Panties: an explanation

Tucked in the box of birthday goodies Mom sent to me last week, was an innocuous bundle wrapped in maroon wrapping paper. Imagine my surprise when I tore into the package and found a pile of lingerie. It was all panties - red silk, black lace, white chiffon. Some of the knickers were small enough to fit our cat. A very odd gift to receive from one's mother. Luckily, there was a note that tried to explain the situation, but I didn't understand it fully until I talked to my brother, Ray.

My mom and her best friend used to own a business together. They made custom-made clothing and costumes for brides, dancers, figure skaters, and performers of all sorts. One day they were hired by a group that was putting on a tribute to Hank Williams Jr. The band decided to play a little twist on the old stereotype of fans tossing underwear on stage; Instead, the musicians wanted to throw underwear at the fans. So Mom and Helen bought a ton of random panties in a wide variety of sizes. I guess they had some extras, because Mom found them in the back of a closet recently.
What to do, what to do?
As George and I know already, you can't donate unpackaged underwear to charity shops; they just throw them away (that's a story for another day). So naturally, since she had no other options, Mother decided she'd send the panties to me.
Naturally.

Mom insists that the profusion of panties is not actually meant to be a birthday gift. It was merely a coincidence that she wrapped them up in patterned paper. And included it in a box of other birthday gifts. With a birthday card and birthday balloon and everything. But it wasn't a birthday present! Honest! What Mom didn't forsee is that the laugh I got from that package was the very best laugh of my entire birthday-week! Now that is a great gift! Thanks, Mom!

In return, I'd like to add a little laughter to my mom's life. So Mom, here's that video I was telling you about on the phone today. I'm sure it'll give you a chuckle.

33

Yesterday I turned 33.
Just think about that number. Let it roll around in your mouth a bit. Thirty three. Thur-tee-three. There's no denying it; that's a properly adult number. I am an adult. With a husband and a house and a cat. Did you know that Jesus died when he was 33? But it's a good number. As the song goes, "3 is the magic number", so 33 must be extra magical, don't you think? That's what I'm telling myself at any rate.

My birthday was a day full of sunshine and food and flowers and phone calls and chocolate and, oddly enough, panties.

Yes, panties. From my mother.

It was such a long day. I wore a new dress to lunch with friends (mmmm ... pizza). I got my car professionally washed and finally picked up my Durham library card (yes, george, finally!). I talked to my mother-in-law, my mom, and my brother, Ray, on the phone. I got a box of fun items from my mom (I'll get into that later!). Sheff bought me some flowers and some adorable chocolates in the shape of little cats and dogs (Too cute to eat!). And then we went to dinner.

Dinner was The Highlight Of The Day. Oh my.

There is a restaurant in Raleigh called the Hayes Barton Cafe and Dessertery. I've been wanting to check out this restaurant for months because the desserts are supposed to be great. Tim was a bit hesitant, however. He thinks "dessertery" looks a little too much like "dysentery". He thought we should go to one of our favorite restaurants and be served my our very favorite waiter in town. But I have been craving something new! Plus, it was my day ("It's my pretty pretty princess day!!!") and it was my choice and that was that.

We had SUCH a good time. The restaurant is small and cozy - the sort of place you'd expect to find along Cherry Street or in Brookside in Tulsa. It has a 1940's theme - black & white photos of movie stars, posters from movies like Casablanca. Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday playing in the background. Red walls & soft lighting. It's romantic, but still casual. Perfect. The best part, though, was the food. Nothing fancy or formal, just delicious & wonderful. Tim's steak with blue cheese was especially amazing. The goat cheese and dried cherries on my salad made my eyes roll back in my head. So good! And then, of course, was dessert. We were both pretty full, so we decided to split a slice of flourless chocolate cake with a strawberry buttercream between the layers of chocolate. There were real strawberries in the buttercream. It was so astonishingly rich! I could only eat 3 bites. It's going to take me a week to finish eating this thing. But that just means I can keep celebrating my birthday for many days to come! Hooray!



So. 33. Thirty. Three. It sounds kinda good. I think I'm going to embrace the glory of the number 3. Afterall, I've been married for 3 years. And our house number is 3. And when we adopted Millie, we added a 3rd member to our household. And we live in The Triangle. So obviously 3 can be great.

Well, except fot the whole Jesus-death thing. We'll just ignore that bit.

Self portrait

Nothin' much happenin' 'round here ... hence the lack of posts. But I just did this meme on my favorite message board & thought I'd pass it along.

Here's how it works:
1. Go to www.photobucket.com (don't sign in)
2. Type in your answer to the question in the "search" box
3. Use only the first page
4. Copy the img tag and paste for the answer (Unless you're on sucky Blogger. In that case, copy the Direct Link tag and use the Add Image tool)



1. What is your real first name?




2. What is your relationship status?




3. What is your favorite color?




4. What is one word to describe you?




5. What are you listening to?




6. Dream vacation?




7. Who is your best friend?




8. Nickname/Screenname?




9. Where do you work?




10. What makes you laugh?

3 (aka The Things We Do For Love)

In case any of you are considering getting married one day, please allow me to humbly suggest to have your wedding on April 2nd. It's a really kickass day.

This year, April 2nd felt a lot like how it did back in Tulsa in 2005. It was sunny, but not hot. The air felt clean and refreshing. The trees and bushes and flowers were in all their early spring glory. Gorgeous. But this year instead of dashing off to a frou-frou salon to get prettified, I started the day by mowing the lawn for the first time this season. It took a lot less time and effort to tidy my garden than it did to tidy myself on our wedding day. Funny that.


Gardening was not the biggest task of my day though. I had decided that I wanted to make something special for Tim for our anniversary. And lord help me, I settled on cheese and onion pasties. Tim loves these things & hadn't eaten one in the 3 years since he left England to be with me. I decided to show him that he could have me and cheesey, oniony goodness, too. The problem?
Pastry.
Pasties are made from pastry. Which means rolling out dough. And we all know how much I love pastry dough, don't we. But this is Tim and Tim deserves it, so I made the shortcrust pastry dough from scratch. I will admit that I uttered one grunt of frustration. And when Tim made the mistake of checking in on my progress, I was a bit cross with him. But the final result was amazingly tasty. I wish I'd taken photos, but I was too busy stuffing my face. For the first time ever, pastry dough was worth the effort.


I kept dessert simple: Brownies. But because I'm goofy and romantic, I cut out the brownies into little circles which I stacked on top of one another and dusted with powdered sugar. See? Little chocolate wedding cakes!

In a final gesture of love for my husband, I did not watch America's Next Top Model last night. Instead we watched episodes of Black Adder and the season of Doctor Who with Christopher Ecclestone. I know that there are people out there who would consider that to be a pretty lame way to celebrate a wedding anniversary, but I wouldn't want it any other way. Tim and I don't need fancy gifts and frippery. Good food, good entertainment, and a comfy spot to cuddle on the couch are all we need. I guess that's how we've managed to stay happy together: simple pleasures and low expectations. :P

No, they don't make dentures for cats

Yesterday Millie had 7 teeth pulled. Seven! Can you even imagine? The vet said that some of her teeth were loose & others were so rotten they had holes in them. Of her 4 canine teeth, she only has 1 left. Poor baby. Poor, dear, snaggle-toothed kitten. On top of this, she has bald patches on two of her legs for the IVs. She has been through so much! As soon as she got home yesterday afternoon, Millie ran to her favorite room - the guest room - and has rarely ventured out of it since then. I don't blame her one bit.

The good news is that, amazingly enough, Millie does not seem to hate us. I was sure she would reject us completely for days, but she has actually been quite affectionate. Don't get me wrong. She has spent a lot of time snoozing under the bed. But if I come into her room, she walks right out, purring away, & pretty much demanding to be pet and scratched and scratched some more! It's as if there's no such thing as too much affection. Tim thinks she wants to be reassured that everything is okay. I just find it odd that she's looking to us for that reassurance - the people who dragged her out from under the bed, stuffed her in a bag, and left her at the vet's office. But hey. Whatever makes her happy, ya know?

The vet says she should be mostly healed in a week. In the mean time, she has to take painkillers and antibiotics twice a day. The great news is that both of these drugs are in liquid form and can be mixed with her soft food (which she is eating with as much gusto as usual). Things will only get better from here.

And in case you were wondering, I bought a proper, soft cat carrier. No more pillow cases for my baby.

Don't know whatcha got til it's gone

Picture me, if you will, wandering around my neighborhood, my hair unbrushed, tears streaming down my face, an empty can of cat food in my hand, as I poked around the fringes of my neighbors' properties, sqinting my eyes as I strained to look under their bushes. That defined most of Wednesday afternoon for me. It was a bad day.

Here's the short story: Millie got out, but she came back. It was an emotionally exhausting affair. I cried myself into a migraine that made me so nauseated I nearly threw up (Which is amazing for me. It's been a decade since I last puked. TMI?). Tim even left work 3 hours early to help look for her. In the end, we found her curled up on our bed (do not ask me how long she had been there). The important thing is that she's back at home and safe and healthy. She was especially cuddly and lovable afterwards - as if she had finally realized that this is her home now & she was happy with that fact. All was good in the world of Millie.

Well, not quite. I noticed this week that Millie was having trouble eating. Sometimes while eating crunchy or chewy food, she would yelp and refuse to eat more. So yesterday I took her to the vet's office for the very first time. She knew something was up when I tried to put her in the cat carrier - a carrier that is far too small for her I realized. So instead I put Millie in a pillow case. Yup, I put the cat in the bag. Heh heh.

The good news is that Millie won the Best Cat of the Day award at the vet's office. She didn't bite or scratch or yowl or anything. She didn't run away or hide. Her tail didn't fluff up & her ears didn't flatten back against her head. She didn't even flinch when they took a blood sample. What an amazing cat, right?

The bad news is that she has lots of bad things going on in her mouth: missing teeth, possibly some broken ones, too, and ulcers. I got to see her gums, which were blood red and swollen. No wonder she was hurting! It's clear that she needs to have some work done. So on Monday morning, I will have to put her back in that pillow case and return her to the vet's office. I will also have to pay a hefty bill. But it's worth it.

Ah yes. Millie. The best $50 $500 we ever spent.

Grumpy Easter

When I woke up this morning, I felt rather under the weather. This persisted for a few hours ... and made me grumpy. The whole time I was sick, the cat kept meowing at me because she wanted to be fed/loved on/what have you, which didn't help my mood, either. And then I read some stuff on-line that made me grumpier. And I managed to think of a few other things in my life that hack me off, so I decided to mull on them for a while, too. Ya know, so that I could efficently get all of my bitching done in one go. Grrr.

But then I watched the Forumla One race and ate some cheese and now I'm watching the figure skating world championships. So everything is okay.
Well, almost everything.
The only little problem annoying me now is that we don't have any of my favorite cookies left. I made them for the first time last week and they were SO GOOD! So delicious were they, in fact, that we ate them all. And I'm low on ingredients and sickly so I won't be making more of these today. Poo.

However you, dear reader, should whip some of these babies up as soon as you can because, man, they are soooooooo freakin' good! They will certainly put you in a good mood. Really. Give it a try. Note that these cookies are big. You know the cookies you can buy at coffee shops that cost $2 and just one cookie hits the spot quite nicely? These are like that only better because (1) they cost a lot less and (2) you made them yourself! Hooray!

Super-sized Ginger Cookies
makes 12 to 14 cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
12 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses
about 1/4 cup granulated sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350F with rack in middle position. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper (or I guess you can grease the pans, but I prefer parchment paper).

2. Sift first 6 ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter & brown sugar together until smoothly blended. Then add egg & molasses and mix until blended. On low speed, add flour mixture, blending just to incorporate it.

3. Put granulated sugar in a cereal bowl or on a plate. Roll 1/4 cup of the dough into a 2 inch ball, roll in the sugar, and place on the prepared cookie sheet. Space the cookies about 3 or 4 inches apart.

4. Bake for 14 minutes until top feels firm but still soft in the middle. Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Feline paralysis

It's been a quiet week 'round the house. We watched the first F1 race of the season with Mark (Hooray for Lewis Hamilton!). And I baked some delicious ginger cookies (I'll share the recipe if you want). Tim got some nice compliments for a program he completed at work. And the Bradford pear trees in the neighborhood bloomed and it rained a couple times. So that's all quite nice.

But the biggest news this week is all about the Millie cat.

Miss Millicent is an interesting cat. She loves to be around her people. It is very rare to find her in a room alone. She'd just rather be with us. She even slept on our bed her very first night here. She will even walk right up to strangers & expect them to give her a nice scratch behind the ears. She's quite friendly in her own way. However, she has never been a lap cat. She might curl up near us on the couch or even sleep by my side at night, but she has showed very little interest in snuggling up on our laps ... until this week.

On Tuesday morning, Millie approached me while I was on the couch and she gingerly stepped on my leg. Before I really realized what was happening, she sat down in my lap. She sat there for a full 10 minutes before she got up and wandered off. This was a major achievement! I was so excited I almost sent Tim an e-mail about it. But it got better! Later that afternoon, Miss Mills curled up in my lap and stayed there for 2 hours and 40 minutes! Hooray! What a break-through! The only problem, of course, is that I didn't want to get up & disturb her - a condition Tim calls "feline paralysis" - so I wasn't able to run the errands I had intended to. But no matter. Millie was snoozing on my lap and I was pleased as Punch.

In the few days since Millie started sitting in my lap, I've been doing everything I can to encourage her. Yesterday she sat on my lap on 4 seperate occasions & slept by my side all night, too. Today I've been a bit busier, but she managed to sit on my lap for a while after I returned from the grocery store. This is really encouraging. More and more, she feels less like some distant relative who is staying with us for a while and is feeling more like our own, sweet baby cat.

Pi!

Did you know that yesterday - March 14th - was Pi Day? You probably did because if you're reading this you're probably about as dorky as I am and you get a kick out of silly holidays like this. In honor of Pi Day, I made pie. Indeed, I made TWO pies on Pi Day. Glorious, yes? But it was more than that. It was ... miraculous. Allow me to explain.

Confession time: I don't like making pie. Or more to the point, I don't like making pie crust. It takes so much time and effort to make pie crust. Rolling it out is a pain in the butt because the dough is always trying to stick to the table or the rolling pin. And it's hard to get it just the right size, because it never wants to form into a perfect circle with an even thickness. No, it's always got to be oblong with thin bits that tear while the thicker bits on the side laugh at me, mockingly. And then there's all of that flour everywhere - all over the table, all over your clothes. It frustrates me to no end. So much effort for what is basically an edible shelf that usually contributes very little to the overall flavor of the pie. You would think I would get the hang of it with practice, but no. For YEARS I was in charge of making the pies for every Thanksgiving and Christmas. And for years I struggled with annoying pie dough because in my family we have always made it from scratch.

Well, ya know what? Enough. Deep down I'm a purist and I love making everything from scratch. Hell, I've been thinking about making my own butter! But there is a point when one must embrace this modern age in which we live. And ... well, frankly, I don't want cooking to be stressful & annoying. I want it to be pleasurable. I figure that if buying pre-made pie crust keeps my hair brown for just a little while longer, than so be it. Pre-made pie crust it shall be.

So I bought a box of crust. I opened the packaging, unrolled the circle of dough, plopped it in the pie pan. And that was it! A miracle! Amazing! Splendid! Marvelous! And it tastes about the same as the dough I've slaved over for years. It appears that I truly can have pie and my sanity all at the same time. I didn't think it was possible! Hooray!

All of this to say that I made turkey pot pie for dinner and egg custard pie for dessert. And now that I've discovered this shortcut, I think I'll be making pies far more often.

Good Things Tuesday

Here's some stuff that is making me happy right now.



1. The Song Chart photo pool on Flickr. A bunch of people have taken song lyrics & turned them into graphs and diagrams. Brilliant. Click here to see my favorite one.

2. The Soop Shop on Etsy. They make these adorable rings that cost only $12 each. I need the squirrel one. I really really really do.

3. The "Stuff White People Like" Blog. Yes, it's wrong. I like it anyway.

4. Eddie Izzard is going on tour! EEEEE!!!! Just a shame he isn't coming here.

5. Design*Sponge, a really cool blog about home decor & such, has posted a Design Guide for my neck of the woods. Now I wanna go shopping.

6. Fluffy kitty belly.

Blah

Yup, that's right. Blah. It's how I feel.

Last night I had one of those big emotional breakdowns that we all have occasionally. I know that some of my dear readers are prone to these breakdown, too - some of you even call me in the midst of them - so that's why I don't feel bad admitting this. But it feels self-indulgent, you know? It's not fair for me to keep Tim awake late into the night while I thrash around, trying to figure out Why I'm Here and What Does My Life Mean Anyway and blahblahblah. Poor Tim. Poor, dear, patient Tim. He's even more tolerant than my cat ... and that is seriously saying something, people.

Speaking of Millie, here's some further proof that she is super laid back. Today a couple men came to the house to install our new over-the-range microwave/vent hood (yay!). These were two total strangers. They rang the doorbell. They walked into the house, smelling of strange smells & talking with strange voices. And did the cat get spooked? Not in the least. She continued to lounge lazily on the living room rug. I picked her up & put her in our bedroom so she wouldn't get upset. I don't know why I bothered, though, seeing as this is the same animal who will rub against my legs while I'm playing high Fs & Gs on my flute. Amazing. Millie is an animal that does not sweat the small stuff. I could learn a lot from her.

But here I am, sweating anyway. I think my problem is that I don't feel passionate about anything anymore. I used to feel an inner drive to do certain things - theatre, for instance - but that drive is gone now. I don't want to knit or sew or do anything crafty. I don't even feel the urge to see what plays are showing each week, let alone audition for any. I spend a lot of time on-line looking at art & interior design blogs, but I don't have the money to do what I want to the house. Generally I feel perfectly content just poking about on the internet & listening to my cat snore. But what kind of life is that? That's pathetic. I may seem content on the surface, but deep down I know that something is missing. I just wish I knew what it was.

You know what I'm doing? I'm making buttprints in the sands of time again. Bah. But how can I change that when I don't feel compelled to do anything else?

Anyway. Blah.

Happy Homer Day

Most of the people who read this blog know that I used to date a guy named Corey. He and I broke up about 5 years ago, but nowadays we are good friends who chat on the phone & visit one another whenever I'm in Tulsa. He still knows me better than just about anybody else & understands my sense of humor better than most. Basically, he's a good friend to have in your corner.

Anywho, Corey loves to buy surprise presents for people, so when I was his girlfriend I was the recipient of many gifts. However, Corey had a habit of occasionally buying gifts for me that he appreciated far more than I did. We called them Homer Gifts in honor of the episode of The Simpsons in which Homer bought Marge a bowling ball for her birthday - a bowling ball that had already been engraved with Homer's name & with holes already drilled to fit Homer's fingers.

One day we decided that occasional Homer Gifts weren't enough. We needed an official holiday. And so, Homer Day was born. On Homer Day - March 3rd - you're supposed to buy a "gift" for someone else, but honestly it's an excuse to buy a gift for yourself. It's a great holiday because we all deserve to treat ourselves on occasion, right? Right.

So this year Corey got me the DVD of Kenneth Branaugh's "Hamlet". I bought him "Something Rotten" - a book in the Thursday Next series. Well, whaddaya know, Corey already has that book! And I know that Corey is a much bigger Hamlet fan than I am. So, in proper Homer Day fashion, we've chosen to just keep our gifts for ourselves. I guess we won't be mailing eachother care packages any time soon afterall. ;)

Kitty Quirks

It's now been a week since Millie came home to us. In that time, we have come to learn a lot more about her.

For instance, Millie can't jump very high. She has trouble simply getting up on our bed (she uses her claws to get a grip on the edge of the mattress & hoists herself up). This is good because it means that she cannot jump up on the kitchen countertops. How great is that?! Also, she has a squeaky snore that is very endearing. And she often likes to lay on her back with belly exposed and her feet in the proper "paws up" position. Very very cute.


There were a few early quirks that worried us that, luckily, we've already overcome. Millie was nervous about venturing downstairs during her first few days here, but she seems to have conquered that fear with just a teensy bit of encouragement from us. I also noticed that she likes to sharpen her claws on the carpet, but I got her a scratching pad & she seems to prefer it over the alternative. All of these are moves in the right direction & we couldn't be happier.


But she has one quirk that we don't quite understand and are not sure how to handle. It seems that Millie prefers to eat while she is being pet. At the very least, she wants us standing or sitting near her while she eats. It's very strange. I can put down fresh food for her - even yummy canned food - and she will eat a few bites by herself, but she'll stop when she notices we're not near by & will go seek us out. We used to have her food in the guest room, so she spent a lot of time lingering by the door to that room, trying to lure us in there so that we could pet her while she ate. Now that her food is in the kitchen, things are a little different. If she wants to eat she will walk up to me and literally poke my leg with her paw - no, seriously - and look at me in a needy, pathetic way. If I ignore her, she pokes me again. When I give in to her wishes, she will happily chow down & eat quite a bit, purring the whole time while I stroke her back. Even if I just stand next to her and just watch her eat she seems much happier and will eat more. It's bizarre.

Can anyone explain this? Why does she want us to be there? Do you think she's a social eater - that maybe her old owner used to feed her cats at the same time that she fed herself? I honestly have no clue. Luckily, she does not try to wake us in the middle of the night when she goes down for an early morning snack. At least, I don't think she does ...

I Can Haz Kitteh?

So here's how it went down. Wednesday evening when we met Millie, I was a bit concerned. She was so unbelieveably calm and ... tolerant. She let us pet her & scratch her neck & at one point she even flopped over & let me pet her tummy. However, I was afraid that Millie didn't like us. I feared that she was just being polite or something. Crazy, I know. But honestly, I felt more like I was meeting a potential roommate than my future fur baby.

I voiced my concerns to Tim. He tactfully told me to get over myself. "We're getting the cat, okay? No excuses." Thank goodness my husband is as patient and loving as my adorable new cat.

Friday night Annie and Tony (the foster people) brought Millie over to our house. I was worried that Millie would hide or be distant. I figured that at the very least she would choose to sleep in her cat bed rather than with us. But I was wrong. She happily ate the food we provided and purred at our every touch. When we went to our room to sleep, she jumped up on our bed, where she curled up & drifted to sleep at our feet.

I have not stopped smiling since.

I am officially in love. I feel this urge to go out and tell everyone how splendid Millie is & post oodles of photos of her & write long posts about the cute little noises she makes & the funny way she walks or about the tiny white tip on her tail that is so cute I just want to eat it.

Dear, sweet, silly Millie. Definitely the best $50 we've ever spent.

Meet Millie

Daffodils

The daffodils in our front yard are blooming. Just thought you'd like to know. :)

Because it's the view from the street ... get it?

Yesterday I got a phone call from Veronica.
V: "What color is your house?"
Me: "It's, uh, kinda a creamy yellow?"
V: "Okay ..." pause "You live on a cul-de-sac?"
Me: "Yeeaaaaah ..."
I was a tad confused at first, but then I realized that V was looking up my house on Google StreetView.

Yup, that's right, kiddos. We've hit the big time. Last summer legions of camera-bedecked cars were wandering our streets. Now the fruit of their labor is available for all to see. Our town is now on Google StreetView. And if that isn't cool enough, V & Travis' house is on StreetView, too. So V and I had fun looking up one another's homes & saying, "I can see your house! Oh my god! That's so cool!" and blahblahblah.

V and I will both warn you, though, that StreetView is seriously flawed. When you put in V's address, it drops you in front of a house on the opposite side of the street and many doors down from their actual house. Ask StreetView to show you my house & you get dumped in the middle of an intersection. But with a little guidance (via cell phone in our case), you, too, may look at poor-quality photographs of the homes of loved ones and strangers. Hooray! Ain't technology grand?

PS: I would post the StreetView pic of our house, but I can't figure out how to copy the image. Damn you, Adobe!

PPS: My friend Laura & her family move away on Thursday! How fast was that?!? I held a going-away party for her last night. Mmmmm ... mohitos ...

PPPS: We put in an application for Millie the cat. Fingers crossed.

Anti-kvetch

So ... I've been MIA for nearly 2 weeks now. Sorry about that. I've been pretty stressed out, but I'm starting to get over it. I could write a long, detailed post about my recent "kvetches". However, I've decided to focus on the positive. Won't you join me?

1. Tim and I celebrated our 3rd Elopiversay. Yes, spicecake cupcakes were consumed. Tim even bought me flowers. Aaw!

2. Tim had a birthday! And received his first ever birthday card that poked fun at his age. They should make a birthday card that says "You know you're old when you receive a birthday card that starts off with, 'You know you're old when ...'."

3. Inspired by Tim's rejuvenated interest in music, I have rented a flute! I'm playing it almost daily. I'm not as good as I was in high school, of course, but I'm holding my own pretty well.

4. Derek got a great job! And will be making more money while working for people who appear sane! Hooray!

5. Our friend John who was laid off a while back also got a great job! Too bad it's in Austin. But now he and Laura can feed their kids & that's all that counts.

6. My dear old friend, Karen, had a baby girl! Her name is Chloe Ellen & is super cute.

7. My pal, Janice, is a published author yet again. Her new book "Have You Found Her" - is out now. Run to a bookstore & buy it!

8. I think we might possibly maybe possibly adopt a cat. Maybe. The agency will only adopt their animals out to US Citizens, so keep those fingers crossed.

Painting madness: revisited

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I painted the living room and hallway? Remember how I had trouble posting the pics? I think I found a solution. It's called PictoBrowser. Check it out.



Thanks to Jessica over at "How About Orange" for the heads-up.

An axe to grind

Warning: Rock Band is a dangerous, dangerous game. Not just because you can get blisters from pushing those buttons for hours. And not just because you can strain your voice if you sing Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive" too enthusiastically. Rock Band is most dangerous when it reminds your loved ones of how much they miss rockin' out with their buddies back in college.


Back In The Day, Tim owned a number of instruments, his favorite being the bass guitar. He was briefly kinda-sorta in a band. He only played in public once (at a PETA Greenpeace fundraiser back during his brief stint as a vegetarian treehugger). But public performance has never been a major source of joy for Tim. He just likes making music. Rock Band reminded him how much he missed that.

So Tim is now the proud owner of a new bass guitar. Ta da! Pretty, isn't she?


I don't think we can only blame Rock Band, though. Over the past few weeks we have been watching the first season of Flight of the Conchords on DVD. Pretty inspiring stuff. If listening to "Business Time" doesn't make you want to pick up a guitar, I don't know what will.