Wherein I Demonstrate My Skills Of Poing, and the Rewards Therein:

These are the mysterious keys I found as a result of washing a shower curtain this morning.

Bear with me, this is a twisty ride. . . .

My parents are coming to town tomorrow for Turkey Day and other Festivities, so of course I have cleaning to do. I was working in the kitchen when R left for work, so I left my sink-scrubbin' for a moment to run upstairs and grab the shower curtain from the extra bathroom (we're on an energy-saving(s) plan that gives us a discount if we focus our energy consumption between 9pm and 9am, so I needed to get the washer goin).

Our washer and dryer are in the garage, and when I went out to put the curtain in the wash, I saw that the garage door wasn't closed (note to self: tell R his garage door clicker is out of whack). "Well" I though cleverly to myself, "Since the garage door is already open, I should move my car to the center of the garage so I can access it more easily when I clean it out later." I'm ever so efficient, you know, not wanting to have to open the garage door twice when once would do.

I moved the car, and realised that with all the crap in the garage I would not be able to pull up far enough to A) close the garage door and B) get *around* the car to clean it. "Hm. Well, why not just clean it out right now, while the garage door is open?" So I did. I really only needed to clean the trash out of it and give it a vacuum, but after I moved it I saw that the wee bit of armor all I'd wiped down some surfaces with yesterday had really made a difference. Enough of a difference that I figured I needed to finish the job to even it out. And as I did that I noticed that the windows were mighty ooky, what with all the doggie nose prints and stuff.

After the exterior of the car was nice and shiny and spot free, I tackled the inside. This is where the keys come in. I should preface this by saying that I have given my car what I thought was a good thorough cleaning before. And that I was told by the crappy crappy place from which I bought it (that should tell you something right there) that it had been fully detailed. I was vacuuming under the front seat when I spied something shiny (pause for giggles). I reached in and grabbed a key...which was attached to this keychain.

I've never owned a Toyota, and neither has R. We don't know anyone who owns a Toyota. Therefore, these mystery keys must have been lurking under the seat of my car for *at least THREE years*. How wierd is that? Someone can't ride his/her bike because I have the key to their Kryptonite lock. Looks to be a house key or two on there as well.

I know I should throw them away because we'll never find the owner, but...keys! I can't throw away keys. Can anyone? Everyone I've ever known has had that strange collection of orphaned keys. You're not sure where they came from, or what they go to, but we hang onto them, just in case.

Because you *never* know when I'll randomly meet someone who will tell me a funny story about how they used to love cycling until they lost their bike lock key and had to give it up because, well, Kryptonite!

So anyway. It's 12:20 and I've thus far cleaned part of the kitchen--including the sink, part of which I had to *re-scrub* because the residue from the clean had dried out and gotten crusty!--and unearthed oddities in my car. Oh, and I washed the shower curtain. There's so much more to do, and away I go!

Po-Ta-Toes!

If you have dogs, you will find this as hysterically funny as I did. If you don't have dogs, you are SO missing out. Because this? This is EXACTLY what it's like.

For Your Consideration

with love,
A Happy Dork in the Periwinkle

If...

...I ever make it to my dream destination of the British Isles, I'm *SO* using The Landmark Trust.

Making Good Use of My Newly Emancipated Weekends

I joined a couple meetup groups here in Phoenix, thinking that finally I'd be able to get out and meet people. Whaddya know?? It works! Went on a really beautiful hike this morning with a bunch of total strangers and it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Here is some cholla. It's evil. Don't ever ever ever touch this plant. It will bite and then cling forever to you.
Not that I know from experience or anything. . .












These little guys are apparently Barrel Cactus --NOT BABY SAGUARO. There was a sign that stated as much, but it had exclamation points and everything. They are kinda cute tho, what with the squattiness and the growing out of any nook or cranny. Plus, they're red. Within a sea of brown and more brown, with some brownish green accents, red is a nice lil punch of colour.










This was probably about the halfway point of the hike (which we were told was going to be about 4 miles, but I'm pretty sure was longer; next time I'm hookin the Forerunner up to my camelbak). See the two highest peaks? Just below them is a bit of a ridgeline. We hiked up and over there, and in the next shot you'll see the view looking down to the spot from which this photo was taken.














So. Right about in the center of the photo you can kind of sort of see a bare flat spot? Can't you? That's where the previous photo was taken, and here we are looking down. It's hard to believe that there is all this "wild" land in the middle of Phoenix, but it is. Off to the left of the photo you can see the rows and rows and streets and streets of homes. It's much the same to the south of this preserve as well. But it is nice that so much undisturbed land has been set aside. I hope it remains so.



So it was a lovely lovely morning, and I'm so glad I went. The downside of treks like these is that at this point they completely wear me out. I was home by 1pm, but spent most of the rest of the day crashed out--lounging with the puppies, or sitting right here at the computer. That just means I need to get up and out more and work on that endurance! We'll see about that!

Wherein I Continue To Digress. . .

I realise I have (seemingly, apparently) completely dropped the ball in the whole "These-Are-All-My-Past-Jobs" vein I had started. I haven't forgotten about it though, I've just, well, dropped the ball. See it bouncing? Right over there in the corner? Yep, there it is. I see it. I'll get there.

In the meantime, I thought I'd post some photos I took this morning.



This is the big wide flat trail that starts near our house and runs...a ways...through Scottsdale--that is when it's not blocked due to highway construction. I only got to ride about 7 miles this morning because of that, which is fine, because my bike is making bad scrapey scratching sounds. We'll probably get to that in the bike maintenance class I'm going to in a few weeks, but the basic class last night only covered...basically nothing. And since I hope to ride between now and December 8th, I'm either going to have to suck it up and pay someone else to fix my bike, take a wild leap and try to fix it myself (which would mean having to buy certain tools anyway, as well as taking the chance that it won't come out quite as well as the vacuum cleaner extravaganza), and/or ride R's bike or my old one.

I'm thinking a trip to the bike shop is in order. So just send some happy thoughts my way, will ya? Something like "It's nothing major and will only cost about $20 to fix."

Thanks

I've always wanted to see myself in an ad like this...

Several of the zine/papers that were run in the college towns I once inhabited ran an ad section called "Missing Persons". These were ads taken out by the lovelorn; someone sees another someone at a concert or a grocery store or walking down the street or whatever...and before they can muster up the courage to say hello, the potential object of their affection is gone. *poof*

The ads are a way of saying "I totally think you're cute/hot/interesting/cool and I want to meet you for coffee/hotsex/a debate on nihlism/to boost my ego. Sorry I'm a shy idiot and let you get away the first time. Please call me."

So I guess this girl in NY really made an impression on this guy. aww...

Go Here. See the big gray banner? See the lower right corner where it says "View Volleys"?

Doo Eeeet.

It's much cool. And it's distracting me from the abundantly dusty job of organizing, dusting, sorting, dusting, and cleaning and dusting the CDs downstairs. We need more Bennos! Or fewer CDs.

Ahahahahahahahahahaha!!! ROFLMAO!!!

(I blame the dust. There are gremlins in the dust. I inhale the dust, they take over my brain.)

It's a slow going day, because in addition to the cleaning thing, I'm replacing broken cases, making sure the right CDs are in the right cases (something that you wouldn't think needs to be done, but apparently there are those of us in this household that are ...*impaired*... in regards to getting our toys back home.), and trying to figure out why we have 2 identical CDs with no cases (yeah, yeah, it crossed my mind too, but this particular selection came out *after* R and I got together....), and many cases with no CDs. Our front room is clearly a mystery wrapped in an enigma, and suffocating in dust.

And these won't mean anything to anyone that hasn't lived here for the past 3 years, but here are some shots of the living room, which I finished cleaning/re-organising yesterday:

They are a bit of the blahs, because we aren't supposed to paint or hang anything on the walls, but I'm sick of white white white, so I'm going to put up some of R's very cool artwork and photos, and some art done by some of his friends. And that hideous hole behind the telly?


It's getting some schmancy velvet curtains--a la theatre.


We're tired of looking at the backs of the stereo system and the rest of the music junk.

I find it amusing that the one thing you can really make out on our shelves is the Yahtzee game. :) We have all these games around, just in case a bunch of people ever show up at the house and they aren't sufficiently amused by the dogs or our wit. Of course, the last time any of them got any play was when we lived in Oklahoma City. But we keep them around, because you just never know. And they give me something to dust. :D

Mistakes made, never learned from.

Once again, I've disobeyed my own 1st rule of blogging... Never ever read other blogs before posting. It garbles up whatever was in my brain to talk about, and makes me feel as though I really have nothing to say. I mean, check out what I put myself up against:

Pioneer Woman
The Fat Cyclist
Dooce
and
Shanny

(yes I know they are in the sidebar. But how often have you clicked the links from anyone's sidebar? hm? )

The closest I get to working calves is when I have to roll one of the pups for misbehavin' (Bucket *is* nearly as big as some of those critters, I think).

I did go for a bike ride this morning but there were no single track mountains of gorgeousity involved, and I only have 2 bikes in my arsenal, unlike Fatty, who has at least 6. And I haven't lost 40 lbs (I'd settle for 10).

Ah Dooce. No one wants to see my office space. But then again, it wasn't designed by an eco-artist. It wasn't designed at all! And even if it was, I don't think I could take such pretty photos of it.

Shanny--posts regularly about her insanely happy, amazingly normal life. New house, crazy critters, game-playing hubby...things I know about and can relate to! <3 Shanny

However, the problem still remains that I was going to jot down thoughts about my past week of "sick time", and/or continue my detailed delving into works past. And now, my brain is mush.

Maybe later.