Monday, November 14, 2005

Just finished Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn. Really, just finished it - in the conference room while I ate lunch. It’s probably not his best book, although I loved it. I think that fans of Vince Flynn will like this edition of the Mitch Rapp story. Those who haven’t read the previous novels might not appreciate it; there is some tough reading in this one. I’ll be interested to see where Flynn takes Mitch & Co. next. I’m also interested to see Flynn’s handiwork on the next season of 24 when that starts in January (4-hour premiere on January 15 & 16 - woo!) - he consulted and helped with script writing.

Next up: Knox’s Irregulars by Discoshaman of The Post Modern Clog blog.

Your Heart Is Blue

Love is a doing word for you. You know it’s love when you treat each other well. You are a giving lover, but you don’t give too much. You expect something in return. Your flirting style: Friendly Your lucky first date: Lunch at an outdoor cafe Your dream lover: Is both generous and selfish What you bring to relationships: Loyalty

[Via Ith]

I’ll explain my Flo meltdown in a minute. First, the recap from the wedding-centric weekend.

Beau arrived up here on Friday afternoon and we unloaded the stuff he brought from his apartment into the house. Then he started working on the phone lines outside while I started dinner. In the meantime, I had waited at the house all afternoon for the washer repair guy to show up and he didn’t. But I noticed that the guys came to remove the tree stump in the backyard the day before because there was a pile of ground up tree where the stump used to be. So I’m hoping the landscapers will come this week to take care of that and lay down the grass.

Then when ECD and Mary got back home we ate dinner and just chilled out talking until we all crashed and Beau went back to my parents for the night.

Saturday morning, Beau came back over for breakfast, which was French toast as requested by ECD. Beau got the phone working! Yay for his engineering degrees. ECD and Mary went out to run errands and I went to meet up with Mom and Jaynee for our dress fittings. That went very well - the sleeves look great, although they do need some tweaking. And Jaynee’s dress needs some alterations but it looks great on her - I’m very happy about that. Our next fitting (and hopefully my final one) is Thanksgiving weekend when Jaynee is back down here.

I got home to find Beau there grading papers. We chilled out with him grading papers while I read a novel until ECD, Holly, and Mary got back then we gals rushed to get ready for my bridal shower. The plan was to get some engagement photos taken on the way to my parents house. Turns out the best shots were taken near the pool in their neighborhood where there was a cute little walking path with a little bridge and colorful trees. (No, I don’t have any of them yet, but I might consider posting the one we decide on.)

The bridal shower was great with an ecclectic mix of family and friends. They were very generous to us with the fun gifts and the party was very fun. Jaynee and Joanie did a great job - thanks! I have my other bridal shower this Saturday down in H’burg at Beau’s church. That will be a fun time, too. I am glad my parents will get to meet those folks who have been Beau’s church family before the wedding.

Sunday morning was church, then Beau and I loaded our cars with more of my stuff and Mr. Kitty to take to the house. There are still a few things to get over to our house, so I will pick them up tonight after work. Then I need to get something set up for the bead work that needs to resume ASAP because there’s still quite a lot to do in the next few weeks.

Beau returned home late yesterday afternoon and I slept through the Redskins’ loss.

It was a full, fun weekend. And I almost forgot my Flo moment - before church, Mom suggested that we take the wedding gifts to our house since the Cootie Kids are coming for Thanksgiving and Mom didn’t want their toddler hands to be tempted to touch very shiny and breakable things. I sort of lost it and in a whiney voice just like Flo said, “Have you seen my house? Where on earth am I going to put that stuff?” I went on about the chaos for a few more sentences and I could feel myself tearing up for a cry just as Mom backed off and said she’d put them in the upstairs bedroom where the other wedding stuff is being stored. I’m not normally a crier, but I had reached my absolute stress limit, especially after the week I had. It was too overwhelming to think of adding more boxes to the boxes that already exist in my chaotic home. But after thinking about it for a few minutes I apologized for losing it and said we would take them and put them in the basement. So we did.

Friday, November 11, 2005

It took a while to get a signal from the correct cable outlet, but everything is finally working. What I don’t get is why there is cable, the actual cord, coming out of the wall in the rooms that are wired for cable, but the cord is not what you want to connect to. Instead there are cable outlets as well and those are what you need to connect to to get the cable working. Weird.

Anyway, I’m waiting for Beau to arrive. ECD and Mary have been out most of the afternoon - met up with a friend of Mary’s for lunch and they’re not back yet.

Mary did work on bridal hair this morning. She did three updos, all of which are great. Two were low; at the nape of my neck. The third was high at the crown. All were lovely and would work well with my tiara, veil, and dress. So she took photos and I’ll have my mother and sister help make a final decision. I know which one I’m leaning toward, so I’ll be interested to see what they say.

It’s been a nice, quiet, restful day. I hope you can say the same.

To all the veterans who read my humble blog, thank you for your sacrifice and service. Thanks also to your equally sacrificial families.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Being a Fed, I get tomorrow off to observe Veteran’s Day. Woo!

It’s too bad that any day off I get lately is almost busier than a day at work. Much to do, much to do ...

I’ll be honest that I am completely stressed right now. I’ve had too many things occur in the last few weeks that I have reached the point where there are times when I can barely put a thought together in my head. Between the stress (good) of the wedding planning and move to the stress (bad) of the car accident and those hassles and the stress (good & bad) of just having to work everyday, I am almost at the end of my tether, nerves-wise.

I’ve been a little snippy this week. OK, more than a little snippy. To those in the direct path, please forgive me. I covet your prayers for patience and peace.

What’s amazing is that through it all I have such incredible joy that can only be ascribed to God’s all sufficient grace. And maybe to Beau, too, of whom a mere thought brings much happiness.

From the page-a-day calendar:

The California crunch really is the result of not enough power-generating plants and then not enough power to power the power of generating plants.

Interview with the New York Times; January 14, 2001

In other political news, I saw the following bumper sticker while on the roads yesterday:

Republicans for Voldemort

This person went to The University as indicated by their alumnus sticker in the rear window, so they can be forgiven (wahoo) for their political leanings, I suppose. I did chuckle, though, at the thought of being equated to a Death Eater. I related more to Hermione, really.

Hey, Beau - next time we move, can we pay pros to do this for us, please?

The computer is still at my parents house. I hope to get that tonight along with other things that I forgot and will need this weekend.

My parents are great - they really helped me out last night by driving Mom’s loaded Highlander over to the house with my junk while I went to the groomers to get Annie. I then met them at the house, where they had already unloaded all of my stuff. Thank you so much!

ECD & Co. arrive tonight. Mom helped me make the beds, so they’ll have somewhere to sleep and the hall bath is ready for use.

Washer repair guy and plumber both come to the house tomorrow to repair the washing machine and the main floor toilet.

Phone still not working - I plan to work on that this weekend, sometime. Actually, I plan to have Beau work on that this weekend, sometime.

So much going on...and it’s going to be this way until February, most likely.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

I think I’ll start a new category under the It’s Not Like The Fugitive™ category - Questions from the Public.

Today’s installment ...

DUDE ON THE PHONE: Hi, I’m filling out *blah, blah, blah* for school and I need to fill in the state of residence. I just moved here to Virginia so I’m wondering if I put Virginia or the state I came from.

ME: You’re filling out what?

DUDE: For financial aid at school ...

ME: Why are you calling the US Marshals Service?

DUDE: I called someone and they said to call the courthouse ...

ME: You’ve called a federal courthouse. You should try the county government. What county are you in?

From there I directed him to the Fairfax County Government.

What I’m wondering is who he called that told him to call a courthouse - wouldn’t the financial aid people at the school be able to answer the question of residence?

Also, he was yelling into his cell phone and I could barely understand him even after I turned down the volume on my phone. *sigh*

With that, I’m outta here!

I’ll be leaving the office soon - I am taking Annie to be groomed before heading over to get my new contact lenses. I’ll dismantle the computer and load it into the car before the appointments. After I pick up Annie, I will head straight to the house where I will now officially live (I’ve been staying at my parents the past couple of nights still because I haven’t gotten all of my crap over to the house yet). Mr. Kitty will be moved on Saturday, I think.

Our phone line still doesn’t work. I called Verizon yesterday and never actually got to speak to a person; everything is automated. They say that there is a dial tone at the box outside the house, so I’ll troubleshoot a phone on that line to see if it’s an inside the house problem. Because the phone isn’t working, I can’t get the TiVo set up in the bedroom yet.

I got my car back the other day. Did I mention that? She looks like new, but she smells of Romano cheese inside. (Yes, that specific a cheese - it took be a couple of days to figure it out.) I have a Mandarin-Cranberry Car Jar hanging in there, but the cheese smell is stronger. Weird.

Anyway, I have the cable modem and plan to reassemble and reconnect my computer tonight. We’ll see how that goes. This is a warning that I may not have access to email and the web for a day or two at home. Not that there will be much computer activity this weekend - bridal shower time and ECD, Holly, and Mary (the wedding photog/hairdresser) are coming up for the weekend. There’s nothing like opening your home to guests when you just moved in!

So I was waiting for my Venti Pumpkin Spice Latte to be made at the local Starbucks I visit on occasion when a chick walked in all bundled up in a hoodie and parka and camo wellington boots with her jeans tucked in like it was November.

Oh, it is November, you say?

Talk to Mother Nature, who insists on continuing with late summer here. Today’s forecasted high temperature: 67 degrees F. The normal high temperature at this time of the year is about 10 degrees cooler.

I was working on the last 20 beads for the second bridesmaid bouquet, so I missed a lot by not actively watching the show. Sadly, I don’t care that I missed a lot of the show last night. Shark jumping brings out the meh in me and TAR jumped the shark with this whole family season. Shame, that.

Anyhoo, I got the bouquet completed although it needs a bit of tweaking to make it a lovely as the first one I finished. Then I have about 230 beads left for my bouquet and then a ton of beads for the bouts/corsages. Still lots of work on this never-ending project.

But you’re here for my thoughts on TAR, no? Click the link…

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Apprentice: Martha - I really don’t understand why the low ratings for this show. I think it’s great. But I’m into Martha’s kind of business, so I guess that’s why I like it. Anyway, Primarius and Matchstick have to create a billboard to sell the new Tide product - Tide To Go.

Matchstick comes up with the boxing idea, name the To Go stick “Tide to Go Joe”, and rent a superhero suit for “Joe” so that he can fight stains in the ring on their rolling billboard (which is more like a high school float on the back of a flatbed truck).

Primarius comes up with ... nothing ... except movement. They want to keep things moving. But there’s no theme to the movement. Their float billboard is 100% high school from the noisy (read: obnoxious) cheer-chant ("Hey ho, Tide to Go. We’ve got Tide to Go!” or something like that) to the rented circus refugees (or is that evacuees?) who were doing I don’t know if that was dancing or acrobatics or what at ground level.

I was cracking up watching that and could not wait to see how the Tide people were going to judge that stellar promotion of their newest product and how Martha was going to skewer Primarius for a Not Good Thing. Needless to say, Tide was unimpressed and pretty said the Primarius promo sucked, although the worst part was that they were embarrassed by that ridiculous display. Martha was beside herself with displeasure and booted the two blondes who led the debacle. Two blondes equals one person, though, right? *snark - and I’m blonde so I’m allowed the joke, ‘kay?*

Threshold went into really gross 200 160-pound tumor territory last week with an alien infectee growing some mutant veggies in a pastor’s garden. It’s not everyday you see teeth in your lettuce, right?

Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Silk Stocking on Masterpiece Theater a couple of weeks ago was very different from the old school Sherlock mysteries. In this iteration Sherlock is an addict and the mood is dark, depressed. But Rupert Everett is excellent as Holmes and the mystery was well done.

This week we get back to regular, post World Series programming. A 2-hour episode of TAR tonight. Lost returns tomorrow. Woo.

You scored as William Wallace. The great Scottish warrior William Wallace led his people against their English oppressors in a campaign that won independence for Scotland and immortalized him in the hearts of his countrymen. With his warrior’s heart, tactician’s mind, and poet’s soul, Wallace was a brilliant leader. He just wanted to live a simple life on his farm, but he gave it up to help his country in its time of need.

[Photo and tables removed because the quiz creator made it too large for my blog. Tables bad.]

[via Robbo LlamaButcher]

Monday, November 07, 2005

Today we celebrate the day that my father was born 60 years ago.

He said yesterday that he doesn’t feel 60.

Dad, you are proof positive that 60 is the new 50.

Happy birthday!

And in grand family tradition (we did sing this traditional rugby song (profanity alert) to him the other day when we did the official family celebration with cake and candles):

Oh, why was he born so beautiful?
Oh, why was he born at all?
He’s no bloody use to anyone,
He’s no bloody use at all!

A quick google search reveals that the little verse that we have sung since I was a child in England is actually a profane rugby drinking song. I think my mother is now quite horrified at what she and Dad taught their sweet little girls all those years ago. I find it hilarious!