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Chipmunks Haunt Me

Remember them? "Theodore, Simon...AAAAAAALLLLLLVIIIIIIINNNNNNN!!!!?" The Chipmunks!. Yeah. That's right. Scroll on down the page. Listen to the samples. You know you want to.

For some reason, when the holidays roll around, I always think of that song. The first one. The Chipmunk Song. I still have the vinyl LP. I used to listen to it over and over again when I was a kid; it's a wonder it still plays. My record player (I almost typed "phonograph player", but that would just show my age and pretentiousness in ways I don't want to face.) is still in storage, though, so I'll have to wait to hear the beautiful analog version another time. For now, though, I'm off to amazon or itunes to sample more.

Long live the Chipmunks!

Wierd Things I do...

So I was laying (lying?) in bed last night, trying to fall asleep. As usual, I had the sheet/blanket pulled up over my mouth, just under my nose. I *must* sleep like this. It's better still if the sheet is tucked in and is kind of snug. How bizarre is that? I also cannot sleep unless my feet are covered...I have a theory that someone used to sneak into my room when was little and tickle my feet.

Another odd thing I noticed when I was at the two concerts we attended last week... When I take a drink of water, I tend to hold it in my mouth for a while before swallowing. I haven't noticed if this is just a concert thing or an all-the-time thing. Perhaps I'm trying to hydrate by osmosis? I do know that I tend to get sick to my stomach if I drink a lot of water when I'm working out or biking or whatever--maybe it's the same when dancing and I'm just subconciously drinking v e r y slowly?

Anyway. I'm sure I could write a book about the Wierd Things I do, so I'll pay more attention and post more as they reveal themselves to my consciousness.

good day!

My body has a point to make....

And that point is: You are TOO OLD FOR THIS CRAP. SLOW DOWN!

I worked the "front" of the store on Saturday, meaning that for the full 8 hours I was there, I was at the registers conducting traffic, answering manager calls, answering general service calls, and ringing when necessary. I stocked PoP displays, schlepped many boxes of wine, and collected the trash. I was, almost literally, running the entire day. I mentioned being dog tired when I got home around 7:30, but managed to stay up until nearly 11pm.

I then proceeded to sleep until AFTER 1PM the next day. For those math-impaired readers, that's over 14 hours of sleep.

Granted, Russell has been sick for about the last week, and several folks at work are coming down with it as well. I'm sure I've gotten more than a touch of that. Mostly, though, I think I just ran myself ragged. It was hella fun and I loved (almost) every second of it, but man....

Anyway. Today was a day off and I did a lot of nothing. I still need to mail off some packages and send some holiday cards--perhaps pick up a last minute gift or two. Tomorrow is another day off and I think I'll get some more slacker time in and do a few errands. Woot! for weekends.

How to make time stand still.

When I am very very busy, days last forever. My past two days off has felt like a week--I actually had a nervous fit about missing work today until I double-double checked the schedule--because I've been so busy and gotten so much done. It started, like it always does, with a list. I am a task lovin girl, and I make lists. Sometimes I add stuff I've done to a list just so it looks like I've accomplished more.

Lately I've made a lot of lists that have served only as "wish lists"...things I'd *like* to get done but have no real intention of doing. Things that won't cause the world to end if I put them off until next week or whenever. The to-do list I created for myself on Monday was really no different than those previous lists...I simply decided to follow through. I stayed on track and got just about every little thing done, and then some. And now that it's effectively my Sunday night, I can't believe that it's only 9:15pm. It really feels like it should be so much later, and that's because I've packed so much into a single day. I love days like this! I even took a fantastically long hot bath and read a book, and it's ONLY 9:15!

However, I do have to be at work at 7am, so bedtime fast approaches. I'll have to quickly make another list for tomorrow after work so I can make it last longer too!

You Say Ozo....

I say matli!

OZOMATLI! OZOMATLI!

We just got home from seeing them in concert. It was my second time, Russell's first. Damn. They are so amazing live. I danced my ass off, and I even spied Russell groovin' a bit. There were so many people there just standing and watching quietly. I'm not sure if they were clinically dead or what. You'd just about have to be to not feel the music these guys churn out. It's pretty much a hard wire to your groove engines to fire up.

If they come to your town, do yourself a favour and go see them. You won't be disappointed. Even if you don't dig on their style of music, you cannot deny that they put on one helluva show. And for the love of all that is right with the world, dance. Dance like you mean it and like you don't give a rat's ass what anyone thinks. Let yourself go and feel it. Your body and soul will thank you.

News Flash

When you are talking on a cell phone, you are NOT having a private conversation. I'm not talking about people eavesdropping over the satellite waves or whatever (which they probably are, but that's another blog altogether). I'm talking about the RUDE people who have conversations on their cell phones while eating in a restaurant, shopping in a store, or standing at my register to pay. The other day I was working in glassware, when up walks a tall, attractive woman. She's chattering away, so I look up to see if she needs assistance. Turns out she's having some heart-to-heart conversation with what must have been her long lost best friend, given the amount of sordid detail she was going into regarding her current relationship (they're getting married! how awesome is that?!), her past relationship (none of her family ever liked the guy anyway, so it's probably for the best), and all of the nuances of relatadating in between. She obviously was not aware of the phenomenon that causes all cell phone users to up their speaking volume by about 30%, thus rendering any conversation anything but private.

Then there are all the people who walk up to the cash registers with a phone plastered to their ear. When you ask them questions about their merchandise, or try to get information from them in any regard, they look at you like you've grown an extra head, and isn't that the rudest thing you ever did see?

If you have a cell phone, for the love of pete go outside the store or restaurant to have your conversation. You'll get some privacy and you'll have a better chance of avoiding looking like an asshole and NOT pissing someone off.

(I'm really not completely grumpy this season...I tried to post something funny the other day and blogger was down. really.)

So much nothin'

No deep thoughts or profundity here...just a giant sigh of exhaustion at working retail during the holiday season. It's not always the case, but I generally find that people are grumpier and less fun to be around these days, especially in a retail environment. Here, I am of course talking about the customers, although many times their bad attitude rubs off on us. There are only so many times you can be racing through the store with your arms *clearly* overloaded with this or that product and have some impatient bitch say in an annoyed and plaintive voice "Excuuuuse me, but can you help me???" without getting a bit...peeved. Um, yeah. Sure. I'll just continue to hold onto these two ginormous boxes of glassware while simultaneously holding your hand on the trip back to the cookie aisle. The price on that? Try checking the little white sticker right there in the corner. Advent Calendars? It started three days ago, and you're going to pull an attitude with me because we are sold out??

Yeah. Just remember when you are out shopping this season that the folks working for you are probably doing about 3 different jobs at any one time. They are overworked and underpaid and probably not getting coffee and smoke breaks like you do at your typical office job. Their feet hurt from running around all day, and they are almost always going to be working with at least one other customer besides yourself. Give 'em a break, okay?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

You are Woodstock!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

curses to my friend Shannon for leading me to this site. I don't even like Peanuts, but there I am...Woodstock. I've also been drinking Peppermint Patty hot cocoa recently. What. Is. WRONG. with me?

Snow!

Well, it hasn't here, but when I walked out of work this evening, there was a smell and a taste in the air that just screamed snow to me. I really must get up to the mountains this winter and have myself some, well, winter. I long to bundle up in 17 layers of clothing and don one of my numerous silly hats. I want to wear the fantastic scarf my mother knit for me. I want to wear my hiking boots again, and my thick wool socks. I want my cheeks to turn bright pink with the chill, my eyes to water and my nose to run. Yes. Honestly. I miss these things!

It's strange, the things you want when you can't have them.

Look!

At Roto-blog: More Vagueness. I love these photo-manips done my fellow blogger in Birmingham. Really really lovely stuff.

Lottery

The old fashioned kind, I'm referring to. Not the "I haven't got any money to spare, but I'll spend my last dollar on a ticket in hopes of winning eleventy billion" type.

I'm not sure I mentioned them before or not, but our last neighbours to the south were slightly...unsavoury. I think a lot of alchohol was imbibed at that house, and their dogs were the bane of the neighbourhood and the recipients of MUCH hate from Delilah (Bucket just didn't understand why he couldn't go play). They left piles of refuse in the lane between our houses, and parked their large "landscaping" trailer in front of our driveway.

Suddenly, after less than 2 months, they were gone. We noticed a discernable lack of snarling dogs and rubbish about a week ago. Then the "For Rent" sign went up. Again. This will be the fourth time we've had new neighbours in the last year. When I came home from work yesterday I noticed that the sign is gone. I'm hoping for cool hip people we can befriend and trust to watch the dogs when we're away. Possibly folks with whom we can have game nights with along with periodic dinners and co-opted Garage Sales. Russell suspects we will get more white trash.

I'll keep you posted.

Random Gripe

So I was over at the Marble Slab Creamery today, awaiting my Chocolate-Peanut Butter shake (it had been a VERY and even EXTRAORDINARILY stressfull day at work and I know I shouldn't self medicate with ice cream. I'm a bad girl. Spank me later.), and I popped into the ladies room.

They had one of those idiotic "paper saver" rigs--the kind that won't allow you to pull off more than 2 squares of toilet paper at a time. Who the hell can wipe their ass with 2 squares of toilet paper?

Woohoo and Thanks!

To Chris and NoviDavid for showing me the error of runon sentences. Or, at least, mashedtogetherwords. Apparently my recent rant about the lemming mentality of many Scottsdale shoppers is what got me into trouble with Blogger Formatting. It seems to be fixed now, and although the effect is not quite what I had hoped, what with splitting the lines and all, I think it still gets the message across.

I saw this book the other day, and I'm thinking it might be of use in jazzing up this little corner of the WWW a bit this book, but I think that this second publisher tends to be a bit more...techy. The first one I actually flipped through and it looks simple enough for me to make both heads and tails of.

Today is only a ramble. I was up late last night and I have the day off, so I'm just waking myself up and preparing to pay some bills and hit the grocery. Scintillating!

Oh, and David, the pics you linked in the most recent comment are amazing! I really love them. How did you achieve that affect? They look like abstract impressionist paintings--hard to believe such organic colours and motion came from photos. (Does that make sense at all, or am I still suffering from fuzzy morning brain?)

And Chris! How the heck are ye? I love that you had great info for me, but for Pete's Sake, stop by more often and say hello! :D

hmm...

Still this giant chasm of nothingness at the top of my blog and I do not know why.

On the other hand, Russell got a new bike yesterday and I'm beside myself with excitement and joy! We actually went for a ride this morning and it's a whole new world. It's SOOOO much nicer to have someone to ride with.
I have been trying to find a nice photo of it online, but haven't had much luck. It's a Giant Trance4--one of the original bikes I'd been interested in, but had discounted as just too expensive (wow, the English language is a funny funny thing). The shop where I got my bike was having a sale this weekend, however, so we went in to check it out, and there it was, on sale for the same amount I'd paid for mine--AND they were having an "Additional %15 Off" sale. Sheesh. Anyway, it's a sweet sweet bike. I have a riding partner!

hiccup

not sure why there is...or was...this gigantic emptyness of space above this morning's post. I'm hoping this blurb will jog things back into place.

Wherein the Show Goes On, Albeit at a slower Pace...

My blogging has adopted the same frenetic patterns followed by the shoppers in our store. Putz. Putz. Putz. Putz..
ohmygoshsomeoneelseisapproachingthecashregister...
I'dbettergetuptheretoo...

Like lemmings they swarm the registers, all at the same time. And when they are gone it's dead quiet for another 30 minutes or so until the next wave forms. I've never claimed to be consistent.

So anyway. Russell and I have been discussing holiday gift exchange ideas. Here are some things that I've decided I'd like to have:

The Garmin Forerunner 301. Just what I need, another pricey gadget to drive home the fact that I'm woefully out of shape...

A Black & Decker or perhaps a Craftsman cordless hedge trimmer. Corded electric would be okaaaayyyy, I guess, but I worry that I might get overzealous and cut the cord.

Of course we're both pretty excited about the XBox 360, although I honestly don't know when we'd have time to play, what with all the hedge trimming and being athletic--oh, and WoW and all...

And speaking of WoW, I think I owe some folks more photos. Coming soon...

Bonus

Blog link, because I love this woman.

I'm Famous! And I Won a Prize!

Scroll to the bottom of November 3rd's post. I am "K" and that story is true! I really *am* that big of a dork. Not that I needed to remind anyone or reinforce the idea. . .

I'm just bummed that I'm getting the bike bag and not the messenger bag. I'll have to come up with a really good story next week, I guess. :D

Anyway, check out some of his other posts while you're there. I've linked him before, but a great writer--especially a cyclist writer--can never be revisited too many times.

Additional Proof of Our Forays Into the Dork Forest

So upon entrance to Blizzcon, we were greeted by this site. A very handsome (I mean that in the loosest sense of the word) Dwarf Hunter and these fabulously cool banners.


Immediately behind the banners, and the incredibly long line to pick up the SchwagBag, were banks and banks of computers for folks to sample some new Expansion content. I'm throwing around loose terminology again, because we only got 30 minutes to play. If you chose to play a Blood Elf you could do two quests and were blocked from leaving the tiny island start area. If you chose to play a level 60 something-or-other you were limited to dueling in an enclosed area. They geared us out in amazing stuff, but I'm not so much into all that--I wanted to see some new areas. Blah.

Christian Finnegan, who entertained us at the closing night concert, expanded on the notion of certain females at the convention being "Blizzcon Hot" and having "+3 Cleavage" for the duration of the weekend. He pointed out that the girls in this photo were models, and urged the pimply-faced geek mob to "Try talking to them on Monday and see how far you get!" The Starcraft: Ghost chick was even hotter than these girls, but I neglected to get a photo. Her butt will forever be memorialised in Russell's memory, I'm sure (it *was* really nice, I must say...).

That's all for now. A note to my "regular" readers...this post and subsequent posts relating to WoW/Blizzcon are directed at my online friends--rest assured that they do indeed know what the hell I'm talking about! :D