Learning all kinds of new tricks!
I know I’ve been doing this about 4 months now, but I need LOTS of time to learn, use, embrace, cherish and share the technology I come across. Most things, almost everyone that can work a mouse, already knows, but I have been blind to. Ah, regrets.
Anyway, I’ve been off a few days putting out fires…THAT I STARTED!! Lesson to self…STOP BURNING SH*T!! But I think everything is OK now. Now I can get back to boring my very limited audience in all the mundane, stupid things I do all day, every day. Lucky.
Today I: (sister style) (please check back later for a post explaining her newly acquired nickname—see if you can figure out which one it is!—we had FUN over the weekend!!)
1. Checked E-mail.
2. Paid some bills.
3. Balanced checkbooks.
4. Went to doctor. (First of my physical exams/tests/etc…that I need for school!! Went smooth! Accomplished much. Yay! Love helping other people….hate going to the doc myself.)
5. Went to final Honor Roll Assembly for year at kids school. (Missed Stevie’s[10:15 am], made Mason’s[1:30 pm]. Actually almost didn’t make it to the later one because there was a scuffle at the bank I stopped at to deposit a check. Crazy. I was soooo sorry I sent my check up that little tube and was stuck sitting there waiting for my stuff. This was outside too! I thought for sure cops were going to pull up any minute…anyway, I got to leave after like 10 minutes so I have to check the news later and see if anything went down…)
Oh yeah…and the kids both got High Honors AND medals for having High Honors all year, every semester. Plus Perfect Attendence. Good job guys!!!
6. Mailed bills.
7. Picked up kids.
8. Went over to BF’s Mom’s to take out garbage and what not…(she had minor foot surgery in case you forgot–she’s ok).
9. Went to CVS. (Snacks—starving!! Didn’t want to eat in case I needed fasting blood work, and then kind of ran out of time–bought really healthy stuff like Trail Mix, but actually ate Cheese Puffs…staying on the track ain’t easy…)(Also, check back for another, later post about the huge mistake I made at the Fuddrucker’s eating Establishment…wasn’t quite “eating-until-I-die”…but it wasn’t the “healthiest choice” (even though I thought it might be at the time) either.).
(What’s up with all these parenthesis and periods??)
10. Typing now, while kids are outside traumatizing innocent catepillars just trying to metamorphisize into beautiful butterflies. They just came flying into the house (the kids) to tell me that, “There are five, OMG, five MOMMY!!! Monarchs!!”
“Do we have a container to put them in?”
“Do we have a new sponge to make them food?”
Apparently, caterpillar diet is the naturally occuring, sugar-water-on-a-cut-up-sponge.
“No, mom, that’s just what we fed them in class.” Oh. Never raised butterflies at school. I missed out.
OMG!! For real….I have been SUCKED in! My neighbor and the kids are creating a caterpillar nursery in a milk jug and sponges and sugar water and sticks and nets for cocoons…and they really are so interesting and creepy at the same time. There are 8 so far that are crawling all over the ground between our two houses. NEW UPDATE: just in the last 5 minutes: There are 11 now. Eleven orphan caterpillars.
I have to go look up caterpillar/butterfly care/housing on the internet RIGHT NOW! But I’ll be back later. Here’s the first pics of our new family below.
I’m also going to post a YouTube video–my original intent—Video Remake/Bonnie Tyler/Total Eclipse of the Heart (one of my favs as you know if you’ve been reading any of my music lists). Re-done, funny and clever!—that’s after the Nursery pics!
Enjoy a song while you wait for more updates!
Running with the Rotation of the Earth
UN-believable! I felt like I was on the biggest virtual reality treadmill in the world.
Seriously. Well, seriously, because I guess I was. Running on the spinning Earth. But knowing, I was running on the spinning Earth, and noticing it and realizing the bigness of the whole thing. (Geez, today really is turning out to be quite a sapfest–it’s like I have overly emotional sentimental hormones coursing thru my body or something…)(Make it stop!)
Anyboohoo, for about ¼ of a mile, I seemed to be running in the same direction the Earth was spinning. It sounds crazy. It was awesome, and it felt incredible and strange. More importantly, I didn’t fall down from the weird effect, AND I’m not high or drunk.
If I had run the other way on the trail, I never would have noticed it. I started off in the other direction. 3.6 and counting down or backwards. I like to do it that way so it seems like I have less to go. Like, instead of running to the 2 mile mark, I only have “less than” 2 to go…make sense? Doesn’t matter.
At any rate, when I got to the space between the ½ mile mark, running toward the ¼ mile mark (going backwards) the trail opens up into a big field. No trees, just flat grass on the side. Nothing around. Just the trail in the middle of all that ground and sky. And as I looked up at the clouds, they seemed to be moving in front of me, rolling forward like giant cotton balls, and I was running with them on the surface of the Earth. It really felt like a giant treadmill with a slow motion moving picture show in front of me. I never even lost my balance! And then it was over.
I was back on the ground with the rest of the world, just running. Time sped back up and regulated. I made it to the end, walked to the car and drove home.
And here I am. Friday afternoon. The sun is still shining and I’m waiting on my son.
After I changed, I jumped back on the scale and weighed within .2 (that’s point 2) of the weight I wanted to start from on my 20 pound adventure. So I’ll start from here. Close enough. I am officially declaring myself even. Oh, what a feeling.
Back to hard boiled eggs and yogurt with granola. It was delicious. For real. Apparently, diet DOES make the difference. I felt a million times better running today than I did two days ago. The difference is the crap I DIDN’T eat. Ugh! How many times until I learn??
As usual, I had my music with me. I set it to shuffle on my ALL GYM play list and let it rock. 272 songs, and the following twelve rolled off the hard drive and into my head. I’m including them below. In order, as they played. It’s good for a 4 mile run. Right to the end, if you’re slow like me. Give it a chance. I was impressed. Luck mostly, but sometimes things just…work.
World Turning
1. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown / Jim Croce
2. Pulp Song / Stellastarr
3. Righteous Love / Joan Osborne
4. Open My Eyes / Buckcherry
5. Say It Ain’t So / Weezer
6. No One / Alicia Keys
7. Hemorrhage (In My Hands) / Fuel
8. Sex And Candy / Marcy Playground
9. The In Crowd / Mitchel Musso
10. Umbrella (Travis Barker Remix) / Rihanna
11. Leavin’ / Jesse McCartney
12. Right Round / Flo Rida
Friday Afternoon and I’m about to start the party…Scratch that…Saturday Style now…
Catchy huh?
Update:
It WAS Friday: (from last night):
It is Friday. There is going to be a party. I’m not starting it though. I’m going to it. I’m bringing the music. It’s tomorrow. It’s also Memorial Day Weekend kickoff night. I know alot of people are confused because it seems like Memorial Day is a weekend too early. Me included. Plus the BF is off of work today so that just threw my whole lazy tv/computer schedule right off the track. The kids are gone now for the weekend with their daddy and apparently the BF thinks I mean something else with that saucy headline. We can get to that soon enough, but first a recap of the day, because I know how much everyone enjoys reading about my daily life. (Especially my sister. Haha.)
After the kids went to school, we were supposed to hit a “spin” class. Luckily, I am still in the dark about what that might be…the BF had a killer migraine until noonish, when I forced him up and out to go to my favorite running trail in the woods. Nothing cures a splitting headache faster than walking around in the broiling midday sun for four miles. And it was hot. We are in the midst of freaky spring here in Chicago. It’s the time of year when outdoor temps soar from 40 to 90 overnight, and everyone rejoices for summer and takes off all their clothes, and buries the heavy sweaters until suddenly, on a random afternoon, 1 week later, the temperature mysteriously begins to drop 10 degrees per hour and by the next day it’s raining and 39 and everyone in the city has pneumonia.
Summer in the city. Catch it!
We did the exercise, got food, went home.
The kids arrived from school, packed themselves up, made their beds, and left with their dad for the weekend.
We went to a funeral wake; sad.
And then to various stores, for fixing items we need, for all the things that broke this week.
My sister had texted me early morning to create a music play list for her son’s party. Fun, kid, modern, with an 80’s twist. Nothing obscene or graphic and vulgar. So while the BF took pills and waited for his head to stop hurting, I sifted thru all the fun music I could think of and made up a pretty good party mix. (Then we went exercising–I’m messing up the time-line a little bit–jumping back and forth.)
I wanted to post last night but I got sidetracked with a mini emergency and let the night go after it was resolved.
Current Notice: It’s Saturday!
Still can’t post though because I have to go to the party right now! I spent the morning, cleaning up…my personal self…my back yard…my bird feeders…laundry…I even planted some seeds for the front of my house! (I use the word “planted” loosely, as I really just shook a bunch of seeds out of a can onto the dirt and then watered them.) I’ll post progress pictures as the days go by. That will be fun! Expect a picture of wet dirt and the flower can soon! (It’s all for you sissy!!–I know how much you love my play-by-play days!!)
Look, how are YOU spending your long weekend??
Anyway, I’ll be heading out. I need to stop at the Starbucks to get a coffee, so I need to go now.
Check back in a few hours. I’ll have the list of the party music and let you know how it all turned out.
Enjoy your Saturday!
(Last years flowers are below, to brighten up the place while you wait!)
There IS death in the cup…Beware!
Death in the cup by way of Vodka and Pepsi. Aren’t I smart?
Had such a good day yesterday, just hanging out at home, and posting silly stuff on the internets, and then I had to go and ruin it by trying to eat myself to death and drinking the vodkas and the pepsi’s.
Seriously, I thought that I would have to go to the hospital. I stuffed every last single piece of pizza into my mouth that I could ferret out of the large pizza box. If you’re hand was anywhere near the zone of the pizza box you would have gotten hurt. Then, I was chugging down Pepsi and Vodka, it was good, better than popsicles and vodka, but even more filling.
By the time I was done sucking every last drop of Pepsi from the 2-liter and picking every crusty olive and onion off the cardboard and watching the last episode of 2½ Men/Season 3 (CLIFF hanger!), I was over. I was paralyzed and in a food coma. Not even a coma, because in a coma I would have been sleeping. This was like being pregnant again. A giant ball in the middle of my stomach that I couldn’t move or manuever with. I wanted to go and make myself throw up just to relieve the pressure, but I couldn’t stand.
And now I was thirsty as hell. The pizza we get has, like, every ingredient you can think of except sardines. So obviously, you can get kind of parched from all the salt. So I tried to sip water, but it was so good and hydrating. Now I’m water-full on top of full-full. I put the kids to bed and laid down. The BF tried to be nice and rub my belly, but I didn’t want anybody or anything touching it.
I was actually thinking about those sitcom shows that have people who eat too much laying around with their shirts up and pants off, moaning and groaning all droopy eyed and turning green and running toward the toilet getting ready to vomit. I felt exactly like that. I even thought, “Hmm, I guess this is an actual reality.” I have never eaten that much in my whole life. Or maybe I have but my stomach is smaller now, it doesn’t really matter, because obviously I didn’t die, but I have made a vow to never eat that much again. Or crap food. I will however, continue to drink vodka with various mixers, it’s not the alcohols fault for cry-yie!
In honor of my new vows to health, I went immediately to the trail after the kids went to school, and ran my still-bloated ass around the track for 3+ miles. It wasn’t pretty. It was hot and I was sweating pizza grease. That IS as gross as it sounds. I think I could smell sausage…YUCK.
I ate one banana so far, and drank a whole pot of coffee. That’s how I de-tox. Do it your way, I’ll do it mine.
It’s 5 pm and I am heading out to buy 2½ Men/ Season 4. Then I’ll be eating Chinese with the BF. (I’ll actually only be eating white rice, but I can smell it and that’s just as good.)
Tomorrow, the BF is off work and I guess we are doing a “spin” class. First time for both of us. That should be fun, she says sarcastically. It always looks hard. Those people are always sweaty and beat looking when it’s over. I’ll let you know.
And in case you were wondering about a weight update…didn’t gain a pound. Didn’t lose anything either, but I think that’s ok. I should have died with all that food I ate, but it didn’t stick. I might not get so lucky next time. Better stay on the safe side. Besides I still have 2 days before the day I deemed my official weigh in. Which will always be 2 days from today…hahaha.
I actually have a playlist to put out, in honor of all the colorful things that would have spilled into the toilet if I had enough nerve to make myself throw up. I don’t. Bulimia is not for me. The list is called,
And it was originally for all those crayons I picked up off the trail a few weeks back. So you decide which personal event in my life you’d like to associate it with. It’s like a mystery ending web post! Exciting!
The picture below is a memory-refresher. Crayons on a table.
The actual list will be posted shortly. Wait for it now, it’s 99 songs long. I went a little crazy with color. You can use it for more than running, or you can use it for a week of running…again…your choice! (“Choose your own ending”, that’s what those books are called)
Enjoy the picture.
Relive the memory of how I got them,
and the memory continues here,
and check back in say, 7 hours. It’s 5:20 now, I have to drive and eat and watch tv, and then type 99 songs in a row and add color and links and finally hit publish. It WILL be worth the wait.
Update!
I actually got 101 songs. Thought of two more typing the list–2 great songs that bring it all together at the end.
And it’s in under the 7-hour mark. Goodnight Chicago.
The Crayon Box
I tried to keep them in magical, Rainbow order. (ROY G BIV +) But mix them up if you like, they get kind of janky toward the end anyway.
1. Lil’ Red Riding Hood / Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs
2. 99 Red Balloons / Nena
3. Red House / Jimi Hendrix
4. Red Hot Java Blues / Matt Hendricks
5. Redneck Woman / Gretchen Wilson
6. I Saw Red / Warrant
7. Little Red Corvette / Prince
8. Red Red Wine / UB40
9. Red House / Buddy Guy
10. 99 Red Balloons / Goldfinger
11. Orange Crush / R.E.M.
12. Orange Amber / The Vines
13. Tequila Sunrise / The Eagles
14. Sunset Grill / Don Henley
15. Amber / 311
16. Mellow Yellow / Donovan
17. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road / Elton John
18. Yellow Submarine / The Beatles
19. Yellow Ledbetter / Pearl Jam
20. Green Cotton Dress / Correatown
21. The Green Manalishi / Judas Priest
22. Pale Green Stars / Everclear
23. Green-Eyed Lady / Sugarloaf
24. See Green, See Blue / Jaymay
25. Blue Sky / The Allman Brothers Band
26. Blue Letter / Fleetwood Mac
27. Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain / Willie Nelson
28. Blue Bayou / Linda Ronstadt
29. Blue Jeans / Silvertide
30. Behind Blue Eyes / The Who
31. Blue Denim / Stevie Nicks
32. Blue Moon / Sha-Na-Na
33. Devil Dressed In Blue / Right Away, Great Captain!
34. Post Blue / Placebo
35. Forever In Blue Jeans / Neil Diamond
36. Devil With The Blue Dress On / Good Golly Miss Molly / Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
37. True Blue / Madonna
38. Blue Jeans And A Rosary / Kid Rock
39. Blue Suede Shoes / Elvis Presley
40. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes / Crosby, Stills & Nash
41. Blue Shadows / The Blasters
42. Blue Highway / Billy Idol
43. Blue Lamp / Stevie Nicks
44. Gray Or Blue / Jaymay
45. Silver, Blue and Gold / Bad Company
46. Mood Indigo / Nina Simone
47. Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue / Crystal Gayle
48. Violet And Blue / Stevie Nicks
49. Violet / Hole
50. Purple Haze / Jimi Hendrix
51. Purple Rain / Prince
52. Brown Eyed Girl / Van Morrison
53. Brown Eyed Handsome Man / Waylon Jennings
54. Brown Sugar / The Rolling Stones
55. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown / Jim Croce
56. Mr. Brownstone / Guns N’ Roses
57. The Boys Of Summer / Don Henley
58. Brown Eyed Girl / Everclear
59. Back In Black / AC/DC
60. Little Black Backpack / Stroke 9
61. Black On Black / Dalbello
62. Black Hole Sun / Soundgarden
63. Black Magic Woman / Santana
64. Paint It Black / The Rolling Stones
65. Black Betty / Ram Jam
66. Black / Pearl Jam
67. Black Eyed Dog / Nick Drake
68. Welcome To The Black Parade / My Chemical Romance
69. Black Dog / Led Zeppelin
70. Man In Black / Johnny Cash
71. Man In The Long Black Coat / Joan Osborne
72. Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress) / The Hollies
73. Black Balloon / Goo Goo Dolls
74. Black Is Black / Los Bravos
75. Fell On Black Days / Soundgarden
76. Black Velvet / Alannah Myles
77. Black Horse And The Cherry Tree / KT Tunstall
78. Black Or White / Michael Jackson
79. Black And White Thunderbird / Britt Savage, Fred Mollin And The Blue Sea Band & Jaime Babbitt
80. White Wedding / Billy Idol
81. White Horse / Taylor Swift
82. Dirty White Boy / Foreigner
83. White Flag / Dido
84. Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) / The Offspring
85. White Houses / Vanessa Carlton
86. White & Nerdy / Weird Al Yankovic
87. Silver Springs / Fleetwood Mac
88. Grey / Amie Miriello
89. Pink Houses / John Mellencamp
90. Black & Gold / Sam Sparro
91. Gold / John Stewart
92. Heart Of Gold / Neil Young With The Stray Gators
93. Gold Lion / Yeah Yeah Yeahs
94. Gold And Braid / Stevie Nicks
95. Streets Of Gold / Needtobreathe
96. After The Goldrush / Neil Young
97. Almost Golden / Courtney Love
98. Sister Golden Hair / America
99. Gold Dust Woman / Fleetwood Mac
100. Bold As Love / The Pretenders
101. Karma Chameleon / Culture Club
Birthday Trains and Firetrucks
My nephew’s birthday is this weekend and we are going for a party. I always get the best presents. Mostly because my sister buys the thing he wants and then I give her money. She loves to shop and I really don’t. Then she wraps it up and calls to tell me how much. She left me a message last night, so I’m all done!
His favorite things at the moment are trains and firetrucks, which is so like me, because I love firefighters and guys in uniforms! I bring it up because I created an awesome play list on his behalf. I thought of it while I was doing the traveling roads one and now I have an excellent excuse to roll it out today! It’s sunny and 80° here in Chicago. Throw on some cute shorts and run your lazy butt down past the firehouse, we have exercising to do.
In honor of my nephew and our shared interests, here is:
It’s hot.
And because there was so many darn songs, I threw in a little “Extra Heat”
FYI, I know you want to know…he’s going to be four (4) this weekend.
(Firefighters are still hot, even if he doesn’t care.)
Ethen’s Train & Fire List
1. Crazy Train / Ozzy Osbourne
2. Morning Train (Nine To Five) / Sheena Easton
3. My Engine Is With You / Bush
4. Rock N Roll Train / AC/DC
5. That’s Alright / Fleetwood Mac
6. Downbound Train / Bruce Springsteen
7. Peace Train / Cat Stevens
8. A Train Not Running / Chris Knight
9. Nightrain / Guns N’ Roses
10. Machinehead / Bush
11. Fire Woman / The Cult
12. Light My Fire / The Doors
13. I’m On Fire / Bruce Springsteen
14. Fire And Ice / Pat Benatar
15. Through The Fire And Flames / Dragonforce
16. Settin’ The Woods On Fire / Johnny Burns
17. Rooms On Fire / Stevie Nicks
18. Fire / Jimi Hendrix
19. House Of Fire / Alice Cooper but sung by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
20. Wildfire / Michael Murphey
21. Crossfire / Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble
22. Paper In Fire / John Mellencamp
23. Play With Fire / The Rolling Stones
24. Fire Burning / Stevie Nicks
25. Ring Of Fire / Johnny Cash
26. She’s On Fire / Train
27. Sex On Fire / Kings Of Leon
28. All Fired Up / Pat Benatar
29. Come On Baby / Wakefield
Extra Heat
1. Heat Of The Moment / Asia
2. Burnin’ For You / Blue Oyster Cult
3. Hot Child In The City / Nick Gilder
4. The Heat / Needtobreathe
5. Freewheel Burning / Judas Priest
6. Hot Kiss / Juliette & The Licks
7. Burnin’ Up / Jonas Brothers
8. Heat Wave (Love Is Like A) / Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
9. Burning The Water Brown / Killradio
10. Hot Hot Hot / Arrow
11. Burn, Burn / Lostprophets
12. Hot Stuff (Let’s Dance) / Craig David
13. Burn Up The Road / Operator
14. Hot Rod Rock / Edd Byrnes
15. Which One Of The Two Of Us Is Gonna Burn This House Down? / The Star Spangles
16. Drunk And Hot Girls / Kanye West feat. Mos Def
17. Hot N Cold / Katy Perry
18. This Is Why I’m Hot / Mims
19. You’re So Damn Hot / OK Go
20. One Hot Coma / Paris, Texas
21. Some Like It Hot / The Power Station
22. Burning Heart / Survivor
23. They’re Red Hot / Robert Johnson
24. Burning Down The House / Talking Heads
25. Hot Night Crash / Sahara Hotnights
26. The Heat Is On / Glenn Frey
27. You Make Me Feel Like A Whore / Everclear
28. Hot For Teacher / Van Halen
29. In The Heat Of The Night / Pat Benatar
30. Hot Blooded / Foreigner
31. Burning Love / Wynonna
32. Hot In The City / Billy Idol
just shy of pretty 