You're Doing It Wrong

Safeway always plays fantastic music. It’s not anything you would ever listen to on purpose but when you’re in the store buying your daily supply of pasta and turnips you can boogie.

A couple of weeks ago they played this song that the Internet tells me is America:

You can do magic
You can have anything that you desire
Magic, and you know
You’re the one who can put out the fire

I had this song on my brain for days and ran around the kitchen singing this until I got it confused with an ELO song called Strange Magic.

I get a strange magic,
Oh, what a strange magic,
Oh, its a strange magic.
Got a strange magic,
Got a strange magic.

I loved ELO when I was a girl. And I kept asking Bob if we had any in the house.

His answer: NO! He hates ELO!

So I went to the Apple Store and they have the Essential ELO for $10! And I told Bob and he had an iTunes card with money left on it. And he gave it to me!

I’m listening to “Can’t Get It Out of My Head” right now. Is he the best sweetheart on the planet or what?

Update:
Me against the applemachine:
Are you sure you want the dorky America tune?
ME: yes
Apple: Give us your secret credit card code.
Me: here.
Apple: really? you want this song?
Me: yes, dammit.
Apple: We need the secret handshake and the secret codes
Me: here
Apple: and this is the song you want?
Me: yes, dammit. Stop judging me.
Apple: okay. I guess. So you want us to charge you for this?
Me: yes. For 1 freakin’ dollar. Don’t make me long for the days of the record store next the grocery store where my Mom shopped and I gave you a dollar for a single which was a tiny vinyl thing.
Apple: I guess, whatever. Shall we back this up for you?
Me: damn you apple overlord.

This photo is from Bob’s birthday but you’re supposed to be looking at an example of what the kitchen-dining room area looks like..

Update:I just want to briefly update yesterday’s post to add that when I say ” giant dining room and kitchen with an island and a giant laundry room with a half bath” I don’t mean giant like a mcmansion or a ridiculously huge space. I mean a comfortable sized space for two people with friends or family visiting.

I have a great post idea but I decided to enjoy the last day of 70’s sunshine (for now) and I puttered in the yard when I got home from work.

Then I cobbled together a decent dinner out of nothing. (I sauteed the beet greens I decided not to compost with a leftover leek and bacon and served over rice. It was surprisingly decent.)

Now it’s almost bedtime and my eyes are drooping.

These flowers are actually about as big as the end of your finger. The photo in the catalog is like this and shows a blanket of purple flowers. Awesome, I thought and I bought a bag and the squirrels ate most of them and I have three little squirts. At first glance they look like colorful bits of trash at the base of the tree.

Yesterday was one of the most fabulous days you could possibly have that doesn’t include a beachside lounge, bottomless margarita and a cabaña boy named Jorge to rub lotion on your back.

I slept in and then read in bed until Noon. Then I watched TV. Later I took a bath and read some more. Then I watched more TV. Eventually I made dinner and then more TV and then bed.

I did not do housework except at one point I forgot about that and found myself mucking out the cheese drawer in the refrigerator. And for the first time since mid-October I did not do one writing-related activity. And I ate candy and potato chips.

This is my rhubarb alien baby. Isn’t it cool? I wish the whole patch looked like this.

One of the shows I’m watching is Little Dorrit on Masterpiece Theater. I was expecting to get bored and turn it off after half an hour but I thought it was fantastic. The cast includes Gollum, Martha (Doctor Who) and Gwen (Torchwood) and apparently the Mr. Darcy from the most recent big screen version who I did not think was nearly dreamy enough but I like him in this.

The whole series is at least 10 hours so I’ve got lots more to look forward.

I’ve never read Dickens, if you can believe it. We had to read Great Expectations in high school and I had a horrible time with it and really struggled. Then the teachers went on strike and the rest of the school year was canceled and I never had to finish it.

I keep thinking I should try again as a grown-up and see how I do.

Look at this giant box of stuff that is leaving this house forever. Yay.

I’m not sure the financial industry deserves to survive. Today I went to my bank and a nice young lady with scary bright blue contacts hollered a greeting to me from across the room after I’d been the only person in line and waiting for about 10 minutes. She asked if there was anything she could do to help me.

I told her I needed some cash and, I could be mistaken but I swear she identified herself as the stage manager and said she was there to help people if they needed to fill out forms to make things go more quickly.

It was hard not to suggest that what would make things go more quickly was if she’d get her ass behind the counter and open another teller window.

Today I need to get organized. I have about 600 loose ends sitting here and I’m going to tackle that and the bottomless email inbox and see how I do.

I took some other flower pictures but there’s a rumor that it’s going to be pushing 70 degrees on Sunday and sunny. It seems a lot to hope for, but if it’s even half that good I’m going to take oodles of photos then.

This is the kitchen in the house I grew up in. I’m guessing this was taken in the 70’s. Dig the dial-phone.

I found another great photo of my 70’s bedroom to share later.

Meanwhile, for those following in at home. I finished the ginormous writing project I’ve been working on the last six months and it’s ready to submit but the online submission is fubar right now and I’ve been wrestling with it for the past two hours. Bad words omitted.

I am taking tomorrow off and spending the day wearing sweatpants and drinking hot chocolate. I am not touching my computer.

I’ll do some catching up on Friday. I’m still really grumpy.

Here’s Sparky 8 days After Coming Out of the Water

Here’s Sparky 10 days after Going Into the Water

Sparky was a toy I bought for Kira. You put him in water and he expands. You take him out and he shrinks. There’s not much to recommend here.

The directions said that putting it in a bigger container would make it grow bigger so we put it in the most gigantic mixing bowl I had. He didn’t get that big. And now he’s shrinking and looks like a little dog three times his age.

I had a super busy weekend of doing stuff and when I wasn’t doing stuff I was writing like a madwoman.

If all goes well I’ll submit the thing I’m 98% done with this week.

Then I can catch up on email, blog post reading, comments, phone calls, linen closet organizing, garden planting and the ten trillion other things I’ve completely ignored for the last month or so.

To be truthful, I’m pretty grumpy right now. And it’s time to make dinner.

I made a fantastic scan from this week’s Office Despot catalog but forgot to upload it before I left for work. You’ll have to wait for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I’ll tell you about crazy scooter guy.

There’s a guy who lives somewhere near me and who leaves for work at around the same time. He drives like a maniac. On a scooter. In the dark hours of early morning, even when it’s pouring rain.

He likes to ride about three inches from my bumper, because rear-ending a car when you’re driving a scooter would be fun. Sometimes, my insistence on driving the actual speed-limit gets him into a lather and he has to zoom around me using the oncoming lane. It’s early. Probably no cars coming.

And it’s not like he gets anywhere. I always catch up to him at the next stoplight.

Some mornings I enjoy this little game but this morning when I saw him in my rear-view mirror I pulled over. You win today, crazy scooter guy.

Bookswap photo courtesy of Eilonwy Anne

I’ve been wanting to see the movie 300 since it came out.

I finally DVR’d it and I only watched the first half. I don’t think it’s a bad movie, but it’s not really my thing and since my DVR is 41% full which is keeping me awake at night PLUS my magazine drawer is too full to close all the way PLUS I went to a book swap on Saturday. “Yay, getting rid of some books.” Except I left with more books than I brought. Damn!

I can’t be watching any non-essential TV at the moment.

But back to 300, I will say this. The minute they invent a time machine, I’m traveling back to Spartan times and my job is going to be fitting and making those tiny leather pants.

That was 90% of my reason for sticking with the first hour. Oh. My.

And when Faromir came out with his David Cassidy haircut and his leather pants and washboard abs — it was like Christmas, birthday and winning the lottery all on the same day.

When I’m in charge of the world, soccer will be played wearing tiny leather pants.