I can't even keep my own promises--it was another CRAZY DAY yesterday, topped off with Kiddo waking EVERY TWO HOURS overnight, so I am writing this on a minimum amount of sleep.
BUT IT IS APRIL 29TH!
This date is notable for two main things:
1.) Kiddo is 11 months old, which is insane since it means I only have one more month before my baby becomes A YEARLING.
2.) It is THAT MAGICAL DAY OF THE YEAR when my brother and I email/call/surprise each other with the lyrics to "April 29" by the Rembrandts.
"Oh, you mean that band who sang the 'Friends' song?" I can hear your mind saying to itself, "Come on, did they actually put out an ALBUM?"
Yes, y'all, THEY DID.
Said album has a number of forgettable mid-90s-pop-ish songs on it, but UNFORGETTABLE is APRIL 29, a little ditty about a guy who gets out of the insane asylum on April 29th and is calling his partner to come pick him up.
You think I jest?
JUST CLICK HERE for the lyrical masterpiece; I wish to God they had a Youtube video, and as I threatened my brother, I had grand plans to create one to catch him this year. Unfortunately for me, since my brother is in South Korea, IT BECOMES APRIL 29TH ONE DAY EARLIER, so he busted me last night.
I don't know why we started the tradition; it began back when he was a freshman in high school and I was a senior and I thought it would be funny on April 29th when I drove us to school (in my Taurus; oh, my love for my old high school Taurus!) to start off our ride with that song. HOW APROPOS!
It evolved, as I left home for college, into us calling each other and nonchalantly reciting a lyric or two, like it was a normal part of the conversation.
"Hello?"
"Hey Er"
"I'm so glad to see you; delighted that you came."
(internal: ? I didn't come visit you; I'm still at school...WAIT!)
"In a word, it's all arranged!"
Then the caller would sing "Unlock the door and THROW AWAY THE KEY! THE SUN IS SHINING (in this falsetto used by Rembrandt himself), WE'RE FINALLY FREE!" as the callee dissolved into giggles.
Look, it's really funny.
This day comes but once a year, and when it comes, it brings good cheer!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Grow Up, SHOW UP!
Hi guys. I kind of suck; it's been five days since I updated. CRAZY BUSY. Finals week is two weeks away at work, which means THIS week is my busiest since all the exams are rolling in and it's go-time. Also, this upcoming weekend, Vee, Kiddokabiddo, & I are cranking back up to MSP. TO SEE LEONARD COHEN! Vee and I are losing our minds--LEONARD COHEN! This is like seeing New Kids on the Block (which I DID do, thank you very much)--WE NEVER THOUGHT WE WOULD GET THE CHANCE!
Leonard Cohen was a high school FAVORITE of Vee's, and when we first started dating back in fall 2001, Ten New Songs had just came out. IT WAS THE FIRST CD WE EVER MADE OUT TO! (Sorry Kiddo; in eighteen years when you are allowed on the internet without my supervision and you find this blog, you will probably be embarassed. WE WERE YOUNG ONCE TOO!)
Wow. EARLY DATING YEARS ASIDE, Vee and I truly have an abiding love for Leonard Cohen (even forgiving "Dear Heather"...uhh, no. Sorry, buddy.) and are really excited about going.
But this blog shouldn't be about what we WILL be doing--I've got to catch you up on what I've DONE!
(swirly lines indicating that we are going "back in time")
Last Monday, I saw Gone With the Wind in the theater, which was basically one of the pinnacles of my LIFE, since I cannot even come close to approximately how deep my love is for Gone With the Wind, and how I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE IT IN A THEATER. Geez, upon reflection, maybe I have had low standards for my life or something, because with the NKOTB concert, the Leonard Cohen concert, and GWTW in the theater, my "never thought this would happen"s seem to be, well, happening.
Anyway! IT WAS AWESOME, and luckily I had already begun my routine and was several chapters into Scarlett, so it is easing the pain of the end of the movie.
My routine? Every time I try to guess at this number, I feel like people think I am exaggerating for comic effect. I'm not. So let me be conservative here. I have been reading Gone With the Wind and following it up with the sequel Scarlett at least three times a year since I was 12. That makes 42 reads. So we'll go with "I've read GWTW 42 times," even though I've read it more than that, I'm pretty sure.
IT'S A SICKNESS! And I DON'T EVEN CARE whatever shit you want to talk about Scarlett and how "it's not as good as GWTW" because I READ IT FIRST, and it colored my reading of GWTW, and TO ME, it is as necessary as milk with fresh chocolate chip cookies. NECESSARY BECAUSE I CAN'T STAND THE END OF GWTW! SO FRUSTRATING!
Every time I read GWTW and Scarlett, I catch something new. It's like the Bible, y'all. Watching GWTW this time, though, I realized something that was probably obvious to everyone I know, yet didn't click out of my subconscious until last Monday: I RELATE TO SCARLETT BECAUSE SHE IS ONE OF THE FEW CATHOLIC HEROINES I HAVE EVER SEEN IN A POPULAR NOVEL WHO IS NOT "RENOUNCING IT"!
I'll save my damnation of "Rhett Butler's People" (notice how I am putting it in quotes like it is not a real novel? BECAUSE IT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN!) for another post, but I am deep in Scarlett's adventures in Ireland right now and so the end of GWTW wasn't as bad.
Except, well, I had brought my Klean Kanteen full of water (it's a 3.5 hr movie, y'all) and inadvertently spilled it. Inside my purse. ON MY CELL PHONE. Which DIED, and which, when I brought it to the Sprint Store, the dude told me it would be $100 to fix.
A HUNDRED DOLLARS!
Fortunately, I was prepared for this trickery, and whipped out my ancient cell phone from '04 and made the dude transfer my number to it.
So now I am casually sporting a hilariously Zach-Morris-style cell phone until Nov '09 when our contract comes back up and I am due for a new cell.
CATCH UP ON WED-FRI OF LAST WEEK TOMORROW, if I get the chance to break from frantic HTMLing and my daughter's other front tooth comes in (this is her sixth tooth, and the one she is SCREAMING at the most).
Leonard Cohen was a high school FAVORITE of Vee's, and when we first started dating back in fall 2001, Ten New Songs had just came out. IT WAS THE FIRST CD WE EVER MADE OUT TO! (Sorry Kiddo; in eighteen years when you are allowed on the internet without my supervision and you find this blog, you will probably be embarassed. WE WERE YOUNG ONCE TOO!)
Wow. EARLY DATING YEARS ASIDE, Vee and I truly have an abiding love for Leonard Cohen (even forgiving "Dear Heather"...uhh, no. Sorry, buddy.) and are really excited about going.
But this blog shouldn't be about what we WILL be doing--I've got to catch you up on what I've DONE!
(swirly lines indicating that we are going "back in time")
Last Monday, I saw Gone With the Wind in the theater, which was basically one of the pinnacles of my LIFE, since I cannot even come close to approximately how deep my love is for Gone With the Wind, and how I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE IT IN A THEATER. Geez, upon reflection, maybe I have had low standards for my life or something, because with the NKOTB concert, the Leonard Cohen concert, and GWTW in the theater, my "never thought this would happen"s seem to be, well, happening.
Anyway! IT WAS AWESOME, and luckily I had already begun my routine and was several chapters into Scarlett, so it is easing the pain of the end of the movie.
My routine? Every time I try to guess at this number, I feel like people think I am exaggerating for comic effect. I'm not. So let me be conservative here. I have been reading Gone With the Wind and following it up with the sequel Scarlett at least three times a year since I was 12. That makes 42 reads. So we'll go with "I've read GWTW 42 times," even though I've read it more than that, I'm pretty sure.
IT'S A SICKNESS! And I DON'T EVEN CARE whatever shit you want to talk about Scarlett and how "it's not as good as GWTW" because I READ IT FIRST, and it colored my reading of GWTW, and TO ME, it is as necessary as milk with fresh chocolate chip cookies. NECESSARY BECAUSE I CAN'T STAND THE END OF GWTW! SO FRUSTRATING!
Every time I read GWTW and Scarlett, I catch something new. It's like the Bible, y'all. Watching GWTW this time, though, I realized something that was probably obvious to everyone I know, yet didn't click out of my subconscious until last Monday: I RELATE TO SCARLETT BECAUSE SHE IS ONE OF THE FEW CATHOLIC HEROINES I HAVE EVER SEEN IN A POPULAR NOVEL WHO IS NOT "RENOUNCING IT"!
I'll save my damnation of "Rhett Butler's People" (notice how I am putting it in quotes like it is not a real novel? BECAUSE IT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN!) for another post, but I am deep in Scarlett's adventures in Ireland right now and so the end of GWTW wasn't as bad.
Except, well, I had brought my Klean Kanteen full of water (it's a 3.5 hr movie, y'all) and inadvertently spilled it. Inside my purse. ON MY CELL PHONE. Which DIED, and which, when I brought it to the Sprint Store, the dude told me it would be $100 to fix.
A HUNDRED DOLLARS!
Fortunately, I was prepared for this trickery, and whipped out my ancient cell phone from '04 and made the dude transfer my number to it.
So now I am casually sporting a hilariously Zach-Morris-style cell phone until Nov '09 when our contract comes back up and I am due for a new cell.
CATCH UP ON WED-FRI OF LAST WEEK TOMORROW, if I get the chance to break from frantic HTMLing and my daughter's other front tooth comes in (this is her sixth tooth, and the one she is SCREAMING at the most).
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Earth Day!
Happy Earth Day, y’all!
I’m sure you know by now that EARTH DAY IS EVERYDAY, but I know I’m personally glad we’ve got one day a year when even Target recognizes that it’s time to give back to the earth and hands out free reusable bags (though they were inexplicably doing this on Saturday and calling it “in honor of Earth Day”).
I haven’t always been green, I hope you know. Sure, like all the other kids in my elementary school, I planted a tree and sang about how animals “have to have a habitat” at the Oregon State University Earth Day Fair (we got to sing IN FRONT OF COLLEGE KIDS! It was THRILLING!), but when I moved out of my parents’ house, I was probably the messiest non-greener you can imagine. Tossing it all out (even though there was a recycling bin that, God bless my roommate Lily, got emptied out weekly) because it was more convenient, shopping it up at Wal-Mart with disregard for all the superfluous packaging (and even though I lived CLOSER to a HyVee, I was offended by the extra $0.10 they wanted for the same package of Little Debbies I could get out at Chaypest. Although I easily used an extra $1.00 of gas to get to Wal-Mart, thus negating any savings), and leaving my computer permanently on.
Yeah, I could have been worse, but the point is mostly that I just WASN’T THINKING.
Now?
We recycle everything we can get our hands on (and Lily, you might be pleased to know that I am the one driving the glass to the recycling center now), compost, use reusable bags at the grocery store/every store, leave all the lights off for 22/24 hours in the day (our house gets a lot of natural light), unplug appliances religiously, computers all go to standby/sleep mode, line-dry our clothes when possible (FINALLY SPRING!), use cloth diapers, are starting a rain barrel this weekend, and gave away all the strippings of our 90s house to thrift stores (Hey, SOMEONE must like bordello curtains and old faux-brass fixtures. Far be it from me to deny them the pleasure!).
Our consumer choices? Phosphate-free dishwasher detergent, natural laundry detergent, natural cleaning products (vinegar is amazing and works ON EVERYTHING!), local-grown food & produce when possible, VOC-free paint, VOC-free floors (BAMBOO your floors, guys—it’s a renewable resource, and you don’t want to know what you’re breathing in when you walk on carpet), Vee uses a manual push mower on our lawn, drive cars that routinely get 30mpg, and I just switched to the Diva Cup, y’all.
Support local—not just because you’re keeping money in the good old USA and preventing the unemployment rate from rising through job-outsourcing, but because your goods don’t travel as far to get to you, which means less auto emissions, which means you are singlehandedly helping keep the ozone layer intact just by shopping at the local stationery store instead of ordering your cards online (which requires the seller to drive to their local post office to mail the goods, the USPS guys to drive across the country to deliver to YOUR local post office, and your postal worker to drive to your mailbox).
Start small. Repurpose something in your house instead of buying something new. Refurbish something in your house instead of buying something new. Recycle something in your house and give it away instead of tossing it out because you don’t like it/don’t need it any more.
Use a smaller gob of shampoo in the shower (You only need a quarter size dollop. Can you believe that? I used to think you needed to COVER YOUR PALM. I wish I was joking).
Unplug an appliance you rarely use. Dude, it’s not that much of a hassle to plug it in again before you use it, and now you’re no longer wasting VAMPIRE POWER. Open your blinds/curtains. If you live somewhere warm, use the light strategically and tilt the blinds against the sun to keep the heat out, then when the sun shifts, open those blinds and tilt the other ones in your house.
Then, instead of driving to the mall or taking public transit (if you are doing this, I applaud you and wish I lived somewhere that recognized the importance of public transit and made it more accessible), take a walk around your neighborhood. Breathe in the place where you live, and breathe out good intentions.
You have to have a habitat!
I’m sure you know by now that EARTH DAY IS EVERYDAY, but I know I’m personally glad we’ve got one day a year when even Target recognizes that it’s time to give back to the earth and hands out free reusable bags (though they were inexplicably doing this on Saturday and calling it “in honor of Earth Day”).
I haven’t always been green, I hope you know. Sure, like all the other kids in my elementary school, I planted a tree and sang about how animals “have to have a habitat” at the Oregon State University Earth Day Fair (we got to sing IN FRONT OF COLLEGE KIDS! It was THRILLING!), but when I moved out of my parents’ house, I was probably the messiest non-greener you can imagine. Tossing it all out (even though there was a recycling bin that, God bless my roommate Lily, got emptied out weekly) because it was more convenient, shopping it up at Wal-Mart with disregard for all the superfluous packaging (and even though I lived CLOSER to a HyVee, I was offended by the extra $0.10 they wanted for the same package of Little Debbies I could get out at Chaypest. Although I easily used an extra $1.00 of gas to get to Wal-Mart, thus negating any savings), and leaving my computer permanently on.
Yeah, I could have been worse, but the point is mostly that I just WASN’T THINKING.
Now?
We recycle everything we can get our hands on (and Lily, you might be pleased to know that I am the one driving the glass to the recycling center now), compost, use reusable bags at the grocery store/every store, leave all the lights off for 22/24 hours in the day (our house gets a lot of natural light), unplug appliances religiously, computers all go to standby/sleep mode, line-dry our clothes when possible (FINALLY SPRING!), use cloth diapers, are starting a rain barrel this weekend, and gave away all the strippings of our 90s house to thrift stores (Hey, SOMEONE must like bordello curtains and old faux-brass fixtures. Far be it from me to deny them the pleasure!).
Our consumer choices? Phosphate-free dishwasher detergent, natural laundry detergent, natural cleaning products (vinegar is amazing and works ON EVERYTHING!), local-grown food & produce when possible, VOC-free paint, VOC-free floors (BAMBOO your floors, guys—it’s a renewable resource, and you don’t want to know what you’re breathing in when you walk on carpet), Vee uses a manual push mower on our lawn, drive cars that routinely get 30mpg, and I just switched to the Diva Cup, y’all.
Support local—not just because you’re keeping money in the good old USA and preventing the unemployment rate from rising through job-outsourcing, but because your goods don’t travel as far to get to you, which means less auto emissions, which means you are singlehandedly helping keep the ozone layer intact just by shopping at the local stationery store instead of ordering your cards online (which requires the seller to drive to their local post office to mail the goods, the USPS guys to drive across the country to deliver to YOUR local post office, and your postal worker to drive to your mailbox).
Start small. Repurpose something in your house instead of buying something new. Refurbish something in your house instead of buying something new. Recycle something in your house and give it away instead of tossing it out because you don’t like it/don’t need it any more.
Use a smaller gob of shampoo in the shower (You only need a quarter size dollop. Can you believe that? I used to think you needed to COVER YOUR PALM. I wish I was joking).
Unplug an appliance you rarely use. Dude, it’s not that much of a hassle to plug it in again before you use it, and now you’re no longer wasting VAMPIRE POWER. Open your blinds/curtains. If you live somewhere warm, use the light strategically and tilt the blinds against the sun to keep the heat out, then when the sun shifts, open those blinds and tilt the other ones in your house.
Then, instead of driving to the mall or taking public transit (if you are doing this, I applaud you and wish I lived somewhere that recognized the importance of public transit and made it more accessible), take a walk around your neighborhood. Breathe in the place where you live, and breathe out good intentions.
You have to have a habitat!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Columbine.
Ordinarily, I'd start today's Monday blog with a weekend recap, especially since Vee and I were INCREDIBLY busy with home reno.
But my cursory scan of the news websites this morning reminded me of something that knocked on my teenage heart.
It's been 10 years since Columbine.
Just reading the name "Columbine" made my eyes start smarting and my throat choke up. It's almost impossible to tell you about the impact that Columbine had on me. I felt the shooting so intensely that it might as well have happened in my high school; every detail I read about it, I could see it in MY hallways, the west entrance to MY high school where they entered, MY cafeteria where the students clustered, the tables in MY library. The entire thing was so utterly shocking that I couldn't go to school for days afterward without picturing exactly how it would unfold in my school; that pervasive feeling that, really, there was no reason it DIDN'T happen at my school, wouldn't happen at my school.
My ANGER at the shooters for killing themselves and the first time I realized that, sometimes, you wouldn't GET to mete out justice. The pit-of-stomach fear I felt the next fall when, randomly, the lights all went out during second-period government class and we nervously chattered (and I think someone even joked, almost unbelievably, about Columbine) until the intercom came on and said the janitor had accidentally flipped the power switch and power would be back in a couple of minutes. My inability to comprehend how any of us could ever go back to school again, no matter how many security cops they stationed throughout the school, the following ban on carrying backpacks to class, the ensuing locking of the entrances after 8:30am so if you wanted to enter, you had to go through the front of the school.
I started having horrible fantasies about how no place, ANYWHERE, was ever REALLY safe from something like that happening. A church? Wal-Mart? Track practice? How can you look at every person bearing a duffle bag as anything other than a potential killer?
My freshman-year roommate at college was from Littleton. She went to the other high school, although whenever she told people where she was from, all anyone asked was "Did you know anyone at Columbine? That must have been awful." She said she didn't actually know anyone there, and nothing changed at her high school. She was a writer, and wrote short stories about how boring Littleton was when she was in high school, how she and her best friend called it "Little-fun."
I can't ever stop crying when I read about Columbine, or any of the other school shootings that followed. Virginia Tech brought me to my knees, my ultimate fear of shootings following me to college being recognized. The mall shooting in Omaha was more horrifying than I can speak.
My trust in humanity changed, ten years ago today. My heart goes out to everyone else who was changed that day, but especially to the students, faculty, and families of Columbine. God protect us.
But my cursory scan of the news websites this morning reminded me of something that knocked on my teenage heart.
It's been 10 years since Columbine.
Just reading the name "Columbine" made my eyes start smarting and my throat choke up. It's almost impossible to tell you about the impact that Columbine had on me. I felt the shooting so intensely that it might as well have happened in my high school; every detail I read about it, I could see it in MY hallways, the west entrance to MY high school where they entered, MY cafeteria where the students clustered, the tables in MY library. The entire thing was so utterly shocking that I couldn't go to school for days afterward without picturing exactly how it would unfold in my school; that pervasive feeling that, really, there was no reason it DIDN'T happen at my school, wouldn't happen at my school.
My ANGER at the shooters for killing themselves and the first time I realized that, sometimes, you wouldn't GET to mete out justice. The pit-of-stomach fear I felt the next fall when, randomly, the lights all went out during second-period government class and we nervously chattered (and I think someone even joked, almost unbelievably, about Columbine) until the intercom came on and said the janitor had accidentally flipped the power switch and power would be back in a couple of minutes. My inability to comprehend how any of us could ever go back to school again, no matter how many security cops they stationed throughout the school, the following ban on carrying backpacks to class, the ensuing locking of the entrances after 8:30am so if you wanted to enter, you had to go through the front of the school.
I started having horrible fantasies about how no place, ANYWHERE, was ever REALLY safe from something like that happening. A church? Wal-Mart? Track practice? How can you look at every person bearing a duffle bag as anything other than a potential killer?
My freshman-year roommate at college was from Littleton. She went to the other high school, although whenever she told people where she was from, all anyone asked was "Did you know anyone at Columbine? That must have been awful." She said she didn't actually know anyone there, and nothing changed at her high school. She was a writer, and wrote short stories about how boring Littleton was when she was in high school, how she and her best friend called it "Little-fun."
I can't ever stop crying when I read about Columbine, or any of the other school shootings that followed. Virginia Tech brought me to my knees, my ultimate fear of shootings following me to college being recognized. The mall shooting in Omaha was more horrifying than I can speak.
My trust in humanity changed, ten years ago today. My heart goes out to everyone else who was changed that day, but especially to the students, faculty, and families of Columbine. God protect us.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Home Show: Promises, Promises!
Here at last, y'all! It's time to live the decal dream! (Well, 1/3 of it. ONE AT A TIME, ONE AT A TIME!)
BATHROOM RENO PICS!
First, I need to give you a tour of what we were working with. Hold onto your 1990 hat and experience...
THE PREVIOUS OWNERS' LIFE:
This one really gives you full scope into the bathroom we lived in for too long. Sure, I didn't clutter the countertop with all of the potions and lotions as Mrs. 1990 (and WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT when people are home-touring? Talk about DE-EMPHASIZING THE ONE GOOD FEATURE OF THIS BATHROOM, the size of the countertop). But look in the mirror, my pretties, and see the wall color.
Mint green. With an incredibly corny border and MATCHING SHOWER CURTAIN.
Full disclosure (and I am truly ashamed to have to disclose this): we kept BOTH THE BORDER AND THE SHOWER CURTAIN up until mid-March. We moved in last May. NOT BECAUSE WE LIKED IT, but because we didn't know "what we were going to do to the room" and didn't want to buy something that wouldn't work. I don't know WHY we didn't at least remove the border.
BUT! When Gramma Goose and Grampa PhD were in town, we painted that sucker at last! And last night, after cursing our heads off while Kiddokabiddo slept and we tussled with our decals, I present to you:
OUR LIFE
NOT BAD!
Additional changes included swapping this light fixture
for this
Reno still to come: tiling the floor, replacing the blue countertop (with white soapstone? Thoughts? Suggestions?), and the purchase of dark brown toilet seat cover/shower mats.
Worth the wait?
BATHROOM RENO PICS!
First, I need to give you a tour of what we were working with. Hold onto your 1990 hat and experience...
THE PREVIOUS OWNERS' LIFE:
This one really gives you full scope into the bathroom we lived in for too long. Sure, I didn't clutter the countertop with all of the potions and lotions as Mrs. 1990 (and WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT when people are home-touring? Talk about DE-EMPHASIZING THE ONE GOOD FEATURE OF THIS BATHROOM, the size of the countertop). But look in the mirror, my pretties, and see the wall color.
Mint green. With an incredibly corny border and MATCHING SHOWER CURTAIN.
Full disclosure (and I am truly ashamed to have to disclose this): we kept BOTH THE BORDER AND THE SHOWER CURTAIN up until mid-March. We moved in last May. NOT BECAUSE WE LIKED IT, but because we didn't know "what we were going to do to the room" and didn't want to buy something that wouldn't work. I don't know WHY we didn't at least remove the border.
BUT! When Gramma Goose and Grampa PhD were in town, we painted that sucker at last! And last night, after cursing our heads off while Kiddokabiddo slept and we tussled with our decals, I present to you:
OUR LIFE
NOT BAD!
Additional changes included swapping this light fixture
for this
Reno still to come: tiling the floor, replacing the blue countertop (with white soapstone? Thoughts? Suggestions?), and the purchase of dark brown toilet seat cover/shower mats.
Worth the wait?
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