Scraps (n. ,fem., singular)

Do you know I managed to get everything on today’s to-do list done, and then some? Because, wonder of wonders, I got puppy snuggles as well! lol

My boss has a new dog: a Yorkinese named Otis that he procured from two winos down in Carabelle. Best story beginning ever. But Otis is just the cutest bit of fluff ever to grace to optical nerves, very quiet, and very obedient, even at 10 weeks. It’ll be great fun having him around the office, I’m sure!

Dinner tonight was fabulous! There were nine in attendance and it really was exactly what I wanted: a group of friends all hanging out together, conversations flowing, swirling and occasionally intersecting into just the most wonderful evening I could have imagined. Granted, I had hoped a few more friends could have made it, but life happens and I am more than thankful for those that could make it. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did!

1. Get up, shower, and dress in the very cute outfit purchased Sunday afternoon.
2. Make it to work on time if at all possible.
3. Do work while answering questions about why I am wearing a tiara.
4. Remember to put new registration sticker on license plate.
5. At 4:24pm turn 31.
6. Celebrate again at 5:24pm because I was actually born in the central time zone.
7. Refresh hair, makeup, etc.
8. Have fabulous dinner with friends and family at Rice Bowl.
9. Make it home in time for Heroes at 9pm (preferred but optional if merriment persists at dinner).
10. Fall into bed happy to have survived another year in fabulous style despite various road-bumps on the way.

So I set this deadline for myself, which happens to be this coming Tuesday, which I will not say much more about til that actual day, but anyway: suffice it to say this only reinforces how much I don’t know about internet technology. I was shocked to get as far as I did with this program I actually had to install and the database I had to create, but was denied when I tried to actually test the software. It worked only half-way, and of course the error is totally PEBCAK.

And yes, I disappeared for a couple of days. It was bound to happen. Wednesday I had a dinner guest and then practically fell straight into bed once my company departed and last night I hit that brick wall that had been looming on the horizon. I knew it was there but I was still a smidge surprised at the fact that I hit it (totally ignoring the fact that last weekend’s travel meant I had no downtime from the week and that the first three evenings this week were incredibly busy as well). Tonight I was almost back to ‘normal’ which is good, because Anniversary is tomorrow. I’m only going for the day, though, and will use Sunday to veg out and (hopefully) get my head above water with the aforementioned issues.

Working around the apartment tonight, trying to get everything back to ‘normal’ or better after missing the weekend and assorted purchase-scattering. Ergo, no real time for an entry. Catch ya tomorrow!

And I put it together all by myself.

I officially <3 IKEA.

So… well, where to begin about the road trip. First of all, there’s nothing like driving through downtown Atlanta at 10:30 at night. Traffic was still visible, but those beautiful buildings shining in the night were worth the hassle. Of course, Palmie was most happy to see the Marriott and was really wishing it was already August. Keep in mind that as we drive through Atlanta we’re listening to Tenacious D… it was a rather surreal experience.

Saturday started early after maybe five hours of sleep (it was very much like a slumber party) with breakfast at a spot of ‘local color’ followed by the drive to Cleveland, GA to indulge our inner 5-year-olds at Babyland General. We all agreed that being there as adults was much better than if we had gone as children. The bad jokes and puns were just way too funny to have flown over our younger heads. After that we headed to Helen, GA for lunch at the Troll Tavern (you must try the Helen of Troll frozen cocktail) then strolling through the shops. We ended our travels back in Dahlonega at Consolodated Gold Mines where we panned for gold, took a tour of the mine, and grubbed for gems. It was fun in a kitschy kind of way, but I don’t think we’ll need to do that particular stop again.

Part 2 we’ll save for tomorrow I think.

That’s about all I can say at this point. Palmie and I had such a WONDERFUL time with berylq this weekend. So much fun, so many stories, so much shopping.

So. very. tired.

Seriously: busiest weekend I’ve had in ages. I’m glad to be home and, y’all, I must be growing up because (totally despite the fact that I wore a pink and white beaded tiara from Friday after work until I got home Sunday) I actually unpacked my suitcase withing 30 minutes of getting home. Y’all, this is unheard of. I am the queen of living out of the suitcase until everything has been used or dealt with, sometimes for a week! But no, everything is put away and done.

Well, almost everything. I do need to deal with all of my IKEA purchases but that will happen tomorrow night.

My iPod that is. Among other things over the last couple of days I’ve been ripping songs to my iPod Nano and creating snazzy playlists. You see, tomorrow marks the first road trip since the acquisition of the iPod and it will be an experience in not travelling with a stack of CDs to fumble with. Both palmie and I are bringing our respective MP3 players so we can switch off dj-duties

Other than that, my suitcase is packed (just waiting on hair and makeup in the morning), props for the weekend are ready, and documents! Crap! Need to find my current insurance card. (Later…) Found the declaration page from when I changed to the Ion2 but no cards. I was able to log on to Progressive online and print out a temp card. Sheesh. You’d think I’d get better since I go through this EVERY. FREAKING. CAR TRIP.

Okay, Now I really am ready. Just need sleep now!

In FLYLady world (an organizational system that I sporadically follow) Wednesdays are always Anti-Procrastination days. Since I am one among many Queens of Procrastination, sometimes this reminder turns out to be a very good thing.

So, tonight I registered for the domain for RA which will launch on May 1, blocked the gauntlets that I finished knitting ages ago, gave my Cabbage Patch Kid a sponge-bath in preparation for our trip to Babyland General this weekend, painted RA #1, and did some updates of the softwares on this website. Not bad for a few hours, no?

What I’m really jazzed about is WordPress finally managed to integrate the html toolbar to work with Safari, now I can insert links and basic code without having to do it myself (which I haven’t bothered with in ages because of the hassle). Now I have a nice little row of formatting buttons above the box I’m typing into. Yay for updates!

Almost forgot to post! The horror!

And speaking of horror: I watched Skeleton Key tonight. First off, it’s not so much horror as suspense and second off, it was more interesting than suspenseful. It was a smidge predictable but since I love just about anything having to do with Louisianna and its culture, even the dark bits, I was totally enthralled. Makes me want to research stuff. Also makes me want to visit NOLA again. Still, I’m glad I watched it while it was still daylight out… we don’t want to tempt my imagination any more than it already is now do we?

Anyway, while watching that and the finally-not-rerun Gilmore Girls and House I worked on a bit of knitting (because if it’s Tuesday I must be knitting). I actually got one little footie done! While the bind off could have been a smidge looser, I actually don’t think it will be a problem since I needed the edge to be snug anyway. I will loosen it up on the mate, though. Yay for progress. Especially since my bead knitting was being problematic on Sunday: I must have knit that idea 5 different ways before I tried crochet instead and while each method had it’s merits, they also had their flaws. Still, I now know what I’m up against and I think I may go back to the original idea and just finagle some way to make the binding off work.

Well, I took some heavy-duty cough syrup a little bit ago (before practicing the harp again… I almost have ‘When Irish Eyes are Smiling’ error free on the lead hand, woot!) and the codiene is starting to kick in. Nitey-night friends!

So, last week I was working my way through a mountain of invoicing at work when I came up a curious description for a postcard: Hummer Happening.

Yes, folks, we printed 750 postcards advertising that somewhere in the Greater Tallahassee area there was going to be a Hummer Happening from 10am-4pm this past Saturday. Four hours of Hummer Happening, including a plantation tour, off road experience, inflatible castle, and catered lunch. I think I was most disturbed by the bouncy house, personally.

Of course, this was for a Hummer dealership (cars, if you’re still scratching your head out there) but still, I’m thinking that whomever titled this event gets kudos for the fun alliteration but failed to run this by your average American teenager (or elementary school class, the way things are these days) to test for the snigger-factor. I know that sex is a generally accepted way to market cars but this really takes the cake!

(No, not from that… please, I’m not that lucky, lol)

Sundays are always awesome to wake up on because the station the alarm is set to does not play best-of shows of the week-day morning show like on Saturday. Instead it’s awesome music. The first song I remember this morning was the Beastie Boys “No Sleep ’til Brooklyn”, followed some time later by the new Hinder (”Better than Me”) which I am totally in love with. Then, as the fog lifted from my head and the sleepy remnants of a dream faded they kicked in with R.E.M’s “It’ the End of the World as We Know It” which made me smile such a big smile. By the time the next song was on (Rancid’s “Time Bomb”, such fun) I had risen, made the bed while dancing around in my fuzzy slippers and stuck my head in the living room to see if palmie was up yet.

That really was a great way to wake up.

I will learn to practice moderation.

No, no, I didn’t go out and get drunk or blow the rent on shoes or anything frivolous like that. I just get carried away when I entertain, esepcially when there is a theme involved. And this weekend in the Torchwood Marathon with palmie and she actually requested the theme of suggestive food. Which has been great fun let me tell you!

But I always do this: go overboard. Which is great for my guest(s) as then s/he(they) have plenty of selections to choose from and the food and drinks never run out. And it’s not like I damage myself financially, I just tend to not be able to reign mysef in when I’m in the produce aisle or the specialty foods shop. And World Market, with their imports section, is just way too tempting.

So, one of these days I’ll get a grip on entertaining in moderation, until then, it’s back to the kitchen to play with my food!

And my John Denver CDs. Frankly, I miss the CDs more.

Or, well, that was how I was for most of the day.

Some friends have opined that my mind is a strange and scary place to be some days. After the dream I had last night I’ll readily agree. The thing is, it wasn’t scary, or stupid, or even surreal: it was sweet. Y’all, my subconscious is teaming up with my conscious and pestering whatever passes for logic in my life. I can’t get someone out of my head, even though there’s really no reason (other than idle curiosity, okay, maybe not completely idle, whatever!) for him to be there. And those two against little ‘ol me is just plain distracting!

But this evening when I got home I began the search for the other missing link: my John Denver the Wildlife Concert CDs. I really wanted to listen to them today at work but all I could find was the case this morning on my way out the door. So not only am I looking for a favorite CD, I’m looking for two favorite CDs and they are naked. Which, honestly, is not all that surprising since in pre-iPod days I kept a small cd wallet in my car with various discs that I would change out periodically for when the radio got on my nerves or I wanted to sing along to a particular song.

When I got home, though, I checked all of the naked stacks that I could find and the discs were no where to be found. Y’all, I only have 1000 square feet to lose something in, and since the bathroom and kitchen are pretty safe from such searches maybe we’re talking 950? And while things may be cluttered, I can usually find anything in short order thanks to my own sense of creative organization. It’s actually when I clean that things actually go missing.

Do you know where they were?

I finally found them in (of all places) the CD drawer thingie in my bedroom. Why did I not look there before? Dude, do you know how long its been since I’ve taken anything out of it much less put something back in there? I do: August. Not only that, it’s camoflaged! The organizer thing sits on this shelf in my bedroom which is one of those snap-apart plastic jobs that are excellent and great to move and stackable and great but ugly as sin. So one day after I’d done the supreme stupidity that was rearrange my entire bedroom I decided it needed a slipcover and I made one right then (hey, whaddya know, a finished project!). It worked so well that I frequently forget (as I did today) that there are things on the hidden shelves.

At least I found one thing. Maybe I stapled my brain to the passport application by mistake yesterday?

With 9 weeks to go until Mom’s 50th Birthday Cruise I finally went in and applied for my passport. Aside from having to wait over an hour in the Passport Waiting Room it was a relatively painless adventure. I do sort of wonder about whether they monitor that little waiting room and perhaps the people who waited outside and peeked through the glass until their number came up knew something that the rest of us did not.

Still, I must have passed muster since they took my money (oh did they ever) and my application and my birth certificate and in four weeks I should have license to leave–or, rather, reenter–the country. But here’s the mini-rant in all of this: They changed the rules this past January that anyone reentering the US by road or air MUST have a passport. Even kids. So the birth certificate and ID as proof of citizenship? Only works on ships for right now, but soon that won’t even be an option, it’s passport or nothing. But in light of this new mandatory requirement did they do something constructive like lower the rates or put in more staff in expectation? No (or at least not enough). So instead of 6-8 weeks for standard processing (which is a whopping $97) it’s more like 10-12 weeks because they didn’t adequately project the number of applications they would be processing.

But, in all fairness, they have apparently brought in more staff to handle the backlog and are processing in the 300K-400K range per week!

There is an alternative, of course. For an extra $60 you can have your paperwork expedited and then it will only take about 4 weeks. I knew from the time I booked the cruise that expediting was the only real option I had, since we were only about 12 weeks out when we finally decided what we were doing and the cruise boards were reporting waits in the 13-15 week range. Not good.

One thing I was surprised by? When they took my passport photo (the ones I’d done at home were too zoomed in, go figure) it actually didn’t come out horrible!? Is it an omen? I can only hope!

(Yes, I know, I said it…)

So. The Dove solid dark-chocolate bunny essentially started taunting me tonight after my mostly sensible dinner so I just had to show it who was boss. It is now quite quiet (as it has no mouth… or head for that matter) but, uh, I probably should have executed a slightly more strategic strike.

I have a tummy ache.

Oh well, I was wanting a quiet evening to dig into the Bad Girl’s Guide to the Open Road and since I am between knitting projects at the moment tonight was as good as any. For a slim volume it certainly packs quite a punch and is mandatory reading for future roadtrips. (Yes, I know, I really am the type that needs to research being spontaneous. Honestly, it’s endearing, right?)

(not tonight, this was last week)

So. Wednesday night I’d cook a bunch so had planned overs so I wouldn’t have to worry about lunch/dinner on Thursday, right? Only, well, I didn’t really want spinach-topped tofu with squash and kale when I got home Thursday night. What I decided I wanted was a good old-fashioned peanut butter and jelly sandwhich.

Hey, being an adult means you can eat like a kid when you want, right?

Problem being, I don’t generally keep bread in the house. In fact, the few times I go out and buy bread it usually goes bad before I can use it up, even when I keep in the fridge. I had a meeting a to get to before too very long and I really didn’t want to have to go to the store for just a load of bread (because what are the chances that would be all I left with? Yeah, I agree).

Also to keep in mind is the fact that the only crackers I routinely keep on hand are Carr Rosemary Crackers and, while I’m sure it would be an interesting flavor combination and I have no doubt that somewhere there is a perfectly good recipe containing the base flavors of peanuts, strawberries and rosemary, if I’m going to eat dinner like a 4 year old I really don’t want it muddled by the tastes of my 30-year old self.

But I was saved, after all, by a forgotten box of graham crackers in the pantry.

Now, I learned something on this evening (and no, it’s not to always have bread in the house). When one attempts to eat a peanut butter and jelly on graham cracker dinner there are two ways to successfully go about it. Basically, one cannot merely chomp down on the rectangular sandwhich: this leads to massive loss of filling unless one has been stingy and why on earth would one do that? So, the two methods…

Option A is to develop a particular bite-style that allows both the top and bottom grahams to break separately so as to prevent mushing. I found that by catching the upper edge first, causing a natural break to occur in the cracker, then following up with the bottom graham seemed to yield the most satisfactory results with minimal mess, but did require a bit of oral dexterity and practice (not that this is a bad thing).

Option B, however, is by far the simpler method and also has the benefit of reducing your carbohydrate intake. Simply put, make the sandwhich open faced and snack away.

Accompanied by a cartoon-adorned mug of milk it was a delightful dinner, I must say. At least the four year old thought so!

You know, I had a really good time this weekend. But that does not change the fact that I’m grateful this was the exception (activity-wise) rather than the norm.

So. Friday is supposed to be my usual home-body night hanging out in front of the TV with my sketchbook. The hanging out started a bit later than normal since I needed to go by First Friday at 6:30 to drop off a dance costume. To kill between work and FF I ran a necessary errand to Office Depot followed by a slightly less necessary but very fortuitous trip to Marshalls. FF was good, too. I picked up a few small items at a couple of shops, saw some great art, and headed home before I was totally worn out.

About 9 or so I get online to work on some stuff and I turned YIM on in case anyone wanted to chat. Books messages me and we get to talking about what we’re going to do Saturday night. Then she mentions that her friend, we’ll call him Barcelona, wants to do something that night when she closes the shop but she’s not really sure what to suggest. Long-story short? I ended up meeting the both of them at St Mike’s for pool. (I don’t quite get the naming of a bar/pool hall after a saint… chuch, yes. bar, no. But its sacreligious enough to intrigue me anyway.) We left there just after last call and walked around the corner to All Saints so we could continue our conversation without the cigarette smoke and loud music (80s rock… totally awesome. I can also recommend the Pear Cider on tap. Yum. But, as Books discovered, don’t expect the wine to be good.). I got to bed at a quarter to five.

I’m not sure sleeping in until 11am really counts as sleeping in when you didn’t go to bed until 4:45.

Saturday I was actually somewhat productive: letter written and mailed, laundry done, minor housework, etc. I debated taking a nap but it was so late by the time the laundry finished that I knew I’d be way too groggy come 9pm when I had to meet Books. Though others were invited, it ended up being just me, Books and Dream at the BBC. (Well, okay, there were a lot more people there but they weren’t with /us/ or anything.) The performance was AWESOME. I love me some live music and in this little cinder block club it was just the best I’ve heard in a while. The beer was cold and the fried fish (I got the mullet–it was very fresh) was yummy. We left right after the second set and made it home from the back of beyond at a reasonable hour. I was in bed by 3.

It definitely counts as sleeping in when you’ve gone to bed at 3 and get up at 1 =)

Owing to the cooler than usual temperatures, Easter dinner was Turkey gumbo and corn casserole. Oh my, it was so good. A nice, low-key kind of holiday. J & K stopped by for a little bit (K’s family is very into every holiday and they have this day-long appearance schedule to meet) and then I toddled on home with my easter basket to veg out the rest of the evening.

Again, I am /so/ grateful I don’t do this sort of thing every weekend, but every now and then it feels good to be this social.

So I’m IMing with someone who reminds me of a site that I actually have a profile on, it’s a dating site, but the only reason I have a profile there is because it’s one of those sites you have to (or they make you think you have to) create an account to get results. So, anyway, after we stop chatting I decide to go on over to check out a common friend’s profile. Always amusing when you run into friends on these sites. Of course I ran into more than just the one I went looking for… oh dear.

Anyway, so, being the easily distracted one that I am I started taking some more of the quizzes. And that is why I say quizzes are eeeevil. Honest. They are crack and I shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near them. And yet I just spent an hour or more perusing the blasted things.

Interesting thing to note: this is the site that once gave me the dating profile of the BattleAxe I believe. Apparently I’ve mellowed… Not necessarily a bad thing… Just interesting.

I’ll have to write about the dinner dilemma tomorrow I suppose. Going to sleep now, kthnx!

At least for locals between Tallahassee and Memphis. Don’t want to give too much away, but a road trip is in the works that will be the be-all end-all of road trips for generations to come. If we survive we’ll never be the same

That’s it, I got nuthin’ else and since I managed NOT to short out the wireless keyboard when I dumped a glass of water on it I think I’m going to count my lucky stars and go to bed.

Okay, if I were one of the cool kids with the camera phones I could probably have posted pictures of this instead of just the words. In fact, if I were more dedicated I suppose I could have gone back out with either of my digital cameras to get the shots but, well, I guess I’m not.

Anyway! I’m not sure how far the franchises spread but we have Jimmy John’s sandwhiches here and everything seems to have these little directive messages on them (the napkins say ‘Wipe!’ and the cups say ‘Drink!’ and there are little funny signs inside and so forth). With this in mind I probably shouldn’t have been surprised at all at the signs this past weekend. (And, for the record, these were the big outdoor signs, not the inside ones. Though a Beack Club sounds good right now, no, I haven’t eaten from there in at least a month or two.)

Side one, heading east on W Tennessee St, Saturday morning:

“What happens in your mouth, stays in your mouth.”

So kids, let that be a lesson to you: keep your food in your mouth, no one likes see-food. Yeah, that’s what they’re going for across the street from campus!

Side two, heading west on W Tennessee St, Saturday afternoon:

“We go the extra 2 inches.”

I guess this has to do with their subs. You can get any sandwhich either on a sub-roll (which I guess is 8″ compared to Subway’s 6″?) or their multi-grain wheat sliced bread. I think I got a sub-roll once but the wheat bread is so much better! Plus, with the wheat it makes the sandwhich so much wider. After all: length isn’t always as important as girth!

\o/