unfocused

RTO will most likely be home sometime this week. The exact day and where exactly they'll be dropped off is still being debated. I know, I love the Army. so anyhoo, I probably won't be online much as I'm finding it hard to concentrate on much of anything. and HOW MANY DAYS OF RAIN ARE WE GOING TO HAVE!? huh!? can we get a break? I mean, it's nice I don't have to run the sprinklers, but we're going stir crazy here. Roxie was almost mauling me yesterday she wanted to go for a walk damn the thunder and lightning. in other news... I finished up a sewing project. I haven't sewn anything since junior high and working on this skirt brought back memories of why i haven't. but I think the machine and I are on friendly terms now. I may try something else easy. maybe. damn it's pouring now.

song stuck in my head...

I've rented this series from netflix, only about 8 episodes in but this song is stuck in my head.



this is interesting to me because it's a different translation that what I've been seeing.

okay so the installers really made up for everything else....

They showed up on time. I didn't. and they were nice enough to wait. they replaced the craptacular coax cable that Time Warner wanted to charge me at least 75 bucks to send someone out (again) to do. They hooked up the set top box correctly so that I now get HD on my big honkin tv and they took time to give me a brief overview of the DVR which is much nicer than the one I got from T/W. Fortunately, I tried to call someone after they walked out the door and found out they didn't hook up the phone and I caught them before they had driven off. They claim they weren't given a work order for it (which at this point, I could believe), but they made some calls and got it cleared up and got that working too. so, I'm fairly happy now.

there are two cats in this picture

yep, that's maggie's new favorite spot. I think maybe so she can ambush the dog, but I'm not certain about that. I had put the scratching post over there at a different angle and it kept getting moved, she seems happy with it turned the way it is now.

inspiring yet more confidence....

I meant to post about this last week cause it cracked me up. Verizon left an automated message to let me know that I had an installation appointment for Friday. anyhoo, the nice voice rattles off my address as "(123 Fake) Doctor". Now, maybe it's just me, but if I was programming a system to "read" addresses I would tell it Dr. is for drive not doctor.

thing i always love to see....

Roxie. sitting in the middle of the yard. getting drenched.

I got home today and the sprinklers were on. Looks like the power went out. (whenever it goes out it resets the sprinkler system to water every day, which seems like a stupid idea to me, but nobody asked my opinion) anyway I caught a glimpse of Roxie sitting straight up in the middle of the yard, acting like nothing's happening. oh, it's just a little water.

stupid dog.

w007!

North Texas gets Superbowl.

in 2011.

and now i need a nap....

not sure what I was smoking when I agreed to an 8:30 appointment to drop my car off with Progressive, but I made it. It was relatively painless. They gave me a Pontiac G5 to drive around. Which, I guess is okay though it's a little annoying to try to look out the back window to back up and not be able to see over the seats. I guess I'll live.

got home and thought I'd try to figure out what was going on with Verizon. I get a different story every time I talk to them. They keep trying to tell me the due date has always been the 25th. or maybe that it was changed to the 25th. and I always tell them the ONLY reason the 25th ever came up was because they didn't show up on the 18th. They even called Friday morning to remind me they were coming and be sure someone over 18 was at the house. They also made reminder calls on Wednesday and Thursday. The other explanation floated is that maybe Time/Warner didn't want to transfer my phone number. but then one guy I talked to said that takes time and I told him they'd had OVER 2 WEEKS to do that which he agreed should be plenty of time. at least the person I talked to today said that he would be sure that some kind of credit would be issued to our account for the inconvenience. we'll see.

anyhoo, then I went to Circuit City because their ad in the paper yesterday said seasons 1-5 of 24 were on sale this week for 21.99. RTO has seasons 1 and 4. CC had 1,2,4 and 5. so I picked up 2 and 5. I may try a different CC Wednesday after work to see if they have season 3.

oh, they just called and said my car may be ready June 1st. They have to replace the front driver's side door completely, the outside panel on the back d-side door. whee!

"Killah" strikes again...

who me?

got home tonight and went out to check out the rosebushes and found a small dead possum in the yard. Is it okay to bury them in the compost pile? cause that's what I did with him. mom suggested maybe he was "playing possum". I won't be going out to check the compost.

something reminded me of this....

we saw a few of these on cars in Colorado Springs. RTO claimed to have never heard of his noodly-ness. Is it possible to avoid the Flying Spaghetti Monster? really?

baking cupcakes

Funfetti it is then.

other things I might have covered if i hadn't been hit by a truck yesterday.....

Wednesday was entertaining cause I got a job offer. wasn't expecting that. I guess after a year and a half the place I've been working has decided to cut out the middle-man/temp agency. which is fine with me. I just have to pass a background check. ;D

that got me to wondering if they put a printer at my desk as a bribe. see, a couple weeks ago the computer i work on came down with a bad case of BSoD. so, since then I'd been using a computer in an empty office. (these people are kind of militant about who gets an office and who gets a cube, they had moved a guy out of this office into a cube a few months ago because he technically didn't rate an office, so it was funny that I was in there.) and of course everyone felt compelled to stop and say something funny about it. sooo, Wednesday when I got to work there was a new computer at "my desk" and a printer. I'll probably gain 10 pounds now because I don't have to make five million trips to pick up spreadsheets. oh well.

so today I'm waiting for someone from Verizon to show up to install/setup/whatever they call it new phone/internet/tv service. got a call not long ago that they're behind schedule. great. off to a good start.

update: am I just cursed? someone from Verizon called around 4:30 and said they were running late. it hit 7 and I decided to call. Person at that number tells me it would be too late for anyone to show up and the order was placed late. Oooookay, I made this appointment over 2 weeks ago and they've made several calls the last couple days to make sure that someone was going to be here between 1 and 5 today. RRRAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!

Valentine Snoopy update

he's still good. any stuffins I've found have come from the bunnies.

kitties love afghanistan?

I got a box from RTO this week and when I talked to him he said it was okay to open it and that the carpets should be relatively clean so I could go ahead and put them on the floor. As soon as I did, maggie and Carlos started rolling all over them for a good twenty minutes. Did RTO wash them in catnip?

Don't forget the Carnival of the Cats this week.

decisions, decisions

so, I'll be baking a couple of batches o' cupcakes in the next couple days can't decide what the second option should be. the first is of course chocolate, but I know there's a weirdo in every group that doesn't like it. ;D The Funfetti I've seen in stores lately is the "Stars and Stripes" variety. just saying. you might want to consider that.




oh, and mom was all, "maybe you could only make one batch and not everyone would want a cupcake" yeah, whatever. my cupcakes are that good. ;D

ta da!

he hit the back part first, then the door.

I think I'm okay....

even though it's not Friday....

I'm posting a fungus picture



it's the tree stump in the back yard. and my left foot.

EEEEEEEEEeeeeeee!!!!!

Hanson is on Neil Cavuto right now! does this mean there will be a new album soon?

Florida Monitor lizards.....

Lizard on prowl in C.Fla neighborhood

WKMG LOCAL 6 NEWS

A neighborhood in Casselberry is on edge after several families spotted and photographed a large monitor lizard prowling in their yards, according to FLORIDA TODAY news partner WKMG LOCAL 6 NEWS.

my dad had one of these living on the golf course for a while. Mom saw it once when they were golfing, said it was really spooky.

via AoS

Lola! get your camera!

you sooooo have to enter this contest.

via cute overload.

things i don't need to read in the paper....

it's not the first time I've seen a story like this:

Possum glad to be free after toilet bowl excursion

08:51 PM CDT on Wednesday, May 9, 2007

By LaKISHA LADSON / The Dallas Morning News
lladson@dallasnews.com

After what happened this week, John and Pat Heard are beyond any tussle over whether to keep the toilet lid down.

Mr. Heard went to the half-bath in his Rockwall home Monday and found a pair of eyes staring up at him. A baby possum, its hind legs and tail still in the water, was marooned at the front of the slippery bowl.

Mr. Heard's initial shock and revulsion quickly turned to compassion.

"He was sitting still, but he was aware that I was there and turned his head and was looking at me," Mr. Heard said. "I could tell from the doleful look on his face that he didn't really want to be there."

The soggy ball of fur didn't make a sound.

Mr. Heard speculated that the possum, about the width of his fist, was exhausted. He figured it must have traveled more than 50 feet – through traps and pipe bends – from a partially opened sewer access pipe outside the Heard home on Sunset Hill Drive.

Mrs. Heard cautiously peeked into the toilet at the creature – just long enough to put the lid down.

Her husband called Rockwall animal control, and an officer with a cage, gloves and a stick with a lasso on the end arrived in about 15 minutes.

Scott Faucheux took the cage into the bathroom and had Mr. Heard shut the door behind him. The officer quickly had the possum inside the cage, where he let the animal rest a while.

"I wanted to make sure he wasn't in shock or anything," Mr. Faucheux said.

Mr. Faucheux said large possums are docile, but the smaller ones can be feisty. He wasn't worried, though.

"Possums really don't cause harm to anybody," he said.

The Heards' home sits about 100 yards from Lake Ray Hubbard, with only a grassy swath separating it from the water. They've seen armadillos, turtles, herons and ducks, and even heard coyotes.

But the possum in the toilet was a first.

Mr. Faucheux said it was a first for him as well. He said people need to keep in mind that it's spring and make sure their homes – including attic vents – are sealed against all manner of critters.

"This time of year, snakes are moving," Mr. Faucheux said.

He said he set the possum free Tuesday in eastern Rockwall County.

Mr. Heard said he planned no change in his approach to toilets but would leave them differently:

"My wife said from now on, she wants the lid down on all three bathrooms!"

emphasis added by me.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, and if i have it would have been years ago, but shortly after we moved to Texas I started getting really paranoid about bizarre stuff. mainly that any moment i was going to see ghosts at night and then I would die. It was at that point I figured I should seek professional help, I'd been treated for depression while I was in college, but it was more annoying than helpful.

anyhoo, I've been much better since then and even off medication for a couple years now. but a couple months ago I was wondering if I shouldn't consider it again because I was getting really nervous about snakes being in the toilet. I mean really, you don't know what could be in there until you lift the lid up (and I can't leave the lid up because then kitties get their feet wet trying to drink from it). and once you're seated, you're so vulnerable. so now I read this in my paper! this house is not THAT far from me. I've seen possums in my backyard! so perhaps i'm not crazy, which would be a good thing.

You make the call!

Storage drive or pricey kitty pillow?



It's both!

oh, and don't forget to visit the Carnival of the Cats this week.

For Cadet Happy,

Today's paper had a bit about the Spiderman 3 backstory.

Most of what I know about Marvel characters came from watching the 90's cartoons with people who had read the comics. anyhoo, if you don't feel like reading a lot, the cartoons are a good shortcut. ;D

random pictures....

Wonder Woman flip-flops my mom gave me for my birthday. (please ignore my scary toes)



me and my "husband" from Tender Land.


View from the hotel last weekend. (couldn't get a picture at the right time when there weren't as many clouds. oh well)

yeah, i made it home....

working hard to make up the kitty attention deficit.

Greetings from Colorado Springs!

hopefully I'll get some pictures, eventually. anyhoo, made it here and thankfully things have changed so i'll get to see RTO for a while. I had to drive a Ford F-150 around today. not good. anyhoo, fun story... last night I was making the hotel reservation and the lady asked for my name and my spouses name so I told her and then she asked why I was coming to Colorado Springs and I told her, "RTO" we had a nice giggle over that. anyhoo, they have treated us sooooo well since we got here. great discount and a mountain view and they gushed over RTO as we were checking in. There are quite a few military people here (Fort Carson, duh)

we went and saw Spiderman 3, liked it. I thought it dragged in a few places, probably could have used a leeeetle cutting, but still good.

so I have no idea what we'll be doing tomorrow and I leave for home Sunday. whee!

I love this couch.

I was amused that maggie seemed to be hugging the couch, but I couldn't quite get the picture right.

and so my crap week continues....

details to follow.....

update: m'kay quick recap of my day.

woke up late, called in sick, because the way this week has gone, it just wasn't worth it.
talked to RTO, he'll have some free time this weekend so I can go visit!
bought plane ticket.
rode bike, talked to mom, looked up hotel/weather/things to do info for trip.
cancelled tomorrow's voice lesson.
chatted with RTO online
made reservation for hotel and car
something happened.....
cancelled car, hotel and flight. flight is not refundable, though there's a chance i can get a refund if I can get some paperwork from RTO and the airline accepts it.
called Senator Cornyn. *sigh*
called to make vet appointment for Maggie cause she's been throwing up all day again.

I'm not sure what I can or should say about what goes in the "something happened" line cause I'd hate to get anyone in more trouble. stupid internet.

update 2: electric boogaloo. wife of one of RTO's buddies called around nine o'clock and talked me into going. they think they can sneak the guys out this weekend. if not I'll have a really nice vacation.

something happier....

alrighty then. I've finally chatted with RTO. He's in Colorado now. don't know much more than that at the moment.

Had a fun weekend, my parents came out to see Tender Land and after Saturday's show the whole cast went to a local bar for karaoke. I love karaoke. I tried to get my parents to come, but they'd been up since 4:15 a.m. eastern time. (okay, they had a nap, but still) had sushi for lunch Sunday. had today off from work.

calming down now.

more phone shenanigans

phone/internet went out around 1:30 last night. still out this morning. I called and they had cancelled the technician. soooooo now they're coming between 2 and 5 instead of 11 to 2. grrrrrr. oh, and as you can see it's working again. for how long is anyone's guess.

cute, it went out as I was writing this post. *sigh*