Cheese and quackers

Long holiday weekend...

Trip to St. Louis...

Hanging out with friends...

... Maaan, it's hard going back to work — especially when it seems the pile of stuff to do is growing exponentially. I lurve my job, I really do, but I suffer from Grass-Is-Always-Greener Syndrome: "Oh, how much better would it be to move? Or travel? Or go back to school?"

And yet I know if I were in any of those situations, I'd be missing my nice, stable editing job. It's challenging, it has variety, I get to do research and number-crunch — I'm doing everything I love to do. But going back to work sucks. Can I get a witness?

On our way home from StL Sunday night, the Vue kinda borked. It was having major acceleration issues and felt like it was stuck in first gear. I was afraid it was the transmission.

But as far as car issues go, this one was about as good as it gets: (1.) We were two miles from home when it happened and were able to get it to the house and parked in the garage. (2.) The Saturn dealership was open on Memorial Day, so we were able to get it to the shop right away. (3.) We're AAA members and got free towing from our house to Saturn. (4.) It was the transmission harness line — not the transmission! — which only set us back about $350.

That car has been good to me. We've talked about trading it in for one of the new Vue hybrids, but how could I give her up when she's so safe and reliable and full of happy memories? Good logical reasoning, eh?

Ooh, check out the ducks that were in our yard the other day. Ducks? In suburbia?? It's like Over the Hedge ... but in real life! :-D

The kids next door had already thrown a bunch of duck-enticing bread into the yard (Thanks, kids! We appreciate you attracting millions of ants toward our house!), but the ducks didn't seem too interested in the bread. Instead, they were kind of hanging around the sprinkler. (See sprinkler pic here.) Smart ducks — I liked the sprinkler when I was a kid, too. Now we just need to set up a mallard-worthy Slip 'n' Slide and they'll be all set for summer in the South.

I'm in St. Louis

... and I'm having fun. Nyah.

We can now return to St. Louis because they dropped the slogan "More Than Meets the Arch"

Carrie protests that I'm out of touch, and it's true — haven't actually talked to anyone other than my husband, my parents, and my coworkers in a few weeks. But at least I've had a fairly productive couple of days off work:

– I cooked. And it was good — or so I'm told. Specifically, I cooked Don Sundquist's Poppy Seed Chicken, a recipe handed down from Mom, who got it from a now-deceased florist.

– I bought shoes (blue), a handbag (black with red accents), 10.89 gallons of gas ($29), nail polish (Everlasting Rose), soap (Satsuma from The Body Shop), and instant mashed potatoes. Oh, and poppy seeds.

– I rebeaded an anklet while having a conversation with a neighbor named Regina. Amusing, because I'm not really the neighborly type. Ooh, but I do acknowledge that guy down the street who sits outside all the time waving to people driving by. O_o

So there you go. Accomplishments abound. Eh, but I guess Carrie's right: I've become rather ... withdrawn ... as of late. It comes and goes. I'm trying. –.–

My itch to travel has gotten the best of me, so now I'm off to St. Louis to visit Johnny, Rita, and Ian et ux. It's just an overnight thing, but Paul and I will be staying at this uber-cool, four-star hotel. (Thanks, Priceline!) We've stayed there before, and it's swag. Plans are to go to the StL Zoo or Six Flags or both. An impromptu cookout has been planned for Sunday afternoon. Gotta come up with a hostess gift pronto.

Catch: the "road" part of "road trip" has been delegated to me. Paul's working until 4 or 5 or 6 a.m., then it's time to hop on the road. Fortunately, it's a mere five-hour drive, and I'll have Coast to Coast on the iPod to keep me company. First up on the list: May 13's "Psychedelics, 2012 & Quetzalcoatl." (Show description: "...Daniel Pinchbeck, who discussed ideas from his latest book 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, as well as his personal experiences with psychedelic 'medicines.'")

I hate to leave Fred alone for 36 hours, but the trip will be worth it. Ian's got a new house. Cell biologist Rita speaks Paul's science-y language. And Johnny has a new job, working at a hidden bar behind a locked door and up a flight of stairs. Intriguing, no?

Server

[Edit: Fixed.]

Ferox, De, SGG, Grr, Monstee: De dropped me a note earlier saying he was having trouble accessing his site. All of your sites are down. I don't know why. Your sites are hosted by the same people who host Kate's Ink and Snotty Paws, so I don't know why you are experience technical difficulties but we aren't.

I've made sure everything's OK on our end (i.e. that our bandwidth usage is under control and that the domain names haven't yet expired). I'll contact the host later so they can poke around to see what's wrong. Until then, hang tight. I'll keep you updated.

Date night!

Tonight, Paul and I ate hot dogs and watched Over the Hedge. It was the best date I've had in a long time. ^_^

P.S. Link du jour: Pierced eyeglasses. Ouch.
P.P.S. Tuesday was Paul's birthday. Didn't want any of you guys to think I'd forgotten. O_o

Birthday and post-birthday shenanigans

I am never taking a half-day off work again. Never. I was so far behind when I came into work this morning that I spent all day stressing out more than normal. And that's a lot.

But I can take comfort in the fact it'll all be over soon. I had some vacation days to use up before the end of the month, so I'm taking Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off. Combined with Memorial Day Monday, I'll have a six-day weekend. Take that, stress. (Oh, and a temp will be filling in for me while I'm gone so I don't get reamed with work next Tuesday.)

I spent my birthday weekend doing absolutely nothing (save for a Paul-Kate birthday party with our families at Texas de Brazil). I intended to see Over the Hedge and The Da Vinci Code. I also intended to buy groceries and wash clothes. But, alas, I just lounged around feeling justified because it was my birthday (and the day after my birthday, and the day after the day after my birthday).

Paul and I played a lot of New Super Mario Bros. on our Nintendo DSes. There's this mini-game in which players blow up balloons and float Yoshi to a boat in the sky. (Farfetched? Never!) The mode of blowing up the balloons: the DS microphone. If you want a giggle at my expense and can drag your mind out of the gutter for 14 seconds, imagine two married twentysomethings holding a handheld game to their faces, blowing frantically into a microphone. Turns out I'm much faster at blowing than Paul, but he says it's not how fast you blow, it's whether you finish.

And that, my friends, is a motto we all can embrace.

Revelation

26 feels a lot like 25.

And that's my only deep thought right now. :)

TV, tapeworms and other random things

Paul and I got hooked on, like, three prime-time shows this season, which is three more than last season. Thank god for TiVo. So I've been catching up on my season finales:

• Law & Order was surprising, but in a cliched, this-happens-every-season kind of way. Paul and I had a lengthy discussion about how various female ADAs have been killed off. Except Serena wasn't killed off. She was a lesbian, and that's about all I remember from that season's finale.
  
• NCIS was disappointing all around. I hate stories in which the resolution is saved for the last five minutes and then, hey guys!, it's happily ever after. This wasn't happily ever after, but it reeked of "Let's wrap this up, guys," syndrome. Bah. (Tangent: I especially hate movies and TV shows that end with the screen going blank, then those little epilogues popping up: "John moved to California, became a successful investment banker, and had three kids." [...it goes blank...] "Mary followed her dream of going back to college and earned two degrees in animal husbandry." [...blank again...] "Tom received two life sentences and was shivved to death by another inmate. Detroit was never the same.")
• Amazing Race 9 was fantastic. I cheered. I yelled. I high-fived. The stupid frat boys got what they deserved. Yay for intelligeek hippies! ^_^

Now that the season's all wrapped up, I can get back to my video games. Paul and I picked up New Super Mario Brothers tonight, but I've got to pry it out of his hands before I can play it.

Oh! Archie McPhee is discontinuing their sale of Parasite Pals merchandise, so pick some up while you still have a chance. You know you've always wanted a Tickles the Tapeworm lunch box. If you don't know what Parasite Pals is, visit parasitepals.com and learn all about their Engrishy goodness: "Tickles the Tapeworm: Great friends we are to the extremity. Love me tapeworm!"

Okay, off to bed. Got a half-day off work tomorrow, which means I'm going to be cramming all the work into half the time ... which means I need some sleep. But, hey, getting a jump on the weekend is worth it.

The price on my head

Hear ye, hear ye: I am worth $1,606,696.

So sayeth HumanForSale.com, which takes a whole buncha otherwise-personal information and calculates how much you're sell for on the "open human market." Sheesh.

Before you whine about putting too much information on the Internet, let me assure you that you're not forced to answer any of the questions. And, in any case, nobody in cyberspace cares about your height or artistic ability unless you're trolling match.com for a HAWT INTARWEB DATE. Also, the NSA is already taping your phone calls. How's that for privacy, Mr. I-Think-I'm-So-Anonymous?

And now that that's out of the way, let's look at how I fared:

I got bonus dollars for being young, smart and female. (I'm young and I'm female, and I like to tell myself I'm relatively smart. It lulls me to sleep at night. Please don't go bursting any bubbles.)

But I did raise an eyebrow at other results. Apparently, working in publishing earns me no money. Neither does the fact that I'm not bald. Neither does my bra size. Bummer.

And I have to question the reasoning behind some categories. Why does my brown hair earn me $5,000? Why does shoe size (U.S. women's 10) deduct $10,000? And why, for the love of all things good and righteous, do I get $35,000 for not having a lot of body hair? I mean, it's good that I'm not Mr. Apeman, but is it really worth $35,000?

Hey, I'm just happy that somebody out there is putting a price on my sparkling personality. It used to be that people had to take me at my word that I'm Ms. Thang. Now I can point them to HumanForSale.com and prove that my wicked sense of humor and total household income put my self-worth at slightly less than a three-bedroom, one-bath home in The Hamptons with a "cozy living room" but no swimming pool.

And it makes me feel safe and secure knowing that if I ever get into dire straits, I can sell myself on eBay for a tidy sum that far exceeds my life insurance policy. I mean, hell, why kill me when I'm worth more alive??

I expect results from you guys. Don't disappoint.

WOO-HOO!!!

HE PASSED!!!!

As of 2:45 p.m., Paul is a late doctoral candidate. Yay for drinking water! Yay for disinfection byproducts! Yay for Paul!

An extremely short post because I spent too much time playing with SQL today and came home from work tired and frustrated

Paul presents his prospectus tomorrow. Send good luck wishes and happy thoughts.

Google was supposed to e-mail all the participants on May 15, and I haven't yet received a yea/nay from them.

I bought some cool beads over the weekend at BeadFest. Pics later.

Fred may or may not have a post-op hernia.

But, again ... and most importantly ... Paul presents his prospectus tomorrow. Updates at once.

A catch-up post because I finally have time to dish

Look at all the pretty pollen! My eyes are all swollen and puffy and it feels like somebody's sticking dull knives in my sinuses. I'm sneezing like hell...

... but at least the pollen looks pretty! ::grins::

Paul and Mike (his lab buddy) are staying overnight in Arkansas so they can give a presentation tomorrow. Can't discuss specifics here (obviously), but he had to confiscate the Vue to haul a 6-foot helium tank. So I get to drive his Taurus. Yippee. The bright side: I'm told it's driving better than it did $1,200 ago. Guess that's my consolation prize.

I asked Jeremy to stop by, but he's sick. Bummer, because I could've used the company.

But Fred's here, and she's loud — she's putting on a one-cat performance of Carmina Burana. Found out recently that she doesn't like to jump ... at all. Even when the jump is low — like the 2-foot-tall couch cushion — she really has to work up to it. She'll back up and make a running start, stop right before jumping, back up and do it all over again. After three or four tries, she'll make it onto the couch ... and it's all so she can sit in your lap or curl up next to your leg.

I've seen her miss jumps before. She fell trying to get onto the roof of my car, and I've seen her fall down a few stairs. I wonder if she has an inner ear problem or something. Dr. Hunt gave her a clean bill of health, but I don't think she was looking for specific problems. Fred gets her stitches out Saturday; perhaps I'll mention it to Dr. Hunt then.

It's actually kind of bittersweet, having Fred around. The cats I had as a kid, Boots and Prissy, are 16 years old now. They're deaf, they drool, and they've lived with my parents since I went to college, but they're still "my babies." They've been in my life since I was nine years old, for god's sake. Seeing their health worsen has brought me a lot of grief lately. Fred acts so much like Boots. ... Eh, I don't want to talk about it right now.

I haven't heard hide nor hair from Google yet about Google Quest. Some of the guys over at the SA forums said the participants will be notified on or before May 15. That's a long time to wait to find out if I got in before the bell. The last puzzle was released at 1 p.m. EDT, and I finished it at 1:03 EDT, so I hope I'm one of the first 10,000 to finish. I'd just like to know either way ... I'm not too good with that whole "patience" thing.

Oh, speaking of being impatient, I'm still waiting for Jeremy's comic book to come in the mail. When I completed the transaction, my online receipt said I wouldn't hear from the seller unless there was a problem or a delay. A month passed and I hadn't heard from her, so I dropped her an e-mail. I don't know which I feared more: having been scammed or having lost the book in the mail. Long story short, there was a bit of miscommunication (to say the least). We cleared it up and she shipped it out Tuesday. The whole debacle was pretty annoying, but my excitement overshadows that.

Well, it looks like Fred wants my undivided attention. First time in days that I've had a chance to blog, but she's attempting to lick each finger as it touches the keyboard. Glad to know she thinks I'm so dirty that she needs to give me an extensive bath. Hope she hasn't been cleaning her butt recently...

Google quest

Just an FYI that the final Da Vinci Code Google Quest puzzle will be release Wednesday. I've busted my butt to finish the first 23 puzzles, so wish me luck.

Is anyone else all caught up? Or did you give up early??

Pleasure reading: Big Orange

I painted Fred. Then I didn't have any art for this post and it looked really boring and text-y without art, so there you go. All dressed up.

I brought home my Chicago Manual of Style today. It lives in my car, and I do my best to consult it as little as possible. It's a great resource, but it can be a little unwieldy at times. It's like searching the Oxford English Dictionary for the answer to a crossword clue. ("An 11-letter word for 'In alphebetical order' starting with the letter A? Hmm ... We'll just start at the beginning of the OED and keep reading until we find it.")

The answer is abecedarian.

Anyway, I lugged in CMS from the car, dropped it on the couch and took my shoes off.

"Big Orange?" Paul asked. "What's the occasion?"

"I'm going to start e-mailing the editorial staff a Grammar Tip O' The Day," I replied. Truth be told, it's just as much for me as for them. I've been trying to brush up on some intricacies of the English language – AP Style can be so tempermental at times! – and I wanted to start keeping a Rolodex of those confusing things I need to beat into my skull. And I figured as long as I was teaching myself a rule a day, I might as well share it with them.

Today, I tried to solidify the distinctions between modal verbs: can vs. could, will vs. would, may vs. might, can vs. may, etc. Oy. Seems there's a lot of disagreement in the reference books about what's OK and what's not. It's one of those things I learned Way Back When that could use a bit of reinforcement.

I think I'm going to put those tip-of-the-day e-mails on hold for now.

I mean, it's not like CMS is the epitome of pleasure reading; within 15 minutes of getting it out of the car and cracking it open, I'd put it back down on the sofa and Fred had curled up next to it. And that's a damn shame, because I hadn't yet reached the section detailing because vs. since and that vs. which. (Yes, yes ... I know the difference.)

To think, this is my idea of fun. Sometimes I can be such a masochist. :-)

So ... tired ...

It's 4 a.m. and I am I so tired. Can't pull off these late nights like I did in college. I've reached that point of half-asleepness where everything becomes overly amusing. The Angry Beavers and CatDog are funny. Gah, my standards must be so low right now.

Fred came home from the vet today -- well, yesterday, I guess -- spayed, vaccinated, microchipped. She was pregnant (not fat or constipated, which were our first two guesses). Karl Marx sucks for getting my girlie pregnant. According to Cats for Dummies, the mating process begins when the boy cat bites the girl cat on the neck; the mating ends when the girl cat slashes up the boy cat with her claws. It is my sincere hope that Fred slashed the hell out of Karl Marx. He deserves it for propagating his kitty propaganda. So there.

Anyway, Fred's shaved and has stitches, and we were given two instructions: Don't let her make big vertical jumps and don't let her lick herself. Oh, um, okay. Sure. Easier said than done.

Paul and I have been taking turns staying with Fred to prevent her from licking and jumping. Jeremy says we're on KP Duty (Kat Patrol, he informed me). I've been on duty since 10:15 p.m. and I'm running out of things to keep me occupied. I've beat Tekken 5 on every character, watched too much TV, painted, and surfed the 'Net via my laptop.

There's not much left to do that won't wake up Paul or Fred. Maybe I'll defrost the freezer or learn to juggle knives.

Mario Bros. Comes to Life

I'm not a big fan of embedded video or YouTube, and I absolutely hate eBaumsWorld (jerk) ... but I had to make an exception to show off this masterpiece.

Now it's off to the vet's office, then to Free Comic Book Day events. Happy Saturday, you beautiful people, you! ^_^

Hello money ... goodbye money

New tires and alignment at Firestone: $650.
New starter, new vacuum hose, car computer tune-up at Ford: $600.
Spayed and vaccinated cat: at least $300.
Chance of going on vacation after today's spending spree: Priceless. (And by "priceless," I mean "absolutely none.")

Paul's car needed a bit of a tune-up today -- okay, I guess that's a bit of an understatement. Hopefully it's purring like a kitten now, because I'm still recovering from sticker shock. Gah.

This week has been so hellish, and I miss having time to write. Like now. There are so many local stories on which I'd like to comment: the boy who fell down the elevator shaft, the local news anchor charged with statutory rape, the special ed teacher arrested for carrying meth to school. ::sighs::

But until I get back to my usual babbling self, check out eyehook's COLORbox game. Paul said it requires too much thought, but once you get the hang of it, it's an addictive little strategy game. I scored over 50,000 last night. How'd you guys do?

What's a "vet"?

This is the blissfully ignorant face of one who doesn't know who a "vet"
is or why she's going to see one in 36 hours. We're trying to acclimate
her to The Great Indoors ... with hilarious results. Last night, she
broke out of her room. Broke out! ... She'd make a good cat burglar.

An update on Mean Teen Kitty Queen: Apparently, she's Derf's owner and
can't tell the difference between her cat and ours. Duh. She's plodded
by our house on her little scooter a couple of times without
acknowleding us or Fred. Her scrappy little dog ran in front of my car
last night and was almost flattened. Was I that irresponsible when I was
her age?

Plenty of non-cat things to say, but it's getting late and I'm tired of
typing on the SideKick. I need tips on converting my indoor-outdoor
stray into an indoor-only cat. Heard I should leave a radio on. ... You
guys have any other (or better?) ideas?
--katesink

Hypothesize...

Any thoughts about the driver of a car with this license plate?

BLUE4PI

Itching to see live music

Good: Fred's getting spayed and vaccinated this weekend, barring the small chance that she's already pregnant. Cross your fingers that she didn't get knocked up by Karl Marx, because I know I don't need any kitty-babies at my house.

Bad: Because Fred will need a post-spay babysitter, I will be missing the Cake concert Saturday. It's a little bit frustrating, because various responsibilities have kept me from three Cake concerts in the past year. It's kind of like the elusive Tori concert or Ani concert or Ben Folds concert I'll never get to see because I'm too busy. (Ben Folds lives a mere three hours away from here, and I still haven't seen him live.) ::frowns::

Related Good: The Over the Hedge movie soundtrack comes out soon, and it has five new Ben Folds songs, including a tamed-down version of "Rockin' the Suburbs" featuring William Shatner. (How do you tame down a song like that?)

Good: I'm set to see the premiere of the Billy Joel concerto based on Fantasies and Delusions at the Eastern Music Festival June 24 in Greensboro, N.C. Tickets just went on sale, so I need to snag a couple while good seats are still available.

Bad: Paul can't go. But Paul told me to snag Jeremy to come along instead, and Jeremy said he'd take a day or two off from work so we can go. (It's a 10.5-hour drive, so I don't want to cram it into one incredibly long day.) The bonus is that Jeremy's a Billy Joel fan, too, so he'll probably enjoy it more than Paul would anyway.


And in other news... Paul taught me how to use the lawn edger yesterday, but didn't warn me that I'd be so darn sore. Also, I discovered I'm really really sucky at edging — I can't draw a straight line to save my life. God forbid I ever be asked to take that walk-the-line sobriety test...