moo.

So, the weekend got zanier. I slept for 33 hours this weekend, beginning at noon on Friday and ending at 6pm on Sunday. On Saturday Otto only made it out of bed for about an hour and a half, maybe less. Saturday after I woke up from my six hour nap I decided to paint. (and watch the end of Buffy. I've now seen all of the episodes except the swim team one, which I didn't see because when my ex-husband Justin and I were watching that disc he watched that one without me and convinced me to just skip it. i didn't mind, except they referred to that one in one of the last few episodes of the series. oh well. anyhoo.)

I began the background, and then asked Otto what I should paint on the rest of it. I got some suggestions,(barn, flowers, tree et al), one of which was a cow. I kind of laughed it off, and continued working on the background. I finished it while watching the Devil’s Advocate (which, by the way, is a creepy movie).

So, yesterday afternoon I was talking to my mom, and asked her what to paint. She told me corn, then a house, then a green tractor, and I said how Otto had suggested that I paint a cow. She said yes, yes, do that. And we laughed....because when I was much younger, Anna and I were in the Christmas musical at our church, and we were the cows all brown and red. My mom went EVERYWHERE looking for cow print fabric, to no avail. She ended up sewing felt onto white sweatpants and sweatshirts. The next year, cowprint was everything. My mom has also had this happen looking for sunflowers and black-and-white checkers. Creepy.

Also, when I was younger I saw my first color copier. It was in the shopping center behind the grocery store on 31^st and Harvard. There was a little mom-and-pop copy shop, and they’d just gotten their color copier in. My mom had drawn this trippy picture of a cow, and the man stretched it wide, and then made the cow tall, and reversed the colors and stuff. VERY cool.

So, um, I painted a cow. And a barn, for fun.

My feet are better, by the way. Not all better, not run a marathon better, but better. Except now I’m afraid I’m getting what Otto had.:(

So what to paint next? I might try a money tree or some jade. (thanks for the suggestion, brooke!—I have both of these in my house, so they’re my houseplants…)

p is for percocet

that's good enough for me.

man oh man did that make my feet stop throbbing. it was weird though, since every hour or so I would get a wave a nausea. i figure it was because of it being time released or something. but I watched seven episodes of buffy, and I'll be going to get the last disc soon. today will be sit on my butt day part deux.

but first I'm going to decide what I need from the grocery store, go get the last disc of buffy and THEN come home and make my feet stop throbbing. and perhaps I'll paint more.

I painted this yesterday.

When Otto and I went out for our anniversary dinner there was a painting there that was done entirely in little strokes. So I decided to try it.

I've discovered that I like my paintings a lot better if I'm excited about painting that particular one--like the one here. So, um, anyone wanna give me some ideas of what I might paint next. I don't like painting people, so please don't suggest that (sterling!).

anyhoo.

otto is also sick. I think he has the flu. or is battling it. He has a 99.9 fever. :( I'm thinking of making him some of Renee's mom's Hearty Chicken Soup. Except I don't know if I feel like standing that long. It sucks when you're both sick...

let me go on...

like I blister in the sun...

or on the feet. and I think it should be "ow" instead of "on." so, yeah, blisters on my feet. ow, ow, ow. yesterday my dermatologist put this blister-causing stuff on my feet to treat something, and now I have these huge sore spots on my feet.

now, imagine for a moment...
you can't walk. you're opting to crawl instead of walk because it hurts so much. you've taken a lot of ibuprofen, and to put it in perspective, you had my doctor paged at 1140 at night, and went in this morning.

so, you've realize that standing isn't exactly an option, so what so you do?
you have to call your boss and explain to her that your feet hurt too much to go to work.

so, um, yeah. that might have been the weirdest. excuse. ever.

so now I'm taking percocet and engaging in a buffy-a-thon. and I'm making friday art day (instead of wednesday, brooke)!

also, this is yummy. I am normally not a fan of diet soda, but i'm trying to find one I like for my teeth's sake, and this one's SWELL. And you can get a four-can thing of it for $0.50 at target (til tomorrow). Realize that this translates into a $1.50 twelve pack of soda.

AND...I used to love love love Uno's Pizza. L-O-V-E.

Then they stopped having Tuscany Bread or Chicken Fajita Pizza, and I was terribly disappointed. I seriously considered boycotting, but I'm glad I didn't, because their flatbread pizzas are spectacular! I got the Four Cheese and Mediterranean. mmmmmmm. they have a 2-for special where you get two of these yummy delights for $11.99. If there's one near you (sorry tulsa folks) go get it!

enough rambling. later gator. and go congratulate sterling, he got a kick-ass job. look for his name in the credits of the blade tv show when it comes out on spike tv!!!

I wish I wasn't just a pedestrian...

breathing all of this in...

too much carbon monoxide for me to bear...

-cake

I can't stand the alarms any more. I'm having to do work with carbon monoxide, and I keep setting off the sensors, which are set at the 40 - hour - work - week - continuous - exposure - maximum level. There's a weird acronym for that, but I always forget it... Ahhhhh! See, it's bad news, 'cause there are two levels of alarms, and if I set off the second level for a duration of 2 minutes or more it calls the fire department and tells them there's been a toxic gas release. So they'll be coming in with their Hazmat suits and I'll have to explain what happened. Yikes.

We made some weird silver octopus-looking system for extending our vacuum vent, and hopefully that will work.

But at least I've gotten to sing the cake song for the last three days...

where's the air?
where's the air?
where's the aaaaiiiiiiiirrrr?

It's always swell when there are songs to go with your work. I mean, the seven dwarfs had it, right? And it's like having Buffy's Musical, Once More With Feeling, going on in my head. Either that, or having a musical in your head makes you a little bonkers, I'm not sure which...

there beneath the blue suburban skies

i love clouds like this.

so, in all honesty I’m a little glad that we didn’t go to the heaven and hell party (though we did get our own little dose of it—see below!) Apparently the neighbors complained, the cops were called, someone was arrested et al.

we got in late on friday and slept in on saturday, then went to lunch. i was very proud of myself, since for the first time ever I was "stroke"--the person who finishes the beer first. i only needed to do it once, as far as I'm concerned, and I'll happily let otto and dan keep that title from now on. it's a rowing thing. so anyway, we ate lunch at the tobacco company downtown and had this yummy yummy beer called legends (not to be confused with the tulsa establishment!) then we headed here...

this was a cool bar. for the first time ever I actually purchased pint glasses (buying them with a beer, asking for them and taking them have all been done before--but never purchasing). two for $5.25 was good, I thought. no pics yet 'cause the glasses are in the dishwasher! but anyhow, this place was fun. once time dan left otto a drunk dial reading this in a theatrical fashion--it's in the men's bathroom. it's a little bit of a blurry pic, but that's what happens when you take pictures in the men's bathroom.

and here's an excellent sign.

and i just thought this was neat. plus it was the coolest thing in the girl's bathroom...

and the owner, an old-ish british man, told us the following joke...

so, there's an elementary school teacher, and she's teaching her class, and she asks them all to tell what they did on their holiday. she reminds them though that they're old enough now to talk like adults, and they need to do so.

she calls on the first little boy, and he explains that he went to visit his relatives, and that they traveled to his cousins, and that they took the choo-choo to get there.

the teacher interrupts and says no, not choo-choo--call it a train.

next the teacher calls on a girl in the class, who tells of how she went to her uncle's farm, and they saw ducks and chickens and cows and got to ride on geegees.

the teacher interrupts again and says, don't say geegees, say horses--we need to talk like adults.

so the teacher then calls on a third little boy, who says that he and his family spent the holiday at home, and their aunts and uncles and cousins came into town, and that their gramps read a book aloud to all the children.

the teacher asks, "what book did he read you?"

the boy replies, "Winnie the Shit."

ha.

here we are at the the river city wine cellar in carytown, a part of richmond, va. they sold the best gouda I've ever had. And let me tell you, gouda is good-a.

and here’s otto debating what to choose…salvation beer or damnation beer…I saw one called He’Brew too that was written in a font very similar to—you guessed it—Hebrew letters. It made me laugh. I really like this picture. We also went to a place called For the Love of Chocolate...mmmmm..... if you're ever in Richmond check out Carytown. It's cute. And has beer and chocolate and wine and cheese and shoes and purses. What more could a girl ask for in a shopping area, really?

um, help?

so, my computer savvy friends...

I have a problemo.

I have an external hard drive, see? And it's normally drive E on my computer when I hook it up. But the other day I plugged my ipod nano in before my external hard drive, and now my external hard drive registers as F instead of E. Which is a problem because things like itunes and my photo software all think that the songs and/or photos can be found in E, not in F. So I'm going to have to delete my entire library and re-download it, methinks.

suggestions?

subdivisions.

valentine's day

so, not my fave holiday, but one where you do owe someone a gift. otto got me pretty flowers, see? it's a pity that the pink ones got droopy the next day. and it's also a bummer that in my effort to be uber cute, looking up the meaning of the flowers, i discovered that orange lilies mean hatred. Of course Otto didn’t know that (and y’all didn’t either, don’t lie) but it let me to thinking…and…

so, what I want to know is, who the hell sends "i hate you” flowers? I mean, somebody had to ascribe meaning to the flowers right? Roses, Daffodils, Dandelions, Cyclamen, Daisies, etc. Who thinks, “You know what? Some day someone’s going to have to send flowers to someone else because they hate that person, and I’m going to make sure that’s possible. Riiiight.

This is the pizza we baked on Tuesday. I made the crust from scratch and everything. When I started to make it I realized that I didn’t have any yeast, and went to the grocery store to buy some. I then did the plastic trees a favor and put the yeast in my purse instead of taking a bag, and I am STILL finding yeast in my purse. There are packets everywhere.

this is a pretty tree.

I like it. Kinda makes me think of the double-helix shape of dna. Because I’m that bigga nerd.

mmmm beer...

And here are four of the five glasses I’ve acquired in the last week. The Blue Moon and Newcastle were *ahem* removed, the Warsteiner was given per my request and I picked up the Great Minds glass at the Flying Saucer on Wednesday. The other side of it says the Great Divide Brewing Company.

The fifth I got last night.

here’s to all my sisters

and to hell with all the misters…

Okay, well I don’t mean that second part, but we had an awesome time last night. Four of us met for a three-hour happy hour at Carolina Ale House. It was so much fun. We talked about all sorts of stuff, and I love love loved it. And it was amazing that there were four girls from four different schools/states who just happened to meet because they were in the same sorority. Alabama, Illinois, North Carolina and Oklahoma were all represented… This is reason number four million and twelve that being Greek can be swell. (But for the record, it can stink sometimes too!) And as Brooke mentioned, sometimes it's a little weird too. But I like it. :)

The glass I got last night was also given per my request. On one side it says “you say pint glass” and the other side shows a little sumo guy holding the pint glass saying the words “I say shot glass.” It’s for Kirin Ichiban. I’m excited because next week’s Saucer glass is Abita Purple Haze. Otto and I have quite the pint glass collection, and I’m enjoying adding to it…

travel

we’re going to Richmond this weekend. No more heaven and hell party ‘cause otto has to be at the airport at 330am on Monday, and driving 5-6 hours to Raleigh from Newark, DE with a huge hangover since you partied until 5am is not a good way to start a business trip. So instead we’re going to Richmond and coming back early on Sunday.

music.

I have a song stuck in my head and I’d like to share…are you ready?

High on a hill was a lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo…

And the best line of all…

Men drinking beer with the foam afloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

weekend.

have a fantabulous one!!!

sing-song...

i've got something in my pocket, it belongs across my face...
i keep it very close at hand in the most convenient place...
i'm sure you wouldn't guess it if you guessed a long long while...
so i'll take it out and put it on it's a great big brownie smile!

mmmmm girl scout cookies....


Otto and I realized awhile ago that we each bought six boxes of cookies...and we still kept all twelve of them. One per month?

I miss the Our Chalet cookies. They were sandwich cookies filled with lemon cream or vanilla cream, and if you squeezed them together right it looked like sun was rising (sort of). Plus they were yum yum yummy. Better than those triangle cracker things. But I like the staple GS Cookies best--thin mint, samoa (though I only kind of like these) and tagalongs. Truthfully trefoils ain't too shabby either.

So if you haven't bought any yet, go do so. Help a Scout out. I bet they're selling 'em outside a grocery store near you...or at the Brady Theatre. Or something.

there's always a story...

but mine's getting easier.

Sometimes it can be so hard to answer questions honestly. I have friends who don't admit why they wanted to come here at all--truth was that they were unhappy, and they didn't like being quite so close to their families. But that doesn't sound good.

But me? I don't want to lie. And besides, I didn't find a ChE job for five months after I got here, so it's not like I can say that I came for a job too. But when people ask me where I went to school the next question, after they say something like "wow, that's really far away" is "what brought you here?" I've tried to fumble through responses, but now I'm okay with saying it...something along the lines of "I moved here with my ex-husband" or something like that. I sometimes preface it with something about feeling bad about making the person uncomfy.

It's like telling someone you moved because your mother passed away, or that you quit school because you got pregnant, or something like that. Nothing that's bad for you to have done, but something that makes people uncomfy when they hear the truth.

But I'm very glad to say it's getting easier every time. Of course it was weird when we were just separated. I had to remind myself to say "I'm getting a divorce" instead of "I'm getting divorced." Subtle, but different.

I'm looking forward to getting to say "I came here for graduate school. I'm getting my PhD in Materials Science and Engineering." It might be August 2007 before I get to say that, but I'm looking forward to it.

Because it's a better story.

I guess that's what I'm wanting. For my story to be better and better. Awkward, sad, funny, terrible, enthusiastic, horrifying or inspiring, I want it to always be a better story.

bubble-pop-electric.

uh-oh, in the backseat...
well, that's what Gwen would say...

I'd say it's more of a lather, rinse, repeat...
as needed...like shampoo, only not.

instead it's

measure-move-repeat

or alternatively...

measure-squeeze-repeat

I have become a Chemical Engineer's worst nightmare and ultimate doom--a bubble counter. Not, by the way, to be confused with a tallier of legumes, a bean counter or an accountant.

It may sound like a harmless thing to be, one who counts bubbles. In my particular case it combines the mighty power of the mitutoyo absolute, which measures the thickness of the films (usually less than a tenth of a millimeter thick) and the all-knowing balance (upon which I place the film, close the door and measure, after tare-ing of course--followed by removal of the film, closing the door, tare-ing, opening the door, placing the film inside, closing the door measuring, removing etc.)

and I'm pushing the plunger, moving the film, lowering the plunger, measuring the thickness, pushing the plunger, moving the film...
or
I'm squeezing the rubber bulb, measuring the time for a known volume, recording, squeezing the rubber bulb, measuring the time...

It's b-o-r-i-n-g. And I can't listen to my ipod nano and there's no radio and all I can hear is the rather loud hum of the fans on the various analytical equipment and the whooshing noise of the walk-in and benchtop hoods. And the occasional typing or a pressure release noise, as provided by Paige. whine whine whine. But hey, it pays, right? It could always be worse. I could be allergic to the sun (oh wait, I kinda am)...

Ya-friggin-hoo. Thermodynamics eat your heart out--calculating the energies based on the respective orientations of molecules seems a little more appealing right now. I'm going a bit loopy, what with all this bubble counting. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (or 10, depending on which project I'm working on.) And tomorrow I'll plating, which requires me to change the solution every five minutes. yikes.

Now I have Wilco's "I'm a Wheel" stuck in my head...one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine...(if you haven't heard it you should, mmm mmm good)

also, irony of all ironies...quod me nutrit me destruit...that which nourishes me destroys me. 'Cause know what made me interested in science, and made me want to go to college in it, and led me to being a Chemical Engineer?

bubbles.

>pop!<

a change of plans.

so, despite the overwhelming love of teapot #3, I bought a different $13 teapot (with coupon) instead of the extra cute $30 teapot. Plus, teapot #3 turned out to have a not-so-secure handle. It's a sad day when practicality wins over cuteness. But really, it's the way to go.

The GRE is going to make me insane. I'm having a hard time reminding myself that I'm an engineer. And I'm going to school to be a bigger nerd/engineer. Which, as an engineer, means that I only have to show a decent/average command of the English language, and needn't concern myself with words like perfidy or exigent, because the admissions people just won't care so much.

I also ended up buying two coats--one short (see?) and then the red one. I'm pumped because 1)they were 15% off and 2)I got another $15 off by google-ing "bluefly promo code". I'm a sucker for a sale. Anyhoo, I'll be returning one of them via Pony Express. Which, by the by, is what I think the USPS is right now. When applying for my scholarship it took eleven days for a letter to get from Tulsa to Raleigh. ELEVEN. Or N-E-V-E-L-E (if you're Adah from The Poisonwood Bible). (Ps, Rennat Yeldarb NahtanoJ this one's for you--ah, McNulty)

I think this is really cool. I'm totally getting the tshirt. And I think it's a fab idea. Did you see the Superbowl commercial about it? Mildly out of place, but still interesting. And yay to Kappa Delta for teaming up with them and the Girl Scouts. I swear, somebody in KayDee must know a thing or two about prescience and magnanimity.

Also, if you ever want to keep a secret, please see SG. Sterling Gates that is. Because, damn, he's good. I'm not bothered at all, I think I'm still in awe.

Oh, and as Catullus, the dirty dirty Roman poet, would say, "odi et amo." That's how I feel about my cats today. They are becoming uber picky about their litter box, and have taken to peeing on clean clothes. Mildly amusing, yes. Plus, do clothes resemble small gray pieces of clay (no!)? Right. Oh, and by they, I mean Hazel. Gobi's way too cool to do anything like this.

Time to read and go to bed. Enough brain work for one evening.

happy birthday to atom-bomb

my little-but-bigger brother Adam turns the big twenty-two today.

 

and instead of punishing him with an embarassing picture, I'd like to tell two stories. ah, little kid stories.

 

1. After Adam was born, Anna and I got to come to the hospital to "meet" him.  Y'know, get to see our wittle baby brudder.  And after asking my mom questions about him, I then said, "can we keep him?"  Boy oh boy do I regret that sometimes.... ;)

 

2. One summer, when I was little (I think I was almost six, making Adam about two and a half or three) we adopted two kitty-cats, and named them Rainbow and Bluey.  Oh, how I miss them.  Anyhoo, so it's the first night we have them, right?  And we've been holding them and playing with them and even letting the little hellian known as Adam see the kittens, despite the fact that he was in that stage of life where he destroyed everything.  So, it's Adam's bedtime, see?  And he's in his crib, and Anna and I are in the living room, and we begin looking for the kittens.  And after a search, we go to check Adam's crib, thinking maybe he snuck 'em in there or something.  But no, they aren't in there.  Well, at least not in his crib.

 

You remember thos GI-Joe sleeping bags?  (They had my little pony, rainbow brite, thundercats, carebears etc) The really crummy but trendy sleeping bags that came with a matching carrying bag?  Well, Adam had one of those.  Camo.  And he had taken the two kittens and put them inside of the carrying bag, and had hung that bag on one of the corners of his crib.  We found Rainbow and Bluey because we heard them meow.  And when we asked Adam why he'd done that (after we'd rescued the kitties of course) he said that since it was his bedtime, it was their bedtime too.  And we think he'd put them in the bag because he thought they were toys.  Silly boy.

 

 

now, if you're lucky, maybe Adam will share his behaving-like-Alf story.

 

Oh, and PS...blink......blink....blink...blink-blink-blink-blink.

 

Happy Birthday!

echo.

so, I'm a target last night, in the midst of my many late-evening-before-cooking-dinner hours, and I see this little turquoise echo parked beside me. it had three of the best bumper stickers I've ever seen...

"is it 2008 yet?"
"everything I need to know in life I learned from reading banned books."
and
"homophobia is so GAY"

very very funny, methinks.


Last night I broke out Pente. I remember playing it with Jonathan Tanner, sitting in his parent's living room and listening to Counting Crows or Pearl Jam or something like that. Otto had never played it, but he caught on quickly and we both had fun. Then I broke out my book of 15 classic board games (one of the klutz books) and we played Go and Hex. While drinking yummy wine after our dee-lish dinner of bourbon-glazed salmon, tomato-garlic pasta and sauteed asparagus. mmmmmmmm.

and then I watched fifteen minutes of Bram Stoker's Dracula (the one with Winona Ryder, Gary Oldman and Keanu Reeves) before passing out on the couch. I blame Hazel and her incessant purring.

Now time to 1)get spray paint from Lowe's, 2)buy mangoes, kiwis and a nanner 3)buy beer, 4)watch the NC State Game and the Superbowl followed by Grey's Anatomy and 5)do my taxes and study for the GRE.

it's amazing

how a simple phrase can bring back a flood of memories.

 

"hope is the thing with feathers..."

being like Heinz…

Ketchup.
Or catsup.
Or catch-up.

‘cause I need to catch up.
Saturday, Sterling, Otto and I went to Frankie’s Fun Place, an arcade/laser tag/go-kart etc place. Think of Celebration Station, but more fun. Otto and Sterling played a lot of trivia, while I camped out in front of the ice-ball (aka generic skee-ball).

We won lots of tickets, see?

And here are loading them into the ticket monster.

We bought shot glasses that say “Frankie’s” on ‘em, and that was about it. And we took these silly pictures too.

Then we grabbed some earthfare sushi for a sushi snack, dried Sterling’s clothes that were in the wash, and took Sterling to Ellen’s so that Otto and I could go celebrate our anniversary (we’ve been dating for a year now!). We ate at Est Est Est, this yummy Italian place in downtown Raleigh, mmmmmm. We drew a pretty picture too, and I had to keep it because, well, I did. I think I’m going to put it in a frame, because hey, that’s the thing to do.

We then grabbed some beer from our apt and went over to Ellen’s where we all watched a repeat SNL—the one with Dane Cook. Soooo funny. “Let’s do this, I’m a cashew!” He has a cd/dvd combo at target for $8.99 if you wanna check him out. So far it isn’t as funny as the SNL stuff was, but that’s okay. Still good.

Sunday was a day of sleeping, watching football and not feeling well. Oh, and I watched Seven for the first time. Dis-turb-ing.

Monday-work. Bleh.
Tuesday-work. And trying (successfully) to finish my review. My project kept me here ‘til 610, and then I had to go grocery shopping,
Wednesday-work. Here until 640!!!!

But I did go buy three lovely teapots. Which, if any, shall I keep? (I totally need a new one. My white one has a brown film on it and has stopped whistling. If I don’t get one of these I might go snag the dark brown one I saw at linens’n’things)

And I’m thinking about making another kitchen-ee purchase too. I know I’d getting the big bowls, and I might get the small ones (all the same size) too. It would be $8.50 to ship ‘em instead of driving 20 minutes to the mall, finding a parking spot, braving the mall and driving 20 minutes back. I’m debating.
And I think I’m going to get this coat too. I’ve been waffling on it. I’m finding that a lot of things are simultaneously not sufficient anymore (my teapot is falling apart, I don’t have large enough mixing bowls so I make huge messes, and my big coat is just worn out since it’s from my freshman year of college). Money is wonderful and the devil at the same damn time.

Anyhoo. So now I’m going to get back to ordering something from Australia for work.