I’m so behind the times, but thanks to #!/user/bin…
I’m so behind the times, but thanks to #!/user/bin/girl for leading me to the coolest treehouse ever - I gotta show this to the hubby, he’s gonna want one!
One more thing - those yellow plastic whirl-a-gig …
One more thing - those yellow plastic whirl-a-gig daisies adorning the neighbor’s yard? They left all the price tags on. I don’t think they were trying to be ironic…
I tried to hold back, but just couldn’t… gotta w…
I tried to hold back, but just couldn’t… gotta whinge about my neighbors’ new paint job. Um, on their house, that is. They have what I call 70’s stucco - kinda squishy textured, but then smoothed over with the trowel so that you get that “nooks-and-crannies” effect. It was painted a neutral off-white, but their original windows were all replaced by generic, white metal-stripped, double-glazed windows a few years back, so the beige and the white were not so nice together. They decided to patch all the little cracks in the stucco and repaint. Yay for them. Well, the color they chose is somewhere between pumpkin and burnt peach, with a vanilla yellow for trim, so the overall effect is peaches-and-cream. Ack. But tolerable. A few days after it’s finished, I come home to see a couple of plastic yellow whirl-a-gig daisies planted in a neat row like little garden center soldiers in formation along the front of their house. At first glance, I figure they have two little kids and one of them must have seen a “flower” at Osh or Home Depot and demanded to “plant” it in the yard. Then I realize that no, the flowers are arrayed all around their house (the parts we can see from the street). And they’ve put a wicker basket full of bright orange and yellow-dyed floral plumes on the front porch, ostensibly to add color to this train-wreck of a home improvement project. The neighbors to the other side of us have a pale apricot stucco finished in a relatively smooth coat like the original finish on the houses in our area. It’s nice and fits the California bungalow style of the neighborhood. So we’re caught between a spastic peach and a bleached apricot. Goody. Oh, and to add insult to retinal injury, I came home yesterday to find that they’d painted their old cement driveway and porch maroon. If they’d kept everything a pale cream and painted all the trim maroon, it would at least have given the impression of being jaunty, instead of peaches-and-cream on the flip side. Why do I care? Because we’re refinishing the stucco on our house - it was a cold gray with huge blobs randomly tacked on as what must have been some demented contractor’s idea of texture - fine in a warm color on a giant adobe in the desert, but no good for a teeny little Cali bungalow… plus it has a bad attitude (attacked the hubby a few months back - I’m too lazy to link directly to that archived post). So the groovy contractor dudes are scraping and sanding and adding a nice new smooth coat of stucco on top, as well as patching and filling along the way. And we get to pick a color. Any color. Whee!!!! White trim is easiest and cleanest, and will look best with the style of the house and the fence we intend to put in at some point. I’d love to go with a pale yellow for the walls, but our roof is gray and I want something that will look a little warmer - like a medium biscuit, or a pale goose-egg green… hmm. Decisions, decisions. We want it to have a warm tone, but not fade out between our fruity neighbors, or clash and upset passers-by. Hey all three of you who read my blog, comment and tell me what color you think I should choose - I’m the one who painted her office the same shade as Barney’s inner thigh, remember?
Oh Happy Noodles!!! I got a great review from Jay…
Oh Happy Noodles!!! I got a great review from Jaynee at The Weblog Review. Go Jaynee, Go Weblog Review - you are so Pretty to me! *croon*
Um, why don’t I get many comments back, I wonder? Hmm… gotta go chew on that bone for a while. Better than obsessing about my rejectimakated status - of course, they could be one and the same. *harrumph*
New Bog Snorkeling World Champion Crowned - well, …
New Bog Snorkeling World Champion Crowned - well, we’ve all got to be good at something, I spoze.
Yeah, okay, so I’m here out of choice. But dare I…
Yeah, okay, so I’m here out of choice. But dare I take it as coincidence that the very day I officially start as a regular (non-contract) employee (they finally got the offer letter figured out) I get (prepare yourself for the horror) my first rejection letter from a major pub. Mumph. Well, actually, mumph-fuck-shit-damn-pout-stomp-bite. With shuriken flying out my eyes.
My darling hubby was so excited when he got the envelope this afternoon that he opened it and called me at work to tell me… he was so pissed *my hero* It’s the first time I’ve sent something to my A list, instead of lurking around the margins of the easier-to-get-published-in B list pages. He’s a big ‘ol sugarbutt. But I had to tell him not to open envelopes about writing anymore for me, unless I ask him to. Burst his bubble of indignation right there, and turned it toward me ;-> His heart was in the right place… but now I have to be at work and wanting to go home and kick my teddy bear around the room or something. Or I could go to the bookstore after work and be bitter. Hmm. Probably not. Gotta figure out an acceptable timeline for sulking before I get back to work - I’d just jump right back in and tackle my next project, but I can’t see past my lower lip.
Here’s the friday five: 1. What is your current o…
Here’s the friday five:
1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not?
Tech writer / web designer for the IT department of a mortgage banking company. Of course it is, it’s what I am doing, isn’t it? Nobody’s holding a gun to my head, fer chrissake. It’s not what I’d rather be doing at this point, but I’m not being held hostage to it - I am here out of choice.
2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be?
Writing full-time, doing research and being a philanthropist. Maybe being a war correspondant or setting up and running international health projects.
3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices?
Mom was a nurse, Dad career military turned nuclear physicist. It certainly instilled a strong sense of *no whining* as well as the drive to help others whenever possible.
4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family?
I thought that’s what I was doing when I married my husband - giving up that dream of being a jet-setting international war correspondant. Then I realized that I married the right guy - I can still do whatever I want and he’ll back me 100 percent.
5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why?
The easiest job in the world has to be as a secret shopper for manicure and pedicure salons (if there is such a thing). The hardest job - being a full-time parent. Definitely totally intimidated by that one. Lacking copious reserves of patience as I do.
Abu Nidal’s death has left us with one less cockro…
Abu Nidal’s death has left us with one less cockroach to be stomped. I can only hope that none of the bullets pierced major arteries so it took him a while to die. Yeah, I’m a day late and a dollar short on this one, but I’ve been muzzy headed and sleeping a lot all week, so I’m running behind on all kinds of things.
I feel yucky. Nobody at work will take responsibi…
I feel yucky. Nobody at work will take responsibility for bringing the plague into our office, it’s my last week (allegedly) as a contractor so it’s the last week I get paid for overtime, as well as the last week before I get sick days. That’s gotta qualify for an entry in the Gallery of Moderately Annoying Coincidences.