Ch-ch-ch-ch-changeeees

Oh that's right, I have a blog now.

Typing is a whole new experience after yesterday. My keys no longer clack and clatter when they are depressed, but whisper serenely. The quiet is disquieting. It's as though I have been reintroduced to the art.

Did I get a new keyboard? Or a whole new laptop? No, no. A few of keys are still chipped and sad looking, which is regrettable.

 I, uh, got my acrylics removed. (wah wah wah) Yes, pretty anticlimactic. I've 

 had acrylic nails for about two years solid, plus a few times time before that. My natural nails are weak and do not grow well and acrylics were an easy way to keep them long and reinforced. Unfortunately now that I am temporarily unemployed I can't afford to keep them up. At any rate it was time to give my fingers a break. Now they are rather sad, and painful, because a couple were broken past the nail bed and cut very very short. I'll be doing my best to keep them healthy and grow them naturally long, so wish me luck, because I will definitely need it. Luck or tips, either way.

In other news I did get to hang out at D*land with a lovely group of people on Sunday. We lined up a couple hours before DCA opened to get WoC Fast Passes for the first show of the night. We also bought picnic dinners for the second show (FANTASTIC deal!), which ended up getting canceled due to a broken water main in the viewing area. I was horrified though not very surprised at the abuse CMs were getting from guests who were livid because of the canceled show. As we walked through Paradise Park (which was flooded pretty badly) I wished the CMs good luck and cheered on the custodial CMs, who were arriving in force with brooms to sweep the worst of the water to drains.

The show gets better the more I watch it; admittedly I was left a little befuddled at the preview I attended, mostly because of the Lion King segment. I won't give it away, don't worry, but man oh man. The show is also a little choppy in places where Bob Iger had obviously forced changes, but this time I noticed the transitions were a little smoother than I initially thought.

Even though the second show was canceled, the third show went without a hitch after a 15 minute delay. We didn't stay for the third show, but went to check out Glowfest for a bit. It's quite a party.

Kitties v.2

Although I changed the name of my blog and no longer really need to justify the (former) name, it's fun to show off my furbabies. Today, I bring you Spike!

Spike is Moose's brother, and we adopted them at the same time. The resemblance is uncanny, no? Just like Moose, Spike cannot meow. If possible Spike's squeaks are even more pathetic.

He's easily the smartest, and possibly the sweetest and most annoying and frustrating. All of them are "helpers," but Spike is the worst of the lot. He also really enjoys trying to get into things he has no business getting into, like cabinets and drawers and boxes and plastic shopping bags. He tried getting into a bag on the kitchen counter while I was unloading groceries last week, so I moved it out of the way onto a raised platter we keep fruit on. He didn't hesitate to stand up on the platter and try getting into the bag again. Not to get anything in particular, just to be a pest.

Some of Spike's nicknames are Red-Headed Step Child, Damian (of The Omen fame), Freckle Lips (he has black spots on his lips, so cute and weird), Daddy's Boy, and "Your Cat" (as in "DAMMIT DAD YOUR CAT DRAGGED A TOWEL DOWN THE HALL AGAIN" and yes that really happens).

He really likes getting up on this wall of the shower in the mornings while my mom is getting ready for work. He only gets down when my dad stands next to it so he can jump down in my dad's shoulders. He is pitifully cute with my dad.

See that face? That ô_o face? He's a thinker. He's probably smarter than me, really.

THE END!

Yard sale, day 2

Today was much much better than yesterday. A lot more traffic, both on foot and vehicle. I'm up to about $60 cash in pocket for the two days, which is pretty sweet. It'll pay for my Mickey's Halloween Party ticket this fall. Been a few years since the Halloween party at the resort was held parkside... I went the past three years in a row to Mickey's Trick or Treat in DCA and had a lot of fun. Cannot WAIT to see Halloween Screams again! It's my favorite show out of pretty much all of them, rivaled only by maybe Fantasmic!. (Yes that includes the brand new World of Color. My reaction to WoC is a whooole 'nother entry.)

Buuut I digress. Can't help it, sorry.

So yes, sold a bunch of stuff, and also had a lot of interest and people saying they'd be back tomorrow. Two ladies in particular cleaned me out pretty well for about $20 worth of stuff combined, which is saying something, considering they got mostly 25¢, 50¢, and $1 items.


I did go back and buy Juli the bowling ball. Isn't she lovely?

It was not particularly enjoyable carrying her while riding my bike back to my house. I almost fell over a few times trying to adjust my grip. She's a good 11 or 12 pounder... didn't trust my wicker basket to hold her.

We had our first Crazy today as well. She didn't speak English very well but she kept talking about how Michelle Obama cares about the children, and how she (the Crazy, not Michelle Obama) is better than most Americans because she went to a local community college for 23 years, and an education is good but being smart is better, and other random things. I was insulted at first but when I finally caught on that she wasn't all there I just did my best to look politely bored and say "mhmm" and "yes" and "no" at the right moments and not smack the stacked baseball caps off of her smug little head.

Tomorrow is the last day! WHEW

Yard sale, day 1

This weekend my complex is having a park-wide yard sale. I got a late start (surprise!) and set up some of my stuff: jewelry, art supplies, assorted knick-knacks. The usual. Made a whopping $17 in about an hour, then didn't make another sale for three hours.

 When my dad got home I asked him to watch the loot so I could bike around the neighborhood and check out what other people were selling. Beings that Friday isn't a typical yard sale/garage sale/swapmeet day I'm not surprised there wasn't much going on, but I did pick up a few things from a lovely elderly lady.

I found an endearingly, shall we say, "loved" (read: beat up) looking gold-plated "N" charm necklace. I asked whose name started with "N," and as it turns out and she and her sister used to buy boxes of jewelry from estate sales and sell it on Ebay. She told me to take it when I told her my name. I ended up getting two more items from her at no cost; a feathery flower sweater pin, and this little gem.

Sorry for the out of focus phone picture. I wore it the rest of the time I was selling.

Come tomorrow or Sunday I also might be the owner of a lovely blue 11-pound bowling ball named Linda Juli. (Where "Linda" came from I have no idea.) I'll keep you posted.

Water Woes

Shampoo, and soap in general, is a wonderful thing. It keeps (most) people clean and smelling nice. They are normally used in a shower or bath with water and a wash cloth or loofah.

I highly doubt this is news to anyone who reads blogs. It is hardly my intention to lecture anyone on hygiene and proper bathing techniques. That's not even the point, really.

The point is I have really shitty luck with showers.

Now the vast majority of the time I can make it through the morning ritual without aberration. But every so often the water lines need work, and when they do, we have to stay on our toes. Hesitantly opening the tap to rinse dishes, crossing our fingers when flushing the john... and taking really quick showers. All of this is during the window of time the crew is supposed to be working on the water. Usually it's something like between 10am and noon, or from noon to 2pm, what have you.

The notices usually go out a week or two before the anticipated work, which is very appreciated. Some sort of notice is better than no notice at all. Unfortunately that's what it boils down to anyway.

Not once, not twice, but three times I have been in the shower when I feel the water pressure slowly but steadily dying, which lets me know I had better hurry the hell up rinsing the shampoo out of my hair so I don't have to sit in a soapy grumpy mess which I wait for it to come back on. It is not at all pleasant to be covered in drying soapy film, either on my skin or in my hair. Icky icky icky.

Today it nearly happened again, but by accident. We have a new furnace being installed by a guy who I would personally not trust to hold my place line in the supermarket.

Not a minute after I stepped out of a quick shower this afternoon, my dad yelled down the hall asking how much soap I had in my hair. Turns out the dude cut a water line while he was installing the furnace. I narrowly avoided another sudsy episode.

Kitties v.1

The internet is full of cats. They are everywhere. It's as if the species is one giant meme, whether they like it or not. My family has had cats since before I was born, and we've always had at least two. So I was thinking... what better way to break in a new blog than to contribute to the kitty madness!

My household currently contains five of the monsters and all of their drama -- and there is a LOT of drama.

I'll introduce them one at a time spread out a bit so as not to overload with cat pictures in one post.

Naturally I must start with my Moose. He's my baby, and he's gigantic. In my completely unbiased opinion he's the cutest. In everyone's opinion he is also often the dumbest. His name and the images of the slow-but-likable meat-head high school football player it inspires are well deserved.

He chirps and squeaks like a kitten. To say he "meows" is to be very generous.

When sleeping out amongst the living he is usually on his back curled into a very unnatural position with his head and forepaws pointing one direction and his butt end twisting the exact opposite.

That is a 17" monitor he's sitting next to all slouchy-like. He's a bigun.

Generally the only time he really wants attention is when I'm in bed reading, and then he's very adamant about it, "sneaking" onto my chest to get between my face and my book. He also enjoys stealing my bedtime snacks, usually pretzels or dry cereal. And yes, once I finally give in and give him some of whatever I'm snacking on, he's very careful and fastidious about breaking off pieces and chewing. As soon as I put the book on my night stand he flounces across the bed and jumps down, it never fails. Sometimes he comes back, sometimes he doesn't.

There are times late at night I'll be mucking about online and he decides he wants attention. His favorite method is to sit on my mouse hand or lay across my keyboard while I'm typing. Pushy.

He got very sick when the tainted pet food was a problem a couple years ago. I'm glad he stuck around.

Dork.

And that is a little about my Moosiepoo.

Also do not be fooled, that picture of my old PC is OLD. I do all my internetting from a sexy little thing called a MacBook Pro. My Magic Mouse and I love you!

Drill

This may or may not be one. I haven't decided yet. I also have no idea where this blog will take me. Better strap yourself in for safety just in case.

My good friend Earthling is on her way to a writing workshop out of state, and I couldn't be more thrilled for her. Her good fortune is a win/win for everyone, because she is sharing her experiences over at her blog set up specifically for, uh, sharing her experiences. Even more groovy, she is sharing her reading list. I happen to be a sci-fi/fantasy lover myself, and it has been ages since I picked up a book I really loved, so naturally I was thrilled to see some options with glowing reviews from a personal friend.

List in hand I made the trip to my favorite used bookstore. I tried perusing for the authors and titles I wanted, but the "organization" of the place is a bit overwhelming, and luckily the owner is always happy to help. He might be quiet at first but get him going and he'll gush about any genre or author you throw at him. As the glowing Yelp review mentions, he knows exactly where any book is.

The bad news: I only walked out with one of the books from Earthling's list. The good news: I still came home with five books. From E's list he had Nova by Samuel R. Delany. The other four I brought home? Lasher by Anne Rice, and, uh, HarryPotterstwothroughfour.

Now there is a pair: Anne Rice and Harry Potter. I wonder what they would talk about over tea?