it's the most wonderful time of the year!

It's a week before the Iowa Caucauses and it's a statistical dead heat. Dang. How Edwards has managed to stay in this thing I just don't know. The other night we were talking about how hilarious it would be if the woman and the black man get defeated by the rich white guy.

Sick, I know, but funny.

The foreplay has been long and boring, but I suspect the dirty deed will be done and over with quickly. We'll have our candidates mid-February. My very early and not terribly informed prediction: Clinton and McCain. I know, I know, but I don't think Giuliani's going to be able to last long enough to make it to his much-needed California, Romney's a Mormon for God's sake, Thompson was more exciting before he announced he was running and Huckabee's a nutjob. McCain is the Republican Party's best hope for beating Clinton. And actually I'm starting to wonder if the Democrats are even going to have a real shot at this. We've spent primary season patting ourselves on the back for having so many dreamy candidates I'm sure we'll blow it some how. Remember 2004? When a monkey should have been able to run against GWB and win? And honestly even if Clinton doesn't get the nod does anyone really think Edwards (whom I love!) can win? The boy wonder of the 21st century? A man who couldn't even pull his own state when he was the VP nominee?

What I find particularly hilarious is how all of this lacks tension for me. Why should I care if the Democrats take back the White House? Whomever ends up there is going to be better than what we've endured. Plus I have my whole crazy theory that focusing on Congress might be more efficient and productive anyway. Allow the Republicans to be the face of this stupid war. Though the surge obviously worked (I know. I don't know how to feel about that either!) I don't believe the political situation is going to improve anytime soon and ultimately that's what it's going to take.

Mr. Vanderelzen?
This is but a taste of what we have to talk about next week!

i am my own worst enemy

And that's all I have to say about that.

I woke up this morning at 8:35am and had to be at work on the desk at 9am. I made it. Barely. And that was only because Peter woke me up and said "It's 8:35. Don't you have to work at 9?" He made me coffee as I threw myself together. Needless to say, I am having a day.

I've been wearing my name tag all of 3 days and the number of people who find it necessary to refer to me by my name is astounding. I don't know you. You don't know me. The name tag is here to provide me with a sense of accountability, to allow you to remember me in case my service is substandard or--and I know this ain't gonna happen--in case you happen to want to tell my supervisor how fabulous I am. I know you're probably just being friendly and I just have to get over it. I hate this stupid name tag.

I also hate drunk assholes who call me Jeanine Garofalo based only on the fact that I happen to be wearing glasses and have darkish hair.

Today I'm not terribly fond of other people's insecurities, other people's successes, mindless chit chat, people who come to work even though they're obviously really sick, talking about the weather, pushy women from Park Township who can't understand how I haven't read Karen Kingsbury yet because she's sooooo good, jerks who teach their 4 year old daughters it's acceptable behavior to be mean to a clerk in an attempt to get out of paying an overdue fine that is completely legitimate, coworkers who think they get to pick and choose what they are responsible for based on how much they feel like doing a task at any given time, teenage girls, teenage boys, screaming toddlers, snotty fifth graders, men who scan their own library cards, women who answer their cellphones while I'm attempting to complete a transaction, and the smell of something on the verge of burning wafting up from the cafe right now.

Aren't you glad you don't have to be around me today?

satire isn't an excuse to hate

Read that last night while watching VH1's top 100 songs of the 90s (a terrible horrible no good very bad decade for music, I might add) when they were covering Eminem. I think it's hilarious.

Yay for Christmas! Yay for 4 days off in a row! I'll try and give the quick rundown of the past few days:

• The Traverac came over Friday night and hung out at his old place. It was bizarre, but fun. We managed to play some Idiot, listen to some Ghostface Killah, and he and I stayed up until 4am. Just like the good old days!
• Saturday I crafted, watched Project Runway, crafted, watched LOTR, crafted, made gingerbread cake, crafted, made soup, crafted and went to bed
• Sunday I finished up the crafting, baked some more gingerbread cakes, read a novel, went to church and was briefly theologically confused when the evening started off with the Fall, drove to Family Fare in a snowstorm, watched some Project Runway, talked to Peter about church and anxiety and families and went to bed.
• Monday I woke up late, put off "wrapping" presents by watching Project Runway, knit, ate, wrapped presents and went to the Berghoef Family Christmas Extravaganza where I ate pork tenderloin and got lots of cool presents and got everyone a little tipsy off my Mom's insanely strong rumcake.
• Christmas Day we slept in until 11am. We lazed about. Made the really good coffee from Vermont and opened the East Coast presents which were again really cool and perfect. Peter made cinnamon rolls and I made scrambled eggs. With butter. In the skillet. Sat around and procrastinated cleaning up the apartment. Cleaned up the apartment. Went back to bed, curled up, and read another book. Got up for cocktail hour and Chinese food. Went over to Eric's and listened to some Johnny Cash, some Outkast and watched the aforementioned 90s thing until Eric remembered he had The Family Guy on demand. Went home and read.

So I'm back at work. The good news: I remembered to wear my nametag. The bad news: I'm lacking patience. I'm sure it has something to do with Molly's interview today and me having expected to have heard from her by now. I'm terrified she's going to leave and I'm terrified she's going to stay. I'll just have to wait and see. I also returned to find the Warning: Year in (P)Review is coming and here's the link to what you said last year. Yeesh. For some reason, despite the choices I have made the past year and how happy I am, reading about my longing to move back east made me a little sad. As did my declaration I was going to finally bake bread, finish my sweater, run in the RiverBank Run and stop being so defensive when people ask why I'm not married nor have children. Failed, failed, failed, and failed.

On a completely unrelated ending note:

I listened to Panda Bear this weekend.

I dig it.

less than four hours and counting...

Best cocktail napkins EVER made even more poignant given my 5 year begging-fest as a kid for a horse and my well-known love of the martini. Thanks, Mom and Dad!


It's Friday. I am officially over halfway through this day which started with me knocking over 4 cash register drawers I had just reconciled. I have been determined not to allow that bad beginning to ruin the rest of my day. Thus far I have been successful!

Highlight of the workday would be seeing how hard it is to make my new nametag fall off. Nametag: 0, Erin: 2. I stopped wearing my nametag about 3 years ago as there are numerous unsavory types I come in contact with (that would be you, general public) and for awhile I was living next door. When I moved I decided I still didn't want to wear it as I walked or biked every day. The novelty will wear off soon, I'm sure, and I'll go back to my nametagless self but for the time being I like having to put my hand down my shirt in order to put it on.

Tonight I might start baking the ginger cake. I can't wait because it's going to make my apartment smell so good! And I think instead of trying to come up with other quick breads to make for neighbors I'm just going to make another batch of cake and pour it into small loaf pans. I've had a brief respite from the crafting (except for knitting!) and tomorrow I really need to kick it back into high gear. It isn't nearly as labor intensive as Round 1, but I have a bunch of little things I have to get done and I don't want to forget anything.

Last night I went to Christina's for a bit. It was like being at my house: glue sticks everywhere, a whole bunch of projects in various states of doneness. We were both a wee bit distracted ("There.is.no.way.I'm.going.to.finish.this.knitting.project." "Do you think I should draw needles for numbers? Will they look like needles? Do I need numbers?"), but it's always nice to spend time with her. She looks AMAZING. Serene and calm as usual and just healthy and happy. She also has the most bizarre new cat (Boo is still around but not doing too well. She's currently on valium and spends most of her life glassy-eyed and dazed) named Alexander. He was a stray that showed up at the club and she took him on. He's kind of smallish and super lovey and cute. But he's a little...puppy-like. When he knows he's getting in trouble he shoots you these puppydog eyes. Grace? Completely disregards my existence when I yell at her. And Xander...well...fetches. He's got this little ball and he'll drop it at the feet of whomever he wants to play with. You throw it, he chases it, brings it back, drops it at your feet and lays down. It's weird. Fun, but weird.

So I'll be computer-free for 4 days starting at 5pm tonight. Tomorrow night I'm hoping we can finally have those Zeeland people over as we've put them off twice now for our Halfassed Christmas Party. Sunday I'll be crafting like a crazy person and then headingtochurch. Monday night it's the Berghoef Family Christmas Extravaganza! And Tuesday we'll probably end up inviting everyone over who either can't go home or doesn't have any other plans. Wednesday I'm back to work for a mere 3 days, off again for the weekend, working 5 hours on New Years Eve, then off again for a day. It's like a vacation with a little bit of work thrown in!

I'd wish everyone a Merry Christmas but I don't want to offend anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas. Or who has already celebrated Hannukah. Or will be celebrating Kwanzaa. Nor do I feel comfortable saying "Happy Holidays" as that seems to be offending a fair number of folk around the Western Michigan area this year. So instead I'll just say hopefully you're enjoying a few days off from your daily toiling and may this end of December-early January time be a good time for all!

we like to call that "pulling a judy"

Blurry day. For some reason I set my alarm clock an hour earlier than necessary last night. Very confusing morning for me. This left me in an unusually good mood which is just not normal for me before, oh say, 9am. Plus (and Dad, don't disown me over this!) I haven't been drinking coffee in the mornings lately so it was even more bizarre I was...well...perky.

Last night we got a tip from the cops that mayhaps a fight would ensue at my place of employment. There were obnoxious, loud, hormone-y teenagers and yes some gang members but alas no bullets were flying. I kid, but seriously it would be really helpful if the majority of staff wasn't either completely terrified of kids or so chockfull of white guilt they think teenagers are being unfairly targeted by staff. You know what else would have been helpful? Maybe Holland's Finest could have just done a little walk through at some point in the evening to quell some tensions. This happens every single winter. The weather turns colder and the kids who normally hang around outside move into the one place within walking distance that's warm and free.

I got my Christmas present from Molly today: 18 vegetarian tamales! They need to be individually packaged in freezer bags when I get home. Holy Mother of God they are delicious! She uses 5 different kinds of cheese and homemade tomatillo salsa. It's actually her grandmother's recipe and she only makes them once every few years so I feel especially honored I was the recipient of such a large haul.

My sister and I got all sneaky and bought me a ticket East after Dad has surgery. And THEN we told Mom and Dad so they couldn't try and talk us out of it. I'm flying into Hartford on the 9th, she and I will drive up to Vermont on the 10th and stay through the 14th. I'll fly home on the 15th. Short trip, but hopefully helpful and certainly meaningful. It'll be like Christmas after Christmas.

I think today should be Friday.

i think i'm supposed to take that as a compliment

A co-worker said I looked "just like a college student" today. Huh. Well, I'm not wearing pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt so I'm not quite sure what she means. Though as a 33 year old woman I should probably keep that in mind next time I want to wear a short plaid skirt, tights, legwarmers and a wool sweater. I think it's the glasses that put the whole thing over the top.

The Simpsons Movie was a success. 79 people were in attendance and almost all the doughnuts were consumed. We let them eat as many as they wanted so I'm sure some parents were thrilled their children were stuffed full of sugar. The big news of the day: Molly is being heavily recruited by GRPL to be a branch manager at a really really awful branch on the West Side. I mean, so awful our friend Anjie who used to work there had to drive one of her pages a half a block home each night for safety reasons. I'm really torn. Obviously I don't want her to go. She is definitely the only one here who is relatively sane, but at the same time she really should get out there and get a librarian job. Ultimately I know she wants to come back here once the head of the childrens department retires, but she needs more experience and this would be helpful.

And, uh, yeah I'd totally apply for her job. 40 hours a week, a cushy side job a trained monkey could handle, and more time for programming. The only downside is the crazy lady I'd have to work with but I can handle crazy. Nod, smile, and pretend to listen to her while she drones on and on about how important she is. I can do that for a raise and more hours.

It's almost here! One of my most favorite things that happens every 4 years: primary season! I know, I know, I'm being completely disenfranchised here in Michigan and the whole party system is a mess and the candidates are all sort of lame and who really cares, but I can't help it. Iowa makes me hot. New Hampshire makes me hot. Super Tuesday makes me hot. I did hear Hillary has pulled ahead again in NH but I think it's fun Obama and Edwards and she are so close. I keep saying Clinton's got it all wrapped up, but wouldn't it be superfun if the black man and the woman get beat out by the rich white man? And the Republicans are just as entertaining. Between pro-choice, pro-gay Guiliani who doesn't think campaigning in Iowa is important (that could have been a fatal flaw) to Huckabee who doesn't believe in evolution. Can you believe it's possible the next President of the United States could be someone who doesn't believe in evolution?! Or it could be a man whose faith is based on the ravings of a lunatic who put on magic spectacles and looked into a bag of rocks?!? Now that's entertainment! It's a great way to pass a winter, I say.

Last night while watching Kentucky get the pants beat off them by Houston (I felt like I was watching a stupid NBA game as all they did was run down the court, shoot 3 feet from the 3 point line, miss, run down the court, watch Houston score, run back and repeat) I started talking about how I want to be an editor and how I have zero traditional experience and how I absolutely have no idea how to..well..do it. And though I do love the thought of owning and operating my own press and possibly starting an online journal and being the capital E kind of editor what I really like to do is edit from the beginning. I like writers to hand off something they think is finished and work with it. And I like doing it for everything: Molly's 140 word reviews for Library Journal, Peter's poetry, Fatty's novel...I just like it. And though I have no "training" (What does that even mean? I wasn't an English major? I don't have a Masters degree from some fancypants school? Big deal.) I know I'm good at it. I can see what works and what falls flat. It's intuitive. (This does not apply to my own work, unfortunately. I'm my own worst editor!) But I have no idea how to do it. It's frustrating. Peter suggested starting to write reviews for online journals which is probably a good idea to get my name out there. We'll see. Plus, you know, once he gets his book published and is all a famous poet (ha!--famous poet! that always cracks me up! name one living poet besides Billy Collins because everyone knows Billy Collins as he's a superstar!) and I am thanked profusely on the acknowledgement page for my essential work as his editor the offers will just start rolling in.

Sigh. It's a nice dream.

little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky, little boxes, little boxes, little boxes, just the same

Check out who's on the cover of the Annual Berghoef Family Calander:


That would be from the infamous Chicago trip to the Star Wars Exhibit. Melissa and I are obviously taking our jobs very seriously, but Peter's goofing off. How is the Rebel Alliance supposed to defeat the Dark Side unless you get your act together, yo?!

Boxes to Vermont, Connecticut, and Colorado were officially sent out this morning at 11:15am. The relief I feel is palpable. I'm still furiously knitting away in hopes I can finish up an item for my Mom and send it express by the weekend. Aside from the cramping in my fingers and a few blurry-eyed mistakes I made last night I think I might just make it! Next up: Baking and the Berghoefs and the Van Tils.

I am happy to report tonight is the very last DVD Release Party run by Molly and myself. We're showing The Simpsons (even I can't believe we got away with showing that, but it is only rated PG-13) and instead of popcorn we're giving away pink frosted doughnuts. Mmmmmmm....Doughnuts! The movie is only 90 minutes long so the plan right now is to eat in 15 minutes allowing us to leave by 7:45pm. I am so glad to be finished with this program! We've compiled a "how-to-run" manual for the library in the hopes some other department will pick this up but I'm not all that optimistic anyone will. It really was hugely successful, but it just isn't right to spend adult programming dollars on something that is obviously geared to kids.

Last night I made Lentil Tacos for supper. Oh. My. Lord. These were so good! I've had this recipe floating around for about a year, but just never tried it. It was easy, I usually have all of the ingredients hanging around, and it's totally adaptable to one's tastes. I used tortillas instead of hard taco shells and had a nice green salad on the side with citrus-y dressing. Yum. I think Peter was skeptical (thought quite honestly he's pretty willing to try just about anything I'm willing to cook!) but he liked it enough to go back for seconds. I have the leftovers for supper tonight and I suspect they'll be even better the day after. I think tomorrow morning I'll make chili. I sucked it up this week and bought some organic lettuce, broccoli and carrots which just about killed me but I miss fresh vegetables so much I can't take it. I think that's the route I'll go this winter. I learned my lesson, however, and I really am going to can and freeze the beejeezus out of stuff next year. If anyone has suggestions for a small deep freeze, I'm in the market!

Season 3 of Project Runway just came in for me!!!!!! Yay! I've been on hold for this baby for months. MONTHS! And it comes at a perfect time as I stare longingly at my fabric stash. I have a ton of really beautiful wool I inherited from my sister last year and I am in desperate need of some new skirts. Project Runway always makes me fabrically creative. Yippee!

Outro: word or not?

Spell check says nay.

i think i might actually be able to get more than 5 hours of sleep tonight!

There is a light at the end of the crafting tunnel! Last night items were placed into boxes and lo and behold I'm almost finished! Thiiiiiiis close! There is definitely one item that is going to have to be sent separately and overnight as there is no way I can manage to knit for 15-20 hours between now and tomorrow morning (blast me for picking the perfect color and texture of yarn, but picking a pattern that requires about 65 stitches on size 8 needles!) and my bil will have a nice "still on the needles pal" note, but dang me if I'm not just a little proud of myself!

And exhausted. Completely and totally exhausted. But I have learned very important things mostly involving brainstorming for handmade Christmas presents before the end of October and starting on the sewing/knitting projects in about January and keeping my eye out for crafty sales and thrift store items throughout the year. It's a plan. I think I can do it.

So this afternoon I have one small sewing thingamajig to finish, 3 Christmas letters to write and 3 small items to purchase (I guess it's not 100% handmade Christmas but it is at least a locally purchased/fair trade item!) and then the boxes will be packed and shipped and out of my hands.

Next up: Gingerbread for Molly, cookies and/or candy for the neighbors, and round 2 of handmade stuff for Peter's family. Which is much less involved. And already 1/2 done. And I have all weekend off to finish as they don't have to be shipped.

Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. I cannot wait to sleep.

good day sunshine good day sunshine good day sunshine

Good news: The cancer has not spread! My Dad is scheduled for laparoscopic surgery on January 8th which is less invasive than traditional surgery. The relief everyone feels is overwhelming. It's still scary, but the news could have been so much worse.

A combination Molly graduated and Erin's Dad is gonna be okay ensued at Applebee's, of all places (Molly's pick), where I was introduced to $4.00 shakerfulls of top shelf margaritas. Delicious! I managed to leave my entire bag of crafting supplies in her truck, however, leaving me no choice but to continue the celebration down at the Sandbar with Shadetree and Ericka.

I got about 5 hours of sleep Friday night and spent the whole day in crafty mode. I made myself stop at 2am and was up again at 8:30am. I'm obviously at work this afternoon which is making me insane as I should be knitting or assembling something or sewing something. After work we're going to Jack and Nancy's for supper to celebrate Nancy's birthday with lasagna made by Peter (I'm bringing knitting. I have no choice.) and then tonight will be another marathon session. Last night we watched a ton of 30 Rock which is heeelaaarious I might add. Tina Fey is a genius. Tonight we might finish that off and watch something else: Fellowship of the Ring or Secretary or The Muppets Take Manhattan or Superbad. All things I've seen that I don't need to concentrate too much on. Though sleep-deprived this is all actually really fun! I'm having a great time with this whole handmade Christmas thing and if anything I just want to start earlier which probably won't happen as I work so well under pressure.

Right.

crafting and drinking do not mix

I am contemplating returning to the world of meat.

Ewwww!!!! As soon as I wrote it I got all squeamish! Even though I did recently enjoy some turkey! Ewwwww!!!!

It's really because I've gotten so into local food and now that it's winter and I'm obviously not getting much in terms of local produce I thought I might check out some local farms for meat. This does NOT mean I'll be hitting up the Burger King drivethru for Whoppers with cheese nor does it mean I'll be buying steaks from Meijer. It's just a thought. I'm thinking about it.

Lunch break today will consist of a drive to a craft store. I need a smallish embroidery hoop and some sort of floss/thread/yarn something that will penetrate the fleece I bought last night. Plus I need some yarn. Operation Handmade Christmas continues to move forward though I have made concessions that have eased anxiety. I have all of these projects floating around in my head and I'm terrified I'm going to forget something. But it's all good. It's starting to all sort of come together. I find myself looking around thinking "Well that's done! And that's almost done! And look! That's soooo close to being done!" Tonight I need to be somewhat productive though I'll have a belly full of margartia in me. No knitting. Or handwriting anything. Or using scissors. Glue sticks will have to suffice.

Everyone send very positive vibes east. Dad is hopefully finding out how extensive this whole cancer thing is. I'm optimistic. Because if I'm not optimistic I'll drive myself completely insane.

well now i just feel left out

So it must be the year of cancer as I just found out my Mom has been hit too. It's really small and her doctor said it's no big deal and it's skin cancer which our family has LOTS of experience with so it's going to be all good. I think I should go tanning or start smoking 3 packs a day or eat a ton of red meat or something just so I can join the party.

Black humor is pretty much the only way I'm going to be able to cope with all of this.

Christmas, though not canceled, looks like it may be completely different than originally planned. Which is fine by me! I might even go crazy and cook a small turkey. Or maybe some killer pork tenderloin. And then I'll eat it and love it. Not only am I blessed with a cancer-ridden family, I am blessed with a family that is chock full of acceptance. It definitely wasn't always easy and I was definitely, well, a challenge, but we got through and realized what is most important is love and acceptance. Pushing people away or being judgemental or trying to mold people into what you wish they were as opposed to who they are is not only hurtful it's ultimately harmful and counterproductive.

I really am unbelievably blessed.

Last night we watched "The Muppet Movie." Man, I love that movie. "Moving Right Along" is the bestest roadtrip song ever. And the humor is so adult friendly not in a stupid Pixar way but in a baudy "Hey it's the late 70s!" kind of way. I think we're going to try and get our hands on The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Great Muppet Caper (definitely the weakest of the 3).

A muppet filled Christmas might be the way to go.

crossing items off lists is so satisfying

Look! It's a blurry Christmas tree all decorated and lit and stuff! We did it last night while watching Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas which was slightly different from last year's decorating extravaganza involving dirty Rimbaud poems. It's nice. And homey. And it smells good. We decided to put it in the front room as it was, uh, a little bigger than I thought when I bought it. Plus we've been spending alot of time in there with all the crafting I've been doing as of late. Last night, though I was so tired I thought I wouldn't make it down the stairs, we did the obligatory walk outside and stare up at the lit tree thing. We tried to take pictures with a cellphone but they ended up looking like our house was on fire and we didn't want to alarm anyone as it is indeed entirely possible our house could be on fire.

I'm starting to feel a little more in control of Christmas. Things are coming together and once again I find myself a little in awe at my ability to not know how to do something, completely stress out about it and be paralyzed with uncertainty and to just end up doing it and having it all work out. Action. Action. Action. I forget sometimes that I'm pretty good at figuring out how to do things.

Tomorrow is the Christmas party here at work. Instead of freaking out over having mayonnaise-laden artichoke toasties sitting out for 5 hours (let alone the stress of having to go home tonight at 9 and assemble said toasties) I'm bringing some triple cream, crusty bread, and fruit. It'll go great with the provided pizza, pigs in a blanket, and wide variety of jello salads. One less thing to worry about, I say.

Friday Molly and I might be hosting Gleis and Son for lunch if we can convince Daddy we're all adults capable of handling a baby and eating at the same time. Honestly. I even offered to HOLD the BABY. Friday after work I'm going out with Molly and another coworker to celebrate the end of their semester and Molly being finished with her MLS! Yay! Thankfully she has no plans to desert me here and, in fact, they might be creating a librarian position for her which would mean her fulltimefulltime job would be open. And I'd be all about that.

Oh and just a fun little story about our cursed DVD Release Party series. Molly and I managed to set off the fire alarm yesterday afternoon due to some burning popcorn. Everyone evacuated into the freezing cold rain and the fire department had to come. One. more. movie. The Simpsons next Tuesday without popcorn with pink frosted doughnuts and we're officially DONE with it all. We were approached by a new employee who is still really optimistic and positive (sigh. I remember those days) about helping her with a family game night. What a great idea! In fact, I think we had that idea about 3 years ago! She wants to buy a Wii and maybe Guitar Hero and some board games and would we like to help her with that? I was pretty enthusiastic until Molly reminded me that we weren't doing DVD Release Parties anymore for a reason which is we no longer want to do the job of other departments and not get paid for it. Blast! She's right!

Talk to me in February. I'll bet I'm deep into organizing gaming tournaments.

it'll take more than the big C to bring that man down

Tough Sunday. Unbeknownst to me, my Dad--who also happens to be the greatest man in the universe--was diagnosed with cancer on Friday. I got an email but not until after I left work and therefore remained blissfully ignorant of the news until yesterday when I called for my semi-regular call home. He's so positive and upbeat that it makes me determined adopt the same attitude though to be honest I've spent the past 24 hours being pretty pissed off at the world and leaking tears. The hardest part is being so far away. Hopefully it's isolated and hopefully he'll qualify for the least invasive surgery possible. Positive thoughts would be much appreciated.

So...yeah. Huh. Pre-Sunday life seems fairly unimportant now. Nancy's birthday party was nice and everyone was on their best behavior. Saturday night was supposed to be f-u-n but I wasn't feeling too up for much so it was a night on the couch with Office Space and Pee-Wee's Big Top and my hands full of knitting. I'm getting ever closer to having an actual sewing table downstairs and to guilt me into using it I've put my stash of fabric on some shelves. Post-Sunday news we actually went to GR and saw "I'm Not There" which we've been talking about for well over a year and stumbled on unexpectedly. The best part? We done saw it for a grand total of $7.00 for the both of us. The Woodland Mall Celebration Cinema is touting itself as an Art Theater. The Darjeeling Limited is playing there, the new Ang Lee movie is playing there, Lars and The Real Girl is playing there...All for $3.50/person all.the.time.

"I'm Not There"--for those of you normal people who haven't been following this film every step of the way--is a movie sort of kind of based on Bob Dylan's life. Only 6 different people sort of kind of play parts of Dylan during parts of his life. And none of their names are actually Dylan. And it takes place in overlapping completely different time periods. And some of the people playing Dylan aren't even singer/songwriters. I liked it. I think. It's definitely one of those movies you want to give yourself some time to absorb. Some of it was a little too artfilmedout for my tastes and the boomers really do get their fill of Vietnam footage and the Village in the 60s, but it was what it was and whatever Todd Haynes was going for I think he was successful. Cate Blanchett was really good though Peter did say no matter how good she was if you've seen the original Dylan footage you'll probably be underwhelmed. And David Cross didn't get nearly enough to do as Alan Ginsberg. My favorite moment? Jim James singing "Goin' to Acapulco."

We got the needle back. Now we just have to install the needle. Which, for some reason, seems to be giving us some trouble. Which is even more frustrating than having waited 6 weeks for the stupid thing to come in. And to top it all off Peter had the nerve to buy the new Bonnie Prince Billy LP. So it, along with the I'm Not There soundtrack, is just sitting there staring at us. Mocking us.

Sigh.

be warned, kevin and xtina!

Why
I love
metafilter.

it's friday night and i'm determined to have some f-u-n

I'm back. Not 100% by any means, but I'm back. I spent the majority of yesterday going from the futon to the bed and back to the futon. Thanks to Peter I had hours of the Gilmore Girls to keep me company which is perfect sick-girl viewing. Lots of witty banter without having to think. I was productive in that I finished a gift for my secret santa person here at work. I usually hate these types of things, but this year I got a really good person who despite giving me very little to go on (hobbies: walking and spending time with family; snacks: fruit) I have managed to come up with creative and relatively cool presents that she has definitely enjoyed. Though I'm in need of one more winter-y fruit for Monday (she's already gotten clementines and a pomegranate so I'm thinking pear) she's basically done.


Unlike the rest of the Christmas presents I have to create! The next week is going to be all sweatshopped out as I've got some serious work to do. Half of what I need to do has to be finished by next Monday so it can be shipped East and West. I'm confident this will happen. I also have the library Christmas party to deal with. I really wanted to make the Fig and Walnut Tapenade with Goat Cheese, but was talked out of it by someone who suggested it would be wasted on the palates of most of those I work with so Artichoke Toasties it will be. I also have to make a Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread in exchange for some vegetarian tamales (I'm totally getting off easy with that one as tamales take forever) and somewhere in there I'd really like to make some Carmel-Dark Chocolate Truffles with Fleur De Sel for little gifts though Metal just blogged about some bacon chocolates which, I'm not gonna lie, sound insanely intriguing.


Yeah. Right. Okay. Not panicking.


Tomorrow morning I need to get crafty supplies. 12-2pm we're going to a birthday party where I am determined to have fun regardless of how uncomfortable the entire situation will be. Post-party I hope we're snagging a beer with Fatty as he's heading to India in a few short weeks. Tomorrow night it would be really swell if Shadetree and Ericka and Joel and Joan could come over and hang out in the new place. Sunday I might be discussing His Dark Materials with my gayboyfriend Michael and then Monday it's back to work.

Not. Panicking.

if you vote for mister splashy pants the terrorists win

I'm sick. My head is all stuffy. Yesterday I managed to sit on the couch, watch a bunch of episodes of Planet Earth, and knit. I slept for about 10 hours last night thanks to The Stockard Channing Special (lemon, honey, hot water and 2 shots of Jack) and woke up feeling...sick. I am, however, at work as tonight is a stupid DVD Release Party (the last Pirates movie--booooring!) and though I managed to run the parties by myself last year my compandre had a nervous breakdown over the thought I would call in. So I didn't. Tomorrow is still up in the air.

Everyone should click on this link and vote for Mister Splashy Pants and really piss Greenpeace off. Because, you know, getting angry about naming a whale isn't a complete waste of time at all. I can't seem to find the NPR story which tipped us off to the whole controversy. I was downstairs at the time and only got to hear Peter giggling not the actual story, but honestly. Do your part. Vote. For Mister Splashy Pants.

Speaking of Peter, that boy done gonna get a chapbook published. For those of you unfamiliar with the term here's what wikipedia's got to say about it. And here's a link to the site that is publishing it. Don't worry, I will shamelessly promote the hell out of it once it's available for purchase.

I had the extreme pleasure of listening to a GWB press conference this morning and was told Iran is still dangerous. In 2005 we were told Iranian leadership was "determined to develop nuclear weapons despite its international obligations and international pressure." And yet yesterday we were told Iran had stopped working toward nuclear weapons in 2003 and would most likely be unable to produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb until at least 2010.

Our intelligence community continues to amaze me with their obvious lack of intelligence.

Anyone who has a killer home remedy for a cold I'm open to suggestions.

"oh cruel fate, why do you mock me?"

I watched adult swim last night. I'm not going to lie I really do find Robot Chicken fairly funny. Though I was operating with a campari and soda (with orange? delicious!) and some Jinx. And Metalocalypse? Bizarre. In fact the shows just kept getting more and more bizarre as the evening went on.


I started weeding the fiction collection again. Normally I have no problem weeding and find it a fairly satisfying job (aside from the whole not being a librarian nor being paid librarian wages to do the job of a librarian thing), but I started with the short stories and thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown over the whole thing. Weed a collection of short stories edited by Raymond Carver? What are you, CRAZY?! I am nothing if not a professional, however, and managed to do the dirty deed only to find out from my superfantastical supervisor that these books were all getting "recycled" (read: thrown out) and I could take whatever I wanted.


I'm going home with about 15 books.


And this superfantastical supervisor is also responsible for me getting tomorrow off on very short notice. Woot! Woot! This does not mean I get to screw around tonight as I have some, umm, heavy things to move so tonight after supper at Baja Grill I have enlisted the help of my compandre. But tomorrow I should have plenty of time to clean that downstairs leaving me with the first free weekend in a very long time.

And that is a very good thing.

nothing says crazy like relating to a serial killer

Bought a rug. Thought it'd go downstairs. Got it home. Peter said "Let's put it at the top of the stairs." We did. Looks perfect. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Dexter is kind of blowing my mind. He acts just like everyone else acts only he thinks too hard about it. We're all faking it--pretending to enjoy various social interactions, socializing at work not because it's enjoyable but because it's expected, not acknowledging how alone we all feel--but Dexter thinks about his emptiness and separateness and there's something about that I like. Not to sound like a complete sociopath, but I can relate to him on some level. I'm an overthinker, overanalyzer, and all around introvert in an extrovert's clothing. I do like people and have some bizarre ability to attract people. Christina used to call it something...I chalk it up to being a good listener and decent conversationalist. I can quickly find myself in the middle of a conversation with someone I don't really know that well and they're unburdening themselves to me. I also have the added bonus of working a customer service job that requires I make conversation and smile a lot without really having to mean it. I'm faking it. All of this-the strangers telling me their life stories, the patrons I have to be nice to because I'm paid to do so--makes me feel Dexteresque.

Tonight I'm at work. Tomorrow I'm at work. Friday I'm at work though I'm contemplating asking for the day off as I have an awful lot to do downstairs before I'm technically supposed to be out of there and I could in theory complete all tasks if I don't sleep much and skip a dinner party Friday night which I don't really feel like going to anyway, but feel obligated to do so. Plus I still need to recaulk that teeny tiny hole that appeared in the tub, scrub that entire room down, buy a new shower curtain and rings and somehow come up with a brilliant solution to the obvious lack of bathroom storage space problem. And the downstairs room needs to be vacuumed and swept and mopped and an airconditioner needs to find a new home and some holes need to be dealt with and I'm still in need of a rug for that room and the desk needs to be moved. And then my old apartment needs to be completely cleaned.

Yeah I'm going to go see about that Friday off thing right now.

call it friend-o

Check out our branch. It fell from a dead tree and landed smack in the middle of our parking area this morning at around 9:30am. Thankfully the Honda, tucked safely in the bottom right corner, was unharmed. We are under a wind advisory here in Western Michigan all day and when you're fortunate enough to live in what is essentially a treehouse you deal with things like 15 foot branches falling down.


Enough about the branch! Onto more important things like how amazingly good "No Country For Old Men" was.

The Coen brothers done growned up. I had fairly high expectations and though they weren't exceeded they were most definitely met. Watching this movie was like looking at music. The pacing was perfect. You could almost hear the metronome measuring out each shot, each frame, each beat. And yet there was no music. No background music. No hip soundtrack. Nothing. It was deliberate and perfect and I can't imagine the film any other way. It did lack tension for me but that was my own fault as I read the book first and therefore knew who was going to die and when. There was one scene I found unnecessary and one actress I thought they Coen brothered up, but other than that I got no complaints. It was way less violent than I expected given how terrified I was reading it and knowing just how well those boys do up the violence. It was still bloody just not gratuitous. The world was a character in and of itself--scrubby desert-y West Texas with old motels and hotels and trailer parks and cars from the 70s and western shirts and cowboy hats and boots and shell casings and guns and scary dogs and dust and and drugs and outlaw cats. Tommy Lee Jones deserves an Oscar nod for this as do the brothers. Cormac McCarthy wrote an excellent novel about a changing world, a man who makes a mistake, a psychopath on a rampage, and a sheriff who is just trying to decipher it all. And these boys were the only ones I could imagine bringing it to the big screen.

Tonight I'm off in search of a rug for the downstairs as tomorrow, weather permitting, I'd like to get that desk in. I'd also like to get every other little thing I've been putting off--the typewriter, the sewing machine, the fabric, the boxes of kitchen stuff I only use once a year when I actually make homemade pasta but refuse to give away--up the stairs. Enough is enough of this split living. I'm ready to nest.

ooooh! and a picture of the romanesco broccoli...or italian cauliflower...or whatever you wanna call it!

wanted: the new bonnie "prince" billy mini lp on vinyl

Sunday mornings are generally my most favorite time of the week. I prep the coffee, head to Readers World for a Times and a Press, come home, make something really yummy, and spend the morning working my way through both papers while listening to NPR.

Yesterday I prepped the coffee, got the Times and the Press, ate something fast and underwhelming, and started painting.

Painting a ceiling? Not fun.

I did have help with the rest of the room which was nice. And it really was worth the trouble as the room is now significantly brighter and at least looks cleaner. All that's left is finding a rug and moving the desk and then it is finished. The nice thing about having a month to move is that you get a month to move. The horrible thing about having a month to move is that you get a month to move. I'm ready for this to be over.

I rewarded myself last night by making homemade potato leek soup and going to Saugatuck where we ran into Erik which is always fun. AND Pete was nice enough to put The Family Guy on one tv and the Patriots game on the other. AND Peter most likely met the woman of dreams thanks to me wanting to buy her a drink for playing My Morning Jacket and Dylan on the jukebox. They talked Animal Collective.

I hate Animal Collective. They remind me of Sufjan only way more obtrusive and irritating and their lyrics are worse. I guess the one nice thing I can say about them is that they occasionally have some really nice musical moments but they interrupt it with wailing or screeching or repetitive nonsensical loudness. I'm really excited because Peter is thiiiiis close to getting their new cd in at the library which means I'm definitely gonna get to hear it. Plus the new Panda Bear cd is coming in which for all of you lucky enough not to have heard of him is a member of Animal Collective.

Anti-hipster music rant over.

As usual we stayed longer than we wanted, but met some cool people (Animal Collective girl included) and I managed to drag my sorry ass to work on time this morning armed with tea and a peanut butter and jelly sammidge for breakfast.

We have a huuuuge decision to make this afternoon: Do we go to the 4:10 or the 7:15 showing of "No Country For Old Men." Because we're going. Today. Let moving my clothes up wait one more day. For some reason this movie is only playing at one theater in GR which means if we're gonna be up there anyway we should probably just go to The Pita House for supper. And if we go to the one in Easttown we should probably stop in at Mulligans.

It would be rude not to.

am i really not being that clear or am i just attracting people who are mentally deficient?

What an unexpectedly wonderful few days! Wednesday night did turn out to be martini time and I was happily joined by 2 boys who were all gung-ho about heading south to the bar only to be talked out of it by little old beguiling me. The kept me company as I chopped some veggies (though I didn't have to do it all as Peter not only cut the brussels sprouts off the stalk for me, but also roasted the beets all by himself!). The romanesco broccoli? Heavenly. Sweet and delicious. It was even good raw.

Thanksgiving day was lovely. We were in a beautiful new house surrounded by family. My roasted vegetable dish was a big hit thanks to it's gorgeous color and unusual vegetable. We got home a little later than I expected leaving me no choice but to once again ignore painting the downstairs. I wish a little elf would come over and just paint it for me. I know it's not that big of a deal I just don't want to do it.

So there.

Yesterday? Superfun. A friend of mine I hadn't seen in at least 10 years was in town for the holiday and took me out for lunch which of course turned into drinks. I got to pick the place so Journeyman it was: a trio of cheeses--there was this triple cream paired with honey that was to die for, squash soup with fennel pollen (and I'm sorry, I could not taste the fennel pollen which just confirmed why I don't ever buy the stuff) and a beet salad with truffle oil which I could indeed taste and should purchase. We finished with 2 truffles: lavender and Earl Grey. He then suggested we hit up the Sandbar where we sat for a long time. It's so strange having had no contact for so long only to discover that though we had changed, who we were really hadn't at all. I'm optimistic we'll be staying in contact as I hoodwinked him into being my penpal.

And he let me play with his iphone.

Which was pretty sweet.

I hate making declarations on this blog because then I'm inevitably doomed to fail, but tomorrow? Painting. December 1st is one week from today and I want to be completely out of the downstairs. Being out of the downstairs means getting the desk out. And getting the desk out means painting the entryway.

Please little elves come and paint that room for me?

i am thankful i am out of here in less than an hour

Slllllloooooooowwwww night here. Deathly slow.


I'm obsessively and unnecessarily refreshing my gmail. I've been checking MySpace every 10 minutes. Thankfully there's someone else on Facebook which is breaking up the evening nicely, but he's making me terribly thirsty for a Grey Goose martini with gorgonzola stuffed olives and I have sworn off the bars tonight given it is the most popular bar night of the year and we're supposed to get some snow. That'd be some snow that's gonna stick, people. So when I'm finally released from my desk I will be going home to Stoli and supermarket olives. Sigh.


Today has been a most excellent day. It started bright and early with a trip to the market: butternut and delicata squash, romanesco broccoli, 2 leeks, a ton o'beets, brussels sprouts, and german butterball potatoes. It was a small but enthusiastic bunch of farmers who were helpful as usual. I then hit up my Nature's Market for the rest of my groceries and one last stop at the supermarket where I only had to buy frozen blueberries, spinach, and bread. Take that supermarket!


Though slow and boring, work has really not been so bad. I've only been blessed twice--during the holidays it tends to happen more--and I finally got the Go-Go's "Vacation" outta my head. I had my evaluation today was pleasantly surprised to hear my supervisor thinks I'm doing a swell job. I went to the Curraugh for supper where there was some sort of unusual melding of worlds--sitting at an "Irish" pub with a bunch of people from Holland who were all enthusiastically watching England and Croatia play soccer. Yeah. Weird. And since then I've been trolling the internets for entertainments.


I also just found out despite the enormous amounts of time I spend reading, I am woefully ignorant of most of this list.


Slooooooowwwww.

Tonight I drink a martini and roast a bunch of vegetables for the Thanksgiving feast tomorrow. Originally I was going to go all old school and make Green Bean Casserole, but when I saw the haul I had from the market I changed my mind. What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than preparing a dish that was grown within 20 miles of your home?

i reached for the first one and there were 2 missing and then i don't remember the next 2 but i definitely remember taking the last one

I slept like a rock. Like a rock in a bed.

There was some unnecessary freaking out over things we didn't need to freak out over, but you'll have that when you're 2 relatively intelligent people who can spend hours discussing the fall of the American empire and yet are actually frightened of caulk.

Yeah, that's not done yet.

Anyway, I was bitchy and it was raining/sleeting, but we wrapped up the box spring like a Christmas present, very slowly drove it to Zeeland, made the switch, went home, made the bed, laid down happily upon the bed, ate some supper and then went back to Zeeland to party down with Ericka and Shadetree.

I listened to Muse. I talked to Shadetree about cooking and food. And caulk. I talked to Ericka about people who seem to feel as if my choices are somehow judgements on their choices when it actually feels as though I'm being judged. And somewhere in there I managed to consume 4 Dirty Bastards.

Ouch.

When I get home from work tonight I have the NYT waiting for me. And maybe we'll go crazy and get Chinese food. And I finished The Subtle Knife and have moved on to The Amber Spyglass so I may skip the Simpsons and the Family Guy (horror of horrors!) and read instead.

In my bed. In my new apartment.

I am happy and content.

i might become a meat-eater

I thought I'd be fine. I thought I could just go back to the supermarket and go shopping. I even made a list the way I used to--in geographical order from the back to the front. My list was heavy on the produce but I figured what the hell! It's Meijer! They've always had the best produce!

It was horrible. Awful. Pathetic.

Green beans were on sale. Now, I should know better. I know green beans are not in season--at least not anywhere around here. So why did I even bother sticking my hand into that bin filled with wrinkle-y, smushy, old green beans? The eggplant wasn't any better. The only carrots I could find came in a bag--not baby carrots, mind you, but still no tops. There were no brussel sprouts (in season!), no kale (in season!), and no beets (in season!).

This sucks.

I have no one to blame but myself for not setting up produce this year. I'm considering going back to eating meat actually as I can get locally raised and processed meats. Tomorrow morning you can bet your sweet ass I'll be heading to the market. I haven't been going mostly because I haven't really been cooking much with the move and all. But tomorrow I'm loading up. Potatoes and beets and kale and cauliflower should all still be there. I really was quite visibly upset after the whole experience and though I am prone to being a bit dramatic even I was surprised at my reaction. When Peter asked what I had done last winter with the whole produce thing I just said, "Well, I never thought about it last year." What a drag. Being someone who thinks about things.

I'm reading the His Dark Materials series. I finished The Golden Compass in just over 24 hours. It's really fun. Dark and scary and really fun. It's also fun to search around on the internets for controversy surrounding the upcoming film. I'm sure I'll end up being disappointed in the movie, but the first book really was something. I've heard people say they couldn't get through it and that it was slow, but I thought it was really amazingly well-written. There are all of these cool elements: every human has a daemon which is essential a physical representation of one's soul. Childrens daemons can change up until puberty and then as an adult they are fixed. There are witches that are hundreds of years old, armored polar bears, a cowboy from the country of Texas with a hot air balloon, and an evil woman from the Magisterium with a scary golden monkey daemon, and the mysterious Dust The Church believes to be original sin. There's some crazy stuff in there, my friends. Science fiction/fantasy kinda stuff that I normally wouldn't get into and yet I can't get enough. I started The Subtle Knife yesterday and haven't gotten very far, but I'd like to wrap this whole series up by Sunday night.

So it's about to be the weekend. Tomorrow I'm hoping there will be some boxspring swapping. Maybe the bathroom upstairs will finally get finished. Maybe we'll finally move the rest of the bookcases up too. Maybe my clothes will make the trip. Maybe I'll say forget it to everything and just try and find a place to watch the Michigan/Ohio game at noon. Tonight I hope we get to see the man who was going to help rip out my stairs who hopefully won't have to any longer. And I might have to go down to the LRS and rough up a man who told me a WEEK AGO my NEEDLE WOULD BE READY and that HE'D CALL ME BACK in 24 HOURS. Plus where's my new Devendra Banhart on vinyl I ordered months ago, boys?!? HUH????

Maybe I'll see if the scary stairs man will come with me and crack some skulls.

well this just doesn't bode well for america

Remember when I used to use this blog as a place to rant and rave about the state of the world?

I wonder what happened...

Oh wait, I remember.

I got really excited when the Democrats took back the House and Senate only to watch them continue to trot out different versions of the same legislation that keeps getting vetoed. The dollar is slipping, oil prices are up, the housing market is in a downward spiral, health care costs continue to skyrocket, and they won't let Iraq go. Let it go. We're not going to pull out. Maybe we should, but I can pretty much guarantee until Bush is out nothing is going to change so just stop and start trying to fix some shit at home.

And speaking of Bush being out, how is it possible that primary season hasn't even started and I've already got extreme candidate fatigue?!?! Me! The biggest political junkie I know and I am sick to death of hearing about Clinton and Edwards, and Guiliani and Thompson. I haven't watched one single debate, people. Not one!

Plus I'm also living in a state that, right or wrong, is challenging tradition when it comes to primaries which means none of the candidates are even campaigning here. The RNC is threatening to strip MI of half its delegates while the DNC won't seat any of MI delegates.

Disenfranchised much?

You win, George. You win. You've beaten even me into submission. Unfortunately because this country is still standing after every thing you've done to it, I honestly don't care about the elections. Hell, I don't really much care about the democratic process. Vote, don't vote, don't matter much. When your choices are between a carpetbagger and a man whose political experience amounts to being class president of a really big high school how could anyone truly believe their vote counts for anything?

tomorrow i should spend the last of my pennies at the farmers market because it would be nice to say goodbye

This day has been a blur.

So this post will be blurry to match.


I vaguely remember wanting eggs for breakfast but not having any and making some sort of tempeh/potato concoction.

I joined facebook and it's all Patty's fault.

Tonight we had 129 people show up to see Shrek 3 which was just not a very good movie.

But I get to go home early which makes me happy.

Saturday a big man with a crowbar is hopefully gonna come over and rip out my stairs.

I promised him supper.

See?

Blurry post.

strange days indeed

First off, the apartment we stayed at in Chicago? More than I ever imagined: Three bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, 2 blocks from Michigan Ave, 2 balconies, floor to ceiling windows with views of the Hancock building, the lake, and the Sears tower. And it was on the 40th floor. Decadent doesn't begin to describe it.

Saturday morning we got up with a vague plan of heading south, finding a cheap diner to eat breakfast and then snagging a cab to the museum. That went really well. We found a perfect little place to eat and got a cab outside a hotel on Michigan. I even nailed the price: $15-$20 for the 4 of us. We got to the museum before noon and wandered around. It was really cool though a wee more kid friendly than I expected. At some point I managed to put my ticket to the Star Wars exhibit down (there were these terminals all over the museum where you could send emails to people and I did just about everywhere!) and I think that's where it happened. Why oh why did I not just put the ticket in my pocket or purse I'll never now. There was about 30 minutes of retracing steps, some lump-in-the-throat "No, seriously, you guys should just GO" moments as I was convinced I was out of luck, but low and behold thanks to Melissa having brought the receipt and some extremely nice ticket people I got in. We got a sweet picture of the 4 of taken right when we walked in. The exhibit was really cool. Lots of props and costumes and models and stuff. Unfortunately it wasn't made clear that the sit-in-the-Millennium Falcon thing was completely separate, but Reuben got some sweeeeet pictures of the model they used in A New Hope. Insanely detailed. We were there for about an hour or so, breezed through the gift shop and decided to head back and catch a beer at the Billy Goat.

First impressions of the Billy Goat weren't great, but the experience got increasingly better. Especially after Melissa and I had Horny Goats to drink (Traci, you would LOVE it: Bacardi Limon, 7UP, and a splash of cranberry juice!) and we found out State had won that day and Notre Dame lost. We watched some of the Illinois game and though we didn't get to see it live were happy to hear they beat Ohio. We then headed back up to the apartment after stopping at Trader Joes for some nosh (man, I love that place), watched YouTube videos, and had way too much fun with the very expensive very high powered telescope. Around 8:30 we decided we should head out on the town for a little bit. I was under the mistaken impression we were east of Rush. After walking 4 blocks west we discovered our error and after stopping at a little pub for a pint headed back. Rush Street was something else. The Bentley dealership on Rush Street was something else. We rubbed elbows with the rich and gazed into shop windows and just had a good time. We stopped into one more place for another pint, Peter bought me a birthday shot of Jameson and the evening took a turn.

I'm not going into details, but the evening got ugly. Really ugly. Tears were shed and people got shoved around and the night dissolved into a Jerry Springer-like atmosphere. It was really unfortunate as we'd had such a great time up until that point for the most part. Needless to say the majority of Sunday was strained though Peter very wisely chose to sleep for most of it including the drive back. I'm sad to say it probably goes down as the worst birthday in recent history though the first birthday we were together I got to see Jeff Tweedy, and the second birthday I got to see OCMS both of which are hard to top. The majority of the weekend really was fun. But I'm pretty sure there's a new "normal" in town and things are not ever going to be the same.

The bed? Can't be cut. The stairs have got to come out. I need to set something up with my front neighbor soon as we're going to need her help on this and we're both already sick of not having an actual living room. It's like we're still downstairs as one room is completely unusable.

I'm off this afternoon and am hoping to get the rest of my kitchen up along with the bookcases and little end tables and whatnot. Maybe tonight is a good night to scrape together some pennies and head back to our favorite waterhole. I think we both need it.

must.have.needle.for.record.player.soon.

Best laid plans.

Anybody know how to get a queen size boxspring up some stairs with a low overhang and a support post blocking the way?

Anyone?

After about 2 1/2 hours, much swearing, non-support posts being ripped out and one stair removed we gave up. That would be the very first thing we attempted to move. We then ended up having to disassemble the futon, move it up, and put it back together again. There was foul language, but that bitch went back together and we're currently sleeping on it. AND almost everything else big is up there. Except the record cabinet. And the big bookcases. And the table formerly known as the liquor table. And, of course, my desk. It's almost like we live there. Last night we sat in the reading nook surrounded by our books: the Han Solo trilogy (not mine) nestled next to The Bhagavad Gita (also not mine), up against the Norton Anthology (I wish that were mine) on shelves next to The Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld (oh so mine), 2 copies of Ulysses (staring at me until my 40th birthday), and so many books I haven't read but have always meant to.

Grace has moved gracefully. Though if she doesn't either knock over wine glasses from the upper shelves or manage to fall about 15 feet onto the stairs below it'll be a miracle. She zips up the stairs and very cautiously creeps down. She keeps looking at Peter and I wondering if and when we're going to yell at her for being in a wrong place. If the indent is any indication it appears as if she spent her first day sleeping on Peter's pillow. And she spent last night sleeping on him. Which is typical Grace behavior.

This morning I scrubbed the watercloset. I've taken to calling the room-with-the-toilet the watercloset for obvious romantic reasons. And now my hands are aching from the vigorous scrubbing I gave the floor. And because that wasn't enough I scrubbed the kitchen sink too. The caulking may happen tomorrow night depending upon my ability to scrub out the tub which will depend on the state of my arthritic feeling fingers after checking people out all day. It will also depend on the state I'm in after coming back from picking up a reimbursement check from the alcoholic caretaker. If I get out there without having scotch with her it will be a miracle.

A brief recap of yesterday: Acres of Thrift, moved some stuff, went to Black River and talked to a roomful of highschool students about editing poetry with Peter who talked about writing poetry and remembered just how happy I am that I'm not in highschool but still had a splendid time, voted, ate a very quick supper, felt pretty calm about the inevitable DVD Release Party chaos until the DVD player wouldn't play the brand new Ratatouille DVD we had just bought and then wouldn't play a second brand new copy we managed to get ahold of in about 5 minutes meanwhile 140 people are crammed up against the doors anxiously awaiting said movie and we somehow managed to get to the movie through the chapters instead of the play movie option only to have it freeze and skip about half way through forcing us to jump a chapter to get past it.

And then I went home and drank a coupla beers to recover.

I was faced with the task this afternoon of trying to discover whether it was a player or a DVD problem. First DVD I tried (another brand new one I might add) and the DVD went into the player and never came out.

We're getting a new DVD player next Tuesday.

It's a little soon to get excited about the weekend as I still have 2 very long days of work without my compandre, but I can't help it.

I'm gonna sit in a replica of the Millennium Falcon, yo.

"ooh! i'm going to be surrounded by seamen! sperm whales and seamen! oh look! a swallow!"

Blog title compliments of Family Guy last night.

That wall? At the top of the stairs?

Not white.

Which, of course, I already knew. There were naysayers. There were those that said I was crazy (which I am but not about the color of that wall).

One coat of primer and one coat of paint and NOW that wall is white.

Barring some sort of weather-related incident I guess we're moving up today. Which is good. We need it. For the sake of our mental health. First thing up is hopefully the bed and I will immediately put fresh, clean sheets on it so it's ready for when we're finished for the night. I think we might move Grace up tonight too. Given that the heater is directly under the open stairs I'm anticipating a fat lazy cat parked halfway up the staircase. I'm thinking we should dip her in glow-in-the-dark paint in an attempt to avoid the inevitable screeching that will occur when we step on her.


This has gone well thus far. This cleaning/fixing things thing. I'm actually a little surprised. Not that I expected us to dissolve into screaming matches over who has to clean the bathtub versus who has to clean the refrigerator as that just ain't our style. But I did expect a little...resentment or more anger even if it was just due to lack of adequate sleep. I think this all bodes well for cohabitation.

having a shopvac is like having your own droid. i think i'm in love!

The stove fit. It's purty. Unfortunately the oven is unusable as the knob isn't functioning properly. Either a safety feature didn't get de-safetied or a knob was faulty. A phone call has been made and it should be taken care of tout de suite. The light in the bathroom that should have been "no big deal" to replace has become a big deal. Sigh. I'm about to call in a near professional who could probably fix the problem in about 2 seconds and be happy to do the work for beer. And the caulk? A vile and disgusting job. Vile. Glove-worthy vile. I'm about half finished with the stripping part having squirted a ton o'caulk softener on there last night before bed.

I'm tired.

The good news? The downstairs closets are almost empty (though I suspect I shopvac-ed up a mummified mouse) and the junk just needs to be hauled to the outbuilding. The fan and the beams have all been vacuumed and wiped down. There is one little light that needs cleaning and then the floors and then we're moving up even with the bathroom in disarray as we'll have access to the downstairs until the end of the month. I want this done. I'm so sick of cleaning. I'm so sick of living in chaos. We really do have plenty of time but I just want it over. It sucks because we keep getting asked to do fun things like go watch the end of the U of M/State game on the old neighbor's new HD tv, but if we don't stay focused we just push ourselves back even further. And with DVD release parties the next 3 weeks and a trip to Chicago next weekend I really really really want to get this move done.

The new Menards--where I did indeed save big money--was a thing of beauty. May I never have to set foot inside Lowe's or Home Depot ever again!

post-Menards, tonight should be a martini night

Roasted beets are delicious. They are even more delicious when tossed with feta, kalamata olives, couscous and garbanzo beans. Peter has never eaten beets which doesn't surprise me but does make me sad in my heart.

Say a little prayer right now that the stove will fit. Because it is indeed getting delivered this afternoon. Tonight we're going to save big money at Menards--the new schnazzy one on 16th and 31--and pick up everything we need to finish. I don't work tomorrow (is it me or does it feel like I've worked every freaking Saturday lately?!) and I hope I can crank out the caulking, the light, the minor painting in the closets, and the cleaning. I'd love to start the book pilgrimage tomorrow night.

Oh and no, I am not packed. Nor am I going to pack. Aside from the books which can go up in boxfuls and go directly onto the plethora of built in shelves, the plan is to move the big stuff: bed, futon, table, rocking chair, yellow chair, lamp thingy from granny, bookcases, record player, tv, and endtables. Next will be the essentials: clothing, toiletries, kitchen stuff. Last up? The I-need-but-don't-use-everyday: sewing machine, yarn, box of journals from 5th grade through college, pictures...Rumor has it there will be a brand spanking new empty dumpster on the property next week sometime which will give me an opportunity to dump a whole bunch of stuff I'm not using/is broken/is torn/is useless. Actually LAST last up is the desk. Which thankfully isn't really going up as I'm pretty sure it would be next to impossible to get up the stairs.

You'll all be happy to hear that Michigan's budget crisis is now officially over. Libraries took an 18% hit which is much easier to swallow than the originally expected 50-75% hit. Schools get a 1% per pupil increase as do universities. The service tax did make it through and though people are grumble-y there's not much that can be done. If the Republican party can find the $750 million dollars that tax is expected to generate without cutting social services I say go right on ahead. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this state is in some serious trouble. We're bleeding out jobs and left with a blue collar workforce used to making good money and no manufacturing jobs for them to go to. The home foreclosure rate in Michigan rose 58% in the third quarter compared to 30% nationally. I honestly don't know where this sense of loyalty to this state comes from as I'm obviously a transplant, but I would actually feel bad if I left. Which is pretty hilarious because it's not as if I'm in the medical field or technology field or any really useful field that could generate revenue. I actually do my best to consume as little as possible given my wacked out hippy liberal environmental views and I don't even own a car which really doesn't do much good for Michgan's former financial pillar. And yet, here I stay.

should a grown woman dress up like eeyore for halloween? you decide

Oh my it's slow here tonight. Even the small grease fire in the cafe that forced everyone out of the building for about 15 minutes wasn't enough to make this night at the library exciting. They even sent the big trucks. Thankfully, there is the best-of-craigslist here to keep me company. It's like a rip off of Open Letters on McSweeney's and maybe a dash of Ask Metafilter. Mostly it's just a mildly amusing way to pass the time when one isn't supposed to be reading.

Man, I'm bored.

So the Day of the Dead thing was a raging success. We had about 250 people come through in about 2 hours. We ran out of sugar skulls in 20 minutes. We ran out of chocolate with about 45 minutes to go. And yet no one really seemed to mind. It was quite a moving experience actually. Someone took a ton of pictures which someday I might have access to so when that happens I'll post 'em. Here's the article in the Sentinel about the event. Kari's quoted about the Sister Mary altar which is cool.

And the stove upstairs is gone! Poof! Not really poof more like "kathud kathud kathud kathud kathud kathud kathud and repeat until stove is down the stairs." I have yet to hear if the new one made it in today but when I finally am released from this desk I'll check my messages and see. If that thing makes it in tomorrow or so I'm pretty sure we'll be moving Sunday. Or Saturday night maybe. The 2 big things left are caulking the tub and replacing the light in the toilette room as it is not the starter which is what we had hoped. Now don't panic everyone, but I think I'm actually going to attempt to replace that fixture all by myself. And yes I'll turn off the electricity in order to do it (though I just heard last night that if you want to test if something is live to hit it with the back of your hand instead of your fingers as you will undoubtedly clamp down your fingers thereby shocking the shit outta you. Good tip, I thought). We've decided to hold off on the painting until after we're up there as it really is just the big wall at the top of the stairs and it'll get all scuffed up anyway. The search for cheap chairs and cheap rugs is about to be on.

it's really not that interesting

Now that it's officially out and I know how to feel about it thanks to Pitchfork giving it an 8, I'm almost ready to give a track by track review of I'm Not There. The only reason I played it on the downlow was because I didn't want to get my LRS in trouble for selling me that wa-ay early. Because, you know, The Man combs the internets for such things and would bust me out. But seriously, it's really really really good. So good I do not regret my choice to buy it on cd and vinyl. Or maybe I kinda regret the vinyl but only because I can't listen to it until I get my new needle. Though I may not be able to resist temptation, I wonder if I should wait until the record player is situated it it's place of honor upstairs and listen to it for the first time on vinyl. Or does that make me crazy?

Market day tomorrow. I grow weary of squash. The time is fast approaching when Meijer must be faced. Sigh.

Tonight is our Day of the Dead program here at the library. I'll be curious to see what the turn out is like. Earlier this week I had a woman come in because members of her church had seen our display and thought the library was promoting Satan worshipping and "blaming it on the Mexicans." If anyone can decipher the logic of their complaint please fill me in. We have about 15 altars set up in the auditorium and they are really quite something. Kari's really does kick some ass as she did Sister Mary complete with an ashtray, her Janis Joplin records, paperclips (Mary's favorite invention. I never thought about this before. A favorite invention. I might have to go with the post-it note, but I'll get back to you on that), and her poetry dissertation from State. I ran out of time and didn't get mine together but I'll definitely be in for next year. It's a great celebration and I hope we end up with good community support.

Things are moving very quickly upstairs and it's not impossible that we'll be up there before my birthday which would be ideal. Painting the big wall at the top of the stairs might just wait until after we move in which means after the stove is in (end of the week maybe?) we have the last of the cleaning and then we're a go. I honestly can't wait. The vibe up there is so positive. With those huge windows it feels like you're living in the trees. And with all the built-in bookshelves, Peter and I will officially look like insane people surrounded by books.

Dang. That sounds like a little piece of heaven to me.

put the needle on the record

I bought the biggest bunch of kale yesterday. It's so big it's currently sitting on my desk as it doesn't fit in my fridge. It's obscene. And intimidating.

Productive day off yesterday: Dropped off the needle at the record store, got lucky and bought I'm Not There which is probably something I shouldn't say as it's not technically released until Tuesday but my local record store is awesome, hit up the coffee shop, went to the market, went to Target, finished reading Who Will Run the Frog Hospital, cleaned the fridge upstairs, made Spicy Rice and Kale, went to the parents' house for supper and didn't get home until 10:30pm, went upstairs to admire my cleaning job on the fridge, sat on the floor and listened to I'm Not There which is awfully good excepting the very dull Sufjan track though we did come up with alot of people we wished was on there if we had been the one's to curate the album: The White Stripes, The Roots, Devendra, Beck...Stephen Malkmus was good but his tracks were played pretty safe and I can't believe I'm saying this but Eddie Vedder kicked ass on All Along the Watchtower. And I actually get a little teary-eyed during Tweedy's Simple Twist of Fate. Jeff Tweedy should cover Blood on the Tracks. All of it. The evening ended with some Jameson and some sitting at the top of the stairs reading someone's scribbling on the wall about the history of the universe and some wishing metal was there to talk about it.

howard dean is coming to hope college monday!

I made the mistake of watching the network news last night: 10 minutes on the California fires (I sympathize, I really do, but how much do you wanna bet Malibu will get rebuilt a hell of alot sooner than the 9th Ward?), 4 minutes on spouses of presidential candidates (sans Bill so who really cares?), a 5 second mention on the space shuttle launch, a 5 second mention on the Dow, a 7 minute story on the importance of marriage, and another 3 minutes on the fires.

I could only conclude that nothing had happened in Iraq, the Turkey/Kurd standoff came to a peaceful and mutually beneficial end, and Afghanistan was secured.

The INTRO--not even the news summary!--in the INTRO of NewsHour I discovered that indeed the Turkey/Kurd standoff was heating up, a number of civilians were killed in Iraq, and Afghanistan is on the brink of disaster. I don't know why exactly this enrages me, but it does.

If you look to the right of the screen you might notice a few additions. Click about if you'd like (Wikipedia, Peter, Raleigh, Kevin, Molly, Metacritic and Metafilter) but be warned: Ask Metafilter is one of those insane timewasters that makes you feel slightly bloated and completely empty at the same time. And the goodreads link goes to my profile. If you haven't yet experienced the beauty of goodreads I pity your existence. Life is good with goodreads.

I chose not to market today as I'm still flush with produce. Or at least I have enough to get me through until Saturday. This morning I roasted acorn squash for supper tomorrow night (which will be halved for lunch on Friday). I did somehow manage to not account for a lunch tomorrow which will mean it's frozen veggie burgers, peanut butter and jam, or some sort of boxed just-add-water-Indian thing. Saturday I'll stop by for brussel sprouts and apples and kale and cauliflower and whatever else looks good. I still have a butternut squash to get through but the beauty of the squash? Longevity!

Tomorrow night I'm hoping to get upstairs and start the cleaning. The stove request has been officially made and the target date for moving in is still mid-November. So far we're looking at

• replacing some small nails in one bedroom's ceiling
• replacing the starter on the light in the toilette room
• ripping out the old caulk and recaulking the tub
• repainting the wall at the top of the stairs and the cupboards/bookcases along the walls white
• get rid of all of the old junk that has been collecting in that apartment for years including but not limited to: bicycles, holahoops, random cuts of wood, Encyclopedias, and many cans of very old paint
• cleaning
• cleaning
• cleaning

This is a topdown project that I have a feeling I will find extremely gratifying. To be able to clean something and actually see a difference will be an experience I have not had for a while (except for when my parents came out and washed my windows this summer---daaaaang! Who knew those windows could get that clean?!) and I'm looking forward to it.