You're Doing It Wrong

Vandal
A month or so ago Bob asked me to come down to the basement and look at one of the windows. It’s a double pane and the outside pane was broken. (I first typed double pain. You can see my frame of mind.) Bob said there were rocks in the window well.

We couldn’t figure out if it was a botched break-in or maybe just kids throwing rocks. Both scenarios are a bit of a strain. The window well is in almost plain view of the street so it wouldn’t be a great place to break in. And it seems unlikely that some kids randomly ran up to that window to throw a rock.

We didn’t worry about it too much and made plans to get it fixed.

Meanwhile, last weekend I walked around the house for the first time since the weather turned bad just for a quick peek. I found a pile of yard debris that I raked against the house and then forgot about. It’s amazing you can spend time in a place every day and there are corners that you never look at. I checked that broken window well and I finally saw those rocks.

Those look just like the rocks that I dug out of the flower patch and then tossed into the window well to keep them out of the plants. *oof*

I confessed that I was the most likely vandal and Bob said he was relieved that it wasn’t crime.

In other news, I completely and totally do not want to do the holiday newsletter. I have my notes. I’ve selected a bunch of pictures. I’ve made my picks. But I’m still mad and every time I sit down I get cranky and obsess on other things and it’s not getting done.

I’ve made huge progress on the shopping part and maybe tomorrow we can get the tree and I can start wrapping and decorating and perhaps then I’ll feel more festive.

Storm Damage 06
Last night we had a big storm with lots of wind. In addition to the atomspheric chaos, I was mad about something so I spent most of the night tossing and turning and being pissed off. By morning, in addtion to still being mad, I was tired and cranky and had no desire to drag my butt out of bed except I wanted to get a few shopping type things done as early as possible.

Bob said parts of our fence blew over and our compost bin disintigrated and blew though the fence into our neighbors yard. COOL!

I ran for my camera, but couldn’t find it.

I hate not being able to find things so I keep my behavior as predictable as possible. It wasn’t in my purse, my work bag or the car. I figured I left it at the bar last night. Great. I stomped around the house because I just got the stupid thing. I haven’t even paid for it yet. How could it be lost?

But then I found it in the bathroom. (Whatever) Here are photos of the fence damage.

I used my amazing Illustrator skills to show you how the compost bin looks when it’s put together. The bin used to have lots of stuff in it, but I emptied it into the soil when I put the garden to bed in October so all that was in there were a few carrot, celery and fennel scraps plus some icky pumpkin. That’s all strewn about now.

Bob said he’s go on the store run with me and we were sitting at the stop sign at the end of our street, fully and completely on our side of the road, me standing up on my horn and Bob and I doing a Simpson’s type yell, “whoaoaoaoaoaoaoao” when a lady making a left turn onto our street drove into us head on. She was taking her kids to school. The second thing she said when she got out of the car after I’m sorry was I’ll be honest with you I missed my last insurance payment. Not even 9am and I already hate this day.

The impact wasn’t even enough to set off the airbags and I felt a little bad for the lady because obviously this was a fukup she can’t afford, but sweet fancy moses, it was like she was aiming for us. Look at the photo, the damage is on the PASSENGER’S side of the car. She said there was a glare from the sun, which is may be true but doesn’t explain how you could completely miss your own side of the street and drive into a car with its horn blaring. The car is drivable but yet another hassle.

We took my car home and Bob drove and we got our errands done without further incident. I’m going to try to do a little yoga and then have some cocoa and see if I can salvage the rest of the day.

Chimichanga From Jax

I won’t name names to protect the well-fed and innocent, but that wasn’t my lunch. But it looks yummy.

So I was driving home last night and I heard an ad on the radio for a new business that provides lights and other support for people who “want to grow fruits and vegetables in the privacy of their own home.”

Now who do you think the *real* target audience is?

Technology is Out To Get Me
I just wrote out this long rant about how trying to buy something from Etsy made me want to brain myself but it seems to be resolved and who wants to read a screen and a half bitchfest of Pam Against the Machine? At least I have gifts for those hard to shop for folks. I hope. Maybe I shouldn’t get too excited until I’m holding the items in my grubby paws.

The Best Part Was the Dragon
On Sunday afternoon we took Priscilla and Aunt Betty to Christmas Revels which is traditional olde tyme musical show with singing, dancing and comedy set in 12th century France and is way better than I’m making it sound.

The first time they went, I wouldn’t go because it didn’t sound interesting. When Bob came home from the show I asked him if very many people went because I’m that clueless like, oh, I don’t think it sounds interesting no one else will. Yes, he told me, it was sold out. It sells out every year.

The next time they went, I joined them and loved it. The players are all ages including lots of kids and all kinds of people go with their families. The music is fantastic.

The event is held at the Scottish Rite Center which is a beautiful building that is very old and if you’re wondering where Aunt Agatha’s ancient orange furniture went after she died, it’s in the SRC women’s lounge. The building has lots and lots of stairs which is fine except that this is the perfect kind of show to bring your Grandma and Grandpa to and there are lots of elders with a two-handed death grip on the bannisters teetering to and from their seats.

There’s a single elevator that fits about 4 and operates by hamster wheel. It gets a good workout during Revels shows. The best part was the dragon. The dragon costume was a guy in front with dragon head, feet and arms and then behind him was about 8 kids each wearing a spiked hoody type costume. During the battle every time the dragon got axed, a few kids would detach and go wheeling off. It was very cute.

We had dinner at Jakes Grill which was awesome. I ate too much and had to be rolled back to the car. We had a dessert which included some sort of chocolate dream in a cup which I enjoyed a great deal and which also made it nearly impossible to fall asleep. A perfect Sunday.

This Is Post Number 1000 and It’s Lame
I didn’t give myself enough time to do this. We’re running out the door right now. If I’m not in the car in 3 minutes, I’m busted.

What’s wrong with this picture? I got this camera bag free with my new camera. My new camera is taking the picture. That’s the special effects camera which is even bigger than my new camera. I guess Crutchfield must have gotten an extra pallet of camera cases that they’re trying to get rid of.

A Crocodile Is Not A Toy
Hey Look. A distant relative got his thumb bit off.

A circus ringmaster performing in Le Mans, France, had to carry on with the show despite having just had his thumb bitten off by a crocodile! Daniel Renz, 39, of Friedberg, Germany, was on tour with his Renz Universal Circus demonstrating to the audience of 4,000 that crocodiles are not man-eaters. As he stroked King, a 5-foot-long crocodile, the animal suddenly snapped its jaws shut, chomping down on his left thumb.

Since today was my first free day since I finished class, as I’ve been whining about, I had a lot of things I wanted to do. I decided that first I would stay in bed for a few more minutes so I could read and naturally since I was so close to the end I thought I should finish the book. Two and a half hours later, I still had some morning time so I spread the mat out in the yogatorium and put on my yoga clothes and then Bob told me he was going to Omi’s to get potato pancakes. I folded up the mat, put on jeans and went with him instead.

I arrived home sleepy with delicious pancake and thought about trying to finish my other book but instead got online and visited blogs from the contest including almost every person who left me a comment. Then I had to leave comments on their blogs. That took the better part of the afternoon.

I had about a half hour left to find the Christmas stuff in the backroom and do the D-minus job on a few chores and then it was time to go to a party.

Now I’m home from the party and I’m thinking it’s time for Battlestar Galactica. This wasn’t exactly the stuff I wanted to get done today, but it was a good day.

Photos: the first is my Auntie, Mom and Grandpa on the Orleans bridge and the second is the Orleans bridge now.

The Whine and Cheese Edition
This week has gone on forever.

I had insomnia issues. I had hormone issues. The traffic was terminally forked such that I averaged an extra 45 minutes a day in the car. I had my class final this morning so any spare moments I spent reviewing for that. I did a few bits of xmas shopping which are flung all over the floor. There’s laundry, dishes, mail, etc.

I haven’t even started the holiday newsletter. I haven’t finished the photo project. We had electrical work done back at the beginning of October and never heard from them. My dear husband called more than once to try to find out what was going on, did additional work need to be done, what sort of bill were we looking at and not only did they not provide this information but they weren’t very nice about it. I ordered him to stop. We don’t grovel to pay people in this household.

Meanwhile back in September I called our heating oil place and asked if they could top us off then. No, we’re on a special program, they bring it automatically. I told her that it never failed that we got this giant oil bill in the middle of xmas. Filled with a deep ambivalence about making the customer happy, she told me it would cost extra if I wanted oil right then. I told her to forget it, we’d deal.

Guess what arrived yesterday? An electric repair bill AND a fuel bill. $1000 of extra bills right in the middle of xmas. Thanks everyone!

But now I’m finished with my test and feel confident I performed decently. Two months ago, I fortuitously made a massage appointment which I can look forward to in a short hour. I’ve just had my hot cocoa. I’m going to relax this afternoon and emerge on the other side refreshed and prepared to charge full speed ahead.

Photo: Hey look, I must have won a t-shirt, too. It was64 KFI as visitor Mr. Toast was kind enough to point out in the comment he left here. The photo includes my Grandma and my sister after what was probably a fun day in Orleans, hiking and swimming and a picnic lunch.

Hasn’t She Read MISERY?
My co-worker likes, or used to like I should probably say, this writer named Melanie Rawn. I’ve never read her and know nothing about her but based on a quick peek at her website: looks like magic, princes and dragons.

She apparently started a book series and has yet to complete the third volume.

We go to Looking Glass Books on a regular basis and every time we’re in there, he goes to the new books in the fantasy section, ready for book 3, and is denied every time. This has gone on for years.

Earlier this week we stopped in the bookstore at lunch and he said he wasn’t even going to look. That it made him mad. But I was up there poking around and he eventually stopped to look at the new books.

I heard a gasp. He pulled a hardcover book from the shelf. I could see her name on it.

Finally!

Except: this was not book 3 of the series. She wrote a whole different book about some other princes and magic. Can you imagine the cruelty of a writer who leaves readers dangling like that and then finally writes a book about something else?

Because of Rawn I can’t get him to read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell because he won’t start a series that isn’t finished. Way to go, Melanie.

Some Day My Prints Will Come
When I first got my first digital camera I spent about 30 seconds flipping through the instructions (memory card, battery, go) and then ran off to take my pictures. One part of the instructions that I did notice was that if I put the camera on a certain setting, I could take 1000 photos on one memory card. 1000!

I never looked back and it wasn’t until I took my first Photoshop class shortly thereafter that I understood that my pictures looked pretty crappy. Plus I figured out that even in extreme circumstances like vacation, I did not take even close to 1000 photos.

Meanwhile, since I went digital I have never made prints. We don’t have the technology at home or office and my primary purpose was for web so I never did it.

Recently, I decided I want prints. I have a bunch of shots I’d like to share and a huge part of my extended family lives in a rural area which is dial-up city so you can imagine how exited they’re going to be to look at a Flickr stream. It’s holiday time, why not take the time to figure out how this works and print stuff that can sit on the kitchen counter during the holidays for everyone to enjoy.

There’s a camera shop near the office and I took the time and trouble to actually walk in and ask them how to do this: CD? Thumb Drive? File format? I would have had better luck getting information from the sandwich shop next door. What, are these state secrets? And if you’re going to have a job in customer service, shouldn’t the most basic qualification be that you have some tiny something that resembles a personality?

Armed with what I could pry out of her, I went home and decided to do a test run. I took a dozen photos and dicked with colors and filters and cropped them and saved them in different ways so I could get an idea of how they would look. Went back with my CD and they have two billboards hanging over the counter with prices and instructions and I guess they do 1 hour printing. I don’t know. Clear communication doesn’t appear to be part of their business plan.

Drone #2 takes my CD and money and asks what time I want to pick them up and since I don’t need them in an hour I say I’ll come back tomorrow.

I went back yesterday and Drone #2 was back at her post. I asked if they had a flier that explained all the pricing scheme so I could figure it out and she said no, but she could answer any questions. (!) Then she told me that my photos weren’t ready yet.

I guess if you don’t want them in an hour, you have to give them 24 hours. Maybe that could have been explained to me earlier. Now I’m mad. Fred Meyer photos, here I come.