You're Doing It Wrong

I finally caved and bought some bulbs. They kept extending my coupon. It expired on Friday. Then it was good through the weekend. Then it was good until Monday at midnight. Rather than buy several $25 bags of 50 bulbs, I bought fewer fancier ones. I want it to be worth the tulip bandit’s while. Altogether I think I got about 50 which I will no doubt be bitching and moaning about in a month when I have to plant them.

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I might have already written about this. For almost my whole checking-account possessing life, which started when I was 16, I balanced my checkbook to the penny every month. I can’t remember when but in the last year or two, I balanced and if it was within $5 I wouldn’t worry about it. Now I’ve started to round up and round down to the nearest .50¢ for all the entries in my checkbook. I don’t think I’m properly conveying how major this is for me to be so lax about my checkbook. And I think this is personal growth. Is it really worth it to spend an hour trying to find .17¢?
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I bought new yoga clothes and I wore them for the first time last night. The top is awesome but the pants felt like they were falling down the whole time. By falling down I mean my buttcrack was getting some air. Jeez, when I was a girl pants came up and covered your entire bottom.
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If you’re a Coen Brothers fan, I highly recommend Burn After Reading. I saw it with my Mom and Dad over the weekend and we all enjoyed it. Really great performances from everyone.
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I’m not watching Heroes this season. Nothing you say will make me change my mind.
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One of my notes looks like it says “order owre.” I have no idea what that means and it’s annoying me more than it should.

I have been so busy the past week I’ve barely had time to pull up my pants.

I’ve lived in this area for closing in on 20 years and I’ve never had any interest in going to the zoo. However, today my mother-in-law (epic zoo volunteer) took us to see the baby elephant and he was so freaking cute it hurt. Sorry I didn’t get a cuter photo but he didn’t do something really cute until I put the camera down. Also, it was a wait in line and shuffle through type of thing so not like I could gaze all day at his ever-loving cuteness and wait for the perfect shot.

Today’s featured topic is a tour of my home desk area.

Against the back wall there’s a giant Attack of the Clones DVD promotional banner. You can see half of Yoda’s head at the top. Standing in front, a full size C3PO cut-out and C3PO wears my Star Wars purse from Bolsa Bonita (she has some similar purses in stock right now, if you’re envious.)

My computer lives on an anthro cart. They aren’t cheap but they look nice and when the world turns into The Road the good guys will be pushing these along instead of grocery carts. This thing is sturdy. Someday the top shelf will need to be cleared off for a printer but meanwhile, on the left is a giant box filled with Karuk related research. The box on the right is filled with craft-stuff from the fifteen minutes I thought I was going to get into crafting. Now it’s stuff I’m never going to use, but can’t bear to get rid of, taking up space. On top are my two boxes of critted manuscripts from Clarion West.

I can never remember exactly what computer I have but it’s a Mac and it’s big and shiny and I love it. It is surrounded by tons of crap including zillions of notes scribbled on scrap paper, stickie-notes and index cards, my iPod, a spindle of CDs and a spindle of DVDs and craft gloves that I wear to support my mouse-hand wrist when typing and highly recommend.

The music stand thing on the left has a paper with a bunch of Mac short cuts on it because I can never remember them. It also has a couple things on it that I want to learn on the computer but never get around to, like things with sound files. When I returned from Clarion West, Bob had left me a picture of William Gibson to watch over me and he does.

My chair is a $50 craigslist special. Over-crowded bookshelves are self explanatory. On the end of the tall bookshelf I have tons of hooks that I use to organize camera cords, charging cords, earbuds and a spare pair of glasses. Hanging from the ceiling is one of those cool paper shades hanging on a light-bulb. I use that in the winter so I can see what I’m doing during yoga practice without having to use the overhead light.

Hey, guess what I did today?

This has been on my list for several weekends. It’s been that thing that I was determined to do next and never got around to.

We have every-other-week yard debris pick-up and tomorrow is the pick up day so I made sure our tub was full.

Yes, it is crooked. My arms got tired and I sloped unexpectedly.

There’s another hedge in back I want to turn into an alien head. I have no experience at sculpting hedges. But I guess worse-case-scenario I have a hideous shaped hedge in my backyard. Maybe next weekend.

During the gardening today I managed to smash my right pointer finger between something and now it’s bruised and hurts. But I can still type.

The weather report tells me we’re in for several days of hot followed by a day with some rain and then back to medium. I’m watering like crazy in what’s left of the backyard because I have a busy week and it’s going to have to fend for itself until rain day.

I like the idea of iTunes and being able to have all my music in one place but I also find it overwhelming. Every time I go to organize a new playlist or add some songs, there’s so much stuff. It’s too much.

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True story, I think about the holidays starting in September. Not because I’m one of those people who lives for the holidays but more because I like to get a head-start so that I don’t have to go out in the the dark rains of December and fight the crowds to get my shopping done. Or else pay an extra $15 to make sure the thing is shipped in time.

Lately I’ve been overwhelmed by how much stuff I have. All my drawers and cupboards seem stuffed and every time something new shows up I have to poke around to find a place to put it. I was thinking for Christmas this year, I’d like to give everyone a bag and invite them to come over and take some of my stuff. Maybe a book or a knickknack or a kitchen gadget.

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I have my stack of bulb catalogs here and still can’t decide what to do. Last year I bought 108 and it was a drag putting them in the ground but I enjoyed the flowers when they arrived.

The way things are going now, I’m trying to simplify and I’m betting I’ll be happy I don’t have a giant bag of bulbs to stick in the ground in the Fall. The bulbs from last year will still be there in the Spring.

I can’t decide.

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Is the quality of rubberbands slipping? This has been bothering me for a long time. I’m a big fan of the rubberband, especially the big giant ones that you use for holding together stacks of documents. I once bought some florescent ones for the office and was sad when I used the last one. I didn’t see them in the catalog we use to buy office supplies and haven’t seen them in a store again.

I use small ones, too. For holding together cords and cables. And I use one around my checkbook to keep it from flapping open and also for holding a pen. These are great tips. Try it at home.

I always have a bunch of rubberbands hanging off my bulletins boards and other office props, at home and work. And it seems like half the time they’re all dried up and break the minute I stretch them. Are they supposed to be stored in an airtight container? Once you use them they’re out in the world. They should be more durable than that.

This is a photo from December 2004 at a Frankfurt U-Bahn station. I’m sure I’ve posted it or a version of it before. There’s no particular reason I’m posting it now, I just like the photo.

Here’s a note from my “things to blog about” scrap of paper at the office. The office scrap has some good ideas but they are long and would take some thought and research and I’m not sure when I’m going to get around to that.

I think I’m finally accepting that I am incapable of getting my act together at the moment and this is how it’s going to be.

But this is the note: “Invent a word for when someone tries to elevate something they did for you to more than it is.”

I wish I could remember what prompted this.

I started watching Siskel & Ebert with Bob when we first started living together.

It was a good show for us because they covered a good mix of the big dumb blockbusters and independent films. We can appreciate both. And we watched the show long enough to know how our film tastes measured up with theirs.

We stuck with it after Siskel died and watched Roger with a long line of guests. We still liked the show when Roeper joined. Roeper often surprised us. There would be a ridiculous stinky looking movie previewed and we’d look at each other and say. “Roeper is going to hate this one.” And then he would love it.

We’ve been watching Roger left hoping it would be temporary but Roger never returned.

We knew that Ebert and Roeper were leaving but we didn’t know when. There was a show waiting in the DVR last night and we assumed that was the last one. Instead, it was the new show and we didn’t make it past 60 seconds of introduction. It was horrific smooth talking salesmen in shiny suits.

I’m having trouble summing up why we liked the Ebert versions for so long but hated the new slick show that to be honest we didn’t even give a real chance. I always felt like Ebert and guests were smart people that were giving their opinions and if they loved a big dumb action movie or discovered a fabulous performance in a little undiscovered indy film they’d tell you. The new show felt completely phony.

I like my junk food but I generally eat foods that are good for me. Especially in the morning. My normal breakfast is some kind of plain yogurt, fruit and granola combination.

Since I got back from the workshop, I make my yogurt and come sit at my desk and I never want to eat it. I want potato chips. See’s chocolate. Or today: macaroni salad.

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Here’s a story from yesterday. We were walking to lunch and there was a homeless person outside that ubiquitous coffee place that starts with S and ends UCKS who seemed to be minding his own business. A coffee place customer was on his feet and loudly telling the homeless guy to leave him alone. He had this robotic voice and repeated over and over: “Sir, if you don’t leave me alone I will use a weapon.” We walked away as fast as we could.

There are two that are this big out there. Plus I have about 4 smaller ones. Not bad.

I thought I’d gather up all my little scraps on my desk that say: blog idea and do one giant post except I don’t understand most of them.

The following are all notes from when we went to the movies.

How come families on TV or in movies never have small kitchens?

Grace Park is in a new show? What about Boomer?

Instead of all the stupid commercials the theater plays while you wait, they should have readings of classic short stories. And advertise where you can buy the books. They’d probably figure out a way to stupidfy it.