Grammy 2

I want Kanye's sunglasses, for the next time I stay in a hotel. The bathroom light is always too bright.

Gotta go. School project requires making 2 liter soda bottle look like a famous person for upcoming learning fair. Pls kill me.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Carly blogs Grammy

Just hit J in Google reader to go to the next post. Just saying.

Not that Carrie Underwood song again! Aghhhhh

She does look good in a 'I'm pretending to be a dominatrix' way though.

Who let prince out again???

Love, love Alicia Keys. Not sure about the side view on the dress but it's a great songm
.
My 13 year old Did Not Know Jungle Love. I have failed as a parent.

Rihanna has feathers on everything tonight. Her red carpet dress and her performance one too. . . My kid hates her hair. I'm alarmed by her forehead.

Wtf is with Tom Hank's eyes? A giant bag under one. Big enuff for Yoko's hat.

The highlight of the Beatles song for me ALMOST was slugging my kid and saying "Punchbuggy! No punchback!"
Loved the gospel though!

Ooh Faith and Tim in the audience. Ledisi! I posted her lyrics one day for "It's alright"

I'm not voting. Zzzzzzz.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Keep your Eagle's Wings

No Sunday art today. Well, art in musical form this week.

Ahem.

I am NOT a fan of the hymn "On Eagle's Wings". It's pretty much a standard at our church; we sing it every couple of months. I stand there in the back row and pretend to sing while secretly rolling my eyes and not really singing it much.

I would much rather sing Veni Jesu, Amor Mi. (Come to me, oh Jesus my love.) This music is close, but I have an OLD copy... which is part of why I like it so much. Click here to hear it. (Scroll down, look for Soundbyte... I'm not quite hearing my alto part though, so it's a slightly different arrangement.)

The photo I've put in this post is the other song I did this morning(Jesu, Salvator Mundi); something about singing in latin is so much more elegant and reverent to me. I can't wrap my feelings around some of the cheesy english lyrics I have to sing now & then. Thanks, no thanks.

Although, I must add, I enjoy the older gospel stuff that Stanley has us sing fairly often. (ex: Precious Lord, Take My Hand which I really REALLY LOVE) I think it's the "contemporary" pieces I just find squidgy. Sorry... not trying to offend anyone.

Incidentally, I love http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/ I've gotten a fair amount of music from them. We get handed photocopies of some of the older arrangements we use, like the one above, but I try to buy sheet music if I can get it, to keep for my own small but growing collection. I've really got to get back to teaching myself the piano, AFTER PTA.

Eagle's wings? Great with buffalo sauce.

Stuff

• I love Trace Adkins. The Donald may be a cartoon but Trace is an MVP every week on that tired out show. He's creative and stays out of the big theatrics. I hope he wins.
• Yesterday I was in the ladies room at work and someone was brushing her teeth. (Gross to start off with. Our restrooms? Chew gum instead, at your desk, nowhere NEAR those restrooms. ) So anyway she frowned and looks at the toothpaste tube. "Does this stuff expire?" Um. Yeah. I showed her where the date was on the crimp. June 2002. Oooookay.
• Boys basketball. Still drama. Major feud going between some of the parents on the team. Is it over yet? I texted Suzy, "I have bleacher ass, which isn't nearly as fun as bleached ass"
• No big theme here today, sorry.
• Going deep for a minute: After the final service for Heath Ledger, mourners gathered at a beachside restaurant and many, including Williams, went fully clothed into the ocean as they watched the sunset. That is awesome.... someone please do that someday in memory of me. Not that I plan to die any time soon. Really really.
• It's snowing again. Eff winter. I'm done! Stupid groundhog.

Iceland part 2

This afternoon, the sun came out and hit all of the remaining icicles from last night's storm. These don't capture what the woods actually looked like, but I had fun with Photoshop.

<--wierd random special effect.

This one shows the guy's couch leaning against his garage, if you zoom in. Classy. --->

Everyone in Iceland is a poet

According to this guy at least: Eric Weiner. Two best quotes:

• "Happiness is other people, much more than we think. Personal happiness is an oxymoron. It really is about relationships with friends, family, strangers."


• "The great irony is that most Americans are pursuing happiness, but the pursuit of happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness."

I wonder if pursuing happiness damages the relationships in your life when you start to become too involved in thinking only about what you want, what you need, and forget to take those other people into account.

I am usually happiest when I'm busy. Well, as in, good-busy -- when I have plans to see friends and go places and do things that I want to do. Not as in, school-busy. I don't understand people who find fulfilment and identity in PTA stuff. I suppose that sounds like a horrible thing to say, and I don't mean to put anyone down. I just don't know how it feels to enjoy doing this stuff. I wish I did enjoy it. I have so damn much to do.

I was asked by more than one person to keep my current role for next year, and I JUST DON'T WANT TO. It's not a vanity thing, that I want to be begged. I don't like doing it all and I can't spare the chunk it carves out of my time. Time that I could be spent doing things I "need" do around the house, and time on my own artistic projects.

So I guess I am moving to Iceland. Right after I take a nap. I have decided to give up on the endless rounds of coke, pepsi, wine, and beer that I consume. I'm allowing people to believe it's "for Lent" if they need to. My primary reason is that I just don't feel well lately. Or fit my clothes. Without my 40 oz of soda a day (ballpark) I am, however, crabby and tired to the point of falling over.

The clothes thing aside, the more urgent moment was that about a week and a half ago I thought I felt my heart start to do that little thumpy-thump that it used to*, a few years back. Just in time for all the Wear Red for Women's Heart Health crap. I was really stressed out about a few things, and sitting there one day, I thought I felt something not right. It didn't flip as hard as it used to, didn't seem to get up to the old 220 BPM gallop, and it only lasted for a few seconds - I coughed pretty hard (that's one trick I used to do to correct the abnormal rhythms I used to have and I did it without even thinking about it). It stopped. But did it ever really start? I'm still not sure. I freaked out hard about it for a few days. It took me a couple of years to get up the guts to have the first ablation. They promised me it would cure the problem forever. I don't even have followup visits. But what if that wasn't right?

Now, there is at least one person reading this who is about to pick up the phone or email me and say "why didn't you tell me?" I don't know. I just don't. I'm not really looking for sympathy or encouragement or... I don't know what. Was it my imagination, the stress of the day? I've had some really bad days at work lately. I'm honestly not sure. I'm not going to the doctor unless it happens again(wearing a Holter monitor never caught it in the past, and I don't want to deal with another 24 hour test). It hasn't happened since then. Not overloading on caffeine can only improve my odds of avoiding future episodes.

So. Iceland it is.

*A/V Node Re-entry. Technical lingo for "fucked up heartbeat". Long winded details way back here, where I thought I left them.

Happy New Year

To any of my readers who celebrate it!

My horoscope for the year of the Snake: This is a busy year and a time to seize the opportunities coming your way. You will find the year invigorating and will motivate your creativity.

Me likey.

Mangia

I am pleased to tell you that I am buying a restaurant

At least I was going to buy it, until I took another look at my scratchoff ticket.

Said ticket was purchased before 8 am today, on Ash Wednesday. Aren't I pious? Other people were getting ashes. I was getting a Lucky 7 ticket. In my feeble defense I was rather pissy because SOMEONE DRANK ALL THE MILK AND HOW CAN I HAVE OATMEAL WITH NO MILK?

I worked from home today. This morning I got some programming done (with help on one of the pieces, but it's still done) that has been hanging over me since, well, around Christmas.

The Food Network is not suitable for viewing on A.W. I'm just pointing that out.

Requiem for Rodents

Suzy called me late in the evening yesterday saying "Oh my GOD, oh my GOD."

To back up a little... the other night she looked in her work tote bag. There was a cheap granola bar there, and an expensive one. She discovered that apparently a mouse had chewed into the foil and eaten part of the cheap one; even mice don't want the health store granola bars.

Mice in her coat closet, not a good thing.

She called her building's staff and they left her a couple of sticky traps. I believe she said they are "8 ball" or some insane brand like that. No poison, no snappy things in apartment buildings. Eeesh. I pointed out that the traps that close around the victim are much more effective ( - except for one mouse I had, who ALMOST got away. I am still haunted by the image of the trap closed directly down the center of his skull, and his bulging little beady eye.)

So the OMG OMG was upon coming home to find out that Senor Mickey had gotten stuck (eating more of the same kind of granola bar, which she will never eat again now...) and was thrashing around and dragging the trap and pooping and so on. Niiiiiiice.

You have to understand that someone who routinely takes care of tiny one- or two- pound babies found a tiny dying mouse to be unsettling. I tried my best to comfort her, using words like "vermin" "rodent" "fleas" and Hantavirus.

Eventually the mouse went to that great big... dumpster in the parking lot.... to freeze to death. "Just go to sleep," she whispered. "... it will be over soon. Eat the rest of that granola bar."



PS: Brownies can NOT be made with olive oil.

Miscellany

So. Tired.

Did 98 million americans hit the snooze alarm ONE MORE TIME today? Did everyone have an extra cup of caffeine today? I want to go to sleep and it's 7:30.

Mr. Gates, don't put ads between me and my google search results. Please? I use google every day. Don't screw with me.

My Sirius radio power cord is broken. :::weeping:::: I found one at Target that is QUITE confusing. Generic. Six little adapter plugs. Must set desired voltage and polarity. This is a job for the first boy I speak to at work tomorrow who is willing to put up with me and my nonsense about my radio.

My kids just came to get me to have me play a "game" that involves me listing off "four" of various things. Names, jobs. (I resisted the urge to name jobs like masseur, etc) Then some circling on a paper then some scribbling and counting. It's all very confusing on one big glass of wine. Apparently I'm a singer with a dog and six kids. I gotta put them in a better school as soon as I can.

Is it really almost Lent? Can't I please go to Mardi Gras just once? I'm already dipping into too many vacation days. Never mind.

Have you seen the Finish Line catalog? Where they take an image of a sneaker, and use it over and over in a photo collage to make an image of something else, like a dragon or a motorcycle? Awesome. I need to try this. On my to- do - after - PTA list.

Still Searching

Johnny Virgil has been sending me plenty of visitors lately... don't let him fool you people, that was no catalog, those photos were from his personal scrapbooks.

Otherwise, we have the following top contenders in the "google searches that lead to me" contest these days....

• Tiffany Granath restaurants? they'd serve only wine and sushi, I think...
• Keith Andersen - I still miss you - and I still can't buy it on iTunes, which is SO ANNOYING.
• Someone found my "Why don't we steal away" post, which um, yeah, it still hurts when I think about Jimmy.
• Suzanne Sommers wigs (WTF?)
• Apparently people would buy my electric bra - heh. You know it's a good idea...
• sodapants pregnant ....ummm....scary, those words actually will pull up a random post of mine!

Best commercial

hands down... the Budweiser "breathe fire" ad


:::waves at Beth::::

Wonder of wonders

I had FREE TIME today!!

I did a whole bunch of work on upcoming school fundraising projects yesterday and felt like I had accomplished enought that after lunch today I did pretty much.... nothing.

I sat in the recliner, watched some fluff on the Food Network, and that's about it. Until dinnertime.

Glorious.

I did have to make dinner, but just for the four of us. I made Ruebens and they were pretty damn good. Paper plates should happen more often in my house. I have decided. So it shall be.

how's that again?

My son was watching power rangers and I swear I heard one character say "blood is thicker than water, bitches..."

My head whipped around, and I made him rewind to convince me that what the guy said was the name of the character he was speaking to.

thanks, DVR!!

Hungry girl tip

The Hungry Girl daily newsletter is full of substitutions and recipes to help you fill up, enjoy your food, and save calories. Recently she suggested trolling the baby food aisle for treats that are a little better than "straight" junk food. You can find all sorts of cookies and crunchy things there now.

I hate to admit it, but I bought a can of cheese doodles/ aka Lil Crunchies - they are pretty darn good! Only 25 cal a serving, which is 16 little crunchies. They're not that funky ORANGE, because they're made with corn and real cheddar. They're moderately crunchy, but not in that extra crunchy way that the cheese doodles are. (And no, I didn't eat the entire can. But even if I had, that would only be 150 calories.)

How bad is it that there is baby junk food? Or that I have nothing better to talk about on a Saturday night?

Slightly better than flipping a coin

Usually Perez Hilton is all about our pathetic, white trash celebrity pop culture "icons". Amusing, if a little scary. (Every time Brit has drama, his posting increases exponentially.) He hasn't quite posted on Darfur yet, but once in a while he steps out of his paparazzi box. If you missed this abberation on Perez, check it out:

glassbooth "...connects you to the 2008 presidential candidate that represents your beliefs the best."

If you are bogged down in the minutiae of every day life like me, and as uninformed as I am about current political topics of debate, there are links to overview documents on some of the issues they ask about. Also, when they show you "your" candidate, they explain which of the issues you are in agreement with, and provide more details.

It did point me back to someone I've been thinking of voting for, so that was interesting. (No, I am not telling, and no, I'm not basing my vote on one internet web site Poly, put the paper bag down. )

Damn Rodent

It's Groundhog Day, which plays well with the ten-and-under crowd. According to CNN,

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow Saturday, leading the groundhog to forecast six more weeks of winter. The rodent* was pulled from his stump by members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle, top-hat- and tuxedo-wearing businessmen who carry out the tradition.

*even CNN knows how nasty this whole thing is... a festival built around a rodent.

I muttered aloud, "Can I just ask WHY if he sees his shadow, that means more winter? because the effing sun is out if he sees his shadow." My son was happy to clarify that Phil's shadow scares him (mine sure as hell terrifies me) and that he goes back into his hole to hide for a few more weeks of hibernating, thus more winter. But if he doesn't see his shadow, he walks around, and it's all good, so an early spring.

There you go. Schooled by a ten year old again. In my defense, last week I caught him playing Star Wars on his PSP and talking about "Hanna" Solo. I pointed out that not only was he wrong about the name, it wasn't a chick. (Don't call me a chick.)

Ten ways to make me crazy

When you are ten:

1. Be the only kid alive who DOESN"T want a snow day (because there was going to be Cake.... )
2. Mope around all morning
3. Pester me repeatedly while I am trying to work from home
4. Ask me if you can watch Lost while I'm trying to work. No, I'm sitting right here and I will definitely NOT be working if you do that.
5. Ask me more than once if we can go out for lunch. When you have a snow day. Because not only is there snow and freezing rain, it's sleeting.
6. Fight with your sister about lunch because she won't make you a grilled cheese until you help her fold the laundry.
7. Wear your pajamas most of the day, as though you were 90. It helps with the moping, it really does.
8. When you finally shower and dress, leave your towel on the floor even though YOU HELPED HANG YOUR OWN TOWEL BAR a mere five days ago.
9. Ask if you can have my Bluetooth earpiece, then carry on imaginary conversations for an hour. In my immediate vicinity.
10. (The day isn't over yet.... sigh....)

Gah

Just realized I posted a spoiler, and some people use RSS feeds and stuff. Sorry. Hope you caught the episode first.

Snow day

We have a snow day!

It's not doing ANYTHING yet, but it should be later this morning, and today was supposed to be a half day, and I think our principal just wanted to sit on the couch and watch the new Lost episode again. No wait, that's me. (The Oceanic ___!!!!!!!! OK, so, the obvious list given what we saw last night--dammit. I'm hooked again. In 47 episodes we will know, I guess.) -edited

The kids, you will not believe, are NOT happy about this day off. It's a favorite teacher's last day, and there was to be Cake.

I will give them cinnamon rolls (thank you, doughboy, you weird little amputee) but then they will be doing laundry all day. Mwahahahahaha. So, there will be even less joy in Mudville.