Given that I have been a longtime reader of the blog by the same author, you should go buy this book. First time authors have it rough anyways, and we should all support the blogging industry, no? Seriously, her blog (while it was up - she took down the archives as she was writing the book, for obvious reasons) was/is hilarious! She’s a d*mn good author, and I’m looking forward to the chance to read the book (when I get ready for a new fiction book, that is).

popularity: 11%

I’m in my own personal roommate/cat hell right now. I came home Monday to a note from saying had peed all over the house (hallway, some couch cushions), that she’d cleaned it up since she had company (family) spending the night, and she’d locked the cats in my room. And when I talked to her she was clearly… cold. There was no reason should have acted up - I’ve definitely been away for longer periods of time without incident, they had plenty of food and water, and their litter box, while not being pristine, was definitely not disgusting. And as I wandered the house, I didn’t really smell any problems (I know she said she cleaned it up, but usually there’s residual smell and it takes a couple of clean-ups to remove the odor). And while seemed attention-deprived, not any more so than usual. My bed was soaking wet - duvet, down comforter, a pillow, foam mattress pad, and the mattress. But again, no odor. And the couch cushions were dry before people showed up for our Memorial Day party, so after sniffing them and deciding they smelled OK, I put them back in place as well. The party went fine, the cats acted normally, everyone had tons of food to eat, people cleared out earlier than I thought they might (I’m guessing because I don’t have air conditioning and it’s, like 93* with 90% humidity), cleanup went splendidly, and that’s that. and I went for a walk after cleaning up since it had cooled down significantly after the brief rainstorm. I sent him home with as much food as he thought he might eat, and went about the rest of my evening. I just went out to the kitchen to get a drink and saw a note from saying that the cushions/covers need to be deep cleaned/whatever because they were saturated. So, being the responsible pet-owner that I am, I asked her to let me know what needed to be done if she wanted me to take care of it, or let me know how much I owe her if it has to be professionally done. But I’m left wondering exactly what happened over the weekend. My bedroom smelled slightly like cat pee, but the litter box was locked in there with the cats. Nothing else did. freaked out one time this spring about one of the cats “pooping” in one of her shoes and she asked me to clean it up, and all it really was was vomit (arguably also disgusting, but not nearly so much). And my mattress was really truly soaked, and didn’t smell at all. I know can be a stinker and has behaved horribly in the past, but I’m tempted to think that something else happened here other than than what assumed (though I’m not sure what, since no one else was home during that time).

Plus, I called our landlords on Friday night to get the approval for to move in with her dog, and was told, much to my surprise, that dogs aren’t officially allowed and that the girl upstairs is kind of “grandfathered-in” because she’s lived here so long. But, the landlord said she’d talk to her sister (one of the other landlords) the next day and get back to me, would try to sell it (since the dog stays kenneled when her owner isn’t home and seems well-behaved, the girl is responsible, etc etc). Almost three days later and she still hasn’t called me back. She seems to be flaky like that, which I wouldn’t mind if there wasn’t such a time issue with this. I’d like to get back to one way or the other, because if she can move in, she needs to find a sub-letter. And if she can’t, I need to find a new potential roommate. It’s freakin’ frustrating.

I didn’t mean to be in a bad mood this weekend, but I wasn’t in the most spectacular, and I feel bad about that. We didn’t do all that much, which was nice. Saturday we ran some errands, including buying me a wireless router for the DSL was supposed to schedule an installation for (but I’ve heard nothing), some books at Half-Price, and new shorts that actually fit me. Sunday we decided to leave the house and go for a walk in 90*+ heat. Our destination was the Starbucks/Radio Shack/Walgreens/Hollywood Video strip mall. Starbucks was refreshing, Walgreens provided some aloe for the sunburn I thought I might be developing (but didn’t), and Hollywood Video had used DVDs, so my collection now includes The Incredibles, Elizabethtown, and In Her Shoes.

The heat really got us down, though. Thank goodness that ’s house has central air. I can handle the heat most of the time, but it is nice to get out of it too. I’m thankful that my room has a ceiling fan too.

Cable is being installed tomorrow. Clearly I’m lacking in anything else to say, so I’ll end this rather boring post. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll feel better, the cable will get installed, I’ll get some projects finished (before comes on Saturday), and some more rest. And by the time I’m back at work on Wednesday afternoon, all will be good. *Crossed fingers.*

popularity: 10%

1. Bounce :: -ing
2. Wasting time :: Summertime
3. Utility :: Closet
4. London :: Bridge
5. Pregnant :: Sister
6. Cranberry :: Juice
7. International :: Affair
8. Disappointment :: ???
9. Sponsor :: -ship
10. Second :: Cousin

popularity: 9%

Because today I have not been a lazy bum…. The baby blanket for Charlie has been mailed out. Plus, name graphics were created for the new roommates (OK, so the July move-in isn’t exactly official since I still need to talk to the landlords, but basically we’re at 98% here). Meet… and , because we all know I talk about my roommates a lot here. (My apologies to them, though they’re not allowed to read here, because I’m totally stereotyping them with those graphics, but I don’t know them all that well, so it is what it is.) Well, at least I did when I lived with , since there were so many complaints I could make constantly.

And, while at Walgreens to buy a brace for my ankle (because the Ace bandage just wasn’t cuttin’ it), I found something for (hopefully I got the right brand!).

And I fixed a staffing spreadsheet issue, and a computer inventory database thing, and some web page problems. OK, so all that was in my job description and basically what I do all the time, but, well, it’s my blog so I can talk about whatever I want to. And the staffing spreadsheet issue only took one square of Dove chocolate (it had potential….)

So last night I crocheted my first project - a hat. And it came out really cute and as perfect as one could expect from a first project. Only one tiny problem - it totally doesn’t fit. I did a gauge test and everything, and there is no way on God’s green earth that thing is fitting on my head. might take it and give it to one of the little girls at church, because it’s seriously the size of an 8-year-old’s head. Bummer. Oh well - I don’t look very good in hats anyways. And this weekend I’m starting a shawl, which size-wise I can’t really get wrong. So there.

Finally got Cingular service back. Sigh. And had major flight problems - got in at 1:30 instead of 9:30. Plane problems and mechanic problems and… But his new laptop bag he ordered came in today, and he might go see the X-Men movie, and his replacement grill was delivered to my house today, so hopefully he won’t be in too crummy of a mood. I would be if I were him, but then again, I’m much moodier than he is. Good thing, too.

Unfortunately, there’s still an hour left of work today. But then I don’t have to come in until noon on Wednesday, so that’s exciting. And said she’d set up a DSL installation for Tuesday, so with that and the cable being installed and the work laptop I borrowed, life should be good this weekend. Plus, and are actually coming to my Memorial Day party! Amazing!

Enjoy your holiday!

popularity: 10%

While out for coffee, a stranger walking by told me I have pretty red hair. A much more welcome surprise than Wednesday’s, where a council member of about six months asked disappointedly why I’d changed my hair color because she liked it so much better the other way. I was so… caught off guard that I probably not-too-politely told her I’d been using the same box of hair color for the last year, and that last time perhaps and I hadn’t put in as many highlights as usual, but it’s definitely the same color (except that my roots are starting to show again).

?? What exactly would the right response have been?? Anyone, anyone, Bueller?

popularity: 15%

and I had a hilarious argument last night about who had it worse off. She was complaining that her chest was “too large,” and I was complaining that mine was “too small.” We both joked about our continual efforts to draw people’s attention to that area of our bodies (because, you know, that’s the opposite of what we do, with the exception perhaps of the shirt I wore to work today). Maybe it doesn’t sound funny…. I might not be the world’s greatest storyteller.

Continuing on the good news front, heard from the new roommate that he is definitely OK with a big dog. So I just have to call the landlords to check with them (because the potential new roommate is a bit paranoid about it, having had some bad experiences in the past), and then it’s all settled! Yay!

Oh, and to complain for a moment - my Cingular service has been out since early yesterday. “Emergency Calls Only.” Is a tower down? Who knows? They don’t offer that kind of customer support on their website. I may have to go talk to the guy in the kiosk in the Skyway. Because, really.

popularity: 9%

So, the good news is that the new roommate doesn’t have a problem with the potential roommate I interviewed last night having a dog. So, I’ve got to talk to the landlords, but it looks like I’ve got the new new roommate figured out. That was way too easy. I’m a bit skeptical. We’ll see. She was really cool though. She came over at six and stayed until seven, just talking. She liked the place, was good with the cats, and the interaction wasn’t just “OK” (like “no warning bells went off, it’d be alright if she lived here”) but fantastic (like “I want to be her friend even if she doesn’t live here”). Amazing. My cats are just going to have to be OK living with a dog and another cat. Plus, after talking with , we decided to get DSL and do a wireless network that will cover the house and then she’ll split the costs with us as well, so four people buying into it makes it really affordable. And I set up a cable install for next Tuesday. Lots going on. Plus, I finally brought ’s grill to be returned to Amazon to the post office today. They’re paying for return postage, but it was more the hassle of bringing the really big box all the way downtown on the bus, because the box Amazon shipped it in was huge - didn’t fit in a 13-gallon kitchen garbage bag. Conveniently, I caught the 65 this morning, which is usually not very crowded (instead of the 21, which often is), so the box could have a seat all to itself. And tomorrow, I promise to mail off the baby blanket to and baby Charlie.

Oh, and then I went all crazy in the kitchen and did some major cleaning/rearranging. Pulled everything out of about half of the cupboards (can’t do it all at once - that’d be crazy) and put it where it made sense, wiped down things, left out everything that I didn’t know who it belonged to…. came home and we put away what she owned, and then everything else went into bags for Goodwill. Four large grocery bags, to be exact. And that wasn’t even all the cupboards. Big trip to Goodwill. Their donation center is open next Monday, so hopefully will be willing to take a trip over there to dump off stuff (I haven’t asked him yet though… whatdya think, sweetie?). Cleaning out the house….. Such fun. Oh, I needed to bathe afterwards, though. Some of the stuff was soooooo gross. Most everything is down from above the cupboards and fridge - kitchens are generally just too gross to leave stuff out of the cupboards. Grease and dust and cat hair make for a pretty potent combination. Tonight I’m tackling under the sink, and maybe the rest of the cupboards. We even found space for cookbooks! It’s revolutionary, I tell ya. Now if I can only find a spot for my bread machine… (it’s about an inch too tall for every single cupboard in the kitchen). And move some books from the hallway to the front room. You know, generally continue to make the house… not a craphole. Really, I live in a very nice place. It’s just that sometimes, if you look really closely, it would be easy to believe the opposite.

Alright, one more day at work this week (where I just got a new huge computer inventory database project) and then I’m off until Wednesday afternoon. Should be fun, or at least relaxing. Plus, is coming back from Kentucky tomorrow. Not like I would have seen him normally anyways, but it’ll still be nice to have him back.

Oh, , some sad news - Cali guy never called or emailed. So unless he shows up tonight (which I said he could just drop in), looks like I won’t be setting you up on any blind dates.

popularity: 10%

Wish me a happy one year anniversary! That’s one year ago today that I had my last day at the church and then drove away forever. OK, drove away from the idea of youth ministry as a career. Not from the church entirely. reminded me on Tuesday that I had said when I first left that I thought a year away from church would be about what I needed, and how did I feel about that now? I have mixed thoughts on that. I know that if I drag my heels too much longer, I’ll be back in school and busy enough that the luxury of sleeping in on Sundays will seem like a necessity. But I also know it can be easy to get sucked in and hyper-involved, and I don’t want that either. I’d like to find that happy balance in the middle, somewhere between “ChrEaster” (Christmas and Easter churchgoers) and being a deacon (church every week, committee meetings several times a month, visiting the sick, prayer meetings, small group meetings…..). That happy balance where church (and faith) are an important part of my life, but don’t define my existence.

I’ll blog more about last night and the potential roommate I met - but for now, I’m off to get coffee before the girl on phones goes for lunch.

popularity: 14%

OK, so none of you have blogs (well, maybe you do - I don’t know about them if you do, except for ’s that she never writes in, or the girls-only one that we girls share), but if you do, you’re it. I was informally unofficially tagged by Mindi (whose blog I have never commented on so she doesn’t even know I exist, but whatever), but who is a Minnesota girl living in New York City. So you might like her blog.

5 items in my fridge

• 1/2 gallon 1% milk
• a very very old carton of eggs I keep meaning to throw away
• some spreadable cheese I keep meaning to try, but haven’t
• 2 chicken thighs
• aloe (hey, sunburn season is coming up)

5 items in my closet

• sleeping bag
• 2 pairs of Sketchers (as well as the rest of my shoes)
• that mini skirt I only wore on Halloween
• waaaaay too much black
• a whole friggin’ lot of sweaters

5 items in my car
(When I still owned a car…)

• mesh bag of sports equipment
• quilt for use in grass (to have small group meetings in youth group when the weather was nice)
• map of the US (used to memorize the states and their capitols on a very long drive to and from Boston)
• umbrella (maybe - it’s been a really long time since I owned a car, I’ve kinda forgotten)
• music source (CDs, or tape adapter for my PDA)

5 items in my purse

• ipod.html” target=”_blank”>iPod nano (white, named “Sad Panda”)
• wallet with a lot of receipts and not so much cash
• broken sunglasses
• mini Excedrin container filled with aspirin, Advil, Midol, one Extra-Strength Tylenol, and surprisingly, no Excedrin (gotta refill that!)
• digital camera

popularity: 11%

It was 19 pages of typing. And technically it only works out to 38 words per minute (for 4 hours), but there is a lot of pausing and breaks where there’s nothing to type. Really, I was up over 100wpm today. Promise.

popularity: 8%

Nothing much to say today, but I thought I’d be a good blogger and check-in, because I know my public demands it. Ha!

Had a nice time with last night - we closed Michaels (that is, we stayed until they kicked us out). Apparently, large white picture frames are just not popular and I am the only person on the planet that wants one. And, note to self, must go to Michaels from now on instead of JoAnn for yarn (cheap yarn, that is, because the really good stuff has to be bought at the Yarnery). Much better selection (same stuff, just more colors and varieties). And she brought over some crochet books for me, and looked at my stuff, and apparently I’m doing fine. Yay.

And then I went to bed. As immediately as possible. After setting both alarms on my alarm clock and the alarm on my cell phone and the “wake up call” function. Because I didn’t want to miss the bus to Rosedale this morning.

I didn’t, either. I got up and did my hair and makeup and even put on a skirt. I even got breakfast. (OK, breakfast in my purse that I could eat on the bus, but whatever.) I felt pretty good about that. I even had to wait a few minutes for the bus to show up.

The meeting today went OK. I don’t have much to say about it. And now I’m here at work. And bored. Maybe I’ll go get some coffee. I think I’ve earned it today. Really. I did 14 pages worth of typing in four hours of meeting. That’s gotta kick some sort of butt.

popularity: 9%

I am a queen. I have done things in Access that are worthy of praise and having people throw things down on the ground as I walk by. Realistically speaking, the report still has about four hours worth of formatting work to be done, but as far as I’m concerned, I have created the greatest thing since sliced bread, and I’m done for the day. I definitely earned my keep. Rock star. Hehe, and I did it all without anyone else’s help. I mean, I had major problems, and it took me a while and a bit of a database redesign to get it done, but I did it all on my own!

If you saw my creation, you’d be impressed too. Trust me, I am a genius. You may all throw flowers my way now.

popularity: 9%

I don’t know what I did, but I somehow seriously messed up my ankle. Last night when I got home, I wrapped it and that seemed to help. And then this morning I forgot to wrap it up and when I did remember I realized that it didn’t really hurt, so I thought everything was fine. And then I left for coffee and man-alive did my ankle hurt. And now it feels fine again. So I don’t know what’s up. I took some Advil. And if it still feels wonky tonight, I’ll ice it a bit and wrap it again.

I shouldn’t be that surprised. It’s commonly known that I often injure myself and have no idea how it happened. I often have large bruises on my body and no idea how they got there. And no, I don’t sleep walk. And they usually show up right before the weekend, so I don’t think it’s that my boyfriend is kicking me in my sleep.

The last time I had a big (and painful) bruise show up on my upper shin, I realized that I knew (kinda) where it came from. More specifically, I remember injuring it (the specifics are completely unknown) and thinking, wow, that really hurt, and I’m going to remember this when the bruise shows up. And then, well, I only remembered the thinking about remembering it part. Not helpful.

popularity: 10%

Apparently, Crate & Barrel, while being a fabulous store, is not the best place to register for your wedding (in case anyone cared). I have a friend from college who got married this past weekend, and I was sad all last week that most of the stuff on their registries was still unpurchased. Well, I checked today and they got a lot more of the stuff they asked for. Whew! But, almost their entire list on Crate & Barrel was still available. Bummer. Actually, their Target list was the one with the most fulfillments. Bed Bath & Beyond wasn’t that good, but they got all the sheets they wanted. I’ve got to figure out what to get them, and then figure out exactly where it is I’m supposed to mail said gift (since they got married in Illinois but live in California, and I don’t have their Cali address). But I’ve got some time before it’s rude.

And, joy of joys, I got two emails from people wanting to come look at ’s room. One guy is coming in from California and will only be here Wednesday and Thursday, and the other is a girl remarkably named Karla Jane (just like my existing - strange). If I don’t get anything settled, next week I’ll re-post on Craigslist with pictures. It’s a long, detailed posting as it is, though.

I had a really nice talk with . She doesn’t want to move and is sad about it, and a little nervous, having never lived on her own before. But she’s tired of being sick all the time, and I can understand that. Plus, I think it’s good for everyone to get the chance to live completely on their own for a while. I will definitely miss as a roommate - she has been one of the better ones I’ve had. But, I have to think of this as gaining a cool housemate (since the guy who’s apartment she’s taking over seems cool but is never home and never socializes with any of the rest of us) instead of losing a roommate. Plus, like we were talking about last night, no living situation is permanent, and as long as you can fathom a way out, have an end in sight, anything is tolerable. (It’s when you see the light at the end of the tunnel but the present is absolutely miserable that it’s roughest - like when we knew wanted to move but it wasn’t actually happening yet - that’s when she was the most annoying.)

So I didn’t exactly get everything accomplished last night that I wanted to. I did get the porch swept, and put up the little hooks for the lights. But then I didn’t actually hang the lights (I was letting the hooks become one with the side of the house, or whatever it is that’s supposed to happen while you’re waiting the obligatory hour before using). I finished the left front side of the baby sweater though. And pretended to crochet. I actually don’t think I did all that bad - I just got lost in the pattern when it told me to do a certain stitch in another certain stitch and I wasn’t exactly sure which one that was. So while I’m sure what I created looks nothing like it was supposed to (especially after I gave up on the pattern and just did what I wanted to), I think I got the general hang of it and what I did still looks kinda cute. And one of these days I’ll get the hang of holding everything the right way.

The conversation with took up a chunk of the night though. So much for starting the right side of the baby sweater. Or cleaning/organizing the kitchen. Or cleaning the bathroom. I did surf the web for a while on the front porch though. And finally packaged up the baby blanket, and ’s birthday present that needs to be returned. Neither made it to the post office today, but let’s take this one step at a time. (I have, like, two more weeks to get the grill returned before they charge me for two. And the box is really big, and figuring out how to get that downtown on the bus is sometimes more than I can handle early in the morning.)

Can someone tell me why Amazon says that the delivery estimate for the exchanged item is today, but also that it hasn’t been shipped yet? I think someone’s on crack.

Yesterday afternoon, gave me tech support via IM and got my Access database working. It’s so cool! I’m sure no one will be as excited as I am about what it does, but in short here’s what we got to finally function:

• There’s a form that comes up with a list of managers, and when you select one from the list and then click a button, it brings up a report of all their staff. There’s also a button to bring up just the query of all their staff, which should make that part of my job easier (when they tell me they have changes, that is).
• The report itself was tricky, but we finally got it to display the office name instead of number, and the employee’s last-name-comma-first instead of their ID.

It may not sound like much, but it really is much more functional than the old version. The next step is to get the statewide directory to print up correctly from the database. That is a little trickier, since there’s way more data, but I think I set everything up correctly in order to make it happen. We’ll find out. Maybe not today, but soon.

Tomorrow I’m out of the office most of the day - waking up in the morning has been really difficult lately, so I’m a little worried I’m going to miss my 7:30 bus. I almost did last month (within, like, 5 seconds).

I should probably do some more work. Or go get coffee. You know, something other than surf the web and blog. Today I haven’t really earned my keep yet. I will though. Promise. And then it’s off to SNB with - is back home in Ohio for a while. Hopefully the weather will stay nice (sounds like it should) and we can go for a walk along the river instead of being cooped up inside. Sounds like the weather is nice in Louisville for too.

popularity: 14%

Well, officially has a job interview two weeks from today. They’re flying her up here for a long weekend, so we can finally have that family dinner that we missed out on last time due to the impending snow storm. And she wants to see my “new” place, which means I have this strong desire to do as much home improvement as possible in the next two weeks. Which is… not very much, to be honest. Because there’s no way that shelving is getting put up. Hopefully I can get the kitchen reorganized and the bathroom clean. I think I can be happy with that. As I was laying in bed last night I realized that the yellow paint job looks spectacular and I’m really happy with it. I do have a tiny bit of extra time this week because is in Louisville all week for work. But all that really means is that I definitely have Thursday night free, since that’s about all I get to see him during the week anyways. Tonight’s goal: sweep off side porch and front steps, and centralize all potted plants (or rather pots for plants, since none of mine have life in them) on side porch. Maybe some more spray painting.

Went over to ’s house on Saturday and helped her paint her bathroom yellow while was at a poker tournament (or, at least, was supposed to be, but then it was shorter than he thought so he went and got a fun new toy and played with that all afternoon while I was with ). We went to Game Day and managed to play LOTR Risk for 6 hours. Who thought up that level of hell? Seriously. Having never played Risk before, most of us didn’t know what we were getting into, and was the only one who had played and didn’t figure out until we were well into the game that the way it was set up meant there was a looooong game ahead with no end in sight. We helped some friends move Saturday morning as well - definitely the easiest move I’ve helped with in a long time.

I think I overdid it on the walking last week, because my right ankle has been hurting since Friday. I should have wrapped it this morning. Oh well. So I’m taking it easy this week (aka riding the bus instead of walking to/from work).

I started the sweater to go with the baby hat this weekend too - cute little turquoise and white stripes, with buttonholes and everything! I like this project.

It’s boring at work today and I’m on phones for a while. Bah.

popularity: 10%