What, it's only been almost 4 months?!

Yeah, I know, I suck at this. But I actually have something to blog about now. I've moved to Milwaukee. I started the job officially July 1, but got here July 8th. I still work for the same company but instead of sales person I am now a chemist. Which so far I really like. I love getting my hands dirty solving a problem and figuring out things for myself.
Since the new job no longer comes equiped with a company car, I got to buy my second car ever. My first was a 1998 Camaro Convertible Z28 that I bought when I worked at GM. I bought another convertible (sort of), a 2006 Jeep Wrangler Sport 4x4 soft top. Dark blue with a kahki top. And it is a manual transmission, my first. I've wanted a car with a stick for a while, at a certain point, the only way you really learn is to drive one.
Well I have lots more news but in order to keep up I'll save more details for tomorrow.

Me as an M&M

We were talking about this at the bar Saturday so I thought I'd post myself as an M&M. You can do it too at
http://www.becomeanmm.com/

Procrastination

So I ignored the Squirrel until the next morning and when I looked, he was gone.
What do you think happened?

1. Another animal dragged it off?
2. A nice neighbor took care of it for me?
3. The squirrel was ressurrected?
4. Nasty person put it on my porch?
5. Other?

Burial arrangments

I looked out my window this morning to see if the garbage had been picked up, and I saw a small pile of fur at the edge of my driveway. A poor little squirrel has expired. I will spare you the photo. Here's the thing, if it were anywhere close to garbage day I would pick him up with a shovel, put in him a plastic bag and toss him in the trash. But garbage day was today so now he will be around for a week. I think I'll call the city department and see if I can dispose of him there. Otherwise I think I have to keep him in the garbage until next week, thank goodness it turned cold again.

Of course all of this makes me think of the book I just read for book club;
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. It is a fascinating book about what the different choices are for bodies after death. It really helped me to clarify what I would want done (donated to science) and what I don't want (burial, don't see the point). Such a personal decision and so hard to find concise information about it.

Committed

As I write this I am think of my commitment issues. Or if I should be committed. To my life, to my work, to a nut house. I am thinking of actions I have committed, or haven't, and which I am less happy about. I'm have certainly not been committed to this blog and for that I feel shame. I do love reading all of yours though so please, keep writing.

This weekend I made a commitment to being Isabelle's owner. I started fostering her late September last year, so on her 6 month anniversary I decided I'm sick of spending almost every Saturday at a pet store trying to get rid of her, when she hates to go, hates to be there, and I do too. Only 3 people have shown real interest that I recall, and they all had small children. That would not be a great situation for Isabelle, or rather for the children, as she likes to be rather violent when she plays or is done being played with, petted, you are within reach of her claws... And while my parents thought me getting scratched up by the cat when I was 2 and played too hard was a good way for me to learn, parents aren't as big on having scarred children anymore. So she's mine. I really love her. She's great company, but not all over me, and if I leave for a couple days she's fine on her own, but really happy to see me when I get back. But I think about the fact that I may have her until I'm 50, and that is a really old age to be thinking about, I have enough trouble with 31. So I'm done fostering I think. I might consider kittens again but not for a while, and I don't think Isabelle will put up with it very well, and it's her house too. I do highly recommend it if you are thinking about getting a pet or have a pet that would tolerate a guest. It was a great way to decide if I was ready, what I really wanted (I always thought I wanted a big dog, but turns out, not by myself.) and it was a lot of fun. The commitment on the weekend gets old after a while, but I got to meet a great group of people too.

[edited]

I am committed 100% to the Red Wings. How sad is that? In the words of the kid in Fever Pitch, "Sure you love the Red [Wings], but have they ever loved you back?" Sadly, no. Can I get credit that I go to almost all the games with my mom or brother so it is really quality family time? No? Well, I tried.

I think I should go do something useful, which at this point is take out the garbage, make dinner, then go buy myself a vacuum. I think I will buy this one, I want a powerful small one that is good for picking up hair (mine and Izzy's) and getting the stairs. I have an upright and a little Sw!ffer Sweeper that I like, but I really want the Dys0n for pets, but that seems so overpriced and a silly thing to get at this point. I really want to commit to being a better homemaker, I kind of stink at it. I so admire how nice some people keep there homes, but I never seem to build the habit. I slowly am getting better though so I have hope.

painting success!

I got nearly all of the painting done that I wanted to over the weekend. Yeimy, Jenni and Heather came over on Sunday and helped me get the first coat of Edleweiss in the dining room, stairway and living room. It was incredible, they were so fast and good. I got the second coat done that afternoon/evening. I got the office primed and the ceiling painted, so just the walls are left in there. All the prep work of filling holes, sanding, repeat, then washing down all the walls, vacuumming and mopping the floors, removing all the electrical plates and taping all the edges takes a lot longer than I ever remember between painting tasks. However removing the tape is so much fun, it is one of those things that is hard to stop doing, even though I should be working, like reading blogs.

I finally finished listening to Atlas Shrugged this weekend. What an amazing book. I highly recommend, even though I skipped past the 2 hour monolouge towards the end to see what happens. I am working on reading The Beetle by Richard Marsh for book club next month. It is an early horror story like Dracula, written at about the same time. This was at the same time as Darwin and most horror stories are really about the struggle between god and science.

How appropriate...

Dear Lesley,
Here is your horoscope for Wednesday, February 14:

An unusual idea about your home occurs to you. This will either revolutionize your life or make things much more confusing -- possibly both at the same time. Why not go ahead and risk it anyway?

VACATION?

I am now on vacation!

Sort of.

I will be painting my house for the next several days, only taking a break to go to one work meeting, play one game of soccer and celebrate Jenni's birthday. And watch Lost.
If you want to check out the colors, go to http://www.voiceofcolor.com/en/myproject/vision.asp, click here to try it now in the middle of the page, select a photo to paint, choose a picture, then you can type in the codes above in color search to see the colors I will be using. This is a fun tool if you want to get a better idea of how strong a color might look in a room.

I am painting my living room, dining room, hall and stairway Edelweiss, 522-2, a creamy gray off-white that goes well with the kitchen's shade of brown. Boring I know, but I will liven up the rooms with colorful drapery and I have tons of pictures to hang up. All trim will be white. I may paint a focus wall later, but this will be a good start.

The back bedroom which will soon be my office will be Spruce Shade, 503-5, a nice medium blue green that will look great with my oak office furniture. I got the inspiration for the color looking at the trees on a drive through Canada for work. I love that silvery green-blue shade of some fir trees.

If I have time, I will also repaint my the upstairs bedroom a lighter shade of blue than it is now, I'm thinking Touch of Blue, 249-2 is a nice bright light blue. The current is a darker periwinkle shade close to Velvet Morning 247-4. But I do not have to get the upstairs done right now, Ican always do that this summer.

Once everything is painted I will be moving the rest of my belongings out of the condo and into my house. A housewarming party (1 year after I moved in) will be soon to follow.

I also finally bought a dining room table. I saw this one a year ago and have been trying to find an alternative, but it was on super discount, I got more than 1/3 off. Now I need to buy chairs. Any suggestions?

I also will be buying and assembling shelving for the storage area in my basement. This stuff from IKEA will fit perfectly in the spaces I have for it, but I am worried about the wood in a not the driest basement. I really must buy a better dehumidifier this spring. The crappy one the former owner left was not working very well by the end of the summer. Any ideas what finish would be good to help protect it?

I'm also thinking about replacing the full sized bed I have in my guestroom with 2 twins. The room will fit perfectly two twin beds on either side of a central window, and I think it will be nicer if I have 2 guests if they don't have to share. I think these bunk beds that they have at IKEA that I can use seperately would be cute. My parents can use the full mattress I have to replace my bed at their house. Or I can keep it in the basement and turn my place into a regular flop house.

Which will be good, because as soon as I get the pool table from my parents this will be party central. I owe for all the parties I've been to without hosting myself.

So that is my plan for the rest of the week, if anyone has a burning desire to come help, you are all welcome!

Carni calls

Just got a phone call from Whorley. He, the Haens, Joas, and Gaffney are sitting at the Downtowner and were wondered where I was. Well, I'm at work, 'cause Bolte and I both had too much work to do to go. And I didn't really want to because I feel old when I'm there. And I feel worse lately about my chunkiness which I was not at tech. Which is my fault and my job to fix, but I have not been able to yet.

Hearing them there made me very homesick for Houghton... I never laugh as much as when I hang out with my friends that are there this weekend.

I saw Dominic (Ronzo) at the hockey game last night. This is the first Carni he's missed in 16 years. It was weird for us to both be there instead of drinking on statue, but at 31 shouldn't I be too old for these shinnanigan's? Too old to hang out with people I care about, some of whom I've known for 14 years?

I want to go camping in the Keewenaw this summer, spend a week, hanging out, hiking, driving around and enjoying a place I love. Hopefully I'll sell my condo so I can afford to, but camping is cheap so I think I could manage.

On a side note, I got a quote for getting some painting done in the house, and while I'm sure they would do a much better job than I could, I can't quite get it into my head to pay for something I can do for myself. I don't mind painting, and there are so many house chores/repairs I don't know how to do, should I save my money for them? So now I need to figure out when I can get a couple days off to paint. I think I can fit in a one and a half days next week.

Gaah!

Things are too crazy right now, work is insane, including weekly trips to Canada at least every Friday (4 hours each way), insane emergencies to address, and too much to do. So much that I can hardly afford to take a vaction day at all, which I need to get everything at home done.

I went to look at a competing condo (yes mine is still on the market). We decided to repaint all the rooms neutral to freshen it up. Before I repaint there, I wan to move the remaining belongings out and before I do that I want to repaint at least 2 rooms at my house. So if you back all that up, I have a s*!tload of work and not enough time since I want the condo ready to relist by March 1 to hit prime season. GAAHHH!

I play on 2 soccer teams, lots of hockey games right now, and all the travel means I have less time to do things at home. I am so overwhelmed I don't know which way to turn. Other folks are coming up with all these fun things to do, and I am scared to say yes, partially because I am just so overwhelmed and partially because I am trying to be better than usual with money, the dual mortgage for the last several months sucks. And no, I don't want to rent the condo, I want the equity out of it and it seems too hard to find a renter that wouldn't mind the chance of the place being sold out from under them and would keep it clean enough to show, plus I just don't want the hassle I have enough to do.

I doubt I'll be posting very often in the near future and wanted to let you all know why.

Also I'm reading The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss. It is a facinating account of dorks learning to become players and is the only thing making me happy at the moment. On road trips I am still listening to Atlas Shrugged and still love it.

Crazy times

Well, it has been a crazy start to the new year. My car was rear-ended leaving the Bob Seger concert on the 30th, so I had to get that repaired. Now the mystery is whether I have to pay the deductible or if my company reimburses me, it's a company car, and the policies I've found on our website are unclear. Trips to Canada, the autoshow and repeatedly to Milan, MI for a customer's quality problem have filled my work days, and Red Wings games and soccer games have filled my work week evenings.

My grandmother passed away on Saturday the 8th. She was 93. She had had a severe stroke on Christmas day 12 years ago and has been partially paralyzed and mostly unable to speak ever since. To see such a strong independent women struck down for so long and trapped in that body was more difficult than letting her go, but she was my last surviving grandparent, so it's still sad. Of course, it makes me think about when I will lose my parents which is something I hate to even consider, but my folks are in there mid 60's and I've had friends lose their parents at younger ages. Both sides of my family seem to usually live long lives, but you never know.

On a nicer note, I had a wonderful weekend. Jenni and I went to see the Killer Flamingo's at the happy hour in Royal Oak, they were great as always. Other friends of mine were there too, so lots of folks to see and hang out with. At 1, we decided to leave and hit Gusoline Alley on our way to the car. I love that dive. Talked to some very strange fellows standing by the juke box, escaped to play pin ball, then talked to some other marginally more normal folks before last call. The guy was passably interesting for closing time in a dark bar, but he never asked for my number. In retrospect, he kept asking if there was anything else he should know about me... was that a subtle hint for me to reply, 'Well, my phone number will come in handy?" If so it went right over my head at the time.

Saturday I took Isabelle (attacking her Christmas present from Jenni) to the adoption event, I didn't get rid of her, but met a promising follow up, she may have a permanent home soon.

Saturday night I met Yeimy, Scott, Alan, Amy, Kim, Jenni, Curry and wife (need to remember her name) at Camp Ti for drinks and music. What a great idea Scott had, I had a great time just hanging out and chatting and listening to the classic rock tunes the band was playing. It was a very nice mellow evening.

Book Updates:
Yesterday I finished reading Dorothy L. Sayer's The Documents of the Case, which I borrowed from my mom. Good detective novel, I will find more of her books. This one was written as a set of letters for the most part which is a format I find rather annoying, and I figured out the gist of how the murder was accomplished not long after, but the use of what was cutting edge science at the time was interesting.
Also this passage was interesting to me: From letter #8 "...It is difficult to bring one's mind into sympathy with that curious Victorian blend of materialism and trust in a personally interfering Providence. It's odd how they seem to have blinded themselves to the hopeless contradiction between their science and their conventional ethics. On the one hand, an acceptance of Darwinian survival of the fittest, which ought to have made them completely ruthless in theory and practice; on the other, a sort of sentimental humanitarianism, which directly led to our own special problem of the multitudenous survival of the unfittest." How topical from a novel published in 1930.

I almost find Sayer more intriguing than her novel, she was one of the first women to get a degree from Oxford University, and very accomplished in a time when that was uncommon. I am also listening to Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, I love it as much as The Fountainhead, reading these books makes me want to join Ayn Rand's cult. I need to go buy for my book club The Omnivore's Dilemma, we decided a theme of non-fiction for the first 3 months this year. I'm also trying to finish The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, I was always curious why this book caused the Ayatollah to put a fatwa on him. But it is very disjointed and hard to follow. I read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown over Christmas, and all the fascination I felt reading DaVinci Code was completely replaced with disappointment for this book, what a load of unbelievable crap.

Killer Flamingos

Well, I wish I had everyone's email addresses, because I would tell all the local folks specifically to go see the Killer Flamingos.

Join us on Friday, January 19th for our
Late Night Happy Hour with the Killer Flamingo's at the Royal Oak Music Theatre
Doors Open at 8:45 PM
$15 includes four bottled beers OR three ABSOLUT or ABSOLUT PEARS cocktails. Drink tickets redeemable
between 9-11 PM

I love them, they are a great cover band.

My name as a curse word, I love it!

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a Lesley.

Which movie was this quote from?

http://thesurrealist.co.uk/movie.php" method="get">Get your own quotes:

So True more often than I would care to admit.

You can't handle the Lesley!

Which movie was this quote from?

http://thesurrealist.co.uk/movie.php" method="get">Get your own quotes:

I'm Baaaack!

So, I missed you all terrribly. I tried to catch up when I could, but I miss sharing my life with you. And if we cannot have the AGD couch, then at least we can have this.