Laughing Out Loud, at Myself

We have a monthly e-newsletter at work where employees put information about what the different teams and departments are doing. The newsletter also has things like recipes, birthdays, etc. Your typical employee newsletter. This month's newsletter had one of those "you know you're getting old when..." messages in it. A lighthearted look at the funny side of aging, you know.

There is a dime that has been on the hallway floor for about a week now. I'm not sure how it got there, but every time I see it, I think "I should pick that up," and then I just leave it lying there. So today, when I coincidentally dropped a ponytail tie on the floor right next to it, I picked up the dime while I was already bent over to get the ponytail holder. And then I laughed out loud because one of the "you know you're getting old" sentences ended with "when you fall down, you look around to see if there's anything else you can do, while you're down there." I guess that also applies to bending over. Might as well pick up whatever else you can...

hello.

You know how, when you have someone you talk to every day, you can talk to them for hours and hours about nothing at all, and when you have someone you hardly ever talk to, you sometimes struggle to come up with enough words to fill the silence? This is like that.

I've been so busy lately that I just stopped even thinking about blogs-writing or reading them. Work is busy as always, but I also was taking a tax class, working on a big freelance project, and sometimes proctoring exams. All for money or the hope of future money. So I finished the project and the tax class. I'm going to be working at the tax place starting in January, so that is sure to bring some interesting name-withheld-type blog fodder. Also, I never would have predicted this could happen, but I now spend so much time writing and editing at work that I find myself less interested in doing it at the end of the day. That's not good for the long run but I'm hoping I'll get over that as I get more experienced at it.

Anyway, I'm planning to keep it light but hopefully more frequent for the month of December. I'm giving mostly shitty handmade gifts this year so hopefully, I'll get some pics of those up starting this week. Oh, and there is a trial starting next week about my brother's death, and my dad has surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm on 12/16, so I'm sure that December isn't going to be any quieter than any other month of my life.

Around The Interwebz

http://ugliesttattoos.com/

I love that the subtitle is "A Gallery of Regrets." People, tattoos are PERMANENT. Or incredibly painful and expensive to me made not permanent. Just think about it before you get that unicorn-humping-a-dolphin or dancing-ham job done up on ya butt ridge or wherever.

I’m in a pretty good mood today, which I believe is because it’s day 2 of the work week and we are already at HUMPDAY.

True Confessions: I always thought Hump Day was the nastiest term and then I found out it was called that because we are “over the hump” of the week. I think it happened that way because I heard the term “Hump Day” when I was in Jr. High and that’s all that Jr. High kids think about. And so I thought the whole thing was that people went around work making overt passes at one another because Wednesday is Hump Day so that day, it’s oooo-kaay. Heh. Oh, and I first figured out the “over the hump” thing approximately…24-36 months ago. That’s right. I made it well into my 30s thinking that Wednesday was America’s National Get-It-On Day.

And on a tangentially related note…every day of my life as an Editor, I thank my lucky stars that this hasn’t happened on my watch.

On a Lighter Note

I don't know which is stranger: that I'm watching Big Brother Eleven, or the fact that I'm watching Big Brother Eleven.

But as a result of this development, I found this particular news story incredibly delightful: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/animal_planet_reality_show_to_put?utm_source=most_pop_faxed

Republicans: skip this post

Last year, I moved all my political ranting to another blog, but I'm too lazy to go figure out what the login is for that, so I'm posting it here instead. Consider yourselves warned. Stop reading now if you don't want my political opinion.

If you don't think America's kids should listen to this...then you are a farking idiot.

http://www.local12.com/news/local/story/Read-The-Presidents-School-Speech/jrKvCI8kKU2XBXhDb_QOxQ.cspx

project update

I've taken most of the summer "off" of my various projects. But with Labor Day being the unofficial end of summer, I decided to jump back in and this project was as good a place as any to start. what you see here is the pile of rubble that is currently my sofa. what you don't see is the exciting plans I have in store for this thing, and the plans I have for its little green friend. Stay tuned...

New Feature: Around the Interwebz

I've been catching a bit of flak lately about how infrequently I update this blog (ahem, Colleen, Bri, Rob...etc.), but the reality is, I am just not doing much that is interesting these days. Scratch that. What I am mostly doing is interesting to ME and would be insufferably boring to you, my beloved readers. So, I've created a new feature to get us through this slow time. I will be featuring things I have found or which have been brought to my attention that are Internet gems of all sorts. I had been putting these kinds of things as updates on my Facebook, but to be honest, I am seriously considering quitting theFacebook. That's right, you read that right, and it should be the subject of a whole nother post. But for now, here are two lovely things I found on the Interwebz today. Much like my own self, one is creative and crafty and the other is silly and funny. And in case you are ever wondering how I find the things I find on the Interwebz, it is always as a result of something I googled, so I will include the google search term that (eventually) led me to each link:

Link 1: crafty creative chick who salvages items (we all know how I love to curb-surf!) and repurposes them into cool stuff: greencricketsalvage.com found on page 15 of a google image search for "window plant shelf"

Link 2: funny guy who is presumably high school or college-aged: http://myauntishot.com/about/who-is-my-aunt-why-is-she-hot found in a google search for "how to buy a corsage." More on the corsage fiasco later. I don't know about this guy's entire blog, but the story of why the blog is called "my aunt is hot" is actually awesomely funny. Also, his summary of going to the flower shop to get a corsage is outstanding: http://myauntishot.com/2004/funny/wristlet-or-corsage

how

could it have gone so wrong, in so short a time?

sun-dried cotton

these are happy swatches of fabric for baby blocks and other sweet things. i suppoze these cotton swatches are technically not sun dried as they are still drying, and there is some shade. but i'm workong on being less of a perfectionist, so this will have to do.

tuesday night project

I've been having some problems with both Stella and Magnus up to their old tricks of inappropriate elimination. I think they are in a literal pissing contest. This is upsetting, frustrating, and actually a little costly as I spend a lot of time and a few US dollars on cleanup supplies which don't always seem to get the stains out. Not to mention countless evenings trolling around my house with a blacklight trying to find any spot that would explain the lingering odors. Sigh.

It was suggested to me that perhaps Stella's problem is that she is anxious, and that actually makes sense to me. But before we head off to the vet for another $300 visit just to find out that vet won't give me an anti-anxiety medicine for her, I decided to revamp her living arrangements. I'm moving her food out of the basement and back upstairs. Now, the reason I had it in the basement in the first place is that Magnus can and will get to it in every other location I've tried so far. But this time, I've decided to foil him by installing a gate to block his access to the upstairs. I hope this works. I think we all know that he can jump this thing. I'm just hoping he chooses not to. The other thing is, he's been slinking off up the stairs himself even though there isn't food up there anymore, and leaving little puddles that I sometimes only find out about from the smell. So hopefully this little gate will kill two birds with one stone so I don't have to kill two pets with my bare hands.

In the Pond.

ewew ew. what more to say?

why? part 2

this really makes me think they've been swimming in it. why??? the scum is right there! people, can't you see it?? augh.

why?

...is what bri said, when we saw this almost-nekkid little girl at busken today. why not just put a shirt on? we are in a restaurant, after all.

oh now.

Based on Wednesday's pic, I thought things were progressing with the pond-to-pool makeover. Now I'm not so sure. This reminds me of that scurf you see floating on top of industrial wastewater pools. ugh.

Con-blog-eration

Finally, after all these years, I have both the time and the available technology to combine all of my blogs into one singular Masterpiece. And in doing so, I have been able to go through old blog posts and enjoy the bloggy camaraderie and just general silliness that is my life. So if you are ever thinking to yourself, "remember the time Erin locked herself out of her house and tried to drive her car over to the window to climb back in," or "how, again, did Erin build that doghouse?" well, now you too can relive those moments, here in one easy-to-search location. Yay!

And this link is for Heidi: http://blackfordfarm.blogspot.com/2006/12/bah-humbug.html

Last Week

This was taken last week, after they started the de-mucking process.

Progress of some kind.

i still wouldn't get in there.

You're Going to Need a Bigger Net

Or stick, or whatever.

I clicked on this photo after I posted it to blogger and it is so gross. I am reminded of that movie, Big Fish, where the guy is leaning over the pond in the backyard and the big fish pops out at him suddenly. Argh.

you're going to need a bigger stick

Crafty Creations, a new Blog Category

Something I've been up to lately is doing a LOT more crafting. This is probably a convergence of several aspects of my life: craziness at work, cutting back on spending, trying to use what I have here at home rather than buying new things, and the fact that I have a really great space for crafting now. More details on the great craft room in an upcoming post. With pics, if I ever get it at least orderly enough for a quick photo shoot.

In the meanwhile, here's the end result of the 4-week-long pencil roll project. Now, I should say that it only takes a few hours to make a pencil roll if you have all the fabric ready to go, but this was a learning process for me, and in addition, I had the added time required to embroider the name on this one. So this is the first of what may turn out to be quite a few pencil rolls, depending on how well-received this one is.

I think this is just about right for a little guy who'll be in the FIRST GRADE in the fall:







If you want to try to make a pencil roll for yourself or a kid you know, there is a great tutorial here.

Comments fixed, and: Today Was A Good Day

First, let me say, anonymous comments are turned on (I didn't even know they were off), so feel free to comment away in total anonymity. Hell, I don't even have that stat counter thing on this new blog, but I never checked it anyway, so you can pretty much rest assured that unless you completely flame my ass, I'm never going to know who you are when you comment anonymously, and if you do flame my ass, or any other part of me, I'll try to figure it out and get frustrated when I can't and that will make me crazy, so...Yay?

Moving on to more uneventful updates, Today Was A Good Day. Now, in case you don't recall, that was the refrain of an Ice Cube song from Boyz N Tha Hood. Remember that movie? After I saw it, I was pretty convinced that I could have survived on the mean streets of Compton. Now I don't even like to run to the Qwik-E-Mart after dark. How far I've come.

Since yesterday's post was all about how miserable (but ridiculous, and funny!) my evening was, and because today was a better day, I thought I'd share a happier note about today/tonight.

First of all, I spent the day at work being ridiculously busy. If I haven't had a chance to tell you this, I got a promotion at work and I'm now the Managing Editor for 2 magazines, in addition to covering the magazine for the ME who's on maternity leave and (for now, at least) still doing my directories. Now, it's weird to say this is a promotion because we've had a lot of cost-cutting measures at work, and I don't want to get into the details, but let's say that, for now and thanks very much to the stupid economee, I did not get a raise with my promotion. :( But, I am making the best of the opportunity I've been handed and I am actually really excited about what the future holds for me with these magazines and the company overall.

Today, I had to do a press check for the 480-page directory that took over my life for the past 3-4 weeks. Luckily, someone else was driving the van down to the printer, which is located in the Louisville area. I set the precedent when I first started my job that I don't ride well, so everyone at work knows, if we're driving, I'm taking Dramamine(tm) and passing out in the back seat, and that's just what happened today. So I not only got to spend my day out in the sunshine but shielded by the air-conditioned comfort of the minivan, but also got paid to take 2 separate naps. Also, the printer sales rep bought us lunch at a Mexican place, making today the second day in a row that I had Mexican for lunch and someone else picked up the tab. And I love when someone else picks up the tab!

When I got home, which was around 6, I decided to do fewer things tonight but I think the problem with me is, I have to constantly be doing something. I tried to just lie around and watch Arrested Development on hulu but after a couple of episodes, I got up to go to the basement and then I ended up sorting and organizing a few things that I want to return to the store to get a credit to use to get the wire netting I need for the compost bin. And I got those things sorted out, and then I went up to the 3rd floor to get the receipts for them, and that's when I got sucked in to the sewing to finish the pencil roll I'm working on for Tommy. And this is exactly how it goes: I just go around working on thing to thing until someone specifically makes me stop. So now that I've identified that problem, I'm going to keep working on making it better.

I have a million more things to write but sleep is calling me. Really calling, like I'm actually asleep as I'm typing.

Quit While You're Not Dead

I may have mentioned a time or two about how much I really love my craft room. But this time of year, it's really sweltering up there on the 3rd floor of the house. So tonight, I turned on the (window unit) A/C up there to get the room cooled down and left (to get ice cream-Yay!) and when I came back, I realised it was, at that point, cooler in the room than when I had left, but now hotter than it was outside. So I turned off the A/C and put the fan in the window to pull some cool air in. Now. In order to put the fan in the window, I needed to move the screen around, which meant moving the blinds around, which resulted in the mini blinds falling out of the bracket on to me, and then, as I was fiddling with the windows and the fan, I pinched my finger in the screen part of the window, letting out a scream of pain and frustration.

That could have been a great stopping point. But, not recognizing that sign, I then turned my attention to the air conditioner, which I had noticed was dripping water onto the floor, because it was sloped in the wrong direction. This I had not noticed when I first installed the unit a few weeks ago, so it's probably been dripping like that every time I run it. Whatever.

Fortunately, I had already unplugged the A/C because I had to, in order to plug the fan in (yeah, my house is that old), and I say "fortunately," because I noticed that the water was dripping out of the same opening that the power cord runs from. Grreeeeeat.

I pulled the (very classy) t-shirt scraps I had stuffed around the window opening out and opened the window. DOH!! How could I have forgotten that the window is what was holding the A/C in place? Oddly, it was all over before I'd even processed what was happening, because that window happens to be right over the roof of the 2nd-floor balcony, so the total drop was about 2-3 inches. But the entire A/C fell out and landed on said roof. That's right, A/C, on the roof. Me, inside the house.

Everyone knows how I feel about heights, right? I don't even like to be on the balcony, much less be hanging out the window above the roof of said balcony. Sheesh.

So here I am, with the window A/C having fallen out of the window and now resting on the (sloped) roof. Yes, this is seriously happening, I think to myself, and I have no idea what to do now.

I suppose a more normal person would have, well, I have no idea what a normal person would have done, because if I had any idea, ever, what a normal person would do, I wouldn't find myself in about, um, ANY of the situations I'm ever in. Sigh.

So, doing what seemed like the best option to me, at the time, I reached out, scoot/pulled the A/C over to the window, gave it the best bear hug I could muster, and then slowly but surely, rocked it back into the window. Just take a minute to visualize what that looked like. Whatever you're imagining, it was far less flattering than that, because there were also all kinds of bits and pieces sticking off the thing that are probably meant to keep it from falling out of the window, but they seem to me to work far better at keeping me from being able to pull it back through the window. I finally got the entire unit back into the house, using a system of rocking and pulling and grunting and cussing, and assessed the damages. Not bad, from what I could tell, except that a couple of clips broke off of the decorative plastic grill. Something else to fix = yay.

I went to the basement to get some Krazy Glue(TM) to try to re-attach those clips but I had no luck finding the glue (not surprising if you've seen the basement, or any part of my house, for that matter). However, I did find the scrap of foam insulation I've been meaning to bring up to cut and place around the A/C, so I grabbed that and brought it upstairs thinking I'd just fix that grill cover whenever I could locate the glue, but at least I'd be able to get the insulation into the window so I could avoid re-stuffing the t-shirt rags back in there. So I sat on the floor, carefully cutting the pieces to fit the window and gently placing them around the A/C, and as I was shaving little pieces of foam off with the retractable craft knife, I inexplicably reached out with my finger and, thinking I was brushing a little piece of foam off, sliced the tip of my finger by running it directly across the blade. I couldn't have made a cleaner cut if I'd been trying to slice it open. And that thing hurt like a mother, once I realised what was going on, which always takes longer than it should. Squeezing the fingertip as tightly as I could and holding it above my head, I came down the stairs (carefully!) to resign myself to spending the remainder of the night writing the sad tale that can also be entitled "why I can never really get anything done."

In summary, what I can say about this entire debacle is:
a) As Heidi suggested, I'm starting to think this house is trying to kill me;
2) Sometimes, it's just easier to flop down on the sofa and look at the Internets all night; and
another thing) It's a damn good thing that I have such a kick-ass first aid kit. I'm all put back together again, but still grumpy. Grr.

Dear Internets

Please help. First, let me explain. Sunday is supposed to be my day of rest (according to not just myself, but also, commanded by God). Today, I did a terrible job of resting, but I did a FANTASTIC job of getting things done around the house. With the help of some friends, of course.
First, I had coffee and chat with Heidi, which we haven't done of a Sunday in awhile. I don't know if that's because we were missing television, or off gallivanting, or what. But anyway, we did that, talked about our feelings, shared our insights on each other's relationship foibles, and generally enjoyed the fact that we are neighbors and friends. OK, that's enough sweetness and light for now. But speaking of light...

Bri and Rob came by in the afternoon to help me heave one giant beast of a window-unit air conditioner out of my living room window. I knew this was going to be a good move, but I was still amazed at how much more light streams in now. Yay!



Now, my problem here is this. Well, it's a two-fold problem. First, I made the drapery liner panels in a floor-length style, and then cut one off because I thought the floor length was too long. But now I'm torn: so should I have them long or short? I like the shorter style because when the draperies themselves are open, I can see the wall under the window. But soon, there will be a sofa there (this sofa, sort of):



Anyway, I'm not sure if I should go with long or short, so right now I have one of each.


The second thing is, I'm not sure how to set up the top of the draperies. Suggestions welcome. I guess the third question is if I need to do something else because I love the pattern of the drapery panels but it kind of washes out in the sunlight. I don't know if sewing in the lining would help. I might do a small-scale experiment about that as I do have smaller pieces of that fabric I could line and hand to see how it does. I liked the idea of leaving the lining separate so I could open and close the linings independently of the drapes. Sigh. So many decisions. Help, please.

By the bye, when the "sofa" gets up here, now that the ugly old A/C is gone, I will get to enjoy this lovely view:



Yeah, the neighbors? Not so hot at the pool maintenance. I love the "finish your sentence" game and Brian did it perfectly today. I was going to say "I am thinking about sneaking over there and shocking it," but before I got to "shocking," Brian chimed in with "popping it?" Heh.

I have a new blog

I suppose it's safe to write the URL here, since this one's private and that one isn't but hopefully won't have my name associated with it.

In case you're wondering what's up with all the secrecy, now that I am a published (read: FAMOUS, WORLD FAMOUS, actually), I don't want people who google me because of an article I write to tumble down the rabbit hole into the sometimes weird-sometimes lame-always ridiculous realm of my private life.

So anyway, here's that URL and apologies again for the break.

http://blackfordfarm.blogspot.com/

Is It Me You're Looking For?

What a long hiatus! After taking the old bloggy-blog private, I realised that was going to be a total PITA for everyone, including myself. And that results in just not doing anything. So, I apologise for that and hope that people will come back to read the mundane details of what I've been up to on any given day.

And with that, I'm back! Hoo-raaaay!!

On Spencer Pond

Heidi once told me that she can feel the mosquitos start to bite her as soon as she crosses over into Norwood. We thought this was because they don't fog here. But last weekend, we realized it's probably the neighbors' pond, er, pool thats bringing them.

LOST in Cincinnati

That title works for 2 reasons. First, this place is cool (and sad!), this guy’s blog is cool (and full of sad things!), and as Kelly suggested, this would be a great “stimulus” project:

http://www.sweet-juniper.com/2009/03/hole.html

 

Get it? The building complex is “lost” in Cincinnati.

 

Second, there’s a guy who went to high school in Fairfield who landed the part of Radzinsky on LOST. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090318/ENT/903180346/1055/NEWS

 

And for the under-educated (as Rob put it), Radzinsky is the guy who lived in the Hatch with the guy who was in the Hatch when Desmond got there. He made that big map on the blast door, out of fabric softener or something else that glows in the black light, so you could only see it when the Hatch was in lockdown. He was trying to figure out what was going on there. This is the map that Locke was so fascinated with.

 

And I pointed out to Rob that this description sounds completely cracked out. If you didn’t watch the show, you would always think I had eaten some shrooms before watching to come up with a statement like that.

 

What's on my mind: Stretching

Stretching. I know. It’s weird that this occurs to me, but I just stood up after sitting in one spot for a couple of hours, and I was overtaken with the need to stretch. But this seems impractical to me from an evolutionary perspective, like, how in the world am I going to jump up and run away from the wooly mammoth if I have to stand up and stretch first? I know that the adrenal response overrides the stretching, but still. It seems weird. What is actually happening when we stretch? Dogs stretch. Cats stretch. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a squirrel or a bird stretch. I actually can’t think of seeing any wild animals stretch. So is this something that only comes with millennia of domestication? What is the purpose and the value of stretching?

 

I know; it’s boring and weird. But it’s What’s on my mind™.

 

Random Thoughts on a Sunny Day

I like to think that I’m a little creative, fairly bright, and completely counter-cultural. So how is it that I can get sucked into an entire hour of Nancy Grace shouting at her own guest commentators, night after night, like it’s the most compelling television out there? I’ve lost a shameful amount of my life to this little circus of America’s accused.

 

 

Is the area in between Mariemont and Madeira what they call “Indian Hill”? Because it simply is lovely this time of year when one can see all the old beautiful houses.

 

 

I really dig that Leon song “S-X is on Fire.”

 

 

a wittle wittle bitty waaaan...

Going Private

I know, I know. It's been forever since I updated, and now my first update is to say that I'm taking this blog private. But it's for good reason!

I have an exciting new assignment at work, and I am really looking forward to it. But as a result of that gig, I want to make sure I'm not so easily searchable and identifiable online. So, I'm taking the blog to private status.

I'm planning to send a message to everyone who reads the blog (that I know of) inviting you to the private version. But if you happen to read the blog and I don't know, then I won't know to invite you. So send me a message with your email, and I'll invite you. And we'll all be together in the new secret blog. YaY!

Stella the shaman. I took the morning off to rest and she is snuggling me.

Great Things on the Internet

I've found a couple of new things online. I guess, no matter how much of the Internet I read, they keep putting new things on it. Which is good, because every so often I get to the end and I have to wait for something new to happen.

First up, this is a great way to spend some time playing with pics of people you love (or not, depending on your political persuasion): OBAMiconMe

Make your own, or just enjoy those created by others. I made this pic of my nephew. It's hard to make out his face but I know the image well enough that this makes me happy.



Thing 2: in searching for more examples of Shepard Fairey's street art, but erroneously typing in "Spencer Fairey," I came across this image in the flickr pool. It's pretty much one of the funniest real-life things I've seen.



I think this is a huge reason I love the Internet; you end up with delightful unrelated things while looking for other things. It's a lot like my house, actually, so maybe that's why I like it.

Response to Heidi's LOST Predictions

I can't comment on her post for some reason, and I'm long overdue on regular blogging, so I'm responding here.

1. The baby at the very, very beginning was the guy who came to the island with Faraday and Charlotte. That means that both Miles and Charlotte were born on the island, and that is why Faraday brought them.

--genius. it might also explain why Miles sees dead people. I'll agree with Heidi on the Miles aspect of this, but I'm not sure about Charlotte. Remember when Charlotte found that Dharma thing on that dig somewhere in the desert? She had the craziest look in her eye. I still can't figure out if that already happened or if that happens sometime in the future but I think she's in a different "category" than Miles or Faraday.

2. I am still sticking with this one- the Adam and Eve skeleton in the cave are Desmond and Penny. And Charlotte might be their daughter.
--iiinteresting. And weird. When did you say this that you write "I am still sticking with..."?

3. Neither Jin nor Locke are actually dead.
--I agree about Locke but not about Jin. Michael also died on the boat, right? So I think that would make a problem with the notion of EVERYONE having to be back on the island. And the helicopter pilot escaped. Maybe we will see that they have to get him back, too?
4. The Oceanic 6 did not actually HAVE to lie. In fact, things would have been much better for them had they told the truth. Locke convinced Jack to lie for some reason that we cannot yet figure out, but I think has to do with getting everyone back on the island. But for some reason, they had to leave first. I know that's vague, but still, I think somehow that will flesh itself out.
--On the one hand, I think it makes sense to say they didn't have to lie. But on the other hand, I cannot even imagine what would have happened if they had told the truth. I mean, just the part that Hurley spit out sounded like a Benadryl-induced dream, and he didn't even mention the Polar Bears and the foot statue. It's straight-up insane if you take it all at once like that. What's interesting is that Locke told Jack to lie but it wasn't until later ("later", or earlier, in LOST time) that Ben and Locke re-joined forces and Ben started working on gathering everyone up to take back to the island. Also, let's think about that whole submarine they had and how they used to get their food drops - if the island is able to move in time, then how did the food drops work? And the submarine, was it actually a time machine as opposed to something that moves bodies through physical space? Juliet came on the sub, so did she actually travel in time when that trip happened? It's seriously more than I can contemplate sometimes...
5. The people who almost cut the throats of Penny and Sawyer work for Widmore and were on the island with him before the "Others' somehow took over and he had to leave the island. Which could also mean that Penny was born on the island. Which is why she can find it.
--I think this all makes sense but it was Juliet with Sawyer, not Penny. I got them confused when I first saw Juliet. Remember how everyone said Ben brought Juliet because he reminded her of his, what, wife? I wonder if his wife is related to Penny. Her mom, maybe? That would add another layer to the whole territorial war between Ben and Widmore.
6. This is not so much a prediction, but I wonder why Desmond and Jim Halpert(wait- that's the guy from office- what's his named? Richard Alpert? I can't look it up or that's cheating....) are outside of "the rules" for the time travel. And if the rules really exist, or if Faraday is just saying that to try to keep people from altering what happens. -- did Desmond not have to follow the rules? I do remember he was having the whole nosebleed thing last season because I thought he was going to die from it.

I also want to add that the old lady Ben saw at the church, who I assume is Faraday's mom that Faraday asked Desmond to find, is also the old woman who had the ring that she wouldn't sell to him back in, what, Season 2? She was telling him something about that ring that I can't recall. OK, I am not like Heidi - I can't make predictions, so I'm heading over to the Lostpedia to see what people have written about all the connections. AUGH.

Why I Hate the Cold

I don’t want to spend the entirety of my first blog of the new year to complain, but I will.

I think sometimes people get the (mistaken) impression that the reason I don’t like the cold weather is because I don’t know how to dress for it. It is not that I don’t know how I should dress, with all the layers and what not (hee! – what not still makes me giggle every time – thanks, Jay-Z). The problem is actually that I don’t like (can’t stand?) wearing all those layers. For example, I start to get grumpy once it’s too cold to wear flip-flops and even grumpier when I have to start wearing socks with the shoes that I already didn’t want to be wearing. But this kind of cold we are having now is really bad, because even with socks, my feet are still freezing. And I’ve been out of the cold for 30 minutes now. So I just think that’s ridiculous.

In general, the most clothing I ever really want to have on is a long-sleeved shirt and pants. So having to wear a shirt, plus a sweater, plus another sweater, plus a coat, gloves, and a scarf is just incredibly annoying to me. It is somewhat like there is just too much stuff on me and that makes me very uncomfortable because, while I think there are folks who actually enjoy the whole “bundling up” effort, I just don’t like to have a lot of things on me. Yet it is far too cold to go without the stuff. So all winter long I feel trapped.

Another thing that sucks about the winter is that I obviously have to put all those layers on to go anywhere, but when I get to where I’m going, it’s warm inside, so I have to take all the layers off or else I start getting too hot and sweating and now I can’t go outside because I’m hot and sweaty. So if I’m just getting dressed to go to work, it’s fine, because clearly, I’m going to take all the extra layers off when I get there and not put them on for 8.5 hours. But going to the grocery store, the hardware store, the bookstore – anywhere that I’ll be standing around or pushing a cart and only be there for a little while – well, I have to take everything off and then put it right back on again, which seems silly, or else leave it on and get too hot.

I think the bottom line is that I am a warm-weather person (the hotter, the better!) whose ancestors were either cold-weather people or just resigned themselves to the cold after that first Ohio summer. Ahhh…summer. I miss you.