November 2005

Awww, youse guys... THANK YOU for the wishes and notes and comments and cards. It was the best birthday ever! You are all rock stars! The Chelebration (thanks, Dame!, for coining that new 'chele-ism') continues this evening, when the Pastor's Wives go out on the town for some Chinese Food. Mmmm.
Last night, it was Cuz-Chelebration at The Vintage, where I evidently consumed entirely too much wine. Heh. Lovely food, too (although we're still looking for a place with the ultimate fruit and cheese plate like Frost's used to make).
And, people.. Remember how I just moved OUT of St. Paul? After tonight, I will have been back to St. Paul THREE nights in a row. So see how that's all workin' out for me. (Hehe! It's fine.. Helps me to remember my roots. And it's good motivation to get some equity so I can move back over there.)

Let's just keep an eye on this one.

Here's another reason to move back to St. Paul. Wait. Farther east? Never mind...

Well, this is good to know. If they're gonna mess with your pension or something, just dumb luck will find it.

What the heck? How do you just casually steal something if you have to use a cement saw to get it out? Dame!, give it back. Right now. That's not yours...

Just what I always wanted. Jerry Garcia's toilet. (not really. I like my other gifts just fine. Thanks anyway.)

I just clicked over to iTunes and listened to some snippets. INXS' new album sounds pretty good. I'll probably have to get it.

Aww. RIP, Stan Berenstain. I loved those bears..

Mmmmm, Jon Bon Jovi in tight jeans. Oh, yeah... That's what I'm talkin' 'bout..... mmmmm.
Oh, hello. You're still here, aren't you? Back to the news.

What the heck Part II. How about this - let's JUST use drugs the way they were intended to be used.

Heh. This will be me when I'm an old lady! Don't MESS with me, youngster!

Okay, kids. Andiamo! Let's start the day. Have the best ever. Ciao.

It's amazing what a good night's sleep will do for you AND for your attitude. I was in bed about 2 seconds after I wrote the previous entry, and slept like a ROCK until 4:30.

So last night was first about knitting (well, not so much knitting as having Ms. Smellen Jr. poo on me.. but we'll let bygones be bygones on that one.. hehehe!), and after a while, all about yummy tamales. AND margaritas! Yes, chele got back up on the tequila horse that threw her off so many, many years ago..mmmmmm. Good, good stuff. A good night, spent with good peeps. Who could ask for more?

Been a while since we looked at the news..
Geez - look what Canadians can do. I think there are people HERE that would like to do that.

Yep-welcome to winter, folks. It was 54 degrees out there when I left work yesterday. There's an inch of snow on the ground already this morning. Why do I live here again? Oh yeah - because all of YOU do.

Buh Bye, Moochie. He's still the cutest coach in the NFL. Mat Millen is the bigger idiot there..

I missed blogging this over the weekend: RIP, Mr. Miyagi.

No surprises here. That Hot Properties was just painful to watch...

This headline made me laugh. Fiona's issues confuse me as well. Hehehe.

I loved loved loved Rent. Saw the musical three times. Have listened to the soundtrack many times more. I don't know how well it will translate to film. I'm almost afraid to go see it. Dame! - you do it for me. Give me your review.

Um, Mom? Don't do that. Just, don't. Okay.. time for you to go 'way now...

Hmm.. What else, what else. Oh yeah. It's her birthday..



Buon compleanno a me!


Have a great day. Ciao, Bellas.

Oh My God.I haven't been this tired in... EVER. AND Li'l Smellen Jr. poo'd on me. This is the kind of day I've had. Think I'll just go to bed and try this all again tomorrow..Buona Sera.

Insomnia's a wonderful thing. Or not, depending on whether or not you enjoy that restful 60 minutes of sleep. Heh.

Updates later.

Well, I was somewhat able to maintain radio-silence yesterday. I did do some e-mails, and went online in the later part of the afternoon. But I swear to you.. I LITERALLY did no tasky-things. I watched TV and read and knitted.. and it was great. Who knew? Relaxing is a good thing..

I listened to a lot of music yesterday, too. Sheryl Crow is back on my i-like-her list..Her new song makes me tear up a little. (yes, I cry when I'm happy, I cry at songs, I cry at commercials... you'll get used to it..):


Sheryl Crow - I Know Why

They say love keeps on growing
It's the one thing that I've felt I've always known
Cause it wouldn't matter where you're going
Cause where you are is where I wanna go

I know why the heart gets lonely
Every time you give your love away
And if you think that you are only
A shadow in the wind
Rolling round but when you go and let somebody in
They might fade away

Tell me why the road keeps turning
When everything you want is straight ahead
And every thing I thought worth learning
Is forgotten when I see your face instead

I know why the heart gets lonely
Every time you give your love away
And if you think that you are only
A shadow in the wind
Rolling round but when you go and let somebody in
They might fade away

All you say is so overrated
Holding on to yesterday
Along the way, it can get too complicated to say

I know why the heart gets lonely
Every time you give your love away
And if you think that you are only
A shadow in the wind
You better think again

I know why the heart gets lonely
Every time you give your love away
And if you think that you are only
Flowers in the wind
Blowin' round the wind
You let somebody in they might fade away


::sniff sniff::

I have to go through my big and scary house-buying file today. I remember the day I put the first piece of paper into it. It said "I want to buy a house". Hehe! Now, it's almost as big as my car, and there's lots of stuff in there that can get tossed. I need to get the important stuff organized. It's grey and rainy and yucky out there, so it's the perfect day to do that. And then I'm gonna make some cornbread. Who wants chili?
Talk to you later, Amici. Ciao.

I looked at my calendar this morning. In the month of November, I had exactly FOUR days with nothing written on them. Today is one of those days. I've been running full throttle since October, and I've gotta idle down a little. So today I really am going to be slow and quiet. All the cleaning and laundry is done, so there's no putzing about the house. I don't have to run any errands. I'm invisible on Messenger, and I'm not answering my e-mail or the phone. Now, you KNOW I'm getting nervous just thinking about doing this.. but I want to see if I can do it. I have a couple of quick read books I've been dying to get to, and the idea of sitting and reading sounds so good, doesn't it?
Who knows? By 10:00 AM I might be climbing the walls. But I'm going to try it anyway. This will be good for me. Entering radio silence... Peace-Out!

Ciao.

Yeah, when the phone rang at 7:30, I pretty much knew it HAD to be Mare. Goddammit!

After mere moments of ragging, nagging and general phone mayhem, I surrendered and got up to go shopping. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and we got our charity-giving shopping all done. I'm back home already, watching the snow fall, waiting for the coffee to be ready. One or two cups - or an entire pot later - I'll be ready to start the rest of the day.

Brunch yesterday at Windows on Minnesota was wonderful. I probably don't need to eat again for the rest of the weekend. Oh, until tonight when I'm going to a potluck. I'm bringing dessert - canollis and pizelles. Maybe I'll just nibble a little.

Have an excellent day.. I'm loving vacation, and loving life. La vita è bella, eh? Talk to you later. Ciao.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In no particular order, here's a list of what I'm most thankful for this year:

my family-of-friends
my kitties
the pastor's wives club
Dame!
Mare
Ms.Lee Michaels
the geek   ::smile::
thai food
CuzGirl
Good Ol'CuzBoy
S-B N-P Boy
my health
my new home
all the people who helped me get my new home
the bad-girl knitters
li'l smellen jr.
my job
my work bffs!
everyone who i used to only know on the internetweb, but now i know in real life

One of my all-time-favorite Thanksgiving Quotes:
"On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence" (William Jennings Bryan).

None of us are alone here.. we are all indelibly, incredibly connected. I'm so thankful that I'm connected to you. Sono la ragazza più fortunata nel mondo! TiAmo, Bellas... TiAmo.

Ciao.

It's cheleVacation day! Whoop! Five days off in a row.. that hasn't happened since moving day in June. I am WAY in need of a break.
Today I need to run a few errands, do some more Christmas decorating, and then just SIT and GO SLOW. (Don't you love how I use my blog as a 'to do' list? Hey - it's my blog! I can do what I want with it. Heh.)
If anything good or adventurous happens, I'll be sure to let you know. Until then, buon giorno!

Ciao.

Thanks for the thoughts yesterday - all is well! The day was busy.. I ran and ran all morning, had my favorite Monday lunch ::smile:: .... and then the afternoon got insane. I forgot I had an offsite 1:00 meeting. arrived there about 30 minutes late. Came rushing back, checked in with the boss, and missed my 2:00 meeting. Tracked them down, took care of things, and missed the 3:00 meeting. Dammit. I gave up a little after 4:00. Went home to quickly tend the kitties. Had abbreviated knitting (well, I mostly just played with Baby Smellen.. she SMILES now! Oh so cute..). Had an even MORE abbreviated meeting (yeah, THAT was worth it). And then, OMG, the best pizza in the world (and some local suds). There could not have been a better way to end a crazed Monday.

I don't want to be the political blog girl... but can't we just get out of there now?. Enough. Enough already.

Ugh - and this story keeps getting worse and worse too. Yep. Kitties don't turn on ya. Did I mention that I'm happy that I made the decision to have teenage kitties instead of teenage kids?

I've seen every Seinfeld episode no fewer than 3000 times, yet I still want to buy this DVD. You get a puffy shirt with it! (I think it's a tiny one, but still..)

Well, would ya look at that? The Vikings won, and swept the Packers this season. Mwah Hah Hah. Take that, Cheeseheads!

Here's a fun little early morning game: Listen to and rate some horrible sounds. The only one that REALLY got to me was the drill. I must have a pretty high tolerance.

I checked the work calendar - it doesn't look like I have any meetings that are going to throw me all off today. I'm taking a half day off tomorrow. Let's extend that long weekend any way we can! I've still got quite a bit of vacation time left.. and I'm running out of days to use it.

That's it! Gotta run. Have a most beautiful day, Bellas. Ciao.

Just like that, ChezChele has been transformed into Christmas Wonderland (or something equally as barfy). Yesterday I just got into a mood.. put up the tree, lit-wreath and some other various stuffs. Not finished yet by any means.. but it's a start. I think I have to wait for inspiration to strike again. I don't have enough ornaments on either one yet, but I don't know what they're missing. And I need a couple little table-top mini trees, too. Okay. enough of that madness.

What the hell, man? You aren't safe anywhere, anymore. I'm never leaving the house again.

Sorry, JenY, but I've decided I'm going to just make it my life's ambition to never see one of these. I don't understand what the big deal is, anyway! Heh.

This is cool. Mostly because 10 years ago we all would have read this headline and said "Huh? What are those?"

Yay, Kylie. You go girl. At bowling on Friday night, they were showing this weirdly eclectic mix of music videos (from Kylie to Earth, Wind & Fire, to Outkast), so I was wondering how she was doing..

Show of hands, and all together now: Who Cares? Uh Huh.

Oh, my. I like her music a lot, and I love her voice. But now it seems that Enya has gone right around the bend. She's singing songs in a fictional language. Oh, for the LOVE of GOD...

Okay - This would get me back into the gym. If I could have my laptop with me, I'd stay on the exercise bike all day long.

Ewww. Ewww. Ewwww. Punk. Idiot. Let ME think of some ways to punish him...

I have a tiny trip to the doc this morning (send good thoughts, thankyouverymuch), a fun lunch plan, knitting, meeting, and an equally fun dinner plan today - so it'll be a busy one. Thank God for a short week. I will talk to youse all later. TiAmo, e Ciao!

It's a perfect day to be inside doing stuff.. So it's laundry, vacuuming, dusting, and getting all the Christmas stuff pulled out and ready to go. I think I'll do a little tree this year.. perfect for my little house.

The same finger that I cut on the exacto blade this week? Yeah, I just slammed it in between two shelves of my bookcase. Don't do that. Ow. Thus ends my PSA for the day.

What else? Watching bowling was pretty fun. I'll never BE a bowler, but I can hang out and drink beer with the best of them. Heh. It was fun to see and be seen ::smile::   I got home later than I thought I would and fell into bed and instantly asleep. I forgot that my alarm was still set, though.. so I was not quite as happy at 4:30 AM. Fed the cats, went back to bed, and this week it was Mare's turn to wake ME up at an ungodly hour. Wait 'til next week. You'll get yours, pumpkin.

OH! And the shoes! My pretty pumps that I ordered online last week, I think, are just not meant to be. One pair was backordered, so I settled for a different (black) pair for now. Waited all week, and got them yesterday. Opened the box and discovered that they'd sent me a pair that consisted of one size 4 shoe and one size 6 shoe. No good. So back they go.. They're supposed to fix my order, so I'll give them one more chance. But I wanted new shoes NOW (and you know how I can be when I want something NOW). So to make myself feel better, I just had to take myself over to DSW. Are these cute or what?





Okay. Time to get busy again. Have a most excellent day, amici. Ciao.

Every morning, it's a new and extreme challenge to type. IssyCat's preferred spot these days is right next to me, with his front paws draped over my hand AND the laptop. It's warm, he's practically on top of me, and he's the center of attention. Those are all of his requirements for a happy morning. I'm getting very good at typing without EVER having to move my left hand or arm. Good thing this keyboard is pretty compact.

Rep. John Murtha said it all, and said it eloquently: The war in Iraq is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion. I used to be able to find it in my heart to support, or at least find it neutral. I just can't anymore. It IS time to bring them home.

Lest you start thinking, though, that I'm too left of center...there's this guy. THIS is why there's a part of me that's in favor of capital punishment. He is the poster child for it. Hurt a child and you're done. Simple. As. That.

Good for Dana Reeve. Glad to hear her treatment is going well.

And in the "chele still needs a little more coffee" category: I thought they were talking about Martha Stewart, and I thought Angelina Jolie was worried about Oprah.   .:rushing to put on a second pot:.  

Um... Shaun Cassidy? Yeah... not as cute as David.

Well, this is all wrong, wrong, wrong. Stop it with the cameras in the bathroom already. Sicko.

A Developer is going to build a pig farm as revenge after he wasn't allowed to build a professional building. Hee Hee! He'll be my hero if he actually DOES it.

Most important life-lesson from yesterday: Do not pick up an exacto blade and run it across your finger. Bad results. I was trying to do about 450 things at once, when suddenly I realized I was bleeding all over the papers on my desk. No good. Idle down, chele. Someday, I'm going to learn to do just one thing at a time. Show of hands - how many of you think I can actually DO that?   ........    Uh. Huh. That's what I thought.

I might head over to the local establishment to watch the rest of us bowl tonight (I'll be the girl with the beer sitting behind you). I don't know what's on tap for the rest of the weekend, but it had better include some birthday goin-out plans (yeah, I'm looking at YOU, Pastor's Wives.. heh heh). Time to let the festivating commence! See how I am? I hope the rest of you have an excellent day. TiAmo. Ciao.

I don't want to turn this into a weather-blog. But it's 10.4 degrees out there. TEN. POINT. FOUR. DEGREES.   Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Yes, I'll bet I'll bet this suspect is scared.. scared of the jail time. You shoulda thought of that before, mister.

Everyone - stay away from the dead chickens, for God's sake. This is starting to freak me out.

Mmm, yeah, I'd have to agree that Matthew McConaughey is one sexy man. But he's not on my boyfriend list yet. My heart still belongs to Alan Shore. (and yes, after this week's episode, I know why JenY's next job will be. You'll have to fight me for it, girl.)

She's fat, she's thin, she's fat, she's thin.... she's got more cash than God now. Oprah, you just look however you wanna look.

Put the remake of the Poseidon Adventure on your list of must-miss movies..

I'm torn about this one. On one hand, I can see the mother's frustration, and sometimes you have to do BIG stuff to get a kid's attention. On the other, I can only imagine how humiliating that must have been for the girl. Maybe the answer is that you don't let it GET to that point.. do something small BEFORE you have to do something this big. Discuss amongst yourselves.

The rest of life is pretty good right now. It's coming up on the 10th year since Papa died. I can't even believe that. Someone told me that day that I'd miss him every day, but it wouldn't hurt less and less. Back then, I didn't believe her. Now I know that it's true. I honestly don't think that one day has gone by that I haven't thought about him, smiled about him, laughed about him at least once. I still cry sometimes (and I'm probably the only girl in the world with Al Martino songs on my iPod.. heh..), but mostly carrying his memory in my heart is a great comfort. So instead of waiting for THE day (which is Saturday, by the way), I want to do this today:



Li manco giornalieri. Siete il papa migliore nel mondo. TiAmo...
(I miss you everyday. You are the best dad in the world. I love you...)

Ciao.

One word:

SNOW

Oh, and one more word

I hate it

Okay. That's three words. But I do. And I have this coughing thing going on this morning. I don't like that one bit either. Hmm. chele is kinda crabby. But here's a nice little positive note. BOTH heaters are working exactly the way they are supposed to, so that is most excellent. The smaller one, that I can turn on manually, kicks out a lot of heat really fast - so much so that it literally only needs to be on for about 5 minutes - just to get the room feeling more comfortable quickly. Then the big one - that cycles on and off with the thermostat - keeps it warm. See how easy that is? Now, why did that take 3 weeks and $200? It's the joy of ownership, and equity and all that hoo-ha. Right? Right.

Tornados in November? Isn't that really weird? Not that I expect you to know... I'm just sayin'. Heh.

Nope, I don't trust this guy. Not one bit. Now he's just saying anything that any group wants to hear so he can be confirmed.

They caught this kid, and in order to REALLY humiliate him, made him wear this weird stripey orange outfit. Was the girlfriend in on it? Opinions?

Lennon's killer says he was "unstoppable". Another word to use might be "crazy". You're sitting on the floor in your apartment, looking at an album jacket, and decide to kill a guy.  *shakes head*   How, exactly, does that work?

Happy Julie Andrews Day to all my Chicago people.. especially you, Ms. Megs! You're so lucky. We don't get holidays like that here. What should I buy for you??

This headline just makes me laugh. Hee Hee!

Just in case you were wondering, here's an album you DON'T have to buy me for my birthday (which is in just 13 short days, I might add...).

Say it with me: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! (and what the hell is a kinkajou?)

Oh. My. God. This woman has issues. More than issues. The whole subscription. And ALL the back issues as well. "I love him, even though he shot me and held me hostage in the garage. OY. Let's get you some therapy, m'kay?

I have no words for this guy except these: Oh for the LOVE of GOD...

I get the afternoon off, courtesy of the guys who are finally coming to replace the cracked window in my office. I've been watching the crack zigzag back and forth for a month now.. it's like a science experiment. It takes them at least a couple of hours to replace the whole thing, and since it's 25 and snowing, it won't be conducive to getting a lot of work done. Besides, I still have vacation days to use up before I lose them at the end of the year.

That's all. Go forth and conquer, and be sure to bundle up. Ciao, kids.

They're all talking 'bout snow now, and I'm not listening. La-la-la-la-la-la... I refuse. I never would move away. This is where my life is. This is where my family (what little there's left) and my family-of-friends are. My job, my stuff, blah blah blah. But MAN..I hate winter. I know we've been really spoiled over the last few years. The winters that we had here when I was a kid were epic. That Halloween blizzard years ago was epic, too... but there's been nothing like that since.  ::Knocks on Wood::  So here's hoping for another easy one. And an early Spring.

More car bombs in Pakistan. And who knew that there were KFCs in Pakistan?

This guy scares me now. At first, I believed he could set his personal feelings aside and just be a jurist.. but now I don't think so. He'd be bad on women's rights, I'm afraid.

As much as I hate the snow and cold here, at least the ground doesn't move around beneath my feet.

Martha's "Apprentice" was never as good as The Donald's, and now it's over. I haven't been watching her daytime show.. is it any good? (Rushes to TiVo to record it).

Cool! Welcome Back Kotter and other shows will be streamed on AO-Hell. Will I get to see them if I'm NOT on aol? I'd actually like to see "Sisters" again.. that was one of my favorites back in the day.

This article is so true. Yep, I like my DVR better than I liked TiVo. I like being able to record two shows at once (or watch one and record a different one). I CALL it TiVo (instead of DVR), and I say that I tivo'd stuff. I don't have HD-TV yet (I have to buy a refrigerator - which I still haven't done yet - before I can think about buying a new TV). Besides, I like just renting the DVR box. If it breaks, they'll come give me a new one. And if a better one comes out, I can get one. Well worth the $9 a month.

The heat is finally fixed, and just in time. There's no way that one had EVER worked when the previous owner lived here.. so I'm a little mad that he never disclosed that to me (and, in fact, lied on the disclosure form). But live and learn. Next time I buy a house - even if it's in the middle of summer - turn everything on. I have to put my bookshelves back up. Maybe after knitting tonight. That's what I know. I hope you have a more-than-adequate day. Ciao, Bellas.

Well, goodest morning to you. I've discovered that it's easier to be motivated for a Monday morning if you have a good lunch plan. Heh.

I watched the news about this woman all weekend. What makes them DO this?

Yep, every day I'm more and more convinced that going with just having kitty cats was the right idea. I can sleep secure in the knowledge that IssyCat isn't gonna come after me. He might wake me up early demanding to be fed, but I can deal with that.

I saw this, about the WWE wrestler that died, last night on the local news. It's right down the street from the work place. Hmm, roids?

Hey - I never watched it, but wasn't this a good show? Why is it off the air?

Oh. My. God. "Turns out we were wrong". No shit, Sherlock. I have no words for this one. I'm sure this is quite comforting to the 2000+ families.

Waiting for Sparky the Electrician to come back.. and the hopefully we'll put the thermostat issue to rest (and not bake out the kitties). Then it's on to the new week, with lots of stuff going on. Someday I'll learn to go slowly. Not just now, though. Have a good week, kids. I leave you with this, one of my favorites:

ciò è amore,
che viene e va.
gioia e dolore,
sempre ci da.

E-mail me and I'll tell you what it means.. it's not quite as poetic in the translation. Have an excellent day, Bellas!
Ciao.

Maybe if I put this out there for the whole world and all my fan(s) to see, I'll get something done.
Get moving, chele! Laundry, vacuum, floors and dusting. GO.

That is all. Oh. except for this. This is my new favorite Indigo Girls song. I can't stop playing it:

Come On Home

Dark clouds are comin' like an army
Soon the sky will open up and disarm me
You will go just like you've gone before
One sad soldier off to war, enemies that only you can see.

Dishes stacked, the table cleared
It's always like the scene of the last supper here
You speak so cryptically that's not news to me
The flood is here it will carry you
And I've got work to do.

Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.

There is fire there is lust
Some will trade it all for someone they could trust
There's a bag of silver for a box of nails
It's so simple the betrayal
Though it's known to change the world and what's to come.

Just come on home,the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Don't you recognize them anymore
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.

There's the given and the expected
I count my blessings while I eye what I've neglected
Is this for better is this for worse
You're all jammed up and the dam's about to burst.

I hear the owl in the night
I realize that some things never are made right
By some will we string together here
Days to months and months to years
What if everything we have adds up to nothing.

Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.


Isn't that what we all really want? Someone to tell us to come on home......

Ciao.

Mid-Weekend Update

I fell down on my back and - um - butt yesterday afternoon. If you know me well enough, e-mail me and I'll tell you what happened. My pride was what was injured, mostly, although I was a little stiff and sore last night. So no poker for chele.. I stayed on the couch (with heating pad and tylenol within easy reach) and watched TV and snoozed. Just before I gave up and went to bed, my favorite Geek came online, though, so I had to chat him up for just a while.

And then, somehow, I woke up at 7:00 this morning. What do I do when I find myself awake at 7AM? Why, I call Mare, of course, to make sure that she's awake, too. HA! We ended up running many, many errands this morning before either of us had showered or even prettied up... so let me apologize to the people of Bloomington and St. Louis Park who saw us. We generally look MUCH better during the week.

Came home and had 4102 IM conversations (what did I ever do before IMs? Talk on the phone? How quaint..). FINALLY got showered up, ate a little something, and now am pondering what I will wear to the party tonight. Definitely something pink. OOH! And I also did a bit of online shopping. check out these shoes! In red AND in black. Hawwwt. I'm all excited to get them. (and man.. does that shoe model have trunkles (anklets/tree trunks) or what? I have WAY better legs than she does..)

Tomorrow I must put this place together again (I have ::shudder:: laundry strewn about. I can't abide that..), and then I'm meeting some friends for a burger early in the evening. And then look at that - time to start a new week again. It's almost the holidays... Gah. And that's all I have to say about that. With that, I'm outta here. Ciao, Bellas. Buona Sera.

::Grin::

Good Morning. Happy Friday. I have a spaghetti hangover this morning (it has to be that, since I only had about one glass of wine and two sips of beer last night). There's just something about good italian cooking - if I do say so myself - that just carries you over into the next day. Heh.

Wow - look how far he's fallen. Didn't he have the highest approval rating in history after 9/11? And isn't it sad that 9/11 has become a date just like "July 4th". While it was happening, one of my now-former co-workers looked at the rest of us and said "We'll all remember where we are right now". She was right.
Man - how did I get off on that tangent?

Read This. Just read it. And then thank God, the Universe, whatever you believe in - for your own life. And then ask whatever powers that be to watch over these people.   ::crying::  

Poor Steve Mariucci. Talk about a team that's falling apart. Next week he'll be calling on ME to start as Quarterback. I'd better start practicing.

Poor Brett Favre. He feels lethargic. Lethargic=Sick of playing for a team that sucks.

Equal time for hockey - St. Louis sucks too. HA! They scored into their own net.

How do you walk out of a movie five times? When you walk out, don't you stay out? If you walk out five times you're never really walking out, you're just taking a little break.

Happy Baby, Conan. Smellen, should we start working on fixing the kids up now for prom?

In TV-land, characters never REALLY go away, do they? They always return for guest spots.

I guess I don't understand religious relics of ANY kind... not just Buddhist. And that's just all I have to say about that.

Say it with me: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

Okay. Where was this guy yesterday when I was looking for my pasta pot? I have no clue where it is, but I did buy a shiny new one at Target yesterday... and I'll admit, it's better than the old one.

This has been a really l-o-n-g week, hasn't it? Lots of stuff has happened. I have about eleventy million things to finish up on my desk today (so it's shut the door and get thru it day), and then I can go play a little poker tonight. Life's all good. TiAmo. Ciao.

Tomorrow is going to be hellacious early at work day, so I'm gonna get this done right now.

So Sparky the Electrician came around this morning. Messed around with the new thermostat, messed with the breaker box, pulled things apart put them back together again. The verdict? I need yet another different stat. He's gonna just get one for me - this way, I know it'll work and he'll be able to install it. So he gets everything all put back together again, and I head off to the workplace.

Overall, not a bad day. Not too much chaos, and only a couple of people acting as impediments to my progress. A little after 4, I put my toys away and headed home.

I opened the door - and was hit in the face by wave after wave of HOT AIR. It was like a flippin' SAUNA in here. I ran in, checked the thermometer. Ready?

94.2 degrees

Yes, he wired everything up backwards, so the heater that WAS working is now the heater that only pumps out hot air. And it pumped out hot air all. freakin. day. long. The countertops were hot to the touch. The poor kitties were absolutely lethargic. Maddy - with all her long, long hair - was curled up in the sink. Issy was stretched along the bathroom tile. I felt terrible for them! I threw open the door and windows.. and even now, 5 hours later, it's still 76.1 degrees in here. It's funny, I guess. It would be even funnier if I didn't have to PAY for all that electricity that I used all day. Sheesh.

I'm making REAL italian dinner tomorrow night (lucky guy!), so I had to run out to buy all my fixins. The one thing I can't find since I moved? I lost my good pasta pot. It was exactly the right size, and I knew all the dents and dings by heart. I'm sad that it's gone. So I have to run out to Target at lunch tomorrow to buy a new one. I'm nervous to make my pasta in a different pot. Yeah. Get over it, chele. It will be interesting to try to cook dinner after I've been at work since 4:00 AM, but hey - I'm always up for an adventure. And spaghetti is the one thing I can pretty much make in my sleep...

So that's it. I'll miss you all tomorrow morning (although it probably IS morning for some of you. It's the blog time machine). Have a good night, day, afternoon, whatever. Buona Sera.

What's really scary is that suddenly, I was just aware of being awake today. I don't remember hitting the snooze button, I don't remember hearing the alarm. The thing that actually made me get out of bed was the smell of coffee. And the fact that I remembered that the electrician is going to be here at 7AM and I don't want him to see me in my Hello Kitty Jammies.

Yep, another electrician. This time it's my regular guy. We call him Sparky (but don't they call ALL of 'em Sparky??), and he has wired up every single inch of my offices. I almost dropped over dead when he said "Yeah, I do residential, too". DOH. Why didn't I think of that before? Hopefully this takes care of the problem. It hasn't been hellacious cold yet, but I don't want to wait until that point, either.

I'm so proud today - I'm a blog-mother! Go read JenY's new blog, comment on it and tell her I sent you. And even though I'm old enough to be her... uh... her very favorite older sister... she's one of the coolest people I know! Bookmark her today (or catch her over on my bookmarks on the left).

EEEka. The kid is a big 'jokester' who brought a gun to school and killed someone. Not so funny now. Wonder how much of a jokester he'll be in prison?

Holy Crap. The wind is HOWLING out there. It just rattled all the windows and scared Issy-Cat, who just achieved air!

This article is full of words you really shouldn't be reading before breakfast. Ew.

There's too much planning in the event of bird-flu going on. Does everyone know something that I don't? Is this really going to happen over here??

This is not a big surprise - after all, it's in Texas. But still - I can't understand HOW someone else's right to marry or not-marry can affect anyone else's life and/or marriage? WHY are people so threatened by this? Seriously? Someone needs to explain that to me. If you're married and you're threatened by gay marriage, will you comment and/or e-mail and explain why? I won't make fun of you or anything... I just want to know why. Maybe because I'm NOT married, I don't understand.

That wasn't even 15 minutes of fame. Wonder what he did to get thrown off the show??

No, no, no, no, no. No more Survivor! (Well, Dame! will be happy, I guess...)

I still haven't watched the West Wing debate episode yet.. but someone should remind this writer that shhhhh... it's only pretend.....

This is why my blood pressure was 90/60 at my last checkup. Heh. Sometimes I feel bad.. my blood pressure is always really low and my cholesterol is WAY good.. and I don't pay one bit of attention to what I eat. So I guess it's cheeseburgers and cherry cokes for lunch today, right??

Here's hoping for that elusive calmer day at work today - crossing my fingers. And an evening at home to catch up on stuff. Horrors - there are DISHES in my sink. This never happens, and it's stressing me out. In fact, I might have to go take care of that right now. So have an excellent day, Bellas. Ciao.

It was a long, arduous day. (There's your assignment. Use the word "arduous" during your day. Don't know what it means? Look it up).
Got a call on the way in that someone was locked out. Took care of that. On the way back to my office, learned that there had been an unauthorized visitor (i.e. would be thief) wandering around the office. Played Cagney and/or Lacey for a while.
Got to desk, finally. PBXvm crashes. Track down tech. Issue service notice. Work on project. PBXvm crashes. Track down tech. Issue service notice. Talk to relocating employee. PBXvm crashes. Track down tech. Issue service notice. Talk to a different relocating employee. PBXvm crashes. Track down tech. Issue service notice. Call around to find out what the HELL is going on with the phones. PBXvm crashes. Track down tech. Issue service notice.
Then the brightest spot in my day: LUNCH! YAY!
Get back to my desk and basically repeat the morning.. only with some other chaos thrown in as well.
By the time I got home, I was a mess. BUT: Ahh, knitting. That'll be great. Realize about a mile from home that I haven't actually BROUGHT any knitting with me. D'OH. Continued driving. Pager goes off. I read that the PBXvm crashed. Track down tech. Issue service notice FROM THE CAR. GODDAMMIT. They better fix this thing.
Get to knitting. YAY! Knitting is my favorite thing! (see, JenY??). I didn't knit, but I did have a couple hours worth of holding-the-baby therapy.. and that made me feel ever so much better. That li'l SmellenJr is the cutest babe in the world, and SOOO good.
THEN (yes, the day wasn't nearly over yet. See what I mean???) I had to rush home to tutor math. We did 90 minutes worth of decimals and percentages. He's got that down. We finish up tonight with basic algebra review. He takes his test tomorrow.
THEN I decided that I wasn't nearly tired enough to try to go to bed, and remembered that some friends were playing darts at the local establishment, so I ran over there. Got there just as most were leaving, but I sat and chatted and played a game of Simpsons pinball (I suck at pinball. It's not my game, I guess...).
Came home, and finally crashed at about midnight.
Got up at 2:30, and talked to the Tech who is working on the phones this morning. Even he doesn't know exactly what's going on with them yet.. It's SO not cool to be a telco company with broken voicemail.
OY. Just writing all that was like reliving the day. But tomorrow is going to be better. As I learned from my favorite GeekGuy yesterday, you NEVER say it can't get any worse, because believe me, it can! So go forth and read the news on your own, kids, because my pager just went off and guess what? PBXvm crashed.   ::weeping::   I gotta go. Ciao.

The one and only thought that got me out of bed today was: Lunch. Heh. Monday lunches are now my favorite time of the week. Well, the other thought that got me out of bed was: Hey. I'm freezing. Guess I forgot about adjusting the thermostat before I went to sleep. It was 65 in here. This girl's optimal indoor temp is about 73 or so (yeah, yeah. yell at me. whatever). So I'm all bundled up on the couch with the furry hot water bottles (AKA kitties) next to me. A few cups of coffee and my temp will be way up again.

Funniest phrase of the weekend. A friend of mine looked at me at dinner on Saturday (as I was bouncing around, just my normal self) and said, deadpan, "Yeah. You're idle is set pretty high, isn't it?" Bwah ha! I'm laughing out loud right now just thinking about that.

Oh. My. God. Nice jail system you have there. The best quotes from this story: "He was twice sentenced to death. There is no scenario under which he should be free roaming around on the street." - Well DUH. "His escape resulted from 'multiple errors' by jail personnel." - Well DUH #2. "'There's no way Chuck had the brain power for this,' said John Donaghy, whose sister Thompson was convicted of killing. 'He's not the sharpest pencil in the box.'"- That poor family. Note to self. If you ever are sentenced to prison, go to Houston. Because you can easily just walk out of there.

What the hell is going on in Paris??

Shhh. I haven't watched "The West Wing" live debate episode yet. Best season in a while, though.

Whaa whaa whaa. Call the Whaaaambulance. Jennifer Aniston is a crier. She's crying in her bazillion dollar mansion in Malibu, and is in about 3 dozen upcoming movies. Life's tough for a girl, ya know?

And in local whaa whaa whaaambulance news - the Vikings are going to boycott a TV station. They'll show them! "If you report on us having a drunken sex party on a public boat, we'll stop watching you! Whaaa!" Oy. Two words: Go Lions.

Well. This doesn't make me feel safe at all! Eeek. I'm never leaving the house again.

The weekend literally flew by. Why are those so fast? I guess because you get to do only things that you like on them! And I just checked the calendar - eeek. Stuff is scheduled on 3 nights already. Good thing all the laundry is done. And at some point I have to patch and paint the wall by the new thermostat. Mare, do you have a paintbrush for me? (hey - it's MY blog. I can use it instead of e-mail or instant messaging, right?). And with that, I'm outta here. Have a good day, kids. Ciao.

Weekend update:

Friday - all about the resting. Saturday - errands, errands, errands, laundry then faboo mexican dinner and general hanging out and merriment afterwards. So much fun!

And on to today: Chicks with Sticks at 1:00. I think there are two newbies coming, so I have to get my teaching face on. I get much more actual knitting done on Monday nights when I don't have to teach anyone. :-)   Then I get to come home and scrub kitchen and bathroom floors. (notice, how I "get to" rather than "have to". Yeah. I'm sick that way... heh). And oh my gosh, then it's the week again. It's all good though. Way better than the alternative.

That's what I know thus far. You tell me some stories now. Talk to you later, Bellas. Ciao.

Not a vacation day.. I just have a meeting close to home first thing this morning, so I'm going to the meeting first instead of downtown and back again. Good thing this worked out. Ho.Lee.Hannah. I was up from 3:00 - 4:30 with the cramps of death. There. Aren't you glad you know that??? Hell, if I have to have 'em, you should have to know about 'em. I drugged all up and had some toast and managed to sleep again from 4:30 until about 6:00. No fun.

Wow - how low can he go?? Will it just eventually be that NO ONE supports him??

Check out this photo of Chris Wallace interviewing his dad, Mike Wallace. He looks exactly like his dad did years ago.

Shoot. I missed my window of oppotunity to hook up with Charlie Sheen   ::crossing him off my boyfriend list::

Oh my. This TV show isn't at ALL what I expected it to be. Heh. And what the hell kind of name is that for a governor, anyway??

Well - You never want to mess around on this woman. Yeeesh!

I've always wanted to do this, but I knew that I'd get caught. I wonder if IssyCat would count as a passenger...

If you want to just FREAK OUT, read this website. Honest to God, I'm never leaving the house again.

Okay. I'm outta here. Have a good day. Ciao, Bellas.

I got - nothin'. And it looks like the news got nothin' too:

Google's going to take over the world, you know. Information, books, maps, music.. they've got it all.

Aaron Brown is leaving CNN. You saw this one coming. Anderson Cooper is gonna be the big star there now.

NBC is launching a channel for mystery shows. Well, there's one station I don't have to worry about programming in to the "favorites" button. I don't get mysteries. Why don't you just TELL me who dun' it at the BEGINNING of the show/book/movie, and then let me watch how you came to that conclusion?

Matt LeBlanc is going to start producing films. AKA career fallback when his sucky TV show is ultimately cancelled.

I'm tired this morning, and a little owl-y, too. And when I read this headline, I read it as "Saget Roasts Peguins and Mock Duck". And I thought it was going to be about Bob Saget on the Food Network. And I wondered if people really did/could eat Peguins. I think I need to get more sleep...

Then I read this headline, "Springsteen chased out of Ft. Lauderdale by Wilma", and thought "Who's Wilma? Some crazed fan that got up on stage with him?" OMG. I think I should just stop it with the news already.

Yeah - no more news today. Go over and read the meme on the livejournal about the Average American. You can leave a comment here or there. Now I'm going to go drink about 30 more cups of coffee and try to caffeinate my way to consciousness. Have a good day. Ciao.

What on EARTH did we ever do before online shopping? Before "superfast" delivery? We must have just ordered stuff from catalogs, mailed it in, and waited for centuries before stuff got delivered. Oh, no. That would not suffice. I've been needing some new winter blouses, a blazer and a coat. Clicked myself over to Chadwick's last night and found everything I needed (and found out I had a "take $20 off" coupon), and with "superfast" delivery (nicely offset by the coupon!), I'll have everything by Friday or Monday at the latest. Better living through technology, man. And did I mention the not-paying until February?

Charles and Camilla are doing their US tour. Will there be t-shirts?

Note to all stalkers: Don't break into celebrities' homes.. because this is what happens.

I think the live debate on The West Wing is going to make for some good TV. Who will win? Jimmy Smits or Alan Alda? (I think Jimmy. He used to be a lawyer, while Alda was only a meatball surgeon..). What? TV is pretend? Who knew...

When I first saw this headline I thought they were talking about the Superbowl Halftime show. Since we have no shot of getting there this year, I'd still watch the game just to see her sing. The Vikings suck, and I'm having the worst pick-em year EVER! I think even the virtual player in our pool is beating me. I say hooray for hockey.

Wait. Maybe TV isn't pretend. Or is it? Oh, I don't know...

Note to self: Don't have wedding reception in Shiawassee County MI. The words "wedding reception" and "fracas" should never be in the same sentence.

There ya have it. I have another outta my mind busy day at work, and then should be able to just be at normal chaotic levels until the end of the week. Sometimes I wonder how long I can do this without my head just exploding. But if I'm being completely honest - I'd rather have the chaos than long, long days that are always routine and always boring. I never have the same day at work twice. That's what keeps it interesting. Speaking of which - I should get ready. Have a good day. Ciao.

Hi. How are you. I'm spectacular, thanks. And right now, lunch is pretty much my favorite meal of the day.

Well, if his super-flu strategy works as well as the WMD thing... we're all f*cked now, aren't we? (the sound you hear is that of dad rolling in his grave as I say that. Sorry, Mike!)

Why on earth do people use God as an excuse for everything??? "This is where God wants us to be" - where they kidnap our children in Haiti. And He doesn't want us to immunize our kids. And he wants us to have 408 of them instead of 2-3 like the rest of you. And.. And... And... GAH! makes my head explode.

Everything wrong with the Woody/Soon-Yi thing is summed up in the first paragraph of the story: "the relationship that has more of a 'paternal' feeling..."  say it with me: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

I'll settle this dispute between Baldwin and Basinger: you both have "serious emotional problems". There! How's that?

This Dear Santa show on FOX will make me cry. Guaranteed. It's making me tear up just reading about it.

I like the idea of NBC Nightly News being broadcast on the internet. Soon I won't have to turn the TV on at all.

Scariest. Photo. Ever. Don't look. Honestly. Don't look. (and if you did, say it with me: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!)

Here's an article just for Smellen. Yes, they're the devil, alright. Heh Heh Heh.

It's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this month. Basically, it's writing a 50,000 word (approximately 175) novel in a month! Next year, I'm going to do this. Wonder if cheleblog counts...

Okay. Gonna have one more moment... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! ... and now I have to go to work. Life's good. La vita e bella! Ciao.