The Little Things

Have you ever run a load of dishes that so silverware heavy that you wonder who's been using six forks at once? I just unloaded one of those. There was literally one dinner plate, 5 smaller plates, some other assorted things, and about 90% of the flatware.

It was while I was unloading the dishwasher that I noticed that Scott had loaded the little basket in the same order as we keep the silverware in the drawer - big spoons, then little spoons, then little forks, etc. For all I know, he's been doing this for the past almost seven years and I've never noticed. I knew he segregated the different pieces, but I never noticed the order.

And you know what? Having them in order makes it just a little easier to put them away.

It's the little things that remind me how much I love him.

Political Minute

I think I've made up my mind to not vote for Alan Grayson. As a Democrat, I'm sure our opinions align on most important issues. I'm sure that not voting for him could severely hurt what MY president can do in the next two years. And I really have some party-line guilt. But his mud-slinging ads with barely a toe hold in reality are the worst I can remember in local politics.

I don't want a man with a moral compass that points south-southeast representing me in the House of Representatives.

If you want my vote, tell me your position on the issues. Tell me how you're better than your opponent. But don't waste my time telling me why your opponent is worse than you or by twisting his words into balloon animals full of toxic gas.

Tropical Depression

It's raining.

It's been raining for the better part of the last four hours.

I drove home in a downpour.

And it's dark and gray.

There's a reason I live in Florida. Sure, it rains most days here, but it only rains for 1/2 hour! Days like today (and tomorrow I hear) just make me blue. Maybe blue-gray. And so, as Tropical Depression 16 dumps misery on us tomorrow, I'll be here wallowing in the weather.

Idea Drought

I'm looking for new and interesting ideas for my next vacation photo album. On our last big trip, I put together the A to Z album. But in the end, that was a monster PITA and I had to cheat on 3 or 4 letters. Oh, and I think I finished it about a year after we got home.

So this year I thought I'd try to come up with something equally as creative, but I can't seem to find anything I want to commit to.

Birds?

Food?

Tourist photo ops?

Who has a suggestion or request for me?

Hi

Aside from a visit from the cable guy and a trip to pick up my car, I didn't really do anything today. Everyone needs a lazy Sunday every now and then, right?

I hope everyone else had as relaxing a day as I did.

Who's Ready?

Who's ready to hear Jamie's embarrassingly stupid illness/injury story for September? (you can catch up on August's sunburn or July's self-imposed bronchitis if necessary)

On the way home from the grocery store, we stopped at the mailboxes and I hopped out to check the mail. I told Scott to drive home, that I needed a walk (damn that pedometer strapped to my hip!). So I picked up the mail and set off home.

Because the first house on our street hasn't been built yet (don't ask me - they built the second house first), the sidewalk doesn't go all the way home. Where the sidewalk ended, I walked down the little ramp to get to the street, slipped on some mud, and then I think I tripped on my own shoe.

What happened next was something of a slow-motion blur. I know for sure that when I tripped with my right foot, I fell onto my right knee, and then my left foot slid in the slippery mud about 8 feet to the side, away from my ass.

It was sort of like this, only replace the blue sky with mud, switch out a handful of mail for the pom in her left hand, and a palmful of pebbles and mud in the right hand. Oh, and erase the enthusiastic smile. An embarrassed smirk is much more appropriate.

Scott was mightily freaked out when I got home and he saw that my jeans were soaked from the knee down in the front of my right leg and in the back of my left leg.

The injuries are minor. I have road rash on the top of my right foot and a pretty wicked goose egg on my right knee. My left hamstring will likely hurt pretty badly in the morning, but I made Scott go out and walk with me when football was over, hoping a little stretch would relax the muscle and convince it to not freak out. I'm also a little concerned about my left ankle, but I don't think it really hurts that much more than normal.

I'll take a bruised knee any day over last month's sunburn. But allow me just a moment to whiiiine about it.

Thank you!

Wild Kingdom

The local sand hill cranes were out this evening after my post-grave-shift nap, standing at the corner of our building and warbling non-stop. It turns out they were yelling at the next door neighbor's cat, who was innocently sitting at his front door curled up avoiding the last of the afternoon rain.

That seemed like unnecessary bullying to me, so I went out to hang out with the cat for moral support. He came running over and I pet him for a few minutes, which enraged the cranes even more. WARBLE! WARBLE! WARBLEWARBLEWARBLEWARBLE!

I went back inside, and Scott asked what I did to make the cranes squawk even louder, and I told him. They were still out causing a ruckus, so I took my phone out, thinking I could get a good picture. (I couldn't.) Scott came outside after he saw the wing flapping war dance through the window, and proceeded to imitate the birds. It was awesome!

Eventually, the cranes moved on and the cat lost interest in my company, so we went inside. Peace has been restored... for now.

The Doldrums

I've got nothing interesting of my own today, so he's real newsman interviewing fake newsman. There's a video, which for some reason I couldn't embed here.

Also, if you need a good cry, check out this story.

That's it for now. I've got a big night of Thursday Night TV to emotionally prepare for, and a 4am start time tomorrow.

Bummer

I'm sad to say The Hoff was the first person voted off Dancing With the Stars.

Sure, his dance was terrible (and performed to a cringe-worthy "Sex Bomb," ick!).

Sure, his popularity in the US peaked in the 80's.

But dammit, America. You left Kate Gosselin on for more than one week! The rest of the season is going to be much less fun now.

I Don't Know About You...

...but I'M going on vacation. Yes, I'm taking Scott too.

Sorry Internet, but I'm not going to tell you when I'm leaving so you can break into my house and steal my cats!

I'll send you a postcard!

Not a Paid Endorsement

...just a statement of fact:

The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser will clean baked-on gum out of the inside of the clothes dryer.

You're welcome.

Short & Sweet...but Not Quite Sweet Enough

I had a lightning bolt shaped cookie cutter made for me by someone at work.

Weird, right?

Well, probably, but it works for me. See, we are in the midst of this huge new electrical safety program roll-out at work, requiring most of my guys to sit through an hour-long online class and a 2-3 hour actual class. So the cookie cutter was made for me so that I could make "congratulations on finishing" cookies.

The first of my six departments finished their training last week, so I planned to make cookies for them this weekend. I just gave up after 30ish cookies. I got into a good groove, but damn - there's a reason sugar cookies are Christmas/winter staples. It's hot work, and ambient temperature around 80 makes it nearly impossibly to work with the dough.

Oh, and a lightning bolt has a zillion angles, which make it even harder to cut them out and move them around. But I figured out a workaround and they're coming out well - but only 6-7 on one sheet. So it's a slow process. I'll finish them tomorrow night and bring them with me on Tuesday.

For now, I'll just sit and enjoy the cookie smell.

Vocal Exercises

Whether or not you enjoy (or even appreciate) opera, I don't think it's possible to watch this video without at least admiring the control and discipline it takes to sing a song like this... and to make it look like you're having so much fun while you do it.



Incidentally, I found this song while flipping through YouTube for another song that Elphie might like, since she has recently shown a tendency to absolutely lose herself in a specific song I found by accident. If I can remember how to use my camera to shoot video, I'll see if she'll let me record her listening to her favorite song tomorrow.

(nope, Cecilia Bartoli didn't do it for her at all)

How Much is Too Much?

Is $24 too much for a ticket to a community theater show?

What if the show in question is Noises Off?

All of a sudden, $24 doesn't sound like too much...especially since Scott and I are both huge fans of the movie. And really, $50 isn't that much more than we spend in an average week eating out. It'll just be a different kind of date night - an actual dating event.

Yeah, I think we'll go.

Joy Joy Joy Joy

Tonight is my first Candlelight rehearsal of the season. I'm looking forward to getting my voice back in shape...and hopefully this year I'll actually perform in a few shows! When are you coming to see me?

Just Do It*

Back in the dark ages when I was still working at The Restaurant, we had a college girl working in the office with us for the summer. She was 18 going on 12 (for real - petite AND young looking/sounding). She spent most of the summer coming in to work exhausted after staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning talking on the phone with her boyfriend in Hawaii.

She talked about him all the time, too. See, they had been dating since the beginning of fall semester and plans were in the works for him to get together with her family so he could ask her father's permission to marry her. (don't even get me started on that whole asking permission thing...) When her family came to visit, she and her mom went window shopping for wedding dresses. They even had their honeymoon all planned out.

Now I remember my boyfriend from my college freshman year. I remember the puppy love. I remember wanting to spend every single second together. And I distinctly remember not even once seriously consider marrying him. I asked her once why they were in such a hurry, and her answer shocked me:

Well, because we're Mormon, we can't have premarital sex. So Mormons marry pretty young... because they want to have sex.

I'll be honest: I understand and strongly respect the moral choice to "save yourself" until you find your one true love. But I disagree with any religion that is so strict with its young people that they feel the only way to act on their natural impulses is to hurriedly commit themselves for an entire lifetime just to get on with the "getting on."

Perhaps my young co-worker was especially immature (or horny). But her parents were active participants in the marriage plans, which I believe means they support her decision to marry young. At any rate, we all got an e-mail from her last week saying that they are engaged now and plan to marry next summer.

Congratulations, kid. But I really hope you spend the next 11 months really getting to know each other and asking the tough questions. Are your career goals in line? Where will you live? Will you have kids? Buy a house? Spend your spare money on vacations or save for retirement? Anticipating that one day with the white dress, the party (where you're still not old enough to toast with anything harder than sparkling apple cider), and then "90 seconds in Heaven" for that long will only, in my opinion, lead to a lifetime of disappointment.

But don't worry, no matter how disappointing your first time is - and it will be disappointing - the sex will definitely get better!

*I agree, it was the best post title ever!

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Scott and I were laying back-to-back this morning, with our heels touching. I was in my final snooze when all of a sudden, BLAM BLAM BLAM - he kicked me three times (in the bottom of my heel, with his heel). A whole list of things went through my mind, including most prominently, "did I oversleep?" I looked at the clock and saw 6:02 - one minute before my final snooze would go off - so I did the logical thing.

I kicked him back, as hard as I could.

He didn't even budge. That's when I realized he was fast asleep and I felt bad for kicking him back. When my alarm went off, I asked him if he knew he had kicked me. He said he dreamed he was kicking someone.

I'm glad we were laying the way we were. I imagine that would've actually hurt if he'd kicked me in the shin instead!

Monochrome

Sometimes there's nothing an orange cat wants more than to lay on his orange pillow throne and just blend in.

...and not have his picture taken, thankyouverymuch!

(this is another of those tangled-legs-cat pictures - how does he get in these positions?)

Giving Peace a Chance

...And there's growing Islamophobia in this country.

How else would you describe the fact that mosques around the country are now being attacked? We are Americans, too. We are treated and talked about today as if Muslims are not Americans.

We are Americans. We are doctors. We are investment bankers. We are taxi drivers. We are store keepers. We are lawyers. We are part of the fabric of America.

And the way that America today treats its Muslims is being watched by over a billion Muslims worldwide. And the battleground today... is not between Islam and the West. The battleground has been moderates of all faith traditions in all the countries of the world against the radicals of all faith traditions in all parts of the world.

--Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf to Christiane Amanpour (transcript)

I think this is a really smart guy. And as someone who grew up in an incredibly diverse community, and who had friends of nearly every faith and ethnicity, I wish that the majority of Americans would stop persecuting the many for the crimes of the few. Here's an analogy I got from The West Wing: Islam is to Al Qaeda as Christianity is to the KKK (or more recently, as Christianity is to Terry Jones). Stop and think about that for a minute.

Today, let's practice tolerance. It's easy if you try.

Silver Lining

Well, Penn State lost. By a lot. But I went in expecting Alabama to score way more than 24 points. I'll take the moral victory! Not every cloud has a silver lining, but some have rainbows. I won't complain.

Elphie won't complain, either. She's had a great day of sunbeams and cuddling and trying to kill her brothers. No matter how big she gets, she'll always be my tiny baby girl.

Tomorrow?

I have an e-mail exchange between me and my dentist that I want to share, but I'm on the netbook and that's too much cutting and pasting to do without an actual mouse. For now, I'll just share this other tidbit with you:

Nothing says Friday quite like realizing you sent e-mails with major errors to three separate distribution lists, and that you need to recall, correct, and resend the messages in the last 10 minutes of your shift.

On the bright side, there was sure no thumb twiddling today!

Dr. Ponytail: The Series

My gynecologist was on the local news this morning. I tried to find the video so that you could feel my discomfort, but their website seems to suck.

Discomfort, you ask?

Yes.

Imagine the person who looks into your insides while you are pants-less looking straight at you through the TV while you eat your morning cereal. I thought maybe I should put up the recliner, put my heels on the corners, and scooch down to the edge of the seat. But I didn't.

I didn't think to see which pair of Chuck Taylors he was wearing, but I was happy to see he didn't feel the need to switch out his normal black scrubs for a more grown-up outfit just for the interview.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to put my pants back on.

Charlie in Wonderland

I'm not sure whether I've dipped my blogging toe into the midterm election madness, but I've been inspired to start.

Crist in Wonderland Episode 1 from RightChange on Vimeo.

...and part 2:

Charlie's In Wonderland Too from RightChange on Vimeo.

(hat tip: Scott Maxwell)

I hated Charlie as Governor. Oh wait - he's still governing, isn't he? I hadn't noticed. Really, as a Democrat and someone who supports President Obama, I feel like I should vote for Kendrick Meek. But if his chances are as slim as they say, then I might vote for Charlie just to vote against ultra-right Marco Rubio. Anyway, though I recognize the cartoons have a different political goal than I have, I still thought they were cute and well done!

I skipped the primary last month because none of the races I cared about were hotly contested. Now I have to start really paying attention - re-elect that loudmouth Alan Grayson? I'm not sure. Sink vs. Scott? Umm...Rick Scott is a total wacko and I wouldn't vote for him if he gave me $1,000. Orange County Mayor? I should probably study that one a little more closely.

Two months to go...

Attention, Please!

Attention Muslim World: Please please recognize that this crazy horrible man and his crazy horrible followers do not represent the rest of Americans, just as fundamentalist extremists in your own community do not represent you.

Attention Christian World: Keep praying that Terry Jones finds the "sign from God" that tells him this is a bad idea. If he goes through with "Burn a Koran Day" and one single American soldier dies as a direct result, it's not the Muslims he's going to need to worry about.

I stand behind the First Amendment. I'm certainly not asking the Florida or US Government to prevent the protest (is it really a protest, or just a temper tantrum?). I just want the people planning on participating to consider how hurtful their actions will be to the people of the Muslim faith, and instead turn their anger into something productive. Participate in a charity, read a book to a child, or just consider that Jesus probably wouldn't have provoked a group of people who thought differently than he did. Heck, maybe they should join a relief mission and bring the love of Christ along with much-needed food and medicine over to Pakistan. You know...just add something positive to the world instead of adding more hate. We don't need any more hate.

Vaguely related:

Labor Day

It's Labor Day, so I spent my day not laboring. I watched an NCIS marathon, did 3 loads of laundry, and...that's about it.

Let's not compare the "done" list to the "to-do" list, ok?

1-0 and 1-0

Coming off of wins for both Penn State and Alabama yesterday, Scott and I have one week to bask in our undefeated seasons.

One week only.

Next Saturday is Footballageddon as Penn State travels to Alabama. Two teams enter, one team leaves.

Too many movie references? Sorry. For now, I'm high on a win and enjoying it while I still can.

Who's 9?

Who's 9 today? Nope...couldn't possibly be Conner! (that's him in the front, in this picture from 2004)

I literally cried last night when I read on Facebook that his birthday is today. See, to me 9 sounds like an older kid - almost a tween - and I refuse to believe that a kid whose butt I wiped is that old.

I knew this kid when he chattered for hours on end without using any actual words. I knew him when he was little enough for Scott to throw in the air (and the accidentally drop onto his own head, causing both of them to bleed!). I remember watching a cartoon with him and proclaiming him to be a genius when he counted to 12 right along with Dora. I remember scrubbing marshmallow off of him.

Sigh...my little monsters are growing up so fast I can hardly stand it! Amazing, because I haven't aged at all...

Thanks for Asking

We are, in fact, ready for some football!


More on the NCAA Football 2010 season tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Joshua*

*names changed to protect the innocent child

Scott and I just got back from dinner at TooJays, the closest thing central Florida has to a good Jewish deli. We were seated near 4 old people sitting at a big table. We ordered our drinks, and then the rest of their party showed up: mom, dad, a little boy, and a baby girl.

Fifteen minutes later, the cooing and cheek pinching and baby talk had slowed down enough that we could actually make out grown-up words mixed in. "Happy birthday!" "Do you like your new Star Wars bed?" "Did you think grandma for your new toys?" We got to sit through one of the women (my guess is not the mother) singing the theme song from "Elmo's World" to the baby girl. And then the conversation took a strange turn.

"Your birthday is important to a lot of people." Scott and I were trying to figure out why the Dad was trying to give the kid a Jesus complex. I wanted to turn around and tell the kid that no one outside of that table gave a damn about his birthday, and that some day soon he'd be old enough to know how obnoxious his family was and he'd be embarrassed. But I didn't. And that's a good thing. We had been mocking the conversation when all of a sudden snippets of conversation along the lines of "and a lot of people died..." and "they call it Patriot's Day" came toward us.

Oh. My. God. And so we learned:

a) 4(ish) is the age when you tell your kid about 9-11.
b) if your kid's birthday is on 9-11, you have to celebrate it a full week in advance. (really, the party is tomorrow)
c) TooJay's is the new Chuck-E-Cheese

Scott also got the fringe benefit of watching the family eating. I can't do justice to his description of Mom feeding the baby and herself at the same time, but trust me - I was suddenly glad they were only assaulting one of my senses!

Needless to say, the ambiance just wasn't great tonight. So we got a slice of cake (for my half-birthday) to go. If you'll excuse me, there's a zillion calories in the fridge calling my name.

Happy early birthday, Joshua.

3 Hours of Sleep Later

The answer to the question posed in last night's entry is only partly yes. The other part of the answer is "and continued low-grade constant pain with twinges of much worse pain."

The sunburn. It sucks.

This picture was taken Saturday morning when I was supposed to be packing to come home. That's the front of my right calf, taken from the perspective of the inside of the leg.

I've really tried to be strong and not whine, but jeez does it hurt! And stubble isn't helping matters any. My poor follicles are constantly being pulled back and forth by pants (pants are my new nemesis), but at this stage I still think the razor would do more harm than good. That's why there's no "here's how it looks 5 days later" photo. I mean, I normally crop my legs out of pictures. Taking a close-up of a fuzzy one? Unlikely!

Well, it's been lovely chatting with you and showing off my war wounds, but it's time for me to get ready to go to work. The timestamp is what makes that last sentence so funny.

Hormones...right?

I'm having some pretty deep misery right now. Don't worry, I know that my feelings are disproportionate to my troubles. And I know that this too shall pass. But right this minute I'm overwhelmed. Today started out so nicely, with baking banana bread followed by eating as much hot banana bread as possible while packing it to take to work. It was good. Then at 11:15 my day took a downturn. Here's the bullet points:

• Scott locked himself out of the house without his car keys, necessitating me leaving work for an hour and a half to let him in and therefore missing the potluck. (yes, we're already making plans for a hidden key)
• The 3rd shift meeting for Friday got rescheduled to tomorrow because a "big" manager decided he wanted to attend and Thursday was a better day for him. Two o'clock wake-up call, here I come!
• I got a voicemail from my doctor telling me that if I want a prescription (that we had previously discussed, and that the nurse told me on my last visit would be "called in to the pharmacy in about 10 minutes") that I would have to come in for yet another appointment. I didn't call her back because I was at work and prefer to not have those conversations in public.
• I had an e-mail disagreement with one of the managers I support. Is it really so hard to answer a yes/no question so I can get on with my job?
• I told Scott about the crappy voicemail from the doctor, which led to a crappy conversation about the dentist and how I still need to call them and reschedule the appointment that they same-day cancelled on me last month.
• I got another call from the doctor's office while on the phone with Scott, which I let go to voicemail. This time it was the nurse telling me I needed to schedule an appointment in order to get a prescription.
• I called back the office, navigating the phone tree only to get a receptionist who read my info and told me I needed to make an appointment. I refused and told her I needed to talk to the doctor. She connected me to the nurse.
• The nurse regurgitated the whole appointment thing again, and I reminded her that I was promised a new prescription on my last visit and that I shouldn't have to come back in because the doctor and I already discussed things. She said she'd check with the doctor again, and I told her that if I couldn't get that prescription then she could change my blood pressure medicine to one with different side effects. She said I'd have to come in for any medication change.
• I hung up the phone and cried.

My day really was overwhelmingly positive. My office mate saved me a plate of food from the potluck, I got to "rescue him right back," (bonus points to the person who gets that movie reference) work was mostly good, and of course there was banana bread. I'm trying SO HARD to focus on all of that, but instead I'm ready to curl up in a ball and cry myself to sleep.

Of course, sleeping now would definitely be a good thing! I'll be home by 1:00 tomorrow. Maybe I'll sleep all afternoon, too.

Bananas

I woke up this morning an hour early to bake a loaf of banana bread to take to work. Of course, I didn't have the recipe. I believe I got the ingredients correct, but had no idea whether the oven was supposed to be set to 325 or 350. I had a strong feeling that it was supposed to be 325, but didn't have time or ingredients to fix a mistake. I checked 5 recipes on foodnetwork.com, and 4 of them said 350. So I went with that. That recipe is pretty forgiving, so I'm hoping that it comes out ok.

In other news, I watched two episodes of Glee last night - my first two episodes - and enjoyed it, but it didn't immediately hook me. The shows that I consider appointment TV (or at least DVR TV) are ones that I loved from the first episode I saw. So I think that Glee might be "if nothing else is on" viewing, but not much else. Jane Lynch, however, totally deserved that Emmy. She's a total scene stealer!

Speaking of appointment TV, David Hasselhoff and Jennifer "Baby" Grey are on DWTS this season!!! Also appearing will be Florence Henderson, Brandy, Michael Bolton, some athletes, some reality TV yahoos, and Bristol Palin (I think I might like her, despite her last name, but I'd like to know who's watching the baby while she's in Los Angeles). That starts this month, and I can't wait to see who will be the train wreck this year.