Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Sad today

My parents arrived yesterday. They're fine. But they brought bad news.

Our Gary kitty cat died on Sunday night. He'd been sick for a long time, but it's hard. He was just such a fantastic cat.

So. I'm glad I heard it in person & that my parents are here to soften the blow. Because losing Gary has made me feel rather heart-broken & extraordinarily homesick.

Sigh.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

A big whale & a smattering of "Dick"

Feeling a little home-sick today. But I found this & it made me smile a little.


But watching Ed in this clip made me smile even more. Yay!

Saturday, June 17, 2006

The parents are coming! The parents are coming!

Hey kids. Sorry I don't post very often anymore. Frankly, my life is pretty dull lately. Watching a bit of the FIFA World Cup (and liking it, actually). Doing a bit of experimental cooking. Looking at videos of an adorable kitten named BeiBei on YouTube. Talking with my on-line pals about that televised interview with Britney Spears (Throw out the gum, honey! And for the love of gawd, put some clothes on!). So, uh, I just don't have much to write about! But hopefully that will change because the 'rents will arrive on Monday. And boy oh boy, do we have plans!


We'll spend a couple of nights next week at Atlantic Beach. During our stay, I'm sure Mother will relax on the beach and acquire a lovely tan, whilst my father and I will cover ourselves in SPF 50+ and burn anyway (see photo at left from our last visit to Atlantic Beach in 1987). Just like our previous visit, I'll be wearing a red bathing suit so at least my flesh will match my attire. Then next weekend we'll come back here, grab Tim, & we'll all head west to the mountains near Asheville, where we'll tour the Biltmore Estate ... and then drive home in silence, thinking about how terribly unsuccessful we are, financially-speaking. But I hear the gardens are gorgeous! Yay!

So what am I doing this weekend in preparation for their arrival? Other than buying more toilet paper, of course? Well, you better believe I'll be listening to "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me"! I think that listening to it and imagining Chris in the audience, will make me feel that much closer to her. Which will make me very happy, indeed. Yay!

Other stuff I might do:
1. Catch up on my NPR listening. I lurves me some NPR, but I'm not really a fan of the local station. It's too polished. I miss the quirky people at KWGS! So I've been catching up a lot on the internet. I'm especially looking forward to this story about a book called "Funny, But No". The book is kinda based on an old feature on the internet that I used to read weekly (they never mention the internet connection, but I know the truth, man!). Click on the link & read a few of the examples.
2. Oogle the items at A Southern Season. Mmmm ... gourmet grocery stoooooooore. This place is huge. Take LaDonna's & multiply it by 20. Something like that, but with a bakery and patisserie and every kind of gourmet chocolate ever made and 3000 varieties of wine and ... pardon me while I wipe the drool off of my chin.
3. Drive past the Hog Day festivities, but not necessarily stopping & getting out of the car. I found out that the barbecue they serve at Hog Day is (understandably) North Carolina Style. Which means that the sauce is basically vinegar &, therefore, not the thick, sweet stuff to which I am accustomed. Screw that.

So what are you doing this weekend?

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Hogs, fish babies, & monkey chow

This post is going to be super random. Just warning ya.

Last Wednesday was Corey's birthday! Yay! If you haven't done so already, call him up & wish him a happy belated. For his b-day, I gifted Corey with knowledge ... specifically, the knowledge that Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven were performing in Tulsa on Friday night. This made his week, or so he told me. So you see? There are good cheap gifts to be found!

In other friendly news, Megan is doing a temporary dancing gig in Ashville, so that means I have a friend in the same state as me! Woo hoo! We're going to get together here next weekend. And I have already noted that her visit will coincide with Hillsborough's Hog Day. Jealous, aren't ya?


Tim and I finally have some fishies in the house. Last week Tim bought 3 guppies - a male and two females. We even settled on some names. There's ...
- Lymon, a female who has a lemon-lime coloring going on. And I know quite well that Lymon is really a male name, but I don't care. Her name is Lymon. Hope my dad finds it flattering.
- And then there's a blue & orange male named Parminderjit ("Parmy" for short) whom we have named after one of Tim's old friends in Sheffield. Parmy the Fish looks kinda like the pic here, only not so fuzzy. Parmy the Person is a professional stage manager, so even though I've never met him, he's all good in my book.
- Lastly, there's a silver and orange female. I think we might name her June ... simply because we got her in June and I haven't come up with a better name. Got a better idea? Pass it on. I'm easily influenced.

Anywho, this morning we awoke to discover that one of the ladies had given birth! So we have 5 teeny tiny baby guppies swimming around near the top of the tank. I guess we got 8 fish for the price of 3! Hooray for free fish!

Lately george and I have been spending a lot of time talking about how weird it is to move away from a town you've known for a long time. I'm sure that the handfull of you who read this blog know what I'm talking about because it seems like all of our friends have suffered through a big move - be it to a new state or even a new country. One thing I realized in Tulsa was that I knew a lot of people and I was accustomed to opening up the paper and seeing familar faces - people I knew in real life. I realized that at our new home, I would open the paper and none of the people would be familiar to me. I wouldn't know any of their stories. I wouldn't get the sly political inside jokes. All of that.

So I must say that it was quite something to find a couple of our friends between the pages of People magazine this week! Kinda odd, but comforting, too. Almost made me feel like I was reading Urban Tulsa! So I think that from now on, all of our friends and aquaintances should strive to put themselves in the national news, just so that we can feel more connected - more at home. It doesn't have to be printed media; NPR or televison will do. So hop to it, peeps! Do something newsworthy! Or just call up "Wait Wait - Don't Tell Me" & inform them you have to take the quiz because ya love me!

Go on now. I'll wait.

And while we wait, here's what I've been watching on You Tube this week.

First, there's this clip I found through NPR. Star Trek Cribs. Welcome to the Spock Casa!

Then theres the Monkey Chow Guy. This Canadian guy (who looks suspiciously similar to one of my brothers) decided to eat nothing but zoo-grade monkey chow for a week. Now he understands why monkeys in the zoo throw their own feces at people. His video diaries can be found here.

Remember Simon and his land of chalk drawings? Well, you don't just have to rely on memories anymore. This episode in particular made me think of Derek & George.

Last, but certainly not least, there's the Teeny Little Super Guy teaching a lesson that I still need to remember when I head out into the big wide world. Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Tuesday of the Beast


Hey, kids! It's 6/6/6! Or 6/6/06. Whatever. The good little Christian girl in me is getting a bit of a thrill from this. Note that I can't tell if this is a fun thrill or actually a bit of a scary, chilled thrill caused by the inevitable doom that is about to befall us all. It could be either. We'll see.

In addition to today being the birthday of the Anti-Christ, it is also a race day for my bro-bro. Hope the weather will be fantastic for them, because I think it was really rainy at his last race. And riding bikes in the rain ain't much fun, in my experience.

So we know how my brother is celebrating Satan's b-day. But I'm not sure what I'll do. Part of me thought it might be fun to go to the maternity ward of the local hospital and watch the new mothers freak out about the possible damnation of their precious wee widdle bundles of doom.

Then I realized that I don't know the location of our closest hospital. Goodness, there's so much to learn when you move! Just a few days ago, Tim realized that we had not yet told the Dept. of Homeland Security that we moved ... which you really need to do if you're an evil non-American like my hubby. Not to worry, though. It's all straightened out now.


Honestly, though, I'm probably just going to go shopping. Grocery shopping especially. I've been super sick lately (you sooooo do not want to hear the details), so I need to get some fud. And I think that the hell of moving is "celebration" enough for Satan. And I am married to an evil non-American. So I'm doing my part, right? Maybe I'll get to the grocery store and find an evil devil-horned tomato like Neil Gaiman here.

In good, non-devil-worship related news ... my car still works great! Woo hoo! And Tim got his drivers license renewed (Guess I better start studying for mine). And our trash service will finally start tomorrow. And we met the homeowners last weekend and they were nice. And we went to a sale & bought a new set of 600 thread-count sheets for about 40 bucks! Just 40!! And that includes tax! My excitement about this is further proof that I'm really an adult now. Which makes me a little less excited. But then I think again about those 600-thread-count, 100% cotton, deep pocket sheets & I just don't mind anymore. Mmmmm ... soft sheeeeets ... feel so good it's almost sinful. Now that's a great way to celebrate Satn's b-day!