The Barf is All Around Me

Everyone I know who has kids seems to be suffering with some nasty little stomach bug at the moment. My sister's kids were sick this weekend, my boss's visiting grandkids were sick, a boy at the grocery store got sick in the aisle right next to me - almost ON me. Then yesterday my boss was home sick and I woke up early this morning to a restless Luke who thought he was going to throw up. Great. I'm trying to hold my breath, not touch anything, and use Clorox wipes on everything. I really don't want this.

Good-Bye Rodeo?

I don't know what to do. I really can't stop thinking about trading in my car now. It's all Paula's fault. I've had my eye on the Yaris for a while now, I have hatchback envy, so last weekend when Paula mentioned that she might get a Yaris to commute to work in, seeing as how the price tag was less than $12,000, I was immediately intrigued. Really, $12,000? For a new car? And it gets 30-45 MPG? Interesting.

I did some math and figured that I could continue making payments at the same amount I'm paying now for my Rodeo, just extend the time I have to pay them another three years, and have a brand new car. A brand new car with a 5-year warranty which would also save me $100 a month in gas.

OK, let's recap: I get a brand new car (a cute one) and continue spending the same for the payment as I am currently, so there's no extra cost to me, I wouldn't have to worry about check engine lights or weird noises coming from the engine, AND I would save myself $100 a month in gas. Oh, and the earth, I'd be polluting less of the earth with my small, fuel-efficient economy car. That's nice, too.

So what am I missing? What are the cons? I've tried to make my list and I can't come up with any cons other than: having to listen to Luke complain that I have an ugly car.

I asked Luke to be honest and tell me what he thought about me getting a Yaris and he didn't really have much to say. Of course he thinks they're ugly, I can't really say anything about that, but all of his other gut reactions can be talked through. He thinks I should maybe look for a comparable car that's not a Yaris. That leaves the Honda Fit (too expensive), the Mazda 6 (too expensive), a Scion (too expensive), and some Suzuki model, but he doesn't want to get a Suzuki for some reason. OK... so it doesn't have side air bags. Neither does my Rodeo. Yes, my Rodeo is bigger, but the Yaris is 10 years newer with more safety engineering and I'm sure it must be safer, although smaller.

I've read the reviews and it gets pretty good ones. Edmunds liked it a lot, they called it cute and peppy. The owner reviews were great. The only negative reviews mentioned the lack of side air bags, the lack of an ashtray, and the awkward emergency break location. Big whoop.

So tell me, what am I missing? Anybody own a Yaris or know someone who does who can give me their feedback, and not just tell me that it's funny-looking?

Wild Weekend

So much went on this weekend, but I got absolutely nothing done, and my head is still spinning.

Between Saturday and Sunday, we planned out our new deck and shopped for materials, shopped for a new motorcycle, shopped for a new truck for Luke, went to see Amanda in Love Letters - it was fantastic - settled on buying a new motorcycle, spent about an hour sitting on said motorcycle at the dealership, decided not to buy said motorcycle from the dealership, shopped for new aquarium supplies, made a lasagna, went to Paula's for dinner, and decided that now I want to trade in my car for a new Yaris. What is going on?

See what happens when you pay off your credit card? As I wrote to one friend, I'm feeling a little too unburdened by debt, so I thought I should buy something new. I'm kind of sad about the motorcycle, but fear not! I'm still shopping. Anyone out there looking to sell a used Buell XB12SS?

Turkey Dance

Have you ever seen a pack of wild turkeys? It's actually pretty funny. They're weird, jerky things that have amazing eyesight and are really uglier in person than you'd imagine. A few years back there was a big pack (flock?) of them that made a circuit through the neighborhood and would always stop in our back yard. Their clucks and gobbles would wake us up some mornings and Luke counted almost 40 one day. Since that winter, we haven't seen them in the neighborhood so it was an exciting surprise to come home to this lovely pattern all over my yard yesterday. Turkeys! They visited all of my bird feeders and wandered around the garden. We threw out some cracked corn this morning to see if they'll come back again. Gobble gobble!

Denial

One of the things I like most about myself is my ability to completely ignore the things that I can't stand. Like sleet and snow, for example. Some might call it denial, I prefer to think of it as selective observance.

Yesterday, while at home because the campus where I work closed due to the weather, I sat by the warm wood stove and looked through gardening magazines, happily imagining that spring had arrived. In honor of the springtime in my mind, I started painting some pretty, warm weather pictures.

The birdie on the left is the finished product that I showed in progress here, and the iris-to-be on the right was started yesterday. These are both painted in acrylic on small squares of clayboard, something new I'm playing with. It's been fun and it gives me something else to shop for at the art supply store.

Happy Heart Day

Happy Valentine's Day to my honey who had to go to work today despite the fact that it's nasty hail/snow/rain/sleeting out and the rest of the state seems to be closed down. If you get a UPS package delivered today, hug your delivery guy. Unless he looks like this - in which case, back off! He's mine.

The Heat Is On

Single ladies of the world, find yourself a handy man and marry him. Seriously. Those clean-cut, business suit, office-working types are nice. They're clean and neat, they know where the good restaurants are, you can share hair products with them, but when your car stops producing heat, are they going to crawl around on the snow-covered ground in mid-February to fix it for you? I don't think so.

My handy man fixed the heat in my car yesterday and never have I been so glad I married him. This morning my toes were toasty, I didn't see my frosty breath on the ride to work, I can use my defroster. It was heaven. Once again, the heat is on.

Won't You Join Me?

Tomorrow night, a fantastic local guitar player, Randy Collins, will be playing with two other local musicians at the 100 Pearl Street Art Gallery in downtown Hartford. It's a special event from 8:30-10:30pm, way past my bedtime, but I'm sure it'll be worth staying up late for. If you've never heard Randy's music, go to his website, www.randycollinsmusic.com, and listen for yourself. Hope to see you there!

How I'm Feeling Today

I think I'm getting a cold. But at least I don't have a blue cast on my paw. How cute is that furry, little expression? Here's the link to the page on Cute Overload where I found it.

Popsicle Toes

My friend, Flann, has a tag on her blog of "whiney" and I love that. I think I might add that one to my tags, too, because this post is going to be whiney.

The heat hasn't worked in my car since Sunday. That's right. It's the coldest week of the season and I have no heat in my car. I also have no defrost so not only is it uncomfortable, it's a little scary.

Luke checked the fan motor and the fuses and other car things and he has a theory. He thinks that there was some moisture in the duct work which froze and is now keeping the fan from rotating. Luckily there is still heat seeping out of the ducts, it's just not blowing out and melting the rubber on my shoes like I want it to. Thankfully, the heat seepage eventually warms the car enough so that halfway through my half-hour ride to and from work, I stop seeing my breath in the car. Unfortunately, it's never enough heat to actually warm me up and I am now perpetually frozen.

I get home at night and sit so close to the wood stove that I can smell my jeans singeing. I still don't feel warm. It really sucks. I haven't had feeling in my toes since Monday morning.

I asked Luke what we could do and he said, 'nothing'. We either have to build a heated garage, or we have to wait until it gets warmer and the moisture melts, releasing the fan blades. Waiting in the cold is not one of my favorite activities. Its starting to affect other parts of my car, too. My odometer froze up for a day and a half and the back window refuses to release it's latch. It's great. I love winter.

Two Thumbs Up

Luke and I don't watch much television. There's only one show I have to watch each week, Gilmore Girls, and other than that we watch South Park repeats before bed. That's the extent of our TV watching. We do, however, watch a lot of movies, thanks to Blockbuster Online. I always want to write about the movies I see, but since I watch one almost every night, I'd have to change the name of my blog to "Old Fart Who Watches Too Many Movies". Instead, I thought I'd give you little snippets, some two-line reviews of what I've seen recently.

The Prize-Winner of Defiance, Ohio - Cute, but not as funny as I had hoped. I woke up this morning with jingles running through my head. Nothing beats those 50's-style dresses.

A Scanner Darkly - Odd, but oddly engaging. I still can't stop dissecting it in my head. The rotoscoping effect is fantastic and Robert Downey, Jr. and Woody Harrelson were great.

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels - I love Jason Statham. I've said this before. I would love anything he's in, no matter how bad, like Crank (see below), but this truly was an excellent movie. Bloody, violent, thick Cockney accents, dry humor, and crazy plot twists. Smart and funny.

Willow - Another movie from my teen years. I remember watching this movie over and over. The funny thing is that watching it now, I couldn't remember any of it. It was cute, but cheesy, and strangely exactly like Lord of the Rings in some parts. An underestimated small person must take the thing that will save the world on a long, dangerous journey. He's joined by a band of strange characters, visits a white, glowy fairy-witch.... must I go on?

Nacho Libre - The longest 92-minute movie I've ever seen. Too much Jack Black for me. But I like the way he says 'stretchy pants'.

Clerks II - Remember how I felt about Clerks I? I take it all back. I really loved Clerks II. It was funny and sweet and in color. Even the scene with the donkey was funny. Watch the DVD extras, there are some scenes with Dante and Randal that are funnier than the scenes that actually made into the movie.

Crank - Ahh, yes, more Jason Statham. Truly a horrible film, but worth it to see all Jason, all the time. You even get to see his tiny hiney in a hospital johnny!

Little Miss Sunshine - I want to hug this movie. It must be movies with 'sunshine' in the title because I felt this way about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was just sweet and funny and I loved the crazy family and the broken-down VW Bus. One thing that bugged me though was Olive. I kept thinking hat she has to be related to Laura San Giacomo. Seriously. See for yourself:
Art School Confidential - Loved it. But I went to Art School and I work for an art school. I watched this one without Luke because I didn't think he'd enjoy it as much. Funny and true.

Cellular - Yes, I put it on my list because Jason Statham is in it, but he plays an awful bad guy and that's just not right. It was corny but entertaining. Kim Bassinger was annoying, I was hoping she'd get shot through the whole thing.

Lucky Number Sleven - Interesting. Bloody and violent, but what movies aren't these days? Clever and funny and there's something about Josh Hartnett that makes me want to see more of his movies.

And that's it for this week. OK, maybe not, but I truly see about four movies a week. Sad? Perhaps. What's on for tonight? Well it's Tuesday, so Gilmore Girls is on. Tomorrow we'll watch The Illusionist. More reviews to come.

An Afternoon of Cute

I spent the afternoon at my sister's house yesterday, being attacked by the merciless cuteness that lurks in her house.

I mean really, first it was this:And then there was this:
And then I turn around and find this:

Inevitable

I knew it had to happen sometime. I just really wished it wouldn't. Welcome to our back yard.

In a Fog

Have you ever had one of those days at work where it's so busy you're emailing and answering the phone while making coffee and balancing a budget, while ordering catering and performing a job interview, while making mental notes of what you want to do at an upcoming event? Then you walk to your car for lunch and think - wait, what am I wearing? I don't even remember getting dressed this morning. Luckily it matches and I'm wearing shoes.

If you've emailed me recently and haven't heard back from me in a while. I'm sorry, I'm sure I'm thinking of writing, I just haven't found the chance. Maybe after I have more coffee.

Shifting into Third

I'm scared.

If any of you out there happen to be married to a UPS guy, you know that on a regular basis, your UPS guy gets to bid on a new job. UPS and the Teamsters have worked it out so that at each bid, the employees are all sorted by seniority (how long they've been in the union) and then they go in this order, top down, to choose what job they want. If they like the current delivery route they're on, they bid that one and keep it. If there's another route they would like better that someone with less seniority has, they can take it from them. They can also choose jobs inside the warehouse, like unloading and loading the trucks, or car wash. basically, if you're a high-seniority guy, you get your pick of everything. If you're a low-seniority guy, you probably won't get what you want, you're left with whatever everyone else didn't choose.

For my UPS guy, he's about mid-level in seniority and he's been tying himself in knots these past few weeks, waiting to see what's going to happen to him this year. He's been driving a delivery truck for seven years now and he's pretty frustrated and worn-out. He's been hoping to get a job inside the warehouse, which would be nice for him. No more traffic or cold. No dragging a hand cart through a snow drifts. But it also means that he has to work third shift. This terrifies me and just typing "third shift", my heart rate went up a little.

We found out yesterday that he got the third shift pre-load job, one of the two jobs he was hoping for. I want so badly to be happy for him. He works so hard and he's been doing the same thing for seven years, wearing the same clothes day after day after day. Meanwhile, I've changed jobs three times and I get to put on something new and pretty every day. It doesn't seem fair and I want him to be happy. But when will I see him? I don't know.

We're pretty much attached at the hip when we're home. If I'm painting or making jewelry, he's right beside me at the computer. If he's working on his dirt bike, I'm helping him. We get firewood together, we do yard work together, we watch movies together. This third shift thing is going to change all that. I don't sleep well when I'm alone in the house and he's going to be gone the hours that I'll be sleeping. How's that going to work? Molly's pretty psyched because she's never going to be home alone now. I'll leave for work and Luke will come home right after that. I'll get home from work and a few hours later, Luke will leave for work.

When I spell it all out, it seems like it should be fine. As long as he comes home from work and goes to sleep, it should work out. Then he'll be awake when I get home from work and we'll be able to spend time together before he leaves and I go to bed. It just sounds so scary. I know there are millions of couples who have been doing this for years. I've just never had to think about it and t worries me. So I thought I'd tell you about it. Thanks for listening.

The Quest for the Holy Grate

Ebay is a funny place.

We heat our home with a wood stove which is located in the basement. Recently, in case you hadn't noticed or don't live in Connecticut, it's been really damn cold outside. The heat from the wood stove travels up the stairway to get into the main floor of the house, but we'd like to put a grate in the floor to allow more warm air to come up to the living space so that less fleece and wool need to be worn inside of the house. Which takes me to Ebay.

Two months ago I began the hunt for a cool old floor grate on Ebay. And there are plenty of them. I figured it would be a piece of cake but, once again, I was wrong. Back in November I bid on and won a grate that looked very cool. It was cast iron and in great shape. It had a flap that opened and closed and a scrollwork face. I managed to snag it for $10 plus shipping and was pretty psyched until I got it. First off, it was cracked, which I think happened during shipping. Secondly, the one free listing photo that Ebay offers was a front shot of the grate which hid the fact that it stood a couple of inches off the floor because it was actually meant to be in the wall. If we did put it in, I would trip over it and then something else would be cracked, like my ankle bone or my skull. Time to start over.

Unfortunately, December seems to be a hot time to buy a floor grate on Ebay and I couldn't find one I was willing to pay for. The prices shot way up from the $10 I bought to at least $50. I looked and looked and then gave up. Christmas time, etc. etc. I just wasn't in the grate-shopping mood.

Oh, and if by now you're wondering why I didn't just buy a new one, #1, you must not know me. I think that old stuff is so much better than new stuff (for the house, at least). And #2, you must have never shopped for a grate. We're looking for a sizable one, at least 12" square, hopefully bigger. These go for about $225 brand new.

So recently I sold some stuff on Ebay and had a bit of cash sitting in my Paypal account. I figured that, since I never actually held the money, I only traded it for some old junk I wasn't using anyway, it wasn't real money and it wouldn't hurt as much as if I spent real money on a grate. So I was back on the hunt.

I found one I loved, watched it, bid on it, and lost it to a person with the Ebay ID of island_resident. Crap. I found another, watched it, bid on it, and lost it to island_resident. Grr! Three times, island_resident outbid me and I was mad. I wanted to see what this person (I, for some reason, imagine that it's a man) was buying. I checked his feedback - which was very good - and checked to see what he had been buying and what he was paying for it. For the past week, at least, all he has been buying are cast iron grates. Bunches of them. And he pays a lot for them. I don't think, in the past three days, that he had paid less that $70 for one! What on earth could he be doing with all of these expensive grates? I am intrigued.

There was one grate that I really loved that was holding at about $50. I was prepared to go to $75 until I saw that my buddy, island_resident, was now in on the bidding. I said to Luke, "I just know he's willing to pay over $100 for that thing". And he did. I bowed out and he got it for $114. Seriously! Where is he getting this money and why is he stealing all of the good grates?

Last night I finally found a grate that was ratty enough that even island_resident didn't want it. It's big and it's all rusty with peeling paint. Perfect! I love it. We placed our bid and waited and waited. The auction was ending just after 8:00 last night and we had to pause the movie we were watching to go and keep and eye on the bidding. I had a knot in my stomach thinking that island_resident was going to swoop in at the last minute and snatch it from me but we sat and watched that last five minutes of the auction, refreshing the screen constantly, and we managed to win it. Hallelujah.

I'm trying not to get too excited, though. It's a big grate, about 14" x 17" and if the Post Office could manage to break a 10" x 12" grate, I'm a little concerned about this one. It's also coming Parcel Post which means a longer time in the system and a slower delivery. I just really hope that it comes in decent shape (peeling paint and rust aside) because I really don't want to go through this all over again. And warmer weather is on the way.

Rings on Her Fingers...

And wool socks covering her toes. MAN is it cold today. But look at these pretty things I got in the mail last night:
They're from my new, favorite Etsy shop called Color Fiesta. I would tell you to go there now and buy up all of her rings becasue they're amazing, but I just checked and the shop is closed until the end of January because she's expecting a baby. So wait until next month and then go shop.

These are gorgeous, handmade, glass rings and believe me, they're even more beautiful in person. I tried to capture how they sparkle in the light but I just wasn't doing them justice.The grey and pink one on the left has a silver/black sort of shimmer and the green one has threads of sparkly gold in it - they're just so pretty. And the best part - they're all about $7.99. Seriously. Less than $10 with shipping and you can have yourself a beautiful, wearable piece of art! Mark your calendar and go check out Color Fiesta next month. I certainly will again!

Cinematic Genius

One of the items on my Amazon wishlist this Christmas and last was the boxed set of Breakin' movies. I know, roll your eyes, but in the 80's when these movies came out, my sister, mom and I would go see them over and over. I longed for the studded belts and awesome off-the-shoulder shirts. I wanted a street name like "Special K". I even remeber that on TV at the time, Alfonso Ribero was selling a break dancing instructional video complete with a mat to use when spinning on your head, or whatever. It was $60 and I wanted it so bad.

This Christmas, when I unwrapped the boxed set, I almost fell off the couch. I wanted to see these movies again and try to remember why I loved them so much. I just never expected to really get them. Now everyone around me has been forced to sit and watch them with me and we're all better people because of it.

Although we can all agree that the word is a better place when men aren't wearing half-shirts and feathered ear cuffs, don't you wish there were more movies where people got really, really mad at eachother and showed their anger by dancing? That's right. Dancing.

Don't tell me you've never seen these movies. Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo starring Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones and Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers. Don't you wish more actors had nicknames? Watching the credits of these movies is almost as much fun as watching the movies. One of my favorites is the credit for the very young and skinny club MC played by Ice-T which says "Rap Talker". Love it.

These movies are so bad now that I watch them twenty years later, but I think I might love them even more than I did back then. Everything is so innocent and cheesy and the acting is so awful. Lucinda Dickey manages to maintain a sustained, perky whine throughout both movies and still she manages to be likable. The dialogue may be rotten, but the dancing is fantastic and the music is 80's crap, but it's great! Even as I type this, I'm humming in my head "din daa daa, din do do..." which you, too, will not be able to get out of your head after watching Breakin' 2.

If you've never seen either of these movies, you owe it to yourself to watch them. If it's been twenty years since you saw them last, pull on some spandex, dig out your studded bracelets and enjoy. Really, they're worth the time.

A Small Plastic Battle

For some reason, I've been visiting a lot of thrift shops lately. Maybe it's the after-Christmas no-money-to-spend situation, maybe it's that I love to hunt. I just love old stuff and the potential of digging around and finding something really cool for really cheap. Like a bag of plastic cowboys and indians for 99 cents.

I found a new Salvation Army store on the way home from work and I seem to end up there at least twice a week. I also just discovered the Goodwill store, which I had never before been to. Big excitement. The Salvation Army store had this bag o' plastic guys under a table, in a basket, beneath a bunch of old, smelly toys. And I found it! I thought that my nephews might like to play with them when they visit, but Luke and I had a good time ourselves setting them all up when I got them home.

It turns out that, not only do I have an assortment of small cowboys, horses, and indians, I also have a teeny-tiny assortment of the same cowboys and indians, a teeny llama, a teeny donkey, and a teeny camel. Because everyone knows that cowboys rode camels. And indians... rode llamas? There appears to be a shortage of small horses and we had to double up the cowboys on the saddles, which Luke likes to call "Brokeback-style" but which I just call teamwork.

The Cutest Pup in the World

Well she is, isn't she?