Too crazy a day.

Yeah, by the time I got home (even though it is now only minutes away), went over to feed the animals (pet sitting while K's parents are away), and had something to eat I crashed. Couldn't possible withstand more heartbreak in one day between Alito getting confirmed, Coretta Scott King dying, and someone else going postal and going on a killing spree, I just don't have the heart to hear the inevitable lies, half-truths, and rosy outlooks that will be presented in the State of the Union. I napped instead and now I feel less exhausted, but more sore. I'm really surprised how much pilates makes a girl's muscles work! Just two mornings and I'm sore like I ache like I'm on the crew team again!

One Crazy Kind of Day

At work - wanted to update earlier - what a joke. We consider ourselves busy when we have every person doing an evaluation. Today we had two people working and seven evaluations. I am simply amazed that I am leaving on time. Tonight K, myself, and friends will convene in front of the television to watch the State of the Union, heckle, and craft. Perhaps the heckling will alleviate the depression that I'm trying to ward off re: Alito. Then again, watching Baby Bush play leader may make it worse...

please work...

While I'm able to sign in and type this post up, I have no idea if it will actually post to my blog - for my blog seems to have disappeared somehow. No one can access it. And I'm not even able to view it except by single entries. Very discouraging. I'm hoping against hopes that by posting this it will somehow republish the whole thing and my answers will be solve. In the meantime, if it doesn't work, I have written a note to the kind techies at Blogger.

Edit: It worked!!! Yeah! [ok, now keep working, and don't do that again!]

I found my dress!

Yesterday we went to look for bridal gowns for me. I had several that I wanted to look at so we had a grand-trying-on-fest! The first one that I tried on turned out to be it! At first I wasn't even going to try it on because the idea I had was that K would wear the froofy wedding gown and I would wear a coordinating, elegant, but definately un-froofy dress. So because the bottom is much more full than I had envisioned, I was just going to try it on to appease K. Turns out, though, that I absolutely LOVE it! The side bow thingy will definately be taken care of and be replaced by a plain sash around the waist, and I'm getting a wrap in the same material that I can wear over my shoulders if I want, but otherwise this is it!


The picture is a little dark, so you can't see the whole thing, but Oh! how I love it. I did try on many other dresses yesterday - and in the past couple of months, and some were ok and I could have lived with them, but when I tried this on I felt like an absolute queen! It coordinates nicely with K's dress too so we will look just fantastic! I wish these pictures were taken in the same light so you could see just how wonderful they will be together, but I'll trust you'll use your imagination. I've got many a errand to do now for the rest of this day off, so I'm off.

At the request of Ardist

So Ardist requested that I post some of my paintings since I was mentioning it the other day. Most of my work remains tucked away in the back of the closet where they were put after we moved, but these are the results of my most recent endeavors, since the new year when we moved in.
My favorite of these three is the one that I call Feather-Light (top), but it is just a shade lighter in actuality. I had another that I intended to post, but somehow lost the image when I saved it as a draft (at the in-law types currently). I'm not especially happy with the focus on the blue one (bottom). More to come later, I'm sure. I love this stuff. I never know what I'm going to come up with when I start a painting, which I think is why I come up with so many different styles.

P.S. I still find it frustrating that some of the glitches in Blogger do not allow for a) seeing what your post will actually look like when you go to publish, and b) that it leaves great blank spaces (such as above) that could be used much more efficiently.

The house of noise.

Oh how I long for peace and quiet. I want to live in the woods - away from traffic, noisy neighbors, and barking dogs. These are all inconveniences that have become apparent since moving to our new pad. I'm sure all of this will urge us into the buying market sooner than later, but we can deal with them. I'm beginning to tune out the traffic and dogs, the neigbors - as you will see, are a challenge - but all of that is livable, right now the real problem is the banging and clanging pipes.

We're still looking for ways to deal with the noisy neighbors. At 4 in the afternoon when their music reaches earsplitting levels we have left numerous times and on occasion we employ what I like to call the "1812 Technique": The use of the 1812 Overture at top volume to compete with the sounds of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll". K's parents gave us the idea, and we don't actually have that particular piece of music, but we do have the William Tell Overture, and it seemed to do the trick. At 7am, however, I don't want to hear any music that will rattle the walls, regardless of its level of classical greatness. So when, three mornings ago, we were awakened by a very rendition of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (this must be their favorite song) resulting in the vibrations of our walls and bed, I had no choice but to drag myself out of bed and sleepily knock on their door - numerous times before they actually heard me through the music. Each time I knocked I tried to calm myself, because, of course, by now I was more than a little testy having my sound sleep interrupted. Finally after the third knock, I hear, in a loud, angry, and demanding voice, "WHO!?!" Remain calm, I tell myself, "Your neighbors," I say as pleasantly as I can. They of course don't hear me because I am not screaming above the music, so I then hear, "WHO IS IT!?!" I must say that by now I am not feeling very calm, and I want to scream Well, who do you think it is at 7am when your music is on that loud!?! I am not nasty, however, and I repeat myself with enough oomph to have myself heard over their noise. I'm not sure if the woman actually heard me because she opened the door with a snarled, "What!" I, as politely as I could muster, requested that she please turn the bass off or the music down or something. I then, in an effort to remain in good relations, said I thought photo of her dog that decorates her door was cute, and staggered back downstairs, to put my head under the pillows against the low roar of her ever-playing favorite song.

All of that is annoying, but the problem in the past tow days has been the banging pipes. Since we moved in the pipes that feed the radiators, which of course give us heat, have made their presence known. At first I thought it was funny. At first they sounded much like a impolite belching contest. At first we could sleep through it. All the At firsts, however have changed. I no longer think it's funny. The belching contest has turned into a pot and barrel banging contest. And I can no longer sleep through it. Something has got to be done. Pillows don't work against the cacophony that seems to get worse in the night. The last two mornings I have woken up with a splitting headache. Aside from the headaches, it is also more than a little unsettling. They shake when they bang you know. The pressure builds up in there, they start to hiss, and finally the banging happens when the water finally pushes through (or however it works) resulting in thunderous banging and shaking. I've gone on the internet and found out that the pipes need to be bled. He he. Whomever came up with that term is a funny one. I'd like to strangle them myself, but hey, if making them bleed stops the noise I'm all for it!

much to do

There is indeed way too much to do. Just can't seem to get motivated to do any of it at the moment. I'd much rather paint. I set up a new canvas and will likely roll up my sleeves once I post this. Tomorrow, or over the weekend, or at least before we have our house warming I need to rearrange the office/dining room area. It is driving my batty. Very bad feng shui at the moment. I really don't know that much about feng shui - K is the expert on that - but I can just feel it. Way too boxy. And my back it towards the room when I sit here at the computer AND when I eat at the table. This makes for less time at the computer, and it also makes for more time eating on the couch. I also want to rearrange the bedroom. I'm just not happy having to crawl over K or the end of the bed should nature call in the wee hours of the morning. The spare room definitely needs to be attended to as well. Even if we did have enough money to buy a wardrobe, we don't yet have a place for it at all. Perhaps if the bedroom is rearranged we can squEEze it in there, and my idea is actually to fashion a sort of hallway, which would also serve as sectioning off for the office (very confusing to try to explain without a visual), but K has pretty much vetoed me on that anyway - I have not given up yet, but the only other place there is to put the wardrobe - did I mention how desperately we need one - is the spare bedroom, but right now it is quite occupied and quite full with boxes in need of unpacking. I also have several boxes in the office area that need sorting, I need to update our address with a myriad of people and companies, and last, but certainly not least, we desperately need to get on to some serious wedding planning! But really - all I want to do is paint. And so I am off to do it.

Back again!

Yes, yes, it's been awhile. Between the holidays, moving and being sick I just haven't had energy left to post. I'm finally beginning to feel fully human again. While I was sick I got myself quite enthralled in a mystery novel for a time there and spent every waking hour with my nose in its pages ("With No One As Witness" by Elizabeth George). I tell ya, I thought I couldn't live without my well-rounded addiction to crime shows, but with that book I didn't even miss the tellie. Did I mention that we get practically zero reception. Two channels come in quite fuzzy, but it's hardly worth the effort. Last night K and I watched a couple of episodes of X-Files on tape. We've got two or three more tapes left and then we will have to move on to something else. My vote is for getting season one of either "Six Feet Under" or "Monk". I've heard they are both good - any other suggestions? Not having easy access to the tellie also allows me to do things like continue unpacking, paying bills on time, and fixing the futon (which I did finally after it had been broken for close to a year!). I may install a doorbell this afternoon. But laundry should probably take precedence. Then this evening I'll take my baby out for a proper date. We haven't done that in awhile and it's time to ameliorate the situation.