Just about a week ago my swing dancing troupe did a performance for a mountaineers club dance. We did the routine ‘Everybody Eats’, and I was a last minute addition (there turned out to be an extra lead), so I got to perform the routine after not practicing it at all for about 3 months. Here’s the video:
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Talk about an anticlimactic comeback topic, but maybe my life is a tad anticlimactic right now. After all, I spent Saturday cleaning out my storage unit. I know this isn’t really the most riveting thing to read about, but I think the before and after photos are kind-of entertaining:
Okay, maybe they don’t look all that different, but you’ll notice that in the first picture there are boxes and junk and things jumbled on top of one another almost to the ceiling, making it impossible to even step into the storage space, and in the second one, everything is neatly stacked and organized and you can even walk inside to reach the shelves at the back – something I haven’t been able to do for at least the last year and a half. So in some ways, this is pretty momentous
I also decided to get rid of an impressive amount of stuff, which you can see stuffed into my old car:
And, to give you an appreciation of how much stuff I had to sift through, here’s a shot of what the storage room looked like while I was in the midst of sorting everything out:
I found some odd stuff in there too: potting soil, a pair of ski boots (I don’t ski), a table I didn’t think I owned anymore, a disco ball, a box full of random liquor, a Duff man costume, a sketch book from my high school art class, and snow tires for a car I don’t own anymore. And of course lots of flotation devices and christmas decorations. But all this will probably be nothing compared to when I finally tackle the spare room:
Filed under: Life
My Aunt Carol just sent out her photos from last weekend when she and my Grandma Peggy came to visit for Easter. It was a good solid Montesano weekend, complete with rainy dog walks, an easter egg hunt, playing with the baby, fresh daffodils, tons of delicious food, and extra fun getting to visit with relatives. This photo is of my Dad and I trying on hats which, upside down, had been our easter baskets.
There are more photos from our weekend on Aunt Carol’s flickr page, including some very cute shots of my Niece in her Easter finest.
I’ve been pretty bad about posting on my blog lately. The trouble is there isn’t a whole lot that’s new going on right now, I’m just sort-of stuck in the middle of trying to make a bunch of decisions about things. I’ve been planning for a while now to take a trip to China this May, but I just realized the dates I was planning overlap with my dance troupe’s one big performance of the year at the Folklife Festival. I also just found out that I may need to cut the trip down to two weeks instead of three, due to the limited amount of time off I have right now, unless I want to borrow from next year’s supply of PTO. So now I’m mentally weighing the longer trip to China against whatever month-long adventure I might be able to enjoy next winter (the exciting news is that as of this year I’ve been at the company long enough to get a whopping FIVE weeks of time off (!!!!) beginning in July, which pretty much rocks). I thought I might be able to help the decision process along by finding out whether I would still be able to perform at Folklife if I miss the two weeks of rehearsal preceding the event, but the response I got was a not-so-helpful ‘it depends.’ And as if all that wasn’t enough, I’ve also decided that buying a new car is really smarter than keeping my dirty little troublemaker, which of course opens up a whole new collection of choices to be made. Maybe once I have at least a few of these troublesome unknowns figured out I’ll have something interesting to write about again. Meanwhile if you’re looking for something a little more engaging than this, check out these awesome 3d chalk drawings.
I thought getting my spam count up to 2000 was going to be a challenge, but over the weekend it just took off. I grabbed this screenshot of it sometime yesterday, and even after last night’s older-than-30-days delete it’s still at 2063 right now. And I haven’t even been feeding my e-mail address to sketchy sites… crazy.
I’ve decided the next big milestone will be 3000, which would mean I’m receiving 100 spam e-mails per day (right now my average is around 70 per day).
I really love playing Scrabulous on Facebook. I’ve had a game going with my dad for at least the last month and he’s completely kicking my ass. I finally found out what his big secret is (aside from the fact he’s a ridiculously good scrabble player, so much so that nobody but his Mom will play with him anymore): he pulled out the scrabble set from home and keeps a tray with his current scrabulous letters sitting in front of his keyboard at work. So basically he can spend all day looking for that brilliant next play and then log on to facebook to make his next devastating move. He even sent me a photo of this sweet little setup:
I like to think that eventually I’ll learn to be a better scrabble player by playing with him, so I’m choosing not to let it get to me that I’m currently being beaten by over 150 points. One of his favorite tricks is to use every one of his letters in a single turn, which in the Scrabble world wins you an extra 50 points. This manouver is demonstrated below where he played first ‘increase’ and then ‘osteoid’ – I still don’t even know what osteoid means.
I was pretty proud of my ‘laborers’ move, but it used two pre-existing letters so no bonus 50 for me. But if anyone else on facebook is keen on wordgames, I’m all about Scrabulous (and I’m learning to be a pretty gracious loser too). Oh, and if you see any good moves I can make with my current letters (below), feel free to suggest a play. Maybe that will be my new secret Scrabulous strategy….
Yes, I deliberatly spelled Karma with a ‘C’ because I’ve decided that my car has bad Karma. Something bad happened this morning and it wasn’t actually my car’s fault but it made me like my car less anyway. And it’s probably just a subconscious psychological strategy for evading personal responsibility, but I have this feeling right now that my car is bad news and that maybe it’s time to finally ditch it. The idea of rigging my car to drive itself off a cliff has surprisingly high appeal, as does the more practical solution of making it someone else’s problem by dumping it at some sketchy used car dealership in exchange for maybe $50.
The only trouble I have with this plan is the thought of what a nasty hassle it is to shop and negotiate for a new car. It makes me more inclined to stick with the bad karma car and keep up the mindfulness lessons. It might even help me learn some other valuable life skills like humility and patience, especially now that it’s looking more beat up than ever and of course it’s still dirty. On second thought, maybe a new car would be worth the hassle after all.
So it’s back to the mechanic tomorrow, where I will be very sure this time to get my free car wash. Maybe my thoughts on the subject will be more rational once the stupid thing is at least clean again.
The check engine light came on in my car yesterday morning as I was on my way to work. At first it freaked me out because it was flashing and I know just enough about cars to know that a flashing check engine light means you should immediately stop driving and call your mechanic. So I had already started going into a controlled panic and was pulling my car over onto a side street when the light stopped flashing. If I hadn’t already been in that semi-panicked mode it probably would have occurred to me sooner that the light just always flashes at you a bit when it first comes on, which it turns out is true but I didn’t learn that until that afternoon at the mechanic. So I immediately called my mechanic, which was easy since the number is programmed into my phone (a good indicator of just how reliable my car is), and I made an appointment to take it in as soon as possible. I pretty quickly figured out that I had overreacted to the light but figured it was a good idea to get it fixed promptly anyway. The whole mechanic thing was pretty routine and generally dissatisfying – one big-ish problem and lots of little things that might be causing it. So they fixed a bunch of little things and told me that it may or may not solve the big-ish problem but at least the light is off again – I really hate driving around with the check engine light on, it makes me edgy.
With a car like mine I figure it’s mentally healthier to take these things in stride, so I’m not wasting time worrying about the car or freaking out about the money, but I was truly disappointed this morning when I was deprived of one of the few redeeming qualities of the whole ‘broken car’ experience. There are two things that actually make me happy when I go to the mechanic – bulking up my REI dividend by charging the expense to my REI credit card and getting a free car wash (and sometimes a third when I get to telecommute from Cupcake Royale a few blocks away from my mechanic). I was actually excited enough about the car wash that I specifically asked my mechanic when I checked in my car to make sure it would get cleaned before I got it back (my car hadn’t been washed for months and it was insanely dirty). So this morning after paying for all the little repairs that may or may not have fixed my car (adding $6.20 to my dividend!), I was eagerly waiting for them to pull my car around the corner looking all sleek and shiny again, reminding me of why I bought the stupid thing in the first place. I was pretty crushed when it appeared just as covered in muck, maybe even more so, as it was when I dropped it off. Of course by this time I was already an hour late for work and really felt that it would be ridiculous to go back in and ask them to take my car back and wash it. So I sucked it up and climbed into my dirty car, which of course didn’t feel as nice to drive as it would have if it were shiny, and drove to Everett feeling pretty sour about the whole thing. So now I’m left wondering if I should just sell my car before it falls apart completely, and whether my mechanic would give me a free car wash if I go back and ask.
My Spam folder just hit a new record of 1900!
I think that hitting the 2000 mark is definitely feasible. Meanwhile, here are some more entertaining spam subject lines…
“If your love warrior is too small, you may lose this war!”
“Men, this vibrator makes the perfect Valentines gift”
“Give her a ride on your ROCKET”
“Your new schlong will win more prizes!”
“The trophy can now be in your pants…”
Something to Read When You're Bored 