Douglas Adams - 61

Today Douglas Adams would have been 61.  He passed away on my birthday (May 11) in 2001.  I will always remember the day I found out.  It was some time past May 11 and I was at a Creeper Lagoon show with Amanda S.  We were talking to one of the musicians from Creeper and having a coherent conversation.  It seemed to me as if out of nowhere this guy spouts out, "Douglas Adams in dead"!  Obviously something spurred this thought but I was too shocked with his comment to think of anything other than finding out the truth.  That evening I verified the sad truth.  Douglas Adams was dead.  I can never listen to Creeper without thinking of one of my favorite authors.  Maybe that's not a bad thing.  (Google honored D.A. with a Doodle today).

I find it fitting that today my mantra is, "Don't Panic".  I have a couple of deadlines in the next 24 hours so I will repeat this to myself until I'm done.  But as always, we're never really done at the deadline, so I part with this quote, a dear Douglas Adams favorite...

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Just Some Stuff to Say Real Quick

I've been sitting here at my computer since quarter 'til 5am doing a hodge podge of Internetty things (browsing, social mediaing, paying bills, etc.) and am finally tired enough I might just fall asleep at the computer! Hopefully I make it to a comfy location before my body decides to shut down.

Anyway, today is 10/10/10 and I felt it was only appropriate to point that out (because no one else will today)! It's a busy day for a lot of people. Emily, Andy, and Tim are running in the Chicago Marathon today; Amanda is patiently "watching" the race. Today would have been my dad's 56th birthday. There are a whole horde of parties happening today for a variety of reasons. That's just to name a few things that are going on this fine October day.

I myself will be going to a party, blogging, shopping, writing out Thank You cards, addressing invitations to Eva's shower, and hopefully getting together with a friend for dinner who surprised me by coming home for my shower before she has to head back!

With that said, I'm off to hopefully catch at least an hour of sleep. I hope to blog later over at Baby-Blog about the amazing baby shower I had yesterday. As a baby-blog reminder, I need to make a post about all of the anxiety dreams I had been having (and some still to continue I'm sure); the shower of course with some highlights that include many a sheepy things and Chris' Infant Relief drops.

A few things to specific peoples

To Seth, I am sorry I didn't make it out to your birthday party, I didn't have it in me. To all that attended my shower, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, I honestly have been in tears worrying about how to work in getting items for the baby (with considerations to both time and money). You not only made it fun, but more helpful than you will ever know. To DMA and Marc, thank you for giving Chris work this week. You not only helped with our financial situation, but his mood/stress as well. Rachel, thank you for traveling all the way here, it was a wonderful surprise. To those ladies that helped plan and do stuff at my shower, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! It seems to me that everyone had a great time first of all, and secondly, I think everyone was very happy with the food and treats. I don't know what I would do if I didn't know such amazing girls like Eva, Becky, Amanda, Marie, and Brandy who would be willing to take time out of their own lives to help me. It takes a lot of stress off of me, and while you may think you know how much you've helped me, you will never know how much you've helped my sanity (which as you know is questionable at best). To Mike, congrats bud, 6 months is amazing, I tear up just thinking about it! To Aunt Pat and Aunt JoAnne hang in there ladies, your babies will be okay, we've got to tell ourselves that.

Save The Elephants

I sign petitions and then wonder if they help. For example, a world can ban whaling, but Japan will whale anyway. Five million people could sign a petition, but does it help? If a world won't stop Japan, why do we believe that 5 million signatures would mean anything more or less to them? While I use Japan as my example, the thought applies to global parameters.

Does anyone know?

Anyway, I saw this post on Twitter from @ibificus. It made me think of two friends in particular (Kelly P.-F. and Amanda S.). I care too, so I signed. I want to pass this along. Browse the site, I encourage you to sign petitions you see relevant. If you find out how much help (or how little), let me know!

SAVE THE ELEPHANTS, a petition to help prevent the breaking of the worldwide ban on ivory trading.

I Spare Your Fingers of My Vellum Wrath

It's funny that anyone would beg to avoid my wrath! It is especially funny to me that anyone would think I was an imposing threat of any kind! Well, there's always a first!

Two friends go on vacation. As vacations go, there's some bickering along the way. [You know what I'm talking about!]. Said friends come back from vacation choosing to disagree, but maintaining a mended friendship. Knowing that one of the friends would tell me all about the vacation (including the bickering), the other friend asks that when speaking to me, to ask that I spare him my wrath that is from being an overprotective friend. [Yea, that sounded confusing, sorry]. He didn't want me to hunt him down and slice the insides of his fingers with vellum. [You know that webby part where the fingers join, yea, that hurts when paper cut with vellum, so I use it as a threat]. So, Friend, You know who you are, I spare you this time, only because I now know after stories of this trip, that you truly are married to my dear friend!

In other subjects, I must send may thanks to my friend Becky for her donation! Thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks! I really appreciate it and as you know, there was no need to do so; which makes it mean so much more that you actually did make a donation! Next time you fund raise, call me first!!

A 2 Mile 5K Run

Today I ran what should have been my second 5k. Turns out we only ran 2 miles. No one knew the actual route we were supposed to be taking and so we all aimlessly followed the runners before us taking the wrong path, thus not actually running the full 5 kilometers we were predestined to go!

You might be wondering why I would wake up early on a Sunday to go out and run in 20°F weather (or -6.7°C for those using SI units). It was for a cause, the Arthritis Foundation. It wasn't my idea, in fact, I would never encourage those with arthritis to go out into cold weather and run. Both running and the cold irritates arthritic joints; for this I can speak first hand as both of my knees have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Again though, I agreed to run with a friend who in the end was unable to make it for very understandable reasons. I did have two people with me though, my teammates Andy and Amanda. Andy was top runner in his age bracket; all three of us won raffle prizes as well. So despite the route error, it was all in all, a decent morning!

Proposed and Actual Routes Taken

I should at least have one more picture to come (of me and my crew). Oh, and for the record, I was under 23 minutes for the 2 miles I ran...so getting better I dare say!

PostScript ... My Team including Amanda Sutter, Steph Spann, and Andy Sutter (shown with all of our prizes)

NaBloPoMo Day Five Post Five - All About Amanda

Short blog for a short girl! :)

No real story today as I have tons to do and I leave for California at noon. I'm excited to get away from reality for a bit; not so excited that it's for a meeting, and even less excited that I have to go while my mom is having surgery. She says it's okay. I have to trust her instinct on this one. Drew [aka Baby Brother] is supposed to be taking care of her, but I worry that she'll try to do too much. She always does too much!

Anyway, scmanyway; I don't have a real story but an amusing quote...

I was discussing with Amanda my method of choosing to go or not go to Cali., which was basically asking everyone I knew and even everyone I didn't know what I should do...and majority vote was to go. Amanda had also suggested that I go and so her response was, "at least I'm not alone in the majortiy". She caught herself right away. Majority, no one is alone!

Word...
lactard: A lactose-intolerant person.
[Speaking of Amanda....*snickering*, she's a lactard!]

First 5k!

I ran my first 5k today. I am really proud of myself because I only ended up walking at most an 1/8th of a mile (5k is about 3.15 miles). What is more impressive is that I ran it with Riley and Bella. Riley (who actually ran with Amanda) would pull this off without a doubt, he's agile! But Bella with her short nose and legs, I wasn't too sure. When we run our normal 2 miles, she's pulling me back and randomly sitting when she feels like, MID run! I am so proud of her!

We ran it in 37m42s. I know it doesn't SOUND impressive, but for me, it is! I run a 15 minute mile, which is slow. So I totally rocked this time!

Now, off to devour leftovers. NOM NOM NOM!

Quotes, Stories, and Other Things

Some quotes and stories, perhaps for your amusement!

• "Well, if you take that away, it's gone"-nameless engineer
  [Really?]

• Person 1: "...decontam?"
  Person 2: "Deacon Dam? What's this?"
  Person 1: "No no, DEE-CON-TAM..."
  Person 1: "Hmm, Deacon Dam, I don't know where this is."

• One fine summer day, Eva and I ate lunch at a place called Johnny Rocket's [or something of the sort], where they have really cool jukeboxes sitting on every table. Place a nickel in and choose a lovely 50's-60's genre tune with lunch!
  
  As it always goes with the two of us together, a small child was drawn to our power. [It happens often that children are drawn to staring at us, creeping over seats or under tables to look closer, have a chat, or even steal some food. We've grown accustomed to this behavior, so this incident here was no big deal]. A small boy, maybe 3-4 years old decided he wanted to play music. Of all the tables in the diner, empty or not, the boy chose to venture towards us with his nickel. He braced himself against our table doing a slight heaving motion to reach the box. He was literally hovering over our food and drinks struggling with all his might to get to play a song. His mother finally notices and gathers him up with much effort. He was determined to play a song, and not on any jukebox, our jukebox! I do not recall if he ever got to play a tune!

• Eva and I were eating dinner at a lovely place called Noodles & Co. one fine afternoon before catching the English Beat show. As we are minding our own business having a conversation Eva notices a small child creeping ever closer to us. We both began doing the side glances by the time he was sitting next to us staring. I turned to say hello to find the boy, Damien, very chatty. It didn't take any time to jump onto the "oddity" boat by asking me, "why is your head so small?", to which I could only laugh and cry a little!

• "..For the rest of us who generally live vicariously through the interactions of our 72 dpi avatars..." -@FrankieP

• "Gramma was hot....but that baby...uh, well not so much" -Amanda

• ...the past few years I had to tone down because of sexual harassment issues, but I used to be the kind of guy that would flirt with every female I worked with except for one. One day she called me on it and said that she'd use the excuse 'not my type' except usually 'not my type' means I think the husband looks like the kind of guy that would shoot a naked guy in the back if he saw him running away..." -anon

• "Yesterday we were talking about MPR calculations for a person taking a drug therapy. Basically its to measure a person’s adherence to their medication. Well the calculation is a rolling calc and is constantly moving.
  
  So we were talking about the Depression Medication Adherence and how the calculation is always moving. So Bobby is trying to explain how “the window for it is always moving”; Pete looks at me and says “that’s so they can’t jump out of it!”...-anon
  

• In reference to my loading diagram plans..."your work is pretty, but it tells me absolutely nothing" -Jim [thanks buddy, gave me a good laugh]

• A doodle...

--------
word...
Dirty Third: A synonym for the Dirty South; derived from the terms "Dirty South" and "Third Coast".

Maker, Day 2

Dear Maker,

Hi, it's me again. Are you mad at me? I kind of feel like you are mad at me. It's okay if you are, I just want to know. Some of us are, well you know, not omniscient!



The thing is, I need to mentally prepare myself for things like your anger or your punishments. I've heard the stories of said anger. I had sort of hoped the Apocalypse would come yesterday. In fact, I am sure there were a few of us waiting, but I don't belong to that cult so I don't really know (I didn't like their choice of shoes). I sort of have my own cult, I'm the only member (I don't have creepy enough eyes to get followers). Anyway, off topic as usual! Back to my lack of Apocalypse, it's okay, I get it, there were some others asking for a non-Apocalyptic day. We just can't please everyone can we? [me now winking at God with mouth half opened as any proper wink should be performed]

I should also take this opportunity to say that there are people here (I'm sure you know, being omniscient and all) that are improperly using what you gave them (i.e., brains, or wait, did you forget some people when handing out brains?). I find it really annoying. For example, Winkers. These are wrong, I disapprove. What can you about this?

I realize that there are more important things happening in the world for which I should focus, but my altruism just isn't here today; and you know I'm altruistic about doing the right things! Please forgive me.

Anyway, I have to get back to working on the most impossible building. [me now having tears welling up in eyes while my chest tightens]

Skeptically Your Apostate,
Me


Word...
Hasselhoffing: The act of changing a colleague's desktop wallpaper to display the manly physique of David Hasselhoff. [Ed. Note: I expect someone I know to do this to someone they work with (pics required) for my amusement. I kind of think Ray would be a fun target, but that's just because he can take a joke]

...A Continuation...

...to finish where I left off yesterday, poor Dave and Eric are trying to figure out who would change the locks while they were both away and also clean the backyard. Come to find out, there was a house down the street that had been foreclosed. The bank sent someone out to change the locks on the house and clean the debris from the backyard. Mistakenly, they got the wrong house. I find that stories like these only happen to people I know some how.

SO, what is your crazy story??!!??

Also, Kelly's mom, the lovely Ms. Tina Fisher, is totally up on her evil paybacks by knowing what an upper-decker happens to be. So for those of you that do not know, an upper-decker is when someone takes the lid off the tank of the toilet, does their business (a nasty number two), and puts the lid back! It's weird and evil!

Today was a long rough day of meetings that resulted in yet more bad note taking!



Favor time, I have a social media acquaintance, that for the purpose of this blog I am claiming as a friend, who has a poll on his site. It's a simple single question that I hope you will take the 30 seconds to go answer. It does me a favor and it does him a favor, and he is good people! So, go here, and thank you! If you have already done so, thank you so very much for being awesome!

Now, lastly I want to say thank you to Steph(aka Ironstef), Amanda, Mike C., Sharline, and Tina F. It is very rewarding when people comment on things I have written. It means you read! So thanks for checking my stuff out, I check your stuff out too! [Ed. Note, that sounds wrong...]

I'll have to give you today's word tomorrow!

I'd Like Upper Decker for $1011, Alex

WOW, stressful day that has thus far included the following (please note it's only noon as I write this):

-A legal issue I tried to help a friend with (can't discuss because if I did, there would be an e-trail)
-A meeting where we (the structural engineers) had to piss a bunch of people off, maybe not so much pissed off, but we made them very unhappy!
-Poor Meeting Notes:

-FedEx pissed me off, yet again!
-I snapped at a coworker!
-I had an argument about "just because you do it that way doesn't mean the way I do it is wrong"!
-More coordination issues between the architectural and structural modeling in my project.
-The highlight though, a $1011 mobile phone bill! It's being taken care of, and no, I don't owe that much. But fuck, try waking up and starting your day with that!

It's a good thing that I have the following fun things to talk about:

-I made up a new word... Brittanyized: to not wear panties while wearing a skirt.
-I have become a lifer with AT&T thanks to my favorite new customer service agent Carlos Fuentes. I still need to pen a letter to confirm his awesomeness with AT&T!
-I have re-established that I can be useful to people with legal quandaries, despite my callous nature!
-I'm drinking new types of tea today, fun!
-I found out what an "upper-decker" is...
-Best story I've heard in a while and it goes like this...

Two renters, Eric and Dave go home one night. They arrive to find that someone has changed the locks. How odd they think. They call the homeowner who has no idea what they are talking about. They call anyone they can think of that would play a mean joke on them, but to no avail. During this time they find out that someone has also now cleaned the back yard. It's a curious thought, who comes over to change your locks and clean your back yard? Want to know the rest? Tune in tomorrow!

Words...
quarter to eight: A BMW 745i Sedan.
overflow mode: Used to describe the actions of a short-tempered female who always seems to be angry. Related to mensturation and PMS.

Tad Stressful

So today was a tad stressful for me, some details I will spare you. The whole idea of today though, was that I had loads to do, no real time to get it done, as well as waiting for a call, missing that call, but then catching that call later to get not great news, but much better than expected. Now, I need to get going, but I have a tip for you, a word for you, and positive note!

To reduce anxiety, keep a journal to vent. At the end of every entry, write something positive!

My positive note is that someone [Amanda] got me socks. I needed that! Thanks! Socks are one of those little things that get me by. Like music. Ah, Rancid.

Word...
break your crayons: An expression used when something makes you very upset or sad, or ruins your whole day.

Interventions

I will let you be the judge. You know I hate discussing politics or anything of any seriousness because I either have extremely STRONG opinions, things can/will get ugly; -OR- I have no strong opinion and prefer to ride the fence until I can gain a first hand understanding. In this case, not likely I'll be gaining a first hand experience, but I do have strong opinions on the topic(s) ... so, as I said, You can be The Judge.

The following paragraph was mentioned in an article brought to my attention by @ibificus (via Twitter). [ed note: I'm not being friends with the person (I swear), just following his recommended blogs (yea, I guess that's like stalking his library register, but, not really (I swear))]

Missionaries like Shari believe that sex workers are always victims, that nobody –and certainly not a decent woman, can possibly choose to sell sex willingly and that if offered with the possibility to flip burgers in a Mc Donald they would. But would they? There is little evidence that this is the case, mostly because there are not that many Mc Donald in Cambodia. Their solution? Confining women to traditional craftwork, or offering them goats a tad colonialist, demeaning and patronising but reassuringly decent.

Now, go read the article yourself (click here), and as I said, go be your own judge. Then if you feel like arguing (or not arguing) with me (or really want to know my opinion) I might share it. Curious to see what others think!

Word...
check your vitals: To check your e-mail, myspace, facebook, blog, and/or any daily essential Web sites.

[ed. note: I check my vitals so often, they should be embedded in my head to save time ... Amanda, stop shaking your head at me!]

I Feel Like Crap

I feel like crap today because I'm sick. Not pretend sick either, I've got the high fever, sore throat, achy body, pounding head, etc.

I shouldn't be at work, but I had to finish a few things up, so I came in today.

Good news is that on my way in, I ran into Amanda at Metrolink (or rather she stalked me to the Metrolink, which was lovely). Plus I'm leaving early anyway, so the day can't be all bad, right?

Thank you to those people that responded yesterday to tell me how they were doing! It's hard to keep up with people, so by you reading, and commenting, I got to see that everyone is surviving. Lots of ups and downs these days, the only thing we can do is keep our chins up! [Thanks to Becky J., Holly, Nicole, Mike P., Kelly, Amanda, Jen S.]

Since I'm not feeling well, I'm done writing for the day.

Word...
roll deep: Going somewhere with a large amount of people. Also "roll thick".
In Use: We rollin' twenty deep in da club.

Comics & Quotes

Just wanted to share stuff that made/makes me laugh . . . I love the people I know for it is they who keep me laughing!

This Thoughtful Comic

Some Quotes:

DAM SAFETY-
Crystal: What do you teach in the dam safety class?
Amanda: Well . . .
Crystal: Oh wait, "If it breaks, hold your breath"!

ON BEING MUGGED-
...a conversation ensues about being mugged for diamond earrings for which my response is, "just shoot me you jerkwad and you can pull the earrings out yourself after I fall over dead"! Later, when saying bye to Amanda, I told her that if I was found dead in Dublin/London/Glasgow, she would then know I said a similar phrase...

Amanda: Steph, they don't have guns there
Steph: Oh, right, okay, then I'll say ... uhm ... well ...
Amanda: Bludgeon Steph, the word is bludgeon, that's what they do there
Steph: I love it! "Go on jerkwad bludgeon me to death"!

Tomorrow I Take Off

I'm very excited, as today is my last full day of this week. Tomorrow I take off to Dublin/London/Glasgow. I just checked the weather and it should be in the 70's with rain. I should plan to pack an extra set of pants and maybe less shorts.

Tomorrow will be hectic. I am having Chris drop me off at a Metrolink station so I can take Metro downtown to work for a few hours. I think sometime around 10 or 11 I'll leave work to Metro to the airport. My flight isn't until 3, but with the President coming to St. Louis for the All-Star game, I have to be prepared for hassles at the airport. Metrolink to the airport is about 45-50 minutes from downtown, so if I leave at 10, I should get there around 11, and I'll just eat lunch inside security and have about 3 hours to kill. I'd better pack another book!

It has just occured to me that I used the words President and kill in the same blog! Egads! What do you think will happen?

So just a quick review of my weekend and then I'm off to work as much as I can possibly stand today!

Saturday, Amanda and I went for a bike ride, partly for the ride, partly for the geocaching experience. We looked but found no geocach. We also rode in the rain, which was slick, but fun.

Sunday, Eva and I went for a hike up at Pere Marquette State Park. We are getting Eva prepared for her trip to the Smokies. While there, we looked for a geocach, and surprisingly enough found it. Lucky for me it had a Travel Bug so I get to take that with me to the UK to deposit in a different geocach! I am very excited about this!



Words-
ungood: Surfer term for "bad". Also used in George Orwell's bovel 1984.
drunk catcher: An obstacle found in one's path that, while drunk, provides, an incredible challenge to avoid. This includes cracks in the sidewalk, low-hanging tree branches, abnormal curbs, and members of the opposite sex who are of questionable attractiveness. Generally these are ranked by class, or degree of difficulty: class 1 being the lowest and class 5 being the highest.

In Use: The captain totally tweaked his ankle last night on a class 5 drunk catcher.

My Itinerary

For those of you that choose to keep track of me, like Amanda, Holly, and Drew (for mom) . . . here is my itinerary for next week. (This is also my back up copy).

[For reference, STL-St. Louis, ATL-Atlanta, DUB-Dublin, LHR-London Heathrow, GLA-Glasgow, all US flights are Delta booked through Northwest]

DUBLIN
JULY 14 Flight DL1723 STL-ATL 15:15; arrive 17:57
JULY 14 Flight DL0176 ATL-DUB 20:55; arrive 10:00 (+ 1 day)
Hotel Jurys Inn Parnell Street (353 (0)1 878 4900) [In-15th, Out-16th]

LONDON
JULY 16 Flight BD124 DUB-LHR 11:40; arrive 13:00 (44 (0)13 3264 8181) [REF#32L4ZX, bmi]
Hotel Euston Square Hotel (44 (0)20 7388 0099) [In-16th, Out-18th]

GLASGOW
JULY 18 Flight BA1492 LHR-GLA 17:35; arrive 19:00 [REF#32FWHT, British Airways]
Hotel Victorian House Hotel (0141 332 0129) [In-18th, Out-20th]

DUBLIN
JULY 20 Flight AL225 GLA-DUB 10:55; arrive 11:50 [REF#25FJ2N, Aer Lingus]
Hotel Jurys Inn Parnell Street (353 (0)1 878 4900) [In-20th, Out-21st]

HOME
JULY 21 Flight DL0177 DUB-ATL 11:50; arrive 15:45
JULY 21 Flight DL0909 ATL-STL 17:35; arrive 18:20

Anyone wanting to drop me off and/or pick me up at the airport or a Metrolink station may volunteer! ha, like how I threw that in there!

Twisted Clarifications and Additions

I wanted to step back to my Twisted Traits blog to add another trait, and to clarify one that apparently has people believing I am a morbid person who likes to hang out in coffins.

ADDITIONAL TWISTED TRAIT
-Your idea about food pantries having can throwing donations. -Amanda

CLARIFICATIONS FOR TWISTED TRAITS
-The can throwing thing:

This is one of those instances where knowing me helps make sense of the oddities you might read about me. I've learned to accept my idiosyncratic self as is and to try and make do with the tools I've been given. One of those idiosyncratic tools is the art of throwing heavy objects to release frustration. We all know someone who does, or wants to do this. I like to call these people the "stompers". You know who I'm talking about; your friend or family member that doesn't get his or her way and stomps wildly in a tantrum! Had they a heavy object to throw, they could very well be aiming at your head!

So, I have a brilliant [or so I think] idea! A food pantry could set up a "throwing booth" where "stompers" such as myself could come, pay a dollar, bring a can, and hurl it as hard as possible at some cushioned backdrop! It serves three very valid purposes! One is the obvious release of frustration by said "stomper". Two is the donation of canned goods. Three, the food pantry also gets a monetary donation. So, tell me how this is a bad idea?

-The coffin thing:

I do not lay down every night and pretend I'm hanging out in a coffin.

Sometimes when I lay down at night smitten with an inane bout of insomnia, I go through thousands of thoughts. And when I lay just right with my hands folded this way or that, I start to think that I must look like I'm laying in a coffin, which leads to thinking about dead bodies and what it might feel like to be in the coffin with that frilly white pillow puffed up around my decaying corpse painted and modeled just so for everyone to see, and stuck that way for eternity. When I say "I like to lay in bed and position myself in various "coffin positions" to see what would seem a best way to rest forever"; I don't mean to make it sound like I have the time of my life and that I would even do this often, because that is not the case; but in terms of major bouts of insomnia, it is just one of those odd and perhaps twisted things that I do. I also honestly believe everyone does this, or has done this at least once in his or her life (especially children after first seeing a loved one in a coffin). If not, you will now!

Sorry So Bland...

A long weekend down but much more to come within the next two weeks!

I'll try to quickly recap so not to bore you with details you may or may not already know.

Friday the Third I had the day off work, where I was able to get some stuff done for a variety of things. I can barely even recall what I did on the Third, but I did invite an acquaintance to meet me on my adventures next week, but then had to recant my offer. That's a story for another day. I also went to breakfast with friends and had this whole awkward ordeal paying for my meal (the things honesty will get you); but that's also a story for another time.

Saturday the Fourth, some plans got canceled and some impromptu plans came into play. I went over to Kelly S.'s house for a small get together where I got to meet the other Stephanie (Ironstef) and others. Kelly made Crack Corn (popcorn with truffle salt that was like crack, so addictive you had to keep diving the hand into the bowl for more, we looked like vultures) and a really good carrot dip that almost tasted like a bean dip. Oh and I bought some beer from the Ska Brewing Company to take with me, and it was awesomeness in a bottle! Following that brief adventure, I went to Jen's over in St. Chuck for fireworks (viewable from the parking lot adjacent to her house). It was sticky, wet, muddy, smelly, and fun. We couldn't really see the fireworks too well (weather and all), and we got soaked (so I rode home in my under clothes). But it was great to see my friends, and to hear Tim and the anarchist jam together on the guitar and banjo! That was very cool! I even had a dream about it that night, watching them play together. They were doing tricks with the instruments while still playing!

Sunday the Fifth was a big let down for me and others. Well not a total let down I suppose, Chris removed the existing window from the master bath and replaced it with the extremely nice window we purchased, what seems like eons ago. I, however, worked on getting some much needed things done. I did manage to finish ALL the laundry that had piled up, I was able to at least book the remainder of my flights for my trip next week, I got some much needed shopping done, and I worked some on the invitations that have an end of July deadline for me (and really not a lot of time to do them). I still however have a list of things to be done. No matter how much I could do, it didn't seem I could get anything marked off the list. What I find most disappointing is that I had three different sets of invitations to something on Sunday. I had to decline all three. I at least heralded myself on the fact that if I said no to one, I said no to them all; which is exactly what I needed to do. I guess I feel most bothered by my sister's party for her 18 year old son. 18 years old is a big age, legally speaking that is. It was even a surprise party, luau themed. I just couldn't get it in there with ever thing else.

So now here we are, Monday the Sixth, things moving along smoothly so far. I can think of many things to talk about, like Amanda with Buddy Holly glasses; Clint and the Austin police; my itinerary for next week; my desire to be a complete vegetarian; my appointment with a personal trainer (only 3 sessions, not like a real PT); my annoyance with people I know that have either really ticked me off or have hurt my feelings in some way recently; my annoyance with iPods and Zunes; my complete and total lack of proper social skills (which I seem to lack and am sometimes told that I lack); and well, really I could go on for a while. I will return later to try and make some clarifications to a few things!

I won't go on now though, as I have a meeting at 9 am. So alas, I leave you be with the words of the weekend and today...

roffle: To roll on the floor laughing. From the Internet chat acronym, ROFL (roll on floor laughing).

BOBFOC: Body Off Baywatch, Face Off Crimewatch. A person who possesses a killer body but has a face that only a mother could love.

put in print: To kill. To put someone in the obituaries.

My Twisted Traits

As you may know, I entered a contest where the only question was, "What is your most twisted trait?". I started out asking my closest friends and family to define that trait for me. I just needed an idea other than the first one that came to my own mind. I later decided to open the question to Facebook and Twitter strangers. I find it amazing what the people that did answer had to say. Below I have compiled a list of these traits that had to vie for the trait which I chose to submit!

TWISTED TRAITS
-That you looooooovvvvvvveeeeeeee pink sheep -Crystal
-Disliking nice people -Amanda
-I’m thinking that the fact that you’re an atheist who occasionally prays is pretty twisted -Christine
-And that you’re seriously prepared for the apocalypse is slightly twisted too - Christine
-Your obsession with sheep definitely borderlines twisted -Eva
-The fact that you have a traveling sheep (no help from me on that) is twisted -Eva
-The fact that you dress [the traveling sheep] up (not that he came with a tie) makes you even more twisted -Eva
-We’ll call each other at the same time and finish sentences (sharing a brain) that’s twisted -Eva
-I'd say it would probably be the way you can criticize and make a person feel bad all in the same sentence! Kind of like Mrs. Aleman! -Drew
-You are an OS [os is what exactly?] -Mike C.


FIRST REACTIONS TO QUESTIONS
-We only get to pick one? -Christine
-It might take me a while to break out the list. -Chris
-Do we only get to pick one? -Will
-Now do you mean twisted as wierd or twisted as you know, f'ed up kinda twisted? -Drew


THINGS I THOUGHT OF ON MY OWN
-I'm twisted because my dream job is to herd sheep! [first thought]
-I like to lay in bed and position myself in various "coffin positions" to see what would seem a best way to rest forever
-When I die, I want to be cremated and my ashes placed in a concrete masonry unit
-Sometimes when I can't sleep, I like to say the 50 US states in alphabetical order, some times I like to count how many of them have double vowels, an "l", etc. just to mix it up

THE TRAIT I CLAIMED
-I'm twisted because I don't trust nice people (eventually you will be chained to their basement wall, among other theories)


Word-
a and b the c of d: Above and Beyond the Call of Duty. Very good.