angel_251

Holy Crap

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:13:55 GMT

Greg got me an intro flying lesson for my birthday. That has got to be one of the coolest gifts I have ever received. I was literaly speechless for a moment when I saw what it was. Now I just have to schedule it, and then I will likely be out lots of money after I sign up for ground school as a result of this little teaser. :)

I <3 Levi Jeans

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:59:10 GMT

They have finally acknowledged that not all women have the "ruler" body shape, and actually made jeans with that in mind. The "Curvy Jeans" are designed to fit those with curves. The tag advertises that they are designed to fit a "fuller" figure, and won't gap in the back.

Perhaps these are made in response to the ever-increasing waistline of our nation, or maybe, just maybe, they're made with the intent of providing clothes that fit correctly to those of us not shaped like a supermodel. I'd like to think it's the latter, but either way I won't complain. Whatever their definition of "fuller figure" is, these jeans actually fit me. And they live up to the promise of no gapping in the back. This is awesome.

A.N.A. brand also apparently makes jeans that fit me. However, if you want to buy them in not petite, you had better be tall. I tried on a pair of the flared ones from the misses section and was standing on 4 inches of fabric. I bought a pair of their skinny cut jeans, and they are some of the most comfortable jeans I have had straight off the rack. Sadly, they are too long as well (they didn't offer the style I liked in petite), but since the leg is straight at the bottom they will be easy to hem. Now I can finally show off my cool tall boots, instead of hiding them under boot-cut jeans! :)

All in all, it was a very good shopping trip. I managed to replace the 2 pairs of jeans that wore out on me in 1/2 hour at one store. I am still flabergasted that such a thing was possible.

Now, if you managed to read through all that...
Happy St. Patrick's Day! If you happen to be in the Seattle area, you should totally come to the Tractor Tavern at 8pm tomorrow. They are having a ceili! For those of you who don't know, that's an Irish social dance. You don't need to know how to do anything. They explain the steps, then call them out while you dance. You do a short figure, then rotate down the line and do it again. This continues until the song is over. It is much fun!

If you're busy tomorrow, but still think this sounds like it would be cool, there's one on Vashon Island on Saturday! I don't have the info for that one handy right now, but if you google Vashon Island Ceili, it's easy to find.

Today!

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:53:22 GMT

Is Friday the 13th. The first of 3 we will have this year! Apparently 2009 is not a good year to be superstitious. :)

Also, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. So, Happy Valentine's Day!

:'( Took the time to draw a heart, but LJ kept insisting on distorting it into something unrecognizable, so I gave up.

Random Fact of the Day

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:22:23 GMT

No idea why this suddenly popped into my head, or why I feel compelled to share it, but here ya go.

The silvery-gray tape that can be used to reapir anything can be properly called duct tape OR duck tape.
-duct tape, from it's original purpose of repairing leaky ducts.
-duck tape, from 2 sources: one brand that makes the tape (Duck Tape), and what it was called in WWII. Because it could be used on things underwater, it was called "duck tape," in the same manner that the transport vehicles that can drive on land and be a boat are called "ducks."

Source: some book about the history of duct tape I ran across in the store a few years ago.

What I"m learning to do now.

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:12:43 GMT

and

It's short, but it's kinda hard to find good videos of rope. EDIT: found a better video, so I replaced it.

It will be a long time before I am this good, but maybe someday... :)

Hrm

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:39:16 GMT

I know not many people still read this, but maybe the right person will.

I have a bit of a conundrum. I got a text message from an Ann Arbor cell phone asking if I would be willing to be a job reference for the person. I'm pretty sure it's one of my friends, but I lost a lot of cell phone numbers when I got my new phone (and my web-based repository of people's numbers has evaporated), and I don't know who this person is. I feel really bad about that, but it's the truth. If you've sent me a text message asking if I'd be a job reference for you, could you please contact me in some fashion that tells me your identity? If you think you might know who's trying to get ahold of me, I can send you the phone number so you can let me know.

I'm also debating just calling the number to see who it is, but I'm not very good at talking on the phone, especially if I don't know who I'm calling. It would be a very akward call, I'm afraid, and I don't want to make any of my friends upset. And this also brings up the possibility of it somehow being a wrong number...but one would think that was much less likely with a text message, as those are normally sent to people in your address book.

I don't want to leave one of my friends hanging, so I probably will end up calling the number tomorrow, but if you can help me before then, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

Edit: Mystery solved! Thanks!

Freakin' Snow

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:30:49 GMT

We got SNOW in Seattle! Not snow, but SNOW. Around 8" so far, and more on the way. That doesn't happen. As such, they don't have the equipment to clear the roads. The freeways basically take care of themselves, with all the cars driving on them, but for sidestreets and driveways, you're on your own.

I couldn't get my car out of it's parking spot this morning. After excavating it from under all the snow, it just couldn't get over the pile of snow around it that was taller than the bottom of my doors. Not really sure why I thought it would be able to, since it was wet snow, but I tried anyway. Took 4 people pushing to get it back into the spot, since there was no way it was backing up any further. Maybe I need to get a small shovel so I can free my car. I had to take Tev's jeep to get to work this morning. Good thing his boss let him work from home today.

And my Mom can't get up her driveway. Her apartment is on the top of a big hill. So, you go up a really steep hill to get there, and then down a slightly less steep one to get to her parking area. She was stuck down there on Thursday and Friday. Yesterday, she and my little bro came to stay at our place because they couldn't get up the driveway to go home. And the worst part is the apartment complex she lives at refuses to do anything about it. That's retarded. Oh...and they haven't cleared the outdoor stairs you have to go down to get to my mom's apartment either.

So, now I'm at work. The cafeteria is closed cuz of the weather, and the snack bar is packed up for the holidays, so I can't get soup like I was planning to for lunch. Guess I'll have to go out somewhere if I want food (the vending machines don't have real food, and I can't eat 90% of the items for sale in them anyway), but I don't really want to do that either, because I got in so late this morning I will have to be here until 6:30 if I take a lunch break. Wonder if Jimmy John's is still willing to deliver food?

I love snow, but only when it's in a place where the roads are taken care of! GRRRRRR!

Maybe I'll grab my laptop and work from home for part of the day...

WTF Google?

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:33:53 GMT

Google search for "elf." In the search suggestions at the bottom of the page was: "zooey deschanel"

WTF does that have to do w/"elf"?

Seriously google, WTF?

Musings

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:17:53 GMT

Prepare to be hit by random, stream-of-though writings. Is stuff I've been wanting to say for a bit but can't be bothered to put into a coherent narrative right now. Sorry.

It's cold here. Has been for the last couple of days. There's actually snow on the ground (the grass is still showing through, but there is snow), and I've had to scrape frost off my windshield before I could drive to work the last couple of days. We're supposed to get more snow tonight and tomorrow. A couple of inches is what's forcast. We'll see what happens. However icky the roads get, though, my office won't close unless the power goes out. Oh well. I can drive on the icky roads, and I almost feel safe doing it when no one else is trying it. :)

Lack of swordfighting and stuntwork in general is starting to bug me more and more. I have this awesome handmade whip that is absolutely beautiful that I haven't had a chance to try out because it's been too wet outside and there just isn't space in my apartment.
I don't really know how to find practice space. Might go hijack the raquetball court in the clubhouse and hope we don't get kicked out. Used to do that in college and it wasn't a problem. Apartment might have different rules, though. :/
Been thinking more and more seriously about starting a club out here. And I think I found a way to get started: The Experimental College https://depts.washington.edu/asuwxpcl/lb-index.php. (I cannot figure out how to make pretty links in LJ. Can anyone help me out?) Will definately need to look into that more.

Holidays are almost here, and we're not going anywhere. While I will miss having the chance to see my friends and family who live on the other side of the country, it will be very nice to have a holiday to just relax and not have to worry about anyone else's schedule, or what other people want to do. Sorry, it's selfish, but we really need the break. Also, we can't afford plane tickets.

I will try to call people before/around the holidays, but I really suck at keeping in touch with people. I try to be better about it, but I just can't quite seem to get the hang of it. Thought maybe writing here would help, but no one seems to be on LJ anymore. Where have you all gone? ...yes, I realize the futility of asking people who have moved to other forms of communication which one they're using ON the abandoned medium. But maybe the one or two who are still around will know.

Anyway, if I don't talk to you soonish, have a Great Christmas, and Happy New Year, and a Wonderful Whatever-Other-Holiday you celebrate! :)

Can't think of a good title...

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:04:25 GMT

...but this is one of the most amazing things I've seen in awhile.

Enjoy!

Good News!

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:11:06 GMT

I'm not going on strike!

Huzzah!

Bizzare

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:33:59 GMT

So, this morning Greg had to get up really early for work. See as we both stayed up late last night, I didn't get up with him. I reset the alarm, and went back to sleep. He said goodbye just before he left, and I went back to sleep again (for the two minutes before my alarm went off). My alarm went off, and as I'm laying in bed for a minute before I get up, I hear the toilet repeatedly flushing. Thinking the cat has somehow learned to play with the handle, I start yelling at her to stop and to come here. Usually that works, but Isis shows up and the toilet is still flushing. Staring at the cat perplexed, I suddenly realize that I can hear someone talking in the bathroom.

Getting up, still in my pajama's, I go into the bathroom to find 2 small boys, both in soaking wet swimsuits. One is sitting on the toilet, covered in vomit, while his little brother is trying to flush the toilet to get the vomit off. Startled, I ask them who they are and how they got in. They respond that they came from the swimming pool in the complex, because they REALLY needed to use the bathroom. Surely I don't mind, do I? Sure Greg locked the door on his way out, I ask them again how they got in, since the door was locked. They say, yes, it was locked, but it opened for them anyway since they needed a toilet so bad.

I tell them they can't use my toilet and need to leave now. They grab 4 of my towels, claim they are there's and suddenly dart out of my apartment. I chase them through the apartment, and out into the hall yelling at them to bring my towels back.

And then I wake up.

Not late for work yet, I get up and start getting ready for work. I am almost ready to go out the door, when I realize someone is in my bathroom (again?). I go in there, and my Mom is standing in front of the sink, wearing a nightgown, and doing her makeup. This strikes me as odd since, a) my Mom is not staying with me, and b) my Mom hardly ever wears makeup. Especially not the colors that I had sitting out on my sink, which she seemed to be helping herself to. I start to question her about what she's doing in my bathroom, but before she can answer, I wake up.

For real this time. Still in my bed, and now late for work.

WTF? Can anybody offer thoughts on what the heck this dream meant? While I have had dreams where I was getting ready to go to work (or school) before, I've never had one of those inside another one. And I have NO idea where ANY of the stuff in that crazy dream came from.

As the title says, it was VERY bizzare.

OWWWWWWWWW!

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:37:49 GMT

So, apparently I hurt my back sneezing while bend sideways to grab something out of the dryer. I did that on Saturday morning. It hurt for a second when I did it, but was fine all day Saturday, and most of Sunday morning. Then, I went to get up from a chair and my back hurt so bad I couldn't stand up straight.

Long story short, I went to the doctor and he said it looks to be just muscle issues (spasms, but be exact), and should be better in a few days. Until then, though, it sucks. Because it hurts whenever I try to do something that requires the use of my lower back muscles. Which is apparently more than I realized. And I still can't stand up quite right.

But, it was WAY better today than it was yesterday, and hopefully I'll be mostly better tomorrow.

*ow*

Fun Fact of the Day

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:08:01 GMT

80 bobby pins contain enough metal to set off the metal detectors at an airport.

Closer to Doomsday

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:44:17 GMT

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/first-beam-circ.html

The Large Hadron Collider was turned on today. No collisions planned until October, so we've got at least a month before they make the earth evaporate. Looks like the Mayans were off by a few years. :-P

But, they did send a proton beam all the way around the loop, so they know it works. Pretty cool. :)

OMG teh cutezors!!1

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:25:48 GMT

http://speaklolspeak.com/page/LOLspeak+Wedding+Vows

Awesomeness.

In my own little corner...

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:48:29 GMT

No idea why I've suddenly got lines from My Fair Lady in my head, but it seemed fitting for the title. **EDIT: It has been pointed out to me that this line is actually from Cinderella, not My Fair Lady. Whoops. Thanks to Margaret for the correction.**

Started moving into the new apartment. Got enough stuff that we and the cat can live in it. Hopefully we'll get the rest moved in, if not set up, by this weekend.

Comcast won't be by to hook up the interwebs until Friday, though. :(

And, holy crap, the wedding is soon! While registering over the weekend, I was informed by the computer that there is only 43 days until the wedding! Eeep! Got some work done on planning this weekend, but not as much as I would have liked. I have lots of people offering to help, but sadly it isn't really stuff that I can give to someone else to do.

It'll get done, though. It has to. And now that we've got our own place, even if we're not completely moved in, there is one less source of stress to deal with. :)

still alive...

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:27:36 GMT

...but barely.

Spent pretty much the whole weekend packing/moving. Got a bunch of stuff packed up on Friday. Tried to get a U-Haul or similar. Failed. Apparently the entire world chose this weekend to move and booked up ALL the trucks.

Started working again on Saturday. Little bro came to help. Tried again to get a truck. Failed again. Rented a self-storage unit. Thank goodness for 1st month rent for $1. Took kitty to Mom's apartment. Poor Isis was (still is) all stressed out about the move. Found a car rental place with a cargo van available. Rented it. I <3 Budget. They will get my business again in the future.

Greg and little bro moved most of the furniture into the storage unit. We got a bunch of boxes in there too. Worked until we were fried, had dinner, and went to go see Babylon A.D. That was a mistake. Both because we weren't as close to done as we thought we were, and because it's a TERRIBLE movie. It may have started with a good idea, but whatever it was, it got lost between the time it was thought of and the script was written. Got to bed late.

Sunday we started at 10am. Greg and little bro got the rest of the furniture moved to the storage unit. Little bro went to work. Greg and I loaded the van up one last time (full of boxes), dropped them off at the storage unit and then returned the van. Kept working for the rest of the day. Rented a carpet shampoo thingy to clean the carpet once we finished getting everything out. Took a couple more car-loads to the storage unit, then took the rest to Mom's once the storage unit closed for the night. Cleaned the walls and what-not as we went, vacuumed the place, then washed the carpets. Turned in keys at 5:45am Monday morning. Got back to Mom's place with the last bit of stuff at 6am. Took nap.

Called apartment place at 9am (when the office opened) to see what time they were going to do our inspection. Took nap for 2 hours. Went to apartment place to see inspection. Turns out we could have quit working several hours sooner, because even though we "did a really good job" cleaning, it wasn't good enough to get more than like $50 of the deposit back (if we're lucky). Apparently the non-refundable deposit I gave them (both for the apartment, and the non-refundable part of the pet deposit) doesn't cover things like touch-up paint on the walls, carpet cleaning (even though we washed it, the couple of tiny spots that didn't come out require us to pay for the entire apartment's carptet to be cleaned), and our last utility bill. And the microwave rack. Which wasn't there when we moved in (but the lady didn't believe us on that one, so I'm sure we're going to be charged for it). Must go back in a day or 2 and ask them what, exactly, the non-refundable deposit covered. Cuz, if they just take it, and then charge me for all the stuff it should cover, isn't it a fee, not a deposit?

Took back carpet shampooer, freaked out about not getting deposit back, got breakfast, went home and napped for a couple more hours. Had dinner, picked Mom up from the airport, came home and went to bed. And, now I'm at work, in a semi-zombie state.

And I still have a bunch of wedding-planning stuff I need to get done that I haven't had time to think about, other than in that I-need-to-get-this-done-NOW,-but-I-have-lots-of-other-things-that-need-to-get-done-REALLY-NOW-before-I-can-think-about-having-time-to-get-the-stuff-that-needs-to-get-done-NOW-done sort of way.

Where can I rent a time machine?

AHHHHHHHHHHH!

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:05:36 GMT

Play is done. It went better than I thought it would. My mom enjoyed it. Said it was cute, and brought back memories of seeing her sisters in the children's theater shows they did growing up. Now, if this thing had been billed as children's theater in the first place, I would have been happy. No worrying about how bad it was. But no, "we want adults, and it's going to be the best play ever. Oh. all we got was kids? well, we can still make it work. no, it's not children's theater." But it was. Oh well, it's over, and went much better than I thought it would (people were still calling "line" during the dress rehearsal!), so I can relax now.

Well, relax from play. I also got a corset finished in time for my dress fitting. Isn't the actual one I'm going to wear under the dress, because the store that sold the busks was closed when I went there. And I need to make a few more tweaks to the pattern. BUT, I got it finished, and it was wearable, and it fit! The fitting took 2.5 hours, and was kinda stressful (the seamstress didn't speak English very well, so I'd say something, she wouldn't understand what I meant, and keep telling me for the next 5 minutes how that was the only way it could be, or it didn't look like that... and she was the only one working, was very tired, and the people who ran the store kept hounding her until she stopped in the middle of my fitting to help a girl who didnt' have an appointment.), but it eventuall got done, and my dress should look very nice. So, victory there, and scratch off another big worry. Yay, only packing left.

OH SHOOT! CRAP, CRAP, CRAP! I have the detail appointment with the reception hall tomorrow! I'm supposed to have a worksheet thing all filled out and emailed to them! I haven't even looked at this worksheet yet! Well, I guess I know what we're doing tonight. Right after we go pick up the invitations from my mom.

And we need to go actually fill out our registry. Which we need to do this weekend, cuz if we don't, we won't get a chance to do it until it's too late. And we haven't even started packing yet.

eep.

More play update

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:59:59 GMT

Well, we open in a week. Half the cast doesn't know their lines yet. 1/3 of that mostly know them, and just need a few reminders here and there. The other 2/3 of that half are still reading out of the script. The blocking sucks, no over-arching "big picture" of what the play should be has emerged from the director (who, by the way, seems to think we are awesome), and we have yet to do a full runthrough with the entire cast. We've only had 2 run-throughs period, and I'm not sure they can even really count as such because some of the scenes were still getting blocked!
Thesus hasn't been to a bunch of rehearsals, and has had very little in the way of fight training. Part of that was my fault, because I forgot to show up to the one session we tried to set up outside of the scheduled rehearsals. >.< But he didn't show up to the next week of practice, and didn't really seem that interested in the first place. Willing to do it, sure, but not that interested. So, the sword fight with Thesus has been scrapped. Instead, I get to fight Greg! :) One small good thing in an otherwise train-wreck of a show. If you decide to come, be forewarned-it's bad.
Maybe this is great for high-school community theater, but somehow I don't think so. The last show I was involved in that was this bad at this stage, I almost walked out on. I would have, if not for the last-minute directing rescue we got. Here's hoping for a rain-storm next Tuesday and Wednesday evening. :/

Sorry for the wall of text. I needed to vent.

For the record

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:25:51 GMT

...just in case anyone was thinking of trying it, shards of broken plate stuck in the bottom of your foot is not fun. I don't care how bored you are, give this one a pass.

I broke a plate last week. Knocked it off the top of the fridge, and it exploded when it hit the floor (looked pretty cool, actually. except for the whole breaking-a-plate thing). Thought we swept up all the pieces.

Nope. Stepped on 2 of them yesterday, and got them WAY embedded in my heel. One piece there was no way I was getting out on my own. The other one looked like it was little and just sitting in the cut, so I tried to pull it out w/tweezers. It too was a large-ish piece, and way stuck in my foot. And it hurt worse trying to pull out then it did going in.

So, off to the doctor I went. Which was interesting, driving a stick-shift with bits of plate in my heel. The doctor looked at my foot, went and got some uber tweezers and a syringe full of lidocane. He jabbed the needle into my foot near the cut (OW!) and proceeded to make my foot numb. And then grabbed the tweezers and pulled out the pieces of plate.

Yay no more ceramic in my foot, but it still hurts if I try to put too much weight on it. Oh well, at least I didn't need stiches or anything. It should be fine in a couple of days.

And the kitchen has been thorougly vacuumed.

Argh!

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:41:01 GMT

So busy! Much wedding planning to do, play opens in 2 weeks (and on top of the normal rehearsals I have to try to find time to get Thesus trained to fight), still have work (and there is talk about having to work overtime soon) and gymnastics, I'm trying to start going to the gym at lease semi-regularly, and, oh yeah, I'm moving at the end of the month because the apartment complex decided to raise our rent 20% if we want to renew our lease. See you all in a month.

Seafair!

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:53:39 GMT

Seafair is this weekend! 3 days of unlimited hydroplane races, airshows, and the Blue Angels. W00t! I am going tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be not cloudy so the Blue Angels can do their cool show.

www.seafair.com

Play Update

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:07:25 GMT

All is well with the fight. Talked to the director, she's cool with what we want to do. The rest of the play may be in trouble, but the fight will be ok. Still no real direction on what to do for any of the actors. And Bottom seems to have disappeared. We have a couple of potential backups, but they may not be able to do it.

Well, we'll see what happens when this thing opens in August.

And, Ms. Wench, thank you for the link to the article. It did indeed describe how I was feeling.

The Dark Knight

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:26:36 GMT

Go see it. Now.

You're still here. Fine. It's an amazing movie, with amazing acting. Happy now? I don't have time to write a review, cuz I'm packing up my desk for the office move. Just trust me. If you have any love for Batman, you have to go see this movie.

Now.

Just don't take any little kids to it. It'll probably give them nightmares.