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Where is my toothbrush?

January 31st, 2006. Published under General. 6 Comments.

I never thought I had this much stuff.

Currently, most of my stuff is occupying the living room. I would like to get that cleaned up and organized so I can get everything out of the boxes.

But I can’t do that until I get the boxes out of the way. Vicious cycle.

For the entire afternoon, and most of this morning, I’ve been cleaning out the most disgusting cupboards in the history of the world. I wish I could take a flame thrower to it, but I think that would be a bit much. So I’ve been peeling the old, disgusting, filth-ridden shelf paper off, disinfecting and cleaning the fuck out of it and putting on brand new shelf paper.

I’m also unpacking boxes and running things through the dishwasher as needed.

As soon as I get the kitchen in some semblance of order, I can move the litter box and the cat bowls out of my office and down to the kitchen. THEN I can start moving the multitude of boxes from the living room and into the office for the time being. I need to assemble my TV stand and buy a couple of yards of coax cable and figure out how in the hell I’m hooking up the TV.

*sigh*

I have knots the size of 1957 Chevys on my shoulders and my left knee is wonky as hell from kneeling on the floor scrubbing cabinents.

On top of that, I need an electrician to run a 220v outlet to my new dryer. I don’t know any electricians. Anyone? Bueller?

(New washer and dryer - that’s a whole other story that I need to tell some other time)

Apparently today is garbage day. I didn’t know that until after they were pulling away. Dammit. I really hope they take all my stuff next week. I have a LOT of garbage. Mostly packing shit and boxes, but still.

Ok - self-appointed breaktime is over. Time to go back to work!!

I did it!

January 27th, 2006. Published under General. 5 Comments.

I have been a homeowner for….

….

…seven hours and 13 minutes now!

*squee*

The big move is tomorrow - and once I get my computer up and running on the new network, I’ll post pictures of the whole thing!!

Is it here yet? Is it here yet?

January 25th, 2006. Published under General. 2 Comments.

I ordered my birthday present from Newegg.com on Monday - the Canon A520 digital camera. It was even on sale and qualified for $5.99 3-day shipping!

Myyyy preciousssssssss…

Now, I’m sitting here, looking at the tracking number information and I’m so frustrated that as of 2:00pm Central time, my camera is sitting somewhere in Des Moines, Iowa.

It’s a camera! It’s small! I’m sure you could fit it into today’s truck!

Now with the 3-day shipping, does that mean I’ll get it tomorrow, or Friday? The tracking thing says I’ll get it tomorrow…but I never trust those things. I really hope I do, because it’s getting sent to my work and I’m off on Friday for the house closing. I have to remember to get batteries and a bigger memory card today or tomorrow too.

The great thing about getting this camera - other than I’ve been dying without one since this summer - I’ll finally be able to put up my own photos on my Flickr pro account rather than ones other people took. Excellent.

Taxes or Death?

January 25th, 2006. Published under General. 5 Comments.

There’s a great Eddie Izzard routine called “Cake or Death”:

[Y]ou know, ’cause, “Cake or death?” That’s a pretty easy question. Everybody – anyone could answer that.

“Cake or death?”

“Uhh, cake please.”

“Very well! Give him cake!”

“Oh, thanks very much. It’s very nice!”

“You! Cake or death?”

“Uh, cake for me, too, please!”

“Very well! Give him cake, too! We’re gonna run out of cake at this rate. You! Cake or death?”

“Uh, death, please. No, cake! Cake! Cake, sorry. Sorry…”

“You said death first, ah-ha, ah-ha, death first!”

“Well I meant cake!”

“Oh, all right. You’re lucky I’m Church of England! Cake or death?”

“Uh, cake please.”

“Well, we’re out of cake! We only had three bits and we didn’t expect such a rush! So what’ll it be?”

“What, so my choice is ‘or death?’ Well, then I’ll have the chicken, please.”

Well, last night I downloaded TurboTax and decided to get an idea of what my taxes will be this year. Since Dan and I were still technically married on December 31st, we still have to file our 2005 taxes as married.

I thought it would be better to file as “married filing separately” since we hadn’t been living in the same household for over half of the year.

Boy was I wrong.

Just with my income, I would have to pay in nearly $1,300 for Federal taxes. THIRTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS! No fucking way.

So, in the interest of saving money, I asked Dan if we can file as just “married” - I’ll do all the work and if (for some unknown reason) we get a refund, I’ll file them right away, if we have to pay in, we’ll wait until April to file.

It’s like that routine above: “Cake or Taxes?”

Uh, cake please!

Bob the Builder

January 24th, 2006. Published under General. No Comments.

I have the potential to go off on quite a rant today about my job, but I’m going to suppress it.

Why?

It’s the same old song and dance: I keep getting emails and internal communications about how “flexible” my company is, yet I can’t get 30 fucking minutes of flexibility in my schedule.

Yadda yadda yadda.

Once I get settled in at the new house, the job search shall begin in earnest!

Speaking of the house, I have tons of stuff to buy. The Ikea stuff that I need to get for my bathroom, for instance, since my sister Laura is going to come up on Saturday to install the flooring and everything else. The problem: the faucet opening for the Ikea sink isn’t a standard size. So I can’t go to Home Depot and just buy another faucet – I have to use an Ikea one. Which isn’t a problem, however, the faucet I want is out of stock.

So tonight, I’m going to Home Depot up near my new house to look at bathroom vanity/sink/faucet options to see how much more it’ll be. I found a comparable option at Menards, but I wasn’t in love with the vanity cabinet. Not like the Ikea one. I wonder if I can just get the cabinet at Ikea and get a different sink top/faucet combination. Hrm.

I also need to figure out the color I want to paint the bathroom – because it’ll be easier to paint before the cabinet is installed.

I really hope I can get all this stuff done on Saturday!

RL: break time

January 23rd, 2006. Published under Uncategorized. 1 Comment.

With the house closing and the move and the packing, in addition to my knee still acting a bit wonky, I’m going to not force the issue this week. Every night I’ll be running errands, and packing, so I’m not going to make myself feel guilty for not working out this week. I’ll resume once I get settled and get my new treadmill (which I still need to figure out) delivered.

So until things have settled down for me, I’m not going to keep updating this every day with a “rest day” entry.

Tea Time!

January 23rd, 2006. Published under General. 4 Comments.

I was in the kitchen of my office getting my afternoon cup of green tea and was struck by the other offerings of tea available to me.

I’m disgusted by 80% of them. You do the math.

Mint Medley - “a refreshing blend of peppermint and spearmint.” This is the only other tea I will drink, but only if I’m freezing and don’t want any more caffeine for the day. Good for days when you don’t think your breath smells good.

I Love Lemon - “a special blend for lemon lovers.” Tastes like lemon ASS to me. Seriously, there is no amount of honey, sugar or anything that would make this taste better. Not even vodka - and we all know that vodka makes EVERYTHING better.

English Teatime - “in the best English tradition…a full bodied TEA for all occasions.” What the hell does that mean!? Also, I don’t think the English would drink something named “English Teatime” - they would most likely scoff at you and kick you in the giblets for even offering it to them.

Earl Grey - “named after a British nobleman this TEA is renowned in international circles.” He’s renowned in intergalactic circles as well! I mean, Jean Luc Picard always ordered it on the Enterprise. Although he would order it as “Earl Grey, hot” - like there was an option to get an “Earl Grey, cold” or “Earl Grey, tepid”. And whose levels of “hot” did they use for the temperature on the replicator? Was “hot” boiling, or just hot? How did this all happen?! So now, because of all this, I cannot look at a bag of Earl Grey tea without descending into an all-out discussion about the USS Enterprise and its replicator. Thank you Gene Roddenberry!

Constant Comment - “the famous delicious blend of fine TEA flavored with rind of oranges and sweet spice.” This tea is neither famous nor delicious. If you thought the “I Love Lemon” tea tasted like lemon ass, this tea tastes like a dead, decomposing orange ass.

(Not that I know what that tastes like, oranges don’t HAVE asses, silly! But work with me, use your imagination.)

I think the name “Constant Comment” comes from the fact that people constantly comment on how horrible this tea is and that they want to kick you in the giblets for even serving it. I suppose it could more accurately be called “Constant Threat”. Seriously, if you like this tea, I am banning you from my blog and my life because I can’t be around people who have the genetic taint of no taste.

So that was fun!

Now my green tea is cold. Damn you, Constant Comment!!

Negative Nancys!

January 23rd, 2006. Published under General. 2 Comments.

In this time of change in my life, I’ve discovered that there is a lot of negativity surrounding me.

I grew up in a family where we didn’t have a lot of money, but we had a lot of fun, love and support. It’s why to this day I enjoy spending time with my family - it makes me feel good.

However, they are all at least 2 hours away and I don’t get to see them as often as I would like.

I have friends that are fun to be around, and they’re the ones I spend most of my time with. Granted, nobody is perfect and everybody has their bad days and their angst-filled rages, but they’re also great fun to hang out with.

Some of my friends can be very negative - they complain about everything, they don’t see the good in situations and they have fun only on their terms. I’m pretty easygoing, and I’m pretty forgiving to people’s issues and quirks - but with everything that’s happened over the past year, I’m re-evaluating my own priorities when it comes to my own well-being, mental health and happiness. Part of me wants to be blunt with these people, to tell them that they’re being so negative: “Yes, you are single because you’re too negative all the goddamn time!*” - “Why do I even bother making plans when you’re not happy about the plans I made?” - “Are you ever happy about ANYTHING in your life?”

* - This one applies to at least 3 of my friends. None of which know about this blog.

Why is it so hard to be happy? I’m not talking about being one of those people who skips along with a twinkle in their eye and whistling a tune - which by the way, whistling annoys the crap out of me - I’m just saying that your life cannot be THAT BAD that you don’t have anything good to see.

Granted, when I was going through my depression and problems last year, I didn’t see too much good in my life either - but I did see a few tiny things that were and I held onto them through my dark times. Now that I’m starting out anew with my life, I feel like all this negative baggage is holding me back. I’m not saying I’m going to ditch these people, but I’m not going to bend over backwards anymore either.

RL: 22 January 2006

January 22nd, 2006. Published under General. No Comments.

Time: 28:00
Distance: 2.41

Notes: Knee still wonky.

Geeks and Nerds and Dorks - oh my!

January 22nd, 2006. Published under General. 3 Comments.

Today’s my birthday.

Funny, I don’t feel older. Just more tired.

To celebrate, I’m doing laundry, packing more of my stuff up and I will be making myself pork chops for supper. I will also get in a run today as I was too hungover tired to run yesterday.

Woo. Is this what “party like it’s your birthday” is all about? Must be.

* * * *

There’s a lexicon of names, descriptions and insults meant to degrade and put-down the more intelligent of the species.

Of course, I’m talking about the words Geek, Nerd and Dork.

I define these three “insults” differently. Actually, they all can be compliments.

“Geek” - term used to describe a “smarter than you” type of person. To most people, I’m a computer geek and a gaming geek. I have also been called a “girl geek” - which is a sub-class of geek. A more refined, perfected geek. People who are geeks are smart and usually have more than one area of expertise.

“Nerd” - term used to describe an obsessed-type of person. For example, I really enjoy the Final Fantasy series of video games, and I own most of the releases. I am a Final Fantasy geek. People who make their own Cloud Strife or Rikku costumes to go to cons and cosplay - are Final Fantasy nerds.

I’m not saying “nerd” is a bad thing. I am a music geek, but a “grunge” nerd. I’ve met people, have stuff and know things that nearly all of you do not, nor ever will have, regarding “grunge” music. It’s highly probable that most of you don’t care. This is the distinction of the “nerd” over a “geek”. Geeks enjoy things, nerds obsess over them.

“Dork” - can be used in a positive or negative fashion. Focusing on the positive, you can say that to someone who does something so geeky or nerdy that it’s adorable - hence the “you’re such a dork”. It’s a term of endearment.

Dork can also be used to show the lack of skills in a general area. A Final Fantasy “dork” has no idea why Sephiroth is so hot or a Grunge “dork” doesn’t understand why almost being kicked in the head by Mark Arm at the Monkeywrench show at the Showbox is so fucking cool.

Granted, they can all be used by sorority girls and frat boys to put the more intelligent sub-species of humans down, but the geeks, nerds and dorks shall inherit the earth while they’re planning their next kegger.

I’m not saying that keggers are bad, but I just prefer geeky ones.