I'm Terrible At This

Not really. I just have been terrible at this lately. Like, for a year or more.

So, life-update stuff: I'm back at work. I like my job okay.

I just started a new exercise program yesterday, Insanity. I think it's going to seriously kick my ass. Will maybe post some before/after photos after two months.

Um ...?

I'm just sitting here drinking tea, waiting for my crazy day to start, which comprises:

Music Showcase -- should be pretty fun. Walking around it with a new friend.

The WWII Ball up in Boulder later tonight. I kind of wish I was staying later at Showcase to catch some of the headliners, but ... eh. Whatevs. As long as the General doesn't have me firing any machine guns, we should be in good shape.

Our neighbors are having a block party. I say neighbors because I won't be participating this year. What can I say -- they picked a crappy day for my schedule. But that should be interesting. As soon as my clothes are dry, I need to move my car for the block party.

I think that's all she wrote for now. I will start trying to post again every day, lovelies ...

xoxo

Sometimes, I Really Love This Town

I was just on the phone with a local microbrewery's spokesman -- and the man who proved to me more than a year ago that, yes, I do like beer. Just snooty beer, apparently. He asked me how married life was (I'd boasted to him that I selected one of his introductory beers as my keg of choice), and he asked how the drinking was going.

I had bad news for him: Namely, I had to quit drinking beer. And wine. And everything. This is what happens when there's a recession and you don't have a job and you have bills to pay. Something, it turns out, has got to go. And for me, it was the beer.

He was shocked. Horrified.

And guess who is dropping off a case of his microbrewery's beer to me sometime in the near future?

Yes, I am a lucky duck indeed. 

X Marks the Spot

I started my new exercise program yesterday -- P90X, for those of you who watch infomercials. D and I are doing it together.

So far? Pretty killer. But ... and I'm a little surprised when I say this ... it's doable. I was expecting something so far out of my reach that I was going to have to work up to getting ANY of it done.

Don't get me wrong; it is far from easy. Far, far away. I can't always finish all the reps of every exercise. But, I'm trying.

I took before and after pictures, too! Maybe I'll even post those in three months or so ...

Where Do They GO?!

Ever have something disappear on you and have no idea where to even begin searching for it?

Well. I just opened the battery compartments on my portable iPod player because the batteries needed to be charged.

Now, the batteries are charged. And do I know where the white plastic battery-compartment covers are? All two of them?

Do I, hell.

The weird thing is -- my house isn't really messy. I should be able to just look around and spot them. And they SHOULD be right next to the piece of equipment they came with.

But. They are not.

Radio Woes

For about a year, we had the best radio station in Denver that I've ever heard. It was called Indie (101.5 FM) and they played, well, indie rock -- but also quite a bit of underground hip-hop, alternative rock and other such things.

It was a great station. I found a bunch of new music I never would have been exposed to otherwise, and I enjoyed pretty much everything I heard on there. (Hard rock version of Ginuwine's "Pony"? Sheer effin' genius.)

But, for some reason, Indie has moved to online only. Now, 101.5 FM plays the strangest mixture of music I have ever had the misfortune to hear. Seriously, the format does not have a market here in Denver. Either they play hard rock (of the Limp Bizkit/Linkin Park variety; gag me) or crap R&B/rap. There's no crossover market here for those genres of music ... especially when you play the absolute worst tracks that the genre has to offer.

And who's going to go online to listen to the radio? It pisses me off because, as I have mentioned before, I don't even have a CD player in my car. Tape deck and radio; that's it. I could listen to my iPod, of course, but then I wouldn't be getting exposed to new things I've never heard before. (Although there's probably some of that on my iPod. I have a lot of music I don't listen to frequently.)

My thoughts on the matter? Both the new 101.5 FM station (whatever the hell it's called) and Indie303.com are going to fail. Miserably.

I just wish I knew who to blame for singlehandedly destroying the best radio station I've ever heard -- and hence, the best radio station Denver has ever seen.

Cat Litter Blues

I bought new cat litter the other day. Actually, it's billed as the World's Best Cat Litter (which is also the name of the cat litter). Here is what makes it the world's best:

* All natural.

* Virtually dust-free.

* Corn-based.

* Absorbs and contains odors like nobody's business.

* Flushable; safe for septic systems, even.

What's the problem, you ask?

One of my cats does not think it's the World's Best Cat Litter. She'd rather piss on piles of clothes on the floor, or what-have-you.

Guess at least this should cure our habit of leaving clothes on the floor for the time being! But I do hope she figures it out soon. I love this cat litter, as much as I've ever loved any cat litter. I will be sad if I have to switch brands because of her angst.

Automated Phone Annoyances

This morning, I had a phone bill to pay. So I'm sitting on the phone, listening to the Automated Phone Man giving me options, when all of a sudden, a sneezing fit overtakes me.

This is where I don't understand why you can't have a push-button versus automated option at the beginning of your call. Because for ten minutes, all I'm hearing is this:

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"Y-y-yes. AH-CHOO!"

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

Grr.

It's like the automated flushing toilets. Like when they flush on you when you're sitting down -- or, worse, just stood up and are trying to get out the door. I want to tell them, "Listen, I am not a non-flushing hooligan -- but please save the flush for when I'm almost out of the stall! I know what kind of germs and bacteria are being rained down upon me, for the love of god!"

Hobby Horse

If you could undertake any hobby in the world -- regardless of price or location or whatever else is keeping you from doing it anyway right now -- what would you choose?

Honestly? I think gardening is at the top of my list. (I can hear you laughing from here, Mrs. Walker! Cut it out!)

Followed by scuba diving, photography (which I kind of do now -- just not that well) and maybe even sewing. How cool would it be if I could make my own clothes? Pretty sweet.

Of course, my current hobbies of cooking, reading a shit-ton and writing a little bit are keeping me pretty fulfilled. But, man. If I only had a little bit of space for a garden ... fresh tomatoes ... corn ... green beans ... lettuce.

(And, no. I do not know the first thing about gardening -- but I'm willing to learn!)

Cooking For Two

We've been playing around in the kitchen a lot lately -- trying new recipes, which is awesome fun. (I know. I've turned into a boring, middle-aged person who enthuses about new recipes. Sue me.)

So far this week, we've tried eggplant parmesan and spinach/ricotta calzones. Italian theme, I suppose. Right now I'm trying to find more side dishes I can make ... tater tots are all well and good, but eventually you get kinda burnt out on them.

Tonight's meal is going to be fake chicken (with gruyere cheese, mmmm!) and a side of lime-infused peas and carrots.

Hey, I gotta get my veggies somehow!

Meh.

It seems to be turning out to be one of those days.

Went to cover for my former colleague today. The building is totally under construction -- only half of it is usable -- which means everyone is crammed into half a building, with half the number of bathrooms. Oh, and no kitchen. Stellar.

Had a couple of lovely certified letters from the IRS to pick up when I did get home.

My haircut hasn't gotten any better.

And I just tortured myself by looking at a bunch of photos on Facebook featuring two women with whom I used to be good friends ... until one of them did a bunch of psychotic, bitchy stuff. Myself and the other woman quit talking to her for a while. But now it seems they are visiting each other out-of-state ... and I don't get to talk to either of them anymore really, ever. I feel like the left out married woman.

Hairy Situation

Sorry it's been so long, JW -- you know who you are! -- but I've been kinda busy in a weird way; entertaining out-of-town guests.

Here's what's been going on in my brain lately: I'm not a huge fan of my haircut.

I hacked thirteen inches off in late March/early April. It's been growing since then. I remember having hair this length before ... but I also had the mother of all awesome hairdressers then. Actually, the father. His name is/was Daryl and he was un-be-freaking-lievable when it came to styling my hair so you couldn't tell I was growing it out.

And now, I live two states away from Daryl. (It would almost be worth driving eleven hours for one of his haircuts. Seriously.) I liked this haircut at first ... but now that it's longer and I'm truly sick and tired of blowdrying all the time, I kind of hate it. I can't NOT blowdry my hair. It works for one day, but after that, kaput. And I'm not going to start washing and styling my hair daily.

I've been toying with the idea of cutting it short again. As in, SHORT. But I've also been toying with the idea of growing it long again. Right now, the long is winning. I can't guarantee that I'll find a Daryl-caliber hairstylist before I want to grow my hair back out again. And I can't guarantee that I won't get totally sick of needing to cut it literally every four to six weeks and try to grow it out anyway. And I can't even think about what that might mean for my general appearance. (Really, I'm not vain. I just hate it when my hair makes me look like a mushroom.)

What to do?

What's It Worth To You?

I've been using my little friend Craigslist recently to get rid of some unwanted items: Three sets of workout DVDs and a two-day pass to the Mile High Music Festival (I bought five passes and, wouldn't you know it, one of the five bailed on me!).

The workout DVDs I priced at $30/set, but I wrote in there that I was willing to negotiate, which was a good thing. Turns out the sets are worth between $7.50 and $10. (I bought them each for more than $100 -- don't do that!) I'm dropping two of the three sets off to the buyer today and mailing the other set to the buyer as soon as her money order arrives in the mail. The only people who responded to that ad were the people who ended up purchasing the DVDs.

(For those who are curious, I'm getting rid of these sets because Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred is shorter and more effective than all of them combined. Do yourself a favor and pay $15 for a new copy of that -- cheaper on Amazon -- and skip the heavily advertised, multiple-DVD sets. Her DVD contains three levels of workouts, so you can grow with it. And at only twenty minutes per workout ... well ... it's awesome. I'll just say that. You have very few excuses to skip it.)

I've been kind of amused by the responses to the MHMF tickets. I asked for the same price I purchased them at -- $160, minus a service fee. Actually, that's a little cheaper than the face value of $162.50. So really, a good deal. Unless, of course, they wanted to split up the days -- then I asked for $90 per day, which is the face value of the ticket.

I have received at least a dozen e-mails about the tickets. The winner was the third girl who e-mailed me ... I didn't do first-come, first-served, because she offered me $170 for the two tickets. Score! But in several of those e-mails, people want to haggle with me. "I will pay you $130 for the tickets." "I have $125 cash that you can have."

Um. I'm already selling these tickets at a loss -- there was approximately an $8 to $9 service fee that I had to pay when I bought them. Why on earth would I take an extra $35 to $40 loss on them?

I e-mailed back the first guy who tried to haggle and told him that the tickets were spoken for, the girl was paying me $170, and I wasn't going to sell them at a loss. He responded with something along the lines of, "You're lucky, a lot of people are taking a loss on this."

Yeah, maybe if they bought the tickets with the intent to make a bunch of money off them. But that's just wrong, anyway. I saw all the Phish/Red Rocks tickets for sale there ... $200 a pop! You would have to be living under a rock and a total idiot to pay that! (You would pretty much have to be a total idiot to want to see Phish anyway. But that's a rant for another day.)

So, in summary: On Craigslist, it's okay to haggle for my workout DVDs. But I'm just going to laugh at you if you try to haggle for my music-festival tickets. I could probably sell them outside the festival for even more than that ... but ... I'm too nice to do something cruel like that. I just want most of my money back, and I'm happy.

Media Matters

I was going to post about Alternet today -- about the good journalism they do and also the crap they write just to stir people up. I read Alternet headlines pretty much every day. The other day, I saw a headline that described Michael Jackson as "mediocre." I was so disenchanted with what appeared to be Alternet's obvious effort to just reverse what the mainstream media was saying that I didn't read the story ... but I read it today, figuring if I was going to rant on it, then I should at least be educated about where the writer was coming from.

It wasn't as obviously silly an article as many Alternet postings. The author (who has extensive music education under her belt) basically said that Michael Jackson was not a musical genius and didn't break down any racial barriers. She hypothesized that the United States has become used to praising mediocrity, hence the praise for Michael Jackson. And she said that Michael Jackson has failed to be relevant in years.

All of which are arguable points. I don't necessarily agree with her, but at least she did her homework. And I certainly don't understand why Michael Jackson is such an obvious black icon when it is more than clear he didn't father his children ... you don't get white kids like that from a black father. Especially not blonde-haired, blue-eyed kids. You just don't.

Honestly, what pisses me off more than Alternet articles obviously designed to counterbalance the mainstream media is the mainstream media itself. Some of the headlines you hear on shows like Access Hollywood -- seriously, nothing is sacred for those people. Any day now, I'm expecting to hear a report from someone who broke into his house and found his secret sex-toy stash, detailing exactly what he or she found. (That would work better if all his friends didn't insist he is asexual, which I personally agree with.)

I think what gets me about Alternet in particular is its tendency to state the obvious -- but not state the obvious at the same time. Today's article ("Relax: Adultery Is Not That Big of a Deal") discussed adultery through the ages, specifically citing the recent cases of Senator John Ensign, Governor Mark Sanford and Jon Gosselin (of Jon & Kate Plus 8 fame).

Don't get me wrong; I agree with the premise. I think people make too big of a deal regarding adultery. Especially as regarding Jon Gosselin -- seriously, who on the ever-less-green earth cares about what Jon & Kate get up to in their spare time? Who? Who even watches that show on a regular basis? (Probably millions of people; just not me.)

But you know what? When you belong to a political party that has taken its song-and-dance about marriage so far as to deny marital rights to certain people just because they don't have the correct mix-and-match genitalia ... when you belong to a political party that does its damndest to legislate morality ... when you belong to a political party that refuses to accept what modern science has to say about pretty much anything, instead holding up a book finished and edited hundreds and hundreds of years ago as the go-to authority on everything ... then I say, yes. Adultery is a big deal. That book they love so much says that the only acceptable reason for divorce is adultery.

You can't have it both ways. You can't run around trying to tell everyone else how to live their lives when you can't even uphold some simple marriage vows. Grr!

And here is my final argument for why the media is sucking lately: I read a story about the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows film. In it, Hermione and Ron finally kiss. The article said that the movie is being split into two different films (true) and that they weren't sure in which film the kiss would appear.

Um. The kiss happens at the end of the book. Not even close to the middle. Spoiler alert for those of you who haven't read it: The three friends are at Hogwarts, getting ready for the final showdown with Voldemort, and Ron says something about warning the house-elves in the kitchens, lest they be in danger from the fighting. Hermione throws her arms around him and kisses him. (I am not sure how they're going to do this in the film, as Hermione isn't nearly as strident about elf rights in the movies as she is in the books. But, whatever.) My personal thought is that they're going to split the movie as Harry and his friends get captured and taken to Malfoy Manor. That will be the end of one film/beginning of another. In any event, if they manage to squeeze everything up to and including the kiss in the first movie -- then the second movie will only be about an hour long. And if they move the kiss to earlier on in the story, this reader will be PISSED.

That is all.

Interview!

I had a job interview today ... for a "real" job. I was the first candidate they talked to; hopefully they'll call me next week or the week after and say, "you got it!"

But if not, there are plenty of greeting-card poems I can start writing. Five of those = $1500. Can't argue with that!