Thursday, May 26, 2011

Moving on back

So long story way short, I'm moving back into my previous house, the one I bought at the HEIGHT of the housing market and rented out when I moved in with Mr. B. It's too bad, really; Mr. B's house is a darling 1930s-era brick house but it's just too damned much work (and money) for me to deal with by myself. So it's back to my mid-90s cookie-cutter place. Where the home owners association cuts the grass. Oh yeah.

It's going to be a bittersweet farewell. Feels like the close of the last chapter in our relationship. I'll be right back where I was when we were just starting out -- we'd only been together about six months when I bought the place.

The tenants will be out in less than two weeks. I'm anxious to get in there, measure, and change things up a bit to mark this as a fresh start. There's really no rush, other than at some point the bank is going to want the keys to Mr. B's house back. I figure I have the summer to paint, move, and get settled.

As I am fond of telling everyone (repeatedly) this will be my fifth move in just under five years. I want my pin, dammit!
 

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Break out the thongs!

Oh relax, I mean flip flops. Please.

It's Room Temperature Day, the first day of the year we hit 70 degrees. It's about effing time!

I didn't mark it last year, but RTD 2009 was April 5, and the year before it was April 12. Here we are at May 19th -- how wrong is that? Could be worse, but not by much. Someone on the teevee said that the latest date Sea-Tac Airport hit 70 was May 23, 2003. Cutting it awfully close, aren't we?

I'm not exactly encouraged by what this implies. Could be a green tomato summer around here.

Trust me, that's not nearly as much fun as it sounds.
 

Friday, May 13, 2011

Party On!

I've been feeling kind of bad for keeping comments turned off. Not feeling bad enough to turn them back on -- I could easily go the rest of my life without reading another comment from an escort service in Mumbai -- but I do miss hearing what you think, etc.

Also, I usually have a couple of completely inappropriate ideas each day that just don't quite qualify as blogfodder. I feel guilty for not taking the time to germinate them into full-fledged posts, but by the time I get around to it, the Shiny Bus has driven past again and I'm already on to The Next Thing.

I've been stewing over it and I think I have at least a partial solution.

Over on the left there you'll see a tiny pic of Little Lizzie. If you are on Facebook, and click the "Like" button, you'll see updates from my new Anyway, I Was Just Thinking page in your Facebook news feed. You can also visit the page, comment, sass me back, or whatever you like. If you're already one of my Facebook friends, be sure to "Like" the page as well 'cause you won't want to miss any of the ***Exclusive Content!!!***

Sorry, got a little carried away there. Anyway, I will be posting stuff there that you won't see here or on my personal Facebook profile. I suppose that means my personal profile is about to get a whole lot more boring.

How's that for a sales pitch?

If you're not currently on Facebook but don't want to miss the fun, you could set up a Facebook account with minimal information. You could go as far as to set up a spare email account on Yahoo or Gmail or Hotmail or whatever so you don't have to use your real email. We won't tell a soul. No one would ever know!

So join us! I've already acquired my first dozen "Likes", which means I'm well on my way to gathering my twelves of readers around me in Facebook Land.

What do you think? Come on over and tell me all about it.
 

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Weird Shit That Has Happened To Me #2137: The Voice

For the last week or two, most mornings as I turned on the monitors, computer, desk lamp, etc., on my desk, I'd been catching the faintest sound of a snippet of a garbled voice.

I tried to pin it down, but as I eliminated possibilities my theories got more and more ridiculous. Were my speakers picking up a snatch of CB talk, even though they were powered off? My second monitor also has a built-in speaker, but it's not connected to anything. Could it be that? Is that even possible? Does my computer have some kind of weird virus that produces sound upon boot-up? Did someone hide a prank electronic toy in my office that somehow talks when I turn on my computer? Or maybe do I need to get my meds checked again?

But yesterday, as I turned on my desk lamp -- the one with the fancy full-color halogen (fluorescent?) bulb -- I heard The Voice. I happened to be looking in the exact right place at the right time and there it was: Sid, the talking fast-food toy.

I turned the lamp off, then on, then off, then on. Each time the lamp fired up, Sid obliged me with one of his snappy, unintelligible catchphrases.

I picked up Sid and rotated his left arm. He told me "everyone loves Sid." I smiled. No one was going to believe this. I needed to shoot some video! I set Sid back on the lamp base and pulled out my camera. Turned off the light, hit record, and turned the light back on.

Nothing.

I spent the next ten minutes trying to replicate the exact conditions. No joy. Sid just stood there. The moment of magic was gone forever; my opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime video of an apparently unreproducible phenomenon shot all to hell on the whim of a plastic sloth.

Fuck you, Sid.