Sunday, April 29, 2007

I will not be able to move tomorrow

Thursday night I went to the batting cages with some coworkers to get ready for a softball game.

Friday I had the softball game. Then I went home and mowed my yard.

I woke up sore yesterday, and then I decided it was time to paint my hallway. I thought I could do it in one afternoon.

I painted until about 11:30 last night, then most of the day today. Most of that time was spent hunched over painting baseboards.

I wrote several blogs about it in my head during the 108 hours of painting. But I'm too tired now to put the imaginary blogs on my actual blog.

I hurt.

C.T.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The Burbs

I've noticed over the years that there's a lot of talk and blog about how the suburbs are uncool, cookie-cutter and stale, and lame compared to places closer to downtown, uptown, or anywhere non-burb.

We'll give non-burb a codename of inside "The Loop".

Granted, some burbs can be as I described above. But not all burbs are the same, and sometimes cool people do live in burbs and go on to lead normal, even cool and non-stale lives.

I, myself, live in a burb. And I'd like to spend a blog in defense of The Burbs.

First, it's a fantastic movie starring Tom Hanks. But in defense of burbs all the world over, I will say that I am not aware of anyone on my street that is as creepy as the neighbors in the movie or who digs holes in the backyard in the middle of the night.

Second, people who live in burbs don't tend to make fun of what's inside The Loop. Maybe that's because we are more secure and content about where we live.

Third, I love my neighborhood. It's like small town in the middle of big city. I have big, mature trees in my yard, lots of space in the backyard, a sweet old lady next door, wide streets, plenty of kids to yell out to get out of my yard, the awesomest shed ever built, and it's peaceful here. Every house in the neighborhood is different. Nothing cookie-cutter about it.

Plus, I'm in the perfect location to play inside "The Loop", plus have a reasonable drive to work everyday. Work, of course, being one minute from IKEA, which is also very, very important.

The guy at the gas station on the corner recognizes me when I come in every Sunday morning to buy my paper. We chat. And I'm pretty sure he's not stalking me.

I've got wildlife in my yard. Rabbits. Rabbits. More rabbits.

I see the same old lady walking down the street to the corner grocery almost every day on my way to work. She pulls a wagon behind her and she walks with a cane. She wears a coat and a hat even though it's warm outside. Sometimes I see her on her front porch watching cars go by.

Sometimes I see an old man walking his young grandson around the neighborhood on other mornings on my way to work.

I get compliments on my yard when other neighbors walk by while I'm out fussing with some thing or another in the front yard.

The first night I moved into my house, we pulled in with the Uhaul at about 10:30 that night. The movers I arranged never showed up, friends were mysteriously unavailable last minute on a Saturday night. So my dad and I had to get all of my furniture in the truck by ourselves. When we pulled in the driveway, my neighbor was watering her plants next door. She immediately recognized that we were trying to move my stuff in the house that night and she ran down the street and got some neighbors to help us. The whole truck was unloaded in about 45 minutes.

At 10:30 at night. This was my welcome to my neighborhood, and I fell in love with it that night.

When the old man across the street had to be rushed away in an ambulance, neighbors were out watching and offering help.

I've got parks, bike trails, school tennis courts, about 2 minutes in any direction. Ditto for Target and Home Depot.

And Whataburger. They recognize me there, too. I don't know if that's a good thing....

I've got wildflowers, festivals, community events, public library.... all down the street in one direction or the other.

The city gives me free recycle bags.

It's not just a neighborhood, it's a community. My community.

So, say what you will in jest of burbs. But I will defend my burb any day of the week as just as good, if not better, than any place inside The Loop.

Or a Loop near you.

C.T.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Sometimes I don't know what to do with a good thing

I won a $25 iTunes gift card a few weeks ago. I never win anything. It's pretty exciting for me. But, it's controlling my life.

Whenever I come into free money or giftcards or the like, it suddenly becomes the decision of a lifetime to figure out how to spend it. It becomes the most important decision I will ever make.

It took me a week to finally make one purchase on the card. That was about a month ago.

I don't want to waste any of it.
I don't want to buy something stupid that I will later regret.
I don't want to buy something embarrassing so that later when people ask, "hey, what did you buy with your giftcard," I'm not embarrassed to tell them without making something up that is much cooler than what I really bought.

When I won the giftcard, it was a pretty sweet moment. Who doesn't want to win an iTunes gift card? Of all of the giftcards in the world, iTunes is right up there with the best giftcard you can buy someone.

On the other hand, iTunes is tough. There are now too many options. Songs, movies, TV shows, ipod games, audiobooks.... AAHH!!

Ok, seriously I would never buy a book to listen to. I just can't fathom sitting and listening to someone read a whole book to me and retaining anything about the book. But I did look at audiobooks to buy with my giftcard. Because I wanted to explore ALL of the options....

So far, I have downloaded a movie: Under the Tuscan Sun. I love this movie because of the romantic notion of running off to Tuscany, fixing up a villa, and writing. Of course, I have a villa here in Texas and plenty of time to write now. So, running off to Tuscany isn't really necessary. For now, I will be content to watch someone else run off to Tuscany on my laptop when I travel on planes.

Anyway, I can't figure out how to spend the remaining $13.12 on the giftcard.

Most normal people would probably just say, "hey, it's money I didn't have 10 minutes ago, so it doesn't matter what I buy." And they would make a decision on something fun, or something they've wanted for awhile, or whatever. Me? I feel like I owe it to the giftcard to make sure it is spent on the best possible combination of items that will make me happy, fulfilled, and not feel guilty for abusing free funds.

I could buy songs, but nothing really interests me at the moment. I check every week to see what's new, and nothing has made the cut as worthy of The Card.
I could buy another movie, but nothing really interests me at the moment. At least nothing that I want living on my laptop forever.
I could buy episodes of Scrubs to have with me on plane trips, which TOTALLY interests me at the moment..... but I can't decide on which episodes to buy.

I want all of the episodes of Scrubs. All. Of. Them.

I'm stressed out.

C.T.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Nature blog

This is my favorite time of year. It's light enough late enough, and it's not too hot, yet, so that the evenings are nice to enjoy outside.

This is a great way to end my weekend.... out in the nature of my homestead....

Freshly mown weeds (there's some good grass starting to come back, too).
Freshly painted patio chairs (don't worry, they're dry).
Fresh cup of lemonade.
Rose bushes, begonias, and pansies blooming around me like crazy.
Crazy birds chirpping, and one weird owl-like thing... hooting.
Nice, gusty wind that is cooling my funny sunburn from pulling weeds yesterday.

.... and I am totally blogging outside in my backyard.



I hope a bird doesn't poop on my Macbook.

C.T.

PS: Sweet shed, right?

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Two random thoughts

1. I just chose to watch Scrubs over a documentary about Auschwitz. I am probably a horrible person for doing that. I will DVR it next time it is on to make up for it.

2. I wonder if I can have rockin' abs by next Friday if I do 1,000 crunches this weekend, and 100 crunches every day that isn't this weekend, until next Friday.

C.T.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Going to London? Here's how to get there.

Thanks to Gmama for this piece of entertainment.

1. go to www.google.com
2. click on "maps"
3. click on "get directions"
4. type " New York " in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type " London " in the second box (the "to" box), then click “get directions”
6. scroll down to step #23

Um.... what???

I will probably do this with different cities all day tomorrow.

C.T.

Monday, April 16, 2007

I found a new hobby

It's turtles.

I stumbled upon this today and it made my day:

http://www.greatturtlerace.com/

It's like, turtles. Trekking. Real, live turtles. In nature. Doing what turtles do.

I love turtles. Not the Teenage Mutant kind. The real kind.

So, for the next two weeks I will be watching the turtles make their trek to the Galapagos Islands. I've picked Genevieve as my turtle to win. With only 427 miles to go, she's in fourth place. But today was just the first day. I'm sure she's just playing it smart, choosing the precisely perfect moment to spring into the lead.

Turtles spring, right?

Turtles.

C.T.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

I can't believe I forgot to blog about it last night

Yesterday was the big day.

I BOUGHT A COKE USING ONLY NICKELS!

11 nickels. One Coke.

I really think it tasted just a little bit better than the Coke I had the day before. It was special.

Now I have to think of another hobby for work.

C.T.

Monday, April 09, 2007

I am totally watching The Goonies

Right now.

In a word? AWESOME.

C.T.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

It's Easter, y'all

My folks invited me to church with them this morning. So I arose earlier than 2:45pm and joined them at the World of Preston.

I debated between wearing a turtleneck or a heavy sweater. It's ridiculously cold for Easter. I tried to be Eastery, yet warm, but that's just hard to do. I settled for a pink shirt with my black pants, and I wore a coat.

Anyway, it's been awhile since I've been to an Easter service at big church. Today was a lovely reminder of one of my favorite things about Easter (aside from that whole Jesus rose from the dead thing... that's cool, too).

It's the hats. The Easter hats. I LOVE the hats.

I'd never wear one. But I do like to see them.

Of course, this year instead of Easter dresses and Easter hats it was Easter sweaters and coats with Easter hats. But I've decided it's really just not Easter without some truly outrageous Easter hats on Sunday morning.

And it wasn't just the old ladies. Ladies of all ages wore hats. They aren't just for old people anymore.

But speaking of old, I am officially old. Today I sat down in the pew in the back of the church with my parents. The worship/band people were still practicing. And the first thing I said was that it was just too loud.

And it WAS. Ridiculously loud. The pew was vibrating.

Oh my goodness. I'm THAT old person. The old person that thinks CHURCH is too loud....

I should just go ahead and get a hat for next year.

C.T.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

I am so confused

I don't really know what's going on today.

1. I slept most of the day away. In fact, i woke up at 2:45 this afternoon. I have never done this before. I have no idea how this happened. I didn't even work yesterday. As you can see in yesterday's post, part of my day yesterday involved naps with the puppies. Therefore, I am quite confused about how I slept so much today.

2. It is 35 degrees outside and it snowed this morning (apparently while I was still asleep). People, it is April in Texas. I am quite confused by the winter blast that greeted me when I finally rolled out of bed this afternoon.

3. After I figured out what time it was today, I made myself go to the mall to use some coupons I have. I hate the mall. The only thing that will get me there is a coupon or a big sale when I desperately need clothes. In this case, I need springtime clothes for work, which seems weird considering I will be wearing a coat while I shop. I intended to do that this morning, but I finally made it there around 4:00. This is not the confusing part.

What confuses me is the out-in-the-middle-of-the-mall chair massages. That just seems weird to me. When I get a massage I prefer a quiet room where no one is watching me relax. But here these people are in the middle of a mall where everyone can see them getting rubbed down by a complete stranger. Is that relaxing?

It seems creepy to me.

It's been a weird day. And it's almost time for me to go to bed again.

C.T.

Friday, April 06, 2007

The puppies came over for a visit today

They made themselves right at home in my chair.

Here is a visual representation of what occured after I discovered they had claimed my chair as their afternoon nap spot.













C.T.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

One more reason I like my job

This week they let the employees in on the company's Cingular Friends & Family discount.

SCORE. I already have Cingular, so this is a big score for me.

I've been holding on to my ghetto phone until it dies, not because I particularly love it. But when I got the phone, I actually made $50 on it through all of the rebates. So literally, the phone cost me negative $50.

Hence, I have made it last for several years, very proud that I stuck it to the phone people by figuring out how to get them to pay me for what was (at the time) a very fancy phone. And it's been a good phone. But, on my last work trip to Florida, my coworker marvelled at my ghetto phone (it just doesn't fit in with all the Blackberrys that my bosses have). And I had to agree. My phone is officially ghetto.

While making $50 on a phone purchase is hard to beat, I'm pretty pleased that I just ordered a $380 phone, for which I will pay .....$5. Plus my new monthly plan is cheaper than the one I currently have, and it has more minutes.

I'm pretty sure the new phone will do anything I could think to ask it to do, including my laundry. It's pretty fancy. Which is funny because I never talk on the phone anyway. So I guess it's good that it can cook and clean, since I won't be using it much for talking.

It will be completely worth $5.

C.T.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Something New

This is what it would be like if I told you about my day, rather than writing a short, witty snippet as usual.



C.T.

PS: Now that I've found the video features on the Macbook, expect more video.

Monday, April 02, 2007

I don't care...... now

I've spent the last three weeks obsessing over my bracket for March Madness. Up until this weekend, I held steady at the top of the middle of the pack.

Then after the final four was decided this weekend, I popped into tied for 3rd place, 5th over all. Only one of two to pick Ohio State to win.

I have been OBSESSED with the bracket for three weeks.

Tonight I went to a boss's house with a bunch of co-workers for dinner and to watch the game.

Halftime hit and I was WORN OUT. Mostly because the girls had watched Dancing With the Stars before the game started, and I used all of my best energy making snarky comments about Heather Mill's leg (that STILL didn't fall off) and everything about Billy Ray Cyrus.

I left the party at halftime, and now I'm sitting at home trying to watch the rest of the game, but I suddenly realized that I don't care anymore.

I'm just so sleepy. And all I really care about is going to bed.

I don't know if I can make it to the end of the game. A minute and a half left.

Ohio State isn't going to win. My obsession is over.

C.T.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Puppy Prison



I'm not sure what they did, where they did it, or which one did it. But I'm sure I'll find it when I least expect it.

I was in charge of the puppies this weekend. They are pretty much the funniest things on the planet.



C.T.