In My Copious Free Time

Why are there so many songs about rainbows?

I've been doing a lot of iTunes clean-up lately. Serious cleaning - I've deleted about 600 songs and I've done a lot of editing of poorly named or untitled tracks. (Several years ago someone gave me CDs of the Billboard Top 100 for the years 1960-2001, so needless to say I had a HUGE amount of music just from those CDs, which included a lot of stuff I just didn't care about.)

Anyhow, in the clean-up I discovered I have "The Rainbow Connection," so I loaded it onto my iPod that I keep in the car. I played it last night for Alex and he really enjoyed it. When I told him it was Kermit the Frog singing he thought a moment and said, "He's not bad for a frog."

Personally, I think his singing is just average for frogs. His banjo playing, however, is second-to-none in the amphibian world.

I want to be just like Cathy Z

That's what you'd think, anyway since I'm shamelessly stealing her blog post idea. It's okay though, since she shamelessly stole it from Ali Edwards. And if you don't know who these women are, you should check out their blogs. Both are very talented visual designers and artists.

On with the larceny...

Outside my window... the treetop is swaying in the breeze

I am thinking... about a conversation I had with my boss yesterday and about the housework I need to do tonight.

I am thankful for... Google Reader.

From the kitchen... this is so not applicable to my life, but I will say that the kitchen still smells like the pizza we had for dinner last night.

I am wearing...olive linen pants and a gauzy black top and black flip flops.

I am creating... plans in my head for the scrapbook pages I won't have time to work on tonight.

I am going... to finish this client contract revision today.

I am reading... well, at the moment I'm reading a data report for a client, but the book I'm in process of reading is  I Was Told There Would be Cake

I am hoping... that I get everything done that needs to get done before I leave for vacation.

I am hearing... the sound of the a/c.

Around the house... I dunno - it's there and I'm here.

One of my favorite things... cashews.

A few plans for the rest of the week... finish up the work on my desk, get a pedicure, cut Alex's hair (or take him to get it cut), clean house, pack, fly to Alabama to visit my family on Thursday.

Wii will, Wii will rock you

I'll admit it, I'm a closet singer. Well, a car singer anyway. Sometimes a shower singer. I have one of those voices that sounds heinous if I sing softly, but sounds only mildly dreadful if I really belt it out. There are very few people who are privy to my vocal stylings because I'm pretty shy. It takes a lot of energy to get past my deep introvert roots to unleash that voice in front of anyone.

I spent the last week of the year at my sister Jillian's house in Alabama and we played a lot of Guitar Hero World Tour - I bought the game and guitar for Jillian as a gift (she already had one guitar for the older versions of the game). We were having so much fun playing guitar and bass together that after a few days, she picked up a microphone so we could use the sing-along function of the game. Neither of us being too proud of our singing capabilities, we wondered who we could get to come over and sing and she suggested her friend Courtney.

As it turned out, Courtney, having her own life, was not immediately available to come over sing. couldn't wait, and so my brother-in-law Gary and I picked up the guitars and let Jillian take the mic for the first song. She tried to get me to sing, but I was having none of it. (Really, I was trying to be kind.) Jillian has a better singing voice than I do, but she has the same shyness problem I have, so her first song was fine, but not exactly band-fronting material. This was just not going to do.

"Let me show you how it's done," I said, taking the mic. As I type this, I'm realizing that I walked right into her plan. She's clever like that. Realizing this was A Moment - one where I could do an okay job and we could have an okay time, or one where I could let it all hang out and we could maybe have a great time. I figured, what the hell? I'll go with door number two. And in keeping with that decision, I chose The Beastie Boys' "No Sleep Til Brooklyn" for my debut. No half-assing allowed.

And then, my friends, I rocked the house.

I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard. Jillian and I were both crying from laughing so hard. For my next performance, I sang "One Way or Another" by Blondie. (I never realized how much of a stalker anthem this is.) Again, more laughing until it hurts. (which makes it sound less fun, no?) We took a break and I said to Jillian that hopefully Courtney could come over soon and Jillian said through her tears, "Oh, no! I don't want anyone to ever sing but you. You are the BEST LEAD SINGER EVER!"

Rest assured that she really meant "No one could possibly be as ridiculous as you."

If you are keeping score, that's ridiculous fun - 1, quiet maintenance of dignity - 0. Sounds about right to me.

Partially geeky but fully lazy

Or maybe the other way around. You be the judge.

For several days a Stormtrooper action figure has been lying on our front walk. It hasn't really occurred to me to pick it up, but I can't walk past it without thinking...

"TK421, why aren't you at your post?"

Photo Meme

I saw this from some friends on LiveJournal so I figured I'd play along.

Take a picture of yourself right now. Don't fix your hair... just take a picture. Post that picture with no editing. Post these instructions with your picture.

True to the instructions, I posted with no primping or fussing around. The only thing I did was move my laptop slightly to the side to eliminate the window backlighting that made me a dark blob. :) Not only did I not primp or edit the photo, I didn't even take another one after I realized that I had the cam on a 3 second delay, so I looked down at the keyboard thinking the picture had already been taken.

I lost my Jesus rug

In January 2005 I received a bizarre religious fundraising mailing that included a letter that horribly abused the power of underlining words, along with a paper prayer "rug." The paper had a rug printed on it with Jesus's face in the center. I've saved the mailing since then, but today when I went looking for it after receiving a mailing with prayer flags from the Dalai Lama (we're tight), I couldn't find it. I might have lost it in the move or perhaps it's in that bag of stuff I intended to take home but has been residing in my trunk since June. Anyhow, this is what the mailing said...

YOURS FIRST

On the back of the envelope:
Dear Jesus,
We pray that you will bless someone in this home spiritually, physically & financially. And please dear Lord, bless the one who's hands open this letter. Make good changes in this one's life and give them the desires of their heart. We pray over and bless this letter in your holy name. Amen.

The enclosed letter is too long to type, but here are some excerpts:

God's holy blessing power is in the enclosed anointed prayer rug we are loaning you to use!!!

When you use this Faith Church Prayer Rug, go into a room where you can be alone (just God and you). Turn off the television and radio and try to be by yourself when you kneel on this Holy Ghost Bible Prayer Rug, or spread it over your knees. We want this Church Ministry, Prayer Rug to be touching both of your knees as you pray for the needs you are facing right now. If you need more joy, peace, health, money, a new car, a new house, or whatever, we, as a very old (54 years) church, want to know about it.

These next 24 important hours are crucial to you. Timing is important to God. After you kneed on this Church Prayer Rug, or place it over your knees, place it in a Bible on Philippians 4:19. (If you don't have have a Bible, it's okay -- just slide it under your side of bed, for tonight, if you can. If you can't do this, it is okay. Leave It There No Longer Than Tonight Only! God sees.

On to the prayer rug. It's an 11x17 piece of paper with the image of a rug printed on one side. In the middle is the scariest Jesus portrait, ever. At the bottom it says "Look into Jesus' Eyes you will see they are closed. But as you continue to look you will see His eyes opening and looking back into your eyes."

UPDATED!!! Here's the rug!! Now if I could only find the letter to scan...

Where is 'Better Off Dead' on this list?

This was sort of an accidental vlog.

Let me just stop right there and say that I don't know what happened when they upgraded the TypePad compose interface, but if I make a mistake and have to backspace, it takes forever for the cursor to move. No idea why.

Anyhow...so here's a video I made last night before leaving the office in response to a vlog about guilty pleasure movies. I thought the list was a little odd, though. I would add:

• Clueless
• Summer Rental
• Midnight Madness (does ANYONE remember this movie?)
• Heaven Can Wait (the Warren Beatty version)
• Armageddon
• Legally Blonde
• Cocktail
• Better Off Dead
• Mr. Mom

Okay, I could go on but I won't, cause I already did:

*deep breath* My first vlog!

Okay, not to sound like Britney Spears, but...

OMG Y'ALL!!!! I just uploaded my first video blog! It's a little rambling and crazy, but it was literally the first take, one take, straight out of the box with this webcam. Since I have no idea how to edit video, there's no cutting out any of the nonsense. Actually, it's all nonsense, but you know what David Whyte says...

I find myself
Wanting to do
Something
Stupid and lovely.

While I was waiting HOURS for this video to upload, I actually made another vlog about why I was doing this and about this poem, but it'll take forever to upload, so maybe you'll eventually see that, too.

A little credit where credit is due:

It was after watching The Anthropology of Youtube after my good friend Mack posted it in his blog and watching that turned out to be the little push in the right direction I needed for this particular act of stupid-and-lovely-ness.  I also am a huge fan of Michael Buckley, and while this video is in response to Do it in the Shower, it was really his Don't be Afraid to Vlog video that inspired me. So thanks guys!

Anyhow, here I am - a little slice of me in real life.

And don't worry that because Michael Buckley sings in his videos that I'm gonna do that, too. I hesitate to say it's never going to happen because I've been doing a lot of things lately that I never thought I'd do, but in this case, I think it's pretty safe. I promise I am never going to sing in my vlogs.

So...OMG Y'ALL!! Like, leave me a comment on my video!

;)

I have Flair

I don't really pay much attention to Facebook, but this past week, I started playing with the Pieces of Flair application. You know, flair, the buttons Jennifer Aniston's "Office Space" character had to wear as part of her waitressing uniform. I don't recall the details, but I do believe she ended up losing her job (or quitting in a rage) over not wearing enough flair.

Anyhow, if you add the Pieces of Flair app on Facebook, you can browse a seemingly unending collection of user-created digital buttons, adding ones you like to your own virtual bulletin board and gifting flair to others. It's all totally meaningless, but those little, shiny circles are an awful lot of fun. (If you got a lot of flair from me on Friday...sorry. ;))

I learned a few things in my flair browsing though:

• Flair makers are a Jesus-y bunch.
• The Jonas Brothers are hot. And I don't mean hot as in attractive. I mean shockingly popular. Nick seems to be the most popular. I looked at maybe 1,000 pieces of flair and I don't recall a single reference to High School Musical.
• Twilight is everywhere. Those flair people love some vampires.

/slinks back to edit...
Of course, I wouldn't have learned any of this if it weren't for my sister Jillian, who is truly the best.
She deserved props for getting me interested. Or flair props.

odds and ends

A few random things I've been meaning to post...

About 2 months ago, I was at Boston Market eating lunch alone during an afternoon of running errands. I heard a guy at the counter ask for popcorn chicken and that got my attention right away. "Popcorn chicken?" I thought, "What does he think this is, KFC?" The Boston Market Woman (we'll call her BMW) told him they don't serve popcorn chicken and I kid you not, his next words were "Is there a KFC around here?" I couldn't help but look through the windows at the long-closed, weed-surrounded KFC building across the street. BMW said she didn't know where a KFC was, so KFC Guy orders several things and then tries to figure out what he wants for himself. He settles on an entree and begins picking out sides. He points to a side dish and and asks what it is. "Macaroni and Asiago," is the answer.

"Asi what?"

"Asiago."

"Asiago? What's that? Australian cheese?

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I've noticed that sometimes random play on my ipod seems anything but.Okay, so it served up the only two Poison songs on the list right in a row. Big deal. "Alone" by Heart followed by "Heartbreaker" by Dionne Warwick? So what? But here are a couple of not-so-random consecutive songs that made wonder just what was going on in that little bit of gadgetry:

Jesse by Carly Simon followed by "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield
"Hey There, Delilah" by the Plain White T's followed by "Samson" by Regina Spektor

and my all time favorite...

The Bee Gees poignant question "How Deep is Your Love" seemed to be answered by Randy Travis's "[My Love is] Deeper Than the Holler."
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Good news - Joe finally got his security clearance so he can start his new job. 

Bad news - His start date is 22 September.

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Two weekends ago I was in Washington, DC for work. On Saturday morning Alex called me and we had this conversation:

Alex:  Mommy, I have good news and bad news.
Me:  Okay, what's the good news.

Alex: No, Mommy. Today we're starting with the bad news.

Turns out he had thrown up that morning. "My tummy didn't feel good so I went to the bathroom and after a minute I decided to throw up. I don't know why that happened. Has that ever happened to you?"

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Last night I was playing an online "The Office" trivia game with my sister. Each question is punctuated by audio of Dwight saying "Question." Each incorrect answer is greeted with Dwight's frantic"Noooooo!" While I was playing this on the couch, Alex was playing Wii. After about 10 minutes he turned to look at me and ask, "Mommy, what is that your watching? Is that the 'Leave Britney Alone' guy?"

(picture me falling off the couch laughing)

I continued playing and a few minutes later he turned to me again, looking skeptical and asked, "Are you sure it isn't 'Leave Britney Alone' guy???"