You're Doing It Wrong

Someone Else’s Bad News
I’m apparently trapped in some sort of time warp since I’ve been on the wrong date since Saturday. On Monday there was a moment where I had to whack my head against the desk trying to clarify which day we were on. Usually on Mondays I have it together.

I just got back from the restroom and noticed I have terrible VPL today. (There’s a giant mirror in there.) I’m celebrating by finishing off this box of Wheat Thins (Big).

A couple of weeks ago (at home) we received some mail addressed to 2 names we’ve never heard of but with our address hand written on the envelope. It was from a property management company and the best I could tell without opening it, it was an eviction notice. I assumed they’d written the address wrong and marked return to sender.

I didn’t think too much about it except last week we got a piece of mail addressed to someone else (I don’t know if it’s the same person because I didn’t pay attention the first time) and from what I could tell by shaking it around and trying to see in that window on the front, it was about a returned check. There was a return address but no business name. Maybe the bank? I made a note of the name this time before returning to sender.

It’s hard to imagine the two items aren’t related and I’m wondering if this is the beginning of some sort of pain in the ass for us or just a random data misfire.

This is a plant that’s in the backyard. It’s ugly all year round except for a few weeks in the spring.

The spring around here has been pretty bad. 50 degrees and rain. I’ve been whining that we weren’t going to get any of those gorgeous 75 degree days where you walk around hugging yourself and wiping tears from your eyes because you feel so fortunate to live in such a gorgeous place. I cried that we’d go from 50 to 90.

You know what? It was 50 today and raining and the weather people say it’s going to be 90 on Friday. I bet about 5000% humidity, too.

A couple years ago for Administrative Professional’s Day (Whatever. If you type “Administrative Assistant” into Wikipedia’s search engine you get shuffled right in to Secretary. Thanks, Wikipedia. Why not shuffle woman into “domestic slave,” too.) colleague gave me a plant which I later planted in my yard. I’m not a plant expert but whatever this is, a bulb or rhizome or something, it keeps spreading. It used to be 3 little stalks and now there’s almost a dozen and they’re about two feet tall.

How Long Have I Lived in the PAC NW?
This morning, as I was getting ready to head out the door, I asked Bob if it was supposed to rain today. “Partly cloudy,” he announced after he checked the paper. So I jumped in the car without my raincoat thinking how tricky I was. In the 4 seconds it took to pull the car out of the garage, it started drizzling. D’oh! I have lived here long enough that I realized immediately what a moron I was and ran back in for the coat. A good hard rain the entire drive in.

Another Time Warp Sunday

There is a fabulous article about my absolute heroine Lynda Barry in the NYT today. She’s a writer/artist/cartoonist, in case you’re wondering. Here’s her bio if you’re interested. (I did not know she dated Ira Glass.)

I can’t wait to get my hands on her book which I need like I need a hole in my head. For every book I read, I put three more in the pile. Even worse, I BUY three more for the pile. Today I was looking for something on Bob’s shelf. I didn’t find it but I did find a Flannery O’Connor paperback which includes Wise Blood which I’ve never read so I optimistically put in my to-read pile as if I would get to it anytime soon.

As usual, the day flew by and I feel like I barely made a scratch in all the things I wanted to do.

Here’s the birdfeeder that remains birdless. I saw a hummingbird yesterday on the complete other side of the yard. I might move the feeder but then I can’t see it from the window. I could also put up a sign. “Food over there birds.”

My Mom gave me this cute apron made by Marble Mountain Bedding. I never wear it because it’s too pretty to get gunked up with kitchen grease. The crafter herself told me to get over it because it was washable and last night I put it on and had Bob take a photo.

Tomorrow I think I’ll have time to answer email and catch up on blog reading and all my neglected chores.

Filled With Delicious Sugar Water
A couple of weekends ago during one of the 15 minute warm spells we’ve had I saw hummingbird try to feed at our red barbecue. I decided to we needed a hummingbird feeder and the next time I was at Fred Meyer I went to grab one and turns out there are about 25 different kinds in all shapes and sizes.

I decided to skip the traditional clear plastic thing with a red top and red feeding flowers at the bottom and buy this pretty lavender shaped glass dome with glass feeding flowers. I’ll take a picture this weekend.

I suspect everything on the box is a lie. It said it was hand-blown eco-glass (?) and it came wrapped up in a giant piece of Styrofoam bigger than my head. It said it was easy to fill. It was not. It said it was guaranteed to attract hummingbirds and I’ve yet to see one.

The directions also said I’m supposed to clean the thing twice a week. We’ll see how that goes.

Two Tidbits

There is a fabulous article in the NYT today about urban farmers.

Over the past several days I’ve been getting phone calls from a family of Spanish speaking individuals who seem very disappointed that the person they’re looking for isn’t answering the phone. The reason I say family is because they’ve passed the phone around and I hear different voices speaking to me, which doesn’t change the fact that I don’t speak Spanish and cannot help them. I’m sorry they have the wrong number but I’m perplexed at why they keep talking to me when clearly I don’t understand. I eventually have to hang-up, after very politely saying again that I’m sorry and they have the wrong number and that I’m hanging up now.

Best Week Ever
It’s May 5 and I’m wearing open-toed shoes for the first time since October. Big day.

I knew I had a busy week coming up this month but didn’t clue in that it was here until I checked the calendar when I got to work this morning.

Besides slightly busier than normal work stuff, I have some sort of appointment or event every day up to and including Saturday. Friday is my usual catch-up day and that day I have two appointments and an event.

I better get busy.

Runday Sunday

There’s a new building going up next door to the office and I’ve been trying to get some good crane photos. There’s a guy who has to sit in there all day long. I can’t imagine climbing all those stairs just to get to work. My office is on the other side of the building but I check over there once or twice a day.

This morning, Bob took off for a few days in Toronto for a work-related conference. The flight was at the buttcrack of dawn and he said I didn’t have to take him if I didn’t want to get up that early but I don’t mind getting up early and it wasn’t that bad. Except I can’t believe how many people are driving around at 4:30am on a Sunday morning.

When I got home I made a cup of tea and worked on writing and by 9am I had already finished another draft and did a yoga practice. I did a quick trip to the garden store. And then at Noon I needed an epic nap so I could function the rest of the day.

I worked on my story for a couple more hours and then ran out for some quick yard work and now I need to bathe and figure out what I’m going to eat.

They Come From Below

This is the park-n-ride. I counted 14 manhole covers. Why so many?

First of all, last night I tried a Sunset recipe for Coconut-milk pudding rolls which turned out fantastic. They’re big fluffy yeast rolls baked with a giant bowl of sugar and coconut-milk poured over them. I think the healthiest part of these rolls is when you stop eating them. I was sad that I got full after three.

Second of all, fresh Doctor Who my ass. I’ve seen all but three shows from season 3 and I seem to be terminally cursed for catching those on TV. Is it possible that shows expire on the DVR? Can they do that without telling you? I swear I’ve had all three taped and waiting for me at one time or another and then they mysteriously disappeared. It’s possible I deleted them by accident but all three of them and at completely different times? The commercial said season three was coming out on DVD so I thought I’d just put the first two discs in the queue and that would cover it.

You know what disc 1 is? It’s the Xmas special and this dorky documentary of a dorky special they did where an orchestra played the music of Doctor Who while they showed clips and synchronized Daleks came out and spun around. Disc 1 also has outakes from the entire season and the Doctor and Martha’s set videos. Wouldn’t it make more sense for this to be disc 6? Or how about disc 4? The whole season had 13 episodes. 14 including the Xmas special. What do they need 6 discs for in the first place?