yum. Anyway... it tastes great in a cup with crushed ice. They have the BEST crushed ice in the cafeteria downstairs, and they've always sold a cup of it for 11 cents. That's been the highlight of my afternoon... crushed ice and Diet Rite Cola.

On Monday, the eggs are going up in price by 15 cents. I'm not too bothered by it. It's just weird because that's the *only* thing that's increasing in price at that cafeteria. And now at the ice cafeteria, the guy has decided to sell a cup of ice for $1.00! That one bothers me! I think it's because he runs out of ice and then he can't sell sodas. I can go across the street for ice, but it's not the wonderful crushed ice! What a bummer.

I guess if I got desperate, I could buy a cup of ice for $1.00. After all, I buy bottles of water for $1.00 all the time.

There's a yucky transient odor in my kitchen. It's mocking me. I walk in and sometimes I smell it. Then I try to find it, but I can't smell it anymore. Sometimes I'm standing at the counter trimming the fat off some meat, and that smell hits me again. Then I try to follow my nose to the odor, and it's just not there. I've sniffed every darn thing in that kitchen. I've gotten down on the floor and sniffed around the baseboards. I've stuck my head in the sink, and sniffed the drain. I even stood on a ladder to sniff the air conditioner vent! Everything smells rosey. Grrrrr... durn phantom kitchen odor.

The weekend is over. How quickly they pass. *sigh*

I didn't do anything this weekend except get stuff done around the house and entertain myself with TV and a book. I did laundry, cooked, cleaned baseboards, grocery shopped, etc. I watched three movies and read more of "The Talisman," too. Now it's time to get ready for sleepy town.

Oh.... I bought some butter lettuce today. I'd never had it before, but I love it. I usually go for Romaine or Iceburg. Butter lettuce is definitely my favorite now.

What the heck? It's cold outside. In Texas. In August. Did hell finally freeze over?

I wouldn't have thought it on Saturday morning when I practically had a high strung nervous breakdown, but this weekend turned out great. Here's a bullet list:

• I got all the data files backed up from my PC to my laptop through my network.
• I reformatted my PC and restored it to "brand new." It's working great.
• I got my cable modem fixed (I think... so far, so good).
• I got my laptop connecting to the internet through the network again.
• I had a great lunch at Threadgills.
• I bought a suitcase and shopped for shorts.
• I lost two more pounds.
• I got to see The Last Castle.

Today at lunch, I went to a cafeteria across the street. I decided to go on a meat fast because I'm stuck on a plateau on my diet. Meat fast sounds like you wouldn't eat meat, but it's just the opposite... I'm only going to eat meat. So the plan at lunch was to get a baked chicken breast and a plain hamburger (and throw away the bun). I ordered the chicken breast and wouldn't you know it... the lady in front of me got the last one. I've never liked dark meat chicken, but I didn't want two hamburger patties, so I went for a leg/thigh combination. Much to my surprise, it was better than any breast I'd ever had from over there. Wow! Greasy goodness! (I love this low carb dieting - hehe).

I called TiVo to make arrangements for an exchange, and they gave me an option to ship me a new TiVo and keep mine until I get that one. I had to let them charge my credit card for the new TiVo, but when they get the old one, they will reverse the charge. So I don't have to go without TiVo! Yay! I will still probably lose a lot of the movies I recorded, though. I'll watch some this week... as long as the remote receiver doesn't go completely out, I can suffer through punching buttons a ton of times until I get the new one.

Gak! I solved one little problem at work and discovered several more. It's frustrating being a java programmer when there's no one readily available who knows how to be a server administrator. Boo Hoo.

Unfortunately, I was so focused on work that I didn't have time to use my breaks and lunch to read other blogs or reply to comments or write in my blog . Maybe later tonight. Right now I'm making mock potato casserole. That's a casserole made with cauliflower that tastes like it's made with potatoes. So they say... I'll find out when it's done!

Woo-Hoo! Except for a little bit of tweaking, I'm done with the 26 Things project. I used the Dreamweaver/Fireworks photo album feature to build the skeleton. Now I'm customizing the pages, so they have the same look as the rest of my site.

I'll have it ready by August 1st!

Damn... It's already 9:00 p.m. Sunday night. Where did the weekend go?!!!?!!?

Oklee Doklee... My headache is gone! It was gone by the time I got up this morning. I had a little tummy ache midday and figured out I couldn't take my Lemon-Lime Alka Seltzer because it has too much citric acid and that would counteract the low carb diet. Boo Hoo. I love drinking that stuff because it's good for my tummy, has aspirin, and makes me burp! But I took some pepto instead and felt better immediately.

The repair man looked at my a/c today and said he couldn't find anything wrong. He showed me how to clean the coil with a water hose. He thought maybe it was so dirty that it was causing the unit to not work as well. It's been cooler in here today, but the a/c has been running constantly. The repair guy also said there's barely any insulation in the attic. So I told my landlord that. Maybe he'll put some more in. That would be awesome, because I'm sure it would save money on my electric bill year round.

Have you ever had pork rinds with cream cheese? I had some today. Yummy! I'm glad I like it because it's the only crunchy snack I can have. I miss fritos scoops!

I stayed home from work today. Ugh. I started a lo carb diet Wednesday afternoon, and yesterday I got a headache that got worse throughout the day. It kept me up most of the night. And I *still* have it! Gak! I've read that some people get headaches the first 2-3 days on a lo carb diet. But I get headaches just like this every so often anyway, so I don't know if it's the diet or just regular old me.

Anyway... the diet is okay. Some things are disappointing, but it's not as restrictive as a low fat diet. This morning, I had 3 scrambled eggs with green peppers and cheese and 2 sausage patties. Tonight, I'm going to have LoCarb Chili with ground beef, hot dogs, mushrooms, green peppers, salsa, chili powder and garlic. I'm not sure why it has hot dogs. Maybe to take the place of the beans. Oh... I get to put shredded cheese on it, too.

I'm not supposed to have any caffiene for 2 weeks. That's probably what's causing the headache... withdrawal. But after that, I can have a little. I can't wait to be able to drink real coffee again.

I just wish this stoopid headache would go away.

Here's an addendum to my previous post whining about vacations....

I went to lunch with my friend John. I always like to whine to him because he gives me the best advice. His advice....

JUST DO IT AND DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE MONEY!!!

Woo-Hoo!!! I need to figure out where to go, but I think I'll make the dog boarding reservations tonight.

I've been thinking a lot about vacations. I keep hearing people asking other people what they are doing for vacation this year... as if it's a given that everyone takes a vacation every year. In fact, a guy is in the next cubicle aisle right now asking each person, "Have you taken your vacation yet? Where are you going?" Thank goodness I don't know that guy because I think if he asked me, I'd just break down and cry or something.

Don't get me wrong... I could take a vacation. But everytime someone brings it up, I feel a little more upset. The more I think about it, I think I have some kind of block that keeps me from planning one even though I'd love to go somewhere. It's a personal problem, plain and simple.

I think back on all the trips I've taken and realize that I've never paid for an entire trip on my own. And each one has presented itself to me either in the way of someone else suggesting it/inviting me or because I had free plane tickets and hotel stays burning holes in my pockets. Use them or lose them, ya know?

Here's a summary of my vacations:

Trips that my parents (or other family) paid for:

• visit relatives in Oklahoma
• visit relatives in Oregon
• Texas Tour (tour bus trip around Texas with other junior high kids)

Trips paid for by church or school fund-raising:

• San Antonio
• New Braunfels
• Colorado
• New Orleans, Ft. Walton beach, Orlando

Trips I barely paid anything for:

• Jacksonville, Daytona - spring break.. me and my friend drove, and we stayed at my friend's brother's apartment
• New Orleans and Natchez, MS - my friend's mother drove, and I think I paid for my hotel
• Carlsbad and White Sands, NM - I was already in El Paso for my job, so I only had to pay for gas to get from El Paso to New Mexico and back

Trips I used free airline tickets and hotel rooms that I earned from frequent traveling on my job:

• San Diego/LA
• Seattle, Vancouver, Portland
• Ohio and Niagara Falls

See? I've never had to pay for much on any of the trips I've taken, and each one presented itself to me in some way. The Akron, Niagara Falls trip was the last one I took in 1997. I haven't been on a trip since then.

Now... I don't want you to think I *expect* other people to pay for my vacations. What I'm saying is that since I've never had to pay for my own, I'm having a real hard time initiating one on my own.

So... if I want to take a vacation, I guess I've gotta suck it up and take it in the pocketbook. Plane fare, hotel, rental car, dog boarding (my parents used to keep my dog, but they're gone now). Ugh. I'd have to dip into my savings. I need that money for other things. Blah. It's depressing.

How the heck do you people afford to take vacations every year?

It's time for 26 Things! An international photography scavenger hunt. Woo-Hoo!!

I wanna write stuff in my blog besides movie things and memes, but there just isn't much going on that's interesting. All I've been doing is decluttering/cleaning house and watching movies.

I had a dream last night, but it's one that's better left unwritten. Something about getting kicked off a project I was working on at work. Not a real project I'm working on at real work, but a made up project I was working on at real work. My Dad was in the dream, too. He wasn't like my real Dad so much, but he was my Dad nevertheless. He had some plates with western theme pictures on them.

When I went through a box I brought back from my storage room this weekend, I found a cool musical wall hanging that my Mom used to keep on her pantry door. So I put it on my pantry door. I'll take a picture of it later.

I also found a folder stuffed with scantron answer sheets to exams I took in college. I tossed those... what the heck was I keeping them for in the first place!

For lunch today, I had meatloaf, skillet fried potatoes and rice with tomato sauce. I also had a Cherry Limeade IBC Soft Drink. Yum!

Monday Morning:

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
HAHAHAHA
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
LOL
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
HAHAHAHA
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
SNORT
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

(*_*)...oooOOO(Man... I wish they would shut up)

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
HAHAHAHAHA
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
etc.

I saw two things this weekend that go under the "you don't see that everyday" category...

1. a shooting star. I forgot to make a wish until later, but I made a wish anyway.
2. a boy pull his pants down and pee right in the middle of someone's front yard. He kept his underwear up, though. It didn't seem like he was being mean. It just seemed like he had to go.

My new hair stylist is awesome! One of the reasons I hadn't gotten my hair cut in a long time is because it's hard for me to find a stylist that will listen to what I want. I have naturally wavy hair, and for some reason, stylists always want to kill the wave. The last one I went to blow dried the hell out of it and then used a flattening iron to make it straight! Ugh!

I told this guy that I wanted to start letting my hair dry naturally every day. So he cut it in a way that it would work! Yay!

I have a picture of my new hair up on my webcam page right now, if you want to see it.

The other reason I love my new hair stylist is because he watched Vertigo recently and while were talking about it, he exclaimed, "Those eyebrows!" I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thinks Kim Novak's eyebrows in that movie are ridiculously huge!

I memorized the longest ingredient in my shampoo one time. It's methylchloroisothiazolinone. Really... I just typed that from memory. I think it's in shampoo. It might be in conditioner. I wonder if I spelled it right. I'm just obsessive enough to go check...

I went to Denny's for lunch today. "YMCA" came on the jukebox and the wait staff all went behind the counter and did the YMCA dance. It was completely unexpected and great fun. I got the Super Bird with fries. Yummy!

I finished my May Day Project.

I sure could use a shoulder and neck massage. Really. I think it would solve all my woes. Yup. It sure would.

I saw this at BrykMantra:

The May Day Project - on Saturday, May 10, people will be taking a picture every hour, so we can see what a day in their life is like. Maybe I'll do it, too. Not that it will be earth-shattering or anything.

I guess it's just an expected and undesirable effect of getting older, but I almost always have some ache or pain. It's usually my head that's achey. Especially this time of year when my allergies are acting up. My sinuses get all stuffy and my head is either on the verge of a headache or in real pain. I also get headaches from working at the computer most of my waking hours.

Sometimes the aches and pains are in my neck or shoulders or hips or knees. There's one spot on my neck that gets aggravated every so often, and it hurts to turn my head very far. It feels like if I just popped my neck a certain way, maybe it would go away. So I end up twisting and turning to try to pop my neck, but it never works the way I think it should. Hmmm... maybe I need to see a chiropractor.

Anyway... the point of this is that on Tuesday I went home from work a little early. I was really tired, so I laid down on my bed for a rest. Not long after I laid down, all the aches and pains went away. I wasn't asleep. I was on the verge, but still completely aware of what I was doing. Not only were the aches and pains gone, but I actually felt *good*. I felt peace.

Before I fell asleep, the doorbell rang. I wasn't irritated because I knew it was the UPS man coming to deliver the hardware for my new wireless network. Woo-Hoo!! But as soon as I got up, all the achiness came back.

I signed for my package, opened it, started reading the installation instructions, and decided it was too much to do in an evening, so I laid back down. Just a minute later, I was back to feeling good and at peace again. This time I slept until just before "American Idol" came on. I guess my internal clock was set to wake up then.

The thing that's strange about all this is that I don't feel that way when I go to bed for the night. I wish I did. I wonder what it is that made me feel so good laying down at 5:30 p.m.? I hope I can figure it out. I want to feel good like that more often.

It's been a great, productive weekend! I got most everything done on this weekend's to do list. As I said in my To Do List post, I was dreading this weekend because I had more to do than I had time. Mainly because I thought burning and putting the CD Swap CDs would take most of the day Saturday. But I got the artwork done Friday night, and started burning CDs before I went to bed. I woke up a couple of times during the night and took advantage of that to start the next CD burning. Rock!

I actually did more than was on my to do list, and that's what's making me feel so good about the weekend. I was cruising around Jimrie's Place and noticed a link to FlyLady. She had referred me to that program last year, but I was having so much difficulty with my new dog at the time that I couldn't deal with anymore lifestyle changes. I'm ready now, though. So I joined! Now I have a shiny sink, and I'm baby-stepping my way through getting my house uncluttered. FlyLady even motivated me to do my treadmill walking earlier in the day than I'd planned. It's a cool motivational program!

So now I'm going to bed. Goodnight, blog readers.

The bluebonnet is Texas' state flower, and it's my favorite of all the wildflowers (we've got a lot here!!). I took a picture of one last week for my picture blog, so I'm entering it in Big Kev's 2003 Texas Bluebonnet Challenge. The one I sent Kevin is bigger than the one I posted in my picture blog. If you'd like to see both, please visit the contest entry [no longer available] and the one I posted in my picture blog. Yay!

I heard something stoopid on the radio on Friday. The dj was saying that we started observing daylight savings time so that farmers would have more daylight to do whatever farmers do. Ummm... there isn't anymore daylight, folks. All that's happened is that it's harder to go to bed on time because it's light so late, and it's harder to get up in the morning because it's still dark. I didn't think farmers looked at clocks anyway. Don't they have roosters and sundials or something?

'kay... I didn't do well with my to do list this weekend.

• unclutter my desk I can't really unclutter it until I get more things done... like my taxes. And mailing my CPA form. If I move them off my desk, I'll forget about them.
• record a SoloSounds vocal YES!
• fill out my CPA renewal application and mail the payment
• do my taxes
• start *and finish* the laundry
• clean the kitchen
• go to the grocery YES!

Next weekend, I'll definitely do my taxes. Or maybe one night this week. Dang... it's already 10:00 p.m. Stoopid farmers.

I just won the elevator lottery. I was waiting for the elevator so I could go upstairs to my desk. The first one to open was one of the small ones. About 10 people started crowding on there, so I decided to wait for the next one. The next one was the big roomy freight elevator. I got on it by myself and it took me right to my floor with no stops in between. Woo-Hoo!

Sometimes waiting for the next elevator backfires, though. I can't tell you how many times I've ended up riding with someone I'd just as soon not ride with just because I waited for the next elevator.

My house smells kinda funky right now. Kinda like when you get something from a drive through and eat it in the car. But you don't eat all of it. Like maybe you leave some french fries and a couple bites of the burger or whatever because you got full. And you crumble it up in the bag. But when you get where you're going, you forget to take it out of your car. So it sits in there in the heat ('cos it's summer) for a few hours. Then when you get back to your car it smells like stale leftover fast food. That's kinda how my house smells right now. Not that I've ever done that "stale leftover fast food in the car" thing.

I know the weather we're having is nothing to most of you, but we rarely get ice and snow in Austin. That's why I live here. I hate it. I'm thinking I might need to go move in with Peppermint Tina in Hawaii. ha! Anyway... just so you can see what little bit of icy weather can shut down our city (and so I can document it and remember it with disdain) here are some pictures:

Wow... it was sleeting on the drive home from work and there was snow on the rooftops.

I got the hiccups about midnight last night. There's never one hiccup remedy that works every time. And sometimes no remedy works. But last night drinking a glass of water while I held my left ear closed worked. It was immediate relief. Thank goodness because I was tired. Hiccups today aren't like hiccups when I was a kid. Hiccups only made it hard to talk when I was a kid. And it was kinda funny. But now that I'm older, hiccups wear me out. Durn hiccups.

I haven't seen a movie in a year. The last one I saw was The Fellowship of the Ring. Ever since I was off work for two weeks at Christmas, I've wanted to see The Two Towers. But dang... it's a 3 hour movie plus time for commercials and previews. I don't like to leave my puppy dog home alone that long. I think she would be fine, but I would be at the movie worrying that she was panicking and tearing up the house and possibly hurting herself. So today at work, I got the bright idea... I'll take off work and go tomorrow afternoon! Lily will be at doggie play day, so I won't have to worry about her. Woo-Hoo!! I can't wait!

I rarely give money to beggars on the street. When I do, it's usually because they intimidate me when I'm walking by. That doesn't mean intimidation works all the time... just sometimes. I never give them money when they're on a street corner, and I'm driving by. But today there was a homeless-looking man playing a guitar and singing "American Pie." I had a baggie with some leftover quarters in it from when I went on my Christmas trip and needed quarters for the tolls. So I sealed up the baggie and as I drove by, I tossed it out the window toward him. From one musician to another. He yelled, "Thank you!"

I've been watching the stars a lot lately. I downloaded a star tracking program to see if I can start recognizing stars and planets and constellations. I'm doing pretty good. So far I can recognize Orion, Cassiopeia, Auriga and Bootes. I can recognize the star, Sirius, which is part of Canus Major, but I can't make out the whole constellation. The lights are probably too bright in the city and it's washing out the lighter stars. I've identified Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. I've always been able to recognize the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), but I'm still having trouble finding the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor). I think it's because it looks more like an oil can than a dipper. That and the stars aren't very bright in it. I identified Pleiades (a cluster of stars), but not the constellation it's part of (Taurus).

Anyway... it's real fun to look at the stars. Hopefully, I'll be able to recognize more constellations. Maybe I'll want a telescope at some point, but really... I'm happy enjoying them from afar right now.

I did a 10 second shoutout for 1Sound. It's more like a promo spot than a shoutout. If you wanna download and listen: 1Sound Shoutout.

It's 1.5 hours until midnight. My sink is leaking. I just discovered it. I put a pot under there. Stupid sink. I was looking forward to Frank Cotolo's New Year's radio show, but it ended at 9:00 p.m. I heard the whole thing, but I thought it was going 'til at least 11:00 (midnight where Frank is). It was a great show, but crap... the only thing I had planned for New Year's Eve ended 3 hours too early.

My New Year's resolution this year is to spend more time away from the computer. I'm going to stick to it, too. I'm sick of sitting at a computer from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed (except for the commute time in the car). That means I'm going to have to drop a lot of internet activity. I hope people will understand. I'll be blogging, but I won't be visiting everyone's blogs every day. And my email response time will get even longer. And I think my bulletin board reading and posting activities will be severely limited. The bulletin boards have been way depressing anyway. Too many jerks out there.

Hopefully it will help me do more music, though. That's been missing lately. More music is a good thing.

I'd like to start drinking fresh juice regularly again. That's not a resolution, just a want.

Today I went to Town Lake and took pictures. Town Lake is really the Colorado River with an identity crisis. I was going to take a picture of the coat of armor in front of the Saxon Pub, but it had Christmas lights wrapped around it. I'm sure it looks cool at night, but it looks tacky during the day. So no picture. Anyway... the pictures I took at Town Lake will start showing up in my picture blog soon. It felt good to get out and do something fun.

So this is probably my last post of 2002. I hope you all have a great New Year. Take care.

Something happened yesterday that's been bothering me. I went to an ATM to get some money. It's an ATM I use regularly. I pressed all the buttons and requested the money. Then I remember getting my card back. After that, the receipt popped out. When the receipt popped out, I silently cursed because I knew that meant the machine wasn't working (the receipt pops out last at this machine). But when I looked at the receipt, it said I got $100. I looked all over the machine for a slot with the money, but there was no money.

The walk-in bank was already closed, so I went to the drive-thru to find out what to do. This wasn't my bank, so the lady told me I needed to contact my bank. She said there was probably a problem with the machine, and that I need to check with my bank to make sure they credit my account back. I didn't understand that... it's their machine. I imagined that this would be one of those things where my bank says it's the other bank's fault and the other bank says they can't do anything about it. Grrrrr.

But here's the twist. Later, I found $100 in my wallet. I don't remember getting it out of the machine. I don't remember putting it in my wallet. I didn't remember it just a few seconds after I did it, and I was even 100% sure that it *didn't* happen. I'm sick about it.

Anything like that ever happen to you?

My weather pixie is telling me it's 39 degrees. I was just outside, and I don't doubt it. I don't like cold weather. I don't like it when it's in the 50's even.

I'm just learning how to dress in cold weather. My weather pixie is no help. Just look how she dresses!

I don't have a real heavy coat, but the one I have is okay if I have a warm long sleeved shirt on under it.

I just bought a couple of hats that cover my ears. That helps a lot. When my ears get cold, I get a severe headache.

I have some good gloves, too.

The only thing that's not covered that bothers me is my nose. I don't have a scarf. I've had them before, but I never really understood how to wear one. Are you supposed to wrap it around your head and cover up your mouth, too? That makes me feel so claustrophobic. I can't talk, and I can barely breathe. Plus... I never could keep the scarf up. It would always fall down. I guess I don't wrap it tight enough.

I dunno... how do you northerners keep your nose warm?

I've been sick, so I haven't felt like posting anything. Or maybe I just couldn't think of anything to post. I dunno. I'm sitting here with an Iced Venti Nonfat with Whip Mocha and a Cranberry Orange Scone from Starbucks. It's probably not the best food for a sick girl, but it makes me happy. Plus, I needed to take Lily for a drive so she'll stop associating going for a drive with being dropped off at doggy play day or going to the vet.

I need to work some more on putting a Christmas CD together for the holiday swap that Christy organized. I've got an hours worth of music right now. Some songs are duplicated, but they are performed by different artists, so I think that's okay. Then at 2:00 p.m. Texas time is jeez's WJEZ/SSM Radio Show and Chat. That's always fun. He's playing a whole load of Beatles cover tunes. Except for the Independent set. I should have recorded a quick Beatles cover for the show, but I didn't know the theme until yesterday, and I'm sick anyway. It would have sounded like croaky the frog.

One thing about getting up early to help Lily learn that going in the car isn't always a bad thing... I get more stuff done on the weekend.

I think I'm coming down with the creeping crud. My head is getting stuffy, and I'm coughing. Yuck. I'm not going to take anything for it, though. I usually do. As soon as my head starts getting stuffy, I usually take something for it. And it makes me feel worse. And then I'm sick for a week. So this time, I'll do an experiment. I'll wait and see if I get completely sick *before* I take anything for it. I have a feeling that those decongestants and anti-histamines make it worse. I am taking Ibuprofen, though.

Oh gosh... as I was walking back from lunch today, I saw my reflection in a glass door. I'm wearing high water pants! D'oh!

Thanks to Malariah commenting in my blog, I have (sort of) solved two mysteries over the last two weeks. The first was the mystery of the stinkhorn in my backyard. His comment that he'd seen them sprout up after it rained prompted me to look in the right places on the internet and figure out what it was.

The second mystery was the bright star that I've been seeing in the mornings. I'm still not 100% sure what it is, but I'm much closer. Close enough to just tell myself I know what it is and feel content. Anyway...

He mentioned that the Space Station looks like a really bright star, and that he has been tracking it at the NASA site. So I went over to the NASA site and found some of the coolest tracking thingamabobs! Like J-Track, J-Track 3D, and the most awesome one of all... J-Pass. At the J-Pass site, I put in my zip code, and it showed me where the planets and satellites and space stations were relative to me when I was out walking Lily this morning. It confirmed that the bright thing in the sky is probably Venus. Woo-Hoo! Another mystery solved. Thank Malariah!

I've never really been interested in astronomy. Wait... at one time, I started to get interested in it. It's cool that the stars are grouped together in formations. But I think that's what made me quickly lose interest. I thought when I looked up at the stars, I would actually see an archer or a lion or a dog. But I never could make out the figures. The only formation I've ever been able to see is the big dipper. And I'm not really sure it *was* the big dipper. It kinda looked like a dipper.

Over the last week, though, I've noticed a very bright star in the morning sky as I walk Lily. The first time I saw it, I thought it was an airplane because it was over toward the airport. But it's been there every morning. It's been getting higher in the sky, too. And as the sun comes up, all the other stars fade, but this one shines just as bright. So I've been wondering what it is.

It's in the east. I'm not sure if it's due east, but it's over that direction. I've looked at a website, and I think it might be Jupiter or Venus. Not a star at all, but a planet. That's real cool. For the first time, I'm super interested in what I'm seeing. I don't know how to find out for sure, though. I'll keep looking around the internet and maybe I'll find something.

And just to document a fun astronomy site I found, here's Bad Astronomy.

Except for Lily dog feeling kinda sick and depressed, this weekend was great. I got two things on my To Do list done. Of course, as usually happens, by the time I got them done, I had more things to add to the list.

I recorded a vocal for a collaboration with Frank Cotolo and Jimmy Stewart yesterday. And today I did full artwork for someone's CD. It's not all approved yet, but should be in a couple days. I finally finished the fourth Harry Potter book, and I got to see the first Harry Potter movie. I also went to the pet store and bought a case of canned dog food. I made it to the grocery store, too. And Lily was good while I was out of the house. I hope she does okay this week at day care. I stopped giving her the Xanax in the mornings, so she might get freaked out again. I'll do my best not to freak out myself, though. That only makes things worse.

I'm sad that the Longhorns lost. Okay... I'm not sad anymore. heh! I don't get down for long. I can't decide whether I want to cheer for Oklahoma or Texas Tech next week, though. Part of me wants to see a shake up in the Big 12. If Oklahoma hadn't lost to Texas A&M, I'd definitely go with the Sooners. But Tech would be fun to watch in the championship game. Ah shoot... I'm sure I'll root for the Sooners. It's in my blood.

Mystery solved! The nasty "thing" I found in my backyard is a fungus. It's a Mutinus elegans (or elegant stinkhorn). It's also called a Dog Stinkhorn. It's supposed to be real stinky! I didn't notice an odor, though. Maybe my nose was stuffy. I found out how it gets around, too... flies eat the goo and then poop out the spores. I told my friend Duane that, and he said, "What a lovely creation. One of god's finer moments." haha