Blown Fuse

Makin' memories, folks.

Hope everyone had a pleasant weekend. Is it just me, or do people not do anything for Easter anymore? When I was in school or working, I always seemed to either have good Friday or "Easter Monday" off to extend the weekend. Scott had to work both days, so Sunday seemed like just another Sunday.

North Carolina has been having a cold snap over the past week or so. We've gone from 85 degree heat to "Shit, need to go back and get a coat" weather in the matter of a few hours. I HATE THAT. Just as the congestion was starting to clear out of my head, it's come back and now my ear is all stuffed up again.

Wait. How did I get off-topic that fast? Oh yes. Easter. Long-time readers know that we're not particuarly religious, however would feel a bit empty if we didn't recognize certain traditions from childhood. So, we do the best we can to re-create those for the baby. I decided last minute that he should have an Easter basket this year, and by the time I sent Scott out to pick some stuff up there wasn't much left. (Incidentally, have you ever tried looking for Cadbury Creme Eggs the day before Easter? Because they don't exist by that point.)

I had plans for us to go take Easter pictures outdoors so that Rosco could have a chance to wear his little seeersucker jumper, but like I said: cold. My sister and I always got new dresses for Easter when we were kids and someone would always make us stand outside on my grandmother's porch and model them for snapshots. I hated it, but can appreciate the value of there being some record of us from year to year. (In fact, here's a picture of my sister modeling a homemade dress, circa 1986 or so).

Well. This year's pictures have me and Rosco in our pajamas. Of the three of us, Scott was the only one to shower and dress for the day and that was only for the sake of buying coffee creamer.

Yeah. We need to improve on this holiday thing.

Squeaky Clean

Okay, I've been making phone calls all day and it wasn't until around 2 o'clock that I noticed that there was ear crud on the phone. Being that I've been here less than 8 hours of my life, it ain't mine.

Fortunately, the Wet Ones I bought to travel with last week were still in my backback. Now my entire immediate work area is sanitary.

True Blue

I was thinking that, in order to be as offensive as possible to my fellow Southern AmeriCorps trainees in the coming week, that I'd show my ACC pride and get a new Carolina shirt. this one takes the cake. To this point I've just been wearing small t-shirts in mens' sizes. The added length in the trunk is sufficient for a growing belly, and I don't really need the frilly girly tiny-tee sleeves that come on women's shirts. It's too hard to wash the plastered-on deodorant out of form-fitting tees.

I had no idea they made maternity Carolina crap.

Sugar Shock

All this sugar came with a (very) small coffee accompanying a McDonald's breakfast. I watched as the McDonald's Team Member hurriedly swept them into the teeny tiny sausage biscuit bag. I kept my mouth shut. The extras will surely find their way into my snack drawer for an emergency.

Ho heh heh

I made out like a bandit this Christmas. With this being our first year with a tree and all, I fully expected one gift and that the rest of the gifts under the tree would belong to people who hadn't stopped by yet to pick theirs up.

But, lo, for some reason my husband loves me and since unlike me he is paid wages that are NOT reflective of the goodness of his heart, got me lots of loot.

I got a new cheese grater (we somehow managed to break two), a 30 GB iPod (wasn't expecting), a PalmOne Tungsten E2 (which will make me appear more professionally important than I really am), a cozy cardigan, some fuzzy socks to shuffle around in, a cake/pie stand (because I had been turning a cooking pot upside down over my cakes to store them), gift certificates to take gourmet cooking classes, a birthstone ring and necklace...and Scott and I got a Bible to share. Ahem. I'm sure some seriously misguided person bought that out of the goodness of her heart.

The one complaint I have about Christmas is that everything around here shuts down. Wal*Mart is closed. The grocery stores are closed. By the time I got motivated enough to go out and do some shopping for a Chrstmas meal last night it was 5:45. Most stores closed at 6. I made a pecan pie (of which each and every pecan was cracked by my own two ands using a pair of vise grips) and we had a Freschetta pepperoni pizza for dinner.

Oh well.

You can check out my Christmas album at Flickr. Please refrain from cracking on my morning hair.

Where I get my strapping good looks.

Here's a picture of my maternal grandmother (the one I grew up with) and grandfather circa 1940somthing.

She was 16 when they got married. He was 22. The first of eight or so children came around in 1946. By then my grandmother was 24. . .wow, eight years and no kids and then poofpoofpoof - house full.

Gratuitous Kitty Shots

I decided that you haven't seen enough pictures of Puffy Savage. Or me lately, for that matter.

Enjoy.

And bend! And Stretch!

If you squint, you may be able to work out the large piece of exercise equipment sitting in front of my desk at work.

This is nothing new - it has lived in the office since Bossman officially moved down here (June or July of last year). They had two full trailers of furniture and household goods and that was only half of what they had in their New Jersey home. For whatever reason, instead of having the exercise machine and his gun safe delivered to his new townhouse, it graces the front of my desk.

The safe I don't mind so much because it shields me from the stares and glares of my coworkers. The elliptical machine, however, is just plain tacky in plain sight.

Bossman has tried selling it to us (for too much) and has even told me that if I wanted it I could take it for free (I don't have anywhere to put it).

There are a couple of folks in the office who want it, but unless they can talk him down to the same cheap price he offered me it'll sit there collecting our dust.

Aww :)

This is from my Yahoo! home page:

Little things make me happy.

*Does a little dance*

As promised, here are a few pictures of the new Jeep.

View from Left
View from Front
Posing with the spare tire

So, here's the story of how I came into possession of the Jeep:

I had narrowed my list of prospective purchases down to three vehicles: the Subaru Outback, the Honda Element, and the Jeep. I actually added the Jeep to my list at the last minute. I don't remember how I got it in my mind - I think perhaps I was thumbing through Consumer Reports and saw its rating. Anyhow, I had asked for a quote on a Liberty through a dealer's website and was quoted a number that was pretty hard to beat. I asked if I could come in and test-drive it. The problem was that the vehicle I was quoted on (a 6-speed base model) was 100 miles away and they wouldn't bring it in unless I would commit to purchasing it. Having never driven anything larger than a 1986 Lincoln Town Car, I worried that I wouldn't be able to handle a large vehicle so I asked to come in and drive something of the same size. I had no intention of actually making a purchase that day especially considering that the next day (today) I would visit another dealer that was going to let me take the vehicle home overnight to test.

Anyhow, when I got to the dealership I was put into a 2005 Liberty with a diesel engine and two-wheel drive. I wasn't particuarly enthralled with the performance, but I loved the feeling of being off the ground. Upon returning to the lot we looked at all the 2005 Liberties available. To keep cost down and still get the size vehicle I wanted, I really had my mind set on manual transmission, however there weren't any available on the lot [in my price range].

The salesman encouraged me to testdrive a PT Cruiser. I should comment here that I hate how "cute" those cars on, but seeing how the base model for those vehicles were running about $13,000 I figured it couldn't hurt to see how it drove. Well. I didn't really have anything bad to say about the perfromance of the car - I just couldn't get over the way they look. Also, I realized once I got into the Liberty that I definately wanted to be higher than a wagon would get me. I scratched the Outback off my mental list.

Eventually, I relented to considering a vehicle with automatic transmission and four-wheel drive (it's basically dumb as fuck to ddrive a utility vehicle during the winter if you don't have 4WD). There was a red one that was a good price because it had been sent back to the factory for a paint defect. They repainted it and sold it to the dealership at auction. Because of that I got it for the "used" price although it only had 28 miles on it.

I love it. It makes me giggle to think about how insanely giddy it makes me feel. It has a V6 engine so it has the umph that my Honda has and I get all the cargo room that I wanted. The Honda Element just ain't cute enough to beat that.

Now I've got to go back to Cary to drive my other car home.

In Support of the Susan G. Komen Foundation

Pink batteries: cute, huh?

Bald Head Photos

Here are the ones where I don't look stoned and Scott doesn't, in his own words, "Look like a fucking android."

I also have some pictures of the leaking roof and the storm in general that I'll post when I'm reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally lacking in content fodder.

Sleepless

3:15 am and the most brutal part of the storm is on top of us and keeping me awake. Tried to get out yesterday but the ferries weren't running. Tired. Upset.

Taking on Water

This is some Swiss Family Robinson bullshit - the rains have started and the roof of the villa is leaking in 3 places. DISCOUNT!

Knitting my Time Away

I'm knitting a sock. The weather charts say warm and sunny by Thursday and I hope to be sunburned and crispy as a pork rind by Saturday.

VOLUNTARY evacuation.

The wind is picking up and some guests are voluntarily evacuating. I guess they're being safe rather than sorry, but I'm not running for a l'il rain.

By the Marsh

Behind the Villa: we're built near a nature preserve and there are gators about. I haven't seen one yet and I hope I don't.

View of the Villa

The Villa. We've got 3 bedrooms all to ourselves. Ophelia is kicking up in the Atlantic & we're determined to see some sunshine.

Safely Arrived

Greetings from Bald Head Island! It's a bit windy on the coast & the house is shaking on its stilts. We hope to splash around some tomorrow.

These shoes are made for walkin'.

In preparation of our vacation next week (and out of sympathy for my pathetic fall shoe collection), I went back to DSW [the Designer Shoe Warehouse for those of you who don't have one near you] to pick up some shoes that would be competitive with what all the bluebloods on the island would be wearing. I was at DSW on Wednesday when they were moving stock into clearance. They had one shoe on the end display (that Diesel) that I couldn't find on the racks, so I figured it was new and just not out on the floor yet. When I went back yesterday in search of flip-flops, I found it in clearance and almost wet my pants in glee.

Oh, and I got some Rocketdog flip-flops, too. They have the same weird angle about them as my feet, so I think they're fabulous (and comfortable, to boot).

I ordered these on Wednesday for myself: Sperry Top-Sider Bluefish. I plan to strut around a lot and act like I have $100 bills stuffed into my shoe soles.

Now I just need to go try on my old bathing suits to see if they still fit. If not, then...well, you know. *$cha-ching!$*

Micro Vault

This here little gem is the Sony MicroVault USB storage device.

Isn't it cute? It's like a little lipstick. I requested this as my anniversary present from Scott. Now I can carry top-secret documents around in my bra.

I'm pretty excited about it. I wanted a way to transport my short stories around when I'm working on them that didn't require me carrying around CDs and floppy disks. Emailing stuff to myself just got too complicated.

Now I can stick this li'l sucker in my work computer and do some quick edits while I have time during lunch.

I'm stoked.

Chugalug

August 24, 2005

August 22, 2005

August 15, 2005

July 09, 2005

July 06, 2005

July 05, 2005

June 15, 2005

June 10, 2005

June 01, 2005

May 24, 2005

May 19, 2005

April 14, 2005

April 10, 2005

March 24, 2005

January 24, 2005

January 05, 2005

December 26, 2004

December 25, 2004

December 14, 2004