Music?

If you recognize the music behind the EV1 commercial I just posted, please let me know. It'd be fun to skate to.

1996 GM EV1 commercial

Pretty cool.

New Year's resolutions

It's the last day of 2006 -- time to post my New Year's resolutions.

1. Floss every night. I used to be really good at this one, but I started forgetting sometime this summer, and I need to get back to it.

2. Go out for lunch at work only once per week, cumulative (not counting weekends or when I'm on vacation). I've made this resolution since 2005, and I've varied in my success. In 2005, I ended up two ahead, but in 2006 I was 16 behind, so I have 14 weeks to make up. Guess I better get started on that ham and bean soup.

3. Be on time to work. Despite six months of my best efforts to leave earlier, I keep leaving the house at the time I used to need to leave when I lived on the east side. Old habits die hard.

4. Land my flip again. I've landed it twice from a standstill, both in 2005, and I want to transform that into a real flip jump. Unfortunately, it seems like most of my jumps arrive during times of great personal hardship. I'd like this one to come more easily.

5. Save money. We have a long list of things we want to do to the house and items we would like to purchase. I'd like to save more money toward those things. The next few items include a chest freezer, a new computer for Steph, and getting Phoebe's check engine light (yes, it's back on again) checked out.

6. Try more new recipes. I bought a new cookbook yesterday called A Slob in the Kitchen, which has some interesting easy recipes. My adventures in cooking have mostly turned out well, and I'm interested in exploring several other cookbooks we have. I've started dating recipes when I try them, too.

7. Less trans fat! I've been trying to cut down on my trans fat consumption recently. Guess I'll be getting my fries from Chick-Fil-A or Wendy's when the craving hits. I admit that the Shedd's Spread Country Crock limited-edition cinnamon spread that I love so much has half a gram per serving, but I should be allowed one indulgence, right? Besides, I don't use much of it.

8. Use up at least three of my perfumes. I have a lot of perfume, and as much as I've tried, I'm not a one-scent kind of girl, although Flower Moon could almost make me into one. I'm running out of space on top of my dresser for perfumes, and about three-quarters of the ones I have are scents I like but don't feel the need to purchase again when I run out.

9. The Compact. The Compact is a movement in which people don't buy new stuff. They do, however, buy used stuff. Exemptions are made for such things as food and health and safety items. We're going to try it and see how it goes. New stuff resold on eBay seems to count as used, too.

What we're watching tonight

Elizabeth lent us An Evening with Kevin Smith.



I love Kevin Smith.

What are you watching?

Holiday season in review

We've had a busy holiday season this year (as usual). Over Thanksgiving, we drove to Iowa to visit Steph's dad's side of the family, which was great fun. We attended several Christmas parties, hosted one, and went to four family Christmases (well, Steph only went to two). Steph got pleurisy again and had to stay home on Christmas. I hit the after-Christmas sales with Michelle and got some good deals. We shopped yesterday and today with our Christmas gift cards, and now I have more work clothes and we both have many books to read.

For Christmas, I gave many fun gifts and received a lot as well. Some of my favorite presents include a Wheel of Fortune game, the Out on the Porch calendar, two pairs of slippers, an excellent pair of gray pants, a book on living green, and a scribe (for drawing circles on the ice so I can learn some school figures).

Merry Christmas

I'm at my dad's, blogging from the other side of the kitchen table (opposite the side where I usually sit), which seems to be the only place in the house where I can scam on the neighbors' unsecured wireless.

Steph is at home with pleurisy. I was very worried about leaving her, but she convinced me to go, saying that she'd be fine and that she'd call Dan and Doug if something happened. I miss her. And the pets.

So far, my dad and I have cooked the turkey, which is almost ready to eat, and we (mostly my dad) replaced the other taillight gasket in the Honda so my trunk won't leak. I painted the wiper arms flat black where the paint had burned away (sounds like a precious thing to do on a 13-year-old car, but the silver metal on the tops of the arms reflects into my eyes in an annoying fashion).

Sauerkraut recipe

My dad's sauerkraut recipe, slightly edited. It was handed down to him from my grandmother. We're the only family I know who eats sauerkraut with the turkey dinner at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Sauerkraut copy 11/11/91

About 1# fresh pork, cut in small pieces
2 cups water
1/2 cup vinegar
Salt and sugar (a little pepper)

Boil pork and mix about 1 3/4 hrs.

1 onion
1 32-oz jar sauerkraut (Vlasic Polish sauerkraut with caraway seeds -- Polish is very important)
1 scant tablespoon caraway seeds (if sauerkraut doesn’t have them)
2 oz margarine
2 tablespoons flour

Add sauerkraut (Vlasic Polish with caraway seeds), caraway seed (1 scant tablespoon). Saute 1 onion in 2 oz margarine. Add 2 tablespoons flour and mix (don’t brown); then add to meat and kraut and let boil about 1/2 hour.

A real sit spin

In my lesson last Tuesday, my coach liked my sit spin -- she said that it was the best one she'd ever seen me do and that it was a real sit spin. I've been working on it for a few years, so I'm happy that it's improved.

Let me take a moment to say how much I like my new coach. She's very detail-oriented, much like I am, and her technical knowledge is unbelievable. I understand things on a different level, and it makes all the difference. In saying that, I'm not putting down my old coach in any way -- she is also an excellent coach. In fact, she came back for a visit about a month ago and had time to fit me in for a lesson during a week that my new coach was out of town. We worked on some of the exercises I've been doing with my new coach, and she helped tremendously by linking parts of them to other things I can do. She also said I've gotten faster since she left in August, which is pretty cool.

Cool rain boots at Target

When I was a kid, I read Ramona the Pestand I wanted a pair of yellow rubber rain boots like the ones Ramona was wearing when she jumped in all the puddles. (On the cover of the book, they're red, but I remember them being yellow.) Target doesn't have yellow ones, but I found these, which will do just fine.

3:47 am

It's 3:47 am. We've been up for an hour and fifteen minutes dealing with the flood down our bedroom and guest room walls. I'm not coherent enough to write a detailed post about it, but the roofers tore out the gutters in that section and the water coming in woke us up. Steph called the roofer, and he's on his way over.

Guess we're going to have to paint the bedroom after all, considering that the water is loosening many layers of paint and wallpaper.

Aaargh.

On various topics

For some reason, it's hot in our house tonight. There is no reason that it should be hot. It's not that warm outside. Our radiators are fixed, but the heat is not turned up that high. At this rate, I'm going to have to break out the summer pajamas.

Last night we had a holiday party. Unfortunately, we failed to take any pictures.

We took Spike for a walk this afternoon because it was about 45 degrees out. He got cold halfway through and I carried him most of the rest of the way home inside my coat. This amused the other walkers in the neighborhood.

Tonight we watched the finale of the Amazing Race. I didn't really have a favorite team this season, but I didn't dislike any of the teams either.

Last week I was elected treasurer of the Old Northside neighborhood association.

Happy birthday, Lucy!

Lucy is six today. This morning, she got special food, and tonight we're going to give her a new toy. I tried to tell those other cats to be nice to her today, but I don't know if they listened.

Finally back online at home

The router at home had trouble just before we left for Thanksgiving, so we weren't able to get online until yesterday. Recent highlights:

1. We went to Steph's grandparents' house in Brighton, Iowa, for Thanksgiving. Steph has a very large family, and I've always wanted a large family, so it's especially fun for me.

2. When we got home, I took Steph on a carriage ride around downtown (neither of us had ever done that before and we both wanted to), and I asked her to marry me. She said yes!

3. I rented my house! The tenants take possession Friday.

Cookies

I just found out that Crisco has introduced a shortening without trans fat. I can make my M&M cookies again!

However, it's odd that the nutrition label pictured says that the shortening is not a significant source of calories from fat.

Over the weekend, I looked at the nutrition poster at Wendy's and found out that their fries have no trans fat, either. (I had a side salad instead of fries on Saturday, but now I'll know where I should get fries in the future.) The nutrition section of their site says that fries have half a gram of trans fat per serving, though. I'm not sure which information to believe.

My Basic Skills class

I've been teaching Basic Skills skating to kids on Wednesday evenings this fall through Winter Club. (Many skaters join clubs; it can be a cheaper way to get ice time, and it's your link to USFS.)

I teach Basic 4, which consists of forward edges on a circle (inside and outside), forward crossovers in both directions, backward stroking and glides on one foot, back snowplow stops, backward pumping on a circle, and forward outside three turns (left and right).

Teaching is extraordinarily difficult. Now, I have never been under the impression that it wasn't, and I'm not a natural teacher, but I've really been having trouble explaining some of this stuff to the kids. Unlike me, they don't ask questions during class, and sometimes I can't figure out what they're doing wrong or what they need to know.

The kids have been interesting. I have a little girl who's about nine who doesn't talk much and two girls who are both about twelve who are friends and like to push each other around. One of them is really happy and enthusiastic and the other one is a little quieter. No-Talker Girl is very focused, and she's been having a hard time with three turns. The other two like three turns quite a bit and picked them up more quickly -- for them, it's just a matter of learning a little more body control.

I'm happy to say that all three of them passed my level last week! One of them even gave me a hug. No one is ready to move up into my level next week, so I'll be helping to teach the adults, which I find much easier.

Silly Beetle

Phoebe's check engine light went on in June in the midst of moving. I had just bought gas (and yes, I tightened the cap enough -- I always count six clicks), and it was my first over-$40 fillup, so I foolishly told Phoebe that she was expensive. Silly me -- I know better than to talk to her like that. Her light was on in less than two miles.

I haven't driven her nearly enough since, but today I finally managed to take her to Advance Auto Parts to have the code checked. The guy helpfully plugged the scanner in, and it directed me to start the car, which I did. The light went out. Then it wanted me to turn the car off for ten seconds and restart it. After I did that, it produced an error because it couldn't read the code. We repeated the scan and got the same error. The guy asked if the light was still on, and I told him it wasn't. Turns out it can't read the code if the light isn't on anymore. Whatever it was, the light has gone out.

I suspect Phoebe just wanted a little attention.

I'm a sucker, but it paid off

I am such a sucker for games like the McDonald's Monopoly game. I love collecting the pieces, seeing what I need in order to win, and imagining what I might win. Steph and I collected a fair number of game pieces this time around, and I have been entering the codes online, which gives you an additional chance to win. Until today, we'd been winning crappy things like free games and cell phone ringtones, which aren't really prizes because you have to let the company market to you on your cell phone. We didn't redeem those. However, today I was entering the last four game pieces and I landed on Go and won a $200 American Express gift card! It won't arrive for a while because it takes time to verify everything, but I'm looking forward to the $200!

Voting

I voted over lunch today. There was only a short line, and I was in and out in a very reasonable amount of time. My ballot was paper, and I fed it into the machine and watched as the number of ballots changed from 93 to 94.

Blogging at the Abbey

We decided to come down to the Abbey to have some tea and some dinner (Chef's Signature Portabella wrap! Yum!) and use their wireless. (Steph is participating in NaNoWriMo, so she needs to get some writing done.) The Abbey moved to Pennsylvania St. in the last year or so; I'd been going to the old location since 1995 or so. The new one is nice, but I liked the charm of the old one, with its funny triangular shape and the tables against the wall with wingback chairs that you could pull close enough together that the wings prevented you from being seen.

Earlier today we took the recycling, and then I skated. I came home and Steph had raked several large piles of leaves, so we bagged some of them and then it started to rain.

Yesterday I showed my house four times, and all four took an application. We'll see how that turns out.

Halloween on Ice

Thanks to a tip from our friend Amy, Steph recorded the very end of Halloween on Ice last night -- the finale was Nancy Kerrigan skating to "Defying Gravity." Even though Nancy isn't my favorite skater, I have to say that I was impressed. Her program was different from mine (because she's a much better skater than I am, so she has more elements to choose from and also a longer cut to work with), but there was one spot (the "close my eyes and leap" part) where we do the exact same thing, and that was fun to see. It's not very often that I get to see an elite skater do a program to the same music I skate to.

Halloween on Ice will be rebroadcast on Tuesday morning on the Style network.

Click for Cans

Campbell's Chunky Soup is sponsoring a contest. You vote for your favorite football team and the one with the most votes and the one with the most improved vote total get donations to their local food bank. If you don't have a favorite football team, please vote for the Indianapolis Colts!

Gilmore Girls quote

"If I wanted to play ping-pong, I would kill myself." --Emily Gilmore

50 Things...

Today I found the list I made of 50 things I could do when my roommates moved out. I made this list in early August of 2002.

1. I can park in the garage.
2. I can reach my coffeemaker (without having to move all the crap in front of it).
3. No more cat pee in inappropriate places!
4. [Roommate #2]'s brothers won't be around (really, I do like them, just in small doses, and they have hardly been here at all this summer)
5. No more playing musical cars to rearrange the driveway order so everyone can leave in the morning.
6. Guest room!
7. I can have people over for dinner and have parties.
8. I can always replace the bags in the trash cans so that no one else throws the trash directly in the trash can (and then if it's something messy it gets all over the trash can and is yucky to clean up). Besides, I spill it more often than not when pouring it from the trash can into a bag.
9. I don't have to buy expensive toilet paper because [Roommate #2] has a sensitive butt!
10. I can leave fun and cool soap and stuff in the shower and no one else will use it up. Corollary: I won't run out of shaving cream because [Roommate #1] forgets to buy herself some and uses mine... for six months at a time.
11. I can shower whenever I want.
12. I can talk on the phone whenever I want.
13. I can use the Internet whenever I want.
14. I can cook whenever I want.
15. Fridge space.
16. Freezer space.
17. I can put my fish teapot (really, it's quite cute) on the shelf in the kitchen and no one will decide that it should go in the basement because they don't like looking at it or something.
18. I can use my grandmother's dishes without worrying that someone else will break them.
19. I can have clean counters -- no clutter! Corollary: No sticky spills on the counters from other people not cleaning up stuff that spills.
20. Kitchen cabinet space.
21. I can eat at my kitchen table again without having to move piles of stuff that isn't mine. (I may have my own pile of stuff on the table, but it will be my stuff and I can put it away when it annoys me.)
22. I will always be able to find a pencil or pen when I want one. I can put one on a table or in a drawer and it will still be there when I look for it the next time. Same for a pad of paper.
23. I can do laundry whenever I want.
24. I don't have to fold other people's laundry in order to use the dryer.
25. I can do dishes as often as I want! No more stacks of dirty dishes in the sink!
26. No more icky sponges that smell like mildew because they weren't squeezed out when other people were done using them.
27. No dirty dish towels and laundry at the bottom (or worse, only halfway to the bottom) of the basement steps.
28. I can watch whatever I want on TV.
29. No wet dish towels in the sink. I really don't understand why that happens. They get all gross and yucky. What is so hard about hanging them up?
30. I can talk on the phone anywhere in the house without disturbing anyone or being disturbed.
31. I can watch skating videos in the living room.
32. No one else will reorganize my mail. I *still* haven't found last year's November property tax form.
33. I can buy soap and/or candles without having to hear about it when I get home. (I admit that I have too much soap and too many candles, but I am not five years old and I don't need a lecture on how much soap I have!)
34. No old Band-Aids in the shower. Yuck.
35. I can turn the A/C up so it's not as cold.
36. I will always be able to find a blanket. I leave blankets in the living room when it's cold and they disappear. There are a couple that I haven't seen for
*years.*
37. The futon will be folded up into a couch most of the time. I hate having it folded down for days at a time, but I do like being able to fold it down so that guests can sleep on it.
38. I will be able to see the top of the coffee table because there won't be a lot of clutter on it. I can put a candle there, and books I'm reading, and I will still be able to find them the next day.
39. I can use my new glass coasters without someone else dropping or otherwise breaking them.
40. I can hang stuff I like on the walls.
41. I can put plants in places other than my room. (Olivia [one of the roommates' cats] eats plants.)
42. I can bake stuff whenever I want.
43. My food won't disappear.
44. I can put up my own Christmas tree.
45. (When I find one) I can have my girlfriend over whenever I want.
46. I don't have to be quiet when I get up in the morning.
47. My scrunchies won't disappear (when I want a certain one because it matches the skating dress I'm testing or competing in).
48. I won't forget to shut the downstairs windows when I leave nearly as often as they do.
49. I can park next to the porch when I want to. (If I do that now, I'm in Roommate #2's way somehow.)
50. I can leave the outside lights on when I want to without being griped at.

And now for the furnace...

The furnace isn't working. The igniter seems to be the problem, and I'm currently waiting on a repair person. It's only 62 in the house, but when I got home, the dog was shivering, so I wrapped him up in a down domforter and held him on my lap until he stopped shaking. Poor little guy.

No renter after all

My renter backed out, so I'm back to square one. (However, I'd rather she do it now than three months from now.) This evening I had three appointments to show the house and only one of them showed up.

Overall, I have had an unbelievable number of no-shows during this process. It's more than a little inconvenient to drive over there, make arrangements for someone else to be there with me (my realtor doesn't want me to show the house alone because I might get hacked up and buried in the basement or something), and wait in a nearly empty house. If I were waiting at home, I'd have stuff to do, but my old house is pretty darn boring these days. I don't mind when someone has to call to reschedule, but it's really inconsiderate to just not show up. I never would have done that when looking for a place to rent.

I have a cold

I think it's time to admit that I have a cold. I don't wanna be sick. I have lots to do -- work, house stuff, fun stuff.

Stuff I can get done with a cold: Read e-mail, watch stuff on the DVR, finish reading my book club book, sleep.

Stuff I may not be able to get done with a cold: Work, skating lesson, put a bunch of stuff away.

What the cats said

Huckleberry and Annabelle were lurking near the top of the stairs looking suspicious as I was going into the bathroom to feed Lucy.

So of course I said to them, "Are you two in cahoots?"

Steph, speaking for the cats, chimed in, "We would tell you, but we don't know what a cahoot is."

Trees and branches

Our neighborhood association is paying for the rental of a wood chipper this weekend. Steph offered to help transport tree limbs and branches for people who don't own a truck, and we drove up and down several streets and alleys and picked up about eight truckloads of them. We may do more tomorrow.

A possible renter!

It looks like I might have a renter. She's coming by Monday to sign the lease, and I hope it all goes well. I'm quite relieved and very tired. Today I caulked several windows and doors and also the boards at the bottom of the posts on the porch.

National Coming Out Day

We celebrated National Coming Out Day by eating dinner at English Ivy's, a gay-owned restaurant/pub downtown.

I'm a lesbian, in case you hadn't figured it out by now.

Weekend update

We had a busy but productive weekend. On Saturday, Steph worked on installing edgers around the flowerbeds while I puttered around inside, and we went to my house to show it. On the way, we discovered that the Steak & Shake near my old house was being torn down. (Lisa, it's okay -- the last time I was in there, I overheard some of the employees talking about plans to knock it down and rebuild it. Besides, there's one downtown not too far from our new house.) The prospective tenant didn't show up, so we packed some garage stuff into the Honda and went back home, stopping to take pictures of the destruction of the Steak & Shake. It was supposed to rain, but the weather seemed to be holding, so we decided to go to the Fishers Renaissance Faire, which was great fun. Among other things, we watched a performer juggle knives and then sticks on fire, and we shopped a little and had a good time people-watching. (We also found my wedding dress, which I wrote about earlier.)

Then on Sunday, we showed my house in the afternoon and planted some bulbs in the front flowerbeds. The Steak & Shake was just a pile of rubble when we drove by. It was kind of sad.

eBay

I just listed my first eBay auction. Snow Moon is a BPAL scent that didn't work for me, so I'm selling it. I've been watching other Snow Moon auctions for a while, and this morning I noticed two others that went pretty high, so I decided the time was right. (It's getting colder out, and people don't usually buy winter-themed scents in the middle of summer.) Realisically, I'm just hoping to recoup my costs and maybe end up with enough to buy a bottle of Kindly Moon when it starts showing up on eBay. I missed it when it was up this month, and it sounds great.

I FOUND MY WEDDING DRESS!!!

Steph and I went to the Renaissance Faire in Fishers today. I wasn't looking for my wedding dress, but I found it. Or, rather, I found it in purple and the woman who made it is going to make me one in white.

The underneath part is sleeveless, and it has an overlay of sheer fabric with leaves and vines on it (they will be white). I don't know what the sleeves are called, but they're really big, and the dress has a simple scoop neck and is fitted through the bodice. It has a short train.






I saw one of the sleeves trailing behind a woman taking the dress into the dressing room, so I waited until she came out. She didn't buy the dress, so I tried it on even though I knew it would be too small. I showed it to Steph and suggested that it would be a good wedding dress if it came in white. By the time I went into the dressing room, the woman who made it had told me that she could in fact make it in white and that it probably wouldn't be that small on me after all. I knew as soon as I looked in the mirror that it was The One, and fortunately Steph likes it as much as I do.

When I wear the dress for real, I will not be sporting dark blue underwear (which you can see through the dress in the pictures Steph took when I was trying it on) and tennis shoes.

Degrassi season premiere quote #1

"I'm all about fun. I love fun. In fact, if fun were people, I would be China." --Emma

The sign is out!

I placed the For Rent sign in my yard this afternoon. Anyone want to rent a cute three-bedroom Cape Cod on the east side?

$5-a-bag day at the library sale

We live near the Library Services building where the library book sales are held. There are sales every couple of months, and every six months or so there's a half-price day followed by a $5-a-bag day (presumably so they can clear out a lot of the books that didn't sell). Regular prices are reasonable -- $2 for hardbacks, $1 for trade paperbacks, and 50 cents for mass market paperbacks -- and I've bought my share at those prices, but I'd never managed to make it to a $5-a-bag day... until today.

I purchased two bags of books for $10. 50 books. (And eight cassette tapes 'cause my Honda still has a cassette player but no CD player.) That's twenty cents per book. Not bad. Four books are gifts, three books were overflow from Steph's bag, and nine books are earmarked for half.com. That leaves 34 books for me to read.

I'd better get busy.

Almost ready

I'm hoping to put the For Rent sign out this week. The bathroom is painted, most of the garden overgrowth is cut down, and much of the house is clean.

In other news, Steph and I played a game called Arkham Horror with Mike and Rachel last night. It was amazing and very complicated. Steph and I both felt like we'll never be able to play without Rachel, who's played the game ten or twelve times and is just now beginning to refer to the rulebook a little less. It's a collaborative game, but there's plenty of competition -- it's just between you and the monsters and the gates and the Ancient Ones.

Weekend

Thursday night (not really weekend): Painted my old kitchen. Second coat on walls.

Friday night: Continued painting my old kitchen. First coat on part above cabinets and above other side of counter.

Saturday (all day): Painted old bathroom. (Note: Painting bathroom with lots of edges and stuff to paint around takes 9 hours. And that's just one coat.) Had to paint without overhead light because fixture is failing and had to be taken down to paint underneath because base plate of new fixture is smaller. In bathroom were me, stepstool, ladder, two lights, paint tray, and my dad. Bathroom is not particularly large. I am wearing almost as much paint as the bathroom is. (I dumped the paint cup on my foot at one point.) Kathy finished trim in dining room as well.

Sunday (much of day): Despite upset stomach, finished up second coat on kitchen. Kitchen is DONE!!!!! I took a couple of pictures -- see the Flickr bar on the side. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The color reminds me a lot of the color of the kitchen at my Aunt Dolores and Uncle Mike's house when I was a kid. Didn't feel well enough to start on second coat in bathroom.

Long weekend update

Over Labor Day weekend, I mostly labored.

On Saturday, my dad came to visit and we worked on my old house. We washed the kitchen walls to prepare them for painting, which took a lot longer than I thought it would, and I painted one kitchen wall and half of another. Kathy painted trim in the dining room. We also spackled and sanded quite a bit in the bathroom and a little in the kitchen, and my dad tried to fix the bathroom light socket that pops and crackles when a bulb is screwed in far enough to light. We also mowed the front yard, and I trimmed the bushes by the road. They look much better.

Sunday was my friend Jan's wedding. Jan is an old co-worker of mine. She married Dan, a guy she met through contra dancing. They had a Quaker wedding. I'd never attended one before, and I really enjoyed it. Everyone sits in silence, and anyone can speak if they feel moved to do so. It was interesting to hear people's memories and good wishes and thoughts on marriage. The reception was held in a historic barn, and Hogeye Navvy played. They used to play at the Aristocrat every Saturday night, and I went to hear them with Jan a few times. There was also some contra dancing, and I danced one dance, which was fun. It was really good to catch up with some old co-workers, too.

On Labor Day, my dad came to visit again. He changed the oil in the Honda, and Steph and I finished painting most of the kitchen while my dad washed the bathroom walls. My co-worker Robin put up the tile from the backsplash that had fallen down; he didn't have to do as much wall reconstruction behind it as I thought he might. My dad and I painted the bathroom ceiling and gave it part of a second coat.

The kitchen still has a few places left to paint, and some of it probably needs a second coat. The bathroom walls need to be painted, and some of the dining room trim needs a second coat. Then I need to clean up in all of those rooms, as well as the living room and part of the basement. It's coming along, but I'm impatient for it to be done.

Four for Friday

Four for Friday is back!

Q1 - Food Eating Contests: Joey Chestnut, the top-ranked U.S. competitive eater, is looking to capture his second straight title this weekend at the Waffle House Waffle-Eating World Championships at Stone Mountain Park, Georgia. (Last year, Chestnut won the title by devouring 18.5 eight-ounce Waffle House waffles in 10 minutes.) If you were to quit your day job and take up competitive eating as a professional gustatory athlete, what food items would you specialize in, or, which food eating contest would you be the hands-down favorite to win the world championship?

Popcorn.

Q2 - Laundry: When you do laundry, do you use the recommended amount of detergent or do you pour to your heart's content?

I tend to use a little less than it recommends because otherwise my clothes remain a little soapy.

Q3 - Handwriting: Do you like your signature?

Yes.

Q4 - Today: What are four things you know you will not be doing today?

Eating cereal, meeting the Pope, going out to dinner, and learning to knit.

Second-best Degrassi quote of the day

"Did the gay superhero know you took his belt?"

Best Degrassi quote of the day

"Dude, don't call me rhetorical. That's mean."

Paris in the Toilet

This cat story by Lance Arthur is the funniest thing I've read all week. Okay, so it's only Monday, but I laughed out loud.

Weekend update

On Friday, I spent the day with our friend Dan, who broke both arms in a bike accident last weekend. We even took his dogs to be groomed. Friday evening I worked on more unpacking and we watched some TV. I had brunch with friends on Saturday morning, and Steph and I went shopping. We got birthday present for Dan, some pants and shirts for Steph to wear to an upcoming wedding, and Crocs. I got red ones and Steph got olive green ones. We wore them to dinner for Dan's birthday (in the Pope Room at Buca di Beppo). Today I took the recycling to the recycling center and we got a load of stuff from my house.

Interesting gadget

This at-home soda maker looks interesting. I wonder if it's healthier than diet Coke.

Happy birthday, Spike

Spike is four years old today! Happy birthday, little man!

This is the photo I wanted to post in this spot, but it keeps timing out.

Weekend update

Steph wasn't feeling well Friday night after work, so we stayed home and watched TV. On Saturday, my dad came down and helped me and Joe refinish the dining room floor at my old house. It went better than the refinishing of the living room floor did three years ago, and it looks really nice. Then I went to a Turkish restaurant (The Bosphorus) with friends for a birthday dinner, and afterwards we went to Elizabeth's for games and cake. The restaurant was great -- I highly recommend it. Today I mowed the lawn while Steph worked on turning over the dirt in the flower beds on the side of the house. In the afternoon we went to see the movie An Inconvenient Truth, which was amazing. You really have to see it. I mean it. We went to Border's afterwards to buy the book. The movie recommends a Web site with ways to learn more and take action.

Birthday alligator

Yes, it's my birthday. I'm 34 today. So far, I'm enjoying being 34, but I might have to give it a day or two to see if I really like it. :-)

I share my birthday with--among others--Napoleon Bonaparte, Sir Walter Scott, Julia Child, and Ben Affleck. Ben and I were both born in 1972. I don't think I own any Ben Affleck movies, so I won't be watching any in his honor today.

I've been told that the birthday alligator will come to visit tonight and bring me presents!

Flickr photo badge

Steph helped me place a Flickr photo badge on my blog. I uploaded 17 photos tonight that I took with my new camera (Steph's old camera). (Actually, my cow-orker Alan took two of them.) Anyway, I'm planning to take more pictures than I used to now that I have a better camera and an easy way to upload them.

Here's a really frightening picture of the hot dogs my cow-orker Patrick grilled at work the other week:

Odd article

This came up in the rotating links at the top of the page in Gmail: Charity wants people to lend a hand... (Note: Not safe for work.)

Me?! Nope, not going.

Things to do to the house

I made a preliminary list of things to do to the house.

Have survey done
Get fence around back yard for Spike
New kitchen lights (and rewire switch so they work correctly)
New electrical outlets: porch, bedroom
Have electrical outlets grounded
Get new grill cover so we can move grill to deck
Get china cabinet for dining room (after fence so we can move bar out to deck)
Buy dehumidifier for basement
Paint rest of laundry room
Paint bedroom
Paint downstairs bath
Paint upstairs bath
Paint deck
Paint hallway/piano room
Paint kitchen
New drywall in kitchen ceiling
Foundation repair in NE corner
Get rid of carpenter bees
Have year-long radon test done
Replace upstairs bath floor covering
Replace laundry room floor covering
Replace shower with claw foot tub in downstairs bathroom
Get upstairs bathroom cabinet to hold towels and stuff
Replace upstairs bathroom lights
Replace downstairs bathroom lights
Add fan to upstairs bathroom
Build three-car garage with carriage house
Get shelf brackets for shelf in piano room closet
Paint exterior/fix siding
Replace brick sidewalk

Salmon wraps

Earlier this week, I made salmon wraps for dinner. I was trying to copy the salmon wrap Steph had at a restaurant a few weeks ago, and although it was different, we both liked it.

I cooked some salmon in a saute pan with tequila lime marinade and a little oil. Also in the tortillas were brown rice, dill, light cream cheese, chives, chopped green onions, and bean sprouts. Try it yourself -- it makes a nice summertime dinner.

Mid-weekend

Tired. Last night after work Steph and I went out to eat and then went by Dan's house and convinced him to go with us to the Team Indiana after-Games party at Talbott Street (it didn't take much convincing). We had a good time, and the Team Indiana athletes got to go up on stage at one point to introduce ourselves.

Today we worked on putting stuff away at home and then I went to Linens and Things and got a cloth shower curtain liner and a new curved shower bar. Then we went to dinner with a friend and hung out with her for a few hours and I learned how to take care of her cats, as she'll be out of town in a couple of weeks. She showed us a really good Greek restaurant in Fountain Square. Now Steph's reading about how to make a waste veggie oil processing tank for a Mercedes. I'm blogging. Lucy is hissing at someone -- not sure who.

Time for bed. Tomorrow David and Garrett are helping us move the rest of the shelves from my house, plus as much other stuff as we can get packed.

Gay Games report

I may have posted some of these details before, but here's the message that I sent to the skaters' list I'm on:

I had the most amazing time competing at the Gay Games last week. It was wonderful to meet Sara and Debbie, as well as many other skaters, and also Jim, who volunteered. It was also great to see Cinderella and Erica. All of the skating was incredible to watch. I’ve already started asking my coach how to do some of the neat things I saw, like a lunge into a sit spin.

Several skaters did programs in memory of friends, family members, and partners. I don’t know how they do it -- I would be in tears trying to skate such a moving tribute.

I had to skate against the book in both of my events, as the other skater in my group didn’t show up. My freestyle program went well, although I didn’t land my loop. I did land it in the warmup for my showcase event, but not in my showcase program. (I’ve been saying for four years that my goal was to land a loop at the Gay Games. Maybe I should have been more specific and specified that it should be during the competition!) Regardless, the one in the warmup felt good, and I’m happy with how I skated in both events. I was surprised to get two gold medals.

The ice show was a lot of fun. I chose to skate my spotlight program, which is to “Defying Gravity” from the musical Wicked. I hadn’t skated under a spotlight before, so that was a little disconcerting. I didn’t skate my program as well as I would have liked, but I still had a wonderful time.

I can’t wait for 2010 in Cologne!

Memo

To: Lucy

Mommy and Other Mommy take showers just about every day. Showers do involve water, but they are not painful. Neither are they frightening. In fact, we like them. We aren't flexible like you are, so we have to resort to other methods to clean ourselves. We understand that you fear for our lives every time we get in the shower, but we don't need you to warn us (at the top of your lungs for the entire duration of the shower) about the dangers inherent in water. We don't know why the shower suddenly started to scare you, but we are not afraid. Do not worry. We love you, and we will protect you should the shower attack you.

On the way home

We're heading out soon -- only a day later than expected. We didn't make it to Ikea on Thursday because of the traffic, so we decided to go yesterday instead.

I'll post more about the competition and ice show and all the people we met when I get home.

Press coverage

My friends Sara and Debbie have a picture from their pairs program featured on Yahoo News! I'll find other coverage when I have more reliable Internet access....

It's not easy bein' green

All of the spotlight and couples events were yesterday. I skated my spotlight program (also known as interpretive at USFS competitions), which is to the song "Defying Gravity" from the musical Wicked. I am Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and in the song she learns to fly (and I learn to jump). The costume consists of a black skating dress, black tights, black boot covers, a black cape, a witch's hat and broom, and green gloves and makeup.

My warmup went really well -- I landed my loop during it, and Steph saw it. I didn't land it during the program, but everything else went well. I skated against the book again, and I got another gold medal. Because of the green makeup, I didn't want to stay in costume until the awards ceremony, so I stood on the podium in my Team Indiana jacket and pants and my witch's hat, gloves, and broom.

Tonight is the ice show, and I get to choose which program to skate in it because I got gold medals for both. I'm currently planning to skate my Wicked program because so many boys came up to me and told me how much they liked the musical.

We'll be at Ikea until my 4 pm call.

Gold medal!

My freestyle event was this afternoon. I had asked to be allowed to compete against the boys instead of having to skate against the book (that's when you have no competitors, so they judge you against the test standards, and you don't necessarily get first place). They combined a couple of events so I'd be competing against one of the boys who was in my age group, but he didn't show up, so I had to skate against the book after all.

There were hundreds of spectators cheering everyone on. It was wonderful -- I don't think I've ever skated in front of such a large audience. Debbie put me on the ice, and I skated well. I didn't land my loop, but just about everything else felt good, and I even heard the audience clap for me a couple of times during my program. I didn't shake afterwards, either.

I placed first, which means that I get to skate in the ice show on Thursday night. My medal is gorgeous and very heavy. It's engraved on both sides, and I wore it all evening.

Tomorrow: showcase.

Very tired

I had two official practices today, one for freestyle and one for spotlight. My freestyle practice was at 7:30, so we got up before 5:00 so we could try to beat rush hour. It was so humid during my first practice that it was raining in the rink. However, I skated fairly well (considering that it was just after an hour and a half of driving). My loop showed up once, and my backspin attempts were better than usual. After my first practice, we went to Boystown to look around and stopped at Caribou Coffee for a cup of coffee and a muffin, and we walked over to Gay Mart, where Steph bought some cool body wash and I bought a Boystown T-shirt. We also bought a rainbow bracelet and a present for a friend. Then we checked out Unabridged Books and went back to the rink for my second practice. I had an okay practice -- it was really hot in the rink -- but my head started to hurt and I started crashing, so we went to Duck Walk, an excellent Thai restaurant, before we got on the road to go back to my dad's.

Tomorrow is my freestyle event! I'm still beading my dress.

Sunday at the Gay Games

Today was the skaters' meeting. It was nice to get everyone together and have a way to get some of our questions answered. I met Sara and Debbie from the adult skating e-mail list, and they're both really nice. After the meeting, we went back to the Hilton to see the booths at the expo hall and I tried on these bouncy shoe things that are used for low-impact exercise. (Steph has pictures of me bouncing around in them, but she can't get a wireless connection to upload them yet.) We ate at an Irish pub in the Hilton, and the service was really slow -- slow enough that we ran out of time seeing the rest of the expo hall, so I couldn't practice this afternoon.

My designated practices tomorrow are at 7:30 and 1:20. We're going to try to see some other sports in the meantime.

Opening ceremonies

Turns out we have wireless Internet at my dad's. Apparently one of his neighbors has an open network, so we can get online (although the signal strength is very low).

The opening ceremonies were amazing. I especially enjoyed all the different kinds of dance and the gay and lesbian marching band. It was incredibly hot, though, and they kept us in a big field for three hours while they lined us up to march into the stadium. According to Steph, we were the only team wearing long pants.

Two more figure skaters joined Team Indiana in the last few weeks, so I'm not the only one anymore! Today is the skaters' meeting, and tomorrow I have official practice ice. There's also some open ice this afternoon, so I might take my skates in case we decide to stick around for it.

Last practice

This morning was my last practice before I leave for the Gay Games. I had a couple of good run-throughs, and some of my jumps felt particularly high. My loop wasn't there, and I wanted to stay out there for a while until it decided to show up, but I had to go to work.

Eight days left

Today was my last lesson before I compete at the Gay Games. We added a waltz jump to my program in case the higher-level jumps aren't judged, and it was interesting to try to add something to a program that's already pretty packed with content. I had one pretty good run-through and one that was just okay.

Quote of the day

Scene: Steph and I cleaning out the fridge at my old house.

Me: Did I ever tell you you're a saint?
Steph (scraping icky stuff out of a bowl): No, I'm just really good at closing off my nose.

Lack of Internet

We have been plagued by lack of Internet at home. Steph's iMac upstairs has no trouble keeping a connection, but our laptops are usually unable to get IP addresses. I haven't been able to get online at home since Tuesday.

In other news, the cats are still fighting, I'm still moving, and we're still unpacking. The Gay Games is one week away and I'm not ready.

Smart Car!

Elizabeth sent me a NY Times article (sorry -- login required) detailing DaimlerChrysler's plans to introduce the Smart Car in the United States in 2008. I've wanted to own one of these microcars since I first saw them in Europe in 2001, and this development could change my plan to get a Prius. I could own a Smart Car for a few years and then get a Prius -- the Smart Car actually gets better highway mileage (69 mpg) than the current Prius, and they're supposed to start at $15,000.

It's hard to say which of my cars would be cuter.

Ian asks just one thing of us

The other day Steph sent me a link to a blog she reads. Ian is asking his readers to do one thing to help the environment. We plan to add more compact fluorescent light bulbs as the ones we have burn out, and we're considering buying green power from IPL when we don't have so many darn mortgages to pay. Eventually I plan to add solar panels and sell excess energy back during sunny days.

Skate Indy 2006

This afternoon I competed at Skate Indy. I skated pretty well, and my coach said my jumps were high. I placed second. Also, I bought this fun T-shirt.

Online borrowing and lending

I just read about an online person-to-person borrowing and lending site called Prosper.com. It looks really interesting. I'm not sure I'm ready to lend money there yet, but I like that you can lend part of someone's total loan and lower your risk by spreading around the amount you're willing to lend. It's an interesting site and an intriguing idea.

Blogging from the porch

I'm blogging from the porch in a thunderstorm with lightning bugs. (I think I'm fairly safe considering that I'm running on battery and connected wirelessly.)

Steph says that if I'm blogging from the porch, she's going to, too. :-)

The moving is coming along. Last night we moved my bookshelves, and I have quite a few books on them already. I missed my books. All of my clothes are here now, too, with the exception of a few in one closet and the load of laundry in the dryer, and my kitchen stuff is almost all packed and moved. This weekend my dad is coming down; he's going to help pack and move the basement stuff and work on the yard with me. I'm looking forward to it.

BPAL: The Rat King

Today I wore The Rat King. A decanted imp of it was in a lot of imps I bought from someone on eBay. It's a limited edition Yule scent.

The description from the Lab: The Nine-Headed nemesis of the Nutcracker Prince. Dust, wood and feral musk with a fang-sharp undertone.

At first, I think I could smell more of the musk, but as it dried, I got more of the wood and dust notes. It smells more masculine than scents I usually wear. It's pleasant, though it's not one of my favorites. I might trade or sell this one.

And moving some more

Most of the moving from Steph's house is done, and I've started on my house. As I said, last week Steph helped me bring over the rug from Ikea, and we also brought the table my stereo sits on. My friends Barb, Nancy, Lori, and Judy helped me pack and bring over a load of stuff on Saturday, and I brought another load on Sunday. Today I went to my old house at lunch and packed some more.

Lucy is adapting. After spending a couple of days inside the bathroom cabinet, she's now comfortable with exploring the upstairs. She still hisses at Spike, who just wants to play with her, and she's taken to hiding under the covers of the bed. I'm certain that she knows about the other three cats even though she hasn't met them yet. She's using the litter box normally again, which is a relief, although she completely refuses to come downstairs.

Last night someone broke off part of the antenna on my Honda (it no longer retracts) and bent the rest of it in two places. I'm still thinking about making the Honda into an art car of some sort. I'm more interested in gluing objects all over it than in making a sculpture out of it, especially because I'd like for it to still fit in the garage. Driving a giant sculpture around would be a lot of fun, though.

Moving, moving, moving...

We painted, and now we're moving. Lots of packing has happened, mostly at Steph's house, and we unloaded the entire pod yesterday with help from Steph's cow-orkers Jen and Mike. Dan and Doug helped us carry up about nine layers of carpet from the basement that was left over from the last residents, who had a band and tried to soundproof the space by covering it in carpet and foam. Melissa is coming over to help us pack at Steph's this afternoon, and the movers are coming Wednesday. We move in tomorrow night with Lucy and Spike (the fish are moving today).

As for my house, I've barely started packing. We moved the dining room rug last night, as well as the table the stereo sat on. The packing in earnest begins on Thursday. I'm tired just thinking about it.

We have a house

We have been new homeowners for nearly seven and a half hours now. Our closing was delayed slightly because the seller's agent was late -- he was waiting for Lance Armstrong and Robin Williams to show up at his house. They're staying with him this weekend, presumably for the race.

After the closing, we went to Lowe's for a toilet, a kitchen faucet, and paint. 23 gallons of paint. We'll be painting all weekend. Stop by and we'll let you try out our new paint brush.

I can't believe we have a house!

In other news, I have no Internet at home. My borrowed router isn't working, and I'm not going to go buy one when I'm moving in a week and a half. I miss the Internet, but I'm getting a lot more packing done than I was.

First-half-of-weekend update

Steph and I went to game night on Friday and shopped at Out Word Bound. I bought three used books -- one on once-a-month cooking, one about people who live in Florida, and one about a couple fixing up an old house in 1946 -- and one new book of rather academic essays about the L-Word. One of the contributors spoke at a conference I attended at IU in 1995.

My dad visited yesterday to take the snow tires off my Honda and put the regular ones back on. (I don't currently have enough garage space to store the snow tires, but I think we will in the new house.) Some other things we accomplished:

* Washed Phoebe
* Charged Phoebe's battery -- she was completely dead again
* Cut up and bundled a huge pile of tree limbs
* Cleaned out the gutters on the front of the house
* Mowed most of the front lawn
* Trimmed some of the bushes away from the house
* Trimmed some tree limbs that were touching the house
* Cut down a couple of trees that weren't supposed to be growing
* Drove by the new house

Then Steph and I saw the DaVinci Code. It was late, and I fell asleep.

Today we're showing Steph's house twice and I'm going to do some work I brought home.

My bank is annoying me.

Today I called to check my checking account balance, as I do several times per week. (We're not supposed to get online much at work.) There was a $9.95 fee that I didn't recognize. I talked to someone in customer service, who said that it was a fee for using Quicken and I shouldn't have been charged because my account came over from Bank One. She reversed the fee.

I've also been having trouble accessing online banking -- I haven't been able to log on at all since my bank changed. The customer service person said that my login and password should be the same, and when I got home tonight, I was finally able to get to my account online. My online payees even made the switch. It was nice to not have to type them all in again.

Blog of free iTunes downloads

This is interesting -- a blog of free iTunes downloads so you don't have to find 'em yourself.

I landed my loop in competition!

I got back from South Dayton Silver Skate late last night, and I'm really tired today. I had a lot of fun, and it was nice to see old friends and meet new ones.

My showcase program on Friday night went pretty well, and I nearly landed my loop then -- I had it for a second and then I put my free foot down. I placed fifth out of six in showcase, and the marks were all over the place -- showcase is so hard to judge. I even got one second-place ordinal. I landed my loop for real in my jumps program yesterday -- it felt great. I was so happy about it that I messed up the footwork sequence afterwards, but I got back on track before the next jump. I placed third out of three, and everyone watching said that all of us were really close. My freestyle program went pretty well, although I didn't land the loop in it, and I placed third out of five (with one first-place ordinal).

I'm happy with how I skated this weekend, but I wish I had a couple more days to recover.

Off to Ohio again

I'm off to Dayton to compete in South Dayton Silver Skate. My showcase event is at 4:50 this afternoon, my jumps event is at 1:15ish tomorrow afternoon, and my freestyle is around 7:00 tomorrow night. I haven't practiced enough lately because of the house stuff and general tiredness, but my loop showed up in my jumps program on Wednesday, so I'm still holding out hope that it'll be there tomorrow. I don't have specific goals for this weekend except for skating well overall and giving my loop three more chances to shine. (Well, maybe "shine" isn't the right word, exactly--I'd be happy with "on one foot and mostly recognizable.")

Dream

I had a strange dream last night. I've been having bad dreams almost every night since mid-March, and this was only the second one that wasn't bad (the first one was last Friday night and involved going to an out-of-town lecture with a co-worker). In my dream last night, I was at a UU young adult conference and people were deciding which room to sleep in. My cell phone rang, and it was my coach. I told her where I was, and she arrived shortly. She and I went over to a counter where a guy was selling BPAL, and he had a big bottle of Flower Moon (clear glass and significantly larger than 5 ml) that was marked as being old and having changed scent. I asked him how much it was, and he said it was the same price as a 5 ml had originally sold for, so I bought it.

The best-laid plans

I brought my lunch to work today with the best of intentions: to eat what's in my cupboards so I don't have to move it. By doing so, I won't have to spend any additional money to go out to eat. (I go out for lunch only once per week.) I decided to start out with something that wasn't my favorite and reward myself later by bringing the things I like the most, so I chose a package of ramen noodles.

Well, I'm not going to move these ramen noodles, but I didn't eat them, either. I had one bite and they were so awful that I threw them away and went to Taco Bell. My usual plan would have been to eat the can of ravioli I keep in my office for such emergencies, but alas, I ate it last week and forgot to bring something to replace it, so I had to procure food from elsewhere. I meant to go to Arby's and get a salad, but the line for the drive-thru was really long and I didn't want to sit and wait in it -- I wanted to drive. (I know, I should've parked and gone in.)

So I spent $3.22 at Taco Bell that I had wanted to spend on the house instead. They didn't even get my order right.

We bought a house after having a bunch of people inspect it.

Today we had a plumber come to inspect the plumbing at our potential new house. He found that the sewer pipe is indeed leaking, as the general inspector had indicated, but that is because it has a plug missing; a brick is where the plug should be. (What kind of person plugs a pipe with a brick?!) Also, the kitchen faucet doesn't work. We knew this, but it was nice to hear that it's just the faucet and valves and it isn't a symptom of a larger problem. I was very happy with the results of the plumbing inspection -- there were a few other minor things, but nothing on the order of the plumbing nightmare I faced when I moved into my house almost seven years ago.

Next was a roofer. He gave us a high estimate that didn't include the gutters or balcony work. One more roofer will be providing an estimate before the end of the week.

After the roofer left, we discussed the offer the sellers had made for roof repairs with our agent and decided on a counteroffer. As we were leaving, the seller's agent showed up and we talked with him. Our agent told him the number we'd decided upon and he called the seller, who wasn't answering his phone. We left to go to lunch with our agent, and by the time we all got to the restaurant, the seller had called his agent, his agent had called our agent, and our agent had news -- we have a deal! We close at the end of May sometime.

Next order of business: selling Steph's house.

AutoblogGreen

When Steph helped me set up my RSS feedreader, we included Autoblog in my feeds because I like cars. I was excited to find that Autoblog has a new spinoff, AutoblogGreen. I've spent most of the morning catching up on it, but now that I'm current, it'll be easy to stay that way. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a Prius is in the near future for me (unless I win the lottery), but you can be assured that I'm going to consider fuel economy when I decide to replace the Honda.

Two-year anniversary

Yesterday was Steph's and my two-year anniversary. In the morning, we participated in a scavenger hunt with our friends Jen and Lori to raise money for ICAAN, the Indiana Canine Assistant and Adolescent Network, and then we went to dinner at Maggiano's and re-created our first kiss on Steph's back patio. We're going to try a different Italian place every year.

Year 0: Iaria's
Year 1: Dinner cooked by David and Garrett (Steph was recovering from her surgery and wasn't feeling well enough to go out yet)
Year 2: Maggiano's

Maggiano's was excellent. I couldn't quite figure out what I wanted, so our server offered that we could order the family-style dinner even though there were only two of us. This dinner consists of two appetizers, two kinds of salad, two pastas, two entrees, and two desserts. We have ten boxes of leftovers. Ten boxes. Everything was tasty; I'm just a little worried that we won't be able to finish all the leftovers before they go bad.

ETA: I completely neglected to include in my anniversary post anything about how wonderful my girlfriend is. She is cute, smart, funny, interesting, and creative, and I am so lucky to share my life with her.

Four for Friday

Courtesy of belicove.com:

Q1 - Possessions: Do you think that the more stuff you own enhances your life or adds to your burden?

It depends. I currently have too much stuff, which adds to my burden, but if I didn't own some of my stuff, my life would not be as good as it is. (Currently, I'm thinking about my toothbrush, my bed, my skates, and my favorite shoes. I don't include the cat because really, I don't own her -- she owns me.)

Q2 - Oil: If OPEC decided to turn off the oil spigot, do you think that the United States would have the right to wage war to protect its interests?

No. I think the United States should be much farther along on the path to living without other people's oil.

Q3 - Movie: Have you seen the movie Ellie Parker with Naomi Watts? If so, would you recommend it to a friend?

I haven't seen it.

Q4 - Birthday: What are the maximum number of days someone should spend celebrating his/her birthday?

Well, my girlfriend says there's such a thing as a Birthday Mardi Gras -- that's when your birthday falls in the middle of the week and you celebrate it on both surrounding weekends. :-) I tend to celebrate on my actual birthday and also go to dinner with friends, whether that's on my birthday or on another day, but I figure that you should go ahead and celebrate whenever possible!

Bonus Question...

Q5 - Dancing: How often do you dance... and I don't mean just boogying to your favorite tunes inside your car or in the shower. We're talking real dancing here, with a partner on a dance floor (weddings count).

As often as possible, but realistically only a few times a year. (Does Dance Dance Revolution count?)

Kansas

After a long day of photographing big things and driving, we are finally in Kansas. Today we went up in the St. Louis Arch (against my mother's advice), which was cool. (My mom went up in it when I was about twelve and hated it.) My favorite big thing today was the giant fork in Springfield, MO.

Tomorrow: wedding.

Indian burial mounds

After we visited the giant ketchup bottle and took a picture of an interesting building that appeared to be part church, part BBQ place, we happened upon the Cahokia Mounds. We climbed Monk's Mound, and from the top, we could see several other mounds nearby. Next to them was Woodhenge, a circle of 40 tall wooden poles that were an ancient calendar.

It was starting to get dark, so we found a hotel with a barbecue place next door. In the morning we're planning to find a big shoe made of shoes and a cowboy muffler man, among other things.

Quote of the day

...boredom can't find you if it doesn't know where to look.

--goRVing.com site

Road trip!

Our road trip to Kansas for Steph's cousin's wedding is going swimmingly so far. We've photographed a giant cross, a Madonna of the Trail statue, and foot-high pies (here at the Blue Springs Cafe, which conveniently offers free wi-fi).

Next up: a giant ketchup bottle. After that, St. Louis.

New pants!

Last night while shopping for a wedding present, I wandered into the clearance section at the back of LS Ayres. A couple of years ago, one of my cow-orkers sent around an e-mail about this clearance section, and I went at that time and got a bunch of clothes for $2.53 apiece. Last night, many of the clothes were $2.98. I got 25 items of clothing last night for $213 and change. I added up the original prices this morning and they came to more than $1150! I got several sleeveless dresses (a couple with excellent 70s patterns -- one I swear came straight from a wallpaper sample book I had when I was a kid), a couple pairs of pants, and some sweaters and skirts and shirts and jackets, too. One of the dressses is perfect for the wedding, and today I'm wearing a new pair of brown pants with cool button details and stripes down the sides.

Paper clip

A guy in Canada has been trading stuff. He started with one red paper clip and wants to see if he can get all the way to a house. He's up to a year's free rent in Phoenix.

Cleaning the bathroom

Tonight I cleaned the bathroom. I hate cleaning the bathroom more than any other household chore. Fortunately for me, Steph has agreed to clean the bathroom when we move in together.

A list of things I would rather do than clean the bathroom:

Do laundry
Wash dishes
Mow the lawn
Do taxes
Go to the dentist

After I cleaned the bathroom, I had an ice cream cone. I deserved it.

Day off!

We had Good Friday off from work. This morning I got up and read some blogs and then started to work on the stuff in the dining room. I made a lot of progress! This afternoon I skated and then came back and made brownies for the women's pitch-in tonight and continued to work on the dining room while the brownies baked.

I'm going to head upstairs and start in on the second bedroom now for a change of pace. Preparing to move sure is hectic, but it'll go more smoothly if I get everything organized first. The other morning, I decided that I had two rooms completely ready to pack (that's counting the upstairs hallway as a room). Six more to go....

House!

Steph and I have been looking at houses lately. It started out with curiosity -- we drove by a house for sale that had a porch Steph liked, and we wondered what it looked like inside, so we called my real estate agent and asked to see it. I told her to be prepared for an extended casual house hunt. I looked at 115 houses in the search for my current house, and I had no reason to believe this process would go any differently. Besides, we weren't ready to move.

Then we found it. The third house we looked at. THE house. It meets all of our needs except one (it has only a 1 1/2-car garage and we wanted two) and most of our wants.

After much discussion, we decided to go for it. We wrote an offer on Monday night, received a counteroffer yesterday, and accepted today. The inspection is next week.

Know anyone who wants to rent a cute three-bedroom Cape Cod?

Funniest line of the week

My girlfriend, earlier this evening: "I'm so glad you still love me, honey, in spite of my flatulence."

Lucy, meet Spike!

Steph brought Spike to visit us today. Lucy came downstairs several times to check out the little intruder, and she didn't hiss at all. Spike barked at her once when she sniffed his rawhide bone, though. She's currently upstairs under the bed, and Spike is on the couch with me and Steph.

Spike will be staying with me later this week for a few days. He'll be restricted to the kitchen and back hallway when I'm not home, both to give Lucy some space of her own and to keep him out of trouble. He's been a very good guest so far this afternoon.

Update on Skate Cincinnati

I didn't have time to blog about Skate Cincinnati last weekend, and when I tried to post during the week, Blogger was down. Anyway... Skate Cincinnati was a lot of fun. My freestyle event was on Saturday, and I skated okay. I didn't land my loop, but everything else was average or better. The ice was very hard and I felt like I couldn't get a good grip on it, so some of my footwork was a little trippy. I placed fifth out of seven, which I think was accurate. The first-place skater did an amazing program to a piece from the soundtrack to The Incredibles.

My coach was there on Saturday because she had another skater competing, but she didn't go on Sunday. I got to introduce her to my old synchro coach, which was fun. (She'd wanted to meet her because she heard so much about her all the time.) It was really nice to catch up with several people from my old synchro team, too.

My interpretive/showcase event was on Sunday, and I skated well. I must have been skating faster, as I had enough extra time at the end for another jump. This time I used the kind of green makeup that is not in a tube, and I like the effect better. I placed second, which I expected -- my competitor was a silver-level skater (two levels above me).

Next up: South Dayton Silver Skate in mid-May.

This weekend

I'm competing at Skate Cincinnati this weekend. Tonight I had a pretty good practice, and I ran through both programs twice.

My freestyle program is starting to gel -- two more sections of it fell into place tonight. It's hard to explain exactly what I mean by that -- it happens when the transitions get smoother and everything starts to have its own place in the music. Usually it happens sometime after the first time I compete the program. (I keep programs for about two years.)

In other news, my friend Ellie did a three turn tonight all by herself!

One of my favorite things

I love sitting on the couch and reading with my girlfriend.

Articles from my dad

Every couple of weeks or so, I get an envelope in the mail from my dad that contains some newspaper and magazine articles he thinks are interesting. Steph often says that it's my dad's way of blogging -- if he had a blog, he'd write about the articles, but since he doesn't, he sends them to me. (My mom also saves articles for me, but not nearly as many or as often.)

Recently I received

* a Jim Coates article from the Chicago Tribune about a card you can put in your PC to get HDTV
* an article that says that the Federal Reserve's raising short-term interest rates means that investors should take less risk
* an article about the Furminator, a de-shedding tool designed to remove hair that pets will shed; next to it (included because it was underneath the large headline) is an article about a homeopathic remedy to stop snoring in pets
* an article about a penguin statue in a Sox uniform that was stolen and later found
* a brief mention of the Camry hybrid
* a column about how workers' futures are in their own hands (in terms of retirement)
* an article about how bond funds aren't a particularly good investment right now
* a Post-It: "languagemonitor.com ex. 'refugee' is now an 'evacuee' per Katrina (site may be of interest?)"
* an article about an online test that helps you understand your money motives (http://www.marketpsych.com) -- it said it was a free trial at the time but will cost $100 now
* a printout of a Yahoo! Finance article about why people work long hours
* an article about biodiesel that mentions Willie Nelson's first BioWillie fuel pump
* a recipe, cut out of the paper, for Mom's Chicken Soup

I love the variety of stuff my dad sends.

A little late (on my part)

Someone did a song about Sasha Cohen to the tune of Copacabana.

What Kind of VW Are You?

Which VW Are You?

by Auto Glass Across America

Yep, I'm a Bus. I don't consider this to be an insult to my New Beetle, though, because a Bus played a big part in developing my love for VWs. My parents owned a 67 when I was little, and they even drove it on a trip around the country and camped in it. It started out white, and my dad painted the lower half red when I was two. He let me help him sand it before painting, and apparently I was so into it that they had to keep me inside for a while after he painted it because I wanted to keep sanding!

They sold the Bus soon after we moved to Indiana because it didn't have enough heat, and my dad says that when they told me, I went outside and sat in it for two hours. I was two and a half at the time. I remember eating in the Bus only once -- we had McDonald's on the little table in the back and my Oma was with us.

A couple of years ago, lisa took us for a ride in 9Westy, and it felt just like riding in my dad's Bus. I don't know how I know that, because I don't have any memories of actually riding in it, but somehow I know.

Loop in program

With the Boat, Sport, and Travel Show taking away a lot of my ice time lately (we always lose club ice time from mid-February to mid-March because of it) and life getting in the way, I haven't had as much practice time as I'd like. One of my goals for this quarter was to start landing my loop in my program, and I did just that a week ago Thursday (twice, in fact!). Maybe it'll show up for Skate Cincinnati in two weeks.

Power class

I hadn't taken a power class in a while, and I didn't get to skate much this week, so I decided to go on Friday. This particular class is a walk-on, not the kind where you sign up and pay for several weeks, and it's at a convenient time. There were nine skaters, and I was the only adult. My coach said that I'd probably be in the middle speed-wise, but I was definitely one of the slower skaters.

Sometimes one of the kids would request a specific exercise to do. Although I'd done most of them before, I knew them by different names. One of the exceptions was the seal crawl, which is surprisingly difficult. You lie face-down on the ice with your feet splayed out like a seal and support yourself on your hands, propelling yourself down the ice using only your arms. I had my own cheering section for that one -- the skate moms in the bleachers thought I was pretty hilarious.

The power classes I've taken in the past have focused more on technique, and I missed that. Also, a short water break at some point would have been helpful. Otherwise it was good. I think I'll go again next week.

Four for Friday

Last week I neglected to link to belicove.com, where I get these from. Mikal, I apologize.

This week's Four for Friday:

Q1 - Pay E-mail: Starting in April, AOL will charge companies about 1/4 of a cent to send e-mail messages to its users that will bypass the company's filters. E-mails from paying companies will go straight to a user's inbox, while e-mails from non-paying companies will go through a gauntlet of filters that could divert them to a junk-mail folder or strip them of images and links, even if they're not spam. How do you feel about this? Should companies like AOL be able to put policies like these into place because they protect its customers, or pay E-mail a bad idea because it doesn't account for bulk messages sent by not-for-profits or other legitimate groups who cannot afford to pay the price to bypass the system?

I don't think AOL should be stripping images and links in the first place. I appreciate the spam folder at Gmail, for example, and at home Outlook is getting better at diverting spam into my junk mail folder, but I don't want my ISP keeping messages from me; I want to decide what's legitimate. Putting them in a separate folder for me is helpful, but I don't want them to disappear before I've had a chance to decide what they are. Oops, I think I ranted on the wrong subject. I don't think pay e-mail is a good idea.

Q2 - Weather: Do you check your weather report on a daily basis? Regardless of how often you check, where do you go for information about the weather... newspaper, television, radio, or do you receive your weather reports via the Internet?

I usually listen for the weather report on the radio on my way to work. I sometimes check it online if I think the weather might get in the way of my plans or if I haven't heard a weather report in a couple of days.

Q3 - Sold: What's the last thing you sold (both personally and professionally)?

The last thing I sold personally was a book on half.com. The last thing I sold professionally is harder -- I don't work in sales right now, but my company does sell things. Probably books at the IU Bookstore in 1996.

Q4 - Footwear: How many different pairs of shoes do you own verses how many you actually wear on a regular basis?

I own about 40 pairs of shoes, and some of them are of course seasonal. I probably wear 25 of them on a regular basis throughout the year.

Four for Friday

Q1 - Birthdays: How many different birthdays do you have committed to memory, and aside from using your own noggin, how do you keep track of all the others?

I have a strange propensity for remembering birthdays. I know probably fifty or sixty off the top of my head. Some of those belong to people I haven't seen or heard from in a number of years. Just in case I would forget, I write them down in an old weekly calendar I never used that's bound like a hardback book and has pictures of kittens in it. I picked it because it had a lot of space and because it wasn't super-obvious that the calendar was for a certain year -- it isn't laid out in a grid.

Q2 - Seaport Security: A government-owned company in the United Arab Emirates volunteered late yesterday afternoon to delay its $6.8 Billion takeover of most operations at six U.S. seaports. The delay allows President George W. Bush time to convince skeptical members of the U.S. Congress that the deal poses no security risks. What's your feeling on this... should the United States government allow a company based in Dubai to manage seaports in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami, New Orleans, New York, and Newark?

Admittedly I'm not very informed about it, but my feeling is no.

Q3 - Telephones: Regardless of whether you use just a cell phone or a cell phone and a land line at home, does 'Voice over IP' (VoIP) technology have you thinking about switching or adding a land line at home? (In case you've never heard of VoIP, it allows for the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or any other IP-based network, and it's supposed to be a lot cheaper than paying the old-school phone companies for telephone service.)

I would think about it, but it doesn't seem to be cheaper so far and it doesn't work when your cable Internet is out. I'm not ready to switch yet.

Q4 - 2006 Winter Olympics: Have you been watching the 2006 Winter Olympics on television? If so, which events have you enjoyed the most? If not, why?

Skating, of course. I also enjoyed snowboardcross, speed skating, and some of the skiing events. And the sports people sliding down icy tracks in various manners going really, really fast. The sport I keep missing and want to watch: curling.

Dinner plans

Steph and I are going to go to either Maggiano's or Macaroni Grill soon with a gift certificate I earned at MyPoints. I've been a MyPoints member since 1997 -- it was my first rewards program and one of the few I still belong to. I get most of my points by clicking on e-mail offers, but you can also get them by shopping through the site, which I've done on occasion. They offer a lot of rewards, such as gift certificates to Maggiano's/Macaroni Grill, Target, and many other places I like. You can also earn points by referring people, so leave a comment if you'd like me to refer you. :-)

Make your own soap

Via Lifehacker, a site that tells you how to make your own soap: Soap recipes by Elaine C. White. It should not be a surprise to anyone that I totally want to try it. I don't have time today, though -- I'm doing stuff around the house, reading my book for book club, and going to Costco.

BPAL: Snow Moon 2005

I recently picked up (via eBay) a bottle of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Snow Moon, a limited-edition A Little Lunacy oil. They offer a new limited-edition fragrance on each full moon that's available for only one day, and this was December's.

One thing to know about BPAL: The oils are all natural, not synthetic, so they smell different on everyone, and the scent often changes -- it will smell different in the bottle, when it's wet, and after it's dry.

The description: In December, the skeletal, ice-rimmed fingers of winter take hold, and the nights are long, chill and dark. The first flurries of snow touch the land, and the earth itself becomes quiet. A scent of purity and silence, soft with falling snow, as dark as Midwinter: an icy flurry over the winter blooms of narcissus, pansy crocus, dahlia, tulip, chrysanthemum and white rose, with a hint of fir and birch.

In the bottle, I like it. It's very fresh and piney. I smell a lot of pine when I first put it on, but as it dries, it changes to something that doesn't work on me. From reading reviews at the BPAL forums, I think it's a sweet floral combination that I don't like. I tried a little on my hand just now and it's better than it was the other day, but I'm afraid that note I don't like will show up again. I'm not having much luck with "cold" scents, which is a shame, because they all sound so great.

Tony Ha rocks. We love Tony Ha.

I used to have one of the oldest working cell phones. Okay, it wasn't an antique or anything, but it was four and a half years old and it was starting to show its age. Steph and I wanted to get a family plan together (when Steph's plan ran out) that would make service cheaper for both of us and would give us the ability to call each other for free. In addition, we would be able to get new phones, and Steph would be able to use her phone at her house, where she previously had pretty bad reception. We had a plan picked out and were deciding what phones we would get when I noticed that Cingular raised their prices. We decided to wait, as I wasn't about to pay more for my half of the bill than my old plan had cost.

In December, we walked by a kiosk at Castleton Square Mall that was advertising a family plan that cost less than the original family plan we were looking at. We stopped to look, and the guy working at the kiosk greeted us. His name was Tony. I started asking Tony questions about the plan, the phones, and even the length of the promotion. He answered all of them without being condescending or impatient. When we told him we weren't going to sign up that night, he wrote a lot of information down for us and gave us his card.

The next time we were in the mall, we stopped by the kiosk again, but a different guy was working. He wasn't nearly as knowledgeable or professional, and we elected to wait until Tony was working.

Later in the month, we were in the mall again (we don't always spend that much time at the mall -- it was Christmastime), we walked by and there was Tony. He remembered us and we decided to get our new phones and plan. In addition to helping us get our phones up and running and calling Cingular to get us a discount on the activation fees, Tony gave us a coupon for free car chargers (they were out of stock). He said we could call to see whether the chargers were in.

I was at the mall again (exchanging a Christmas present that didn't fit) and stopped to see if the chargers were in. The guy that wasn't Tony was working. The chargers weren't in yet, but he took my phone number and promised to call when they came in; he said they expected them the next day. I asked him about a problem that I was having with my phone (the pictures, backgrounds, and camera would stop working and I would see only broken-picture icons when I would try to select a picture) and he made the excuse that things like that would happen because the new phones were so complicated that they were more like a PDA or a computer.

No phone call came, so I called a couple of weeks ago and left a message with my work phone number asking about the chargers. About a week later, I got a voice mail at work from Tony. He said he wasn't sure that anyone had called me back, so he wanted to call just in case, and our chargers were both in. I mentioned to Steph that he'd called, and she happened to go to the mall last Friday to go to a different store. She stopped by the kiosk and Tony was there. He remembered Steph, remembered which chargers we needed, and gave them to her even though she didn't have the coupon for the chargers (I had it in my purse).

Tony Ha rocks.

Olympic opening ceremonies

Last night we watched the opening ceremonies with Team Indiana, the team I'm on for the Gay Games. It was fun to meet a lot of the other athletes, and I even won a door prize, an orange Gay Games messenger bag. So far I am the only figure skater on the team. They have a variety of sports represented: men's and women's softball teams, track and field, tennis, road race, basketball, swimming, and raquetball, among others.

We enjoyed the opening ceremonies. I think the strangest part may have been the dancing couples dressed in cow-print fabric among people pulling large cow statues around on leashes in formation. (Moo.) I always like the parade of athletes, too.

I just finished watching the end of the pairs short program and the men's 5000m speed skating. They reported that Michelle Kwan had a bad practice this morning; Steph commented earlier that it must be difficult to practice with everyone watching, and I didn't realize until tonight that they were taping TV coverage of it. They said that the ice on the speed skating oval was soft; I wonder how the ice is for the figure skaters.

You can't get there from here

Anyone want to tell me how I can get home from the Coliseum?

I can't turn out of the fairgrounds onto Fall Creek because you can't turn left on 38th St.

They herded me out the other side of the fairgrounds onto 42nd St. -- apparently they weren't letting people out on 38th St. I turned left.

I turned left on Broadway to go back toward 38th St. so I could turn left. However, it was closed after 40th St.

I turned right on 40th St. to try to get around the construction. I figured I'd go to College and get on 38th St. from there. No dice -- you can only turn right when you get to College. I turned right on College.

I continued to 42nd St., where I turned left to try to get turned back around. I turned left on Broadway and left on 40th. When I got back to College, I could only turn right, which (conveniently) was the direction I actually wanted to go.

I turned right on College and headed toward 38th St. However, you can't turn left on 38th St. from College either, so I turned in to the Walgreens parking lot just after 38th. The parking lot had an exit on 38th, so I turned right there, finally accomplishing my original goal.

I arrived home nearly an hour after stepping off the ice (and I only spent about twenty minutes of that hour taking my skates off, chatting, and petting Ellie's dog).

Weekend update from last weekend

I'm a little behind on my blog, but I thought I'd post last weekend's update anyway.

Last Friday night, I went over to Steph's and helped while she got her new TV (no, I did not lift the TV; I did other things like corraling the dog, holding the door, and moving the smaller components).

Last Saturday morning, I had a lesson and then went over to Steph's for lunch and TV watching. I came home in the afternoon to get stuff done around the house and went back to Steph's for more TV watching at night.

My dad came to visit on Sunday. We had a great day -- we cut up a pile of branches in the driveway; cut down some small trees; went to Sears, Target, and Olive Garden; and worked on a template for some holes I need to drill so I can finish a present I'm making for a friend. My dad is really good at that kind of thing, and he had lots of helpful ideas that will make the template more useful.

My dad also brings me interesting combinations of stuff. Last week he brought me a stepstool, some mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, a Burger King toy from a kid's meal (I had asked for it), and a pamphlet from the dentist about how to floss your teeth. I learned that you're supposed to floss behind your last tooth on each side -- I've been flossing incompletely for years now.

New radiator

My Honda has been losing coolant for a couple of weeks now, so I made it an appointment at Tune Tech for today. (Steph suggested the other day that I drive Phoebe until I could take the Honda in, but that wasn't practical because she too is having a coolant leak. This is the first time I can remember that the cars have had the same symptom at the same time.) The Honda needed a new radiator, which it now has, and I discovered a notation in the gas book that the old radiator had a lifetime warranty. Now I have to figure out what to do with the old radiator (which is now in my trunk) to get the company to pay for the new one.

Four Things Meme

Four Jobs I've Had

1. McDonald's employee
2. Trade desk clerk (at the IU Bookstore)
3. Copy editor
4. Associate development editor

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over

1. Fried Green Tomatoes
2. Go Fish
3. The Sound of Music
4. Truth or Dare (although that's probably not true anymore)

Four Places I've Lived

1. Baltimore, MD
2. Valparaiso, IN
3. Bloomington, IN
4. Indianapolis, IN

Four TV Shows I Love

1. Gilmore Girls
2. The Amazing Race
3. The L-Word
4. 30 Days

Four Places I've Been On Holiday

1. Arlington, VA
2. Roswell, NM
3. Europe (it was a tour; I didn't see the entire continent)
4. Tucson, AZ

Four of My Favorite Dishes

1. Thai noodles
2. Lemon chicken
3. Szechuan green beans
4. Pot roast

Four Sites I Visit Daily

1. www.commonplacebook.com
2. another pink world
3. Sardonic Bomb
4. www.belicove.com

Four Places I Would Rather Be Now

1. On a road trip
2. On the ice
3. At the Eiffel Tower
4. Somewhere warm

Four Bloggers I Am Tagging

1. lisa
2. Mykal
3. Lori B.
4. Matt

Monkey on ice!

Eight-year-old Gun-Mo learned to skate for the Animal Academy Show in Seoul, South Korea, which celebrates the Lunar New Year of the Dog. The trainer said the monkey had two weeks of lessons. Looks like Gun-Mo is having a great time!

Deborah Burgoyne North American Invitational

I competed at the Deborah Burgoyne North American Invitational in Wyandotte, MI, on Saturday. This is always one of my favorite competitions. Everyone is so nice, and people are really supportive of one another. I felt like I skated pretty well, especially considering that my knee still isn't back to normal. I didn't land my loop in either program, but it showed up for practice Friday night; I was pleased. Everyone seemed to like my interpretive program (I was the Wicked Witch of the West and I skated to "Defying Gravity" from the musical Wicked), and one of the skaters in the interp group before mine did another song from the same musical, "Popular." Her program was great, and we had fun posing for pictures together.

Things I learned:

* It will always snow at DBNAI. (If it doesn't, we'll have freezing rain.) It's happened seven years in a row now.
* I need to find another way to secure my witch's hat. Clips don't work. A former Wicked Witch suggested sewing a ribbon to the hat, which I'll try next. (The damn thing stayed on every time in practice, but tried to lift off my head in competition.)
* It's hard to put green makeup on the back of your neck and get it right.
* It's hard to talk on the phone while putting on green makeup.
* Sometimes I don't shake like a leaf after I compete. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for why it happens or doesn't happen.
* If I'm not going to land my loop, I can put my opposite foot down instead and do a half loop. At least it's still a real jump.

R.I.P. iPod

My beloved iPod has experienced a hard drive failure. The nice folks here at the Apple Store just gave me a new one, which is supposed to work. It'll be nice to have a reliable iPod again! I'm heading home to charge it and load it with music.

Tired

I'm amazed at how tired (and headachey) spending the day at home has made me. I haven't even done that much -- just stuff around the house. Today I

* imported all the music from my desktop computer into iTunes on my laptop
* did some laundry
* did some dishes
* did some more laundry
* reattached the lint catcher thing in my washtub after it came off and stuck in the drain, which caused water to spill out of the washtub all over the basement floor
* set up the binary clock I got for Christmas
* put away a few Christmas decorations and presents
* caught up on some blog reading
* worked on a present I'm making for a friend's birthday
* worked on my costume for my showcase program for Saturday
* did two sudoku puzzles

None of those things should make me particularly tired. Maybe I'm still feeling the effects of staying out late the other night.

Four for Friday

From belicove.com:

Q1 - You: What one person, out of all the people you know, knows you the best and knows the most about you?

Probably Steph.

Q2 - Alongside You: If you were recovering from major surgery in a hospital and could have any person, from any era, recovering in the bed next to you, who would it be?

Chaucer.

Q3 - Your Computer: Is your computer's home page set to an Internet Service Provider, news/newspaper site, blog, search engine or portal such as Google or Yahoo, or something else? ow often do you change your hompage setting?

News.

Q4 - Your Work: Would you be willing to take a fifty percent (50%) cut in pay to pursue a career or job you were one hundred percent (100%) more passionate about than your current one? If not, what percent cut in pay would you be willing to take?


Nope. I like my job and if I took a 50% cut in pay, I would have to either stop eating or move in with my dad.