I have a full report on my trip AND pictures! I have posted them to my Beatleblog already and, rather than copy the entire mess over again I will simply provide a link to the entry. DO mosey over and check it out, won't you?
Hello from Louisville, lovelies!
I made it safe and sound. Met a fab bunch of like-minded nutsos on the plane and chit-chatted with them a bit on the way up. Exchanged first names with the lady sitting just next to me and we've run into each other a couple times since arriving and have made small-talk. Have definitely been eating better this time than last time, when I was on a shoestring budget and trying to save all my cash for souvenirs and the like. My plan this time was to buy Beatle boots and bootleg CDs. Well, the bootleg CDs are not here this time BUT I have found an appropriate (if more expensive) substitute. For those who know me well all I need to say are these six words and you'll understand the enormity of the situation:
Purses. With the Beatles on them.
I will have pictures when I get home.
My dear friend Stacy is driving up to see me for a few hours this afternoon. I haven't seen her since she moved from OK to Kentucky, oh, I've blocked it from my memory.....a year ago, now? I'm very excited!
The money-grubbing bastards here at the otherwise-excellent hotel have changed the business center so I now have to pay to get online so I will save any further updating for another time. This may well be my only reporting from the field. I will do the full story when I return home Monday.
Louisville, here I come!
After a year of anticipation, the time has come. I'm off to the airport in the morning and will be in Louisville by 5 p.m., just in time to attend the preview concerts being held from 6-10 on the festival grounds.
I will be online once a day from the business center at the hotel -- I need to get away from the concerts and decompress a couple times a day and that's a good way to pass some quiet time. I will endeavor to do a little blogging if I can pull my head out of Strawberry Fields long enough to string a couple coherent sentences together. If not -- well, it will be Monday night or Tuesday before I pop up here again. It's about a 50/50 proposition.
Good holiday weekend to you all.
Seriously.....I need to find out if there's a way to definitively determine if The Feline is a shape-shifter or has the power to rend the fabric of time and space or something.
I was in the sun room just a few minutes ago. I looked up and saw him trot by the sliding glass door (on the outside). He's not supposed to be out at all but he dashes out if you don't pay attention and Robert and the kids have been in and out all day. So I was not surprised to see him go by.
I was wrapped in a towel because I'd just gotten out of the shower so I told Madalyn to go out and get him. She disappeared for a few minutes then came back and said she couldn't find him.
Robert and the kids headed to the sun room door to leave and I was standing in the dining area. I asked Madalyn if she'd checked in the garage -- the garage door is open because Robert was working out there. She said no and I turned around to walk to the garage to look......and there was Cosmo, lying under the built-in desk right behind me.
Now. First off, I am 100....nay, 150% positive it was Cosmo who went by the door. It wasn't just a glimpse out of the corner of my eye that I took to be him. I actually locked eyes on him and watched him go by. My first thought was that the door from the house to the garage was standing open and he'd run past the sun room, into the garage and into the house while my back was turned.
Until, that is, I checked and the door was closed.
There is no other way he could've gotten into the house. I was sitting on the sun room floor when Madalyn came back in without him. He did not come in those doors. Last time I checked he had not evolved opposable thumbs, so I highly doubt he was able to open the house/garage door and come in. And even if it was standing open when he came in....it was closed when I checked! So has my cat suddenly started closing doors behind himself? Or can he evaporate like mist and pass through walls and doors? Perhaps he entered a portal to the hoary netherworld outside and popped out in a second portal located under our desk. (Note to self: call landlord to see if he'll go halfsies on an exorcism)
Too freaky. He's evil, I'm telling you.
I was just browsing around here last night (yes, I browse my own blog. What's the problem?) and I realized that there are a number of entries that are, well, kind of.....good. I never think stuff is good, or funny, when I write it. I don't think it sucks, I just think it's average. But going back months or even years later and re-reading, well, some of it isn't half bad.
So, as pathetic as this sounds, I invite anyone to peruse my archives. See the little "Categories" menu over there on the left? Look for it....yeah, I mean you.....I know you aren't looking yet. I'll wait.
Okay, now that you've found it: if you pull down the little menu you can select any category in which I've placed entries. Scroll to the category you want to look at and it will jump you over to a page with all the entries on it and Bob's your uncle. Something to read on a rainy day -- or any other day.
Normally I am not big on the self-promotion. It's just that many of the entries got only one comment, or even no comments at all. So it makes me wonder if people just missed them altogether. I know people don't come here every day and sometimes when you don't visit a blog every day you miss stuff because it gets bumped down the page by the time you come around again. I would just like to know some people have read some of it, you know?
Oh, and feel free to comment, as well. I like getting comments and it wouldn't bother me to get some on stuff I wrote quite some time ago. Feedback is feedback.
Off to the theater this afternoon to take the kids to see "Over the Hedge." I have been eagerly anticipating this movie for months. I just bought our tickets online, which, AWESOME! and also it's totally worth the $3 service fee to know our seats are reserved. We still have to get there a little early or we might not be able to sit together but, hey, small price to pay to experience William Shatner as a scenery-chewing possum (that's a real case of miscasting there, let me tell you).
How can a word as ugly as pulchritude mean "beauty"?
Just a little peeve to start the weekend:
It drives me absolutely insane when people cannot spell the word "dilemma". It seems like five out of six people I see using the word online spell it incorrectly.
The most common misspelling I see is "delima". Okay, fine, you don't know how to spell it, but THAT spelling? Is not even how it's pronounced!!! The word is pronounced dill-lem-ma. Not dee-lime-ah. And "delima" spells dee-lime-ah. It sounds like a guy from Jamaica talking about beans.
And don't even get me started on "could of" and "should of" instead of could've and should've. *Falls on the floor, gnashing teeth and foaming at the mouth*
Best wishes for the weekend, everyone!
I found the stupid pole, in case anyone was wondering.
I forgot it was in two pieces. I had stuck it behind a tall box in the sunroom, wedged between the box and the wall. It definitely kept JZ from finding it but I would not consider the solution a complete success since it also prevented me from finding it for three days. "Throwing the baby out with the bath water" springs to mind.
Anyway, tapestry, pole and abandoned finial have been reunited and await hanging, which will probably happen tomorrow. I may post a picture of it, if the mood strikes.
Or, more accurately, if you were a complete moron like I am, where would you have stashed said pole to keep it away from the kids?
I have a tapestry to hang in my living room. It has a decorative metal pole from which to hang it. I have had the tapestry a while but only just yesterday decided to hang it up. I started getting prepared.....and realized I have no frigging idea where the pole went.
I do remember that JZ was playing with it a while back. It is pretty heavy and solid metal so I took it away from him and put it.....somewhere. Now I can't find it. I have looked in both hallway closets, under all the furniture, behind all the furniture, in the sunroom and in my bedroom closet. I am now out of places to look and it hasn't turned up yet. All that remains is one of the finials that screws on the end of it, which is sitting on my mantle, looking forlorn.
Seriously, how can you lose a four-foot long metal pole???
Oh yes, and if anyone finds my short-term memory? I'd really appreciate having it back. Thanks.
You start mocking your cats for not having opposable thumbs.
(Yes, this happened last night. I'm not proud.)
I just spent twenty minutes putting a full face of makeup on MY FIVE-YEAR-OLD.
Tonight is her dance recital and I know, I know....the makeup is to make their faces stand out when they are on stage since the audience is far away and it's harder to see. Still, though, I can't help but have issues with it.
Yesterday I mentioned putting on her makeup and she said something along the lines of, "Then I'll be pretty!" Mama flipped her wig over that one. We had a serious talk after that about how she was pretty without makeup, prettier without it, even, and how the makeup is only for the stage so people can see her face better. I just hope it made an impression on her.
I was skeptical about how this quiz would turn out but I am impressed! The results are spot-on. Every statement describes me perfectly.
I am not a huge fan of memes when they make up a significant portion of a blog. But, used sparingly, they can be interesting or, at the very least, not terribly annoying.
I have never done a meme here before but, hey, there's a first time for everything. Read on, if you're so inclined.
The long-awaited and even longer-delayed ultimate vehicle update!
I have pictures but I want to give the whole story. For those of you with short attention spans, or who just don't care about details, here is the bottom line: I GOT A CONVERSION VAN! You may now skip ahead to the pictures. Everyone else, read on.
I have a lot to tell about the car situation....but I'm not going to post it right now! I'm not trying to be a tease; it's just that every time I've sat down at the computer since we got home from Texas I've had a million other things I needed to do. This is no different. I just finished doing all the "must-do" things but I have to dash now because I have errands to run. I promise the update will be forthcoming. It will be up by tonight. Check back later!