Blogging by phone

Definitely a new experience sitting in a parking lot outside Sun Devil Stadium on Thanksgiving with a slight head cold. Praying that cold doesn't get worse as choir concert is on Sunday. Trip so far has very bad travel karma. 7.5 hrs to phoenix, got lost on the way to hotel, and waited another hour as Hotels.com had forgotten to tell Hilton that we were coming. gah. but now well on the road of alcoholic consumption and ignoring annoying guys in FUCS shirts. ps. ASU needs more bloody parking signs. like psha

Klepto

"You're not thinking up new names! You're just stealing them!"

This coming from Mel is quite hilarious... but once she said it, I just kinda decided, hey, yeah! Let's run with it!

So, just a note... the names I've been using are just names... and have no relation to the actual people. Here's a few:

Hensley, the town Betsy lives in, Mel's last name (and the one she commented on)

Ryda, former student name

Michael, brother-in-law

Adeo, half of a character name

Betsy, Lizzie's first nickname

Elizabeth, Lizzie's grandma's name

Reuben, Clare's fiance

Clare and Al, taken directly from Canterbury Tales (Mel and Mine, not Chaucer)

Amanda is named after Canterbury Tales Amanda

And, well, Junior, I stole from Indiana Jones

The unnamed university is obviously USC

and Kathryn Miller is supposed to be Katharine Hepburn-ish

Merry is the only name I think I didn't intentionally steal.

Any way, off to do more writing. Any other good ideas about things or names I could steal? Send them my way!

La!

So I had a big presentation at work today... and of course I've been pretty stressed out about it for reasons I won't go into here.

But I rocked! I think I shocked their socks off. Hey, I've always been an A student, but I'm somehow surprised when people are surprised by my presentation skills.

The principal's substitute (who also just so happens to be our WASC consultant) said it was "a conference quality presentation." She said, "You should be an administrator!" Uhhh... why do all admin seem to think that good teachers should leave the classroom? Huh.

The VP I worked with on the presentation (though I did the pretty PowerPoint Presentation) was also happy. We high fived each other exiting the meeting. I must say we made the Math department's presentation last month look dull.

On a completely different note, I had a Write Out tonight and hit my halfway point for my novel. Yeah! 25k! Chapters 1-16 are now available on my NaNoBlog... see link to right.

Zoom Zoom Zoom

So how's life? Well, besides getting two tires slashed, I'm pretty good, especially when I found out the tire slashing was done by random to several cars up and down the street.

I'm in full NaNo Mode. Chapters 1-5 are posted on my NaNoBlog if you care to read... (link to right)

I survived Homecoming and Halloween - We went to Hollywood on Halloween to a sing-a-long Nightmare Before Christmas at the El Capitan. Pretty cool. There was even a guy playing the massive organ before the show. That was great too. It's not very often that you get to hear Phantom of the Opera played in surround sound that makes your insides tingle.

Next week is ROAD TRIP 1. Nikki and I are taking a day off work so that our trip doesn't turn into a "Hi, okay, bye!" Trip.

Must get my Ipod reloaded with stuff to listen to... like Mel's new NaNo CD.

I was going to burn Mel and new CD too, but I ran out of time... so it may turn into a Xmas CD... especially since she abandoned me on the Nano front this year. I mean, come on, what's Grad School compared to literary abandon???

It's NaNoTime!

The Accidental Road Trip

So I was surfing the Coke Rewards site, and saw they had a new college football section. Ooh, and for 1800 points I could get two free tickets to a USC game. Coolio. Click. Order. Arizona. Oops. Roadtrip!

Then Liz says, "I've never been to the Grand Canyon!"

So when you ask me what I'm doing for Thanksgiving, the response will be, "Tempe! Grand Canyon! and Vegas Baby!" Holiday Traffic, here we come!

Hey Liz, wanna go to the teacher store?

A call to Liz from my classroom cost me nearly $500. A necessary $500, but still, I get a little sticker shock.

You see, I've shrunk out of all my work clothes. Oh Darn.

(GUYS MAY WANT TO STOP READING HERE)

So we head into Lane Bryant and I start trying on the size that I think I am, and discover, nope, I'm a size smaller. Now I know that Lane Bryant has some serious vanity sizing issues, but considering I used to fit into clothing 4 sizes larger, I'm a little jazzed.

I bought 3 pairs of pants, several tops and a blazer. Then we headed over to Victoria's Secret and as I'd been suspecting, I'd also changed bra size. Who'd have known that when you go a size smaller in the band, you should go a size larger in the cup?

So no more safety pinned work pants, and hopefully by Back to School Night my new blazer will still look professional and not, like my other ones which swim on me now.

Hopefully in another couple of months I can say goodbye to The Avenue and Lane Bryant forever.

It's Done

So I finished Harry Potter 7, but I can't talk about it yet because Liz isn't finished. Anyway, just thought I'd mark the time, 3:20 pm pst, just so I can say I finished before those people on the East Coast who had three extra hours. lol

They Say It's My Birthday!

So it’s my birthday. It’s only seven, but I’m awake. I have a bit of a headache, but the Diet Coke should take care of that. Hey. It’s my birthday. I’m allowed.
Yesterday was a long day. It started off pretty well as Clare and I went to find the Ancient Burial Ground and my Really Great Grandfather, William Leete, the first governor of Connecticut. When we reached the cemetery, we split up and started searching. Clare was the lucky winner of the first annual Jenny’s Ancestor Hunt! We took pictures and wondered whether the stone had been replaced or not. Then we looked around a bit more and found a HUGE pillar monument dedicated to him right behind the gravestone.
Feeling quite successful, we hopped back in the car and headed to Mark Twain’s House. He was next door neighbors to Harriet Beecher Stowe, but I knew Clare was ready to get the heck out of Hartford, so we just did the main tour. It was very pretty, in that 1890’s Tiffany sort of way. Twain lived there (but not during the summers) for 17 years until he went bankrupt and his wife made him go on a speaking tour. They planned to return, but their daughter whom they left behind, died there.
The trip home Karma caught up with us. Getting over New York’s George Washington Bridge was a pain in the butt, literally. While we flew through New York on the journey north, the journey south was wall to wall traffic… and I had to pee… and I didn’t want to get off the turnpike, for fear on never making it back on.
We finally made it back home, and presented Mel with her gift and chatted like old friends. Then we went to bed at 10 like a bunch of old ladies.

King Arthur and The Beatles

We started the morning with the strange weather which seems to be the constant of our trip – overcast and icky looking, while still being 85 degrees. Our first stop in Norwich, VT was the King Arthur Flour Bakery and Store where I finally found two of the more obscure ingredients listed in my new healthy bread cookbook. I also bought a cool silicon baking mat, a set of bread flavor mixes and a set of cookie cutters.
Down the road we stopped one last time in Vermont, only to curse the vending machine which spit out our dollars and launched our coins back at us. So we got back in the car, drove to Mass and put our money in their machines which happily dispensed its contents.
Our hotel, we decided is the least appealing of our three, even though it has breakfast and free internet. After dumping our stuff off we headed out looking for food. Considering we were near the airport, we didn’t think that would be too hard. Maybe we were being too picky, but a half hour later, we drove back to nearly across from our hotel and ate at Ruby Tuesday’s.
We braved the center of Hartford and went to Elizabeth Park, an apparent favorite of Mark Twain, for a concert in the park. Abbey Road is a Beatles tribute band, and let me tell you, George, man he must have been hit up the head with the ugly stick as a little kid. There was something slightly disturbing when the four came out in their suits and Beatle wigs. It was even more disturbing when they changed for the second half into their Sergeant Pepper costumes. Even though the sound guy was an idiot and couldn’t stop the bass from feedbacking, Clare and I both declared our adventure a success. It started raining halfway through and I guess the Californian in me came out when I remarked how many people were still out playing in the rain and not under the tent.
We nearly got lost on the way back to the hotel, but found the way accidentally. We stopped at the diner next door for dessert, found it rather piddly, and got milkshakes to go. Tomorrow, Twain and the Ancestors!

Karaoke

So I forgot to mention the little girl who couldn’t have been more than four, wandering out of the Ben and Jerry’s factory with her parents and a fruit smoothie nearly as big as she was. “Let Daddy have a turn,” her dad said as they passed. She simply shook her head and planted the straw back in her mouth. Not stupid, that one. I only mention it because the same family group of six (from Ohio) without their kid were at the Karaoke night.
We walked in and saw John, the Karaoke DJ slumped over in a chair, singing badly to a few 80’s pop songs. We asked to see the book, and found he really didn’t have one. He had a few photocopied index pages and a lot of loose CD’s. The pickings were few, and mostly related to Bette Midler. Yes. Melissa would have had a fit.
I sang Lean on Me (by accident), Wind Beneath my Wings, and From a Distance.
Clare ordered us drinks and proved once again that the people of Vermont can’t understand British accents. When our drinks arrived, I nearly keeled over when she told me how much they were. They were pint glasses of pretty damn strong drinks for $5.50. Man, we should all get drunk in VT! I only managed about a quarter of mine before shoving it off in Clare’s direction. Yeah, well, I had to drive home… down a mountain road… in the rain.
We had fun, and at the end of the night, Oblivious Omouse wanted to go home because her stomach was beginning to hurt. Two “blokes” approached and wanted me to sing a duet with one of them. I declined politely and got told off in the parking lot by Clare for not seizing the day.

Taste of Vermont

7-10-07
Today was Vermont Sampler Day. If Vermont makes it, we checked it out. Who needs to eat lunch when you can get free samples? Unfortunately most of Vermont has a sweet tooth. Here’s an outline of our adventures.

Cider – Cold Hollow Cider Mill – Scale of 1-10, it was a 4. Unfortunately there aren’t any apples to make into cider or other good things, so I tried some apple butter, perused the gift shop, and swung back and forth in a cool rocker thing that made me slightly queasy.



Ice cream – Ben and Jerry’s Factory tour. Now this was definitely the Main Event. We chucked over our $3 entry fee, waded through the short kids, and discovered the history of Ben and Jerry. They’re 29, and very eco and community friendly. Our free sample was Strawberry Cheesecake. It was pretty good. I’d definitely eat it again. We then waded through more kids and up the hill to visit the ice cream graveyard, where they have headstones and epitaphs for all of their retired flavors. Afterward, since it was about 90 degrees and humid, we thought we deserved some more cool flavors. I got Crème Brulee. Yum. Clare got the New York Super Fudge Chunk. “It was gorgeous,” she says.
Tea – Omouse the Flyer Lady, as Clare has begun to call me, picked up a flyer for Vermont Liberty Tea Company. It was only a mile or two from B and J’s so I thought we should take a look. We followed the little map on the flyer, and nearly missed the little road, cough, cough. If you can even call it a road. I’d say more like an alley. We had to turn around at a gas station… and little did we know that if we’d looked a little harder, we would have been able to see that the gas station and the alley were connected. Anyway. We get to the tea shop, and there’s this friendly guy (must have been fabulous) and he poured us a few samples of cold and hot tea. Then we went around opening tins and smelling things. Intoxicating! I bought three different teas; two lovely greens and one Cream Earl Grey. I can’t wait to get home and steep myself silly.
Maple – Our next trip took us further afield and we headed to Bragg Farms Maple and Sugarhouse… again, we were out of season, so we watched a video and sampled four different kinds of maple syrup. It’s a lot thinner than the usual, and amazingly yummy. I bought a sampler pack with the four main grades.
Coffee – Our next stop was the Green Mountain Coffee Welcome Center and Café – which wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but interesting enough. It was sort of a combined visitor center (read flyer shelving) and coffee making museum. It was in an old train station that they’d revamped. Clare and I both bought a café latte (Yes. Jenny drank coffee), though the girl behind the counter seemed to think “Latte” in a British accent sounded like “Mudslide.” Huh.
Cheese – We made a quick stop to the Cabot Cheese Annex, which was also paired with Lake Champlain’s Chocolates, and the Vermont Teddy Bear store. We made our way around the cheese samples and decided that the garlic and herb cheddar was the best. Their reduced fat cheddar was also the best low fat cheese I’ve ever tasted. I googled it and found that they sell it at Trader Joe’s. Must go looking for it next time.
Glass – Ziemke Glass Blowing Studio, “Needless to say, we stopped blowing glass early today,” says the woman behind the counter as we look at all the beautiful, but very expensive glass. With no air conditioner, yeah, I understand. A large dog wandered up to me as well, and I pet her, and then she walked away and suddenly started to howl. The woman opened a door and told the dog to “Find Dad.” Odd.
Our last stop was a market where we continued our Vermont Theme and bought Maple Glazed Ham, Cabot Cheddar slices, bread and drinks to eat for dinner back at our hotel. Tonight we’re going to go to Pie Casso’s for my favorite thing – yup – Kareoke!

Road Trip 2007

7-7-7
Ah, the wonders of technology. I brought my new laptop so hopefully blogging will be a bit on the faster side than in the past. Though we opted not to pay the extra $10 for tonight’s internet, so you should be able to read this a few days later… but at least I’ll be able to copy and paste.
We started off at 7:00 (7777) completely by accident… well, mainly because Hrothgar, Mel’s cat, seems to think 5:30 is a great time to HOWL at Mel’s door. Mel wears earplugs, and Andy apparently sleeps like the dead. With Clare’s ears out, I seem to the only one bothered by the howling cat. I opened the door abruptly, and got a few hisses from him as I shoved his fat butt down the stairs.
Up, I bathroomed and breakfasted, turning on the TV while I ate my Kix. The movie, I think, was Adam’s Rib… a great Spencer Tracy and Kathryn Hepburn movie about two married lawyers arguing opposite sides of a case.
Clare and I got ready with little fuss and jumped into our Trusty Rusty blue Aveo. It has no power anything, and for some strange reason, I can’t lock the driver’s side door without turning the key. The good thing about it, is that it’s covered in dings and scratches, so if I bump into anything, no one will be able to tell! Not that I plan any collisions.
We made it out of Pennsylvania pretty easily, even managing to stop for gas without getting turned around. Then, it was pretty much a straight shot onto the 95… even though there were no signs stating we were on the 95. We just hoped we were heading the right direction, and kept going. We zipped through Jersey, paying the $10 in tolls. Mel’s observation… you don’t have to pay any money to get into Jersey, but you pay out the nose to leave. Clare was a bit agog over the tolls we had to keep paying.
We made it out of Jersey alive, pointing at the foggy looking Empire State Building as we passed by NYC. Then it was into Connecticut. Now, the strange thing about the I95 through Connecticut. They have plenty of rest stops and gas stations. Like one every ten miles. Seriously. And at each one, there was a McDonald’s and a Mobile. Can you say MONOPOLY! It was creepy. We stopped at the first one for coffee and soda, thinking, oh, it’s a good place to stop. Then we drove on another 5 miles, and oh look! It’s a McD’s. I should have counted them all.
We were actually excited when we got to Rhode Island and saw that one of the stops actually had a Taco Bell! Anyway, on Natalie’s recommendation, and the fact that it saved us some driving time, we changed our first plans and stopped in Mystic, CT instead of Newport RI.
We snapped a picture of Mystic Pizza, and ate at a Cajun place called The Voodoo Grill. Great atmosphere, reasonable prices, and the medium hot sauce was plenty spicy for me. Glad I didn’t go with the hot or really hot. I had to go into the yarn shop, well, because I’m crafty. I didn’t find anything I couldn’t buy at the Alamitos Bay Yarn Co, so I didn’t buy anything.
We got back in the car and headed into Rhode Island. We were going to stop in Providence, but we kind of blinked… and missed it. Darn. I told Clare to stick her hand out the window, and we agreed that was good enough to say we’d been to the smallest state in the Union. We also decided that RI was slightly larger than the Isle of Wight, but not by much.
On we went to Massachusetts… which I apparently can’t spell… that’s another story. We hit Boston, and were so busy talking, we nearly missed out exit. I did a quick lane change and came off the freeway to discover two things about Boston. They have Roundabouts. And they don’t have a whole lot of street signs.
The Yahoo Maps directions wouldn’t have been too bad to follow, if we could actually have known what street we were on. That would have been nice. We ended up turning around twice, and found the hotel accidentally on our way back from one of the U’s. Success!
We then learned which of the Hotel Desk clerks was the helpful cheery one, and which one hated her job and wanted to be at home. Guess which one we got? Yup. At least we got a warm cookie. Yum. Anyway, we go to the 5th floor, and I think, 501… that should be right there. Nope. We’re on the corner at the very end of the hall. At least we have a corner and two windows and a nice view of the parking lot.
After about 2 hours of down time, we took advantage of the free shuttle and headed downtown for dinner. As we passed China town, we both decided that wasn’t where we wanted to eat. Instead, we cut through Boston Common and headed towards a bar that they I’d read about. We found the street that it was supposed to be on, but without cross streets we kept walking. It was full of trendy shops and I felt like we’d found the Beverly Hills of Boston. Goody. All the restaurants we saw were a bit on the pricey side, so we cut a block over and found, well, no restaurants. We were about to give up when I walked right by a Radio Shack. Clare had wanted a card for her camera. She got a 2 Gig card for $30 which I think is a pretty good deal.
Anyway, as we were coming out of the Radio Shack we noticed The Rattlesnake! We’d read about it earlier, and based on our decision to eat at places with cool names, that was perfect. We split a $10 pizza and ordered a drink and were quite happy.
Back at the hotel, we’re blogging and having beauty night. Clare has just emerged from the shower with a huge grin and a satisfied smile on her face… so that means it’s my turn. Signing off for now, Omouse.

Relations

So this was all started when Clare and I were planning our trip through New England. I decided I wanted to visit my relations buried in the Hartford Ancient Burial Ground.

Then Melissa got the bright idea to take a short day trip to Doylestown, PA where another of my reputed relatives (by adoption) lived. Off we went to the James A. Michener Art Museum to see if we could find the direct link between him and my grandmother, who is also a Michener.

The curators shook their heads when I asked, and we visited the library next door and could find no direct link. So what does Omouse do when she is confounded and wants to know more? She uses the Googles.

Here's the summation:

Out of the number of people I'm supposedly related to:
David Crockett (dismissed long ago by Bruce Crockett)
James A. Michener (Grandma said)
Ulysses S. Grant (Dad)

Total found lurking in family tree? : Zero.

Other random people I'm related to:
Geoffrey Chaucer
Jane Austen
Queen Elizabeth II
Georgia O'Keefe
James Barrie
Andrew Johnson
Mark Twain
John Locke
Bette Davis
Humphrey Bogart
Henry David Thoreax
Emily Dickenson
Lucille Ball
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Laurence Olivier
Robert Louis Stevenson
Gregory Peck
Willa Cather

And the following First Ladies
Laura Bush
Jane Pierce
Anna Harrison
Elizabeth Truman
Edith Roosevelt
Florence Harding

Coolest

I guess having my 18th Grandfather as Chaucer has to be pretty cool. The rest are just mostly cousins.

After tracing back the lines, I found the Mathis's go back to 1680 Virginia. The Crocketts don't go back that far at all. Most of the higher connections are through Maude Hanks, who is my Mom's Great Grandmother on her dad's side.

This information set off a chain reaction, and Mel wanted her tree done as well. We found her line all the way back to Sviede the Viking and Alfonso the Slobberer.

We do take this information with a grain of salt... knowing that we rely mostly on the work of others when we get way back. It's actually rather easy once you get back before 1930 and you can troll the census data and the other people's trees to pull in information.

Right. Soon to be off to Ikea!

Well, I did it!

Script Frenzy is now past the 20,000 finish line.

Which is slightly amazing, considering I've been moving Mel all day. I almost didn't think I'd get it done. Blug, blugh, bleh.

I'm tired now. Bed time.

Stacy Wedding Pictures

Tricia's secret of taking photo yourself: Put the camera up high.






The Uncle's Bar and the rather large key lime cheesecake margarita things that really weren't that good, but I was so far on the right side of happy that I drank the whole thing.


So at first glance this is a picture of Tricia with her tongue sticking out... but if you look closer, it's actually a picture of Tricia and Michael... don't ask me what he's doing behind her, but you can see he's not imbibing in sickeningly strange aforementioned margarita.


Okay, you must admit this one is cute...



But this one is cuter. I have a penchant for taking pictures of cute flower girls and ring bearers at weddings. Maybe I should be a baby photographer.


Pretty Bubbles... in the wine. Notice at this point we're not sitting up very straight. Or at least I wasn't. We were drafted into serving champagne... and then the DJ called us employees of the Lodge. I really think some of the guests in the back thought I was a waitress.
Sigh.

Not so good picture of me, but at least it's a picture of the bride.

Hey! Graphics!

So aren't they cute? I made two different versions of this picture, which I really think is a rather interesting commentary on our family. This is the first.










And this is the second.

Scriptfrenzy!

Okay, it’s that time again! Name! That! Thingy!

I’m one of the worst people for naming things. If I had my way, every girl would be Kate and guys Alex* but I want to branch out. I’ve already done the “name them after your distant relatives” and the “Name them after Shakespearean Characters”. I need something new for ScriptFrenzy.

So here’s a quiz for you to take:
Winning names will receive acknowledgement and my Eternal Thanks!

Brief Synopsis... as planned so far... I'm thinking Space Sci-Fi... in sort of a world with no aliens, but a bunch of planets that used to be colonies of an Earth Federation that broke apart. My MC was a sort of Secret Service agent on an Isolationist planet. She's accused of treason, but found innocent, though no one treats her like she is. She catches a ride from a black market trader and takes off for parts unknown, only to get dragged back to her planet when somebody starts killing all the agents and the people they protect.

Places:
Isolationist Planet: High structure utopia. Pristine and Gleaming vision of the future.

Poor Podunk Settlement: Invaded and looted by every passing pirate.

Desert Planet: think Middle East on steroids.

People:
Main Character: Female Secret Service Agent. Think: The morals of Jack Ryan, the moodiness of Starbuck, and the butt kickin’ power of Jason Bourne

Black Market Smuggler: On his last run before retiring. Old, grizzly, but affable.

Spunky Teen Techno Sidekick: Haven’t decided on gender, but you know the type.

Ruthless gang of Space Pirates:

Handsome Young Senator: Possible love interest. Somebody’s definitely trying to kill him.

The Queen of Plastic Surgery: Power mad beauty queen.

Best Buddy: Possibly the one who betrayed MC, unwittingly or not.

Executive Rear Kisser: I’m imagining something along the lines of Percy Weasley.

Who Knew?

How evil are you?

Congratulations!

Okay, so I've finally heard from the Clare. Was getting a little worried that she was being sucked down some dark hole and not given enough light.

Nope. She's just getting married!

Not that I think that's the reason for the incommunicado. That I will blame entirely on the technology. Right Clare?

Anyway, I just hope she picks a better wedding date than my cousin Stacy... Cinco De Mayo. Other than being on a day when everyone else has a party for me to go to, it's also smack dab in the middle of CA state testing. It means that I have to take a day off of work, and leave my little munchkins with a sub to give them the test. Fun, Fun, Fun.

I of course will vote for a summer wedding or a Christmas wedding, just so I don't have to take huge amounts off work and fly to charming Ol' England for just long enough to get over my jet lag and back again. hehehe.

I do think long engagements are the long way to go. More time to have lots of parties. Okay, that's also kidding, but one last thing before I have to jet off to school this morning...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLARE!!!!

Open House Haiku

Open House last night.
I set a new cool record:
Two parents showed up.

Dude, one more thing... I'm making up for lost time today!

So all of you May B-days out there... and there are too many of them... well three... anyway.

What do you want for your birthdays?

Holiday Plans

So I've been thinking about the summer. Yeah, I know. We've got 8 weeks of school left yet, but I'm so ready to think about the 8 weeks I don't have anything to do. ;)

The bad news: Mel wants an edumacation. How dare she want better prospects and job opportunities. If they ever find her application.

So Mel wants to save her pennies... plus Dismalworld put a dent in both our pockets this winter.
And I have my new car payments to consider. (Vroom Vroom Vroom goes the Mini Cooper)

So we're thinking low budget for this year... and something near Mel.

I was thinking of flying/driving out to PA, and staying with Mel a while, and maybe Clare could come out (with or without the significant other). I thought it might be fun to do a Road Trip to someplace like Boston... because I've never been to New England. The farthest I've gone in that direction is New York City. Really now, for a world traveler like me, I'd love to notch some up on my belt.

Plus, Mel might be moving... the same time we were thinking of planning our traditional vaca.

I think for the summer of 2008, that we should plan on something more grand... and I think the Grand Canyon is an excellent suggestion.

Thoughts, anyone?

Some Idea Choices

Okay, so now that NaNo is branching out to June's Scriptfrenzy, (I guess NaScreeWriMo just doesn't have the same ring to it) I've been thinking about what I might do for a new movie. We won't mention that I haven't finished my dragon movie yet... or my half a young adult book... but I want to start fresh.

So any preferences?

1. (Sci-Fi) A movie take on Space May Bee. A girl wakes up on a strange alien space ship to find that she's been frozen and launched into space by a rather crazy brother. I've got in mind a sort of Farscapish feel to it, but no worm holes or alternate Earths. Her Earth has been dead and gone for hundreds of years.

2. (Sci-Fi) Main Character (as of yet no name) is a member of a genetically altered Royal Guard who lives, eats and breathes her job. Unfortunately she's accused of treason. Although she's cleared, she's treated like a leper. She's forced to resign and become a starship pilot/mercenary/black market runner. I'm imagining the typical grumpy hard ass/kick ass quiet type who proves she has a heart of gold.

3. Or I could write one of those totally predictable Teacher in the Inner City movies, where the kids give him/her a hard time, but with perserverence they all go to college and live happily ever after. (This is my comment on Coach Carter earlier in the week. I suppose cops get tired of watching cop dramas, but hey, give me a break.)

4. I'll have more choices later... I think... Hey, it's only April.

BTW, speaking of movies, Liz and I saw a free screening of a brilliantly funny movie called Hot Fuzz. It's by the same guys who did Shaun of the Dead. Go see it. Hilarious. Really.

I've been watching out my classroom window as the dark storm clouds havesnuck across the sky, steadily getting darker as they came south. I'mfeeling a bit poetic at the moment, and I really wonder how with all thestress in my life, I have abnormally low blood pressure. I've also got low cholesterol... with my good cholesterol being strangly too low. I could try and follow Mel's advice, but I already eat a boatload of Cheerios. Actually my cereal of choice these days has been Kix. Kid tested, mother approved.

Yesterday was one of the most frustrating evenings of my life on record. I probably talked to ten different customer service people who assured me they could help me with my problem. They verified my account status each time, then decided to transfer me to someone who could better assist me. NOOOOO!!!! I don't want to be transferred!!! I want you to answer my #$%$%&# question!

I must say, that I much prefer Dish Network's Phone Customer service toEarthlink's. The connection was bad, and the people (obviously inIndia) did not speak clearly enough, or slowly enough to compensate forthe fact that I could only hear every other word due to the static and the noise in the call center room. Now I'm an ELD teacher. I'm pretty good at deciphering accents, but it sounded mostly like jibberish to me. Dishnetwork, on the other hand, must have been located somewhere in the US. Even though they didn't give me the information I wanted to hear, I could at least understand the reasoning behind it.

I just want my free DVR reciever upgrade for my new satellite TV. If I understood Mr. Gobbledygook, it's in the mail. Why they would have Dish Network install a non DVR setup and send me ANOTHER ONE in the mail just doesn't make any sense to me. But if that puppy doesn't get here by Monday, you bet your buttons that I'm going to be on the phone again.

DSL still hasn't arrived, but I also ordered a new cell phone. I shouldn't jinx it, but it's a $450 phone for free, considering Sprint was going to charge me $99 for it, but then gave me a $100 service credit for renewing my contract.

La!

I just hope that I can find the UPS guy first, since they haven't repainted the numbers on our apartments yet.

Sigh.
And with the rain that looks like it's rolling in, they probably won't be back any time soon.WHO DECIDES TO PAINT A BUILDING IN CA IN January???! Especially in such ugly colors.

blood, painters, and heroes

First of all, I think it should be a crime for tree trimmers to cut down trees right outside a teacher's window at 7:00 am on a school holiday. Argh!

At least I was up early enough to be number 34 in line for blood drawing this morning. Oh, goody. Note to self, when going to give blood, remember they will also require you to pee in a cup, so don't go to the bathroom right before you leave the house.


Yes, for all you family members out there, OMOUSE WENT TO THE DOCTOR!!! AND SHE WASN'T EVEN SICK!!!

Moving on. They've been in the middle of painting the building for three weeks now. Anyone who hires painters in January in Southern California needs his head examined. It's the rainiest month of the year.

They keep telling us they're going to paint the doors. One day last week, we even locked the cats in the bathroom, but no. We got a note later last week that said they'd be painting the doors Friday, Saturday or Monday.

Mr. Painter Guy told me no doors today. "Maybe Wednesday."

I'm thinking they may be painting the floors some time today, or perhaps the eves, by the racket that's going on outside my window. Of course, I haven't been able to see out my window for three weeks because it's been covered in plasting. Which means there's also been no circulation in the apartment.

One of these days they are actually going to have to paint me in... or out. I suppose they'll pick the least convenient time for me... like today, when I need to do my laundry.

I hope it rains on their parade. Which is like shooting myself in the foot.

But I'm at the point where I don't care.

On the last note...

Went to Wally World on Saturday, and bought you know what, Liarbyrd. I need to know what server you're on. I can run it, barely, on my 56k. I suppose that it really is time to break down and get DSL... now that I don't have to horde all my money for grad school.

Didn't get into PhD program at USC. Sigh. Well, I knew 7% chance was slim, but there you are.

Painter guy just scared the @%#$%%& out of me. He's right outside my window. Maybe I should scare him... but then he might fall off the ladder.

That would be bad, wouldn't it?