WEEKEND UPDATE! MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND EDITION

Greetings folks. This is Kelly Pratt, your Weekend Edition correspondant, coming to you live from my desk at work! Aren't you excited?

Friday night wasn't that spectacular. I say that because I have no idea what I did that night. I want to say that I came home from work and played The Sims 2, but I'm pretty sure I did other things as well. So if Steve and I spent Friday night having dinner with you or something, don't be offended. I'm sure it wasn't because you were boring or anything. It was probably because I had so much fun that my mind had to blank it out so that I don't spend the days longing for those moments to return.

Saturday was a lovely day of rest and procrastination. I know for a fact that I woke up fairly early and let the dogs out. Steve had to run to the old building that he worked in to let some moving guys in and he talked me into riding along with him. I took my crochet work with me because I had no idea how long we would have to wait for the movers. Let me just go ahead and say that it's virtually impossible to crochet while riding in a convertable with the top down. Picture about 7 yards of string whipping about you and wrapping around your head. After he let the movers in, we left to get breafast and to enjoy driving around while it was still nice enough to keep the top down. We drove to the mountain and took the senic route. I found out there is a whole other historical neighborhood up there I didn't know existed! It was so beautiful that I wanted to jump out and take pictures, but since I didn't have my camera with me, I couldn't do it. :( We spent the rest of the daytime alternating naps, playing computer games, going to Wal-Mart, and watching TV. I'm sure Steve loved it because he gets pulled in a hundred different directions by everyone on a daily basis, so he needed a rest. That evening, Steve had made plans with some friends to go see X3 or whatever the new X-Men movie is called. I had made other plans a week before, and if you read the post before this one, you can see how much fun I had!

As an addendum to that post, I am going to say that although there was a small bit of hurt and irritation involved, I thought about it and mostly I was just MAD. I kept thinking that I should have been feeling jealous (which was weird, but if you've ever anticipated feeling something because it just felt like the right time to feel that way, you know what I mean), but jealousy never even entered the picture. I was just plain mad. OK, I know it probably sounds trite for me to complain about someone not paying attention to me, but let me defend myself. I was invited to hang out with this person. It wasn't as if I showed up unannounced and expected to be the center of attention. A gentleman (which the world is far less full of than I thought) maybe would have even introduced me to these people and included me in the conversation instead of leaving me completely by myself, seeing that I was asked to be there. There is such a thing as simple, common courtesy. It was not shown to me that evening. At any rate, I'm not mad anymore. Mainly at this point I'm just amazed that a man who is older than I am STILL hasn't learned manners. Geez!

Sunday was church and lunch with my parents. I took mom and dad for a drive in the car with the top down. They really liked it, but mom's hair took the brunt of the punishment that comes with riding in the back seat! I was scheduled to sing at church that night, and I did. I sang, "I Can Only Imagine". I love that song! After church we went to dinner with Mr. Lee and afterwards went back to Wal-Mart for things we forgot to get the day before! It was a lovely day.

Monday was supposed to be another resting day, but Steve and his dad did yard work. I would love to say that I also worked hard out in the sun and heat, but it would be a lie. I stayed in the house except when I went out to go shopping. When it got too hot to work outside anymore, Mr. Lee went home and Steve and I fell asleep. That evening, we were invited to a cookout at Josh's house. I helped him cook the inside stuff (apparently all of the men in my life feel that letting me cook over actual fire is just a disaster waiting to happen) while Josh did the man cooking outside. I somehow destroyed a pot of macaroni and cheese. Don't get me wrong, I didn't burn it or anything. I followed the directions to the letter! It didn't even taste bad. However, the pasta lost it's original molecular structure and fell apart into little shreads. Weirdness. At any rate, we spent dinner talking about old times when we all first started working at the Sprocket, which is where we all met each other. After dinner I ended up bringing a sizable chunk of Josh's library home to read. I've already got three novels going at home, the book depends of which room I'm in at the time, so I have no idea when I'm going to get to the books I got from Josh. Oy.

Ahhh. Good times (shreaded) noodle salad.

This has been Kelly Pratt reporting.

In an unfortunate burst of something other than my normal, optimistic attitude (stop laughing!) - something rather like hurt or possibly irritation (haven't decided which yet) - I would like to say this one thing before I just let it roll off of me and go about my business.

After this evening I now have realized something. There is one thing that truly sucks about having close friends who are guys if you are a girl. It doesn't matter how close you are or how long you've known them, whether you are best friends or more like brother and sister. It's amazing how you can become completely and totally invisible to them once they meet a girl with whom they have even the smallest chance of sleeping with. I'm talking about I-N-V-I-S-I-B-l-E, ceasing to exist to them, Kelly who? Even more amazing than that is their complete and utter lack of realization that they are being rude and hurtful.

I don't know what makes me more mad at this point, the fact that I sat there for two hours and let myself be completely ignored so as not to seem rude, or the fact that this bothers me at all.

Some people SUCK!

The Blackbird is done. Thank goodness.

We finished the main graphics this morning, and I couldn't be more glad! After three days of climbing on that thing, the novelty wore off QUICKLY!. We worked on it yesterday morning and it was really frustrating. We came in at 7:00 and by 9:00, the plane was so hot and the air so humid that the vinyl wouldn't stick to it. It put me in a bad mood to keep having to stick and restick the stupied things down! Ack! However, all is alright with the world now. I shouldn't have to climb back on that thing for at least another year...and hopefully not even that. I found out this morning that even though the Air Force donated the plane to the Center, they will not give us any of the information on restoring it! They complain when it looks bad, but they don't want to do anything to help us fix it. Anyways, drive by the center and look at it! It looks nice! : )

Last night I had quite the adventure. I had just finished dinner when the phone rings. I didn't answer because I didn't recognize the name on caller ID, so I waited for the machine to pick up. I heard josh on the other end, sounding pitiful. So I answered and he told me that he had locked himself out of his house! His mother, who is number one on his "key" list, wasn't available to come and let him in, so I drove Lois out there and let him in! His oven was on and everything. Apparently his lock is fairly easy to turn, so when he let himself out of his kitchen to go onto the back porch, his hand brushed up against the turny thing and it locked him out. He had to wait 45 minutes before I could get over there. Thank goodness he hadn't put his food in the oven before he did that. So, no harm, no foul.

Since I was already in Madison, and it was so close to my parent's house, I drove to beat the sun so that I could show them the new car. They were duly impressed. When I left there, I drove towards Athens so that I could drive past my former FFA teacher's house. Every since I got my license, it's traditional for me to blow my horn when I go by, starting at the street before their house and not stopping until I pass the woods. I always have to christen my different cars by doing that. I'm sure he appreciates it! : ) After that I turned back towards home. When I stopped to get gas, I pulled the top up, but apparently I didn't get one side hooked down. When I drove off, I heard air coming in, and the top started filling with air and lifting up! I had to grab it and stop on the side of the road to fix it before going any further. All I could see in my head was the top filling with air and ripping off as I drove home. Then, of course, Steve would have beaten me with a windshield wiper or something. I'm so glad I didn't break the car! : )

I want to go home.

No, strike that. I want to go away from here.

I hear it's nice down in the Keys this time of year.

Steve is making me watch the season finale of American Idol. I normally will not watch this show because it honestly makes me physically ill. It's not because I object to the premise of the show, I think it's great, but it makes me sad for the people who get on there that can't sing, but have no idea that they can't sing. I know that a great deal of the really bad singers only go on that show to be on TV, and I'm sure they think it's great when they get made fun of and everything, but it's the people who really and truly believe that they can sing that tears my heart out.

See, I love to sing more than anything else I can do. I would absolutely love to be on a show like American Idol, but let's face it, I'm too much of a coward to ever audition. My biggest fear would be to get in front of the judges and sing and think I did a great job, but be told I sucked. No matter how many people have ever told me I was good, I always get the feeling that they are just being nice! That's kind of pathetic, I know, but I can't help it. I would probably never sing again because it would make me feel horrible. So I have all of this empathy for these people I don't know because I know they probably went home feeling terrible because of how they were treated!

I can't believe he's making me watch this!

For those of you that are curious, here is a picture of my car.


Well, it's not technically my car because I've been too lazy to uplod the pictures I've taken of it, but this is exactly like my car, color and everything.

World, meet Lois.

I sneaked out of the house last night when Steve was asleep and took the car for a test drive. I probably wouldn't have had to sneak, but it was more fun to think of it that way. I just wanted to get a feel for it since I was going to get to drive it today, so I drove about 5 miles to the Target shopping center. Since it was a nice night, and I had never driven a convertible before, I pulled into the Wendy's parking lot and put the top down.

**I'm going to interject here that I now firmly believe that I must have the potential to be an extremely self absorbed person. Not so much because I think I'm so great or anything, but because I am continuously being preemptively humbled. Looking at it objectively, I don't think that's such a terrible thing. In fact, it's actually starting to be funny. But I digress**

As I sat there in my hot-mama convertible with the top down, I thought to myself how great the car was and how awesome it was going to look when I drove off - especially to the teenagers who were in the parking lot. So as I'm pulling out of the lot, I had to pause at the enterance to look both ways, and I get sprayed right in the head with a sprinkler. In fact, unfortunately for me, the first fifty yards or so of street are lined with sprinklers. Needless to say, that was hardly awesome. : )

At any rate, I like the car. Josh has named it Lois.

A KELLY PRATT CONSUMER REPORT: Coca-Cola Blak

I have a manic desire to try stuff with unusual flavors. One of the great joys in my life is to stop at some out of the way store and come across a drink or candy that I’ve never tried before. Granted, it’s not always a good thing, but what can I say? I want to make everyday an adventure if I can, right? So during my lunch break today, I stopped in to Target to grab a South Beach wrap when I came across a new beverage. This drink is called “Coca-Cola Blak” with a curvy thing over the “a”. The bottle states that it is a “carbonated fusion beverage”. It was a little expensive, almost $6 for a four pack, but I had already decided that six dollars wasn’t too much to pay to try something new. Besides, they weren’t selling them individually. I had read about these before somewhere. A Blak is a mixture of Coke and Coffee. That is correct, you heard me, Coke and Coffee. Granted, that sounds a little disgusting, but I was willing to be the guinea pig. You never know when you’ll find something you really love. Anyways, so I grab one of the bottles and bring it into the office to try after I ate lunch.
When I was actually ready to try it, I kind of just carried it around for a while. It was like when you have to take medicine and you’re pretty much convinced it’s going to taste like battery acid, so you put off doing it for a as long as you can. That was me and this little brown bottle. I finally walked down the hall to Ed’s office and asked if he had ever had one. He had not, but he seemed just as intrigued as I was. We looked at it for a moment and talked of other things, but I finally opened the cap and sniffed it. It didn’t smell bad, just maybe a little strange. It had kind of a fruity-coffee smell, like when you go into a coffee shop that sells pastries or something. When I finally worked up enough nerve, I tasted it. Do the words “HOLY RUSTED METAL, BATMAN!” mean anything to you? It. Was. Gross. Ed tried it, and he had the same reaction. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t unbearable (which is good because I now have to consume the entire 4 pack so as not to waste money) but the taste sort of sneaks up on you. It’s like a coke float made by the demons of hell, or at least like one of those things you create when you’re a kid when you’re “cooking” with stuff you pull out of the fridge and mix together. Not only does it taste bad, it leaves an oily feeling slick on your tongue. I guess that could be the coffee extract or something, but I’m not sure. The only truly positive things I can say about it is it is low in calories and carbs, the packaging is nice, and after about 10 minutes the caffeine kicks in and you feel like you’re skin is crawling off. Trust me, anything to take your mind off of the taste. Ed, who only had one swallow of it, and I both had to scavenge for other things to eat or drink after this experiment to get the taste out of our mouths.
I think maybe someone ought to go to Atlanta and check out the Coca-Cola folks who came up with this. Something tells me that they knocked back a few of the OLD cokes that still had cocaine in them when they were brainstorming for new flavors. I’m not going to tell you not to try it, but I am going to advise you to keep a packet of Wet-Naps handy. Not because I think you’ll spit out the Coca-Cola Blak and need to clean up, but because you’ll probably need to eat one afterwards to take you’re mind off of the taste in your mouth.

NO THUMBS UP. GAME OVER MAN, GAME OVER…

These are a couple of pictures from Friday. The bottom one shows what I was actually doing. I had to make the large Air Force Emblems (which I hate to do) and after we applied them, we had to pop the air bubbles. The top photo is my Dr. StrangeKel shot, only slighty retouched to remove unsightly ladders and light poles! Sometimes my job is so much fun!

WEEKEND UPDATE!

This weekend was rather eventful, so I'm glad I will have something to write about!

Friday evening was frustrating! After work, a bunch of us had planned to go see "The Da Vinci Code" at the new Rave theater. Steve usually gets our tickets on Fandango, but he had offered to help a friend of his here at the Sprocket put together the new IMAX film, and he wouldn't be able to access the website here. Oh yeah, Steve used to be a projectionist here, in case you're wondering about that. But I digress.

Anyways, I went to the theater to pick up tickets for the 9:40 show. I think there is some kind of wormhole to another dimension exactly where that theater is. It is huge and completely out of place in the middle of the cotton field it was built in. Imagine a rural-ish area at the base of a small mountain, trees, subdivisions, cows, a Target shopping plex built to compliment the surrounding area - and then a big, honkin' theater right behind that. Out of place is an understatement. I go in, ask for the tickets, but the girl behind the counter says "Oh, we don't have a 9:40, but a 9:45" I don't feel like giving her the eye-roll, so I just say that is fine. Well, I do a little shopping and go home to meet Steve as we are having dinner with everyone before the movie. We go to Chili's and the waitress comes around and says "Ya'll, I'm gonna be honest, our computers are down and it could take a really long time before you get to eat. Just letting you know so you can leave if you want to." So we debate for a while before deciding to just stick it out and luckily the computers came up about 20 minutes later. So we eat and as we finish, Josh gets out his ticket and says "Kelly, you bought tickets for the 6:45 show." I, of course, stare at him blankly. I remembered very clearly the ticket-girl saying "9:45" so I thought he was on crack or something. Alas, sure enough, the tickets were for the 6:45 show. Steve was ready to go over there and be assertive (a nice way to say, yell at someone) about that. Granted, it was a dumb mistake, and thankfully it wasn't my own mistake, but I didn't think it was worth blowing out an O-Ring over. So we get to the window, and the 9:45 show is sold out. Steve begins to get assertive and discuss our options with the girl behind the glass, when I just ask for my money back. Steve was not happy, but quite honestly, I didn't care. I didn't feel like standing there listening to Steve argue with a high school girl about why I was given the wrong tickets. It wasn't that big of a deal to me, so I stepped in and got the cash. That didn't go over well, but we got over it quick. We ended up going to Barnes & Noble and just hanging out there for a while.

Saturday was busy! For some ungodly reason, I woke up at around 6:00 or so and couldn't go back to sleep, so I let the dogs out and started laundry and other daily chores that I refuse to do on a daily basis! : ) I mowed the lawn and did a few other things, and once that was done, I settled back with a ball of yarn and did a little crochet work from my new book "The Happy Hooker" which is a book of crochet patterns. You know, I'm not going to lie, I bought it because the title made me laugh! However, it does have some really cute patterns in it, so expect me to be making a lot of stuff out of yarn this summer.

At 3:30, I had planned to meet Brian for ice cream. I had met Brian through Kenny, who works with him. Although we've spoken on the phone and over the computer, we had never actually met in person. He and his family were coming to Huntsville to visit his parents, so we decided to get together. I know that probably sounds weird because I'm not in the habit of meeting people I know from the internet, but he's a nice guy and I was carrying a weapon, so it was okay! : ) It's kind of funny, because Brian had no idea what I looked like! When I walked into Coldstone, he looked right past me. I had seen pictures of him on Kenny's blog, but he had never seen anything but a picture of my foot, so for a brief moment I was tempted to mess with him, but I refrained. We talked and had ice cream, and I found out he is a lovely person in person! : ) We didn't hang out for very long because he had to get back and fix his wife's car, but I had a great time.

During these events, Steve called and told me he was at a car dealership and wanted me to bring the Durango so that we could get a trade in estimate for a car he found. In case I haven't mentioned it, Steve has been diligently searching for a car for me to replace Rudolph. We'd decided that $62 a week in gas is a bit steep. So he finds this car he likes at a used lot, and we drive over there to look at it. I think we were there for two days trying to get everything straightened out, but we left with a 2004 silver Seabring covertible. I have a sexy-mama convertible! Steve hasn't let me drive it yet, but I'm sure I'll love it once I get a chance. : ) After we left the car place, we met Josh for dinner and FINALLY got to see "The Da Vinci Code." It was a great movie! I mean, the book was better, but they did a great job adapting it for the screen. It was very much as I had imagined it while I was reading it, so I wasn't disappointed. I can honestly say I can see why some folks might have gotten upset by it, but only if they couldn't keep faith and fiction seperate! I have two particular opinions about it I'll mention and then leave it alone so as not offend anyone unduly for what they, themselves, might think:

1) The big thing with the movie was that people had a problem with was that it was stated that Jesus and Mary Magdaline were married and had a child. While I don't believe that myself, the thought doesn't bother me. I mean, at least they say they were MARRIED and had a child. I don't see how that would have affected His ministry and ultimate sacrifice. It is my opinion that there could be much worse things said about Jesus than that he was married.

2) The funniest thing they kept saying was that "Jesus was mortal, so he couldn't have been divine!" Um, yeah, He was mortal. God in the flesh of man. Sent to earth to live as a man and die as a sacrifice. Granted, I think maybe what they meant was that He wasn't God's son, or that it wasn't possible for him to be God's son because he was mortal, but that in itself is just an opinion held by some people. It's already well established that some people don't believe what I as a Christian believe, so I wonder why it was so shocking.

Anyways, the movie was really great, and although I think Tom Hanks wasn't the best choice for Robert Langdon, he did a good job in the part!

Sunday was church, and Steve and I went out to lunch with some friends from our Sunday School class instead of going to my parent's house. That was a lot of fun! My allergies were still trying to kill me, and my voice was going out, and I felt like garbage, so I took the rest of the day to rest and try to get better so that I wouldn't have to miss any more work for a while. Steve and I fell asleep when we got home. I was right in the middle of a strange dream about Kayne West, Spongebob Squarepants, and the Ya-Ya Sisterhood when Steve woke me up. He said, "Is somone screaming?" I listened and I heard a weird sound, but it didn't sound like screaming. I got up and looked out of the window and saw our neighbor lady sitting on the ground. Please understand that I was still in the midst of waking up, or I would have acted much quicker, but I stood there and peaked through the blinds as she sat there and rocked back and forth. From my vantage point, it almost looked like she was holding a child, so I thought maybe one of her kids was hurt and crying, but she unfolded her arms and I saw that she was alone. I saw her shaking and thought she could have been laughing, but that was weird since there was nothing out there. It wasn't until I saw her grab her leg that I realized that she must've fallen off of the short wall that surrounds some flower beds and hurt herself. So, finally my brain engages and I get ready to run out and help her. I say get ready, because I was wearing a pair of cropped lounging pants that I have decided no other living mortal outside of the ones who live in my home will ever see me in. I'm honestly too short to wear any kind of cropped pants. They make me look like an Oompa-Loompa. So I'm scrabbling around madly for a pair of jeans that I just knew were in the laundry hamper, but not finding them. I had a rather unchristian thought as I was arm deep in dirty laundry, so please forgive me, but all I could think was "Why do these people always have crying females out in their yard that I have to attend to!" It was a breif thought, and I'm ashamed of it, and it made me feel more responsible for that lady! I was on the verge of just jumping back into my Oompa-Loompa pants and just throwing vanity to the wind, when Steve said she heard someone else out there. I peaked out again and saw her husband come and see what was wrong. So me and my Oompa-Loompa pants were off the hook. I don't know what bothers me most about the whole situation: the fact that it took me 5 minutes of watching this lady rock and cry before I knew what was going on, the fact that I felt the need to change into something more presentable before I went out to help someone who was, by then, obviously hurt, or the fact that Steve heard a woman crying and woke ME up to check it out. Oy vey. : )

I seriously need to get to work!

As promised, here is the picture of Josh, Steve, Amy, and Jon on the Goliath roller coaster!


WHAT I DID AT WORK TODAY

As I mentioned yesterday, I was going to have to climb on top of the SR-71 Blackbird today to apply a set of Air Force decals. I was hoping to get out of it because I'm scared of heights. My legs start to shake and I get sweaty. It's one of those panic attack kind of fears. I'm not a proud person, I'll admit that to anyone. So I get in this morning and immediately have to go out there because it's supposed to rain this afternoon. As I get to the plane, I realize it's not so far off of the ground, but it IS surrounded completely by asphalt. So if I fall, I'll probably have to have all kinds of things realigned. I climb up and get jelly-legs in about two seconds, but it's okay, because I had Kenny, the son of the curator and museum volunteer, up there to help me. Believe me, if I started to slip, he was going to be dragged off with me. So we get started, and the decal wouldn't stick. The metal was too cold. I had forgotten that the vinyl had temperature issues. So we at least got it applied, but decided to wait a while before peeling the protective front part off of it. We go on to the other side and apply the other decal, and this time it sticks because the sun has been shining on that side of the plane.

One problem we have with applying vinyl decals is that sometimes they get air bubbles behind them, and since you can't peel them up, you have to poke holes in them to let the air out. Since the Blackbird doesn't exactly have a great deal of foot room where the decal was located. So I climbed up on top of the plane and had to lie down on the "spine" of it to be able to reach. About the time I'm spread out up there like a poor man's pin up girl, about a dozen tour busses full of people drive past. I'm not in a position to really move for propriety's sake, so I just waved. Thank goodness I wasn't wearing a dress. Also, since the Blackbird is one of the things that the tourists take their group photos against, my backside is now in several family pictures. I'm sure they will be thrilled! : ) I did actually pose for the curator while I was up there. She was taking pictures of our progress for the Annual Report or some such thing, so I sat up and she took a very "Dr. Strangelove" photo of me as I rode the back of the plane. I think I dislocated my left hip getting off of it, though. Maybe girls are supposed to ride spy planes side-saddle or something.

At any rate, we got finished and it actually looks pretty good! I was proud. The only thing that sucks is that when the sun came out and heated up the skin of the blackbird, I burnt my hand and my elbow! Soon I will have the pictures to post on here. : )

I've noticed an alarming trend beginning lately.

I know that sometimes we all like to be comfortable. We like to dress as if we could head home, slip off our shoes and crawl into bed without bothering to change and not waking up with the indentions of jeans rivets in our flesh. However, I am going to have to put my foot down about this.

Leggings.

Sorry folks, but these are not cute. They weren't cute when I wore them in 1991, in the seventh grade, with my black and white baby-doll dress and big, wide headband. They were not cute in the eighties. They shouldn't be worn as going out to dinner pants. If you must own a pair of leggings (which I do, but let me finish) wear them and wear them ONLY, if you are sleeping in them, working out or doing yoga. This is the only time that leggings will be acceptable. If we start wearing leggings, it begins the slippery slope back to stirrup pants, and NOBODY wants that to happen again. No One.

Thank you and good day.

Well, I finally finished the wedding program for the girl downstairs! Yay!

Bless her heart,we could have been done a long time ago, but her wedding just kept getting bigger and bigger. I'm honestly surprised that we were able to get everything on one sheet of paper. Now she can get them printed and her mom can calm down.

Another crisis averted by GRAPHICS GIRL!!!!!

I was supposed to start putting the decals on the Blackbird this morning, but it rained and the plane was wet. So, we'll do it tomorrow, I guess. I don't want to put them on the plane! What if something gets crooked? I'd see it everyday and feel the shame of a thousand...uh...people who feel shame. Yeah, need to work on that metaphor.

Had dinner last night with a simply irrisistable friend on mine. We couldn't decide where to eat, so we just drove around until we ended up two resturaunts down from where we met. We weren't familliar with the place, but we got to drink out of big mason jars and they had corn nuggets, so it wasn't bad at all! : )

When I got home, Steve was gone. How unfair is it that I leave him at home for once and he STILL gets home after me?! : ) He was fixing Anthony's computer again. I swear, I think Anthony breaks it just so Steve will have to come over and they can watch TV together!

So I'm going to watch the Will & Grace and That 70's Show series finales tonight. I never really watched Will & Grace, but I'm kind of weird about wanting to know how the show ends. I was the same way with Sex & the City. I really didn't like that show, but I wanted to see how it ended. Eh.

Well, I have some laminating to do!

Greetings, lovely friends and readers of unknown origins!

I'm sorry for the lack of entries the past couple of days. I'm not going to lie and pretend I was out saving the earth from flaming comets or chicken flu or anything like that. It was just your boring, everyday stuff that kept me away. My weekend was too simple to really give an update on it, so I'll give you the Reader's Digest Condensed Version of it:

Friday: Dinner with Anthony and Josh after work. Started feeling yucky.

Saturday: Cleaned, folded, mowed, washed, dried, swept, vacumed, straghtened and etc. Had dinner with Steve and Mr. Lee. Yucky feeling continued.

Sunday: Church, lunch with family for Mother's Day, Church, Dinner, Grocery Shopping. Yucky feeling got worse and then abated a bit.

Monday: Awoke with renewed yucky feeling. Stayed home and slept most of the day. Felt much better by evening. Watched "Sky Captain" and "Dr. Who" with Steve.

See, nothing too interesting. : )

In other news...we have a new guy working with us up here in Graphics now. He took Jason's place. He's a guy I went to school with named Ed and he is really super awesome. However, he doesn't shoot me from the hallway so I still kind of miss that. :(

I am really stupid! In the past three days, I have gotten over 200 Spam e-mails to my work address because I used it when I signed up with an internet site. I thought my spam filter would take care of them, but it doesn't! Now I get the "You've got mail" sound a dozens of times a day, and it's all junk. I would like to find the company who sold my address and send them a virus! Not a computer virus, but like...Ebola or something! Why do they think that Spamming is a good marketing tool? It's annoying and the quickest way to keep people from wanting to have anything to do with a company! It's like telemarketing! No one wants to have to deal with that! Not to mention the lame "Congratulations, you've just won a $6 million dollar Diamond from the English Royal Monarchy! But only if you act now and get involved in all of these time wasting, inbox cramming offers!" How stupid do they think we are? Geez.

Well, back to work with myself!

You know, I think I might have to attempt this.

"Pimp My Snack" is a very unusual website dedicated to people who make giant versions of everyday candies and such. I suggest you check this out.

Sleep is becoming unknown territory for me lately. I don't think I've been able to go to sleep before 1:30 any morning this week. It isn't that I'm not tired, I am, but I can't seem to actually go to sleep. I get too wired. I don't know why exactly, though.

Sigh.

Tonight I watched TV and I cleaned the living room. We had so much laundry piled up that you couldn't sit on the couch without an avalanche of socks and things going everywhere. I finally got those folded, but I ended up having to rewash some stuff that was so wrinkled that I couldn't even tell what it was until I untwisted it. Wow, could I have BEEN more bored? I don't think so. Steve's been gone almost constantly for the past few days. I'm beginning to think he doesn't like me very much, or you'd think I'd see him more! I mean, re-read the first part of this paragraph. How can he stay away from a party animal like me? : )

Well, I am going to attemp sleep now.

AMY GET'S THE COOKIE!

Lao-Che is indeed the owner of Club Obi-Wan, or as I will now refer to it,
Club Obi-Knob.

Yay for someone who knows Indiana Jones as well as I do!!

The vinyl cutter is taunting me from across the room. I'm afraid only one of us will make it out of this office before the day is done!

Because he is my new nemesis, he needs a name. He shall be called Lao-Che. I know that is a Japanese name, and even though the cutter gives me my error messages in Korean, the name is sufficently Asian to do the job. If you can guess the reference, I'll give you a cookie! ; )

I'm having a hard time typing today! Last night I got bored and put on a set of fake nails (French Teeps, for hose of you keeping score) and they are much longer than I had intended them to be. I mean, I cut off a lot of the length, but they still tend to hit the keys first and go skidding in between them. Being girly is way overrated sometimes. :(

I get to go home at three today! I had made some plans in which I woul.d have to leave a little early, but they fell through, and now I suppose that I could stay but I just don't want to. It's too nice a day to deal with work! I think I'll go home and clean. Well, I don't really want to do that either, but I saw a cave cricket in my office this morning and I'm determined to clean enough so that the bug people can come and spray. Cave crickets give me the major heebs.

Speaking of heebes... Last night I happened to catch Final Destination on the Sci-Fi channel, since it comes on after Ghost Hunters - I love those guys. Anyways, that whole dream scene on the plane is like my worst nightmare come to life! Something about that movie just scared me silly. Of course, then the power snaps off right after a rather tense scene too, and that didn't help matters! I walked around with my flashlight after that!

And finally, what did I do to deserve this?

As some of you know, I went through a period of crocheting hats earlier this spring. Just little boggin-like caps, nothing fancy. I was trying one on the other day, and I looked into the mirror, and guess who was looking back at me? Meg Griffin, from the "Family Guy" cartoon. I already have a freakish resemblance to Velma, why do I also have to look like Meg Griffin!? So unfair...

MY 500th POST

Isn't that exciting? Uh....sure.

Anyway. You know how I posted yesterday that my vinyl cutter was dead? Well, apparently my boss is Fonzie in disguise, because all he had to do was come in here and basically snap his fingers at it and it started working again. I had been messing with that thing ALL DAY LONG and couldn't get it to work! I must have looked like a complete idiot. Every time that cutter goes on the fritz, I can do everything imaginable to fix it and nothing. When Sam comes in my office so that I can show him what's wrong, it starts working again.

I think it's toying with me. Hastared Korean vinyl cutter...

Today after work I skipped going to the gym (again) and went to the ghetto Wal-Mart (because it's on the way home) to pick up a few essentials. The radio said we were under a tornado warning, but since it wasn't even dark or raining, I decided not to worry about it. As I get to the checkout counter, the whole place shuts down and they lock us inside. We are directed to the center aisle (ladies apparel) and told to stay there until we get an all clear.

All I could think of was that I could die in Wal-Mart surrounded by low, low prices.

What kind of screwed up country song death would that be?! Killed by a tornado while shopping at Wal-Mart!

It was as if I could hear Jeff Foxworthy giving my eulogy. Luckily the threat of the Funnel-Of-Death passed and I was able to get out.

Next tornado warning, I'm going to Target.

I have the dubious honor of being the bearer of the news that my vinyl cutter, the one that would only give me error messages in Korean, the one that has caused the destruction of close to 500 feet of white vinyl in the past month, has gone the way of the Commedore 64.

Rest in peace, little man, rest in peace.

WEEKEND UPDATE!

Good Monday, everyone! I hope you are all wearing your good-luck, red underwear today!

I had a very lovely weekend. I was going to post some pictures, but I realized I had the wrong cord to transfer my images into my work computer, so forgive me if I post those later.

FRIDAY was a super long day! As I mentioned, I had to redo the welcome sign in the front of the museum, so that's pretty much all I did that day. I had no idea it would take me that long to get the old letters off and put the new letters on. It had finally stopped raining, but it was still chilly and damp outside when I started working. I had to use a razor blade to scrape the old vinyl lettering off of the sign and because the letters had been on for so long, they were baked onto the metal. Because the handle to the razor scraper was long gone, I ended up cutting myself on the bare blade, so that was fun. It took me about 5 hours to get the thing almost done. About the time I was able to get the last decal in position to stick it on, some school group of little kids ended up coming to where I was and using me and my sign as "base" in a game of tag. Apparently the adults in the group decided that they did not need to tell these kids that they should stop doing that, so the sign was getting bumped from behind and they knocked some of my tools around. I was so angry. Please understand that it wasn't as if the adults didn't see this happening, they just weren't stopping it. I ended up getting the decal crooked and had to rip it off of the sign and run inside and make another one. I think when they saw me having to do that, they got control of the kids. Wow, you guys, thanks. :P
After finally getting that sign done, I went home at 4:00 because we were going to visit the Pucketts and McGees in Waleska. Steve, Josh and I got on the road at about 6:30 or so and drove out there. We ended up getting there kind of late, but we had dinner and talked with Amy, Jon and their daughter, Katie until we couldn't stay awake anymore. :)

SATURDAY everyone else was going to Six Flags, but as we all know I don't care for amusement parks, so I had plans to visit with Aunt Brenda and Uncle Garry for the day. Amy, Josh and Steve ended up getting a late start because of a misunderstood phone message, so Katie and I got dropped off at about 10:00 am. We had a very good time. Aunt Brenda and I looked through a box of old pictures, then we all went on an adventure down to their creek so that I could take some pictures. We ended up staying outside for a long time and I had forgotten how much I like to explore. Poor Katie lost one of her flip-flops in the creek, so we watched it sail down the creek until it disappeared. We were all filthy by the time we got back, so we showered and sat back to relax a while. I had my art stuff with me, so I drew while everyone watched TV and played with dolls. It was kind of late when Steve, Amy, and Josh got back. Apparently Steve missed a turn, so they ended up in another town! They had a great time at Six Flags and they were all very excited about the new roller coaster, Goliath (?). They had bought the picture of them that was taken when they were coming around a turn, and it is priceless! I'll have to scan and post that one as soon as I can. Steve had his eyes closed and his tounge sticking out, Amy looked like her hair was about to take off, Jon seemed to be laughing and falling out of the seat at the same time, and Josh had his hands up over his head, and his shirt was filled with air, so he looked like the Sta-Puft marshmallow man! We were all so tired by the time we got back to Amy's house that we only talked for a little while before we fell asleep.

SUNDAY Jon made us breakfast and we ate together, and then Steve, Josh and I went back to Aunt Brenda's house to look at the pictures of Rhonda that we had found. After that, we went to see Greg and Kristin's new baby, Collins Roy Puckett. He is so sweet and very tiny! He wasn't even a week old. I was still too scared to hold him, but Steve wasn't, so I got to get a good look at him at least.

We headed home at around 3:00, I think. I started getting queazy from riding in the back seat, so I took some Dramamine and it knocked me out! I woke up with the buckle of my bag pressed into my face! I was only glad that I didn't drool all over the place in the meantime. : ) Steve and I didn't get home until about 7:30 or 8:00 last night, so we just relaxed.

It was a great weekend!

This probably shouldn't tickle me as much as it does because I know I'm not OLD, but...

I stopped down at the Dome to bum an icee from Anthony. He walked me through the lobby and while we were standing there talking, I noticed that he looked behind me like someone was needing to speak to him. I turned around and saw a girl who has worked here for a few years, so I waved. She laughed when she saw who I was because she thought Anthony was over there flirting with a teenage guest. I've always known I'd be 16 inside forever, but I had never thought to be mistaken for teenager on the outside again!

Hmmmmm, interesting bit of trivia. Did you know that at my weight, it would take 189.58 cans of Sun Drop to kill me?

I found something called "Death By Caffine" and it will take your weight and soda of your preference and tell you how much of it you would need to consume before the caffine would kill you.

Neato, huh?

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

In a strange twist of luck, my "te amo" Valentine's day shirt has come in handy as my cinco de Mayo shirt as well. I was once told that "te amo" meant 'I love you' so if that isn't correct and my shirt really says something rude, it's not my fault! In honor of this holiday for my Latino brothers and sisters, I will be using my Pamplemousse accent all day. Well, except for with my boss because he is hard of hearing and may not understand what I'm saying.

I was attacked by the Space Camp Ninja on my way to my office this morning. This time he used his umbrella as his ninja sword. One of these days I'm going to learn Kung Fu and give him some kind of Vulcan Death Grip when he does that! : )

I was going to be reparing more outdoor signs this morning, but it's raining pretty hard out there today. Maybe it will clear up later and the Welcome sign can be a little less ghetto for the weekend guests. If not, well, it's been ghetto for this long already...

TODAYS WORDS OF WISDOM:
Never underestimate the power of a bin full of stupid hats.

Okay, you know what?

The Da Vinci Code is fiction. It is not real.

It is not intended to be thought of as the truth.

It was a book, now it is a movie.

If for some reason you don't agree with it, don't go see it.

If you liked the book, please do go see it.

For the love of Pete, this shouldn't be such a big deal!

Imagine, if you will, me sitting down at my home computer to check some e-mail. Suddenly, the quiet of the house is broken by a scream and a thump.

Of course, the first thing I think is that my arachnaphobic spouse has come across an 8 legged creature. However, when said spouse doesn't come running into the room with me and demand I kill the thing, I start to worry. I wait a minute, thinking that certainly Steve will come walking into the room any second to tell me what happened, but he doesn't. Still waiting, I call out his name, but get no answer. Immediately my mind fills with images of finding him unconcious and bleeding because he fell and hit his head. I also had a weird, horror-movie feeling that I might get to our room and not find him at all! So I start walking down the hall and the door to the bedroom opens, and out comes Steve, Butler, and Bear. Steve has a look of horror on his face, and Butler seems to be laughing at him. Apparently, Steve was shaving with his electric razor and the dogs snuck up on him. Since he couldn't hear them walk in, he was blissfully ignorant that two very mischevious animals were sitting behind him just waiting for the right moment. As soon as the razor turns off, he hears a muffled "murf" sound and a cold, wet nose rubs up the back of his leg. He screamed like a girl and had to have jumped ten feet into the air for the sound of his landing to have been that hard. Butler, Bear and I thought it was funny. Steve wasn't as amused. : )

I also watched Herbie: Fully Loaded last night. I've never been a big fan of the love bug myself, but since it was on, what the heck. I have one major problem with this movie. I can look past the sub-par acting, the obvious display of Lindsey Lohan's chest, and the lame-ish plot. It was a Disney movie, after all. These are the same people that created an empire on a talking mouse. What I can't get passed, however, is the fact that this car, this obviously self-aware car, didn't freak the heebies out of everyone who comes in contact with it! Seriously. There is only one car in the history of cars that is allowed to be self-aware and David Hasselhoff has to be the one driving it. KITT I can stand, he's not scary. Herbie, he scares me to death.

One last thing, and then I shall get to work. Steve and I stopped at Coldstone for ice cream after dinner last night. I ordered something with the words Strawberry blonde in the name. I read what it would have in it, nothing scared me, and I watched the girl make the thing. Then she does the unthinkable. She mashes a banana in the middle of my ice cream! There was no banana in that list of things that go into my ice cream!!! I kept thinking maybe she had made some kind of mistake and that she would start over, but noooooooo. She packed up that stuff filled with mashed bananas and handed it over to me. I didn't know what I should do! I felt bad saying anything because I guess I could have stopped her from putting it in there, but I thought maybe I had misread the list of stuff and she wasn't doing anything wrong. A "My Bad" situation, if you will. So I payed for it and walked back past the board with the flavors on it. I was right, no bananas! I suppose I could have taken it back and been a heifer about it, but I don't like to do stuff like that. Of course, I didn't want to eat anything with bananas in it either. I hate bananas. I fear bananas. However, I also ate that banana last night because I'm not going to let good ice cream go to waste. I just closed my eyes and thought of England. Aside from the banana, it was really freaking good!

I'm off!

I always thought that when you unburden yourself to someone, it was supposed to make you feel better, not worse. Oh well.

I have my final-final this afternoon in history class. I fell asleep in the middle of studying for my third essay question (there are 5 in all) last night . Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Oh, yeah. Joseph, The Technicolor Ringworm is finally rubbing off of my arm. Whatever that blue spray paint is made of is certainly fantastic. Maybe I should write a letter to the Krylon folks and let them know that "Fusion" is some pretty spectacular stuff. If it'll not come off of my arm for almost a week, think of how long it will stay on your lawn furniture. (this message brought to you today by Krylon. Almost as permenant as a tattoo.)

Also: woo/hoo that this is the last day of the semester. Had I the energy, I would attempt the dance of joy.

Tuesdays have no real purpose except to keep the weekend from getting here sooner!

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. It went by so fast I don't even know if my doctor learned anything useful about my health. However, it was kind of nice not to have to sit for an hour and change waiting for anyone to come see about me!

I finally finished the main section of decals for the SR-71 (wrinkles and everything, oy vey). All I have left to do is cut out some big letters and slap the suckers on. Woo-Hoo!

There is really not a whole lot going on today, so I have nothing important to write. However, I will leave you with some wisdom from Steve:

You can shave a wookie, but it's still a wookie.

One Down, One To Go.

Indeed, folks, I turned in my final project for ARS 431 today! Woo-Hoo! I finished it at about 9:30 last night, for better or for worse. Now I have to get busy studying for my final exam in history. If I weren't so tired, I'd do a happy dance! Go me!

WEEKEND UPDATE!

Friday night was a low key dinner with Anthony at Moe's. We had never been there before, but it was pretty good. It was one of those build-your-own-burritto places. I forgot to tell them to leave off the tomatoes (yuck) and so I spent most of my time digging them out before I would take bites. It was a tedious process! Afterwards we went to Books-A-Million and goofed around. Poor Josh was going to come with us that night but he called and said his tranmission had comitted suicide. He drives the Chick Magnet (Eclipse) and has had nothing but grief from the day he bought it. He told Steve that he was going to go with American cars from now on! Steve had to be the one to break it to him that most of his car was already made in America. Heeheheee.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling horrible. Apparently, I have become immune to my normal allergy meds. However, I had a full day already planned and I wasn't going to cancel anything! I was determined! So I medicated myself liberally and drove down to Cullman where I met Kenny and Lauren for lunch. It was the first time I had ever gotten to meet Lauren, and we had a great time. : ) We ate, made fun of mullets, teased Kenny about the lady who kept staring at him, and made food sculpture! We sat and talked for so long that the poor lady who waited on our table had to come and ask if we could please pay our check so that she could go home. Oops! I kind of hate that I was fuzzy on allergy medicine, because I'm usually much more fun than I was on Saturday. I"m beginning to think that drugging me a little before I meet someone for the first time may not be such a bad idea, for them. That way, they can get used to me before I behave normally. Anyways, (because I know she will read this eventually) SORRY ABOUT THAT! Kenny was charming, as usual. I gave him his graduation gifts, amid the reminders that I don't have to do that. I had to remind him that I'm going to do it regardless, so there!
We found out that Elvis is alive and living in Cullman. We ate at the table next to him! I also found out that Yankee Candles do indeed come from up north (I asked a real, live, yankee!) and I was able to say Massachusetts on the first try! All in all, it was a good afternoon. Oh! I almost forgot! During lunch I realized that I had been able to make it through a whole meal without once using my Pamplemousse Perez accent and I was so proud. I was in the car, just about the shut the door when I heard Kenny call to me across the parking lot. When I climbed out of Rudolph, I was then asked to do the voice! So much for being on my best behavior! ; )
By the time I actually did get on the road home, my medicine was messing with my head and I honestly don't remember large chunks of the ride back! I was in Huntsville in what seemed like 15 minutes, but I knew that couldn't have been the case because my CD had cycled all the way through and then some. Since I still had someplace to be that night, when I got home I just lay down and went to sleep for a while.

Saturday night (even though I didn't want to wake up after my nap) I went to the Coffee Tree again to hear my friend's band, but this time there was an added bonus: Mr. Harris, my very favorite teacher ever, father of Jason, and my former FFA advisor, was coming to hear Jason perform a song Mr. Harris had written! I was so excited. It had been a long time since I had gotten to talk to Mr. Harris and I had always liked him so much, I couldn't pass up an oppourtunity to see him again. I also got to meet most of his family that night. The song that Mr. Harris had written was about his recently deceased father, and everyone wanted to be there to hear it. For a little while I thought I must've met these people before. I did date Jason for 2 years or so. They all talked to me like they knew me, but when I asked later, it was confirmed that I had never met any of them. They were just really nice. : ) I also realized something about Jason's band that night. Every time I've been there to hear them, they play the song "Trashy Women", which is a country song I remember being popular when I was in high school. I realized, due to the fact Jason said so, that they play that song in my honor due to the lyrics: "You should've seen looks on the faces of my dad and mom, when I showed up at the door with my date for the senior prom." If you aren't familliar with the song, it goes on to say she was a cocktail waitress in a dolly parton wig and to extoll her desirable trashyness. I am not really sure if I am honored or not. I can say with conviction that I was NOT a cocktail waitress at the time of said Senior Prom! Whether or not I was trashy...well, I'll just have to hope not! : ) By the time I got home, I was exhausted.

Sunday I woke up dreading the fact that I had to sing that morning. I still wasn't feeling well and I was afraid my voice would go completely crazy while trying to sing. However, the minister of music forgot that he had asked me to sing and scheduled another lady to do it. I wasn't too disappointed! : ) After church, we went to my parent's house (Mr. Lee came along despite his own allergy problems) and had lunch. While looking for an old scrapbook of mine, I came across an old box full of junk, letters and cards from years ago. I had forgotten I had a band letter! I also found letters from an old friend of mine who was at Auburn for his first semester in college. You know, he used to get bored enough to write me without me having to send him a letter first! *ahem youknowwhoyouare!* ; ) After we dropped Mr. Lee off, we went home and I finished up my final project and Steve and I ended the day with two new episodes of Dr. Who!

Good Times, Noodle Salad.