Month: July 2008

Came home from drinking with coworkers last night

And there’s a block for all the knives, a new toilet seat, and, in the freezer, chocolate ice cream. It’s like I live at Hogwarts and every time I turn my back the house-elves have done something. Go Jeff.

Said goodbye to Liz and Klaus last night. Liz is an Irish lass who was with us in HR very briefly but memorably and honorably (and if I say why she was memorable, that would be indiscreet) and Klaus is a German lad who was with the company for about the same length of time as me. Like everybody who’s been at BigCo for more than ten minutes, he has an Allegra anecdote; faithful readers of this blog will know that I write Valentine cards for coworkers every year. One year his read, “I love you as much as I love the company ERP” which is kinda like saying you love boils, plague, cedar splinters and popped collars. He sought me out afterwards and with a classic everyman WTF expression on his face BEGGED me to reveal what in God’s name he’d ever done to deserve such a card. Everybody in earshot hearing this for the first time burst out laughing…especially the people from Finance.

I spent 50 bucks on jugs of beer and nibblies, and some of the folks there coughed up some money, so I only ended up spending what I would have spent on myself, so it was more than satisfactory.

I am making chocolate waffles. My happiness is tempered somewhat by the knowledge that somewhere, lurking in the batter, is a piece of eggshell. I hope I get it and not Jeff.

Ooh, I just remembered. Ian M. gave me a lift home and he’s got a brand new Prius. Silver, of course. What a sweet ride that car is!

I took the Steampunk Personality Test bwa ha ha

You are Arcanist-Major Edmund Ras of the Praxian Alliance, assigned as liaison to the Legion of Peace.  You are a scholar, a scientist, and a sorcerer, in a city that distrusts the first two and despises the third.  Though you are kind-hearted and concerned about the betterment of others, the hostility you routinely encounter has left you jaded and sardonic.  You have a sharp tongue and a very dark sense of humor, and you delight in mocking those with irrational fears and prejudices.  Your outlook on life teeters between the optimistic and the resigned, and you still can’t decide if humanity is worth the trouble.  Still, even if humanity is doomed to self-destruction you are willing to risk your life to give it just one more generation.

Off to the back doctor this afternoon

My life has basically become a very unpleasant place, and my sleep is getting worse and worse, so off I go.

Cousin Gerald is now a grampa times two. Hurrah! More deets as I get them.

Youtube Bingo last night was great… Jeff and I learned about Jon Lajoie. If you already know about him, great; if you don’t, well, let’s just say his ability to keep a straight face while singing lines that make you spew your beer in all directions (one of us, I won’t say who, actually did have a beercident) makes him an instant classic. Not safe for grandparents, sorry. Or anybody with pretensions to taste and decorum. Not.

Family here

Keith and Paul and Jeff and ScaryClown and I had a whole salmon and garlic bread and salad for dinner.  No dessert but blueberries.

It was really pleasant; we ate on the back deck in the dying sun and watched ScaryClown get along really well with Gizmo, and we played Youtube Bingo after supper, and that was loads of fun too.

Star Wars floppy & other news

I don’t know why I thought this was so funny, but I did.

Chipper got her dvd of puppy power but has not reported back yet. I’m bouncing from one foot to the other wanting to know.

Paul’s back from the Adirondacks. Tish and Terry are doing fine. Paul says he had a really tough time keeping up with Terry, but he’s been saying that for 25 years so I don’t think this represents a change. Terry always seemed to be a secret new power source anyway. And sing yip and whoo hoo! Paul quit smoking! Seven days no smokes, let’s all think positive.

No word from Katie, but I imagine somebody would have called me if any further insanity had taken place that I really had to know about.

I just made french toast. How amazing! Jeff has just gotten up! Good, otherwise I might end up eating it. Time to put on the bacon. Jeff doesn’t drink coffee anymore, but he misses it. I say things like “I can’t live without coffee” but of course I can. I’d be learning how to roast chicory as a substitute.

A death and an incident involving lots of blood

I light a candle for my beloved worksibling Tanya’s grandmother, who passed at RCH today.  Go gentle across the rainbow bridge, elder.

Ahem.  So I get this cryptomundo text message from Katie saying that she’s been living in a horror movie.  OF COURSE I immediately assume that it’s Dax, and it very plainly turns out not to be, in fact, Dax behaved with more calmness and civility than anyone could credit him with, considering that a guy with a dirty great knife was alternately trying to stab him and kick his door and his HEAD in.  End result.  One of Dax’s roommates is homeless, with about 7 criminal charges pending, Katie is fine except for the strained muscles you always seem to get when some drunken animal is trying to kill you with a knife, Dax had to have stitches, the culprit had to have reconstructive surgery because he was so fecked he sliced himself across the tendons in three fingers. Katie is here, helping me cook spaghetti and vibrating gently.  Dax put his life on the line, literally, defending Katie, and has been the soul of gentlemanly courtesy since, so I am much obliged to him.

The perp is an ex drug addict (now just a drunk) who is normally a really sweet guy.  He also has brain damage from having been electrocuted and he was already on disability.  Oh yeah.

Katie and Dax cleaned up the house.  There were apparently torrents of blood… I’m debating whether to ask Dax for his cell phone footage, as he filmed what the place looked like afterwards.  Schadenfreude, anyone?

Lazy day

Friggin near cataplectic day, actually.  I cooked, did a microscopically small amount of cleaning, I did some laundry but it was hard to get inspired when the downstairs neighbours did laundry on a day which wasn’t ‘theirs’ and I had to move stuff of theirs around, which makes me kinda anxious in case I should do something wrong and they come upstairs and confront us about it.  Laundry is a touchy issue.  I mean, this guy yells about everything.  Spent more time communing with Meadow.  She got up in Gizmo’s face at one point.  I’ve never seen a cat use less energy to hiss, it was pretty funny.  It was more like an expression of scorn with a breath behind it.

Jeff’s apparently taking off to go fishing with a friend for his birthday. I am thinking it will be perfect, weather, location and company wise.

We’re working our way through Huff season 1 and Buffy season 2 and while there are definitely classic shows in S2 I guess I’m looking forward to later seasons.  We also watched some youtube videos last night; I wanted to see some Al Hirt and Jeff dialled up some Buddy Rich with the Boston Pops orchestra.  I love having that stuff on the big screen.  I know Jeff considers it a waste of a venue – taking blurry pictures and blowing them up real good – but I don’t mind the low-def aspect of it.

No videos yesterday but I practiced until my fingers were good and sore, and I think learning all those new chords is going to have a very ‘jazz hands’ effect on my songwriting over the next while.  I love Happy Feet but the chord changes are hideous.  I mean, really, really hideous.  The F9 to B7 is not the work of a Christian, believe you me.  Oh yeah, and I made Jeff watch the Happy Feet segment of King of Jazz. It’s so very wonderful…..

The Truman delusion?

There’s a new delusion on the block, oh goody.  Another form of mental illness I can sympathize with and not actually, you know, catch.

From the time I was little I had no interest in being famous. I watched what famous people went through and thought, that’s just nuts!  No privacy, and then at the end there’s nobody to pay attention to you.  Yuck!  I gave up waiting to be discovered (the psychological failing when you wish that you will be magically conveyed to a land of money and prestige without actually doing anything) in my early thirties, when I got a letter from a relative outlining how she was going to wish her way out of her current situation and I realized “holy crap, that’s me!”.  Now I’m posting stuff on youtube, not because I have some belief that I will magically become rich and famous, but because people ask me too, and it’s fun, and most of the people who see it think it’s cute or funny or useful or bizarre. In fact, cute, funny, useful or bizarre is kinda the focus of this blog, when I’m not whining about something or other.  I have this overwhelming urge, today, to sing the Slimfast and Methadone song into the all seeing eye of Youtube.  I should put that mental aberration aside and just go practice some more.

Still don’t know all the chord forms for Happy Feet.  Sheesh, it’s hard!  Fingees stingee.

I have seen all of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog

I pronounce myself ‘amused’ but I would have to say that I am more “bemused” than ‘amused’.  Joss Whedon LOVES killing characters.  As the fans say “Joss Whedon, you BASTARD!”

Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer takes smug self-satisfaction to cringeworthy new heights. Anyway, if you want to see it, you have to google it and watch it today, because they’re taking it down.  They put all the good music in the first 2 episodes, just so’s ya know.

I walked around the house saying happy thoughts happy thoughts and my migraine resolved, just like that.  The next two sentences deleted on account of cowardice.