Miss Anthrope, if you're nasty

Holy Mother of WOW

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:20:03 GMT

I saw this posted on wtf_inc and it's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. It must have taken FOREVER to complete.

When you have about 7 and 1/2 minutes to spare, please watch this - it took me almost the whole first minute to fully comprehend how they did it. I think the part with the papers on the wall might be my favorite.

The mind boggles...

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:23:04 GMT

So, I got a call this morning from a longtime dipshit at our Corporate office in Missouri. He had sent out some samples for me back on June 10th to a customer, and the envelope had been returned yesterday as undeliverable. I told him that if the customer had moved, I was not aware of it, but perhaps they just hadn't thought to mention it when they ordered the samples. I said I would contact the customer, and then let him know what I found out.

So far this sounds pretty simple, right?

Sadly, no.

I called the customer, and yes, they had moved recently, so I got the new address, and immediately emailed it to Dipshit. I also corrected the address on the sample request form online so that it would be accurate if we ever needed to reference it again.

About a half hour later, Dipshit called me to say, "I just saw that you changed the sample form?"

ME:             "Yes, I put the new mailing address on it."

DIPSHIT:    "Is it different than the address that was on there before?"

ME:              "... uh ... yes? I also sent you an email with that information."

DIPSHIT:       "Oh, well I don't check my email. Anyway, I already sent the package back over to the mail room, so it's too late to change it now."

ME:               "...you sent it...to the mail room? You mean you just left the old address on it, and sent it back out?"

DIPSHIT:     "Yeah, the lady came by to pick up our outgoing packages, so I threw it in her cart. I figured you would want me to get it mailed again as soon as possible."

ME:                "Well...sure...but I would rather it get mailed to the correct address. It's only going to be returned again, and last time it took 20 days."

DIPSHIT:       "Okay, when it comes back next time I'll just put this new address on it."

ME:                 "No. I'm going to call your mail room to see if I can have it changed before it gets on a truck."

DIPSHIT:       "Great, that would really help me out a lot. "

ME:               "Oh good, I'm so glad I could be of help.    *ANGRY CLICK!*

I did catch it in time to fix the problem, but how in the hell does this guy manage to dress himself and find his way to work every day? And it's not like this is the first time he has proven himself to be spectaculary dim, he's like this ALL THE TIME.   If he can't handle simple things like mail, perhaps they should limit his duties to watering plants.

I am blocked.

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:53:47 GMT

I had this sort of idea of what I was going to make for my dad for Father's Day. And then, when I sat down to actually turn my idea into a real thing that can be mailed, I froze up and couldn't remember the idea, and couldn't come up with an alternate plan other than half-heartedly trying some things that didn't work, and left myself with another mess to clean up. Since I have to get something done for him by Wednesday, I am under some pressure here, and that is why I did what I do best...spent my time unwisely by scanning a bunch of old photos from my mother's side of the family. Not helpful or useful in any way, but fun.

If you like looking at vintage photos, then please feel free to check out my grandparents back when they were hotties, and even my Great Grandmother, Great Aunt, and some other various relatives looking...well, great:

My Grandfather, as a young man -

My Grandfather in his late thirties / early forties:

My Grandmother in 1928:

My Grandmother in 1952, after years of chain-smoking had already hardened her appearance, and would continue
to do so for many years to come:

This one said "Aunt Dora Berkey" on the back, but I don't know anything about her:

This was "Uncle Uriah Berkey", and I guess he was Dora's brother:

My Great Grandmother Vera and Great Aunt Hazel as babies - this photo is made of tin, and my guess is that it was taken
sometime around 1886. It JUST dawned on me that they were twins (probably fraternal), which definitely runs in my family:

Vera and Hazel as young girls - Vera on the right looking at Hazel on the left. It was written on the back that the other
two girls are "unknown", which is strange, because they had to have been family:

Great Aunt Hazel had her picture taken fairly often, considering what it must have cost back then - I have more photos of her
than of my Great Grandmother:

No idea who this is, but she has an entire fox thrown over her body. AN ENTIRE FOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mom and her twin brother when they were babies, with their older brother. My accidental Uncle John would not be born
for another 10 years when this was taken. Apparently, my mom was a fussy baby, and needed something to hold in order
to stay calm enough for the photograph to be taken. She looks so sad:

Okay, and now that I should get back to work, I think I will go downstairs and look for something to eat instead.

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:13:50 GMT

Today did not go according to plan at all, and that makes me tense. Tomorrow is spoken for, due to a work obligation that is supposed to be fun, but won't be, because it is a work obligation that's eating up my precious Sunday. That means today was crucial for getting things accomplished, which is hard to do when the storage facility where we rented a unit changed their gate entry code without telling anyone, and wouldn't answer the phone when we called them for the new one. Hello? You have a business that people need to access on weekends more than any other time, you wanna maybe ANSWER YOUR EFFING PHONE, jackasses? I would demand my money back, but we're still in the first free month.

In better news, I scored 4 more bags of mushroom rice this afternoon.

Maybe tornadoes aren't so bad if they put elephants in your yard

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:51:25 GMT

I probably haven't mentioned here before how much I love elephants, but I really, really do, a lot. I won't go to any circus that has animals in it, so I never see elephants when they come to town, but in this case, the elephants came to the people, and I would just like to say for the record that if one of them had shown up in my back yard, that the circus would never get their elephant back. I would feed him, and pet him, and love him, and hug him, and squeeze him, and call him George. I would sew giant, overstuffed pillows for him to kneel on when he wanted to rest, and I would ask Charles to build him a swanky shelter with a tv inside, and plenty of cool drinks. I would sometimes go sleep with him so he wouldn't get lonely, and we would watch 'So You Think You Can Dance' and cry together when our favorites got cut.. We He would be so happy.

I am exactly stupid enough to walk right up to an elephant roaming in the street to offer him peanuts, and stroke his ears. My love of animals tends to supercede the instinct that I should have to be wary, which is why I have been bitten more than a few times, and by some interesting creatures, like a lemur. However, I have never been bitten hard enough to need stitches or even a band-aid, so I prefer to think of them as love nibbles. I just can't help myself, I want to give every animal I see a nice head-skritch, or a soft ear-stroke, because I think they deserve that, simply for existing.

Of course I'm obsessed. It's what I do.

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:11:32 GMT

As usual, I am obsessed with something, and right now it's tornadoes. By the way, I meant to say, and forgot, that the night I was hiding in the bathroom with the animals because the tornado siren was going off, I'm pretty sure there was no tornado. Maybe someone just thought it would be funny to turn on the siren and make everyone crap themselves?

By no means are we done with tornadoes for this year yet, and in fact, hurricane season will only bring more of them, so I'm pretty much at DEFCON 4 mentally, at all times now. As I typed that last sentence, I thought I heard thunder (it was not thunder), and looked quickly out the window to see if the world as I know it was about to be smashed into dust by an oncoming twister (it was not). By staying alert, I plan to stay alive.

Did you know there is a lot of tornado footage on YouTube? Well, there is. More than plenty enough to make sure I never sleep again. Here's a pretty amazing compilation of several different tornadoes, in case you enjoy watching this sort of thing in the same "OMG NO WAY HOLY SHIT NOOOOOOOO!" way that I do:

Sharing the delicious

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:09:47 GMT

I have to go back to work tomorrow, and I'm very upset about it, which has me keyed up, which means I can't go to bed.

That's probably why I am senselessly posting pictures of one of my favorite food items at 1:00 a.m. when I haven't even ironed my clothes yet:

I picked up one of these packages on a whim a few months ago. Normally we just eat Jasmine rice, and I don't pay much attention to the special flavored rice and pastas that come in the little bags, but for some reason I grabbed the mushroom rice packet that day, and I have never been the same since. The night I fixed it, we couldn't believe how delicious it was, so the next time I went shopping, I headed down that aisle to pick up some more ... and they were sold out. Over the next two weeks, they continued to be out every time I checked, and it was sad-making.

When they eventually restocked this particular flavor, I bought them all up, and realized that this was probably why they had been sold out - I was not the only person obsessed with this rice. The battle was on. Every time since then that I have been in that store, I've picked up more packages, because I have a mortal fear of running out. This is why today, there are currently 10 packages lined up on a shelf in my pantry:

I don't ever want us to dip below an inventory of 5, so I will continue to stockpile them until I feel that we have an acceptable amount to sustain us should there ever be some sort of catastrophic event. If the house were ever to catch fire, I would likely save the animals first, and then go back inside for my rice packets.

Please feel free to pick some up and try this lovely rice for yourself, but DO NOT buy them from MY STORE, because I will have to hurt you.

Highly Inappropriate

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:42:20 GMT

When I was 17-18 years old, I worked for an optometrist. We were required to wear uniforms every day, except for on Halloween, when we were required to wear a costume. I had pretty much forgotten about that requirement until a day or two beforehand, and asked my friend Christy if I could borrow her homecoming dress to wear on that day. All I'd had was a silver "punk" wig made of tinsel and some silver pumps, but I knew her dress also had a couple of bows with silver sequins on it, and a puffy skirt, so I figured I could throw myself together a punk fairy princess sort of ensemble, throw on a ton of shimmery silver makeup, and call it a day.

What I had not considered was the gaping hole in the breast area between the silver bows, and I'm not sure why it had not caught my attention, because I wasn't one to show a lot of skin typically. Maybe I was blinded by the pressure to wear a costume, and didn't want to see the flaws with Plan A, because I didn't have a Plan B. It was before lunch, probably mid-morning, when I was called into a back room by Daphne, the hag of an office manager who somehow only worked about 6 hours per week. She told me that my costume was highly inappropriate, and when I asked her why, she pointed out that quite a lot of my breast area was visible from certain angles. Now, these pictures don't really capture what she was talking about, but I will say that she was very correct. Being able to see the entire cleavage area (and I do mean entire, all the way down to the undersides) is probably not suitable for a doctor's office where small children are patients.

What I should have done was plan a costume that was more family-friendly, like the other women I worked with:

Everyone was looking pretty wholesome, there...even Laura (the woman in black kneeling on the floor) wasn't exposing as much boobage as I was, which is sort of surprising considering that she talked about hardcore XXX sex ALL. THE. TIME. She was married, and would go home every day at lunch for some afternoon delight, and come back with mussed hair and that smell, and would happily inform anyone within earshot whether they partook in oral sex, or just got right to screwing on the dining room table. Seriously, this chick's mouth was FILTHY, and I worked with her for over a year without ever seeing another side to her. Of course, she was never told that her behavior was highly inappropriate. That was reserved for the really big offenders, like me.

When I asked if I needed to go home and change, Daphne told me that I could just put on a lab coat from the technicians' room to wear over my dress that day, and that I had to wear it buttoned up. Always one to follow directions, I did what she told me, and was also completely mortified because I realized that if Daphne had noticed my poor judgement call in wearing that outfit, then everyone had. I remained embarassed for a long time afterward, and apologized profusely to Daphne, the doctor, and the other employees.

What I should have wondered aloud to the doctor and manager, if I had been a little older and a little more world-weary, was why I was the only one to be punished for an offensive costume when we had Scott there, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed man who had chosen to wear THIS:

Dare I say that in today's society, if we had shown up in those same costumes, I don't think I would have been the one in trouble.

WTF?!?!?! How was that ever okay for him to wear? Oh, 1987...what a different time you were.

There Will Be Photos

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:24:31 GMT

The past few days have been pretty grueling, and sad. When my mom passed away, I had to empty out her house, which is a horrible, surreal task. Charles helped me do it, and I owe him everything for that because there was no way I could have done it alone. My mother lived in her house from 1976 to 2005, and due to mental illness, she was a packrat of the highest order. To say that the contents of the house were out of control is an understatement, and to make things worse, there had been extensive roof damage that I wasn't completely aware of - I knew the roof was bad, but I didn't know entire rooms packed with bazillions of things had been destroyed when the ceilings caved in and rainwater poured inside.

There were a lot of things lost, and I believe there were 4 full dumpster loads of furniture and things hauled off, as well as about 100 large garbage bags full that were set by the curb weekly. Cleaning out the house took several weeks, and what wasn't thrown out was packed up and placed into storage. This was sort of an issue with me and my uncle, because he was the one who insisted that the items be stored, when I felt sure that the furniture items were still too damaged to be of use to anyone, and the boxes of books and personal affects would just sit and sit until someone finally threw them out, which I knew he would never do. He's very sentimental. I had taken some of the boxes home that were full of photographs and sentimental items, but I thought the rest of the stuff was just stuff, and it seemed to me a waste of money to pay for a storage unit to hold things of no value or use. Still, my uncle was adamant, and it was his money, so Charles and I moved anything that I knew was possibly salvageable or a family heirloom there, as well as more than 50 boxes full of other items. Ever since then, every time I have been around my uncle's wife, the same one who manages to make everyone miserable in Disneyworld ffs, she has pulled me to the side to bitch about the money being wasted on that storage unit full of my mother's things. I don't know if she understands that the whole thing was her husband's idea or not, but I have grown mighty weary of her complaining to me about it. Especially because she has the same packrat issue, and really has no room to talk, but whatever. WHATEVER!

So, for about 3 and 1/2 years, those things have remained untouched and unseen in storage, and when Charles' mother had us help her with her yard sale recently, I decided that when we had another yard sale at our house to get rid of everything she had left because she didn't know how to price logically, and wouldn't come down on anything, that we would also go get anything out of my mother's items that may be of use to someone else. Whatever was left, no matter what it was, would go to Goodwill, or to the dump. Period. We would also take this opportunity to empty out our own closets and attic, and purge as many things as possible. I want to simplify. I NEED to simplify. So while Charles and I took some vacation days last week to do all of this, we have been working like dogs, moving this and that and everything else from one storage area to another. We ended up renting yet another garage over near our house because there was just too much stuff, and I will need room to work when I sort and tag everything. It has turned out to be SO much more than we anticipated, and yesterday on our last trip over for a while with some of my mom's stuff, we teetered dangerously close to having a huge fight, so we took a break today to decompress. He's been tired from doing all of this, and thinks we are working too hard for something that won't be worth it, and I'm over-emotional because touching these things again really hurts.

But, on the upside, I have found some boxes full of photos and items that I had forgotten about. Some things that had I been thinking more clearly in 2005 I would have brought home then, but I was really trying hard to not bring a lot of stuff back with me. Seeing my mother's house in the state it was made me swear to myself that would never be me, even though deep inside I'm still terrified that I could still end up that way. Now that some time has passed, I can look at these things a little more closely - at the time I just wanted to get everything out of my sight as fast as possible so that I could pretend it wasn't real.

Finding a picture like this one is especially painful:

because the chair my grandmother and me were sitting in, the table beside us, the china cabinet behind us, and the musical instrument on the wall are ALL in that storage unit, and the only things not ruined are the table and the musical instrument. I know it's hard for my uncle to face that these family pieces are ruined and won't be passed down through more generations, but that's just the sad fact.

Anyway, I have come across loads and loads of pictures, but haven't scanned many of them yet. When I do, I will share some of them, along with scans of some poetry that I wrote at the very angsty age of 13. Apparently, at that age I knew a LOT about love and heartbreak. I had lots to say about how hard life was, and I said it all in rhymes. Stay tuned for that, and meanwhile, I will leave you with some pictures of what I think must have been a shared birthday celebration I had with some little blonde girl who I do not remember at all:

Someone must have said it was okay to commence with gift-opening, because I was digging into the card first like a well-mannered young lady. The cat is comfortable behind me, and the little girl is... staring at the camera like a deer in headlights.

Obviously, the lady beside me has helped place my card upright on the table, and I am about to tear open the present. The cat has changed positions, and the little girl beside me ... has not moved a muscle. WTF was with this kid?

Finally, it was time for cake, and the girl came to life, but maybe a little too much so, because judging by the look on my face, I was clearly not enjoying her company. I probably was wishing she would close her mouth while she chewed, because I seriously cannot STAND it when people open their mouths with food inside, and I'm pretty sure this has been a pet-peeve of mine since birth.

OMFG Y'ALL!!!!!!!!!!

Fri, 30 May 2008 23:46:11 GMT

I was about to answer everyone's comments re: my pleas for help in finding that particular band and song that were absolutely EATING ME ALIVE, to not only say thanks for all the helpful suggestions, but also to say that even with everything provided, I'd still had no luck finding them, or coming up with any more information that would help lead me to them. I was ready to give up, and since I am now insanely busy with a home project, I figured that would take the place of this elusive music in the obsessive part of my brain, when suddenly, I had an idea.

I googled "Bands that start with C" because I was about 90% sure that their name started with that letter. I also felt confident that I would know the name the moment I saw it. I found an awesome site that listed them out, and started at the beginning. Once I got about halfway through I was discouraged, because hey, guess what, there are a lot of bands that start with C. The more names I looked at, the more I started to doubt that the one I wanted started with C, or that I would recognize them even if they did. I needed to go downstairs and do some things, so I decided that once I got through all the ones that started with "CO -", I would stop, when...

...I saw 'The Connells', and I knew. IT WAS THEM!!!!! I HAD FOUND THEM OMG SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

So I rushed over to iTunes to search them out, and guess what? They don't have the effing songs I was looking for, from the album "Ring".

Of course they didn't. Why would I think for one second that I could actually grab on to this music that has taken over my mind for days on end? They only had 2 songs listed, both of which were covers of other people's songs, and while they aren't bad, they aren't what I want. So I will continue my search for downloadable versions of the songs I love, which include the song "'74 - '75" (I WAS SO CLOSE! GAH!!!!), later on this weekend, because now that I at least know exactly what I am after instead of just farting into the wind, I can relax.

But seriously, thank you so much everyone for helping me out, and had it not been for the links that you provided, I don't think I would have ever found my way to the site that held the answer. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

I am so having a glass of wine tonight, and I will hold it up and toast to The Connells, and all the wonderful people inside of The Internet.

This may be the thing that gets me put in a room with soft walls

Wed, 28 May 2008 13:34:05 GMT

In bed last night, I wanted nothing more than to just fall asleep, but all my brain wanted to do was think about that band whose name I can't remember. I would try to drift over to other thoughts, only to swing violently back to the same topic with a jolt, as if my mind was one of those driver's ed cars and instead of being able to drive wherever I wanted, there was a crotchety instructor in the other seat with their own steering wheel, and they were pissed that I kept trying to go off course.

Here are just a few of the band names I flailed around with instead of hitting my REM cycle:

The Carpetbugs
Kitefather
The Shufflepears
Bearkitten
Singlevalley
The Creampuffs
Shinefoster
The Subdividers
Castlepoof
Sloughbuggy

None of those are the band I want, and in fact, they are not bands at all. I would try to relax, and think I was getting close to falling asleep, when suddenly my eyelids would fly open and my brain would shout something like "CAMPINGFACE!!!!! ... No...that's not it either."

So, it was not a restful night is what I'm saying. I loathe OCD.

CHOMPLILIES!!!!

No....that's not it either...

Help! I need musical assistance!

Tue, 27 May 2008 22:05:29 GMT

So, I have been obsessively immersing myself into obtaining music over the past few days, and I have become INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATED because I can't find this ONE particular song, or even the band who recorded it. I'm hoping one of you brilliant souls might know who I am trying to find here, even though I have pretty much nothing helpful to go by.

Okay, so let's go back to 1992 - 1994 for a minute. During that time there was a lot of new music that I heard on the local mainstream-alternative station (meaning not the really obscure alternative you would hear on college stations, but the high budget commercial station), but I'm not really sure how much of ithe music was actually new, or just new to me. This was a period when the following artists were getting a lot of airplay:

Blind Melon
Catherine Wheel
Jellyfish
Matthew Sweet
Cranberries
Lemonheads
Breeders
Julianna Hatfield
Belly
Counting Crows
10,000 Maniacs
Soup Dragons
PJ Harvey
Nine Inch Nails
Hole
The Sundays
Smithereens

There was this band drifting around somewhere in the middle of those artists whose name I can't think of for the life of me, but they had a couple of songs getting a bit of play during this time period, and one of their songs was (I believe) titled after a year. I have checked the years I thought it was (1979, 1976, 1975) and then tried just plugging in every possible year on iTunes hoping it would magically pop up, but no luck. I want to say they sounded a lot like Catherine Wheel? Maybe? And they had a name like 'The Somethings' or 'Something', as in, not named after a person and not a particularly long or short name, just somewhere in the middle. Helpful, yes? That should narrow it right down for you.

The saddest part is that I liked them enough to buy their cassette, and then some giant asshole broke into my car and stole all my cassettes. Who steals cassette tapes in 1994?????? I would think that if I'd liked them enough to buy their tape, then I should be able to recall their name, right? But then I fully comprehended that this all happened almost 15 years ago, and suddenly my arteries hardened, I had all my teeth replaced with dentures and I started wearing adult diapers, because honestly, until the reality of 15 years dawned on me, my mind was still thinking of this music as fairly new. Music from the '60s is old. Music from the '70s is getting on the old side. Music from the '80s is nostalgic, but doesn't feel old to me, and music from the '90s SHOULD NOT BE OLD.

So, did that help any of you remember who in the hell I'm talking about? Maybe you can just start pelting me with the names of bands from that era who never really made it big, but just hovered around getting small amounts of airplay until one of them makes me shout eureka?

Thanks in advance for any all help you can give my withered old senile self.

Life is so hard.

Sun, 25 May 2008 19:48:15 GMT

I can't imagine how exhausting it is to be a pet. All the eating, and playing, and being petted. Rough stuff. That's probably why they all need so much sleep - they're just trying to recuperate from all the stress. Far be it from me to disturb them.

Pumpkin is about 2 years old now, and she is teeny enough to curl up on top of the nice, warm router. It's killing me that things have fallen over while she got comfortable, but I will sit on my hands so as not to disturb the poor dear. I can set things right again after she feels rested:

I keep checking periodically to see if it's okay for me to make the bed, but as of 3:40, it's still occupied. No signs yet when it will be available for maid service:

Music Meme

Sun, 25 May 2008 08:35:21 GMT

I don't do many memes, but I really like this one because I think the more people who take it and run with it, the better. I'm always looking for new music, and this is a great way for people to share favorites that someone else might never have heard of.

If I filled out this meme a hundred times, it would be different every single time. Maybe I'll hang on to it and do it over once a month or so...but probably not, because it took me a while to finish it this time, and I'm pretty lazy. I'm not completely happy with the end result, because there's a lot of music that wasn't covered (like, I love classical, but none of my favorites really seemed to work here). I suppose if I tried to make these lists more comprehensive, it would take me a year to finish.

I would love to see what all of you come up with for this, if you feel like taking part and posting it, too -

1. What are your five favorite songs, and why?

I have way too many songs that I would count as favorites to be able to narrow it down to just 5, so instead I will list five random songs that are somewhere in my list of top 100 favorites:

Fragile - Sting ... This song is practically perfect in every way.

Disarm - Smashing Pumpkins ... Hearing this song for the first time was like a religious experience. Or at least it was what I imagine a religious experience would feel like.

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana ... Another religious experience. I first heard it when the video was playing in the background at someone's house. I made everyone stop what they were doing so we could listen, and when it was over, I said, "What WAS that?" and nobody knew, but we all agreed that it was THE BOMB.

Come Here Boy - Imogen Heap ... Hard to choose a favorite of hers, but I tend to play this one a lot.

Games Without Frontiers - Peter Gabriel ... Just a great song.

2. What are your five favorite albums, and why?

I chose all of these because I can listen to the whole cd all the way through, with no skipping:

Live - Throwing Copper

Lifehouse - No Name Face

Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

Toad the Wet Sprocket - Dulcinea

Keane - Hopes and Fears

Sinead O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra

3. What are your five favorite road trip songs, and why?

All of these choices are because they get me moving in my seat and keep me awake -

Army of Me - Bjork

Butterfly - Machines of Loving Grace

Love Rollercoaster - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Anything, Anything - Dramarama

Devil's Haircut - Beck

4. What are your five favorite songs to 'get busy' to, and why?

Slave to Love - Bryan Ferry ... This song practically makes my clothes fly off.

I've Been Loving You Too Long - Otis Redding ... This one was actually a tie with These Arms of Mine. Otis had it going ON.

What About Now - Chris Daughtry ... Yeah, that's right - Daughtry. Say what you will about American Idol, but that dude made one hell of an album, and this song right here is like instant leg-spreading ear potion.   Especially that one part... whew. Is it hot in here?

Everything - Lifehouse ...   Oh my. This song is beautiful.

I Burn For You - Sting ... It's hard to pick just one Sting song for this category, but this one really does it for me. When We Dance is way up there, too.

5. What are your five favorite songs to sing along with, and why?

Feeling Good - Nina Simone ... The lyrics are amazing. One of the best songs ever made.

Mother - Pink Floyd ... It's always fun to sing "Will they try to break my balls?" with a British accent.

We Care a Lot - Faith No More ... Great lyrics.

Broken - Seether with Amy Lee ... Really, anything with Amy Lee is great to sing with, but I really like this song in particular.

Loser - Beck ... Just try to not sing along to this. It's impossible.

6. What are five songs you like that are new to you, and why?

Mercy - Duffy ... Whatever it was that Amy Winehouse didn't quite do for me, Duffy does.

Paralyzer - Finger Eleven ... Not terribly new, but new enough to count, I guess. This song has just the right amount of everything.

Hush - Angie Aparo ... I like most of the songs on the new album, actually.

Easier to Be / Learn You Inside Out - Lifehouse ... I'm going to like pretty much anything they put out, probably, but so far I like these two off the new album most.

All Around Me - Flyleaf ... I have to be in the right mood to listen to Flyleaf, but when I am, I enjoy her...? Them...?

7. What are five songs that are nostalgic for you and why?

Just Between You and Me - April Wine ... When I was probably 10 or 11 years old I thought this song was the ultimate in romance, and hoped one day to play it at my wedding. That dream faded as I got older and less rednecky, but every time I hear it I'm instantly a little pre-pubescent romantic again.

Anything from the Beastie Boys - License to ill. This was huge during senior year of high school, and it seemed like the soundtrack to my life for a while because it was playing at every party, and in every car I rode in, especially during spring break.

Stone in Love - Journey ... I heard this for the first time at a slumber party, and hearing it takes me right back to a time in my life when everything was new and exciting. It was also one of the best songs to skate to on Friday nights, while wearing the tightest Jordache jeans I could squeeze into, with a purple comb in my back pocket for to keep my wings in perfect formation. Please don't hate me because I was so incredibly cool.

Anything from The Beatles - Help. Between the ages of 8 and 11, I logged countless hours in the den listening to my parents' album.

Say Goodbye - Triumph ... Because I was head over heels for this boy who barely cared that I was alive until years later when I was LONG over him, I spent some of my hard earned babysitting money on the Allied Forces album just to impress him. I knew he was a big Triumph fan, so I wanted to learn every song of theirs, but this was the only one I really liked, so I made sure to learn every word of it in case he ever quizzed me - I wanted him to think I was a legitimate fan. He never did quiz me, of course, but in what would be the only stroke of good luck that I would have that entire school year, on the day I went to the mall and bought the record (yes, vinyl) I happened to bump into him as I was walking out of the music store. He asked me what I bought, and being able to pull out that album and get an approving, "Triumph. All right." out of his incredibly stoned face went down as one of the best things that had ever happened to me.

8. What are five songs you listen to when you're sad?

Let Him Fly - Patty Griffin ... All of Patty Griffin's songs are full of emotion, but the sadness in this one is palpable.

Goodbye Blue Sky - Pink Floyd ... "Look Mummy, there's an aeroplane up in the sky."    SAD!!!

Breathe Me - Sia ... If I'm on the verge of tears and really want to go ahead and get them flowing, this song will do it every time.

Speeding Cars - Imogen Heap ... It's a good reminder that just because things sometimes feel like the end of the world, they rarely are.

Between the Lines - Sara Bareilles ... There are a million things I could say about why I love this sad song. Beautifully written, and it really conveys how much it hurts to be betrayed.

9. What are five songs that you love that no one else seems to know?

Airport Song - Guster ... I can't explain why it's awesome, but once I share it with people they seem to agree.

Letting the Cables Sleep - Bush ... For some reason this wasn't a big hit for Bush, and I have no idea why.

Gravity - SarahBareilles ... Why Love Song is still the only song of hers that has become popular, I have no idea.

Everybody Knows - Concrete Blonde ... The lyrics are great, especially for someone bitter and cynical like me!

Mad World - Michael Andrews ... Little known cover of the Tears for Fears song. I first heard it in the movie Donnie Darko, and became obsessed with getting it for myself. It's incredible.

10. What are five of your guilty pleasure songs?

I Touch Myself - The Divinyls ... Not something I'd feel comfortable singing in mixed company, but it's fun to belt out while alone in my car. Same goes for Darling Nikki - Prince.

100 Years - Five for Fighting ... Embarassing because I can't listen to it without crying. Whe does life have to go by so fast? Why have I accomplished so little? WAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No Scrubs - TLC ... I always feel like a fraud when I sing along to an R & B song, because I am the whitest white girl ever, but this song is just awesome.

Anything by Def Leppard ... To say I was a big fan of theirs back in the day doesn't really scratch the surface. I was a young girl obsessed, and their music got me through a lot of things during my angsty, angsty teen years, so I will always love their stuff, but it's not exactly the kind of music you want to get caught singing to at a red light. Not anymore, at least.

Rest in Pieces - Saliva ... This song is cheesy, and the title is a pun, for crying out loud. A PUN. And yet...I love it, for reasons that I don't even understand myself.

The Humpty Dance - Digital Underground ... I know this makes 6, but I couldn't leave this one out. I'm a complete dork when it comes to this song, and sometimes when the morning commute is especially brutal, I will go straight to this song to cheer me up. Works every time.

It's official.

Sat, 24 May 2008 00:40:09 GMT

Something I have suspected for a long time has been 100% confirmed tonight:

I. HATE. MUSICALS.

Rented Sweeney Todd because I figured Johnny Depp, Tim Burton and lots of bloodshed would help me through the excruciating singing, and also because so far, I have not heard a bad thing about it. Everyone I know who saw it said it was great. Critics said it was great. It was up for Oscars, even! And while I did adjust my expectation level to a lower setting to account for all the songs I would have to endure, I figured I would at least enjoy the story.

No.

Not even the massive amounts of arterial spray could make up for all the high-pitched singing of the same songs OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. Charles hung in there better than I did, because I was hating it within the first 20 minutes. When I told him about an hour in that I was willing to slit my own throat just to end my suffering, he agreed, but said he was too invested by then to stop watching. And so, we watched to the bitter end, when the thing that I called from the very first second we saw what turned out to be a "twist" character, happened.

I will never get those 6 hours of my life back. It was six hours long, right? I remember Moulin Rouge being about 6 hours long, too, but at least Ewan McGregor has a decent enough singing voice that I was able to get through it without wanting to chew my foot off.

No more musicals for me.

Wish I could eat sushi every day

Wed, 21 May 2008 03:43:46 GMT

My dad was in town this weekend, so I took him over to Noah's Ark to see the baby zebra who, according to their website on Saturday, had been returned to the premises a couple of weeks ago. What they DIDN'T report on the website is that no one can see him until the Fall, because he is still being rehabilitated. I heard the grumblings of several disappointed people, and while I didn't grumble, I was a bit peeved that they weren't upfront about it.

I can't really blame them for not really advertising that he's not ready for public view, though. His story gave Noah's Ark a lot of publicity, and the place was absolutely packed. Birthday parties and families having big barbeques were all over the place, and the parking lot was completely full except for the one handicapped space that Dad was able to nab legitimately. Unfortunately, he still had to do a lot of walking over some uneven terrain, but he did really well, and seemed to have a good time.

Afterward, he suggested stopping for sushi, and of course I was completely up for that. We went to a new place that just opened a couple of months ago, and sat at the sushi bar. Because it was an odd time - around 3:00 - we were the only customers in the whole place, so we got lots of attention, and excellent service. Dad didn't think he had ever had roe before and wanted to try it, so I ordered this roll that offered up a sampling of different types - it was called 'Punk Rock and Roll":

Not only was it beautiful, it was also delicious, and I will definitely go back with Charles sometime and have it again.

Well, THAT was fun.

Wed, 21 May 2008 03:02:25 GMT

Charles and I always had a plan that if a tornado was truly imminent, we would gather up the animals and pack all of us into the downstairs powder room, because while it's close to the front door, it's technically the "safest" place in the whole house. Considering that our home was built out of popsicle sticks and spit, we never held out much hope that the bathroom would serve as a failsafe shelter, but we figured it was at least better than laying on the roof and accepting defeat.

The downstairs restroom is ridiculously small, with what feels like about 4 square feet of floor space, plus a toilet and vanity. When all you're doing in there is your business, the size is fine, but when you have to squeeze the whole family into it like a clown car, it's not ideal. We always wondered how hard it would be to round up all the critters and stuff them inside with two adults, and tonight, I found out exactly how hard it would be, only I was short one adult, which was the only reason we all had enough oxygen to survive. We were only in there for maybe 10 minutes at the most, but it felt like much longer, and as you can see by the way they are all pointing their bodies toward the door, the critters were ready to scram the instant that door gave an inch:

Seeing them all together like that creates the illusion that getting them inside was a swift and orderly process, doesn't it? Let me assure you, it was NOT. There was a lot of swearing, and some nervous slamming of the door in cat faces, and some more swearing when one cat shot out as I threw another one in... lather, rinse, repeat. At one point I think I told them all that it was FINE WITH ME if they would all rather JUST DIE than be in the same room together, but I didn't mean it, and kept working toward filling the bathroom to capacity. As I readied myself to dash in and shut the door without losing anyone, with the final findable cat under one arm, I realized that the camera was downstairs and grabbed it. There was no way I would have gone upstairs for it, because it sounded like someone was trying to peel the roof off the house with a tree.

After the crazy noises stopped, I opened the door and everyone jetted out in a flurry of fur. The dog was in a particular hurry, and in a matter of moments, my nose told me why:

Either she ran straight out and shat on the carpet, or two grown men broke into the house and did it while we were all hiding in the bathroom. Those are some major turds for such a little dog - I laid my poor, dirty, beloved shoe next to one of them for scale. I wear a size 8 shoe, people. That was a serious loaf, especially for a beagle who thinks it is totally unacceptable to crap inside the house. She was mortified, and went to hide from the shame on the sofa. As you can see, she is VERY VERY OMG SORRY!

It's easy to forget how many pets we have, because they are rarely all in the same room together. Apparently, we have a lot of them, and I'm glad to report that they are all safe now. One of them is also much lighter.

It appears to be PANTS-SHITTING TIME!

Tue, 20 May 2008 23:42:06 GMT

I can never remember which one is the really bad one...the tornado WATCH, or the tornado WARNING.

It's WARNING, right? I always have to talk myself through it... WATCH means conditions are favorable, and someone highly educated in the ways of tornadoes is watching the skies for one to form, ready to hit the panic button if they see something funnel-shaped going on.

WARNING means one has been officially spotted in the area, right? SHIT! I think that's it! Because we are currently in the middle of a WARNING that lasts until 8:00, and that would explain why the Scary Ass Tornado Alarm is blaring outside right now, and I seriously have nowhere to hide.   I hate the Scary Ass Tornado Alarm almost as much as I hate actual tornadoes.   I should be worried about my own safety, as well as the safety of my pets, and I am, but I also keep thinking about my lovely new roof, and how I don't want it to come to any harm.

Go away tornado! You aren't allowed to come around when Charles is out of town because it's his job to hold on to my ankle and make sure I don't get carried into the next county while clinging to someone's window shutter!

Picking my battles

Mon, 19 May 2008 20:53:45 GMT

I can certainly be spontaneous when it comes to doing something fun and lighthearted, but when it comes to handling other, more serious matters, I am definitely one to look before I leap.

There are so many times that I have wanted to say what I really think of someone while they are being a TOTAL BLOWHARD EGOTISTICAL FUCKFACED JACKASS, but then I think about the long-term consequences of speaking my mind, until I ultimately decide that it's better for everyone involved that I don't. While spouting off my true opinion at the time when it counts most would feel wonderful beyond measure, I know that once that heady feeling fades away I will be left with the ugly aftermath, whether it’s guilt over hurting someone’s feelings, or making someone else uncomfortable, or creating palpable animosity that would never go away. Unless I am positive that I will never have or need to cross paths with a TBEFJ again, nor will I do any harm to myself or someone else by speaking my mind, then I will just stay silent and stew in my own boiling stomach acid of frustration. I am willing to sacrifice my stomach lining for the sake of the bigger picture, and the greater good. There are very few things that merit a fight to the virtual death.

I take this stance most regularly when I know that I am dealing with someone who has delusions of grandeur. Someone who believes their intelligence to be superior to everyone else’s, when all one must do is review the fundamentals that person’s life to quickly surmise that they obviously can't be very bright, or they would not be where they are today. Someone who refuses to allow that any opinion that differs from his own might just have value. Someone who, upon realizing that they are losing an argument because they had a weak leg to stand on at best, begins using "debate" skills which amount to answering questions with questions, and avoiding the main subject at hand, even if they were the one to start the discussion in the first place. Someone who proudly shouts his vast brilliance to the world expecting to hear nothing but attaboy and well-done in return, and then immediately juts out his bottom lip and gets frowny-faced and outraged when someone dares to question that brilliance.

When you are dealing with a person like this, there is no way to win. Instead of wasting your breath and your time trying to discuss something with this person like an adult, you must just be content with the knowledge that this person is simply a TOTAL BLOWHARD EGOTISTICAL FUCKFACED JACKASS, and that even if they themselves don’t realize it, the rest of the world does, and can’t stand them either. While you may not ever be able to get a TBEFJ to see your side of an argument, or admit that their answer is not the only possible answer in the world, or debate a topic using logic instead of anger, or tackle the actual meat of the discussion without spinning off into arguments about semantics, or appreciate the information you are providing to back up your own case instead of becoming childishly defensive, you can at least be satisfied with the knowledge that when you lay your head on your pillow at night, you are not them.

No one wants to be the insufferable, pompous ass who thinks it’s more important to be right than to be understood, and yet, there are so many of them. It’s these people, the ones who think their opinions matter more than anyone else’s, and therefore expect and demand to be heard more than anyone else, who tend to be taken the least seriously. They believe that their own opinions and knowledge are of the UTMOST IMPORTANCE TO THE WORLD, but then those “vital” opinions are completely lost in the fray while they scuffle about trying to prove that they are the mightiest of the mighty, the smartest of the smart, the most righteous of the right and the wisest of the wise.

What a pathetic existence that must be.

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:03:28 GMT

Thanks for all the good information about the stimulus payments, everybody! Based on what you gave me, it appears that both of ours should have come through electronically on the 9th, so...hmph.

Could be an issue with the bank account, because I had to freeze it when my purse was stolen, but I had it set it to receive deposits only in anticipation of this coming through (so anyone who wants to deposit money into my old checking account, feel free to do so any time the urge strikes). I'll give it a few more days and see what happens before doing anything that resembles actual work to find out what's going on.

Bank accounts says, "STOP LOOKING AT ME!"

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:37:19 GMT

So, how many of you have gotten your rebate money from the govt. already? We haven't gotten ours yet, and we're starting to get nervous about it.

Someone told me that it goes by the last four digits of your social security number, but that doesn't seem true, or else I would have at least gotten mine. Someone else told me it goes by last name, but that can't be right based on people I know who already got their checks. We're supposed to get it via direct deposit, so I've been looking online obsessively for it daily, to no avail.

I AM EAGER FOR THIS MONEY. WHERE IS IT?!?!?!?!

The pitter patter of feet

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:50:11 GMT

Right at this moment, there are a bunch of men on my roof, yanking off all the damaged shingles and preparing to attach new, superfly ones. I think they might actually be done with the whole thing by the end of the day. Never in my life did I think I could get this excited about a new roof. Charles asked me this morning what 8th grade Charles and Lisa would have thought if someone had materialized in our algebra class to tell us that in the future, we would be balls-out thrilled about getting an insurance claim for our roof approved. I said that first of all, we would never have believed that in the future we would be married, and secondly, we would never believe that we could grow up to be that boring.

It's weird to have such a major racket going on over my head, and if I didn't know what was going on, I would be calling the police to tell them aliens had landed and were trying to pry our roof off with their giant alien claws. Our dog, who has grown into such a neurotic creature that the sound of a gentle spring rain falling on the roof sends her into a panting, keening frenzy? Doesn't even seem to hear it. She's just walking around and flopping down here and there, business as usual. Good to know that if aliens ever do try to pry off the roof, she won't even bother to warn us. We need only to be notified when something as horrific as rain is happening.

Thank you sir, may I have another?

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:10:16 GMT

So, one day recently I noticed one of our cats staring at something on the back (interior) side of the front door. When I got closer, I saw 3 winged bugs clinging to the door, and thought, "Uh oh...three of the same kind of bug? That's a lot!" Oh, how naive and foolish I was two weeks ago. I was trying to decide how to remove them when I heard this kind of clicking, fluttering noise on the other side of the door. Believe me, I considered not opening it. In fact, I considered never opening the front door again for the rest of my life if that was what it took to never find out what horrible thing was happening on the other side, but curiosity got the better of me, so I peeked. And then I hollered, "CHARLES!!!! I NEED YOU!! AND BRING BUG SPRAY!!!!!!!"

He walked up with Ant & Wasp killer in hand, and immediately started laying to waste the bajillion bugs that were rustling all over the bottom of the storm door where they had slipped in and were working their way up the door frame. We didn't immediately know what they were, we just knew we didn't want them to get any further inside. They died quite politely - no resistance whatsoever. Basically, they were all, "Hello there! We're brand new bugs who just came to life underneath your house and flew out in a humongous swarm, and now we're going out into the world to --- oh, we're dead."

Here are some pictures of the battlefield still covered in corpses and bug spray:

Once we were sure they were dead, and that the hellhole from which they spewed forth had also been doused with poison, we discussed what kind of bugs they could be. I pretty much knew right away, almost without even really looking at them. Considering the long, long, LOOOOONG list of costly home repairs we have had, it only stood to reason that these were termites. Charles kept saying they were probably mayflies, because he is an adorably optimistic person. But, sure enough, he took some of the bugs in to work where a woman whose husband is in pest control said he would take a look at them, and he confirmed...termites. Of course. The only thing that might have been worse would be a swarm of killer bees nesting in our walls, but you know, I'm not going to rule them out either. It's very possible we just haven't discovered the killer bees and won't even know they are there until they start working their way indoors and murder our pets one by one while we're at work.

Obviously, we will have to address the termite issue eventually, and hopefully can do so once we are done paying for the vet bills. Meanwhile, I hope our guests are enjoying the feast on all of our delicious lumber. We are nothing if not good hosts.

Did you know...

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:44:52 GMT

...that Chick Fil A sells their lemonade by the gallon?

I just found out yesterday, and have many OH HELL YES feelings about it. The downside is that it costs over $8.00 per jug, so it's not like I would buy it every week, but this summer on a weekend when I am dedicating myself to relaxation and happiness? I am absolutely buying a gallon of that heavenly beverage.

Quiet adventures

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:28:05 GMT

(Also posted to the abandonedplacescommunity)

Charles and I went out yesterday looking at some old, abandoned places that he knew about back from his days as a Surveyor, and found what I thought were some pretty interesting things at the site of an old wood mill by the river built in the 1800's, and a couple of very old cemeteries. All of these were taken just outside of Atlanta, GA. Hope you enjoy, and that this isn't too long or picture-heavy!

Here is the exterior of the mill from the side we couldn't really get to by foot. This picture was taken with a camera phone, but the rest of them were taken with a different camera, and are of better quality:

(#1)

Along the trail, there was an old, grown-over mill house that I really loved:

(#2)

(#3)

(#4)

Even though these buildings were located fairly far back in the woods, a lot of old tires had been dragged to them, some of them so long ago that trees had grown up through the center:

  (#5)

This is one side of the exterior of the mill. There were too many slopes and too much slippery mud for me to get around to the other sides, so I didn't get many pictures of it from the outside:

(#6)

This is the exterior of the mill on the side I entered, using the small wooden door on the right:

(#7)

We weren't the first people to visit this place in the fairly recent past - there were 3 chairs and a full-sized mattress placed inside. A little graffiti, but it could have been worse. Not much trash, either. Seems whoever used to spend time here had an appreciation for it and tried not to make a big mess:

(#8)

This was the far wall looking in from the entrance. Many areas had eroded and fallen away, but there was one stack of stones holding up this side of the building.   I started to go up the ladder, but when I realized it wasn't attached to anything and was just leaning precariously over the water, I chickened out:

(#9)

(#10)

This is a close-up of the stones left bearing the wall. Once these stones are gone, this whole side will probably tumble down into the river below:

(#11)

(#12)

(#13)

(14)

(#15)

The next few photos are from the interior, but the roof was completely gone, so it's more like an interior/exterior area now, because the trees are growing on the inside:

(#16)

(#17)

(#18)

And now, on to the cemetery photos! We actually visited 4 different cemeteries, and found that the newer areas were still well-kept, but the older sections were neglected and overgrown aside from maybe some half-hearted mowing that I suspect is only done once or twice per year in the places that "no one cares about". Many of the headstones were broken and just left laying where they fell.  Any time we found trash in the ignored areas, we removed it ourselves before I took pictures of them:

(#19)

(#20)

It's really hard to tell in this picture, but WAY off in the distance, in the lower right quadrant of the photo, you can see one of the cemeteries we went to. It was eerie, but beautiful, the way it was just sitting in this clearing, in the middle of the woods, with no buildings or houses or any other signs of civilation around it. The land was purchased by the water company many years ago, but they agreed to allow this graveyard to continue to be accessible by anyone who wanted to visit this gravesite, and they even mow the grass around it:

(#21)

(#22)

Several of the graves had headstones with no names on them, and were covered with what looked like clam or mussel shells. This was the only one in really good condition:

(#23)

(#24)

(#25)

(#26)

This...tomb (??? I guess it's a tomb... not sure what to call it, really) was broken on this side, and the red Georgia clay looks really bold inside. I hate to think that someone kicked it in, but by the broken pieces, I'm guessing that's what happened.  At least it provided me with an answer to the question "What is laying underneath these raised tombs?", because I sort of thought they weren't filled in with dirt, and that the coffins were visible inside. Guess not! :

(#27)

Not sure how the ivy got on top of this monument, because the vines don't reach down to the ground. I thought maybe it was fake, but nope...real:

(#28)

The grave on the left is unmarked - there was no engraving on the top. I thought that was a bit strange consdering that it would have been a rather expensive tomb, in a prime plot location:

(#29)

The grave on the right was the most recent one in this particular cemetery (1975), and it was placed so close to the extremely old and decrepit unmarked grave to the left that I appreciated the stark contrast:

(#30)

I thought this one was beautiful:

(#31)

This was from one of the more recent well-kept areas in a cemetery in Jonesboro, but I hope it's okay to include it here anyway. I got a kick out if the headstone being shaped like home base, for the President of the Atlanta Crackers minor league baseball team (corrected from before - they did not go on to become the Braves like I had thought):

(#32)

This cemetery is well kept, but the abandoned theme still applies, I think, because most of the graves inside are unmarked. Hundreds of forgotten soldiers were buried where they fell during the Battle at Jonesboro, and then were relocated here many years later to remember them, even though they are unknown:

(#33)

(#34)

And these are just some monuments that I liked the look of:

(#35)

(#36)

(#37)

Some of these pictures are really worth seeing in the larger size (like numbers 9, 12, 31, 33 [if you want to read the plaque] and 37 - in my opinion, at least), so if you are interested, just go here, and when you click on the pictures there is an option you can click above them that says "All Sizes" which will allow you to see a much bigger version:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisaecton/sets/72157604072089954/

EDIT - Sorry, I guess the larger picture option was only showing up for me when I was looking at pictures on my own account, but I will leave the link in case anyone wants to wander around over there. A few pictures that I didn't post here are in that set.