Thursday, May 31, 2007

These ARE Really Good Spring Rolls

So, the neon sign in the Vietnamese restaurant window WASN'T lying!

Banh Mi So #1 - Saigon Gourmet has really good spring rolls. Also, very tasty main dishes. According to the website, the name of the restaurant translates to Number One Sandwich; it originally opened as a sandwich shop. And, geez, I will definitely be going back for a vegetarian sandwich, especially since it's only $2.25! Last night, I ordered vegetarian spring rolls, Palestrina's Delight (a tofu dish), and a new dish that was pork and mung bean cakes served with big noodles and a spicy sauce. Porkchop and I both totally enjoyed the tofu dish. I like the pork and mung bean cakes, but I would have preferred the pork to be tofu. Next time I go, I'm going to try the tilapia spring rolls - some other diners were raving about these.

We were able to do some unpacking last night. Porkchop actually did a lot in terms of putting up the loft bed and moving her art boxes into storage underneath the bed and so forth.

I unpacked some kitchen boxes.

The kitchen boxes overwhelm me, especially since we have limited kitchen storage space.

Keetah's litter box has been moved to the sunporch. She seems okay with this.

After seven months, I was finally able to check out this book. The bad thing about relying on the university library is that professors often put the books that I want on 2-hour reservation.

I think we might do a little bit of grocery shopping after work. Without a list. That's scary.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

A Bird in the Basement, a Bug in the Bathtub, a Bat in the Bedroom

Hi!

Oh my gosh, this move is exhausting! My calves hate me right now and are refusing to travel up or down any more stairs. Fortunately, my office-mate allowed us to ride the elevator up to the 2nd floor for bagels (our office is a "garden-level" joint...so 2 flights definitely warranted assistance).

One of the things I dislike most about moving is that my eating routine is thrown off completely. Breakfast this morning was a yogurt drink, 1 little chocolate donut (thanks to Porkchop), and a bagel. Compare this to my usual banana and unsweetened soymilk. We've also eaten out more over the most few days than we usually do in a month. Crazy!

Anyway, so here are the reasons for the title...

A Bird in the Basement
On Saturday, after moving about a third of our things into the new apartment, Porkchop and I checked out the basement. We were going to investigate the storage area when a bird flew out of one of the rooms! Porkchop yelled and then ran off. Well, I should write "ran" off because we were already tired so she really just shuffled off. It was a shuffling run and highly amusing.

A Bug in the Bathtub
Dude, I had hoped this move was going to be "bye-bye house centipedes," but there was one in the bathtub last night.

*groan*

I'm beginning to think it's a St. Louis area thing. Even my office-mate, who lives in Bridgeton, has them. AND she lives a newish subdivision with no suspicious basement.

Maybe St. Louis sits atop a giant house centipede colony! ARGH!

My other thought is that we brought a couple of bugs with us. And this disgusts me more than anything.

P.S. There was also a bug in our bed, but just a tiny one.

A Bat in the Bedroom
So, imagine that it's 3:30 am and you wake up for some reason, decide to go to the bathroom, and then come back into the bedroom and you see a bat flying around. Yeah! That actually happened!

For the first time ever, I was the one to wake up Porkchop saying that I saw something flying around (Porkchop has regular night terrors involving spiders, bugs, and other things). I was all, "what do we do? what do we do? what's our plan of action?" while Porkchop hid under the covers.

Anyway, Porkchop came up with the brilliant plan of opening the screenless sunporch windows and corraling the bat through the living room, dining room, and kitchen and then out the windows. It worked!

YAY!

Conveniently enough, Porkchop's plan appointed me as the key bat wrangler. So, not only did I have to walk around unarmed to open the kitchen door and stuff, I also had to run around the living and dining rooms with the swiffer, encouraging the bat through the dining room door and yelling things like, "here it comes! no! okay! here it comes! no! oh! here it is! SHUT THE DOOR!" Porkchop then shut the dining room door, got the bat into the kitchen, and then closed herself in the bedroom. There, she was able to monitor the sunporch windows AND stay away from the bat. Do you see a theme here?

Keetah was pretty chill during all of the this, but Porkchop walked around with a sheet over her head. I'm worried that we're going to find batshit all over the place or something.

All of this only took a half hour, but no one slept much afterwards.

We think the bat came in the open bedroom window. We found that this particular window does not have a storm window at the top. Since there's only a screen on the bottom half, there's plenty of room for a bat. Is this plausible? I don't know, but it's the only thing we can come up with.

I'm kind of excited to finally have a bat story to share. It seems like everyone we know has a similar story. However, no more bats, please.

What Else?
We're super-tired. I'm glad to be at work and away from boxes. Porkchop dropped me off at work this morning, even though she is also exhausted.

We only have a few things left at the old apartment (prints, framed things, sculptures, some kitchen things) in addition to a huge pile of things to take to the Goodwill.

I miss the old apartment and its lack of bats. Also, its central air...I totally miss that already. Our open bedroom window led to the bat (possibly) and my right nostril starting to close up again (even though I'm still on allegra and nose spray).

Anyway, I plan to clean up the icky kitchen cabinet and unpack a few boxes tonight. Since I'm car-less this evening, I might pick up something in our new neighborhood...maybe something from the kebab take-out place or from the Vietnamese restaurant that advertises "Best Spring Rolls in St. Louis" in neon lighting. If it's in neon, it must be true.

P.S. Porkchop is letting me use the title of this post for free.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Packing and More Packing with Cleaning Thrown in for Fun

Gah!

If I have to pack one more item, my head will freaking explode.

There are more things to pack.

We get the U-Haul tomorrow morning, then pick up the washer and dryer that my office-mate is giving me (yay!, but she lives a half-hour away), and then start taking things to the new apartment. I readied the new place today with swiffering, mopping, dusting, and laying down grip liner (still need 2-3 more rolls).

While cleaning the one sizable cabinet in the kitchen, I discovered that a smoker lived in the apartment at some point and obviously smoked a lot in the kitchen. While the rest of the kitchen was painted, the inside of the built-in cabinet was not. If I remember, I'll take a picture of the striations caused by spraying cleaner on the inside wall and letting it run down. While I was able to get rid of a bunch of the nicotine gunk, I'll have to go back in with a magic eraser.

I don't question the magic eraser because I love it SO MUCH.

Anyway, if I (still) smoked, seeing and smelling the difference between non-smoker walls and smoker walls would definitely make me quit.

More disjointed thoughts...

I hope to post pictures of the new place tomorrow and hopefully our old place (once free of boxes) at some point. For historical purposes.

Our internet access at home will experience a lapse between this Tuesday and the following Monday. Sometimes I forget that you have to make things like appointments with the cable company. Murrr.

KT and BD were in town late Friday night and Saturday morning. We had drinks at Van Goghz Friday night and then had brunch at La Dolce Via in the morning (minus Porkchop who had to work). As I've written before, La Dolce Via is super-fantastic, EXCEPT they need to add a few more vegetarian meal items.

Before KT and BD arrived, Porkchop and I dined at the Pitted Olive. The Olive's garlic frites are out of this world. Seriously, why are you still reading this? Go get some garlic frites!

The toilet in the new place runs unnecessarily. I hate to start complaining about things already, but I guess I must.

The new place has only 4 sets of blinds that need washing. When we moved to Arsenal Street, I had to wash ALL of the blinds. That's 12 sets of blinds, most of which are 5 feet tall. And, no, not washing dirty blinds is NOT an option. Just like not cleaning ceiling fans is not an option (2 in the new place versus 5 in the old place). The new place also has less woodwork that, while pretty, requires regular dusting.

I'm tired, but I have to pack more kitchen stuff. Blech.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Uncomfortably Numb

My take on Pink Floyd's lyrics:

There is much pain, your gums are receding
A distant dentist drill on the horizon
You are coming through with A3 color fillings
Your lips move but you sound funny

Hi! I just had three cavities filled! Three quadrants of my mouth were affected, so the dentist decided we should do the smallest one without any sort of numbing. As painful as that sounds, it was actually the easiest one. For the other two cavities, the dentist had to go up under my gums, which means I will be quite sore once the numbness wears off. Right now, I just have bloody gums...still no feeling.

At work today, I kept having this internal debate: should I exercise tonight, or should I pack? Ha! The answer is neither! I forgot that this cavity-filling business might make me want to just drink an iced chai and eat soup from St. Louis Bread while sitting on the couch.

A Cavity Memory
When I go to the dentist, I like to remember this story...

During the summer when Porkchop and I were living with BD and KT in Columbia, my left foot became quite sore after Porkchop and I had taken a walk on a trail. We're talking SORE, as opposed to sore.

After tiring of my complaining and hobbling about, Porkchop looked at my foot. Nothing. She concluded that perhaps I had bruised it during our walk (because, you know, Porkchop is also a trained podiatrist). Alas, it became SORER and SORER and people starting making fun of me and accused me of whining.

A few days after our walk, I had to get a cavity filled (yes, you see, it relates). Porkchop kindly chauffered me for my dental visit and helped me inside the house afterwards. It was then, as I was climbing up the stairs with a foot that felt like it was about to fall off and a numb face that I couldn't take it anymore and maybe started crying.

Porkchop and KT then maybe laughed at me because I could only manage half a frown while crying.

So, Porkchop re-examined my foot with the help of BD and they found, between my littlest toes, a tick the size of a pea!

Yes, a tick had been feeding on my foot for at least three days!! Who was laughing then! No one!

BD pulled out her wallet-sized tick identification card to make sure it wasn't possibly a Lyme disease-carrying tick. Then Porkchop and BD got to work and extracted the tick. I think KT stayed in another room during this procedure.

Now, when Porkchop sometimes makes fun of my complaints (like my Dance Dance Revolution knee injury which has seriously affected my quality of life), I try to remind her of this tick story. It's like the boy who cried wolf but only reverse.

Anyway
Who's going to win American Idol tonight??

Don't say that you don't care!

Porkchop and I have our money on Jordin while Keetah is sticking with her beat-boxing bro Blake. Keetah is a mean beat-boxer.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

If I'm Dreaming, I must be Worried

Hi!

I just got off from my lovely morning conference call. I only say about 2 minutes worth of dialogue, yet I stay on the phone and listen for 50. *grumble*

Last night, I had a new apartment bad dream....

The apartment had horrible carpeting throughout (instead of just the small bedroom).
The kitchen flooring was peeling, revealing 3 layers of previous flooring.
The previous tenants had left all sorts of junk for us to clean up (in reality, there are no previous tenants).
One of my college roommates and her boyfriend were hanging out in the apartment (in this case, this was bad).
The apartment was in a super-scary part of town with burnt out buildings and creepos lurking on corners.

*sigh*

Monday, May 21, 2007

Curry Paste Face Off

Today was Staff Day at my university. In addition to attending a school breakfast and a university lunch, I left at 2:30 (I skipped out on bingo, volleyball, and other activities). This gave me plenty of time to go to Jay International Food to buy green curry paste and basil.

It also gave me time to think about curry paste and take pictures...



I'm amazed at the difference between Americanized Thai curry paste and the real deal. In my head, the green curry paste says to the red curry paste, "RRRAAAWWWRRRHHHH! Be prepared to be beaten! You stupid Thai Kitchen, much-too-expensive curry paste! I have 10 more ounces and am at least $3.00 cheaper!! RRRAAAWWWRRRHHHH!"

This is what I picked up the curry paste for:



Green chicken curry with green beans and basil. Super-yum! On the left is our latest experiment with Thai iced tea. We're close, but we still haven't nailed it.

For dessert, we had a piece of this:



It's the chocolate-orange-hazelnut poundcake from the Moosewood baking cookbook. Also very, very yum. Don't worry, we haven't eaten this much of it - I took half of it to work.

Last night I made spicy tofu burritos. No picture, but also tasty.

[Hey, why is Blogger Preview broken for Safari now?? Grrr! I wish I could write a QA note for it....but that was a different software company and a different time.]

Besides packing and more packing, Porkchop and I are going to see Knocking Thursday night at the history museum. [Thanks to cj for the alert!]

More random thoughts....

Our tomato and basil plants arrived from Burpee. This makes me happy and worried. I hope I don't destroy these little tomato plants. I'm not so worried about the basil because we were successful last summer.

I have another 7 am conference call in the morning. Terrific. On a related note, I placed calls to the Netherlands and Benin on Friday for the upcoming conference. I feel so international.

Porkchop cleaned the kitchen tonight. YAY!

Saturday, May 19, 2007

The Moving Blues

Wow, I CANNOT wait to get all of our books packed! Urgh, books are the worst to pack and there are so many!

I find books to be the worst because I can't stop opening up random ones and skimming through them for the best parts. Also, I just packed my old journals, which took FOREVER because I had to read certain passages and relive the high and lowlights of a half dozen years. I think it would be worth it to hire someone to pack my books and journals - it would certainly take less time.

On Tuesday night, Porkchop and I packed a few boxes of books, some framed items and other breakable things, and the contents of our little blue cabinet. The blue cabinet is the repository of photos (from childhood on up to maybe 2003 when we stopped taking picture photos), correspondence, stationery, some knitting things, and an assortment of random little things. We got trapped in relationship reconstruction and read nearly every card, note, and handmade book that Porkchop has given me. Luckily, my things to Porkchop are kept somewhere else (supposedly anyway, I've never seen this place). It took well over an hour to do this.

We are much too easily distracted to get this packing job done quickly.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Finally...

Do you ever feel bad about feeling good that someone dies?

I don't feel bad at all while breathing a sigh of finally over Jerry Falwell's death.

About the death of the guy who founded Moral Majority because of Roe v. Wade...all I can say is good riddance.

Of course, there are thousands of other ickies to take his place.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Setting my Alarm Clock

Guess what I get to do tomorrow morning at 7 am...

Join a conference call regarding the international symposium that I've been trying to avoid!

For the next 6 Tuesdays, I will either be on a call at 7 am or 8 pm. In my book, this sucks big time. Luckily, the 8 pm ones will start after our next American Idol is announced (if my calculations are correct, anyway).

Work was totally weird today. I accomplished practically zero things. The weirdness starting by me receiving two emails completely in Chinese, with the exception of my name (a project manager provided translation). After our director hijacked the staff meeting, completely pushing aside the prepared agenda, things just went downhill.

I was in meetings for 3 hours. For the other 4.5 (yes, I usually have a 7.5 hour workday), I can't tell you what I did. Well, okay, I reserved a U-Haul, but that didn't take so long.

Knitting
I knit two rows on my sock heel during lunch. Watch out! This sock is moving FAST.

After the season finale of Lost (I seriously don't watch THAT much TV, okay? I follow 3 shows, and that's only because we got sucked into American Idol this season. My other show is The Office.), I might start going to Knit Night at Knitorious. It seems like everyone loves it. I feel like I'm missing out on knitting coolness.

Dinner
I'm currently marinating chicken for this mango-chicken recipe. When Porkchop gets home, she'll fire up the grill. Yum!

I'm hoping that a shaved ice will be had after dinner. However, I don't know if the stands stay open so late. We shall see.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

A Surprise Hit

Currently, I'm watching our friends the raccoons climb up to our deck and check out the bird feeder status. Sometimes it's creepy to catch them scurrying around our place.

For dinner, I made this stew. It uses butternut squash. tofu, coconut milk, and toasted almonds (plus a few other things). I was pretty sure that I would like it, but I nearly fell off the couch when Porkchop exclaimed how great it tastes.



I made a few modifications to the recipe. Instead of using one or two slices of ginger, I minced a good inch of ginger because it's one of my favorite things. Second, I don't have any turmeric or ground coriander seed, so I used curry powder. Third, I used the whole block of tofu. Like a friend of mine once said, keeping leftover tofu is like taking care of a damn goldfish. I love tofu, but I don't have much patience for changing its water every day. I once kept half a block of tofu in my fridge for at least two months. Porkchop finally flushed it down the toilet...I don't know if that's the proper disposal method, but I was just glad that I didn't have to touch it.

Back to the stew, I went back and forth on whether I should make rice. Since we're having rice tomorrow night, I decided against it. Next time, though, I will definitely have rice ready.

Last Night
When Porkchop got home last night and saw my empty beer bottle, she decided she wanted a drink too. Since our coffee and oatmeal stouts sounded too heavy, we went to Absolutli Goosed for a drink. I feel like I wasted my drink because I ordered a melon martini that I ended up not liking. I'll stay away from the melon next time and stick to the chocolate and/or coffee drinks.

Tomorrow
I have a staff meeting that will take up most of my morning. (groan)

Have a great Monday, my friends!

Going Through Things

It's another terrific-weather day. I love low humidity!

After Porkchop left for Six Flags, I did yoga, had lunch, and took Porkchop's car in for an oil change. Hey, Mother's Day is the best day ever to get an oil change! There was no wait, so I was in an out in 10 minutes.

Speaking of Mother's Day, I was just contemplating my bookcase, trying to decide if there are any books that I want to purge before moving. Scanning the shelves, I came across a book in which my mom had a poem published about 4 years ago. It was one of those books for which you answered an ad in a magazine and perhaps paid to have your poem published. Something like that.

But, my mom's poem is really good - I think that's why it's the first poem in the book. Dude, people should have paid her to publish it, not the other way around. Anyway, I'm violating copyright laws and reproducing the poem here.

**********
Sunday Clothes Christians
Rushing to church.
Rushing past the hunger.
Rushing past the hurt.

Sunday Clothes Christians
In a hurry. Can't be late!
Got to hear about so and so's cruise
And make that golf date.

Hurrying down the freeway
In the SUV. White of course!
Hurrying past the dreary slums
The bag ladies and the worn out bums.

Can't stop! Can't help!
Cause Sunday Clothes Christians
Can't be late!
**********

My mom doesn't write poetry on a regular basis or do any sort of writing outside of business-related things and personal correspondence. Even if she did, it's a terrific poem. It's pretty cool that she was inspired to pen a poem about people in her neighborhood and that she published it.

Other Things
While Keetah did this:



I've been pulling clothes out of my closet and dresser that I want to part with. These are among the items:



Yeah, I think it's finally time to say goodbye to my Vans. I remember purchasing them when I was 15....we've been through a lot together. But, I haven't worn them for at least 2 years. They're pretty beat and holes are starting to wear in the soles.

Well....onto other closets and more purging.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

More Things

Since Porkchop won't get home until around 11:00 tonight, I'm updating my blog again. I'm currently enjoying a coffee stout (still working on my pack from December), listening to This American Life, and eating one of these:



These mocha macaroons (I would call them meringues, but I guess they are technically macaroons) are one of the best things ever. You can find them at the TG farmers' market, and I highly recommend them. I first had them at the Harvest Festival last October, and I'm glad to have a regular supply of them now. I've already had 3 today.

So, I took care of this during the afternoon:



The Glass Doctor came and replaced the window, and the church pastor called and said that they would refund me next week. I'm glad this was just a small disturbance in my day.

After doing the week's grocery shopping (P.S. Trader Joe's is actually tolerable on Saturday late afternoons), I came home and made roasted asparagus (bought at the farmers' market) with penne and a goat cheese sauce. Yum!

Here are some other recently made things:

The mango salsa for the braised porkchops last week...so pretty!



Roasted chicken and potatoes...so good!



And banana bread that I made last night. I used this recipe because it was one of the few that I found that didn't use oil and that used more whole wheat flour than white flour. Instead of walnuts, I used dates because that's what I had. Very good!



May in Review
May has been a rough month, so I thought I would do a mid-month review, in case you haven't been listening to my complaining:
  • I've been sick for all of May.

  • On the day that I looked at the apartment for which I signed a lease, the following things happened: 1) Our Airport Express got zapped in a storm. 2) Our modem got zapped in the same storm. 3) I fell exiting my car from the passenger side, sliding on the muddy mulch in the storm. I received a nasty bruise on my leg and my left thumbnail bed was torn up. I still have a lumpy, painful bruise, but my nail bed is healing well.

  • Porkchop is now at Six Flags on the weekends, which makes me sad.

  • I have done little knitting.

  • I get easily irritated at work because of the poor planning that has been done so far on an upcoming international conference.

  • I have a new pair of Keens (not a complaint). I was going to buy these last weekend at REI, but my inability to breath kept me from doing so. Porkchop ended up surprising me with them Monday evening. Here I am wondering if they are actually ugly, or if they are okay. After Porkchop put them on to demonstrate what they look like to the non-wearer, I felt much better. I like them and they're super comfortable.

  • I've finally scheduled movers for the end of May; now I have to line up a truck.

  • My car window was broken and fixed today.

I'm wondering what the rest of the month will bring.

A Beautiful Morning...

This is a terrific morning; the weather is perfect windows-open, snuggle in bed time.

Also, with the first outdoor TG market of the season, what could be better?

These were my thoughts this morning. La, la, la, yay, yay, yay, nice weather and things to do. The plan was for Porkchop to drop me off at the market, me to shop around, walk home, take Porkchop's car in for an oil change, exercise, pack, and so forth.

Unfortunately, when we walked out the front door, our thoughts were, "ooooohhh, shhhhiiiiit." Because...my front passenger car window was broken! Awesome!

At first I thought someone had broken in to steal one of these things: my Camera Obscura CD, my umbrella that doesn't really work, or my bag of car trash (water bottles, Kleenexes, etc.).

It turns that the gentleman mowing the next-door church's grass hit a rock and the mower threw the rock and it broke my window. What bad luck!

I hate that this happened, but I am also amazed at the chain of coincidences that leads up to such events.

If only my car had been parked in another spot, if only the guy had noticed the rock, if only we had left earlier.

Anyway, it sucks.

I'm about to call the pastor's personal cell phone to talk about getting reimbursed for my window. The quote is $230, and I have a $500 deductible, so.... As much as I hate to take money from this little church, I don't have a lot of spare change at this moment to pay for a window that I didn't break.

Update
I took my dad's advice (something I rarely do) and went ahead and scheduled the glass people to come out. They'll be here sometime today.

I love services where it's just "sometime today."

Friday, May 11, 2007

The Littlest Birds (Sing the Prettiest Songs)*

During lunch today, I watched a robin feeding her little ones. The nest is on a windowsill in my school's courtyard - seems like an odd spot since there's no foliage to protect the nest, but I guess it works.

I just saw my blog on a list of regularly updated blogs....so I decided I should perhaps post an update!

Yesterday I went through the 1200+ emails in my work inbox and whittled it down to 68. It's now up to 90. Blech. I get sick of email at work, which explains why I'm an irregular emailer outside of work. I don't like to spend non-work time on something that reminds me of work.

Anyway....

The other night, Porkchop and I tossed around the idea of driving to Columbia after work today for Shakespeare's. My favorite pizza: half tomato/half pineapple with pepper jack cheese on a wheat crust. We'll probably end up not doing that, since neither of us mentioned it this morning and Porkchop hasn't responded to my text message about it. Maybe we'll stay in the neighborhood and try Black Thorn's pizza.

We've had an awesome week of dinners at home: corn chowder, braised porkchops with mango salsa, baked tofu, and roasted chicken and potatoes. Yum! But, I'm tired of cooking now and need a little break.

This Weekend
Tomorrow is the first outdoor Tower Grove Farmers' Market, and I'm quite looking forward to it. I'm excited for asparagus, strawberries, and baked goods.

Also, this weekend, I need to do more move preparation. I still don't have movers lined up. Murrr. After the rain yesterday evening, I stepped out on our deck and realized how sad I'll be to leave our apartment. I wouldn't mind moving for a house; I'm tired of apartment-living.

Update: I now have movers scheduled. Now to rent a truck.

I'm embarrassed to give a knitting update....I've only started the heel of my second sock. Someday....

Other News
We are back on-line at home! Yay!!!

Porkchop spent the evening uploading photos for our vacation blog, so I didn't have a chance to luxuriate in our wireless. Okay, I could have used the computer in the office, but that's also the cat litter room. It can be awkward to be at the computer while Keetah is taking care of her business. [P.S. Keetah is still alive. Porkchop found ribbon-filled poop while scooping the other night, so maybe Keetah's troubles have passed (intentional double-entendre).]

Have a great weekend!

*Is there anything sweeter than The Be Good Tanyas' song?

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

52 Minutes Later

I was finally able to convince the Motorola customer service rep that our modem's ethernet port is bad. We should be back on-line at home in 3-5 business days. Finally.

Food
I really want pad thai with tofu from Bangkok Gardens in Columbia. I don't consider BG seriously "authentic" Thai food, but I love their pad thai. Way back when, I lived just a few blocks down Ninth Street from the original location. Porkchop and I ate there A LOT.

For a while, one of the BG co-owners lived across the hallway from me. He was a bit creepy for reasons that I won't say. I also won't say what this guy obviously spent most of his money on because these things might be considered slanderous or something like that. Also, maybe you know this guy and you think I'm being mean.

Anyway, I haven't been to BG since they moved. I can't imagine it's quite the same. I mean, I guess you no longer get to have a beer and hang out in Ninth Street Deli while you wait for a table.

Work
I'm going crazy over another conference! This one is out of the country and involves three other organizations. Needless to say, it is difficult to just send out an email requesting hotel check-in/out dates from people. This morning I was told to send the email, and then two hours later I was told to wait until tomorrow. Grrrrr.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Still Off-Line

So, we still can't connect to the Internet at home! GRRRRR! GRRRR! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Apple gave us a newly refurbished Airport Express and I bought a new ethernet cord, but now it seems the modem's ethernet port is bad. Unfortunately, the Motorola people would not believe me last night when I called their customer service line - they tried to say that it was possible that both my laptop port AND the Airport Express port are bad. Ha! We have now tested our iMac port with the modem (no luck), and I connected my laptop to my school's network without any problem. So, take that Motorola customer service reps! You will be hearing from me tonight!

I am so so so tired of these Internet problems.

I am also tired of not feeling well. I feel okay today, but it's a fake, medicine-y okay. On Saturday, my right nostril closed up COMPLETELY. It was horrible! I now have a steroid nose spray and the generic Allegra. For the first time in a few days, I am breathing freely. But, I know it will start to wear off this evening.

Enough about my health problems, let's move to our cat's problems. On top of Internet and sinus/allergy yuckiness, Keetah woke us up at 4:00 am with puking noises. Actually, I had to go to the bathroom, and then I heard her making weird noises. After staying up with her for about 45 minutes and witnessing her go through vomit motions twice, Porkchop only found a few small puddles of liquid in the other bedroom. Since Keetah was prancing around and demanding to be petted, we figured she was okay.

This morning, as I was rushing out the living room to catch my bus, I stepped in a puddle of cat vomit. Ewwww! Luckily, I had shoes on. I think Porkchop once stepped in a puddle while barefoot. Anyway, then I noticed the vomit on the couch and the stuff out in the hallway. Poor Keetah.

I am afraid that maybe she ate some ribbon attached to a balloon that Porkchop received during her kidney donation. It is a long story and it's my fault. Anyway, we hope that Keetah is okay and that the ribbon hasn't wrapped itself around her colon. If she is still acting off-character, we'll take her to the vet.

So, between all of these things, I haven't felt like thinking about moving. Must consider scheduling moving help and packing boxes and changing addresses and switching utilities over. Groan.

No knitting progress has been made, and I haven't made my poundcake yet. Murrr.

Here's to a better week!

Friday, May 04, 2007

Still Here

Hi! Here is what I've been up to in bullet-point form:
  • I found an apartment and signed a lease...all in the space of less than 4 days! Beginning in June, Porkchop and I will be keeping it real on Montana. The plusses: rent is $250 cheaper a month for nearly the same amount of space, it's closer to the South Grand Ted Drewes, it has radiator heat (love radiators! no more dry air!), and the owner's sister lives below us which means I won't have a nearly $400 gas bill in the winter. The minuses: it's not as knock-out pretty and grand as our current place, it's further from the fun places on South Grand, the kitchen has zero counter space, and it doesn't have central air. I think these things balance each other out. Also, I don't think the new place is infested with house centipedes, so that's a major plus.

  • I'm sick. Again. I was nearing recovery and then major post-nasal drip started yesterday. Yuck. I'm tired of feeling shitty.

  • I have 3 cavities. Murrrr. But, my gums are quite healthy.

  • Porkchop has started back at Six Flags. This means lonely times for me.

  • Our Airport Express got zapped during the big storm Tuesday evening. We also think our ethernet cord is shot. So....we currently don't have Internet access at home. I know! How do we survive?

  • We shed a tear Wednesday night when Phil had to leave AI. Yeah, he annoyed the heck of me, so I don't know why I was sad to see him go. But, Chris R., finally!

  • I'm making okay progress with my second Jaywalker. I'll turn the heel soon, and then the foot should go quickly.


I guess that's it.

I'm hoping to make a chocolate-orange-hazelnut poundcake this weekend! Yum! Hopefully my yuckiness will pass, and I won't spend the weekend sleeping.