February 2007

I have lost a pair of pants.

Good grief. How do you lose a pair of pants on the trip from the washer/dryer/ironing board in the garage and the bedroom which is all of 10 feet away?

Also, I have misplaced/disappeared my jumper cables, which were in a nice tote bag with handles. They weren’t in the Saturn when I traded it in, nor were they in the garage. They weren’t in the Uhaul when we took it back after moving. They weren’t in the former roommate’s apartment when he moved. Like, huh?

I’m thinking I have a pet black hole following me around. Yeah, that’s the ticket. It would also explain the many black dress socks that have no mate.

I’ve written like, ten pages. On the wrong WIP - I’m within a few pages of DONE on Home in a Handbasket but the muse put on the brakes and demanded that I work on getting Voyager home instead. And that WIP is turning into a snarky roadshow, when it’s not recycling bits from the old draft of the same, and sort of has a life of its own — I’ve re-outlined the plot twice so far, and that since I abandoned the previous draft, and the twists just keep on coming.

Also am googling on parrots again. Now that I have income, I have been spoiling my lonesome senegal with toys and food, and am considering a new cage she might be able to stretch her wings more in, and then I found a set of two stacking cages and….

I miss having multiple parrots. I miss the multiplicity of personalities to play with. I’m considering a cockatiel, or a pionus of some kind (there are eight species). I had mused recently about an amazon parrot, but… really, the quietest amazon is still noisier than a pionus or a cockatiel, and I’m renting.

I also cleaned house, which is something I typically do in bits as I go along, but today was different. I got three of four rooms vacuumed and various pet-related cleanings done. Also a load of dishes, two loads of laundry, and the kitchen counters cleared and scrubbed. Coffee! Yay!

Some days I really want to have clients who are not 10-13 year old boys.

If it’s not the sitting gloomily indifferent with the one syllable answers, it’s the open zippers, the unconscious “adjustments,” the random fartage, or the goofiness that leads to endless nacho cheese-no-not-yo-cheese-haw-haw-haw-hee cycles. Because when you’ve spent two minutes talking about losing your temper in class and being tossed out, you have got to spend the next forty making up for it with that well-known defense mechanism known as “irrelevance.”

Someone send me a girl. A troubled, yet not farting and adjusting, girl. Who talks rather than throwing the Piglet puppet and stuffed monkey around the room. Or doesn’t talk. Whatev. Just so long as we’re able to manage the hour without busting out the air freshener.

I went to Old Town to frolic with a friend yesterday, and got back this morning. Then I looked at the car, which seemed relatively clean other than some road spatter, and thought about washing it anyway - you can tell it’s still new when I actually want to wash the thing.

Instead, however, I sprayed it down with some of that “quick detailer” and gave it a rubdown with some clean towels.

I cannot believe I have not yet contracted black lung. The air here must be as hideous as rumor has it — I got a lot of black schmutz off what appeared to be a white car. You could see the difference between the parts I had wiped and the rest of the car - definitely grayer on the uncleaned bits.

I think I will be applying another coat of wax, post haste. Oy.

In other news, ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ is, while extremely graphically violent, a good movie. Predictable in some respects but still very impressive. I had read blog reviews ranting about “too much of the war” and “not very much fantasy.” I think the fact that it’s not an American movie explains a lot of that; there are subtle bits, like the watch, and believable behavior on all sides rather than caving to stereotypes. Friend and I debated afterward about whether it was all fantasy on the part of the girl, or if the faun and the rest were real. You’ll have to decide for yourself. Beware if you’re squeamish, though. I closed my eyes sometimes. Fortunately there’s enough warning to do that.

I know someone who says LOL. In casual conversation. Usually when there is… a lull in conversation.

So I thought she was saying ‘lull’ as if pointing out the obvious, but no, she is in fact saying LOL, only pronouncing it ‘loll’ because, well, how would you say it?

Do you say net-isms? ROFL would be particularly eyebrow-raising, especially around my co-workers, who don’t ‘do computers.’ I’m thinking I’ll try ROFL on my LOLler, or maybe LOLlerskates, or both. With a LOLlercopter thrown in for good measure.

Old Who was so, so entertaining. The dude with the electric falcon is just so Plastic! Locutus with a personality graft from Harry Mudd.

Also, love the Hare Krishnas with the MIND RAY OF DOOOOOOM.

3:43 pm: get home from library and gas station with shiny new car. Note mud spatters on white paint. Note that have not yet washed car in the couple of weeks since purchase.
3:52 pm: organize car care products. Lock kitty door; back car out of garage. Bring out the hose.
3:55 - 4:15 pm: wash car.
4:16 - 4:30 pm: squeegee excess water, then dry car with multiple towels. Move car back into garage, noting the return of moving neighbors with huge long trailer. Close garage door. Unlock kitty door to restore access to kitty litter.
4:30 - 5:00 pm: apply variety of detailing products appropriately, washing windows, cleaning and protecting dashboard, dusting, shaking out all-weather mats.
5:00 - 5:30 pm: apply wax to all but the trunk lid, which is too close to the garage door for comfort; buff. Admire shiny car, making faces to show off reflection in various panels.
5:52 pm: Go into garage to move wet laundry to dryer; note cat curled up on hood. Shoo cat. Throw very old afghan over shiny hood and tuck under windshield wipers to keep it from sliding off.
8:05 pm: BOOM! MeeeeeeeeeoooooooW!
8:06 pm: Go out in garage - note: afghan on floor in front of car, cat wigging out and darting between feet into apartment. Deduce cat jumped up, afghan slid under her weight on newly waxed hood, shot cat into the front of the washing machine, where she then ricocheted into (now overturned) laundry basket. Laugh butt off.
8:10 pm: put afghan on hood. Wait. Possibly cackling softly and holding camera.

I’ve had, in my Magic Filing Cabinet Full O Toys at work, a Bionicle - one of those plastic creature toys that kids are supposed to put together. I kept waiting for one of the kids to verify that all the pieces were there.

Tonight a new kid came in and put the thing together, and when I asked if it was all there he said “yup.” Since he succeeded where other kids have tried and failed, I’ll just take his word for it.

I love a bowl of pea soup. I decided to make a whole pot of it and throw the results in the freezer, all the better to make lunches with.

The only problem with pea soup is, the whole apartment now smells like… feet.

I decided today that I wanted to give my car a bit more of a workout, and ran it on a 100 mile loop of freeway/highway that included the high desert, part of the grapevine/I-5 corridor, and a mountain pass. I’m happy to report that the entire trip was effortless for the car, which is more than I could say for the old one - I passed cars struggling with the grade, and passed more cars on the flat, and although I was going the same speed on I-5, lots and lots of cars flew by me like I was standing still, but I was still doing 70-80 mph so all the way round I congratulated myself on deciding to take the jump. The stereo skipped a few times on one of my home-made cd’s but has been otherwise well behaved. Filled up in a small town about halfway around and calculated that I went 24 mpg on the first tank, averaged - not bad since 2/3 of that gas went on city driving, which is notoriously bad for mileage, plus I’ve been drag-racing around; if I watch myself, I’ll probably be able to eke out better mpg on the commute.

It’s almost Monday again. Egad. Guess I need to figure out food. I have chicken marinating, so it won’t be too hard.