February 29, 2008
It never fails that I end up with a hand me down. Josh and I had talked about when the time came for a new car, I would get a new car. However, I suspect with VW bringing in their Diesel/Electric Hybrid, I'll be getting our current diesel only VW. Actually, I think he is still holding out for a Lupo. We shouldn't need a car any time soon. I'm not working and I don't go out driving too much.
In other news, my cheeks are puffed out again. It sucks. I thought maybe I had gained weight and didn't realize it , so I looked at a before photo and my cheeks weren't all puffed out like this. So, it is definitely swelling.
Oh, and I didn't watch LOST, so please no spoilers. I'm going to watch it later today. Once I take the bag of frozen peas off my face. Instead of watching LOST, I helped Josh make an immersion (wort) chiller. OK, so my job was mostly uncoiling the copper, but I still helped. We could have bought one, but I think Josh's need to make something won out. He was probably tired of doing things around the house or in the yard.
**Warning, YouTube links below and possibly NSFW**
Oh yeah... If you have seen the "I'm ****ing Matt Damon" clip by Sarah Silverman from the Jimmy Kimmel show, you really should see the "I'm ****ing Ben Affleck." Check out the celebrity appearances.
About fifteen minutes ago I came home from buying Josh a soda keg. My eyes starting acting weird when I went to check the mail upon returning home. I can see fine if what I am looking at is over three feet away. Anything else is blurry. Even right now typing this is making my brain hurt.
Also when I got home and our internet connection was down. Instead of getting angry, the only thing I could do was chuckle and sing, "The System is Down. The System is Down." (flash link)
Now the connection is back. Yippee. Maybe I should post this before the connection is gone again.
We got down to freezing last night. Unfortunately, that means the heater cut on. That in turn dries out the house and my sinuses. Now my cheeks are swollen (at the sinus area) as well as near the jaw. I look like a chipmunk. Ack. The sad thing is, yesterday I had almost no swelling.
The cat is asleep on her carpet, in a sunbeam. Some days I think she's got it pretty easy. Oh my. I just looked and she has her tongue sticking out a bit. She tends to do that when she is relaxed. I would go get my camera, but she'll wake up.
Now I shall go. Let's just hope the swelling goes down. Otherwise I'm going to see about joining The Chipettes.
Well, I survived the night. I can't open my jaw very much. Which made last night's vomitting even more horrible than you can imagine. I am going to get my stitches and all checked tomorrow. I'm doing OK on the pain front. I'm pretty good at handling pain anyway, so a couple of ibuprofen are doing better than the vicodin. At least I'm not sleepy all the time. I'm just a little sleepy from the other medicine. The weirdest thing about all of this is the hiccups. In the last 24 hours I think I have had them eight or nine times.
The temperature is dropping here. I went out to check the mail and it was in the 50s. It was 89 on the coast yesterday. Too flipping weird. We are supposed to hit freezing tonight. Burrrr.
Monday I donated nine bags of things to charity. I totaled everything that we have to donate and it is over $900 for taxes. Folks, I highly recommend getting receipts for your donations. I also recommend keeping your sales receipts as well. If you do not have a state income tax, you can actually deduct the taxes you paid on items your purchased, from your federal income tax. Josh and I were able to deduct over $600. That's just from the receipts we had on hand. I'm doing better and am keeping track of my cash receipts as well.
Well, I do believe it is time for me to take my medicine. Yay for me.
Add Vicodin to the list of pain meds I can't have. After an entire day of threats, the Vicodin finally made me puke. Now I am hungry. Unfortunately, I'm still feeling like I'm going to puke.
i am home. given vicodin. taking first pill. really tired. feel like look like a horse. falling aasleep now.;
Dear bob this video cracked me up so bad that Josh had to find out what in the world I was watching. There are quite a number of Indian music video "translations" out there, but this one was just too funny.
Tomorrow morning I'm going to be getting some extractions and stuff done. I bled like crazy the last time they tried, so hopefully being knocked out will keep the bleeding down. I have a horrible TMJ/Bruxism problem, so hopefully the stuff I get done tomorrow helps. My dentist (and his dentist father) informed me that I have one of the strongest jaws they've ever seen. I felt so bad when I realized I was clamping down on his fingers and didn't know it. He could have said something though. I did it three times in one sitting.
So, I'm going to be bruised, cut and sewn tomorrow. Expect me to be afk for a few days. And don't expect me to answer my phone. Josh is taking off the entire day. It was either that or have my mother with me. Yeah, we all know that would go over well. Her Baaaaaaby is going to be hurting. Of course that is probably still the guilt of her not believing that I was really hurt when I fractured my arm on a skateboard ramp.
Even though I didn't really like the movie, I loved that Kristin Chenoweth sang the song That's How You Know from Enchanted on the Oscars tonight. She's a great stage actress.
Now back to flipping channels. Maybe I will just go to sleep instead.
Using the ole standard formula of screen size * 2.5 = distance from couch to screen, I have determined that the optimal screen size for a television for our desired location is 44.5". So, we could go down to a 42" screen or up to a 47" or even a 52" screen. I am leaning more towards a 47" or even a 42" for balance. I think a 52" screen would feel unbalanced. I suppose if we did go that big, I could put up one of my larger Keith Haring's. I don't think I have any that would really fit the color scheme in the room though. I should go look.
I shouldn't write about this, but I feel a bit guilty. Amanda, yesterday I turned my air conditioner on. Sorry. If it makes you feel any better, I will have to turn it off on Wednesday. The high is only going to be in the upper 60s.
Yesterday I gave the cat a bath.
I took that photo after a towel drying. She gave up trying to dry herself and I broke out the hair dryer and set it to cool. Her fur was so silky smooth after her bath.
It all went surprisingly well. She was pissed for about an hour after the whole ordeal was over, but she got some milk in payment for her troubles and promptly forgot about being pissed.
I just had an ah-ha moment. I realized why I don't have an attraction to the iPhone. Fingerprints. I am not a fan of fingerprints on my screen as it is. An iPhone is all fingerprints. Epiphany over.
Yesterday I discovered a show on Nickelodeon that I actually liked. It is called Ni Hao, Kai-lan. My nephew Gabriel was at my parents' house while I was painting and I turned the TV to Nickelodeon. Dora was on and he watched that. This new show followed and he was hooked.
It follows the same theme as Dora and is aimed at pre-schoolers. A little Chinese-American girl named Kai-lan Chow encounters situations where she is in need of the help of the pre-schoolers watching the show. Just as Dora does with Spanish, Kai-lan teaches the children Chinese words, phrases and Chinese culture. I believe it is Mandarin Chinese, but I am not certain. Kai-lan has these adorable little friends that help her. I was a wee bit disturbed by the Koala Tolee. He apparently likes to take bubble baths all day. That is a little odd if you ask me.
If you love the cutesy cartoons on much of the Chinese and Japanese food imports, you'll love the cutesy characters on this cartoon. Some of them are so cute your teeth will hurt.
My brother's new house has all tile floors like mine. I was mentioning about having the same issue with the couch sliding around on the tile. He gave me a great tip. He said they were using the non-slip mats to go under the area rugs or in cabinets so glasses don't slide around. I just cut little squares and rectangles and stuck them under the couches. It works! So to my brother, thanks for the tip!
Now I'm going to drink some tea and hunker down. It is getting really windy out there.
Video of an interview with Cookie Monster on NPR.
You feel down that Josiah was cut from American Idol? Don't worry, he has his own myspace page.
Make your own Biodiesel cheaply with the Biodiesel Homebrew Guide Book. We really should stop looking at Ethanol as an alternative fuel source. It is not a feasible alternative. Biodiesel on the other hand is a hell of a lot closer to an alternative.
Ned the Pie Maker has a myspace page. The person that created that one had a little too much time on their hands if they aren't an ABC employee or contractor.
This week I will be going gung-ho trying to help my mom paint the house. It is rather difficult though because she has to watch my youngest nephew Gabriel. Unfortunately, he always wants to help and she is usually tasked with keeping him occupied. That means I've been doing most of the work. Needless to say, I'm ready to get this done. My yard looks like a$$ right now. I will be working on that when I finish at my parents. Perhaps my mom will help me. I doubt it. For someone who loves nature and its beauty so much, she equally fears all of the small creatures that come with it. /sigh
I'm watching the hoopla/show preceding the 50th running of the Daytona 500. Whoa. Kool and the Gang? Brooks and Dunn? They've got the living winners of previous Daytona races on stage. You can see the "Lets get this over so we can race" look on their faces. Ahh.
This morning while Josh and I ran to the hardware store, we took a bridge over the interstate. Traffic was nearly stopped heading towards the race track. I'm glad Josh told me we didn't need to really go. Pheew. Then again, we could have taken the bus. It probably would have taken about the same amount of time and the bus stop is at the library at the end of our street.
So Josh decided he wanted to go to our new local homebrew store. That's cool. Except for the fact that it is race week and the store is in South Daytona Beach! Doh. Thankfully today is the Camping World 300. Traffic was steady and moving. Tomorrow would be a terrible day to go. Tomorrow is the Daytona 500. Not really a good time to go shopping for homebrew supplies.
Best lolCat yet. I can't stop laughing.
It rained a ton last night. My poor gutters couldn't handle the downpour. I'm about to go out and see how everything flowed since we cut so much down.
I haven't been writing here as much as I should. I've been spending two to three days a week at my parents helping them paint and or redo things. When I get home, I am really tired and only want to just relax with Josh. The days I am not at my parents, I am working in the yard or programming. However, I may take a break from all of that today. The yard is too wet for me to rake or bag anything. There have been at least a dozen accidents on the interstate this morning so I won't be going to my parents. And lastly, my hands are killing me, so programming will probably not happen. Writing this entry is somewhat painful. So, I will probably just study the Java cert question material.
If you don't have your own sonic screwdriver, you could always knit one.
Now I must go try to get rid of my hiccups.
Someone got a new grain mill. Of course he had to try it out. My battery died while making that video. It was perfect timing. The last few grains went through to mill and the camera turned off.
The weather is being fickle again. It is about 75 in the house right now, but two days ago it was in the mid 80s. Errr?
I've started from scratch with my Java programming. I've been studying for my Java certification, but more real programming is always good. So, I'm taking a break from studying the QA stuff and working on writing code. In my head I have an idea of my ultimate application to program. It caters to my OCD need to organize things. It will also be pretty much just for me. Maybe if I actually get it working right, I'll do a PHP version.
I get a sick guilty moment of glee watching clips of David Tennant during his Blackpool days. The clip of him and the gang singing The Boy With The Thorn in His Side gets me every time. I think that is the elementary school girl in me. The one that loved The Smiths.
Last night was full of plenty of "Whoa"s from me. First there was the stunning defeat of the Patriots by the Giants. I was so damn antsy during that game. We were at a party. Surprisingly, I was able to control the anxiety in those last few minutes.
Then there was the drive home. Apparently there had been a fatal accident a little after 8pm and they had shut down interstate 4 going East bound for about 10 miles. Thankfully we were headed west and avoided any backups.
Then I checked the news stories when I arrived home and had another whoa moment when I read this story about Brtions believing Sherlock Holmes was real, but Churchill wasn't. Sadly, I think that would be the case here as well.
In other football related fun, there were the ads. My favorites were the FedEx carrier Pigeons (Check this video for an inside look at the making of the commercial), and the Doritos Mouse Trap spot. The SobeLife Water commercial wasn't too bad, but it wasn't a favorite.
Watching some of the pre-game show before the Superbowl, I see the red carpet interviews with Ryan Seacrest. That's when it hit me. All of the actors showing up at the game have nothing else to do. Perhaps not Hugh Laurie. He probably had a contractual obligation to appear due to the new episode of House coming on after the game. With the writers strike, what else do all of these actors have to do? Just a thought.
Josh and I spent the entire day together. First we tried to get him a hair cut. It seems that if you don't have an appointment anywhere, you're screwed. After that we went exploring and checked out Homebrew Emporium. We were both impressed with the staff. The two guys that run the place were awesome. Normally Josh gets his supplies from a place in Orlando. They are not customer service oriented. The folks that work there have the personality of a fig. So this morning I told Josh to find out where Homebrew Emporium was located and we went. We went in and one of the guys immediately assisted Josh with whatever he needed. I believe we will be repeat customers. Josh got hops, a new book and some other supplies. I think he was pretty much set for the day, but he had already agreed to go somewhere else.
Once the hops were safely deposited in the little fridge in the garage, we went to IKEA. That was an adventure. One of the big tasks was to look at the Mandal platform bed. It is one of the few all wood pieces that IKEA carries. A lot of their products are mostly MDF with wood fronts or trim.
The plan now is to just make furniture. Josh is skilled enough to do it, it just becomes a question of when. We have a priority list and building a bed and other furniture is a little lower on the list. Unfortunately.
So, unless there is someone with plenty of money and is willing to just give a lot of it to me so I can buy handmade furniture, we're rebuilding the shed first.
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