extra time

leap day.

people get all excited calling it extra time. like, time just came out of nowhere and was gifted to us. that might be fun to think about, but in a practical sense, that is not the case at all. a fluke of the calendar requires an extra day every four years to get things back on track.

what is time, anyway - a principle of the universe or an invention of man? days pass, nights pass, the phases of the moon wax & wane. are these things the stuff of time? or, is time something we create, so that we can meet for drinks?

if this day were really extra, it would not be regular. it would not be friday, or monday, or any usual day. it would be extraday. and, there would be no super extraday sales, b/c all the stores would have to be closed. there would be no buying & selling b/c there is no buying & selling on this day in most yrs... b/c this day does not exist in most yrs. and, there would be no classes & no homework, but school would not fall behind since this day doesn't usually exist, and they usually keep up just fine. and, there would be no work, for the same reason.

it would be an international holiday dedicated to peace, and everyone would spend the day playing.

books 2008

eat, pray, love by elizabeth gilbert
the name of the wind by patrick rothfuss

it is business, but it is like a vacation

pre trip checklist: target had everything i was looking for - the little black purse, the black skirt, the pink cardigan, the white cardigan, the black tee shirt.

flight: arrived at airport & boarded without incident. flight was smooth & on time. & with tomato juice.

hotel: had a room ready. with wireless. and, a cookie.

conference day one: registered without incident.

lunch: outstanding turkey & spinach wrap. starbucks coffee. and, tortilla chips are default in this state.

meeting: mande many contacts and bonus! got two book proposals.

run: 4 mi in 34:30. it is very, very flat here.

supper: pistachios, combos, cherry pepsi, and a banana. b/c i can eat whatever i want. so there.

spontaneous scratch-off lotto ticket: $40. score!

post-supper mtg: total & complete bore. bore. bore.

summary: excellent day that one boring meeting cannot ruin.

i think i am going to spend my $40 on souveniers. the gift shop has a really cool bronze cowboy hat thingie that would look great on my desk. and, maybe a li'l something for mini-me, too, b/c no matter how big mini's get, you always want to get 'em a gift.

[elvis just called & said priscilla's water broke! c'mon beavis! c'mon out & play with me!]

why i will think twice about visiting starbucks ever again

so, i walked into starbucks, and there were three baristas behind the higher part of the counter where the muffins & breads are so proudly displayed in a glass cabinet. they were mr pretender & the two little pigs. the two little pigs were not facing the registers, but mr pretender was facing them enough so that he could see i had walked up. he pointedly pretended not to see me. so i just stood there quietly. eventually, another barista stepped in to help from the drive thru station and started to take my order. seeing her actions, mr pretender was all like oh, a customer has come to the starbucks, perhaps i should act.

so, mr pretender took over the transaction, and as i ordered, the two little pigs behind the snack cabinet sort of turned, and i could see what they were doing. they were eating. eating snacks from the glass case. from the case with their bare hands. oh, you heard me -- they were taking food from the case with their bare hands and putting it in their germy, wet, sticky mouths. hands touching mouths touching hands touching food touching mouths. oh, ick-ick-ick!!

so, i said to mr pretender - "maybe a barista who is not putting her hands in her mouth can fix my drink." they all look at me. i look at them. they look at me. i look at them.

miss steps-in-to-help fixed my drink.

starbucks is expensive. i expect a modicum of congeniality and a maximum of cleanliness. i can get cheap, rude, dirty coffee at the gas station.

emmas pappy

som foks cainhep lyin - itzin dey naytur - itz jes hoo dey iz - emmas pappys a lyarn emma say she don keer - but youn seener eyes she do - sheen sayut she wontsabowdit - but ifn she say she don keer - wellen - aint she jesalyar too - samez er pappy

beggars can't be choosers

so, a couple days ago, i had stopped to fill up the jeep w/ gas & my snazzy preds travel mug w/ coffee. $49.99 for gas. cheesempete. coffee a more reasonable $1.29 plus a free individually wrapped donut. free food. score! the individual wrapping insured a sasquatch-sized carbon footprint for this wee snack delight -- a nice counterpart to the ancient coal-powered chariot awaiting me in the parking gallery.

so, i carried my coffee & free wee snackie back to the chariot. as i was attempting to unlock the doors without creating the great coffee spill of '08, i was approached by a man. he was dressed in many layers of ragged clothes, with a hat mashed over his unruly hair. his beard was a few weeks old. he was carrying something that looked like a plate of food. he asked me for money to buy some coffee. i said that i don't carry cash, but he could have the donut. he said, "no. i don't need food. i need money for coffee." uh-huh. right. so, i shrugged & got in the car, taking the wee free snackie with me.

the story of the car that ran into the house across the street

the neighbour called a moment ago & asked what we thought about the commotion across the street last night.

-- what commotion? - we inquired.
-- the commotion of the crash. - he replied.
-- what crash? - we inquired. [we are brilliant conversationalists.]
-- the crash of the car that drove into the house across the street, which precipitated the arrival of myriad emergency vehicles replete w/ screaming sirens & including as one vehicle in the squad a largish tow crane enlisted to pull the car out of the house. - he replied.
-- oh. - we replied. [more brilliant convo]

no, we did not hear the commotion, nor did we notice the broken house during any of our plethora of trips past it for the day. we did specifically check out the house yesterday, and it's got a smallish hole in the wall high, high up. like, 2nd storey high up. and, smallish like a trash bag is covering the hole. not sure why the hole is so small or up so high. might know... had we seen the actual scene.

we're goin' to jason's deli!! we're goin' to jason's deli!!

i was going to tell you the story of the car running into the house across the street, but we're goin' to jason's deli!! i will catch ya later.

p.s. this morning i ran 11 mi at 9:48 pace. the entire run took 1:48:02, w/ overall pace 9:48 & best pace 7:48. what's the dealio with all the 48s?

frydae

in the state where i live, data entry of secure information [ssn, addresses, insurance numbers] from state documents [traffic tickets, patient info for dept of health, court documents, et al] into state computers is being done for $1/hr by felons, including those on death row. one who was not on death row was a woman w/ 2 charges of forgery was put on the job. she committed identity theft with the information she gathered on the job in prison. that would be a "duh" - do not allow the woman with the felony forgery charges to perform secure data entry. just makes me so proud of the intellagense of my state.

in other news of law abiding citizens, today at work we had mandatory drug-free workplace training. here is what i learned:

** - bananas will kill you.
** - if you want to do drugs on the job, telecommute.
** - everyone has a different bottom.
** - consuming 2 cases of beer per day does, in some circumstances, constitute abuse.

tune in tomorrow for updates on the big plans: up early for a run w/ speedy, then - home for a warm shower & warm soup, followed by a nap, ordering some avon, and watching the ut v memphis basketball game. need some office supplies to catch up the filing, and need to complete the fafsa [ick], but have already done the taxes [yay] and paid the bills for the month [double yay].

oh, and maybe if you are good, i will tell you the story of the car that drove into the house across the street.

raoul? really... his name is raoul?

last night was a lunar eclipse. did you see it? i ran outside to see it for a moment. it was fabulous, but really, a moment was enough. i mean, seriously... you've seen one eclipse, you've seen them all. but, in order to say you have seen it, you have to go out and actually see it.

speaking of seeing things, i noticed recently i have started doing this nose-squinch thing to push my glasses up. probably looks pretty doofwaddie, but i don't have to see it. if you see me, and i am doing it, feel free to laugh. it is probably fairly amusing. while you are laughing, though, i will probably punch you out.

speaking of punching people out, there is this website called how many 5 year olds can you take in a fight?. turns out, i can take 31. you should google it & find it & do it & come back here & tell me how many you can take out. i would pass you a link, but i am just not that way.

speaking of 31, here is a picture of the temp last night. 31... or, as we know in celcius, -0. that's right kids, -0.

tonight we test drove a civic, and i managed to scare my old man & the punk kid used car salesman with the girlieman name. his name is stacey. i do not make it a habit of passing out real names here, but jeezumpete, that is just funny to me. little punk kid staceyboy in the back seat peeing on himself b/c i am driving 60 mph down a country road in the dark. bwah-hah-hah! sorry 'bout scaring my old man b/c now i have to hear about my lack of driving skills over and over again. and, over again. and, again over. but staceyboy - ha - staceyboy can smoke a ciggie & get over himself.

andrew henry -- build me a treehouse! i am moving to the meadow!

this morning, in order to teach the arrogant lexus driver a lesson when he cut me off in traffic, i boxed myself into an exit-only lane, was forced to exit & re-enter the interstate.


he will not soon forget my brilliance.

smells like brigadoon

that soap -
it smells like brigadoon.
i had forgotten.
it caught me by surprise
and threw me all unexpected
into the summertime.

cookie time!

it is girl scout cookie time. what is your fave? for me, it's the samoa.

girl scout cookies have a myspace page. who knew?

here are the types, so that you can tell me what you like best -
- thin mints
- do-si-dos
- trefoils
- tagalongs
- samoas

here are the types that are listed on the g.s. website but of which i have never heard. [some are new.]
- all abouts
- thanks-a-lots
- lemonades
- lemon chalet cremes [new]
- sugar free chocolate chip [new]
- cinna-spins [new]

mr brooks

we rented this movie last night, and it was quite good. it was not what i was expecting at all. the suspense & plot twists were super. the character development, except for the mr brooks character, was somewhat lacking, but that is to be expected, i suppose. i mean, they were all supporting the main character, and the next character after mr brooks - in terms of importance - was the plot. the only character that failed was demi moore's character. where most of the supporting characters did not, particularly, add anything - hers actually took away. and, not in a good way like her contribution somehow overshadowed kevin costner's. more like her lack of contribution was a giant sucking black hole that pulled away from the movie.

despite demi... overall, we recommend it. 2 thumbs up.

blowin' in the wind

there was a story on the news last night about folks whose houses were hit by the recent local tornados. we get used to seeing the devastation in aerial shots -- houses turned to piles of strewn sticks. we get used to the seeing the devastation on the faces of the people -- tearfully proclaiming joy that although the house is gone, the life is intact.

and, yes, the life is intact -- the people are standing there living & breathing. and, that is life. but, what of the lives? what of the details of the everyday that are the makings of our lives? these details reside in our filing cabinets, our boxes of cancelled checks, our photograph albums, our jewelry boxes, our shoe boxes of old letters & our shoe boxes of shoes, our dvds & vhs tapes of family picnics & ballet recitals, our closets filled with clothing & blankets & towels, our drawers of socks & drawers of junk.

imagine having the details of your living scattered & blown, sifted & thrown -- for inches, feet, acres, miles.... this story on the news last night showed some folks who found bills & cancelled checks & photos from destroyed homes a couple hundred miles away.

i was looking thru the junk drawer in the kitchen this morning, looking for a paperclip, and had a moment of sheer panic in imagining my drawer of precious junk spread over my own backyard. imagine all the pieces & parts of your life, emptied from their rightful places, and put in your backyard. now, imagine these pieces in your neighbors' yards... and, their neighbors'... and theirs... off into the distance of miles & hundreds of miles. now, imagine these pieces getting rained on, stepped on, hung in a tree, nabbed by a squirrel, stuck to a passing car....

it make me a little woozy, just thinking about it. made me want to somehow have less of the pieces, and more of the life itself.

while shopping at tuesday morning on friday evening, i got a gift for beavis.

i had forgotten we have a tuesday morning. it's kind of crammed in the corner by the cici's pizza. it is crammed w/ all kinds of cool stuff, but it's kind of a wreck, so you have to be prepared to wander & dig. i found a silver baby spoon w/ a soccer ball & football & basketball as the handle. it's hard to describe, but it is really cute. or, the picture on the box is cute. it is all wrapped up in tissue w/ the plastic still unopened. so, i didn't open it.

okay, here is a pic of bent-handle spoons. they are made so toddlers can hold them on their own. the one i got has that sports stuff like molded in silver for the handle, instead of flowers. flowers will be for regina, who will be here in a few yrs to keep beavis company. don't ask me how i know that. i just do.

happy bælingtimes day!

we are companions when we explore
~~waterfalls of knowledge & deserts of ignorance.
we are companions when we inhabit
~~fields of opportunity & caves of drudgery.
we are companions when we walk
~~paths of relationship & paths of solitude...

because even when
we are each alone
[on a solitary path]
[of our choosing
or by our fate]
even when
we are each alone,
we are still together.

we are bound by
our minds,
our hearts,
our souls.
we are bound by a spirit
more tenacious
than geography
and more persistent
than time.

valentine's day

i got nothing for my old man. you think i should pick up something today?

hmm.... like, what?

beauty

there is no effortless beauty.

where there is beauty,
whether it be by the hand of god
or the hand of man,
there is effort.

is it the effort
which is beautiful,
or is the beauty
in the result?

omg - elvis got a tat

last night there was a really exciting ending to the ut v rutgers womens basketball game, but we missed it b/c we didn't quite get the whole thing on tivo. my old man found the game today on espn-u, so he tivo'd it. guess what - he did not get the end. criminy! the ending was both exciting & controversial. and, we still have not seen it. tonight we are watching vandy v kentucky at vandy. i've got a skinny cinnamon dolce latte riding on this one. go dores!

speaking of skinnamon dolce lattes, did you hear that starbucks is planning to begin offering free wireless? it is good to know that even the big guys are susceptible to competition. there is hope for the little guy. of course, the "little guy" in this scenario is panera & dunkin' donuts & mcdonald's... not really little guys, eh? but, if one can imagine an independent coffee house, perhaps this coffee house also serves ice cream, one could imagine that this indy place would be well served offering free wireless. yes, one could imagine this.

currently still reading the name of the wind, and it is quite enjoyable. it is apparently also overdue, as are all my liberry books, but the max fine is $5 per book, and that is cheaper than buying books, and i don't think i am going to max out the fine except on the one book that speedy borrowed b/c she is taking forever with it.

forecast for tomorrow: keep that umbrella handy!

so yesterday at mass, i am the dweebus who is sitting when everyone is standing, standing when they are kneeling, and never kneeling at all. i am the one who does not drink out of the germy common cup of wine and does not know the words to the nicene creed. i could not be a more obvious visitor if i were wearing a neon sign. at the end of the service, the guy next to me turns to me and says, are you a visitor? i say, well - in the sense that i am not a member of this church & not a catholic, yes. he says, here - take this valentine's candy one of my students gave me, i cannot eat it right now. i just laughed & took it, but i wish i'd said - i cannot. i gave up candy for lent. because that was clearly his deal - he had given up candy, so he was pawning it off on a visitor. he presumed a visitor would not have made any lenten promises. so, i was a dweebus on the outside, but he was a dweebus on the inside.

my old man is so sick, he has not eaten anything all day. it is probably 98% or more chance i will get whatever this thing is he has, b/c once it gets into the house, everyone gets it. everyone i know of who has had it - the entire house gets it. and, the first person gets it about a day or so before the other people. see, the first person is sick, doesn't know it, brings it home, passes it around, and gets sick. b/c the first person had it incubating while passing it around, the other people are a little behind schedule, and they get it a day or so later. see? i am going to get socked sometime tonight or tomorrow. everything i eat, i look at it & say... do i want to see this again? yeah... i elected not to have the red koolaid. i also have not eaten the valentine's lent candy.

keep that umbrella handy tomorrow, says the weather lady. why? if it were going to rain, surely she would simply tell us: it is going to rain. the umbrellas are to fend off the heards of elephants that will be stampeding through the streets, no doubt.

it is simply not that difficult

i grocery shop at the same store every week, and i have been bringing my own bags since way before it was anywhere near fashionable. still, the canvas bags throw the baggers into a tailspin. they cannot imagine how to put groceries into anything not made of plastic. i also carefully sort my groceries while putting them on the conveyor belt - frozen, refrigerated, dry, canned, boxed. today, the bagger managed not only to get distracted by my bags, but also to totally distruct the system, placing frozen with canned & refrigerated with dry. criminy. it is simply not that difficult.

the lord will forgive me

i have a million things to do today; ergo, i am going to mass w/ speedy. how can it really be shirking my responsibilities if i am at mass?

s.a.t.u.r.d.a.y.

did the 10 mile run and sorted the paperwork. brought the checkbook up to date, but it does not balance. if it does not balance again next week, i shall make an executive adjustment. have not completed the bill paying, filing, or tax returns. have also not been to the grocery, so we are sadly lacking fig newtons.

currently watching ut men play lsu and considering the value of a nap.

at the beanery - 2 days in a row! score!

people who walk around humming to themselves should be shot.

my cinnamon raisin bagel has a tinge of garlic flavour - from the neighbouring bagel in the bagelbox, no doubt.

if you recall, a few visits to the beanarium ago, i described the soft-core coffee booth porn going on in the best booth in the store. well, there were some folks in the best booth, so i took the table by the winder. but, that is not really the point. the people from the best booth were cool & using computers, so they deserve the booth, and that is not the point, either. the point is about the people in the next booth to the best booth. the one woman is seriously working hard to save the other woman's poor lost soul. not that there is anything wrong with sharing your faith or whatever - but, she is preaching & carrying on. see, the point is that i am glad i am over here and not over there, even though it is the best booth.

the beanarium has a jones soda branded refrigerated cabinet, but in it there appears to be no jones soda. this strikes me as naughty in some way.

tomorrow, speedy & i are going to try to run 10 miles with a group of goofballs. we have chosen the group run b/c that will give us myriad opportunities to mock. there will be people there. goofy people. we will mock them. alternately, they will mock us. a veritable mock fest. fun times for everyone!

then... there will be a plethora of paperwork. bills to pay, checkbook to balance, tax forms to complete. between the running and the paperwork, someone needs to bring me some fig newtons! you there! yeah - you! oh, you know i am talking to you! do not run off - ya dweebus! yeah - bring me some newtons!

of 18-wheelers & butter statues

greetings. it is thursday, and i'm coming to you live from the beanery. from my favorite booth at the beanery. hells yeah!

there is a papa john's next door to the beanery, and just now a papa john's 18-wheeler drove up to bring them sauce & cheese & whatever else they get off the truck, and let me just tell you something about 18-wheelers: if you think they look big on the interstate, just get a look at one from the beanery window. zoinks!

they have this food on display here at the beanery - in a cooler/display case. there is a cinnamon bun w/ lucious looking icing, some containers of pineapple chunks, 3 or 4 slices of different kinds of cake wrapped in plastic, a half-dozen muffins, a cinnamon pretzel, a chocolate pie, a couple apple fritters, and a waffle. the waffle intrigues me. it has a round dollop of butter on top. a sort of butter ball scooped out of the butter bin and plopped up there on the waffle. but, here is what i am wondering... is it for real? b/c the muffins and the cakes change, but everything else seems to be some kind of sample food that is always in there, and the waffle is one of the pieces that is always in there. so, i am wondering if that is a plastic butter statue. thoughts?

hey, so i was going to get you a pic of a butter statue, but the toast caught my eye. it's appealing. i like it. if you don't like it, well then, it's a good thing this is my blog & not yours, eh?

krystal has a new java milkquake which may bring me right back to krystal where i ain't been in years

there are 3 flavours of csi & 2 flavours of law & order on right now -- while i am looking for some comedy. com.e.dy. not much choice. friends it is. again. for the bazillionth time. sha-eesh!

yesterday, my old man got some new shoes to wear at spinning class. he was psyched b/c he has been wanting them, and the store finally got them. it is like xmas all over again. he was showing me the new shoes compared to the ones he has, how they are different. so cute!

this picture says you can get a free milkquake if you visit krystal's myspace page, but i could not find a coupon on there. boo!

it beats waking up with pool chalk between your fanny cheeks. heh heh heh. 2&1/2 men is a funny show, eh? and, my old man doesn't like it, but he is at spinning w/ his new toy shoes, so i can watch whatever i please. score!

tonight's meal was cheese & crackers, grapes, strawberries, & hazelnut coffee. très european, eh? and, tastee, too! and, probably good for me - so there. oh, and figgie newgies for dessert! yay!

super tuesday

hey, it's super tuesday. we're a s.t. state, so i went to vote. only had to wait 30 mins, which is not too bad, but as mini-me said... should have taken some tunes. fairly certain the lady in line behind me was wanting a piggy back ride. serious space invasion. so, every time the lady in front of me took a step forward, i would wait. and, wait. and, wait. until the lady behind me was sighing & whimpering & clearly unhappy. then, i'd take a wee tiny half step forward. she'd be right there, on my back again. i was trying to give her the prigzample of my lovely behaviour - not tailgating the voter in front of me - but alas, she was a slow learner.

hey, it's mardi gras. so, that is like a ginormous dealieoh in new orleans and pretty much nowhere else. okay, the caribbean. and, you know, probably france. but, in the good ol' u.s.of.a.? nola's our last outpost of catholic overindulgence. yes, the catholics -- the inventors of indulgences. irony, thy name is... irony.

hey, it's men's basketball - florida playing ut - on tv right now. hoping that we will get to watch the game before this storm system on the radar screen comes off the radar & into the real world around us. storms usually make the satellite lose the signal, so we'd miss the game. very sad, eh? right now, ut is playing like a bunch of girls, so i am not 100% sure it's going to be worth watching.

02/04/08. that is cool.

what else is cool?

giants beat the pats. w00t! did you see the game? did you see the game? man. it was a good game, and a stellar ending. eli slips the rush, gets the pass off to tyree, and tyree catches the ball on his head. on his head. right.

the book the name of the wind. just started it, and suspect it's probably already due back at the liberry. criminy.

leftovers from buca di beppo for lunch and for supper. for lunch, leftover pizza angelo [alfredo sauce, cheese, grilled chicken, grilled corn, portabello mushrooms, & sliced potatoes] and for supper, leftover passgetti & garlic cheese bread. yum!

today the dentist visit went supersmooth, there was a break in the rain right when i wanted to go running, & dasani was on sale at publix.

life is good, eh?

what makes the super bowl so super? does it have xray vision? can it fly? look! it's bowl man!

after yesterday's nap, went to buca di beppo for a birthday supper. not my birthday. wow, that place provides a lot of food! we brought a lot of food home. leftover pizza for lunch tomorry - oh, yeah!

also scheduled for tomorry... getting a cavity filled. ick. the biggest problem with getting cavs filled is that means i cannot eat for a while after. oh, and will be arriving at work late, which always throws things off. i like to get there early to get a jump on things before everyone else shows up. but, mostly, it's the waiting to eat that's the problem, you know.

big game tonight. go giants! go eli! go plaxico! go giants rest of the team whose names i don't know! beat the pats! w00t! we are going over to junior & speedy's house to watch on the nice, big, hd television. you know, it's very important to be watching a nice television when you fall asleep after the halftime show. right? right!

today

up at 5
have some poptarts & coffee
run 9 miles
walk .5 miles
shower
have some g2 with sweet & sour chicken
visit studio 20
get a hair cut
decide to get remainder of hairs cut [heh heh]
visit publix
purchase water, gatorade, clif bar, & fig newtons
visit starbucks
purchase & consume a skinny cinnamon dolce latte
visit compusa going out of biz sale
purchase ipod holder thingie
visit b&n
read a mag article
peruse $1 items
purchase nothing
travel home
have some g2 & yogurt & pretzels
blog
take a nap*

*this activity has not actually taken place yet....

stupid girls

just watched bourne ultimatum and really wondering why the girls in these movies are always wearing high heel shoes, carrying purses, & wearing dangly necklaces or scarves or silly hats or whatever shizzle they are lugging & flinging & carting around. criminy, girls - have some respect. get some practical shoes & a nice messenger bag like the boys.