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Earlier this summer I found an old CD wallet with some CDs in it I thought I'd lost. And, I can't believe I'm saying this, but as I write this I am letting iTunes rip them in its proprietary AAC file format. The reason why this is so hard to believe, is because I used to insist upon all of my digital music being in MP3 format only, so as to be compatible with any software or device I wanted to play it in.
But I guess things change. As I've gotten older and my life has become more busy, I've simplified. I no longer DJ, nor do I spend hours on end at my computer dubbing my own voice into my favorite sing-along tracks. The truth is, the only way I listen to my own music, that is when I'm not just streaming from Pandora, is on my iPhone or in iTunes. I used to import my MP3s into games like The Sims so that I could listen to them in-game. Now I just mute the game music and play mine in iTunes, so that I can play, pause and skip using the media controls on my keyboard.
Even my most recent music purchases have been from iTunes, and I haven't even bothered to convert them like I used to. So, instead of hunting down the most up to date freeware tool for ripping these found CDs to MP3, I decided to keep it simple and let iTunes do it. If at a later point I decide I need any of the tracks in MP3 format, I can convert them as the need arises.
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I've been suffering some major blogging burnout these past few months, but I am forcing myself to write something today. It will either get me back into it, or confirm that I really don't want to do it anymore.
When you last heard from me, I was awaiting the long overdue arrival of our new couch. Long story short, it came, it was the wrong color. We put up a huge stink and finally found out that the color we had ordered was discontinued and this was the whole reason for the long delay. The factory was trying to special order it, and in the meantime they were supposed to have someone call us to let us know, and get a second choice selection from us in case they couldn't get it. For whatever reason, they didn't do that. The store gave us $100 back and we were promised $200 more from the manufacturer, but we have yet to see it. Oh well. We got the color we would have probably chosen as a second choice anyway, and we'll live with it and likely never do business with that store or manufacturer again. I'll refrain from naming names publicly, to protect myself, but if anyone really wants to know you can ask me privately.
While it seems trivial in the wake of everything else that has gone on this summer, details of which I'll get to shortly, I have to follow up on my iPhone 4 and that case for my old iPhone that I was so excited about yet so sad I wouldn't be able to use it with the new phone. It turned out it did fit on the new phone... sort of. It definitely wasn't made to fit it, and eventually due to the improper fit, I cracked it and had to throw it away. But I was pleasantly surprised to find I was totally wrong in my assumption that a back-only cover for the iPhone 4 would be impossible. In fact, a great many of the cases that have been designed for this phone are just that. They don't go on and off as easily as the ones for curved-edge iPhones did, but the most important thing is that they keep the front surface of the phone perfectly smooth for easy cleaning and no dirt/grime left in the corners. My 4 is currently sporting a "Barely There" case by Case-Mate, in purple of course. As for the phone itself, I'm completely and totally in love with it!
In early July I took my annual week-long vacation from work. I turned 31... we saw some awesome fireworks with some awesome friends at India Point in Providence. We went to Boston, spent too much to park... saw some fishes at the aquarium and then ate some fishes at a nearby sushi restaurant. Walked, drank, got sunburned. Went to pub trivia the next night with some of those awesome friends. Some more awesome friends came over for dinner and brought me cute cheeseburger cupcakes and a gift card for music and apps for my new phone. My sunburn turned into sun poisoning. We met yet more awesome friends out for karaoke. Spent a lot of time relaxing on the new couch. All things which should have recharged my motivation at work, but for some reason this year it didn't.
The rest of July, while there were some highlights, brought an unusual amount of stress, and toward the end of the month I felt myself starting to get depressed, which is highly unusual for me in the summertime. Recognizing it, I worked hard to fight it. I focused on eating healthy and exercising. The exciting news that I will soon have a new niece or nephew genuinely helped. Chris and I attended an OK Go concert in Providence with Crystal and Eddie, and had a really great night.
And then, on August 7, the day after that concert, just as I was beginning to feel like everything was going to be okay... fate sucker-punched me in the gut. My ex-coworker and dear friend, Norm, went out for a ride on his Harley with a buddy of his, and was hit by a careless driver in an SUV who decided to turn from the wrong lane just as Norm was passing him.
He didn't survive.
I can't even begin to describe the shock, the devastation, the anger... It's left me completely broken. Yes, I'm doing my best to carry on and enjoy life while treasuring all of the fond memories I have of him. But there are days when I wonder if I'll ever not be faking, ever really be healed. And sometimes I just want to close my eyes and not wake up until then.
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It's been a while since I've blogged, and I still don't have the time nor the inspiration for a long post, but here are a few updates.
- The couch. Yes, it has been eleven weeks since we ordered it, and we still don't have it. We'd been getting the runaround, but finally got the truth yesterday: the fabric we chose was temporarily out of stock. We've now been promised that it will be delivered to the store on July 2, and to us the same day if it arrives early enough (the next day if not). If this is not the case, then believe you me, heads will roll.
- iPhone 4. Did you doubt for a second that I'd be getting it? Oh yes, I've suffered the 2G quite long enough. Got my new toy reserved for pickup at the Providence Place Apple Store next Thursday!
- Irony. Irony is finally finding an iPhone case you truly, truly love, one which is made to fit the 2G and 3G/3GS and not the iPhone 4, just weeks before you part ways with that old model phone. It's a false back, made to look like it's the actual back of the phone, complete with shiny metallic Apple logo... and it's purple. It snaps on and off the back of the phone so incredibly easily that you'd never believe it doesn't fall off when you don't want it to - but it doesn't. It doesn't cover the face of the phone at all, making it so much easier to clean the screen without leaving grossness in the corners. It is the perfect case I have been searching for the past two years, and in a week I won't be able to use it anymore. And sadly, the flat edges of the iPhone 4 mean that a case like this will probably not be possible for the new model.
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This blog has been quiet lately, because I've been spending all of my free time working on a new project. It's one of the new web sites I purchased the domains for early last year, but never really found the motivation to start seriously working on. And it's no wonder - this site is more complicated than anything I've ever done before, and the thought of trying to figure out how to do all the things I want to do with it gets overwhelming at times. I'm having a ton of fun learning all of these new tricks, but at the same time I often find myself ripping my hair out (proverbially speaking, of course).
It has even begun to haunt my dreams! Seriously, for the last two nights as I've tried to drift off to sleep, my mind turns to trying to solve the next step in getting this new site functional. It even wakes me up in the middle of the night. None of what's going through my head makes much sense, because I'm barely awake, but my subconscious seems to think it's important, because if I start to fall asleep I'll get one of my weird muscle tics and wake up again. I know these tics are directly related to what I'm thinking about, because if I am able to consciously shift my mind onto something else, they stop. Unfortunately that's sometimes easier said than done. Last night I had an especially difficult time doing so, and slept horribly as a result. 
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Spring is supposed to be a season of birth, renewal, and new beginnings. But to me, it often seems more like a season of loss. It seems that people I care about are taken from this world, or have someone taken from them, more often in spring than any other season. There have been a few springs in my life where I have felt these losses piling up, each one coming before I've had enough time to process the last, and I don't remember having that feeling at any other time of year.
The reason I am bringing this up is because this is turning into one of those springs. Just in the past two weeks, a childhood friend from MDA summer camp passed away, and then a close friend lost his sister to cancer. And this morning, my sister-in-law and her family had to put their beloved dog Jake to sleep.
I guess you could say that these are new beginnings, that those lost to us are actually being freed from their suffering and beginning a better life in a better place, but that isn't much consolation to those of us left to continue this life without them. As much as I love spring for the transformation it brings to the world, the transition from cold, dead winter into summer, my favorite season... all of this loss really makes it bittersweet.
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Several years ago when we lived in a rented apartment, we had a mixed bag of neighbors. There were a few problem people, such as the drunk who lived behind us, whose daily vomiting we could hear through the bathroom vents and who had either the fire department, paramedics or police showing up at least once a week. Or the girl up and over from us who regularly beat the crap out of her boyfriend. There were some people who were great neighbors, always looking out for each other, making friendly conversation, and lending a helping hand whenever it was needed. And there were a few who just kept to themselves, which is okay, too.
When we bought the condo, I didn't expect things to be much different - or at least I didn't expect them to be worse. I thought that, if anything, people who owned a piece of the property would take pride in doing their part to keep it a pleasant place to live. What I didn't count on, was that so many units would be owned by people who live elsewhere and rent them out, with apparently no better standards than the large real estate corporation that owned our old apartment, or that many of the neighbors who do own their units would be more interested in making it a pleasant place to live only for themselves, not for anyone else.
The first clue that we had arrived in neighbor hell came when one neighbor, less than a week after we moved into what was supposedly a "pet friendly community", welcomed us with a complaint to the condo board that our dog barked. Well, no kidding! She was adjusting to new, strange surroundings, with new sounds and new people walking around outside. And even without all that, dogs sometimes bark. It's what they do. So it's a pet friendly community, as long as your pet doesn't do what pets do? This person never came to our door to make introductions, welcome us to the neighborhood, or even give us a heads up that the dog was having some issues when we weren't home and we might want to confine her somewhere where she wouldn't be able to see out the windows until she got used to her new surroundings. Nope, they saw someone new move in and went right into "what can we find to complain to the board about" mode.
To be fair, we weren't completely surrounded by neighbors as bad as that one... at first. The lady next door to us when we first moved in was great, actually... about as perfect a neighbor as one could wish for. She was quiet, never complained about anything, kept late hours and didn't mind if things got a little rowdy when we had company. She always tried to be friends with Chiquita, even though Chiquita wasn't interested in being friends with anybody. And when Chiqui passed away and we got Brooskey and Vixen, she welcomed them as well. Unfortunately, she too passed away, about two years ago.
In her place, we now have pretty much her polar opposite. This woman is a complete fruit loop, has regular screaming matches with her daughter-in-law, her sons, her mother, and yes, even herself... she yells out her front door when there's no one outside she could be talking to. She's a compulsive liar, leaves nasty notes on people's doors, goes up on people's porches to scream at their pets (and I mean she has done this to several people, not just us), all while letting her own cat roam the property freely, tormenting our dogs and crapping on our decks and walkways.
Add to this a neighbor above us on one side with small grandchildren whose idea of a good time is leaping off of furniture onto the hardwood floors, while she and her daughter scream and whine at them, teaching them to scream and whine back. And newly moved in on the other side, a family of four in which the mother and daughter have screaming, dish throwing fights on nearly a daily basis. Oh yes, we are in neighbor hell.
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Talk about things that make a person want to scream!!!
I occasionally use my state's paratransit program to get home from work when Chris has to work late or otherwise can't be there to take me home. A few weeks ago I called to schedule a ride after not having used it in a couple of years, and discovered two things: 1) that my eligibility for the program had expired and I needed to renew it; and 2) that once I got my new account number I'd be able to use a completely automated telephone system to schedule my rides rather than talking to an agent.
Now, I know a lot of people can't stand these automated systems, but I love them, for several reasons. A lot of it comes from the fact that I hate talking to strangers on the phone... I always have. It's this social awkwardness that I cover well when I have to, i.e. all day long in my job, but I welcome every opportunity to take a break from trying to sound like a normal person, and just carry on my conversations with computers, with whom I get along much better. And specific to the RIde program, the thought of never having to deal with one of their agents again was especially appealing. These people, although it's their entire job, never sound like they are particularly thrilled to be talking to you. And not only are they short and unfriendly, they often mix up details or just completely fail to do their jobs correctly. Most commonly they reverse pickup and drop-off locations, and I am left waiting for the shuttle at work while they sit outside my condo and then report me to dispatch as a no-show. There was one time, I sat waiting at work over thirty minutes past my pickup time, and called the dispatch center only to find out the reservationist I spoke to just the day before never entered my trip into the system. So you can see why I was happy for the opportunity to enter my trip requests directly into their computer system myself, bypassing these incompetent morons.
Except it seems those incompetent morons must have been who designed the new automated phone system. I tried to use it for the first time today, and for the first time ever felt like one of those people who ends up ripping their hair out trying to get through one of these systems. First, it's voice activated, which is fine as long as the people recording the prompts realize that they eventually have to shut up to give the caller a chance to say a command. Interrupting it doesn't work; it inevitably fails to recognize what was said, then spends another five minutes explaining what the options are before taking a two second breath, during which the caller must try to quickly blurt out their command before it starts talking again. There is an option to switch to touch tone only mode, so I try that instead. But now my trip time (5:00pm on April 28) is invalid; it tells me I can only schedule up to 48 hours in advance... But wait - a minute ago when I was on the voice activated system it said it had to be at least 48 hours in advance, up to 14 days! At this point I hang up and call back, staying on the voice activated system. This time I manage to get through the date and time selection, which it accepts, and next it asks where I need to be picked up. "This can be home, or one of your five favorite locations." Since I have never used the automated system before, there are no favorite locations configured, and it gives no indication how to configure them. I try saying, "favorite locations". "I'm sorry, what was that? I need to know where you are being picked up. This can be home, or one of your five favorite locations. For home, say 'home'." Yeah, thanks, moron robot woman, what do I say for a favorite location... or to create one, for that matter? I try saying the address. Same response. Fine, I'm fed up... I say "agent" to be transferred to a live agent (something which it has assured me I can say at any time during the call). "Okay, please hold while I transfer you." The line goes silent for several seconds, and then I am transferred... back to the beginning of the automated menu.
Seriously, has anyone ever managed to successfully schedule a trip through this thing?!
The worst part is, I still never managed to schedule the trip! I called back, opted not to press 9 for the automated system and instead pressed 2 for the old live call center, and sat on hold longer than I ever had before they installed the automated option, before I finally had to give up and get back to work. So much for the new system reducing call load for the live operators, eh?
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![[photo of our nine year old sofa set]](http://www.confoozled.com/archives/assets/oldcouches-thumb-200x150.jpg) The ol' couch and loveseat. And Chris in the background on the phone... LOL. We bought our first brand new living room set back in 2001, a year after we moved into our first apartment. I remember what a frustrating process it was, finding something we both liked which would fit into our existing color scheme, which we were not interested in changing. The set we were replacing, which had been handed down to us by Chris' parents, as a result of its age was extremely low to the ground, and having recently developed arthritis in my dominant right knee, I was no longer able to stand up from it without help. So the new furniture needed to be nice and high, both to facilitate healing in my beat up knee, and to prolong the time before it, too, would become too low for me to stand up from. Any visible wood would have to match the finish on our TV cabinet and coffee table. And the material had to be something we'd both be comfortable on. No leather, as it's too cold. Nothing with too high a friction factor, so it wouldn't be hard for me to shift positions and my hair wouldn't constantly be standing on end with static electricity. We hunted, and hunted. And hunted. For weeks. We were about to give up entirely when we walked into one last furniture store... and there it was. The couch and loveseat that fit all our criteria straight off the showroom floor, including price, expressed our personalities perfectly, and would serve us faithfully for the next nine years.
Time has taken its toll, and these pieces have gradually reached a point where I'm having a hard time getting up from them, just like the old hand-me-down set. They also took quite a beating during Brooskey's puppyhood. Two of the throw pillows have had the decorative buttons in the center pulled out, and one cushion had its zipper totally obliterated and much of the foam torn up and spread around the house. And the armrest on one end of the couch, where Brooskey sits all day long, has taken on a much darker hue than it had originally. So, we knew it was coming to be time to replace this set, now that Brooskey has matured and is no longer destructive, with something that would be easier to keep clean and be more ergonomically sound for both of our aging bodies.
It was again a long, tedious hunt to find something we liked and could afford (thankfully, we had some help in the latter department from Chris' parents, as gifts for Christmas and Chris' birthday). Amazingly, we found ourselves once again, nearly at the end of our rope, walking into that same furniture store where we ended up nine years ago... yet again confronted, in almost exactly the same spot on the floor, with our next sofa set. Why we didn't start in this store to begin with is beyond me! This time it was something similar to several sets we had looked at in other stores, but nearly half the price. And this time the floor model wasn't quite perfect: we needed a slightly different configuration (it's a sectional) and a different fabric, so we custom ordered it.
We're expecting the new couch in any day now, so we have precious little time left with the ol' faithful "first" living room set. It is moving on to help out Chris' cousin and his girlfriend, who recently got their own place, and if they get that zipper fixed I'm sure it will serve them well until they are ready for their first brand new set. In the meantime I am getting pretty anxious for the new one to arrive!
This post inspired by a writing prompt from the Imagination Prompt Generator: "What are you saying goodbye to?"
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Ugh. It's time to focus on getting healthy again. I've let myself go for too long, and there is no excuse except that restricting myself all the time seems to slowly drive me to a huge rebellion like the one I've been on for the past eight months or so. This time I'm going to follow the 80/20 rule and see if that can keep me from going completely off the rails again. "Eating right means cutting yourself some slack and enjoying your food."
Chris bought me Wii Fit Plus for Christmas, an upgrade to the original which he gave me for Valentine's Day last year. I haven't even opened it yet. We are expecting our new couch in this weekend, which will create a little bit more space to move around in the living room. We just need to get some furniture sliders put on the bottom of the coffee table so I can move it out of the way without help.
I'm also going to focus on only five pounds at a time, to make the task of losing weight feel a little less daunting. I'll update you all for every five pounds I lose, and hopefully having my friends, family and blog readers as a cheering squad will keep me motivated to start working on the next five pounds!
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I am so ready for a vacation. I have a week coming in July, but I could use a whole month off. Not only do I wish I had more time off, having the money to afford a real vacation would be nice, too. I wish I could take a whole month off with a magical unlimited vacation budget. Oh, the things I could do with that time and money.
First, I would rent a private jet for the whole month. Brooskey and Vixen would of course come with us, and with a private jet they could ride in the cabin with us instead of being checked like baggage.
Our first stop would be Alaska. Chris has always wanted to go, and although I'm not a fan of cooler weather destinations, a few days in the summer, while knowing we're headed for more sunny skies later on, would be all right. We could rent a cabin with lots of space outside for the dogs to run around.
Next we'd head down to Arizona to visit a good friend of mine who relocated there from Oregon, and her husband whom we have not yet been able to meet in person. We'd spend a few days there playing Rock Band, us girls watching our men geek out to some other video games, and relaxing and swimming in their in-ground pool. And go enjoy some good restaurants as well.
After that we would head up to Oregon, spend some time with my family, visit old friends from school and summer camp, and even do some of the more touristy things available. Definite musts are OMSI, Kah-Nee-Ta, and Voodoo Doughnut. Maybe we would even take a day or two excursion up to the Seattle area.
From there we would scoop up my niece and nephews, and anyone else who wanted to come along, and go to Walt Disney World in Florida. After a week there, we'd send the family members back home on the jet, board the doggies in the best kennel available in Florida and sail away, just the two of us, on a Disney cruise to finish out our month long vacation.
So... now that I've got it all planned out, who'd like to finance this? LOL
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A little over a week ago, I think for the first time since I started this blog, I was seriously considering quitting blogging for good. I was getting ready to write a post to say that I was thinking about quitting, and expressing all of the reasons why it was something I was considering, when this stupid little thing came along that ticked me off. I felt the need to express my frustration, but couldn't fit what I needed to say into 140 characters on Twitter, and that's when I realized exactly why I blog. Because I have things to say.
Why was I thinking about quitting? Because I felt like I was running out of things to write about. I know no one wants to read about how many loads of laundry we got done last weekend. The only people reading this blog who care about the slightly more exciting but fairly infrequent events in my personal life are my mom and sisters, and maybe a couple of old friends. Since all of those people are on Facebook now, I felt it might be a more appropriate venue for those types of posts. And no, I haven't stopped having opinions... ohhhh trust me, do I have opinions. But the problem with the issues that have been on everyone's mind lately, is that no one is going to change anyone's mind, thus all anyone seems to be capable of doing is expressing their opinion in terms of insults against those who disagree. Even when someone manages to make an intelligent argument without saying anything hateful about those with a different perspective, they only receive insults in return. It's a losing battle to try to get anyone to look at these issues from another angle, and it only leads to flaring tempers and rising blood pressures. I will not be a part of it. I'm not going to say I haven't been tempted to fling a few insults of my own, but I don't, because I'm a decent human being. Those who can't resist the temptation are quickly finding their way off the lists of people I associate with.
So, I will continue to blog, because I have things to say. Sometimes I don't have anything to say for long periods of time, and I'm going to let that be okay. And sometimes I will refrain from saying what I want to say, because it's not worth the storm of excrement it will stir up. If I don't blog for a while, and you're genuinely wondering if I'm okay, ask. I will tell you... possibly even with a blog post.
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I know I tend to grumble a lot about my job sometimes. I do realize that I'm lucky to have one, but at the same time I think it's a bad idea for us to keep laying down and letting employers use the bad economy as a free pass to treat their employees poorly. Nevertheless, while still keeping an eye open for other opportunities, I'm trying not to let the things I don't like about my job bother me as much.
The truth is, it's not the job itself I dislike. Office administration, with its methodical, repetitive tasks, especially the ones that involve numbers and math, is what I thrive on. When I really get "in the zone", the work day can fly by in an instant, and then I get to go home and get on with my life. What does bother me is when I'm asked to do things that are beyond the scope of office administration: things I'm not really qualified for and am definitely not paid enough to do. There are also major philosophical differences I have with my employer, which are often enough to make me want to scream... but again, I'm trying not to let these things get to me as much. I try to remember that when all is said and done, everyone gets what they deserve.
So is this what I wanted to be when I grew up? Not even close, LOL. I actually for the longest time wanted to be a doctor. That's no longer even a remote desire, and not just because I think my disability stands in the way (though that is a factor). It's just not what I want anymore. If I were to name my dream job today, in terms of what would be something that I enjoy so much it hardly feels like work, it would probably be one of two things: 1) voice acting in animated features for Disney, or 2) video game testing, especially testing for accessibility for disabled gamers.
Hey, if you happen to know of any opportunities in either of those fields, let me know, okay? 
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Who'd have thought that less than two weeks after I mentioned the record-breaking flood stage of the river near my house, it would flood again and break even more records? This time, instead of stopping across the street from the complex, it came all the way to our side of the street and into the property entrance. While it was at its highest point, Chris got some photos of the flooded bridge at the property entrance and the mouth of the river where it empties out into the bay (which is just around the corner from us). The actual buildings were safe from the river, but the lower lying ones did have some basement flooding due to the rain. Our building, however, is the highest on the property and was never in any danger.
Since "floodpocalypse", as I like to call it, the weather has gotten better and better. Yesterday we broke 90 degrees! Yes, that was probably a bit excessive for April, but today is much more seasonable... about 68-75 degrees, depending which weather station you check.
Last night, after work and sushi for dinner (yum!), we took the dogs up to play in Chris' parents' yard. They were very happy and excited to be there! Vixen especially was the most excited I think I have ever seen her. When we let her out of the car, she just started running crazily around the yard - she even got excited when she pooped!  Chris unhooked her leash and she spent a good twenty minutes sprinting from him to me and back again as we called her name. It's amazing what a good listener she is, without having had a single obedience class. To think of the hundreds of dollars we wasted on classes for Brooskey, and to this day we still can't let him off leash. He has a fifty foot rope we put on him when we play outside, which makes him think he's tied up even though it's not attached to anything... without it, he'd bolt. But we regularly let Vixen off leash both at home and in "Nana & Papa's" unfenced yard, and she never wanders too far away from us, and always comes right back to us when we call.
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Okay, I owe the world an update on the happenings in my life. It's been pretty uneventful, but here are a few things...
I didn't win a spot in the karaoke contest semifinals... yet. The song I chose to sing wasn't right for my voice, and even though I thought I had it down, that day in practice it all fell apart. I came extremely close to switching songs, but didn't because I didn't feel confident with any of the other songs I'd been practicing either. My other mistake was in choosing to face the karaoke screen even though I knew all of the words. Yeah, apparently they dock points for that. I haven't had the chance to go back and try again, but there are a few weeks left, and I have a much better song all memorized and ready to blow them away.
Winter means sinus infections for me, and usually I'm on antibiotics by Thanksgiving. Somehow this year I managed to escape such a fate... until now. I finally found myself in the doctor's office this past Friday to confirm that I have my first, and at this point hopefully my last, sinus infection of the season. It was a doozy, but I am finally starting to feel better.
Rhode Island has seen some tumultuous March weather so far. We got our first taste of spring, and then enough rain to bring the Pawtuxet River to its highest flood stage ever. This river which was a few blocks away from our condo is now practically across the street. The supermarket we often shop at is underwater. The rain did stop, though, and it has been beautiful and sunny out for the past two days, so the river should go back to where it belongs soon.
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I guess it's been a little while since I've written anything! Last week I came down with a cold, and while it was nothing compared to the one I had in early December, it still had me moaning and groaning and asking for my mommy, and there were a good two days when I was unable to do much of anything other than stare off into space. It was a short cold, though, and I was better by Thursday morning. After that, well, it's amazing how behind in life two days of uselessness will get you.
But I do have something really exciting to share. You already know about this if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, but for those who don't, here's the scoop. Last Saturday night, we decided to join a few of our friends for bowling. Okay, they bowled while I sat and watched.  We heard that there was a karaoke competition going on in the bar inside the bowling alley. Sandra and I finally gathered enough courage to go sing, but by then the contest was over. We still sang a few songs, as did a couple of other members of our group, and we all had a really good time. While I was singing one song, Sandra was chatting with the girl hosting the karaoke, and found out that the competition is an ongoing weekly event, and at the end one winner from that location wins a trip to Las Vegas. Deanna (the host) pointed to me and told Sandra, "that girl singing right now has a really good chance of winning; she should come back and enter next week."
!!!!!!!!!!
Amazingly, without a drop of alcohol in me, I agreed to do just that. I even talked to Deanna and got her business card (which I promptly lost; thank God for Facebook!). She told me to e-mail her if there were any songs I wanted that she didn't have, and she would get them for me. I'll also be bringing my microphone stand so that I don't have to have someone hold the mic for me; I'll be a lot more confident that way!
I'm so freaking excited! I feel like my voice is not nearly what it used to be, so to have someone who isn't my friend, and just trying to make me feel good, say that they think I could win feels awesome! I've had my USB microphone and stand in the office hooked up to the computer all week so I can practice and record myself to see what I really sound like, and decide which songs are my strongest. I think I'm going to kick some butt!
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A couple of weeks ago we took a day trip to Groton, Connecticut to my former coworker Norm's house. The primary purpose of the trip was to help Norm set up his new business computer, but we also brought Brooskey and Vixen along to play with his two Australian Shepherds, Summer and Merlin. Summer, the adult female, somehow managed to evade the camera, but our two and Merlin, who's just a puppy and an adorable one at that, had a blast playing together all day and Chris got a few photos of the three of them. (The first one, with Chris in it, was taken by Norm.)
The day went so well, and even Vixen did not once get scared of the strange people and big dogs. Merlin had never seen a dog so small and was fascinated with her. He was also amazingly gentle playing with her, as if he understood she wouldn't be able to handle his full strength.
All four dogs were exhausted by the end of the day, and our two slept til about noon the next day. And even after they were awake, they were just barely awake.
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What a bonehead I am. A few months ago while reading one of Jen's posts at Spaghetti Harvest, I decided to buy some of her soaps to give as gifts during the holidays. And then I completely forgot about them until now.
I had stored them on the top shelf in the hall closet, and it was the other day when I was putting something away that I smelled them, looked up, and facepalmed in my mind only because I can't actually get my palm to my face. They are clearly a Christmas scent, so it's not like I can just give them out for birthdays or something. Now I don't know what to do with them. Will they lose their potency by next Christmas? I don't even know.
What should I do?
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I'm again amused by how things change in just a few short years. Here are some more examples!
Almost exactly three years ago, I posted a blog survey that was geared toward us geeky types. Rereading it today, I laughed out loud at the first question and my answer.
- Did you not only sigh the biggest sigh of relief ever once you saw that Apple had introduced the iPhone, but you also thought it was totally the coolest phone ever? More like rolled my eyes. Yet another gadget that Chris will insist he must have, but will never use (like his iPod).
One part of my prediction came true: Chris had to have one. But that's the only thing I was right about. Not only is the thing glued to his hand, but so is mine to my hand!
Here's another item from the same quiz that I thought was interesting... and timely.
- Did you tell your Broadband ISP to take their Cable Modem and shove it and go buy your own (a real one!)? Yup, and eventually we'll be telling them to take their whole service and shove it when Verizon's FiOS becomes available in our neighborhood.
Finally, three years and one day after writing that, this Saturday, it's happening. We're getting FiOS. I am so excited, and can't wait to tell Cox Cable "goodbye and good riddance!"
Also about three years ago, I participated in Friday's Feast, a weekly five question meme - each question a "course" in a five course meal - which sadly doesn't appear to be around anymore.
- Appetizer
Which television shows do you just refuse to miss?
Well I can't give you my entire Season Pass list off of my TiVo, so let's see if I can narrow it down to just the ones that I will insist on watching again if I fall asleep. 24, House, ER, Heroes, The Office, Scrubs, Criminal Minds, Jericho, Brothers & Sisters, Grey's Anatomy, and Lost.
All of those shows remain on the "can't miss" list, with exception of a couple which have been canceled. But now, I can show you the entire TiVo list, because just last night I took twenty photos to document the entire list just in case we have to rebuild it after the FiOS switch on Saturday. Now, I don't watch all of these shows: some are Chris' shows and some are just filler material we keep a couple of episodes of for those times when there is nothing else to watch. I'll leave it to you to figure out what's what.
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![[photo of gloves]](http://www.confoozled.com/archives/assets/IMG_0049-thumb-200x150.jpg) Keeping toasty warm in my gloves and jammies. Lately when I spend time at my home computer, my hands have been getting cold and the back of my right hand even goes numb... a rather unpleasant sensation. It doesn't happen if I crank the heat up high enough, but then my computer overheats, especially if I'm playing The Sims 3. You can tell by how much louder the fans get.
So I think I've found a solution. I got some knit gloves nice and cheap at Target ($1.50 for two pair), and this weekend I sat down and laboriously cut the fingers off of one pair, and made myself some "typing gloves". They seem to be doing the trick! They do slow down my typing a bit and I took a big hit in the accuracy department as well, but most of the time on my home computer is spent playing games where I only have to hit a key here and there, so I don't think it will matter much. They work so well to keep my hands warm that I've even been wearing them around the house when I'm not at the computer. The hardest part is coaxing all of my twisty fingers into the right holes to put them on, but I am getting the hang of it.
Other things I learned in this process are that kitchen shears work much better than office scissors for cutting through gloves, and that the trick is to pull back on the scissors, rather than pushing them forward. Oh, and that the bottom of my new camera is not particularly flat, and it can lose its balance easily when I press the shutter button for a timer shot.
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Well, here it is, my last post of 2009. It wasn't an extremely eventful year, but there were a few highlights. I went to Oregon to visit family and old friends. I turned 30 and celebrated in two parts: a surprise party thrown by friends, and a day on Block Island, RI with my sweetie. And we went to a few weddings, including the long anticipated wedding of Joe and Sandra, for which Chris was the best man.
Checking in on the bucket list I started in January...
Get the hell outta Dodge... I mean, Hood River.Go to Disney World.Ride on a boat in the ocean.- Go on a cruise.
- Drive my own vehicle.
Swim with dolphins.Make contact with my biological father. *- Compete on a television game show.
Have someone call me Mommy.- Have someone human call me Mommy.
- Visit Australia.
- Travel somewhere solely for the purpose of meeting an online friend in person.
- Own an actual house on my own land. (new)
- Get a prize winning video on America's Funniest Home Videos. (new)
* I Googled his name and found a listed address in the right area for where we thought he'd be living. I wrote a letter, and mailed it. In the letter I stated that I was not sure I had the right person, gave some details that would identify who I was looking for, and I also promised that I would not make repeated attempts at contact if he did not wish to have any. I received no response. If it wasn't him, the person who read the letter didn't see fit to let me know as much. If it was him, he made his wishes clear.
So, not much progress on the bucket list this year either. I've added a couple of new items, but I don't expect to get very far in the coming year either. Now that I have my new camera I guess I can at least work on the AFV video and some application videos for game shows. Who knows, maybe one of those will happen in the next year.
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![[photo of me]](http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/7fe9c3e52fcd03d2253441f7ddc89ab3.jpg?size=144)
![[album thumbnail]](/photos/albums/userpics/10001/thumb_img_0986.jpg)
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