Lazy ass update post about memorial day weekend.

Snoozer of a day today folks. I've spent roughly 5 hours of my day watching the blue windows status bar creep onward, bringing me closer to nirvana one little blue rectangle at a time.

I had high hopes for this day, thinking "ooh, setting up virtual machines on an external spindle. this should be fun" but I was wrong. It was horribly tedious amounts of grunt work and no installs in the end! I hope tomorrow is more satisfying than today.

The first thing I did this morning was get stuck in an endless setup loop, which underlined my special gift of causing STRANGE software problems. This ability to break anything anytime is partially why I'm so good at my job, but when I'm trying to get stuff done, it can be a real pain.

Well I made it through that trial and am now setting up all drives to be configured tomorrow so I thought would catch up on blogging while the status bar creeps. Here's a little summary in pictures.

Saturday started with a ridiculously victorius trip to the thrift store for super saturday when everything is half price, and then in the evening I went to the Cat's Eye pub (again, yes I love it!) and saw this band. Another little gem, they were very lively and I was even moved to dance a little SOBER which is rare for those who know me.

Sunday was a planned hike with the climbing girls, and started out with Kitty being extra super special- more so than usual. He was playing naval commander or something from the sink

Here's ding dong hanging out in the bathroom sink for reasons unknown to me. Kitty is his own special kind of special. To put it mildly.

Then the girls picked me up and we headed west to the woods. Our rough plan was a 6-8 mile hike of decent difficulty. We were all basically looking to end the day tired. The trails were blaed excellently at first and we made it 3 miles before discovering the route we wanted to take was closed. We regrouped and decided to wing it, that we would keep hiking until we hit a junction point then check on the map and decide where to go next. This plan went ok until the blazes ended. Could get a little weird, but it still looked decidedly trail-y in spots so we felt safe continuing. We went down a really steep embankment, which according to our map was a "shortcut" pass between two trails. Shortcut my ass! We get down this ridiculous hill, which we all took turns sliding and falling down and hit this spot in the woods where the trail ceases to look "traily". Apparently they have a deer problem and the deer have eaten all of the undergrowth. Result? IT IS ALL SMOOTH AND FLAT. hahahaaaaaaa. You know where this is going.

We decide that 1) we are not walking back up hill. Turning around is for pussies and besides it was treacherous and looked hard. and 2) we know we need to get to the road and the river and we can hear them, so we will just continue on downhill and orient when we get there. Which we did, and when we finally found the trail again for some reason they asked me what I thought we should do, so I said "go left" because it looked leftish on the map (even though I didnt know where we were) and also, my brother told me once "when in doubt go left" so I did. We walk roughly 1 mile and Christiane and I come upon a sign which indicates the ranger station we think we are looking for is 1.1 miles back in the opposite direction. Now, she and I found this absolutely hysterical. We had plenty of food, water and daylight left so what's to be concerned about. Katie however did not see the humor. She's not much of a hiker and didn't (IMHO) eat enough so she was kind of grouchy and getting tired, but she was a trooper so we did an about face and headed back in the other direction, stopping for a photo op along the way.

Here is a pic of Catherine, Katie and myself. This picture is particularly funny to me because Katie looks so happy. Within 30 min she would be pitching a fit and threatening to defect from us in the woods.

Despite our faces, we are all actually happy to be in the woods. We would remain this way throughout the trip.

So after the photo op, we kept going and pushed on another mile to the ranger station, only apparently there is more than one in the park, because we were in the *wrong* place. Again ensues raucous laughter by C and I, and Catherine is just sort of neutral and Katie is not neutral and not laughing. She was hurting by this time and needed a way out. I thought she was going to hitchike as we were on a road by this time and the options for getting back to the car were walk 1.5 miles down the road and hike 2.5 miles back or hike 5 miles back. I hate road walking, but frankly she was getting scary and I have been where she is and so we decided to risk it and cruise up the road and get back on track (or trail if you prefer). 1 mile cruise up the road, easy 2.4 back to the car and call it a day. Overall we were at about 10-11 miles for the day, which was about what I was looking for. The car ride home was quiet, we were some tired bitches! I got home, had a beer (we had talked about beer and cheese all day in the woods) and showered up, thinking I would pass out but I couldn't. I was just that kind of subdued tired where I can't sleep but don't want to do anything so I went visiting to a friend's house, where he fed me leftover quiche (I made a quiche saturday! and it was good!) and made a strawberry rhubarb pie, which I had never had before. It was delicious, and a new notch in my "exotic cuisine" belt. I am getting to be quite worldly.

Monday was fantastic, and lazy. Drove around looking for a parade and didnt find any so I took books, food, blanket and chairs to a park nearby and spent the day lolling about. and good thing too, since I would spend Tuesday on the road and Weds being aggravated by Microcrap! I think had I not filled up my reservoir of calm and chill on Monday I might have lost it.

Shangri-la in baltimore. I spent roughly 9 hours under this tree with good company and a book. No better way to spend a sunny day I think.

The moon over the park as we were leaving at the absolute last minute before they close the gates. I think I am in love with the moon. Platonically of course.

Big Ern, bulls and fat boys

Did you ever have one of those days where random things just appear repeatedly (or twice but it's still so random it makes you think) and you wonder "what does it mean?" I had one of those yesterday.

First, I fell a little bit more in love with Ernest "hey did you all know I was hot in my youth" Hemingway. I was kicking back in the yard after a most hellacious day of work (not spent as NSI, but I was remote desktopped into their system so it was just like being there) and I decided what better way to scrub off a crap day than kick my heels up with my go to tome, The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway (finca vigia edition, of course [I actually have no idea what that means]). Let me just reiterate, the man is a genius. There, done.

See? Finca Vigia appears to be meaningful doesn't it ?

So Anyhoo...I opted for some shorter than short stories as after a day spent running around in 4 different virtual machines I had the attention span of a shell shocked WWII vet so I read the Good Lion and The Faithful Bull. Opening line of the faithful bull= "One time there was a bull and his name was not Ferdinand and he cared nothing for flowers." (note: this is the exciting part) Ernest knows Ferdinand!!! (actually in poking around online for the picture of the book cover, apparently a lot of people know Ferdinand. Who'd have thunk?) Anyway, if I didn't love Ern before (and I did, I'm just saying) it would totally be cemented now, as Ferdinand is one of my all time favorite fictional bulls.

Does anyone here know The Story of Ferdinand? It's a lovely little story about a giant bad ass bull who loves his mother and the smell of flowers. It was one of the first books I actually remember having and I still have a copy. Not the original one I got, but I have subsequently bought another copy as an adult, because I love it. I'm pushing 30 and every trip I take I bring 2 books. The Story of Ferdinand and Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Note:Harold is not part of the excitement from yesterday, but as a classic and a personal favorite, I thought he deserved a little shout out.

And since we're on the subject of things I should probably be over by 30 but amn't let's show some love for Jolly Roger Bradfield. Basement storyteller extraordinaire!

So anyhow, back to the excitement (and apologies for the tangent. It's Friday, it's sunny and apparently my attention span has not recovered from the week's torments yet) To recap: I was excited because Ernest Hemingway knows Ferdinand, and gave him a little shout out and I was reminded to re-read Ferdinand and was all happy and weird. Because that's how I roll.

then after discovering that my radiator is in fact royally fucked, a friend and I were cruising up the Avenue trying to find some grub and we wandered into some fancy place where I was contemplating the menu vs the fact that the restaurant was 100 degrees CELSIUS and we noticed they have a bookshelf so we cruised over to check it out and what does my companion pull out FIRST BOOK but The story of Ferdinand!! Being the dork that I am I got all "ooh ooh ooh, wanna hear what Hemingway said today?" and he did, so I told him, and then we discussed Ferdinand, of whom said companion is also a fan. I don't know what it means but it seems auspicious. Or should I say, I choose to view it as auspicious, because I am like that and convincing myself of good things is my personal speciality. Anyway, I just thought it weird and exciting for my fave bull to me thrust into my consciousness by 2 hot men in one hot day.


The fat boys in the post title refer to the peas in my garden. I have been able to keep my paws off their yumminess long enough for them to get f'ing HUGE! and I'm psyched. I've got pictures of them somewhere (because I know you are all dying to see) but I can't find the cable to my camera so you'll have to trust me. They're big.

there's more to tell, but this post has gotten long and my muffins are done so I'm off to grub a little. If you're lucky I'll be back later to finish the brain dump.

and if I'm not, happy long weekend everyone!!

picture summary of what's going well

First and foremost, undoubtedly the prettiest thing in the house right now (but only because im unshowered and got my hair cut by a barber this week. Long story, lesson learned, I won't do that again), someone brought me some flowers he picked.



Up close they're very cool. Some of them are variegated and look painted:

Notice my magic bullet smoothie in the background

They're called Dame somethings, I'm going to have to look it up because he told me twice, and I've been bad at "listening" of late.

And these little guys are cool because they go to sleep at night:
and wake up in the morning:

How do they know??

While we're on the topic of plants, you may ask how does my garden grow?
Full o' peas and peppers and tomatoes and herbs. (heh. herbs)
and a random dahlia pot too.

The tire in the background will be transformed. Wait and see.

Check out my ginormous peas! Did you know you can train them to grow up ropes. I am the pea-charmer!


And this is just an interesting little thinger I bought. The dog refused to not be in the picture, which is probably good because it distracts from the death happening in the pot next to her.


My plant is not holding up well. It's supposed to look like this, which is very cool



And last but not least, I have no idea what this is, but I believe I may have discovered what was in primordial soup (old beer, crystal light, dawn detergent and vinegar as far as I can recall but I was not paying attention. Great science often happens by accident). It looks frighteningly like I'm growing a baby in here, and it gets bigger every day. I can't wait until it hatches (I hope it doesn't bite) ! It's hard to see (or maybe hard to capture with the wine) but there's a dark blobby center in there that's getting big too. Becky and I are having a race to see who can produce a blob first!
And that's it for this morning. I should get back to work, as I'm on a phone meeting and I beleive it's about my turn to speak. zzzzzzzzz

Hot girl on girl action

Bet that got your attention didn't it, piggies? Well, the action I'm referring to is none other than women's flat track roller derby, which may or may not be available in a town near you, but is alive and well in Baltimore:

Boo yea!

I took in the bout last night. It was fun, and very exciting! More so once I figured out the rules, but I will definitely be going again. It sort of reminded me of rugby, couldn't say why, perhaps just the possibility of injury or something but it was a really good time. I had at one point briefly contemplated trying out for one of the teams but decided against it because I am clumsy and injury prone and so it just seemed like I might be asking for trouble and when one of the girls was wheeled off the floor last night in a neck collar and back board, I was reminded that this was probably the best choice for me. I can't believe I didn't bring my camera, I'm bummed I have no live pics for you because it really was very exciting. These ladies are very impressive (and a little scary but I felt safe enough)

Other than that, highlights of my weekend included:
-a venture into Ellicott city yesterday. I got to tool around the cute little downtown area. It's weird because it seems like a cute town with all the shops but upon closer examination, none of the shops would ever have anything I want to buy so it was kind of a bummer. Good way to waste a Sunday though, and nice not to spend money so I guess it works out ?

-making (and winning!) Preakness side bets with people. All involved threw 5 bucks in and picked a horse. I picked number 4 before I had any info, because what the hell do I know about horses anyway but apparently I know something becuase 4 set a Preakness record. I RULE! and even better, this was all done at some bar down the street that I had never been in but that had couches and shit. It was a giant living room. I know where I "work" from home from now. total find, and I am thrilled!

-Friday night I closed out Seidels and the last night of the roots cafe. I'm bummed that this is ending as it's one of the funner random things we found to do and I was definitely planning on bringing anyone who ever visited me to this because I feel it's a must see. Anyhow it was fun, and the band was groovin and a good time was had by all. (part of why I'm sad about this ending is that not only is it an excellent time but that it's a total find for bands. I have never been disappointed and have actually stalked a couple of the bands to other places to see them play, because I stalk therefore I am right?)

Goodbye old friend. ok fine, relatively new friend. But we could have gotten old together...

I think that's about it as far as exciting parts go. I'll have to be better about bringing my camera with me, because I definitely have seen some picture worthy stuff lately. for now though, I'm sitting here clutching the last cup of coffee I might make for a while, as I have no power in my house. BGE claims to be working on it, but other people claim to have power so I feel a little persecuted and am not sure why they would single me out like this. I pay my bills (maybe not "on time" but well before the yellow envelope comes) Anyhow, I happened to have ground up extra beans yesterday, for which I am grateful because otherwise I would be sitting here crying and wishing I had coffee. The sucky thing though is no hot water, and even if so no blow dryer. .

and the week begins.

the caffeine and sugar will have to get me through until beer o'clock

so yesterday was a somewhat frustrating day workwise, what with getting nothing done in the 6 hours i spent at NSI, and ending up missing my fedex package pickup AGAIN (because fedex sucks, almost as bad as UPS now, and so DHL here i come!) so when i got home i immediately threw down my work bag, slipped into something a little more comfortable and went in search of chocolate. i don't get choco cravings often but when i do, they are *forceful*. so i grabbed some books and headed out to a little cafe near the house where i found this little guy, sitting all lonely in the case and wanting me to help him fulfill his destiny:

happiness is a personal sized chocolate pie

so i did. i bought him, and i etimup and had a choco/coffee goodness mix and all was well. then i window shopped for a while, had a glass of wine and took the dog for an epic walk, the kind we were very fond of pre- debilitating injury. it was good, she limped after about 90 min, but not too bad and we were able to walk ourselves right into a fabulous nights sleep, which i needed and enjoyed.

which brings me to this morning, and why i need a drink already, even though it's not even lunch time. since yesterday was such a wash i thought i would get an early start today and left the house at 9 to go pick up my package before the fedex place closed and then get to work by 10. ha HA! and not like funny ha, HA like "fat fucking chance your karma is apparently dirty and you're not getting anything easy today kiddo" ha

90 MINUTES LATER i turn up at the fedex office. i havent even opened the stupid package yet, because after the ordeal of getting it (i won't even talk about getting back out of the industrial/dock/coal plant area of baltimore (off topic: baltimore apparently has an industrial/dock/coal plant area)) i kind of hate the person who sent it, i def hate fedex and i just dont think the things inside will shine like they should if i'm having to look at them inside a dirty parking garage of a place i don't want to be at anyway and so i'm going to wait until later when i can try it all on with a mirror and some beyonce and some booze. is it beer o'clock yet?

instead i'll have to make do with a cookie and this here coffee, which admittedly should help loads but i am ready for the weekend. coping skills this week are at an all time low, and i am close to the edge. i'm seriously considering skipping out of the whole she-bang and heading back home for a nap and some booze. monday's going to suck anyhow just by virtue of being a monday, so i'm thinking i could put off all of today's bits until then and just have a giant suckfast of it all (and not in the good way)

gross.

here comes the sun, do doo doo doooo

ok, feeling *much* better today. Still phlegm-y (and the other) but neither as bad as yesterday. And yesterday actually managed to turn itself around a little, which was a much needed relief so that helps. and I also got a ridiculous amount of sleep, which *really* helped.

At about 2pm yesterday, I managed to tweak one of the cameras I was working with just so and it started producing *fantastic* pictures. Pictures that no doctor (let alone one certain doctor who shall remain nameless but puts the SUCK in soulsucker) can argue with. So that was nice. and I know they were good, because someone else who sucks and shall remain nameless tried his best to find some flaws with them and he couldn't so he got all mad and left. Which is both personally satisfying and happy making because I know it means good pictures.

Then there was the perfectly timed break in the rain that allowed me to make it to my car without doing the pornstar corporate barbie wet shirt look thing (which I had thought I might have to do because I wore a white shirt and for once in a year I parked at the far away garage that cannot be accessed completly via indoor routes and when I was getting ready to leave there was a sudden thunderstorm and accompanying deluge and I was not about to wait it out so I thought I was going to have to run to my car and all I could think is "I know I'm going to be all wet and see through and run into one of the people I work with at NSI all the time") but then it stopped long enough for me to get to my car ok. Phew.

THEN when I got home, still riding the triumph of good pictures and dry and non-translucent clothing, I immediately dove into the nearest pair of sweat pants and settled down on the couch with a warm dog, a cold drink, some mac and cheese and a good book. aaaah. I'll say it again.. AAAAAHHHH. this lasted about 15 minutes and I completely crashed out. For 3 hours of high quality much needed nap time. I'm talking sleeping through the phone ringing twice, drooling, pillow face wrinkle making nap time. Primo nappo. I woke up a little bit confused because it was dark out and had that whole "woah did I sleep until tomorrow" bit and when realized I didn't and figured out what was going on and that it was only 9pm I was happy, because I knew I was about to go back to bed and get my unconscious on for about 9 more hours. Then the boy came over which was nice and we just lounged around talking about our impending trip and weekend, both of which should be very fun. and then I took a horse dose of cough medicine, curled up with said hot boy and had a cracking good nights sleep. and stalled all morning before coming into NSI, so I'm nice and refreshed and don't even hate anyone too much right now. AND I should be going to FedEx today to get my package, which has my newest eBay purchases so there will be a fashion show when I get home.

Guatemala..doo doo dooo...there's a happy song in my head that I'm quite unable to communicate via blogginess but trust me. It's a lovely little melody, and we leave in not quite one month for vacay-shun. I've overcome my "Guatemala is crime ridden" angst, mostly because we already bought our tickets and I love denial, but also because I've talked to some people that say it's all relative and if I want to be safe forever, I will probably have to stay home in a bomb shelter (which knowing my luck I will lock myself out of right before the end of days) so I'm over it. Plus, I'm really excited because we have no reservations, or actual plans to speak of. We are totally flying by the seat of our pants, and I am pumped.

and how could I not be happy?? It's THURSDAY. my favorite day, and you know this MAN!!!

I'll try to post some pictures later of something, I know it's been all words since my cake masterpiece, but I got nothing right now. Actually hang on, I'll just go steal one from Ichiro and Becky's Japan blog.

I love these little dudes.

These are some merry MotherF*ckers!

grrr/sniffle/Woe Is me.

The Unholy trinity has descended upon me this week. I have my monthly visitor, (if this grosses you out go away. and a pox of constipation on your house too because I am suffering and you dare be grossed out) some sort of bronchial issue and work is ridiculously slammin', like turning it sideways and sticking it where the sun don't shine style. What a horrible time for these 3 to converge as I have never needed sleep as much or as badly as I do right now, and literally I can not take a minute to slow down. And I don't even have sexy cold voice. I have stupid whiny punctuated by racking phlegm producing coughs voice. Gross.

It started monday when I made the mistake of answering the phone at 7am, and was on the f'ing call until 4pm. I had cauliflower ear from my headset (would you like fries with that?) and then I was finally able to take a hot shower to clear up some of the phlegm settling in the lungs, only to get another call at 430 informing me I had to head down to NSI for a 5pm meeting. That's right. Because they can't crush my soul during the 9-5, so they're taking it overtime. Bastards. I reluctantly agreed to go to the stupid meeting (read: had no choice and was forced to by the people who give me money) and apparently was a little "bolder" than normal in some of my declarations. But whatever. You want to talk nonsense and shit, do it in your time, or during business hours and I will plaster on the dumb little smile you know and love and pretend to listen, and possibly pretend to care, depending on your title and whether it starts with C or VP. If I'm coming to see you after what any normal fucking person in the world considers the close of business, I expect efficiency. and I demanded it at this meeting and I got it. Sometimes being the only girl on the committee full of married men is nice, because I know they all know "the voice" and clearly also know when I am not kidding, and not to be messed with. And by and large, married men are just that *little* bit more defeated than the singles, so you can be kind of bitchy and they just sigh and go along with it.

I knew the maxin and relaxin of last week was too good to be true, and as such it has in fact come to an end. A rather abrupt end. A rude, rude, rude, end. and I miss it, and want it back. However the upshot of this is that I know next week when I am feeling better, and Aunt Flo has packed her stupid bags and left me alone, I will feel like a million bucks. and possibly have coping skills, and maybe maybe maybe I will even be pleasant. But not too pleasant. I like to keep the bar set low.