Richmond, Canada

My friend Maya accompanied me on my drive to Canada, where I purchased my first pair of curling shoes!! *snoopy dance*

The Richmond facility is HUGE and fancy.

After the shoe purchase, we drove to a large version of the 99 Ranch Mall, or a more mall like version of Uwajimaya. There, we came across a local Chinese American Idol of sorts. 10 teenagers singing in Chinese, you vote for the winner.

Apparently I look like I speak Chinese (I sure wish I did), because a volunteer came up and handed me a piece of paper (the voting scrap paper, also in Chinese), and rambled at me in Mandarin for 2 minutes. I looked at her and said that I don't speak Chinese, and she reiterated everything in English. Like I could figure out who was who on the paper anyways.

There was good company, congee with century old egg and chinese donuts, and off key music in Chinese in the background. A good day trip.

The delivery.

1.5 more days before Friday night league. I've been thinking about my delivery, dreaming about my delivery, reading up on it on Curling Tech.

And of course, it will all go to crap after I get my new shoes (Yah!) on Saturday. I'll have to learn all over again. But I'm still very super excited.
After work I'm going to take the Passat to have its emissions tested.

Then, more laundry. I managed to get to loads of laundry done yesterday. I also need to clean the house before next week. So much cleaning to do.

Obsessed.

So obsessed with curling right now. Its lunch time, and I'm thinking about curling shoes. While Jeremy is out at his wood turning class on Saturday, I am going to try and obtain a pair of Balance Plus 200.

I called the Vancouver Curling Club, who is not selling shoes this year, the On the Rocks store, which only has size 7.5s, AND the Richmond Curling Club, who has both a 7 and a 7.5. Wahoo.

Hoping that my friend Maya will come with, or Jeremy's cousin, Jeff. If not, I can drive the 3 hours by myself.

I'm excited to buy my shoes. I'm excited to wear my new shoes. I'm a little scared about wearing them for the first time. I hope not to be too terribly unbalanced. There was a gal that we played against last Sunday by the name of Sue, and she hugged the wall after her deliver. Not sure how she would have done if we hadn't been on sheet one. Here's to hoping I look better than that.

Sorry I can't answer my phone, I'm busy curling.

I went to Tuesday's league to be a sub, but too many people bailed. 2 subs, and a sub for a sub showed up. Jeremy got to play, I practiced with Chris, and the guy who was a sub for a sub.

My balance is better, but still crappy. I hope to drive up to Canada, and try on some curling shoes on Saturday. I'm told, that you start back from scratch when you get shoes, because its so different.

After practice, we watched the juniors play for awhile. A good way to spend the evening.

Mrs. Cranky Pants

Mood. Cranky.

Listening to: Tool and System of a Down.

Any other cranky music recommendations are welcome.

Mark & Lisa's Party

Mark & Lisa's party on Saturday night was a blast. James made a surprise visit, and Mark tried to snort Southern Comfort. There was also some drunken-fu fighting and a trip to JR's (er... BJ's?) for some jello shots, and to our surprise, some fairly good music by a band called Kickstart.

Another family birthday

Went to Jeremy's cousin's birthday last weekend in Bellingham. Had a good time. Lots of nature flocking around their house.

Present for my cousin

I finished this sock dog a few weeks ago, but couldn't post it. It was commissioned by my friend Jason for my cousin Lawrence's birthday. If by some small chance you read this, Happy Birthday.

Pretzels and bunny rabbits.

Another busy weekend has come and gone.

Spam-a-lot was ok. Not worth the money that we paid for the seats. Too much of it was pillaged from Life of Brian and the Holy Grail.

Saturday, we made pretzels for the next day, as it was our turn to bring snacks for curling.

Additionally, between Saturday and Sunday, I made this googly eyed bunny rabbit.

Monster long in the making....

Here's a red guy that I've had mostly done for a month or two, and just hadn't gotten around to putting eyeballs on him. They didn't work quite the way I was hoping, so onto another crazy stuffie.

Arooo!! Sock dog-arooni!

My latest completed sock dog! This one was requested from my friend Marisa.

Weekend number 2 of curling has passed, and all I can think of is how to get better. So many things to think about when I throw. Body position, balance, don't be too heavy handed. I'm going to try and squeak in some extra practice tomorrow.

This weekend is going to be a crazy weekend. Spam-a-lot Friday night, and the Hot Shot Curling event for 5 years of experience and under, and then novice league on Sunday. Have to find time to wash some laundry, clean the bathrooms, vacuum, and squeeze out a few more sock dogs or crazy stuffed animals.

Glass eyes!

Whoohoo! My glass eyes from the taxidermist store came in. More woolly beasts on the way!

And more curling tonight. Yay for Friday.

Granite Curling Club

You are looking at one of the newest additions to the Granite Curling Club.
I went to the open house tonight, and had a blast!!! All sorts of good fun. Fell on my butt trying to sweep, before I put grippers on my tennis shoes.

Finished Woolly.

I finished putting feet and a tail on my woolly monster. My hubby is going to whisk it off to his work, to watch over his cube.

Time to place an order for some eyeballs...

Woolly Beasts!!

Here is my woolly beast from my art & soul class yesterday. Mine is the one with 4 legs. I'm still finishing up his feet. The others belong to my classmates.

Finally, some projects completed!!

My friend Maya is busy off at Art & Soul in Portland. I am soooo jealous. Sounds like she is having an incredible time, especially in Nina Bagley's class. I'm very lucky to have her as my buddy. She took my charms with her, and is trading them away with the charmsters group. I will leave tomorrow after work, but as of this moment, am only taking Keely Barham's class Woolly Beasts on Monday.

Received my photos from Snapfish, and once I get a check written out, I can mail them to Catherine of the Yahoo Photo Journals Group. This months photo journal is titled Curiosities. It will be my first time participating after lurking around for the last year or two. I saw some demo'd at Artfest 2007 and they are just gorgeous.

Huzzah, our kitchen is mostly done. The counter tops have been installed. We just have a couple of little minor things left, like the trim on the window. Its been a long and arduous journey for the remodel.....

Happy Anniversary 6 years later....

My hubby and I celebrated our wedding anniversary a little late this year. The kitchen is unusable again, as we wait for the company to finish putting on our kitchen countertop.

We went to Stella Mia, had way too much incredible food. We started off with a bottle of red wine and polenta with gorgonzola sauce. For dinner, I had the cannelloni, and Jeremy ordered the spaghetti with meat balls. And to top it all off, we had cream caramel and spumoni for dessert. Yum yum yum.

Here's to 6 years of marriage!!

Vacation Photos & Arfest 2008 talk

I've been back from my 12 day vacation in Port Loring for almost a couple of weeks now. Here are a couple of photos. Me with the bass I caught at Loon Lake, me holding Jeremy's 30 inch pike that got all twisted up, and lastly with my hubby and the pike.

I got 2 of my 1st choices at Artfest. I got Melissa Manley, Michael Demeng, and Susan Lenart-Kazmer. I'm pretty excited. Looks like I'll have class with Ellen and Kim as well as my buddy Maya. i think I only got 2 first choices this year, because too many people don't want to work with animal gut (Melissa's class).

I am such a procrastinator. I have 47 charms to make before Monday, when Maya leaves for Art & Soul. Crap crap crap. I tried felting at the lake, and they suck. They just aren't as cool as Sarah's. (Sarah was one of my many roommates last year at Artfest).
I wonder if she'll make it back this year.....

Artfest 2008 registration mailed!!

Whoohoo. Mailed our Artfest registrations on Monday, since it was a holiday, to get a Sept 4th stamp.

The classes that I am hoping to get as first choice are Melissa Manley, Misty Mawn, and Susan Lenart Kazmer. Susan's class is the one that I'd like to get in the most. The 2nd one I would like the most is Misty Mawn..... Other than that, I could get my 2nd and 3rd choices for anything.

Getting ready to leave for vacation. No email, no news for almost 2 weeks.

More kitchen, less art...

So the last few weeks have been working on the kitchen. We're trying to finish up the grout. My knees are rubbed raw from kneeling on the tile. Jeremy puts the grout in, I get to wait the hour, and wipe it off. I also get to wipe the haze off as well.

This last weekend, I got to spend some time with one of my best buddies, Maya. We were supposed to do crafts together. Heh. Saturday, we drove down to Lacey, Wa and went to Shipwreck Beads. Its kind of the Powells Bookstore of beads. It was a long drive there and back, but I think Maya ended up with lots of good stuff.

On the way back, we stopped off in Redmond to get my hair chopped/lopped/and razored off. First time I've changed my hair in 10 years. Not sure I like it yet. My hubby likes it. Other people have commented that its cute. Not sure if they really like it, but feel like they need to make a comment.

A short trip to Michaels and Joann's, and bam! It was 6 pm, and time for me to go home to work on the kitchen. *sigh*

Sunday, I was in the kitchen until 1 pm. Maya and I still managed to get a couple of hours of crafts done. She's working on a house trade for Art & soul. I'm trying to come up with some kind of charms.

And then, to plot what I want to make for trades for next year's artfest. I have to laugh when I see Maya sign up for all the different trades. I remember overdoing it my 1st year. Last year, all I did were the little stuffies for trades. No fatbaooks. No atc books.

I'm looking forward to the one Art & Soul class I signed up for in October with Keely. I'm hoping that it will whet my appetite until Artfest. I have all these sewing projects in my head that I want to get started on, and no time to do them. Arrrrgh.

Artfest Schedule 2008

Its up, its up, its up!!!!

Happy dance. Now, to determine what I want to take. The Keith LoBue class looks phenomenal, but its slated for the full 3 days.

On a side note, I pulled an ENORMOUS, gigantosaurus zucchini from my garden last night. I doubt its very tasty. Not that I have a kitchen anyways.

Turn back the clock.

I had the best time at the Seattle Mariners game yesterday afternoon. I got a pair of tickets from work (section 123, row 22, seats 9 and 10). I took my mom, who's never been to Safeco Field. She's a bandwagon groupie. She used to make fun of me wasting my time going to baseball games, until Ichiro was brought into the organization...

Anyways, it was Turn Back the Clock game, where people dressed up in 70s gear. They had Erik Estrada from the popular 70s show CHiPs throw out the ceremonial pitch. Then they mentioned you could meet him in section 335. I ditched my mom and ran up the stairs. I was still a good 40 or so people back by the time I got up there.

A great time was had by all. He was only there until the 3rd inning, and there were some really cranky people behind me, calling out all the ones that tried to cut in line. I had somebody take my photo with my iPhone which you can see here.

Attack of the killer Diet Coke

6 am is too early to be attacked by a can of Diet Coke. I was refilling the refrigerator at work, and cut off the plastic off a Costco order of Diet Coke. Turns out, while I was cutting off the plastic, I punctured a can.

My shirt and pants are still damp, and very sticky. My coworker asked me if I stopped drinking coffee. I let her know, that one incident a morning is all I can handle.

I just started this 6 am to 3 pm shift a couple of weeks ago, and the first 2 days I made coffee, I didn't wedge the lid in right, and ended up with coffee all over the place.

*sigh*

Ladybugs, ladybugs..please eat those aphids.

I bought 2 bags of ladybugs to eat the aphids in my yard. Each bag of ladybugs is 1500, or approx 1/3 of a cup. I released one bag last night.

When I checked up on them later last night, some of them seemed more interested in getting laid than in eating aphids, although I caught one chomping.

This morning, they were chilling out as well, but when I checked up on them this evening, only a few were visible. Will try the second bag later tonight.

Feeling a little batty.

Its 9:55 pm.

I'm sitting in my bedroom. My heart is still racing. I've gotten a little closer to nature than I'd normally like to be this evening.

Jeremy and I just finished watching the last episode of Twin Peaks season 2 in bed. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a black shadow pass across the window. And then another one. And another one.

"What's that?" I asked.

"What's what?" said Jer and turned on the lamp.

We were then dive bombed by a lone bat. Much mayhem ensued. There was cowering under the blankets and much shrieking. The bat flew out of our room, and into the rest of the house, and then back into our room, and out of our room, and back into our room.

Jer ran into the bathroom, and shut the sliding door.....

I threw a blanket over my head trying to find the camera to catch a movie of being attacked by the bat. I never did find the camera while the bat was fluttering about. We ran to the living room, and then Jer opened the sliding door, and tried to herd th e bat out the back. He managed to knock it down with his red fleece shirt, and then threw his shirt out on the deck.

He fluttered the shirt a couple of times. No more bat. We didn't see it fly off though.

Gravity missed it all. She looked around, but never caught the bat movement. I am just sitting here giggling in hysterics, because now that it is over, its pretty funny. Jeremy theorizes it got in through the attic, with the remodeling of the kitchen going on right now.

Anyways...bedroom door is now closed. Computer is being turned off. Hopefully there will be no Batman dreams. Holy bat-mania!!!!

More kitchen demolition.

And still more kitchen demolition.

Exhausted on the Fourth.

I can't wait to go to sleep tonight. We ripped out most of the kitchen and living room in 2 days. Alison, Mark, and Lisa came over to help us demolish everything today. Here are a few of the photos.

Another weekend gone bye bye.

9:45 pm, and another weekend gone by too quickly.

Last week I finished 2 sock doggies, commissioned by the admin at the company that I work for. My first commission!

Actually, I'm too much of a softie. I only asked that she buy the socks. She also gave me $10 per sock dog as well! Technically, if I was to sell them, the price would probably be $40 each. Its amazing how much time goes into making one of those things.

Its weird though. I'm sewing...but I don't feel like I'm crafting. But I am doing some sort of arts and crafts.

Yesterday, my hubby and I drove to Bellingham to hang out with his cousins. Jeff's girlfriend Yuki has a 3 month visiting visa from Japan. She's quiet, but quite the jokester. She put a temporary tattoo on Jeff while he was sleeping. She also hid his beer from him during lunch, behind a wall made of napkins.

We looked around at the Farmer's market afterwords, and then hiked for 3 hours at the beach near Larrabee State Park. We harrassed a couple of lizards, some little crabs, and a handful of snails. While we climbed some rocks, we saw a crab in the water large enough to eat, and another that had grass growing on top.

Today was a mellow day. Laundry day. Threw out some items. Put a few more on Craigslist. Hope I make a little bit of money.

The birds.

Yesterday at work, a couple of crows startled her, when they slammed into her window. We all went and looked at the bird, as it recovered from being stunned.

This morning, about a block away from work, I got tagged by a crow. I was happily minding my own business, listening to Kevin Smith's SMODcast on my iPod, when a crow swooped over my head. I noticed the wind it generated as it swooped by. It landed on a branch a few feet away.

I continued walking, and then got tagged on the side of the head, as the crow swooped over me again. What the heck? I kept walking, and it tagged me a second time. It perched up on another branch ahead of me. Mr. Crow (Mrs. Crow?) cocked its head, looked and cawed at me. I asked it what it wanted...it looked at me with its beady eyes and didn't answer. I continued on my way to work, and was not bothered again, but I could feel it watching me.

I looked around, and didn't see any babies around, but thats the only reason I could think I was being divebombed. Unless I had somehow managed to insult the crow gods.

Take me out to the ballgame.

The VP of operations gave me a pair of tickets to see the Seattle Mariners play the Texas Rangers yesterday. The Mariners won, 5 - 4. They were fantastic seats, aisle 123, row 22, seats 9 and 10. I invited my hubby's cousin Jeff, but he was already busy, so I took my dad.

It was dad's first time to Safeco field. He seemed to enjoy the game. We had some drunks sitting behind us. There was a very large gentleman from the Lakewood area sitting to the right of me. He was eating a bowl of Ivar's clam chowder, and with every two or three bites, would dribble some down the front of his shirt.

He proceeded to make small talk with me, and of course, almost immediately started with one of my pet peeves.
Large man,"Are you from Japan?"
Me "No."
Large man, "Are you from Korea?"
Me "No."
Large Man, "Are you from China?"
Me "No."
Large man starts to look perplexed. My father's with me, so I don't want to yank his chain too much. I break down and say "I'm from Seattle."
Now he really looks perplexed. "I was born in Seattle."
Blank look. "But my father sitting NEXT to me was born in China."
Face lights up. "I was in Taipei once."
Sigh. A few more minutes of his remembering the olden days, and it was back to baseball.

Damn, but Sammy Sosa looks scrawny now that he's off the 'roids. That was probably one of the biggest comments I heard at the game. He definitely looks smaller than he used to.

Today was a nice mellow day. Didn't get any arts & crafts done. Just some laundry and a little weeding, and a bit of snoozing with my dog. The hubby took me out for dinner , and we browsed for a little at Third Place Books. How good was I? I didn't buy ANY books. Although there was on that I ogled and had a hard time leaving alone. I have too many projects, and not enough time for a new one.

Will the real dog stand up?

So I've been very busy working away at sock dogs. I had to badger Gravity into this photo, and to not tearing the buddies apart. One of them is blind and can't smell anything yet. I'm still working on that one.

My first attempt at making a sock dog.

This is my very first completed sock dog. Instructions came out of Martha Stewarts Kids magazine, Special Winter 2003 issue. You can still find copies of them on Ebay.

I'm pretty happy with him, even though he didn't come out quite as I expected. It might be the material of the socks, because I wanted a soft and fuzzy sock dog. Additionally, I don't know how to hand sew very well. The magazine quotes that it takes an afternoon to create. I spent an hour on it on Friday. Maybe 2 hours yesterday, and another 4 hours tonight. I hope to get much better at it.

Positive note, I completed my first sock dog!! Sad note, they postponed The Killers concert. Apparently the lead singer has bronchitis. My sister in law is going to the Sasquatch festival next Sunday, so is unable to go. Do I get a refund, or do I go anyways? Decisions, decisions.

What Gravity brought in.

So Friday evening, Jeremy and I went to Mark and Lisa's get together, where we drank Georgetown's "Bob's Brown". Its a fantastic beer, that is only created once a year. All the proceeds are donated to the charity that helped Bob out, before he passed away. Bob was a friend of Manny, the owner of Georgetown Brewery, a local Seattle microbrewery.

We got home just after one am. Let the dog out to go potty. Half an hour later, and not answering the calls of "Chicken strips!!" I started to worry. Gravity finally came up the porch stairs, but with an additional something in her mouth. I thought it was a very large rat.

Luckily she answered to the command "Drop!", dropped it, and went inside the house. I quickly went inside the house, and left the porchlight on. Not a large rat, but a small opossum. Was it dead? No, it was breathing. Gravity whined, and pawed at the glass sliding door. "Mine! Let me get it!" I'm fairly sure she was saying.

I continued to watch for the next half hour. Apparently it had been playing "possum". It slowly got up. Hissed when Gravity threw herself at the glass door again. It slowly meandered around the porch, trying to figure out how to get away. At 2 am, I turned off the light, dragged our beagle to the bedroom, and shut the door.

Where Jeremy and I was then subjected to 6 hours of whining and door scratching. She begged and begged to be let out to collect her prize. "I caught it, its mine. Let me catch it before it gets away!!"

Here area couple of hazy photos through the glass door, as I was not about to get up close and personal with our neighborhood wildlife.

Wrong number...

I had the best wrong number phone call at work the other day. This probably tops my favorite list.

"Hi this is Cyndy at ****. How many I help you?"
"This is Alfie, NSL, No sex life....mumble mumble mumble."
Thinking this had to be a joke, I said ,"Excuse me?"
He said, "This is Alfie, NSL, No sex life, I'd like to cancel my ads."

How's that for a wrong number to perk up your day?

Heh.

Why I never get any art & crafts done...

This is my arts & crafts room. Try not to get lost getting out.

Just a really busy Saturday.

Just after 2 pm, and I've put another load of laundry in. Since I last checked in, I dropped the winter comforter off at the laundromat, went to Storables in Bellevue and bought a big clear container for the fabric that belonged to my Grandmother, 2 containers to put flour and sugar in, a medium sized laundry basket to separate whites, and then a small container to hold current create a monster of some sort project in. I then headed over to Joann's in Crossroads, to buy some stuff with my $50 gift card that I got from work.

I ended up getting 3 magazines. Altered Couture, Cloth Paper Scissors, and Adorn. Adorn looks kind of cheesy, but here was one or two interesting projects in it. I was hoping to use my 40% coupon on my Altered Couture magazine, but it looks like they discount all their magazines by 10% off now, so you can't do that anymore. *sigh* I didn't get any fabric, although I looked at some more fleece. Until I have a good project in mind, I didn't want to buy any more fabric.

Anyways, the fabric is now boxed up, but still in the living room floor. I got more than I had realized. Now I have to figure out where to put the baking pans and dishes that I took. I need a nap.

Saturday morningish...

Its only 11 am. I've already done one load of laundry, mowed the lawn, weeded for an hour, taken batteries and scrap metal to the yearly county hazardous waste event, bought one of their rain barrels for $20.00, and gone to the Post Office.

A little torqued off at a Craigslist buyer. He wanted to buy my autographed baseball and to meet me last night. But then never called/showed up. I called him and left a voice mail, but no response. Grrr.

Anyways, I need to go buy a couple of plastic bins to store my fabric and crafts in. Make a trip to Joann's to use the gift card work gave me, take some books to a 2nd hand bookstore, and maybe, hang out with Martha after 2:30 if she is still up for it. I'm getting exhausted just thinking about how much I have to do.

Sunny Thursday

The nice thing about Thursdays, is that if you work Monday thru Friday, you know you only have to survive one more work day before the weekend. I am definitely ready for my weekend.

Yesterday, as I walked to the bus, I saw some construction workers coming around. Having seen them working all over the neighborhood and wanting to know what they were working on, I stopped and asked one. They were putting in fiber optic cable for Verizon. Wahoo!

At least is was wahoo until we got home from work. And found out they had disconnected our DSL. Its back up now, but I missed my internet connection, even for that brief moment. I wanted to write in my blog, and I needed to respond back to a potential buyer from something that I had put on Craigslist.

On the ride home, I started looking at my plush-o-rama book. My art goal is to create at least two monsters this weekend, and think about making a hat out of an old sweater. My other goals include: laundry, mowing the lawn, cleaning the living room, and both the bathrooms. Cross fingers!

Bugs, Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble, and taking the bus.

I got home from the last of the early morning shifts, and found that I have won 4 tickets to the Woodland Park Zoo for commuting a couple of weeks ago. Pat on the back for saving gasoline. Of course, I drove all last week while I was recovering from my cold and due to early shifts, but will be back to taking the bus tomorrow.

Reading my Sew Subversive book, and I'm very excited to rip something apart, and try to create something out of it. Muahahahaha.

Going to have dinner at my sister in laws, tonight, waiting for the hubby to get home from rock climbing.

I have included a photo of my strawberry rhubarb crumble, which will make your mouth water. I have also included a photo of the bug infestation in my backyard. This will promptly make you lose your appetite.

Cynky de Mayo, Cinco de Mayo, and the day after.

Friday, May 4th, was Cynky de Mayo, as my husband likes to put it.

It started off at 6:07 am with a Happy Birthday chorus from my friends Maya and Tim, who were still in bed. I on the other hand, had already been at work for 15 minutes.

Just before 11 am, a call came across the caller id display, Vernon LMP, Jason. My best friend Jason tried to surprise me by stopping by the office and taking me out to lunch. Unfortunately Google Maps had my company's LAST location, from a little over a year ago. He was trying to figure out what floor we were on. Doh.

So he stopped by, and I ended up with a really awesome book "Flawed Dogs" by Berke Breathed, and a box of Oh! Chocolates. I also got a really neat piece of silk tied around the box, that I'll have to use for a project.

After work, I met Jeremy and Ali at Alison's apartment. We walked from her apartment to the Taphouse, split a Mediterranean hummus appetizer and drank beer. I had a sampler of porters. Snoqualmie Falls Porter, Mac & Jacks Porter, Rogue Mocha Porter, and Stone Smoked Porter. My favorite was the Rogue Mocha Porter. Mac & Jacks is normally my favorite porter, but for some reason, wasn't holding its head.

We then walked over to The Melting Pot. Yummmm. The cheese fondue was excellent!!

The next day, Cinco De Mayo, we drove down to Portland, OR. Once a year, we make the trip and meet my father and sister down in Camas, Wa to see my Aunt Gilda. On this day, we celebrate everyone's birthdays. Mostly mine, and my father's.

This year, Jer was thankful that we ate at McMennamins. He does not like to eat at the Beaches restaurant that we have eaten at in the past. After lunch, we make our annual trip out to the Skyline Cemetery in OR, to visit my Grandfather,Grandmother, and Uncle Ray.

After the trip to the cemetery, we spent an hour at Powells bookstore - the best bookstore in the world. I escaped with only two books in hand, and purchased the three that Jeremy chose. I'm pretty excited. I bought two books on sewing. One more generaly one, and one for sewing skirts.

We finished with cake at my aunt's house, and then a couple of hours running through my Grandma Marie's old house, snagging items that my Aunt doesn't want to keep. I took a couple of sweaters, some of my Grandma's fabric that she had used,some linen napkins that she had made, and a few of her baking dishes. I guess Uncle Ken is thinking about buying a cabin up in Anacortes, WA to be closer to his kids and grandkids.

Today was a pretty busy, if mellow day. Slept in, washed laundry, exchanged a couple of shirts, bought groceries, and picked Gravity up from doggie daycare. I spent about an hour in the backyard weeding, and came across 4 of the new plants. They seem to be infested with bugs. Its still creeping me out. I had to shower as soon I came inside. Brrrrr.

Well, goodnight, sleep tight, and don't let the garden creepy crawlies get to you. I have to work the early 6 am shift again tomorrow.

Howling beagle alert.

Gravity's outside patrolling the yard right now. A little howling, an the enticement of a Costco doggie chicken strip to come inside. Doggie crack. Since we introduced those treats, she doesn't think about much else.

"Gravity, want to go potty?" Dog looks at me, then looks longingly at the closet door that the chicken strips are behind. "No, mom, but how about a chicken strip? I'll just pee and poop on the carpet, and you can clean it up later." Sigh. Beagles definitely have expressive eyes.

Nothing too terribly interesting happened today. Went to work, boss came in, then left 4 hours later feeling ill again.

Made some small talk with the other tech support/QA guy about not being full blown out OCD, but having some pesky quirks that just can't get gotten rid of. He can't close the car door unless he has his car keys in his hands. Locks the car door, but can't shut it if he doesn't have the keys in his hand and physically looking at them. Doesn't matter if he knows they're in his pocket, or can feel them in his pocket.

Think about it. Is there anything in your life that you're maniacally crazy about?
I used to be crazy about keeping my heavily read books in mint condition as a kid. Maybe having to finish a book when its been started. I'll have to think about it some more.

If thats too hard of a thought to contemplate, did you ever see the movie Amelie? Brilliant movie. In French, so if you don't like reading subtitles, probably not for you. But in the beginning, it goes through the likes and dislikes of various characters. Dislikes almost more of a pet peeve even. Think about your own, and leave a comment.

I started off with Likes, but realized that wasn't a good category, because it was too easy to give a broad answer. Likes for tomorrow, dislikes for today.

I dislike: wet hair dripping down my neck, trying to put sheets on the bed after I've just cut my fingernails, cheap toilet paper (a shout out to my artfest buddy Kim!!), and getting my hands dirty.

Sick people all around me.

Shift eyes left. Empty chair of sick person. Shift eyes right. Empty chair of sick person. No wonder I got sick. Its blowing through the office. Took out my boss and the admin today.

Work was busy busy busy today. I responded to more phone calls and emails in one day, then I normally do in a week. Pretty crazy. Since the admin was out, I also took care of lunch. MMMmmmmm Thai food.