Friday, January 30, 2004

Friday, January 30, 2004

The other PC just became a boat anchor last night.  Ahh, well change is good.  I hope I didn't lose anything important.  I had most of my data backed up, but who knows if I got it all. 

Speaking of losing, I have a pet peeve.  Can more people please learn the difference between lose and loose?  That is all.

Last night was an amusing adventure.  It was our annual homeowners association meeting.  Good god the kvetchers and whiners!  And then we couldn't agree on fixing just one thing.  Everyone had to add their own Vietnam into the mix.   Talk about mission creep.  One major (READ: expensive) project became 5.  And then the subject of my scary neighbors came up.

Everyone looked at me like why aren't you calling the police more?  (I did once when he was out drinking and shouting in the street at 3am.)  I gave two answers and then reluctantly a 3rd.  My first two were completely true.  I don't like to call the police on my neighbors -- it seems un-neighborly.  And, I would assume the police have better things to do than come stick up for me when I get my feelings hurt.  Finally, I admitted that he really is a scary guy, and I wouldn't put it past him to retaliate in a scary way.  I love where I live and would hate to live in fear.  I've learned to pick my battles and most of the time, it isn't worth it over trucks blocking my driveway.  Apparently other people live more in a dream world than I do.  Dunno how that's possible cuz my shades are tinted violet, but I have some seriously naive neighbors.

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Thursday, January 29, 2004

I finally managed to catch up with our recycling guy.  Merry Christmas to him!  Hehe, he started out kind of grumpy when I saw him, but then his face lit up when I handed him the card and said Merry Belated Christmas

I'm trying to do a recovery of the PC using the CDs, but it's failed twice.  :(  Scandisk locks up.  I don't even know if reformatting will work, but it looks like my next step. 

/cry

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

I fucking hate Microsoft sometimes!!!  Sigh.  Every time for the past several months that I sign into MSN messenger, it asks me to upgrade.  I have the new messenger on 2 other pc's.  It seemed safe.   However, when I went to open Outlook Express, I got some weird error.  Yes, I know I should have stopped right there, but I didn't have the benefit of hindsight then.  So I proceeded to upgrade my Outlook Express and Internet Explorer to version 6.  It's been out for months now, shouldn't it work?  That was just one more step down the path to my own private Idaho.  I've easily spent the past 10 hours working on this.  It keeps blue-screening for no apparent reason.  It now looks like the hard drive may be bad.  How the fuck did IE break my hard drive???

Monday, January 26, 2004

Monday, January 26, 2004

Double feature movie night!  I ordered two pizzas for us (non-Mad Cow flavored), and we settled in for the night.  First was Out of Time with Denzel.  His movies are always good, and this was no exception.  Next was a foreign action movie, So Close.  Who would have suspected that I would be crying my eyes out halfway through it?  Anyway, it was an excellent movie if you like the martial arts.

Saturday, January 24, 2004

Saturday, January 24, 2004

Last night was sushi & movie night.  Yum!  We watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  I had heard that this movie was panned, but it was actually quite entertaining for this genre.  The title bothered me the most because it's sexist since there was actually a woman in the league.  Other than that, it was worth two hours of my time.  ;)

Friday, January 23, 2004

Friday, January 23, 2004

Well, I did it.  She seemed wacky but adept.  I can't really tell how my hair looks because she had to comb it out to add the colors, so it's all upset now.  I picked chili pepper red as my main hue, and she added 2 more to accent.  Then, she picked another set of 3 to complement that.  So, I now have lots of colors in my hair.  =)  Galahad said he likes it, but he has to so I don't start crying.  :p  She was almost double the price of my regular hairdresser, but I have rationalized the difference away.  ;)  She's a struggling single mom with her own business, so perhaps this is the "charity" I was looking for.  It's not tax-deductible, but it is still going to a good cause.  Plus, she's very talented.

Thursday, January 22, 2004

Thursday, January 22, 2004

 Tonight is a consultation with a new (but highly recommended) hairdresser.  Ack!  I'm nervous.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

I had to get up so early today.  When I opened the fridge this morning, the light wouldn't even come on right away.  That's how early it was!  I had to drive down to Miami.  I was told to allow 90 minutes because of traffic.  I'm guessing that was a sick joke or else I drive faster than she suspects because I was 40 minutes early.  :(  Oh well, at least I looked good.  :)  I was nervous about my knowledge (or lack thereof) on Unix, which this customer supposedly had.  So I wore my black power suit with a bright fuchsia top to take the hard edge off.  I figured at least I look and feel good even if I sound like an idiot.  :p  Turns out they didn't really want to talk about their Unix anyway.  Whew!

On the way back, I stopped at my mechanics to get an oil change.  Their shop is geographically undesirable but their honesty and knowledge is just inspiring.  So I make the hike or coordinate it around other long trips.  Hehe, by the way, anything farther than 10 minutes away is very far to me.  They were so nice, said they always have time for me, and squeezed me in at lunchtime.

Since I was in that neighborhood, I decided to stop by the Jamaican bakery to buy us some beef patties and coco bread for dinner.  Haha, I forgot what it was like to be the only paleface around.  There I was all dressed up in an edgy neighborhood, with my face like a beacon.  No one bothered me until I got to my car.  Then I got kind of freaked out when a crack addict asked me for money.  He approached me just as I was getting in and cornered me.  I said no as politely yet firmly as I could and slammed and locked my door.

As I was leaving there, a light bulb went off in my head.  I decided to surprise Galahad with lunch.  Except I wasn't sure if he had eaten yet.  And I didn't know the exact location of his office.  Yeah, I'm a bad girlfriend.  I called him to ask, and he invited me over.  He gave me a quick tour and then said he wasn't sure where we could go eat.  I knew of a nearby golf course and suggested we could trespass & loiter there.  We had such a lovely picnic lunch on a park bench.  As you may have noticed from my little weather pixie, it was a gorgeous day today.  :)

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Last night we watched Blood Work.  It was pretty good except for an unrealistic love interest between Clint Eastwood and a woman 40 years younger.  Yes, he's handsome but he's 70+ FFS!

Monday, January 19, 2004

Monday, January 19, 2004

I had the day off and turned into a slug.  I barely got out of bed at noon to eat lunch.  I did get up early with Galahad to make him breakfast, but then I scurried back to bed.  :)   After lunch, I found my way back in bed to read some more.  At about 4 pm, I forced myself to get up to start on the closet.  I'm happy to report that it looks fabulously organized!

Sunday, January 18, 2004

Sunday, January 18, 2004

Galahad worked like a crazed man today.  Our closet is just about done except for some touch-up painting.  And, it looks fabulous, plus it's practical.  Poor guy worked so hard.  I forced him to take some football breaks, like at the end of the Patriots-Colts game when it got exciting.  I helped as much as I could, but I had to stay away from the paint fumes most of the time.  He installed one of those easy-to-install do-it-yourself racks plus shelving.  It wasn't easy in the slightest.  Plus, one of the walls was angled so he had to create a special piece to adjust for that.  The parts didn't exactly match up to how they described them either.   Also, he had to spackle and paint the holes from the previous shelving that ripped out first.  Then somehow the floor and the wall aren't exactly perpendicular, so he had to add shims underneath the shelving.  The man is a genius!  It all came together nicely.  :)

Saturday, January 17, 2004

Saturday, January 17, 2004

I spent the afternoon with my dad, fixing up his PC and configuring Quicken.  I was very pleasantly surprised to have a great time with him.  Are you sitting down???  He didn't make a single skinny remark or innuendo.  We had lunch together (he treated) and he told me the story of when he went to Guinea, which I had forgotten.

Thursday, January 15, 2004

Thursday, January 15, 2004

Stayed home with Galahad tonight, cuddled up on the couch, and watched Sniper 2.  I was planning to call my dad, visit with him, brace myself for the obligatory "omg you're so skinny speech", and help him set up his new Quicken.  But then at about 5 pm, I had severe lassitude and just fell into bed with my book.  =)  I barely had the energy to crawl downstairs to the couch.  ;)

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

I woke up at 4am today with a migraine.  Fortunately for me, I already had an appointment to see my chiropractor today.    I asked one of the massage therapists for a mini-massage and he asked if I would try reflexology.  Of course I acquiesced since I was feeling miserable and willing to try anything to feel better.  I'm not sure it helped but it felt good.  ;)

Then I decided to stop in and say hi to one of my friends.  There was just one small problem.  I couldn't stop crying in the car.  Well, I gave myself a stern lecture and asked myself who was stronger, me or my body.  The lecture was partially successful --- I stopped crying before I got to her house but couldn't shake the fucking migraine.  She was pleasantly surprised to see me but could tell by my wan face and pained eyes that I wasn't at my best.  Happily, she chatted about herself and her life to take my mind off of feeling sorry for myself.

She asked me to go with her to her pedicure appointment so we could continue chatting.  We started talking about girly stuff and cosmetic surgery pros & cons.  I inserted one of my huge feet into my mouth.  I said I was almost considering Botox for the migraine relief aspect of it but that I didn't really want that Botox look.  The manicurist's face pops up and says what look???  I asked if she had it done (she replies yes), and I ask her to lift her bangs.  I then proceeded to lie my ass off that she didn't seem to be affected by the no-expression Botox look.  I wonder if she believed me?  I feel bad if I hurt her feelings unknowingly. 

Afterwards, I became the chauffeur since my friend's nails were too wet to drive.  We went for a nice sushi dinner and chatted some more.  I'm so glad I stopped to see her.  Not only did it cheer my mood up immeasurably, but I found out she was leaving the country tomorrow for 10 days for a family emergency. 

Safe travels to you my friend!

Sunday, January 11, 2004

Sunday, January 11, 2004

My 3rd choice of movie wasn't so good.  I fell for the evil marketing scheme of putting Bruce Lee's daughter on the cover.  Anyway, don't rent Lessons for an Assassin.

Saturday, January 10, 2004

Saturday, January 10, 2004

We got all energetic today and finally took down our Christmas tree and decorations.  Haha, yeah I know, what white trash we are leaving the tree up until almost the middle of January.  But it's so pretty and green that it seemed a shame to throw it away.  I'm happy that my city has a program to pick up our trees and mulch them for city parks.

Then somehow I still had more energy and Galahad was hinting that he wanted a movie & pizza.  I persuaded him that if I was going to make a trip out into the cold (like 60°F!), cruel world, we should forego the pizza and enjoy sushi.  =)  He was all bundled up on the couch, so I braved the blustery evening on my own.  That also meant I had to pick out the movies.  Yikes!  There isn't much selection on a Saturday night, but since they are only $1, I picked 3.

We ended up watching Maid in Manhattan during dinner (I figured no gory surprises here to affect my appetite).  I was kind of embarrassed to pick this one out cuz there was a guy standing right there and this is such a typical chick flick.  I waited a whole minute, but he didn't seem to have any intention of moving.  Laugh, why should I care that someone saw me pick out silly fluff to watch?
 
Afterwards, we watched the meaningful foreign film (which I placed on top of my stack ;)) --- The Legend of Suriyothai

Wednesday, January 7, 2004

Wednesday, January 7, 2004

What bizarro dreams I had last night.  I think I spent 20 minutes this morning describing them in explicit detail to Galahad.  He was absolutely stunned that I came away with so much detail, down to the colors and textures of the giant hawks.  Haha, aren't you strangely curious how I had giant hawks in my dream?  There were other large birds of prey, too.  I wonder what that means.  Has my spirit animal guide changed from a snake to a bird?  Am I evolving, becoming more enlightened?  Or perhaps I'm merely crazy -- although I prefer the term eccentric.  ;)

Tuesday, January 6, 2004

Tuesday, January 6, 2004

A friend of mine ( /wave Jeff) emailed me from out of the blue today.  I love that!  :)    It seems like with email so prevalent and long distance fees so cheap that more people would stay in touch.  Somehow I think it's precisely because it is so easy that we take it for granted and assume we can do it quickly later.  Therefore, it just never gets done.  The life of a procrastinator decrees that if a task is too onerous or too quickly done, it's better put off until later.  I could very easily send a quick email to so many people just saying hello to let them know I was thinking of them.  Somehow, I don't do it as often as I would like.  Perhaps that makes the other times that much more special.  Or perhaps I am trying to rationalize my procrastinator ways.  I frequently think of various people throughout my day, either remembering some piece of wisdom they shared or speculating on their reaction to a funny phenomenon.  I'm just not so good at letting people know what they mean to me.

Monday, January 5, 2004

Monday, January 5, 2004

If I question my path to enlightenment, does that mean I'm further away than I think?  Do enlightened people have self-doubt?  Do they shed tears?  Ever?  It seems like one step upwards on that journey and then a tumble downhill to ensure my humility.  Last night a wave of sadness hit me (and the obligatory tidal wave of tears).  While I could name many things which sadden me, none of those seemed to be the cause. 

As easily as I could list those sad factors in my life, it would be simpler by far to double that list with my joys & gifts.  So why the sadness?  To give me perspective?  To value my blessings more?  Or for no fucking apparent reason other than life is random? 

Heavy thoughts for a Monday morning.  Sunday nights make me sad no matter how good Sex & the City is.  I think it's reminiscent of my childhood where Sunday nights meant an all-nighter finishing the homework that I neglected to do over the weekend.   Sadistic bastards give homework over weekends.  Fuckers!   I'm still traumatized by it and barely realize it.  Haha, and I thought I might be anywhere near the path of enlightenment.  Blaming my childhood teachers for my current angst.  I should be ashamed.  :p

 Happy Monday to you!  =)

Saturday, January 3, 2004

Saturday, January 3, 2004

I'm finally buckling down to the pile (nay the heap) of mail sitting on my entry table mostly addressed to me, with a few addressed to my deceased mother.  She's never even lived at this address and died 4 years ago.  Wtf?  Galahad's dead father also gets his mail here.  He died over a decade ago. 

When I canceled my American Express card 2 months ago, I debated whether my MasterCard or my Visa would become my primary card.  I used my MC once and then switched to my Visa because it auto-deducts from my bank account at the end of the month, and I'm all for convenience.  Ever since then, my MC company has stepped up the amount of junk mail it sends me.  Wtf?  I used it once in 3 years.  I'm such a credit card tease.  ;)  I got it all excited and dropped it.  Now, it's stalking me.  American Express at least took the breakup like an adult.  I haven't received much solicitation from them.  Fuckers!  As if after 15 years, I'm going to pay them to have the privilege of using their card so that my merchants can pay them even more.  Fuck off!  Hehe, bitter much?

Okay, next rant.  Fucking whoring charities!  I donate money once and they spend all of that money on more fucking junk mail begging me for more money.   Galahad said he heard on NPR that they use all the chump change from people like me to go after the big fish who give millions.  I kind of understand that reasoning, but I hate that they spend my hard-earned money on junk mail that annoys me, wastes natural resources, wastes my time, and creates land-fill issues.  Can't they just buy these people food like they say they will?  I donated online.  Can't they email me pics of someone eating a sandwich if they feel so inclined to show me my dollars at work?

What sucks even more is that I have to sift through gobs of fucking trash every day to try to pull out the important stuff like my utility bills.  I end up missing one or two every few months.  Did I mention the 7,082 mortgage offers?  If they're so smart to know that I just refinanced my house and the broker who did it, they should be fucking smart enough to figure out I'm not going to do it again a mere 2 months later from some Joe Schmoe who fucking misspells my name.

Don't I feel better now?  =)

Friday, January 2, 2004

Friday, January 2, 2004

We gave back the kitty today.  I miss him somewhat but he clawed huge gouges in my arm yesterday so it was easier to say goodbye.  :p  Poor kitty was abused in a former life so he startles easily.  He launched himself off of my chest (I'm happy he punctured only my arm) when he heard Galahad open the door. 

I am delighted to report that I am still fighting this flu and putting up a damn good fight if I may say so myself.  =)  I still haven't progressed past a sore throat and beginning of a fever.  Vitamin C for the win!!!  The migraine still comes and goes, but I am in denial about that.  :)

Thursday, January 1, 2004

Thursday, January 1, 2004

How weird is it to write 2004?  Last night we went to see (finally) Lord of the Rings.  I won't say anything more so I don't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it.  At a couple of the scary parts (yeah I'm a 'fraidy cat, I know this), I practically ripped Galahad's arm out of the socket.  I had to stop myself from grabbing our friend's arm, too, who was sitting on the other side of me.  How embarrassing that he saw me all freaked out.  :p  Oh well, at least I didn't cry too much.  ;)  It was really evil in parts but not so much mushy stuff. 

Then we came back home, busted open a bottle of champagne, and toasted the new year.  I know it may sound boring, but it was fun & cozy to hang out like that.  I suppose I outgrew the "I need a new thrill" phase.  Now I just look for laughs and smiles and contentment.  I don't need to one-up anyone with stories of amazing parties.  Laugh, I think I have stories enough to last a lifetime.  I have so many stories, I forgot most of them --- and probably better off forgotten.  ;)

We slept in today until noon and Galahad made me a scrumptious breakfast of smoked salmon on toasted French bread, spread with goat cheese.  Did I mention that I love him?  =)