mittenmusings

Can't stop laughing...

...at this silly doggie!
How can that possibly be comfy?
Here's another link to more pics of BuddyLove. What a character!

Bbbbrrrrrr....

OK people, I know that it's the last day of September, but why oh why did it have to be 39.6 degrees this morning when I woke up? Yikes! Gus gazed at me before I let him out with his "you're not going to make me pee in the cold, are you?" look.

My answer was a strategically and gently placed slippered foot on his hairy little rump.

Tonight, we are having our lawn aerated. We have very dense clay soil here in Michigan, and aeration is a good way to open up the soil to air and nutrients. When we moved into our home, we opted not to to do the whole sod thing, but instead just go with the hydroseed that the builder applied to the existing (crappy) soil. So far, so good. A lot of our neighbors spent 3K and up on sod, and frankly, their lawns don't look any better than ours.

Today I am going out and buying some spring bulbs. I'll be planting crocuses and tulips in one of my raised beds. Seeing crocuses pop up through the ground in the early spring brought me so much joy this year! And tulips are my all time favorite flower, so I must plant more of them. We have an eight foot fence, so deer are not an issue. I hear they like to snack on bulbs. We do have a few bunnies around, but they eat what falls on the ground from my neighbor's birdfeeder. Smart bunnies! I haven't had a problem with them either, bulbwise.

Once late fall and winter comes, I am really going to miss being outside and messing with the dirt and plants. This year was the first time I have ever done any gardening at all. Ever. It has been a very fulfilling experience. I am already planning a bunch of projects for next year!

New season, new design!

Aaaah, the autumn bug has bitten me, and my blog here has caught the itch.
Please, please let me know if anything looks wacky in any browser.
****
Also, one other bit of housekeeping: I have closed comments on posts older than 5 days. This is to cut down on the Evil Comment Spam.

My People HATE Me!

DO YOU SEE THIS?? Internet People, do you see what my Lisa DID TO ME???

I am horrified. You know, critters feel shame. I had to hang my head when I met Scooter the Big Yellow Dog on my walkie.

AND they are calling me "Sock Head."

So, I have this little skin problem. I am sooooooooo itchy! You have no idea. It feels oh so very good to scratch my chin and neck. My Lisa said I was scratching too much! But it felt so good! My chin and neck started to bleed. Then I got the Head Sock. My people are clever. They made it out of a knee brace and lined it with gauze. They change the gauze everyday, and smear some COLD stuff on there. I hate that too!

I have been getting back at my people, though. Heh heh heh. They were doing that thing on their bed that makes me hide, and I farted! Under the bed! Yes I did!

Whoopsie, my Alpha Male is cutting the lawn, and I MUST go supervise. Bye Internet People!

Love and sloppy dog kissies,
Gus the Wonderdog, aka Sock Head

Operation Tile: FINISHED

After a week of morons traipsing merrily through my home, my kitchen floor is tiled.

The Tile Guys were supposed to start on Tuesday, "between 8:30 and 9:30." Well, long about 10:45, the Tile Guys showed up. There were two, and then....one of them drove away, leaving me one Tile Guy, who was suffering from a serious tool deficiency:
"Do you have a:
hammer?
extension cord?
crowbar?
screwdriver?
putty knife?
broom?
dustpan?"

The first day, he did get a fair amount done. At the end of the day, a different guy came to pick him up. The second day started like the first, meaning that it started waaaaaaay later than I anticipated. The second Tile Guy from the end of day one returned on day two to stay for the duration of the project. Sort of. Mostly his job was to lie on my deck on his back and smoke cigarettes. Lovely. He also was rude, asking me, "So how much did your house cost?" And, "Boy, whoever sold you this grout did a good job, it's really expensive." The tile was supposed to be completely installed by the end of Wednesday, but they did not finish in time. They said: "Oh, we'll be back around noon Thursday to finish."

When the Tile Guys showed up at 4:45 pm, I was hopping mad. I had been cooped up in the house babysitting these yahoos. Plus, I just don't like strangers in my home, wrecking my little routine. They stayed until 9:00 Thursday evening to finish grouting, and returned early Friday to put the major appliances into place.

My husband and I spent all day Saturday recovering from the fallout of this project. The house needed cleaning anyway, but there were extra things that needed doing. Also, we had to assess the wreckage:
--Broken dustpan
--Grout caked on glasses (I was nice and offered water. HA!)
--Grout caked on "borrowed" tools. My husband flipped his lid: "This goes against all the Man Rules," he cried.
--Tile dust everywhere: had to clean out all the cabinets, drawers, etc. in the kitchen
--Worn spot on our deck where they were cutting tile. Granted, the deck needs another coat of finish anyhow, but still...
--The wood reducer strip I found in my backyard.

Here is the final product. I'd say that all the grief was worth it. Even though the Tile Guys were knuckleheads, they still did a quicker job that my husband and I would have done ourselves. Our kitchen was only out of commission for four days, If we had undertaken this project ourselves, I think it would have taken us two weeks. Seriously. We are just not very handy.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest), how attractive do you think you are?

I'd have to give myself a 6.8. I think I am better than average looking, but no Angelina Jolie.

Soup
What local restaurant would you recommend to a visitor to your town or city?

MMMmmm....the Prickly Pear in Ann Arbor. They feature Southwestern/ Mexican food. My all time favorite meal is the Buffalo Enchiladas (swooooooooon). The margaritas are also kickass.

Salad
What's a lesson you had to learn the hard way?

Ugh. There are so many of those to choose from! The one that comes to mind: a great attitude, intelligence, and perseverance will only get you so far in the workaday world. A degree is a necessity. This revelation spurred me to return to college at the ripe ol' age of 29 to finish my bachelor's degree. (2003 grad..woohoo!)

Of course, now I've been umemployed for eight months. I fear that I am in the middle of learning yet another lesson the hard way!

Main Course
Name something in your life that you feel you can depend on 100%.

My Mom is super supportive when I am feeling sad or frustrated. She has an infinite amount of faith in me and my abilities. I only wish I had that kind of confidence in myself.

Dessert
If you could see the front page of a newspaper from September 24, 2104, what would you imagine the headline might be?

"Peace Continues Across all Continents"
Unfortunately, that may just be wishful thinking on my part.

Ooooh, more gems!

Deeper Shade of Soul, by the Urban Dance Squad
Girl, You'll be a Woman, Soon...(Neil Diamond cover from Pulp Fiction), by Urge Overkill
Jessie's Girl, by Rick Springfield

Seriously, I think someone has been "drunken downloading."

***

In other news, I have another job interview on Thursday. I have been on over 30 in the past 8 months. It's a little hard to manufacture enthusiasm for yet another go.

***
The tile floor is looking good so far. But, even more entertaining is listening to the Tile Guy's phone play a Midi version of 50 Cent's "In the Club" everytime it rings.

"Yo Tile Guy, it's yer tel-phone.."

Still sorting and tagging the MP3's

Oh, but the help I am getting! Gus the Wonderdog is lying under the desk, snoring no less. I am gently rubbing his soft furry side and belly with my feet.

He might even be purrrrring a little, but don't tell anyone. Activities like that can get your dog membership card taken away!

This made me giggle

Mostly because I am reorganizing my music collection!
i-Pod Guilty Pleasures
Some gems I didn't know I had:

-Bootylicious, by Destiny's Child. Honey...you ain't ready for this jelly.
-Everybody was King-Fu Fighting, by Carl Douglas
-The Work It Remix, by Missy Elliot and everyone's favorite thug, 50 Cent. Yo.

Don't forget, I haven't even gotten to my cd collection yet!!

Anyone have anything they'd like to 'fess up to? It's good for the soul...

Not-so-exciting Project Week

Yesterday, I transferred all my bloglinks to Bloglines. I must say, I am officially addicted to using that site already. All my blogreads in one place! Just fantastic.

Today, the Tile Installers will start putting in tile floor in our kitchen. No cooking for me! For at least two days, my kitchen will be outta commission. So, whatever will I do with myself, since Gus and I will be captive in the rear of the house? Oh...great things await us:

-Operation Clean and Rip: I will be reorganizing my current MP3 collection, and deleting stuff I do not listen to. I'll be making room for rippin all my cd's. Woohoo!
-Closet Cleaning: Oooooh...everyone's fave. Since Operation Linen Closet went so well this Spring, I will be undertaking the coat closet and the office closet. Do I really still need all those free tote bags that I got two years ago at the SHRM Annual Conference? I don't think so.
-The Fall/ Winter Wardrobe Switchover: Out go the T-Shirts, in come the Sweaters.
-Office Cleanup 2004: Do I still need to hang on to my Management 360 notes from business school? Tune in later this week to find out.

Of course, I will be blogging too. I have many tales to tell of: the Head Sock, the Job Hunt, the Mom Freak Out. It's been all fun and games here in the Mitten. Oh yes....

All done!

Oooooh...aaaaaahhhh....

AND, I can export all my links and plop them in a stand alone reader if I so desire.
Sweet.
Feel free to click on the link below my main blogroll, because there are other goodies out on the web that I read, just not with the same frequency of the A-List.

((YAWN))

Hmmm...guess who is having a fun filled morning transferring her favorite links to Bloglines?

I am too lazy to set up a stand alone news aggregator, so I am going with a web-based one. This is sort of a backup move for me, because Blogrolling has been down for days...

I'll be sure to post new links to my Bloglines folders when I have them all done. There will be hours and hours of surfing entertainment once I am finished.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
How are you today?

You know, I am darned good today. I have had a very, very busy week. As a result, I feel like I accomplished a lot in the past few days. Plus, the weather has been gorgeous, which makes me a happy camper.

Soup
Name 3 television shows you watch on a regular basis.

1. Fear Factor
2. Any BoSox game that happens to be carried locally (like tonight! against the evil NY Yankees!)
3. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition; I think it is the most "feelgoody" show on TV.

Salad
What's the scariest weather situation you've experienced?

1978: The Blizzard of '78 in New England. I was 6 years old at the time, and remember walking through a "snow tunnel" to get to the end of my driveway. It was the first time I ever saw my parents be really frightened.

Main Course
If you could wake up tomorrow morning in another country, where would you want to be?

Mexico. I vacationed there a couple of years ago, and loved it. Besides, I could use dos pina coladas con rum negro, por favor.

Dessert
What do you usually wear to sleep?

Jammies. Usually light cotton in the summer, thermal in the winter. I also have an ancient Boston Beer Works gigantic t-shirt that I don occasionally. Very, very sexy. Woohoo!

Just hangin'

....with the wonderful Gusdog, who is sunning himself out here on the deck.

Oh wireless broadband connection, how I adore thee!

Today is a beautiful day here in southeastern Michigan. The sky is the softest, palest blue. It's just a bit hazy...but it isn't quite muggy enough to be uncomfortable. The sun is gloriously warm. My yard is wearing it's fall colors well: deep green grass, fading orange-yellow Gerbera Daisies, rusty Mums. There's a nice breeze, and I am sitting in the shade in my hunter green plastic faux Adirondack chair.

Days (no, weeks....since each day this week is going to be a carbon copy of this one) like this are treasures here in Michigan. We have really, really, crummy weather. No other major metropolitan area has more cloudy days than the Detroit area, except for the Seattle area. And, our coffee is horrible. Well, everywhere except at my house, is it horrible.

Alrighty, off to take Gus's lead and take a nap.

Because others say it much better than I ever could:

That Day
Thinking of You
My Friend, Ray
Perspective, 9/11
World Trade Aftermath

Posted by Lisa at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)

Lisa notes:

I fear the vet's office will never be the same.
(see below)

Gus blogs, again...

(WARNING: there is a fair amount of dog poop talk in this post. It is our ode to The Dooce.)

Hi everyone!

My Lisa took me to my special vet today. I was soooooooooo excited to ride in the car! There was lots of construction on the way to the vet. I made sure I helped the nice men in the road. I barked! I snorfled! I farted in my Lisa's car I was so excited! When I get worked up, I give myself gas.

My Lisa says I am her Nasty Boy. Teehee!

I have had a very itchy snout lately. I also have a wierd patch on one of my hind legs. I chew and chew it, but I only get yelled at. (dog sighs) My Lisa said that we were going to make sure my guts were OK, and then we would see about my snout. Thank goodness!

We got to the vet early. I jumped in my Lisa's lap because we were stopped and I know that when we stop, we've arrived! She pushed me off though, and explained that we were early, and she was going to call my Grandma in Florida while we waited. She talked to my Florida Grandma and told me that they are very worried in the Florida place. I gave my Lisa lots of kisses, because she seemed kinda sad. Then I barked out the window at a big poodle bitch. ROOOOOOOWL. Just because I am missing some parts, don't think that I still don't wanna hump. Humping is good!

We FINALLY went into the vet's. I made sure I peed before I went in. Then, I met a sassy Bichon.....ROOOOOOOWL. Good sniffin' there. I am certainly feeling better. Soon, they called my name, and I went to see Dr. Melissa and Dr. Elie.
I was so excited, I threw up a little bit. My Lisa was a little embarrassed, but I didn't care.

They took me away from my Lisa for a few minutes to weigh me and take my heart rate and temperature. Do you KNOW how they do that? It's bad. Very, very bad. But, I showed them! When I went back to see my Lisa in the exam room with Dr. Elie, I pooped on the floor! Yes I did! My Lisa laughed and asked if they needed a poop sample. I was a triple dooper pooper!

Then Dr. Elie said that I have a parasitic infection on my snout and leg. Yuck! Usually my dogness can fight it off, but since I am on certain meds, it is making it harder for my dogness to fight it off. But my tummy is GREAT. I get special dry food now! I am gonna miss the Tuner and Taters, though.

When we were done, my Lisa paid the bill. She nearly fell over when she heard how much it was going to be. But, I made sure that I was sitting really, really cutely, and doing the head tilt (she can never resist the head tilt). My Lisa kneeled down and whispered in my ear, "I love you, my Gus Dog. I am happy that you are feeling better."

Then, I met a saucy Pug bitch in the waiting room. I tried to mount her, and she SPURNED me!!!!! Can you believe it? I think I am losing my touch. :(

Well, Internet People, I have a BIG weekend ahead of me. I hope everybody is OK in Internet Land!

Tuner scented dog kisses,
Gus the Wonderdog

Ticketmaster loves us!

While looking back on the past few months, I realized that my husband and I have been to many, many concerts this summer. My husband kinda went crazy and bought tickets to all these shows in the spring. Sure, we usually go to a couple, but this has been a banner year:

-Prince
-Barenaked Ladies and Alanis Morrisette
-Sarah McLachlan, with Butterfly Boucher

Tonight: the lovely Norah Jones.

I have truly enjoyed all of them so far, for vastly different reasons. Prince was incredibly funky and fun. I danced my butt off! No, really! I had an ass cramp, for Pete's sakes. BNL was also fun, and there was dancing, but no ass cramps. Nice Canadians, apparently, do not result in ass cramps. Make a note. Alanis...wow. That woman has quite a set o' pipes. "You Oughta Know" is by far the best "I detest you, ex-whatever" song. Ever. Butterfly Boucher (linked to at right) was a pleasant surprise. She's plucky, smart, sassy, and talented. My kinda gal. I was apprehensive about Sarah M. kinda being a snooze fest, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Her voice was strong and gorgeous, and the sets were mesmerizing. Hopefully this evening's show with Norah Jones will be a great way to cap off the summer concert season.

Well, we do have tix to an upcoming performance of Menopause, the Musical. (sigh)
Don't. even. ask.

Waterlogged, but fine

Hooray! I FINALLY got in touch with those two. They spent three nights total at their friends' place in a nother part of Orlando. Mom and Jim's home is OK; there is no new damage from the most recent storm. Jim said that the rain was like nothing he had ever seen. It was absolutely torrential. They only lost power for about twelve hours, which I think is pretty impressive.

Whew!

Still no news from Florida

I still haven't heard from my Mom and Stepdad Jim in Orlando. During the last storm, they lost land line phone service and cell service for awhile, so I am not super worried...yet. They also, um, spent Hurricane Charley kinda pickled (sauced? under the influence of the drinkiepoo?) so...they may have a doublewhammy of a recovery going on.

A super enormously humongous thank you to all of you who have left lovely thoughts and good wishes. I really appreciate them. Hopefully I will get in touch with those two soon.

OK, where did summer go?

(Note: clicking on the pics in this entry will open a larger version in a new window. Pics in this entry hosted by the fabulous Flickr.)

Since the temperatures have been dipping down to the 40's and 50's in the evenings, I am thinkin' that fall has pretty much arrived. Oh sure, there are other signs, such as a plethora of bulb catalogs piling up in my mailbox, and my autumnal desire to cook squash. Mmmm squash.

My New Guinea Impatiens on my front porch are still blooming, as they enthusiastically have been for the past three months. My front porch faces north, so it's a bit of a struggle to find plants that will thrive there. These plants have been great! I chose plants with large white flowers in honor of my Nana, my mother's mother, who adored white flowers of all kinds. The leaves of these plants are very dark green, so they make a striking contrast with the blossoms.

I completely reorganized my raised beds in the backyard. There were some plants that were choking out other plants. Out they went! I bought a lot of my plants really early in the season this year, before they were actually blooming. I relied on the tags for color/ size planning. Hmmm....Imagine my surprise when a few of the tags were totally wrong! Whoopsie! Plus, there was my purchase of "mystery mums." I bought an armload of mum plants that weren't blooming yet, for a buck apiece. Now that they are blooming, I kinda needed to adjust their companions in my beds.

I am now perusing the bulb catalogs for some spring bloomers. My favorite flower, hands down, is the tulip. I get an extra skip in my step when I see them popping up in April. Spring! Spring! Oh, I love 'em.

"Sunshine State, my ass!!"

...quoth my cute little Mom on the phone this morning.

My Mom and Stepdad Jim live in Orlando, Florida. As I mentioned before, they live in a mobile home park. During Hurricane Charley, Mom and Stepdad Jim's trailer sustained minor damage only, but they did lose a tree. They considered themselves pretty darned lucky.

Luckily, they weathered Hurricane Charley at a friend's house. They will be retuning there tomorrow morning to ride out Hurricane Frances. I am pretty worried about them, as well as for the whole state of Florida. My Mom, the most Organized Woman on Earth, does have a big Rubbermaid plastic tub filled with "irreplacables" that she will take with her. These include important legal documents, jewelry, and items of sentimental value such as baby pictures of yours truly. Mom also made a checklist of medications, etc. that she and Stepdad Jim will need for the duration. When I spoke to her at 6:45 this morning (!) she said, "Lisa, I have been up since 4:00 am! I've done four loads of laundry!" My goodness. My Mom, when panicked or stressed, cleans.

Um, I didn't inherit those genes.

Mom seems to think that the biggest problem down there will be the amount of debris that is still around from the last storm. She says there are logs and brush and such everywhere, awaiting pickup. All of these items are potential projectiles. Stepdad Jim tried to get plywood at the local Lowe's/ Home Depot, and they were rationing it out. People were waiting in line! For plywood! I am guessing that Jim had a few choice profane words to say about that.

So this weekend, I will be thinking mostly of my little Mom and Jim down in Orlando. I am certain that they themselves will be OK, but I am pretty concerned about their home. It is going to be difficult for me to pry myself away from The Weather Channel tomorrow and Sunday.

Chilling and challenging

My favorite Icelandic singer released a new album yesterday. Now, I have been a big fan of Madame Bjork since her days with the nominally successful Sugarcubes back in the late 1980's. Her voice has always thrilled and fascinated me. It reaches breathtakingly high and swoops to breathy lows. I discovered her at about the same time I discovered the lovely Kate Bush, wearing out my copy of The Hounds of Love...but that may be a story for another time.

I respect any artist, no matter the medium, who gets out there and does his/her own thing with gusto. Sure, sure, the infamous "Goose Dress" might have been a bad fashion choice. However, have you seen the movie Bjork received her Oscar nomination for? Dancer in the Dark is the saddest movie I have ever seen, bar none. It is filled with stark reality interspersed with escapist fantasy, all the while being terribly tragic. It is a tough movie to watch. Keep the Kleenex handy.

So, about Bjork's new opus: Medulla. (This link is to Amazon, but the cd is on sale at Target for $11.88 this week. Woohoo!) The album, with a few exceptions, is composed of vocal stylings. Just vocals. I thought this would be an interesting "gimmick," and wondered what Ms. B would do with it.

I bought the cd in the afternoon, but did not play it untill the evening. I was lying in bed, reading Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It wasn't going well. I was getting restless, and decided to put in Medulla. GGM was the furthest thing from my mind as I sunk into my comfy bed and absorbed Bjork's latest work. I was exhausted by the time the disc finished playing, not from the hour, but from the intensity of it. New York Times reviewer Jon Pareles had this to say about it:

This couldn't be any more different from the Scissor Sisters, the last band I shamelessly plugged here. Sometimes I like music that is purely for fun and booty-shakin'. Sometimes I want music to envelope me and whisk me away to another place. I am always taking suggestions for new stuff to listen to. Leave me a comment, or drop me an email. What kind of stuff am I missing out there?