What It Is

Duluth Symphonic Winds presents "Songs Of the Sea"

2009-03-10T00:18:00.002-04:00

The Duluth Symphonic Winds will perform "Songs Of The Sea" featuring soloist Earl Salemink under the direction of Tracey Gibbens.
Song List:
Parade of the Tall Ships
Jay Chattaway

Fingal's Cave (Hebrides)
Felix Mendelssohn

The Bride of the Waves
Herbert L. Clarke

Russian Sailors' Dance
Reinhold Gliere

On A Hymnsong of Philip Bliss
David R. Holsinger

Sextette from Lucia

Victory At Sea
Richard Rodgers

Pirates of the Caribbean (Soundtrack Highlights)
Klaus Badelt

Cost will be $5

March 23rd
7:30pm
Denfeld High School
Duluth, MN

Alto Sax Progress

2008-10-29T19:12:00.011-05:00

So I took home an alto sax from work because it's the only band instrument I don't yet play. I agreed to chart my progress live on Blogger to show just how quickly I learn band instruments. I already play clarinet so it's been VERY easy so far. Here's where I'm at right now:

10-29-08
9:26pm
Learned Moon River! Ha! I can play sax now! I knew I would be able to learn in one night. :-) Thanks for watching the blog, y'all!

10-29-08
9:13pm
I'm playing normal music now without much trouble...and beginning to get assaulted with spit out the front of the horn. Nice. :-P It's just wetting my hands unexpectedly. Yech.

10-29-08
9:06pm
Yeah. I'm beginning to rock just a little bit. A little. But I still rock.

10-29-08
8:59pm
Wrapping up my supper break writing an email, and I'll be back on the sax soon.

10-29-08
8:27pm
Breaking for supper.

10-29-08
8:18pm
Playing an easy piece of music we play in orchestra and getting stuck fingering wise on ONE note so far. Very frustrating because none of these fingering charts is any good. The waver is almost gone now, still there with certain specific notes. I might break for supper soon, I'm starving.

10-29-08
8:00pm
Playing some stuff by ear to eliminate some of the waver. That waver sometimes STILL gets me with flute but has really gone away since I've started. It's very difficult to get rid of on sax though. This cheap strap that comes with the sax really does hurt my neck like it hurts everyone else's. I'll see what else I can do until it's time to post again.

10-29-08
7:46pm
Playing more Andrew Lloyd Webber stuff, trying to get accustomed to the fingerings and the "waver" between octaves. The waver is a little better now, my fingers just need to get used to what they're doing.

10-29-08 7:33pm
Looked at a few fingering charts, found a really bad one and then an okay one, I have yet to find a good one.
Started playing songs out of an Andrew Lloyd Webber book.
Trying to beat the "waver" between octaves that one can get with flute, oboe & sax.

10-29-08
7:13pm
Successfully assembled instrument, mouthpiece, ligature, strap, etc.
Blown out a few notes and even one scale without having seen a fingering chart yet.
I've got good tone already thanks to the clarinet.

Duluth Symphonic Winds November 2008 Concert

2008-10-27T23:59:00.001-05:00

The Duluth Symphonic Winds will perform just for you under the direction of Tracey Gibbons. Only $10! Songs will include:
Batuque (Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez)
Folk Song Suite (R. Vaughan Williams)
Pachinko (Paul Yoder)
"Shepherd’s Hey" English Morris Dance (Grainger)
Hansel & Gretel (Englebert Humperdinck)
Don’t miss it!

Ordean Middle School
40th Avenue East & Superior Street
Duluth, MN

I'm Somebody :-P

2008-07-29T20:42:00.003-04:00

Check it out:

I knew I was getting my name tag soon, and here it is, so now I'm somebody. The name tag basically says I'm the resident band geek because band instruments are my specialty. I think that's pretty groovy.

Update

2008-07-17T21:21:00.002-04:00

Yeah, I see it's been a while since I've blogged. What a dumb word. BLOG. Anyway, I just started my new job today at Schmitt Music in the Miller Hill Mall, and so far so good. I just played clarinet for about 2 hours when I got home, so my thumb & front teeth hurt, but that'll go away. Perry & Jerry are fine, you can see really funny & cute videos of them here:
www.youtube.com/bluerosegeek

Where I've Been

2008-05-14T01:16:00.002-04:00

Yeah, I guess I haven't blogged in a long freaking time. I've been busy "fartin' around" a little. I've been playing a lot of Sims and stuff and playing keyboard here & there. I don't know why I haven't been blogging but here I am. I also have another address you can use to look at my web site. Go enjoy it now!
www.bluerosegeek.com

Still a Loser

2008-02-11T21:32:00.000-05:00

Yep, check it out:

Those are the same 2 pairs of pants you saw before with my newest pair on top. I was a 24W and now I'm wearing a pair of 17/18's. I'll keep you updated.

"Save-A-Lot Is Better" Volume 11: J. Higgs Snack Mix (Traditional)

2008-01-25T23:59:00.000-05:00

Price: $1.99

Consistency: Like Chex Mix but crunchier

Flavor: Tastes almost identical to Chex Mix

Chex Mix or J. Higgs?: J Higgs

White Rabbit is good

2008-01-11T12:29:00.000-05:00

Since trying Pocky, I've been curious about the little confections in the Asian section at Cub. I tried Yan Yan and that's one of my favorite goodies now. I was looking to try something new, so I grabbed my usual Yan Yan and a box of Pocky and then I looked at some of the other choices and discovered White Rabbit. It looked pretty harmless, like taffy or something so I decided to try it. Here's what it looks like:

I've got one in the wrapper there and one unwrapped. The wrapper is just like paper or whatever like on a Tootsie roll. The unique part of White Rabbit though, is after you remove the wrapper, there's what looks like a thin wax paper wrapper around the candy but it comes off in little pieces. Whatever it is, it's edible. I looked on Wikipedia last night and found out it's a thin edible film made from sticky rice. Whatever this stuff is made of, it's pretty good. It actually tastes a little like carmel. I usually have to hold it in my hand for a few minutes before I unwrap it or it's impossible to chew. They're good though. Now I'm ready to try another goofy Asian goodie from Cub's shelf. They had ginger candy there. I've had that before and it's friggin nasty. There's little jelly bars or fizzy candies or wafer thingies. I'll have to go back there and take a look.

Key Bored

2007-12-19T22:55:00.000-05:00

I really like my Casio MT-240. it belonged to Grandpa Williams and the demo on it is the friggin best song EVER, seriously. That song is GREAT, it's catchy and I've always loved it. I like playing it, and I've been playing it a lot lately. I felt like they keys were a little small though, and I'm used to an actual piano, which has "normal" sized keys. Grandma & Grandpa had a really nice keyboard upstairs at their house they let me take, and although the keys are great because they're full size, the sound isn't the same. It's a Casio CA-110. I do love playing it because the keys are full size. It wears my arms and fingers and wrists out pretty quickly but I really should be playing it because of the size of the keys. This got me thinking, we have quarter size violins and small guitars, we really should have pianos with keys that are the MT-240 size for children who are learning piano. I'm a grown up and I have trouble sometimes with the stretches between keys in some of the songs, and kids who are taking piano lessons must have more trouble than me. Here's a picture comparing the sizes, the bottom one's keys are the same size as those on a piano.

I'm still working on recording the demo from the MT-240 into mp3 or wav format to put on my iPAQ to listen to on the go. Yes, the song really is that good.

Unexpected Skill

2007-12-16T22:36:00.000-05:00

For those of you who don't know, I'm mostly Norweigan (not entirely but mostly). So I grew up around lefse, krumkaka and yes, lutefisk. My family members say "Uff da" and actually so do I sometimes. Grandma made lefse for the first time last year and it was quite tasty. She didn't like that it was thick but I didn't really care because it was very good. She asked me if I wanted to help make lefse this year and I figured what the heck, I've always wanted to learn how it's done. Storebought lefse is like...eh...machine made I think. Lefse should he made by hand whether at home or in a grocery store. Lefse is one of those make-at-home things though for sure. I try not to purchase the already made stuff. I'd never made lefse before so Grandma & I put on our aprons and she showed me what to do. It looked KINDA easy as far as rolling it out on the big round board, but there's a certain way it has to be rolled, and Grandma was having a little trouble but I offered to try since she had showed me how. So I got a glob of the dough, rolled it out, and it was a PERFECT CIRCLE and perfectly thin WITHOUT the stick poking a hole in it! I was impressed! First of all, I'm really not that great in the kitchen. Unless it's in a can or in the microwave, I don't get it right. I really figured I better not even try to cook the lefse on the griddle thingy because I would probably burn it or make it stick or something, so Grandma handled that. We decided right then & there that I would be the roller and Grandma would be the cooker. It didn't take us very long, and for the most part, the pieces turned out pretty good, there weren't many holes or rips or thick spots, and it was VERY tasty. We have to save some for Christmas though so we couldn't snack too much. When I agreed to help make lefse, my brain was saying "Oh boy, this is gonna be really frustrating and I'm gonna be really bad at it because I can't cook and I'm a klutz." I'm really glad I was wrong!! Grandma & I decided to do this every year now because I roll it so well. I like that rolling pin with the ridges in it because it makes those lines on the lefse. I love lefse so it was really hard not to eat it all! I'm so glad I can do this, what a handy (and unexpected) skill!

Use of Swears

2007-12-10T00:29:00.000-05:00

Ok, so my buddy Larry put this thingy on his web site about his use of profanity. Here's a link http://larrygasik.com/articles/071125_Profanity.html

This inspired me to take a look at when I swear, what causes it, and even things I say instead of swears when one would normally just swear. Here's a handy graphic that shows what percent of the time I'm doing a certain activity is spent swearing. For example, when I tell jokes, I estimated swears are used about 5% of the time (so not very often).

Sometimes a "replacement swear" slips out. One particular example: I was making some chicken nuggets in the oven. I opened the oven to flip the nuggets over with tongs and I dropped one and it landed on the bottom of the oven. Although I was home alone, I said "Ya friggin' fart!" I could've said anything I wanted, there were no children or family members around! My hermit crabs have heard me say much worse, yet "Ya friggin' fart!" is what slipped out. Go figure!

Some other examples that have slipped out include:

Oh flibber flabber!

Aw shibber shabber!

I don't give a flying fart!

Wanker!

In so many ways I'm a bit of an old lady, and this is one way. And yes, I really do swear that much when I play Tibia. Lots of kids playing and lots of BRs and stuff, plenty to swear about. And yes, I'm such an old lady that I say stuff to the TV. Such as "Excuse me Charlie Bell?!?! That is bull sh**! Your a** is gonna lose this mayoral race and I'll be darn happy about it! It's your own d*** fault!" Etc, etc. Don't worry, it's only that bad every once in a while. Usually it's something more like "Pshh, frigginay I don't need that sh**." Any swears used at work are NOT around customers by the way!! I know not to do that. As far as objects/items, this includes "finding a knife the hard way in a drawer," hammering a finger, dropping my box of earrings, or any other negative interaction with an object. I'm glad I saw Larry's thing on his web site because although it was kinda just for fun, it made me take a look at some of the things I'm saying. I do watch my language in any situation where one should (being around family or children or customers at work), but sometimes it just flies out if something huge happens (such as running into that knife in the drawer). I'm also glad to look at my use of swears and know that I don't call anyone names (like b**ch or a**hole or anything). Oh, and any censoring in this post was done by me and not Blogger. I censor anything that "anyone" can read just so it's fairly G rated.

Loser Pants

2007-12-05T21:05:00.000-05:00

Look, I'm a loser--of weight, that is! I bought a new pair of pants and I put it on top of my old pants. Lookit!

Chris loves Val (and boy is that cute) :-)

2007-11-15T20:33:00.000-05:00

For a while now, my neighbor Chris has visited occasionally and taken one or more of my hermit crabs out of the tank so they can play. They really like him, and they seem to enjoy the little break from the tank. The other night he was here because we were going to watch the latest disc sent to me by Netflix. While I fiddled with my laptop to get the DVD to play, he had Val the hermit crab out to play. He was letting her walk around on my couch and on his lap and talking to her, saying things like "How can you climb that, it's too slippery, you'll just fall!" "Don't go in there, you'll get lost!" My response was always "She's a hermit crab, she doesn't know that, silly!" But I really think it's cuter than heck when he plays with them and talks to them. I often have a lot going on. If I'm not working, I'm here cleaning or catching up on my sewing or whatever, and it's nice to have him come visit with me and have some play time with the hermit crabs. I think if he wasn't a truck driver he might have his own hermit crabs, but he's never home so I would be crab-sitting for him almost every day. That wouldn't be so bad I guess, but I've got my own critters here. When he gets home I'll have to have him over for "hermie time."

Backpack Backers

2007-11-14T20:44:00.000-05:00

In many ways I'm not like most women. One of those ways is I don't carry a purse. I do carry a backpack though, especially if I'm going to work or grocery shopping. The backpack holds my red vest, a bottle of water, a sandwich, and little bag of pretzels. That stuff doesn't fit in a purse. It's easier to just put as much of my grocery load as I can in my backpack because wearing a backpack leaves 2 free hands to carry any bags of stuff that didn't fit on my back. I also hate trying to carry heavy stuff in a bag so the first things to go on my back are cans and milk/juice jugs. I know it sometimes looks weird to have a backpack but this is apparently becoming a more socially acceptable thing for "grown-ups." I do have to admit I look like a student with a backpack and a DBU sweatshirt, but I do think backpacks aren't such a strange thing anymore. I realized this when I arrived at the bus stop with most of my groceries on my back. There was a guy waiting there already and he was wearing a backpack. 2 more guys showed up and they both had backpacks. I wish more people realized how handy they are, and especially women, because I see a lot of women with a purse AND a bag, or a purse AND some extra items, or a purse AND a sweater, etc. Put all that stuff in a backpack and you don't have to worry about leaving anything behind on the bus or anything like that. It's proven to be very handy for me. A purse is kind of an akward thing to me anyway. Takes up a hand you could have free. Is easily left behind because it's kinda small. Gotta find a place to set it down if you need both hands for something. Gotta juggle ALL the groceries AND the purse. Boy, no wonder I don't have a purse. Inconvenient. :-P

"Save-A-Lot Is Better" Price Check

2007-10-23T18:25:00.000-04:00

Here's what the receipt says:

BEAN WITH BACON SOUP

4@ $0.49 $1.96

CHCKN NOODLE SOUP

4@ $0.49 $1.96

CHILI W/BEANS

2@ $0.79 $1.58

FOUR CHS MASH POTATO

$0.99

LARGE WHITE BREAD

$0.88

SHRP CHDR 8Z CNTRY C

$1.99

SOFT MARG 1# TUB

$0.49

14 BALANCE DUE $9.85

That's 14 items for UNDER $10!! The canned items alone are 10 separate meals. The bread, cheese, and butter can make quite a few grilled cheese. Thanks, Save-A-Lot!

"Save-A-Lot Is Better" Volume 10: O'Day's Farms Four Cheese Instant Mashed Potatoes

2007-10-22T20:45:00.000-04:00

Price: 99¢ (2 pouches per box)

Consistency: When mixing these, there's almost no globs of unmixed flakes like some other brands can do

Flavor: Cheese flavor isn't overpowering or weak, it's just right, and there's no need to add salt because they're already a little salty

Betty Crocker or O'Day's Farms?: O'Day's Farms

"Save-A-Lot Is Better" Volume 9: J. Higgs Ripple Potato Chips

2007-10-22T20:37:00.000-04:00

Price: 89¢

Consistency: Much like Old Dutch ripple chips or Wavy Lays

Flavor: Salty but not too salty, and they're not too greasy

Lays/Old Dutch or J. Higgs?: J. Higgs

"Save-A-Lot Is Better" Volume 8: Walkenbach Thin Sticks

2007-08-27T18:10:00.000-04:00

Price: 99¢
Consistency: Much like Rold Gold (Walkenbach also makes the "standard" twist pretzels shaped like the little picture on the bag above)
Flavor: These are VERY tasty and don't have too much salt, they're very addicting
Rold Gold or Walkenbach?: Walkenbach

"Save-A-Lot Is Better" Volume 7: Senora Verde Ranch Flavored Tortilla Chips

2007-08-27T18:03:00.000-04:00

Price: 99¢
Consistency: They seem thinner than Doritos but they're just as crunchy, and the layer of seasoning isn't quite as thick
Flavor: Just as good as Doritos regardless of the smaller amount of seasoning--I think maybe the seasoning on the Senora Verde might just be a different color than the Doritos seasoning, but somehow it looks like there's less on the Senora Verde
Doritos or Senora Verde?: Senora Verde

"Save-A-Lot Is Better" Volume 6: Nature's Crunch Bite Size Frosted Shredded Wheat

2007-08-27T17:51:00.000-04:00

Price: $1.79
Consistency: A lot like Post Frosted Shredded Wheat, but crunchier, and the wheat "threads" are thicker
Flavor: Better than Post because the frosted section is thicker
Post or Nature's Crunch?: Nature's Crunch

"Save-A-Lot Is Better" Volume 5: Kaskey's Condensed Bean With Bacon Soup

2007-08-27T17:35:00.000-04:00

Price: 49¢
Consistency: Much like Campbell's
Flavor: Again, much like campbell's
Cambell's or Kaskey's?: Kaskey's

"Save-A-Lot is Better" Volume 4: Hargis House Chili with Beans

2007-08-17T00:34:00.000-04:00

Price: 79¢
Consistency: Thicker and darker than Hormel--separated upon opening of the can, but once heated it blends right away, and it makes a nice filling meal
Flavor: MUCH tastier than Hormel--I had Hormel recently and it seemed bland compared to Hargis House
Hormel or Hargis House?: Hargis House

"Save-A-Lot is Better" Volume 3: Goldstrike Cinnamon Swirls

2007-08-17T00:21:00.000-04:00

Price: $1.79
Consistency: The cereal itself has the same crunch as Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but the sugar & cinnamon coating isn't quite as heavy

Flavor: Just as cinammon & sugary as Cinnamon Toast Crunch even though the cinnamon & sugar is less heavy

Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Cinnamon Swirls?: Cinnamon Swirls

"Save-A-Lot is Better" Volume 2: Dianora's Self Rising Crust Pepperoni Pizza

2007-08-13T20:48:00.000-04:00

Price: $3.49

Consistency: Much like a delivery pizza, very similar to Digiorno

Flavor: Quite tasty, again, very much like Digiorno

Digiorno or Dianora's?: Dianora's

"Save-A-Lot is Better" Volume 1: Tony T's Zap Mac

2007-08-07T23:40:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've decided to start posting some Save-A-Lot foods that are much like name brands but cost less and TASTE BETTER! Mmm! Here's Tony T's Zap Mac:

Price: $1.99 for a box of 6 packets

Consistency: About the same as Easy Mac

Flavor: Cheese flavor is stronger but not too strong

Easy Mac or Tony T's?: Tony T's

Rub a dub dub, always in the tub

2007-07-08T21:09:00.000-04:00

Lately I've taken a lot of baths. I shower regularly like everyone else, and I like the occasional bath, but lately I've been taking a lot of them. I usually try to shower no more than once a day or else my hair & skin gets really dry. Lately, getting in the tub after work has felt awesome. I used to just get on the couch to rest my feet and stuff, but getting in the tub seems to feel a bit better. I shave my legs when I take a bath, and I can't seem to get through a bath without shaving, so my legs have been fairly hairless lately as well. I think I took 3 baths last week in addition to the standard daily shower. It's only Sunday and already I've taken a bath. I do sweat a lot at work because it's friggin hot in that store, and I used to just come home, unwind and just shower in the morning. Then I started washing my face after work because I can just feel the grit from sweating all day. Then I started showring after work, but my feet hurt and standing in the shower didn't help, so I started to just run baths after work. What will this turn into? I'm worried I'm gonna start relying on taking a shower every morning and a bath every night. Water's included in my rent, but still, running a bath is kind of a hassle. I'm hoping I'll get over this soon. It could be the heat getting to me though. Heat & I have never gotten along. Cold & I are old buddies. Come back winter! I love you!

DON'T BUY POM JUICE!!!!

2007-05-17T19:13:00.000-04:00

Please don't buy POM Juice!!
I was at the doctor's office today reading an article called "PETA vs. POM Horrible." As a former "rodent mom" it made me very angry. Here it is:

PETA has uncovered reports showing that pomegranate juice manufacturer POM Wonderful pays experimenters to perform hideous tests on and kill hundreds of rats, mice, and rabbits. Not one of these tests that POM funds--or any other test on animals--is required by law for juice products. And because animals have different physiologies from humans, the results of the POM-funded tests tells us nothing about how pomegranate juice affects the human beings who drink it.
POM-funded experiments have done the following to animals:
* In order to study human heart disease (atherosclerosis), they've deliberately sickened mice, fed them pomegranate juice, and then cut them up to see if the juice made a difference. POM now claims that pomegranate juice helps mice with heart disease, but what the company fails to mention is that mice don't even develop atherosclerosis naturally--they lack the human enzyme related to the disease. Experimenters didn't really study heart disease--they only created symptoms in mice that mimicked heart disease.
* In a bizarre attempt to show that pomegranate juice can help erectile dysfunction in humans, experimenters injured rabbits' arteries to create artificial symptoms of erectile dysfunction--a condition that rabbits don't suffer from naturally.
*Experimenters locked week-old mouse pups (whose mothers were fed pomegranate juice) in a chamber with almost no oxygen for 45 minutes to cause severe brain injury and later decapitated the babies.
* Elderly rats were forced to swim through a stressful water maze to test the effect of pomegranate juice on the animals' short-term memory.
These outrageous experiments are unnecessary, and more accurate and applicable tests could be easily obtained from non-invasive tests on human volunteers. Many other juice companies--including Naked Juice, Old Orchard, and Frutzzo (available in the US), and Pomegreat (available in the UK), whose products can be found in many of the stores where POM is sold--offer healthy and delicious pomegranate juice without hurting any animals. These and other juice companies have provided PETA with written assurances pledging not to test on animals (see CaringConsumer.com for a complete list).
POM executives have refused to ban cruel animal tests. Help persuade them to do so.
YOU CAN HELP!
Don't buy POM
* Tell everyone you know about POM's cruel animal tests.
* Distribute PETA's "Stop POM!" literature at your local grocery stores. Email campaigns@peta.org with your name and address to receive free leaflets and stickers.
* Please tell POM Horrible that you agree with PETA--juice tests on animals are painful, pointless, and unacceptable. Mention that you won't buy any of its products until the company permanently bans all animal tests:
Matt Tupper, President
POM Wonderful, LLC
11444 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
USA
customerservice@pomwonderful.com
310-966-5800
(Postage from the UK is 72 pence)

The Plastic Thingy Mystery Solved!

2007-03-02T15:05:00.000-05:00

So I found this black plastic thingy on the floor by my desk the same night a friend visited. I thought maybe it was something that belonged to him because he went to my desk area to look out the window, so I thought "oh this black thingy must've fallen out of his jacket or something, I'll just send him a picture of it and ask if it's his, and it probably is." He said it didn't belong to him, so I was confused. My cousin had been here recently as well, but she hadn't gone into my desk area, so it couldn't belong to her. So I've had this mystery black plastic thingy just hanging around for a while. We recently just got hit by a huge blizzard, so today I've been pretty bored, and I suddenly discovered the answer! If I wasn't bored, I may have never noticed, or at least not for a long time. Here's the plastic thingy:

Looks pretty weird, right? I didn't know what it could possibly be for, I initally thought it was a piece of a clip for a cell phone or something. Now I feel pretty silly for having such a creative imagination, because this is what it's for:

Look closely. See the lower left drawer? No handle! The thingy is just the handle for that drawer! I probably took so long to notice because I don't often need something from that drawer. And If I hadn't been bored, I probably wouldn't have been looking around for something to clean, and I wouldn't have looked at the drawers. I also wouldn't have blogged, but like I said, I was bored! :-P And it's a funny story anyway.

DTA Buses Are Getting Too Smart

2007-02-12T22:47:00.000-05:00

DTA buses have been talking, yes literally talking for a long time now. Saying things like "Miller Hill Mall, Door 8" and "Downtown" and "Stop requested." Now they say "Approaching...Lake Superior Zoo" and "For your safety, please remain seated until the bus comes to a complete stop." The fare paying thingy even says "Coin not accepted" if one of your coins doesn't go in, and if you request a transfer, it spits one out and says "Please take transfer." These buses never fail as far as navigation is concerned. I found out they're wifi equipped, so sometimes when they say "Approaching...Commonwealth Avenue and Gary Street" they're actually past Gary Street, but not very far past it. Tonight though, I was officially creeped out for the first time about these "smart" buses. I've heard a lot of the buses phrases many times, including the new one about the use of profanity being prohibited on DTA buses. But tonight's phrase almost made me freeze. I was listening to music on my iPAQ as per usual, and I had my groceries in my seat, and was just being a good bus rider. The bus said "Please remove your feet from the seat." I ignored it figuring it was another new random message like the one about profanity or the one about crossing the street. Again the bus said "Please remove your feet from the seat." I was thinking "WTF, my feet are on the floor, does someone on this bus really have their feet on the seat and the bus KNOWS this??" I was creeped out. The bus knew somebody had their feet on the seat!! The driver said "Take your feet off the seat, you in the back..." I knew it wasn't me that had my feet on the seat, I always sit in the middle of the bus and my feet were on the floor, but I was still just thinking "WTF, how did the bus know that? Maybe I don't want to know."
YOU! Reading my blog!! PULL UP YOUR PANTS!!

Sweet Upgrade

2007-01-28T00:11:00.000-05:00

In 2001 or thereabouts, I discovered HP & Compaq's brilliant iPAQ. After drooling over them for a few years, in 2003 I went with an HP h1910, and I am still loving it. It's REALLY getting worn out though, and the right directional button broke like 2 years ago from me playing so much Tetris. It's really scratched and the silver finish is worn off in a lot of places, and the screen is REALLY scratched up, and the battery life just isn't what it used to be.

I am now the proud owner of an HP rx1955, and I'm excited. It will be at my door very soon. Oh yeah. :-D

Apologies to all non-geeks who have no idea what I just said.

Look at it. Drool, drool...

Tattoo Picture

2007-01-07T13:36:00.000-05:00

Tattoo'd

2007-01-05T22:27:00.000-05:00

I went in to Tatts by Zapp today and got my blue roses. I'll post a picture when my internet isn't acting broken. Lately it has liked to do that. I liked the guy that did my tattoo, he was really cool and also good looking.
The weather has been way too warm lately. I fear the coming of summer. This is it. This is the year the heat will kill me. Make sure my tombstone mentions how cool I was.

Cheapy-type Target Bowl

2006-12-22T01:44:00.000-05:00

So I have this really cool blue metal bowl I used to put my popcorn in, but it wasn't quite big enough to hold a whole bag of microwave popcorn. I looked at a bunch of stores for a good popcorn bowl, not caring what it was made out of or anything, I just wanted the right size bowl, even if it had to be a mixing bowl, because I didn't care. I finally found one at Target that's actually meant FOR POPCORN. I thought "how handy." This was on Saturday. It's Thursday night now, and I had the bowl on my desk with popcorn in it and I heard this THUNK! I thought either a kernel somehow popped or the bowl cracked. I scooped the popcorn out of the way where I heard the noise, and sure enough, my bowl cracked!! Really severely hard too, look at the picture, the bowl actually bulged upon cracking!! Stupid thing's going back to Target. I was just at KMart last night, had I known this would happen I would have looked for a popcorn bowl. Guess I'll have to go back again, grumble grumble...

(By the way, the DOLLAR STORE USB cable I used to transfer that picture on here works just fine. This is the epitome of true irony--an electronics department item from the DOLLAR STORE functions flawlessly but a PLASTIC FRIGGING BOWL I paid like 4 friggin dollars for quits after not even a week. This is the weird and wild world we live in, people.)

Edible Blue Roses

2006-12-17T16:09:00.000-05:00

I made those last night, they're edible!! They're from blue candy melts I bought, and I got the rose mold to go with them. I'll be serving them for Christmas along with white ones and chocolate ones. Should be darn tasty!

Idaho Street

2006-12-11T22:45:00.000-05:00

I was taking the bus to the grocery store tonight, and when we turned onto Idaho Street, I noticed everyone's Christmas lights are that excessive kind, but somehow it was still tasteful. In fact, the bus driver stopped suddenly because he had driven right by a lady who was waiting for the bus, and he apologized to her and said he was busy looking at the lights! I found that kinda funny, especially since I'm sure he goes down Idaho street more than I do. I didn't have my camera with me, but just take my word for it, the lights are nice on Idaho Street.

Angry At Jennifer and Josh

2006-12-08T15:59:00.000-05:00

So I keep getting calls for Jennifer or Josh. Listen, Jennifer and Josh: GIVE EVERYONE YOUR NEW NUMBER NOW!! I am sick of getting your phone calls. Fix your credit or whatever reason they call me wanting to talk to you. You've annoyed me beyond belief, and I've never even met you. Pretty soon I'm gonna stop being friendly with the people who call me and ask "Well do you KNOW Jennifer?" FRIGGING NO I DON'T! Jerks. (And what business is it of yours how long I've had this number?!)

Let's be thankful the kids can't go see THIS at the mall!!

2006-12-02T17:53:00.000-05:00

Does Mrs. Claus know about this??

Thanksgiving in All its Northern Minnesota Glory

2006-11-23T23:52:00.000-05:00

It's really friggin windy out, and my building is old, so my windows don't really seal, and my curtains are moving. But hey, not only do I not have to pay for my heat, I am actually allowed to adjust it!! The radiator turny thing isn't painted over like other landlords have it. So I turned the heat up for the night. Maybe sometime the landlord can come and caulk around the windows or something. Here at the edge of the Earth, some cranky people dwell. In this neighborhood, I have seen great displays of shouting, carrying on, even screaming. Luckily on this Thanksgiving night, a lady down the hall proved to be very nice! This was nice for me after having to hear a high-strung dad deal with his total brat kids across the street from me. At least the neighbor kids were behaving themselves and taking turns riding the ATV on the grass. And my dad grilled tonight! I don't trust people enough to throw a grill on the porch, so I look to my dad for grilled food when I visit my parents, and he never disappoints. As windy as it was and as much trouble as that was for his grilling, the turkey burgers were most tasty! Mom made fries in the oven, and I didn't have to make anything, although I did do my laundry at their house. And I had an RC Cola. I push Coke aside for RC Cola--I even push Pepsi and Shasta aside for it. I got my mouse so I wouldn't have to use the worn out clicky thing on my laptop, and I grabbed my box of plastic canvas supplies because I have a host of patterns to choose from now, so I have no excuse not to stitch in my free time. And last night I cleaned my kitchen, so I got to come back home to a clean kitchen for once. The hermit crabs might get an extra hermit crab cake tonight just to simulate typical Thanksgiving dining habits.

Livin' On The Edge (Of The Earth)

2006-11-18T17:30:00.000-05:00

So I moved out of my parents' house now and into a little place of my own in the above pictured building with the hermit crabs and the fish. The hermit crabs are still too quiet, I would rather have furry rodents, but I am only allowed to have the crabs and the fish. Although my kitchen echoes quite a bit, so sometimes when the crabs decide it's party time, the "THUNK!" of them screwing around travels through the whole place and I would imagine down the hall as well. If I laugh at my TV I can hear it in the kitchen and I'm sure they hear it down the hall. Everything I do is sorta magnified by the kitchen. Just pouring cereal or opening chips seems like it's picked up with a mic and then there's speakers up in each corner. The ceilings are really high, so I'm sure that's what's going on. The edge of the Earth is just down the street. Dad says he saw "sailboats piled up down there," and I saw for myself that the edge of the Earth looks to be the St. Louis River. I see a lot of cars come up the road that comes from the edge of the Earth, and I assume there's so many because they come from the other way, realize they've reached the edge of the Earth, and then they turn around and come back. Even the bus goes there, which is handy for me because even as someone who lives at the edge of the Earth, I need to go places, too! I also have phone service and I get TV channels and radio stations, so there must be a big antenna at the edge of the Earth as well. My apartment even came with a phone book, so I am able to reach the other Earthlings. I have even had contact with a few, and they're all as friendly as me. I think the hermit crabs can contact those BEYOND the edge of the Earth, and that may be why they're so restless at night.

Burned Out By Haus

2006-11-12T10:53:00.000-05:00

So okay. Friday afternoon I showed up at my Uncle Mike's house to watch his girlfriend's daughter, who's 9. She asked me if I could do the whole weekend because she wanted to have a girls weekend out, so I said that was fine. I agreed to do this because her daughter is no trouble at all. I have been babysitting this kid since she was 4, and she's never been any trouble. Uncle Mike's dog, Haus, however, is more trouble than a spoiled toddler. He's a huge energetic lab, so he's this big dopey furball. I got here on Friday and it's Sunday, and I just can't wait to get the heck out of this house and go back to Esko to my parents' house. At least my parents and my hermit crabs aren't like spoiled toddlers, so things are pretty quiet there. There's also 2 cats living here, but they really like to just sorta hang out or sit on my lap--they don't cause any trouble. Well hopefully I'll end up renting this little efficiency like way out on the edge of Duluth where I'm sure tumbleweeds blow--although the bus goes there, so maybe it's the same scene only no tumbleweeds. It will be way too quiet there because I won't be allowed to have furry critters, just the crabs and a seemingly epileptic betta. I really think those fish need to be taken care of better at Wal*Mart. The betta cups are stacked REALLY high and the water in every cup is dirty, so it's no surprise that my betta suddenly goes from calm to flailing around like he's being choked. Maybe when he gets old, he'll get fishy Alzheimer’s and forget his water was ever dirty at Wal*Mart, or maybe he'll forget what Wal*Mart is and stop randomly freaking out. For now I just worry about him trying to purposely choke on one of the rocks in his tank so he can end this battle between his brain and his brain.

The Secret to Why I Smell Good and other pics

2006-11-09T08:49:00.000-05:00

I smell good, and people sometimes ask me what I use. Allow me to show you:

Left to right: Suave Ocean Breeze shampoo, Suave Ocean Breeze conditioner, Suave Ocean Breeze bodywash, Suave Ocean Breeze body lotion. That's my big secret, and that whole works is less than 5 bucks at Wal*Mart.
I have this thing in my room, and it's really handy when I need to take my pills (tilt your head to see, I was too lazy to rotate this picture):

Last week, my normally well-behaved razor decided it was tired of obeying, and it really showed me who's apparently boss:

I suppose now you're ready to write me an angry email about showing off a wound, but I'm not even worth yelling at--you should see some of Odd Todd's stuff--I have seen so many pictures of his big hairy feet and stuff, and he posts about his dog's crap, and although that's kinda unsavory, it's still funny. I'm not a wuss like lots of people, I can handle things. I can watch a mouse clean his tail while eating gummi worms, that's easy. And anyway, mice are cute, especially when they clean their tails.

I miss noisy rodents

2006-10-03T09:44:00.000-04:00

I bought a blue betta and his name is Bubba. I still have my hermit crabs from NY. At night they make a lot of noise. Often their legs clink on the metal grate they like to climb, or sometimes they dig in the rocks or do cannonballs in the water dish. A hermit crab doing a cannonball into a half shell full of water makes a loud CRACK! And when I put out a hermit crab cake at bedtime, they actually CRUNCH on it. This goes on while I watch the 10:00 news, and then it continues through Jay Leno, and then through Conan. I usually hit the lights and settle down for bed after Conan, and then the hermit crabs really party. I know hermit crabs are nocturnal and they do a lot of stuff at night, but it's weird that the sun goes down and they do stuff for a while, and then a false sun is up (my lamp is on while I watch TV for a few hours) and then it's dark again, and that few hours of "sunshine" doesn't quiet them down. Listening to them scrape around in there is nice, but I miss having noisy rodents. No click-click of a water bottle. No crunch-snap of seeds. No screech-screech or squeak-squeak. No roll-roll of a plastic wheel. No metallic thrum of a climbing rodent falling off the cage wall. No scrape-scrape of digging on the cage floor. It's too quiet without furry little critters around. As soon as I move, I'm going to PetCo and scooping up a handful of white female mice and taking them into my home. I already had males, and they're stinkier than females, so I'll try the females. I miss being kept awake by my beloved furballs and having to get up and take the cage into the kitchen and having to share my cheese because they clung to the sides of their cages waiting for it. I miss coming home to lots of furry critters and greeting them. With the hermit crabs, it's just like "'Sup..." and the little black eyes looking up at me. I do admit that's cute though.

Stuff about recent stuff

2006-09-15T22:30:00.000-04:00

I'm back in MN again. I am living in Esko, but today I spent the day in Duluth. My Uncle Mike's girlfriend and I went out to lunch and then went shopping. I got a new pair of shoes, which I was really starting to need. I don't buy shoes like most women do. What I do is buy a pair of athletic shoes and wear the same pair every day until that pair wears out, and then I get another pair of athletic shoes and repeat the process. Kinda like back in the playground days, where Mom buys one pair of new shoes for the child to wear for the whole school year as well as the summer. That works for me as well, especially when they're $24.95 a pair! I also finally picked up the postcards to send to all "m'peeps" in NY. Tomorrow, Grandma & I will go rummaging around Duluth for a while and then go have lunch with Uncle Mike's girlfriend and her daughter. Rummaging is something I haven't done in TOO too long. It's the only thing in my life besides jazz band that's worth getting up way too early for. I used to get up at 5:45am in high school because I had jazz band before school. Grandma & I have gotten up to go rummaging as early as 6:00am. Tomorrow we're getting up at 7. If I still had the rodents, they would be very pleased about this because they seemed to be most active when their mom wanted to sleep! At 6:30 one morning, I heard paper being shredded--rrrriiiip...rrrriiiip! It was just Salvador the hamster and Benny the mouse making a nest. They couldn't have waited like just 2 more hours when mommy would be getting up? Nope! But animals will do things like this. Back when one of my dogs was a puppy, she decided that 3:30am was a good time to jump the wall in the wooden dog pen in the back hall, go upstairs, push my door open, and sit on my floor and howl at me. I took her into my bed for 2 reasons--she was lonely, and it would quiet her down. Nowadays, as soon as I turn off my lamp at 12:30 to go to sleep, THAT seems to be when the hermit crabs decide to start excavating different sites in their tank as well as do cannonballs into the water dish. Whatever! I STILL like little animals anyway! Although I did have to move my frog into the basement because he chirps very loudly at night. Naturally, his name is Chirpy. Here's a picture (click it for full view cuz it looks a bit blurry this way):

Duluth is a cool place

2006-09-04T23:06:00.000-04:00

I was born in Duluth, MN, and I grew up there as well as Esko, MN. I'll be going back to Esko soon, and while I'm there, I'll be looking for a job in Duluth and eventually a place to live in Duluth. Duluth is a really cool place, so I thought I would put some cool links on my blog here for different Duluth type stuff.

This guy takes really cool pictures of northern MN and the Duluth area:
http://www.northernimages.com/lakesuperior/index.php
Here's a good site for touristy type people
http://visitduluth.com/
These folks are helping preserve a very important piece of Duluth's history in education, and I am part of this group:
http://duluth.k12.mn.us/Alumni/reunion_info.htm
Here's another site so handy for visitors:
http://www.duluth.com/
City of Duluth stuff:
http://www.ci.duluth.mn.us/city/mainpage/
University of Minnesota Duluth:
http://www.d.umn.edu/

If you want any more information, just Google "Duluth MN" and you'll get tons of info. My favorite of all of those is Northern Images. Enjoy!

How do I start this post...

2006-08-23T22:51:00.000-04:00

Well I guess it's time to tell you guys. After meeting Matthew back on October 30, 2003, having a relationship with him, and being married to him for a year and 3 months, I guess we've reached the end. Matthew still likes me and wants to be my friend, but he doesn't love me anymore, and honestly, I don't love him anymore either, so we're getting a divorce and I am moving back to Minnesota to live with my parents until who knows what (or who) else comes along. Sunny, Sandy, Salvador, Benny, Buster, and Boris are not allowed to come with me. Sunny is my precious angel, and I love him dearly, and he will always be my best friend. He has been since our eyes met at the pet store. Steve, Vince, and Jack are coming with me, and Gary & Tiny Tim might be too. Oscar is going back to live with Matthew's mom, who we originally adopted him from. I am asking my friends and co-workers if any of them want to adopt the others. Matthew has assured me that if I can't find other homes for them, he will take them in. He has a web cam, and as soon as he installs the software for it, I would be able to see all my furry friends (as long as Violet is shut in the bathroom for that!). I will do my best to be online when I can so my web site (www.bobcartoons.com) can stay up to date, and I will continue to produce "Goings On." Lately there HAVE been lots of goings on as far as acquiring new animals and what not, but I haven't had the time to do them up, I will do my best to get back into them. I really don't want to quit my job at the fabric store, but I don't really have a choice. I hope to find a job that pleases me just as much when I move. Feel free to email me (lianne@bobcartoons.com) and I will VERY likely get back to you as soon as I can. Sorry for the sad news, and I hope to be posting happy news again soon.

Waving a fist at my laptop...kinda

2006-08-18T14:46:00.000-04:00

So my 11-year old computer is finally starting to show its age. It won't take modems anymore, so it's great for word processing and a CD player (I like to use Windows Media Player and turn the visualization on full screen while I put on my tunes and clean). It's also my Flash 5 station since Matthew & I reinstalled my OS and the computer doesn't freeze over every little thing.
Now this laptop...
Like my computer, this laptop was given to me, so I didn't pay for it. It's my "middle child" technologywise. The computer's 11, this laptop is 7, and the iPAQ is a mere 3 (although for an iPAQ, that's supposed to be darn old). So I lost a bunch of pictures all random-like after Christmas last year. Then in March, I was having so many problems with this thing that Matthew & I just reinstalled my whole OS (unfortunately, it was at the COST of my data! Yep, I lost pictures and all kinds of stuff, but I had no choice). So I started to have like big fat problems again, and last week I attached my CD drive to it, inserted a Windows 2000 CD I borrowed from Matthew, and told it to repair. It told me that I needed the same CD I used to install my OS (this was not the same one apparently), and it told me to hit ESC to restart. I thought, "Lovely, won't this laptop make a lovely paperweight AGAIN." It started Windows, and I was shocked to find that it started up PROPERLY! It also didn't yell at me when I wanted to open programs. I had just one little problem with my AOL trying to get online, so I popped that CD in for a reinstall of my AOL software. It stopped on the middle of installation and said "We're sorry you have chosen not to install AOL at this time..." I was like "Oh, I DIDN'T want to? I was just sticking the CD in there FOR FUN? LOVELY..." But then my AOL let me online with no problems. WHAT THE HECK?! I guess I kind of waved a big angry metaphorical fist at my laptop. I first threatened it with another big fat reinstall of my Windows, and all of a sudden it cooperated. Then I threatened it with a reinstall of my AOL, and it was like "Ok ok! I'll behave I promise!! Please don't hurt me!" This metaphorical fist worked pretty well. I should do that with my other programs and see if I get even better performance...but I'm just not the type to be running around waving fists.

Scottish guys and furry critters

2006-08-16T21:03:00.000-04:00

So I'm glad my laptop has just decided to work again, or at least for a while, because I like being able to talk to my buddy from Scotland. And my People PC surprised me by working, too! Yay!
The hamsters just surprised me with a sudden explosion of hamster stink. What the heck, furballs? I guess I'll be cleaning their cage tonight then. Sal won't stop trying to eat our fingers. Buster and Boris fight a lot, but nobody is getting hurt. I'm too worn out to be running into the kitchen to stop mouse fights, I just let 'em disagree. As long as nobody's bleeding, they're fine. Sal keeps making Benny squeak. I don't think I want to know what's going on in that cage. Although I put Sunny & Sandy back in their old cage with the wheel, I don't think the plastic TV-shaped hideout is exactly motivating them. Oh well. At least they have vegetable pieces in their food bowl...even though the food bowl is in front of the darn TV...whatever.

No Strawberries??

2006-08-13T03:16:00.000-04:00

I'm mad because Wal*Mart doesn't have strawberries anymore. Is it ALREADY an out-of-season item??
I realize my last billion posts have been about the mice, and I'm sorry if that has been like snooze-o-rama. Remember when Odd Todd first got Roscoe, and that was ALL he posted about on his web site? I guess it's kinda like that--we're just proud pet parents. I posted Sunny's "cowardly lion face" on Hamsterino a little bit ago. That picture makes me laugh, it's actually my wallpaper! I'm gonna take that little face and make an avatar for different sites I use!! Sunny is forever the expressive critter around here. He is the big screechy drama queen and the squinty cowardly lion. Hey, at least life with these critters NEVER gets old, that's for sure.
So my buddy from MN called me up today, guess he's back from Africa, which makes me happy. He left me a message with a phone number but I can't hear part of it!! He says he'll call me tomorrow again anyway.
My laptop has been somehow working again, so me & my buddy from Scotland talked all night tonight. Well, it was all night for him, for me it was like 10:30pm to 3:00am, but for him it was 3:30am to 8:00am or thereabouts. But we had a good time and I laughed my butt off, which was nice because nothing in my life lately has been funny in the least.
I FINALLY got my review at work today, and I was given a raise, which will sort of help I guess. At least I know exactly how well I do now. I got the "report card" for what I'm doing, so that's good.

Critters that behave themselves make good pets

2006-08-04T19:39:00.000-04:00

So Violet the kitten was closed in the bathroom with the litterbox while we went to dinner with Matthew's mom. We got back to her place and found that she had gone to the bathroom IN THE LITTERBOX and not on the floor! Matthew showered her with treats! Yay Violet!
I sort of accidentally hurt Benny the mouse the other night. When my rodents act up and start fights, I simply give them a flick on the back because they are much too small to swat like you can with puppies & kittens. This works well for the hamsters. Sandy thinks it's okay to walk on Sal's face, and then when Sal screeches, "HEY MAN! Get offa me!" Sandy thinks it's okay to punch Sal!! So Sandy gets flicked and learns not to step on his brother's face because it hurts him. Boris the mouse picks a fight with Buster and Boris gets a flick right on the butt, and both mice freeze right where they are and stare up at me as if to say "Sorry mama!!" So I added Benny the mouse to the mix, and the first thing he did was pick a fight because he's the bully out of the 3 mice. I flicked that furball right away and everyone froze except Benny, who squeaked and flew to one corner of the tank. Buster and Boris stared up at me in fear, and I could see their little mousie hands trembling. They ran to Benny and sniffed and groomed him, and he nosed them off, as if to say "I'll be fine guys, just let me be." Benny sort of limped around in the tank and mostly huddled against walls or corners, and each time I scooped him up to take a close look at him, he didn't resist all that much. Usually when I pick a mouse up by his tail, he just kind of hangs there wondering "Where'd the floor go?? Put me down please?" Benny spun around wildly when held by his tail, so I would put him down. The next day he seemd fine AND all 3 mice have been SHARING ONE NEST! They also have not been fighting since then! I guess they all see what happens when any one of them starts a fight, and they were terrifed when they saw what happened to the bully, and he's supposed to be the big mean guy! WARNING TO ALL MEANIES: I hurt meanies and bullies!! (Even if I didn't intend to! Sorry to Benny the mouse!!)

Of Mice and Men and other things

2006-08-01T23:22:00.000-04:00

Well I got tired of the mice jumping their walls in the 10 gallon tank (one mouse=the behavior of 3 standard 2 year olds). They would hop into one of the others' section and start fights, steal food, steal bedding and just plain make trouble. I almost took those guys back to the pet store because of the trouble they are. If you want pet mice, get ONE and keep it in a TANK, not a cage! Make sure it has a SECURE screen top! I threw all 3 mice into one little bucket-type cage so I could clean the 10 gallon. THEY DIDN'T FIGHT! I was agape! They groomed each other! I cleaned the 10 gallon and didn't put the dividers in, just the mice. Benny bullied Buster and Boris, so I removed him and placed him back in the bucket cage. Surprisingly, Buster and Boris not only got along, but they worked together to build ONE nest that they SHARED! I couldn't believe it! They were grooming each other and napping in this little nest made of newspaper! I was glad to see that.
Salvador the hamster had his belly dipped in hydrogen peroxide a few times this past week just because his belly had an infectious sore on it. He seems fine now, although his back end is turning a bit blonde, so I won't be dipping him too much more. I also couldn't afford to take him to the vet, and I am pleased to find the treatments we provided in our own home have been successful.
Violet the kitten's recent behavior has been unacceptable. Matthew's mother has had just about enough of her. Seems that at the pet store, Violet was using the litterbox, but at home, this is a rare occurrence. If Violet doesn't learn soon, Matthew says his mother can go make a fuss at the pet store, she might just go with an adult cat. If I want to, I can probably make a fuss about Salvador's belly being infected if it seems to get bad again, after all, we bought him after another hamster beat him up, so I'm pretty sure that's what's up. Let me show you a picture of Salvador and of Violet.
Salvador is in the middle with the black eyes:

Here's Violet the kitten:

So much more has been going on, but I can post about that if I feel like it.

Animal friends and human friends

2006-07-24T20:28:00.000-04:00

I finally figured out what to do with the mice. They live in a 10 gallon tank with quilter's template material sectioning it off. All is quiet in Mouseville (except when Boris tries to scale the quilter's template walls).
Salvador the hamster has joined the family, and Sunny & Sandy don't like his ways, but he doesn't like theirs, either. I have been a good hamster mom though by showing Sunny & Sandy they don't have to worry, and by showing Salvador he needs to watch his back in Sunny & Sandy's house.
Violet the kitten has moved into Matthew's mother's place. She's easy to entertain--she's a kitten, so that's no surprise. She likes to sleep on top of Matthew when he's there. Her claws are sharp, but her intentions are good, and her curiosity is constant.
Bree has been coming over and helping me clean, which is nice. Our place is looking pretty nice right now. We have been so dang bored, that's why.
Everyone has been worrying about me because I haven't been online. Well my laptop has been especially touchy and my oldie computer has been mad at modems. It has modem rage. Any modem gets installed and it's like "You talkin' to me? ARE YOU TALKIN' TO ME?!?!" And I'm like "YES OF COURSE IT IS! YOU NEED DRIVERS! YOUR LIFE IS ALL ABOUT DRIVERS! Can't you just accept ONE device upon it being plugged into you without going all 'AHEM!! NEW DEVICE!! NEW DEVICE!!' on me?!" I think me & the old compy are gonna hafta have a long talk, or a new motherboard or something.

Lots going on

2006-07-12T14:42:00.000-04:00

My mice live in separate cages because they're mean to each other, but they all seem happy with their environments. Boris has escaped twice, he's back in captivity again and renamed Houdini for his ability to get away from us.
Friday is my service anniversary with Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts. I have been working there for a year now, and I'm not even tired of it yet. Even if I have a job I like, I get tired of it eventually, and it happens before the one year mark. I figured even though this job would be fun and I would be helpful because I know what I'm talking about, I might still get burned out by now, but I haven't. Somehow I'm not desensitized to fabrics & crafts yet, however, I somehow can resist walking out of the store with lots of stuff at the end of every day. Yes I buy things sometimes, but I don't go as nuts as one would think. And at this point, when I ask "What are you making?" and they say "You won't believe me if I tell you," I can honestly tell them I've heard it all.
I have 11 critters in this apartment, and they're all being kept happy. With all that we have going on and how I never have time to clean, I still manage to feed them all and clean their cages.
My parents & I got puppies when I was a kid, and the puppies & I grew up together. One was just put to sleep last week because she was sick, and the other is still here and she's 13 years old. Hopefully Tundra is now enjoying a very big rubber Kong toy in doggy heaven. Maybe she can see crayfish heaven where all my pet crayfish of the past are thinking "NO!! That's that dog that was picking our friends up in her mouth and biting them because they pinched her tongue!! Stay away, dog, please!" I think that was the same weekend at the cabin when Tundra knocked my dad's beer over and started to lick it off the ground. Maybe she was just looking for a seafood meal with an Old Milwaukee?

Mouse Drama

2006-07-02T00:10:00.000-04:00

So we have 3 mice: Buster, Benny & Boris. We brough Boris home today, and he's like half the size of Buster & Benny. We had separated Buster & Benny because Benny was being mean to Buster. Buster and Boris seemed to get along okay from the start, but then we noticed they snatched food items out of each other's hands, which we had also noticed with Benny & Buster in the beginning. Soon Buster had Boris bleeding, so we separated them and put Benny back in with Buster. Then Benny made Buster bleed, so now all 3 of them live separately. My poor little mice, hopefully they can heal up. The pet store lady put Boris in a little box for us, and we fed him plain Cheerios while we waited for the bus, and he was so cute munching his Cheerios. He held them in his little pink hands like they were big donuts, that was funny.

QUIET as a mouse??

2006-06-25T00:03:00.000-04:00

So I got Benny & Buster the other day, they're mice. They have been fighting all day long, I think they're playing, because nobody gets hurt, and they still drink water together and they sleep cuddled up together. It's a flurry of flying, squeaking mice in that tiny little cage. They run up the sides and on the ceiling and all around in there, and along with the flying mice comes flying bedding and food, so that leaves a mess. But I really like them, and Matthew does too. I won't allow them to play with the hamsters because I just don't think that would work...

I just saw the coolest freaking thing

2006-06-15T01:07:00.000-04:00

So I have lots of pets, and they do neat things and they're all unique and cute, but only a few of them do some really cool stuff. Usually the hamsters do weird weird things. Ever since I introduced Vince into the hermit "crabitat," Steve has been acting different. He no longer just sits around on the sponge, although that's becoming the hermit crab equivalent of humans on couches. So I was looking at all the pets in the kitchen. Gary was cruising up the front wall of his tank. Arnold was hanging out at the bottom of his under the plastic tree, probably sleeping. Lucky was swimming about in his big vase. Vince walked to the back wall of the tank and faced it. Steve walked up to one of the shells I had placed in the crabitat about 2 minutes before. He peered into the opening and poked his legs and claws in it (probably checking for a crab). I said "Nobody's home!" I sat in front of the tank and stared because I figured he was going to change shells and I would get to see it. I'd never seen a crab change shells, or even seen a naked one (no shell). I'd Googled for pictures of what they look like without shells, but I had never seen it for real. Steve stepped up very close the the shell, put his claws on it, hoisted his soft body out of his shell, and lowered it into the empty shell!! I was like "COOL!! SWEET!!" I knew he was going to switch, but I avoided grabbing the camera because I figured if he saw the flash, he would get scared and decide not to do it. I thought it was funny that Vince had faced the wall though. As if Steve had told him "Don't look man, I'm changing." It was just really cool, it was probably the coolest thing I've seen in a LONG time, and it only took like one minute!! I wish the light was better so I could have filmed it. It was that cool!

Back of truck=rocket?

2006-06-14T22:58:00.000-04:00

I just got done laughing my hot bootay off over Alana's blog posts about her hamster Binky. Escpecially the one about him thinking he could get a 9 inch long stick through the like mouse-sized doorway of a plastic igloo. That is so freaking funny, I was in tears man. Sunny & Sandy can be like, I guess if hamster can be retarded, I think they might be sometimes. And apparently, they aren't the only hamsters out there that do WEIRD freakin things. Yesterday I was at Bree & Peter's place helping Matthew help them move, and Bree & I were in the back of the truck when we went to McDonald's in the middle of the night for some supper. So Peter went through the drive through and Bree paid for everyone. I got nuggets of course, and Bree & I were wondering why Peter wasn't pulling over into the parking lot so we could eat. She had to shout at him through his open window and we finally pulled into Hannaford's parking lot and sat and ate the fast food on the tailgate. When we were finished eating, Peter chased Bree around the truck. Peter has one real leg and one prosthetic, and he was slicker on his one real leg than she was on two! So this is where it got freaking weird. We were supposed to go back to their old place and get the rest of the stuff out so I could finish vacuuming. So Peter rolls up his window, and Matthew his, and I am like "yo--guys you hafta keep your windows open," but they didn't give a flying poop or whatever. So Peter was like flying around the corners and knocking us around back there over the bumps and stuff, and there was half a load back there so he couldn't see us, and all that crap was smashing into us, and I loved the cold wind but was annoyed by Peter's driving (he is of course a cab driver in the area, surprise surprise), and Bree was getting cold and super angry, and we flew past their old house and me & Bree were like "WTF?!?!" Bree had to yell at Peter to open his window because he CLAIMED he didn't know what the plan was, he was headed towards their new place with that half load we had. She had such a fit, she was super mad at Peter, Matthew & I took a walk together to let them be alone. I had to work today, and I didn't get home last night until like 1:30, but I was somehow fine today at work. Bree is all bruised up from the rough ride in the truck, and she dropped a whole bunch of things on her toes yesterday. I'm still feeling the burn in the back of my nose from when Peter suddenly stopped at a red light and I was swallowing root beer. How could those 2 idiots forget that their wives were in the back of the freaking truck? Then again, they're husbands, they just do what they do. In the end we got all their stuff moved, and their hamsters were confused all day long over riding in the back of the truck and sitting in the dark for an hour because nobody left a lamp on for them until they came back later. Hopefully Bree saved me some Chex mix for when I come back!

Sunday again

2006-06-11T23:12:00.000-04:00

So all the bikers are going home because Americade is wrapping up for the year. I actually thought I would see more bikers, there were lots last year, but whatever, there's always plenty here when Americade is NOT going on.
So I cleaned the hamsters' cage. They have been VERY mean to each other lately and very bitey and screechy. I don't know what's up.
So apparently the ultrasound I had back in JANUARY had results that I should have been notified about, but nobody called me. I had an appointment on Thursday, and THAT's when I found out that APPARENTLY I have been forming cysts in my right ovary!! Nobody bothered to let me know about this! So I am having another on Thursday, and the doctor assured me she would actually CALL me with results. If I don't hear from anybody 2 weeks after that, I am gonna call em up all mad wanting my results. I was frigging WONDERING why I was having so much pain! Stupid NY people!!!! What else is new? Sheesh!
Well I'll be working a lot this week, so Matthew better get off his unemployed butt and keep this place clean, he's starting to make me very mad.
Whatever, I'm done typing. Effit.

Steve and stuff

2006-06-04T17:05:00.000-04:00

So we got a hermit crab last night, his name is Steve. He's mucho coolio, so much so that I wish I had a pair of Barbie shades just for his pictures. Hermit crabs take more care than you would think, but I am prepared to give Steve everything he needs. AOL wouldn't let me post him on my web site last night, but he's up today. www.bobcartoons.com
I cleaned the apartment some today, I'll probably do more tomorrow night after work. I was supposed to have the day off but my manager called me today to see if I wanted to work, and I said that was fine. I'll just have Matthew do everything I was gonna go do, he's okay with that. I'll just hand him the grocery list and the Wal*Mart list and laundry money and send him on his way. I decided Sundays are gonna be pet care days. Arnold & Gary will get their tanks checked for cleanliness, and if it's needed, Sunday is gonna be the tank cleaning day for them, they love their shiny, washed tanks. Saturday night is gonna be Steve's "Splish-Splash" night. Hermit crabs need a bath once a week, and he gets "Splish-Splash on a Saturday night." Sundays will be hamster cage cleaning day and peanut treat day. We decided to only give peanuts as special treats, so Sundays I'll give them out. Sounds-a good to me.

Blogs 'n things

2006-06-02T19:53:00.000-04:00

So I just made a plain ol' regular blog. The word "blog" is stupid, but whatever, I wanted a regular, daily-type, whatever-blog, so here it is. I'm hoping it doesn't rain tomorrow because South Glens Falls is supposedly having a village-wide garage sale. What fun that could be--WITHOUT rain. I would definitely still go, but that is a long freaking walk, and Matthew's grandparent's won't go if it's raining, so if it was, we would be without a ride. It better not freaking rain, ever since being stuck in NY, I haven't been rummaging, that really freaking blows. Today was Matthew's last day at McDonald's, he's going to look for a different job. He likes working there but it's pretty hard on his body. His pacemaker isn't giving him trouble, it's his medication, and McDonald's isn't gonna be the right job for him. I think he'll be able to find something else, I don't care if he's a cashier at Cumby's, that would actually be okay. I signed us up for "Do Not Call" yesterday, that was a great idea. I DON'T FREAKING WANT MAGAZINES, DON'T CALL ME AND OFFER 'EM TO ME! NOW YOU CAN'T!! HAHAHAHA!!