Monday, January 30, 2012

You'll take to the sky

What do I have to say today?!

I started reading Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale! (Three cheers for public libraries!)
It is very slow going. I'm still in the first chapter.
There are a lot of things I've forgotten about the first book. Admittedly, it's been over ten years since I last read it. I'm learning lots of new vocabulary as well ('un gufo', per esempio, is an owl).

Songs for the week:



I am now in the 40s. How time flies...

Love and miss you all.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

It's Sunday Again, and Again

This keeps happening every seven days. I guess I really shouldn't be surprised. I'm keeping the blog post really short this time.... :)

Thursday, January 26, 2012

How Not to Save Money

As you all know, I dropped Johnny off at UVA last week and then went to WV for a job interview. As you all also know, grandma and grandad were out of state.

Now my original plan was to call someone and arrange for a place to stay, but between putting it off a little and an unexpected happening which filled my time in UVA, by the time I needed to go to WV, I still hadn't called anyone. Now I wasn't exactly comfortable calling someone up and saying--hey, I know we haven't talked in a while, but can a crash on your couch for the night--I mean I'm giving you three whole hours notice. So I decided to sleep in the car.

Yes it was supposed to get cold and snow. I pulled up into mom and dad's driveway which was about half an hour from where I would interview the next morning, set my phone alarm, curled up under a sleeping bag and started to doze off in the front seat of my car.

Suddenly I thought... wait, do I have enough battery charge left on the phone for it to last till morning? Nope, I don't. It was getting cold, so I started up the car. Don't have a phone charger... Maybe there is a plug on the porch. Sure is. Score! Plug the phone in and let it charge while I warm up in the.....

I never lock my doors. But for some reason, they were all locked. The car is running. I'm in my socks. It's eleven thirty at night and the whole neighborhood is asleep.

I search around for any way to get into the car. No luck. I look for a wire to try to open a door with. Can't find one. Mom and dad really did lock all the windows to the house well too.

The only way I can think of to call the police is 911 and this is NOT a true emergency. It's getting colder, and my feet aren't too happy. I take a walk toward the main road. Everything is closed. No phone books available either. Freezing! On the way back I notice a For Sale By Owner Sign. It's got wire! I can put it back together after I get the car open or not.

I try to jiggle the wire around in the door crack for something short of an eternity before I realize this is NEVER going to work. I have an interview tomorrow, am freezing now, and the car is going to run out of gas because there was only a quarter tank in it in the first place. I have no idea what time it is. What do you know, the phone is charged!

That doesn't help me get into the car though. Break a window. Okay, I know what car windows cost. About 275 plus labor for one of the automatic side windows $450 or so all together. About $250 altogether for a front or back windshield. I don't like either of those options--AT ALL.

Neither do I like hypothermia and a missed job interview. The car has fixed and very small triangular windows right behind the backseat side windows. They have to be cheaper. Right?

How hard could it be? Take a rock about the size of two of my fists and.... Bam, Bam, Bam! BAM, BAM, BAM, bam? Car windows don't break anywhere nearly as easily as movies lead you to believe. I take a break. Two more tries; the glass shatters--my fist goes right on through. No problem. I unlock the door and stuff a coat in the hole. Start to go to sleep.

My hand is wet. REALLY wet. I drive to Walmart and go to the bathroom. I look in the mirror. They let me in the store like this? I look like I just killed someone. Blood streaked down my face and my coat. My hand is dripping and looks like I've been soaking it in a vat of blood for some reason.

No pain. I clean up thoroughly and wrap my hand in paper towels. Head out to the car and break open the first aid kit. Then I bandage up and drive back to the house, stopping to put a sign back together on the way.

I did manage to go to sleep that night. And I got to the interview looking presentable. Even if I did have my shirtsleeves rolled up inside my suit jacket to hide the bloodstains.

By the way, Lowes won't cut plexiglass at anything other than right angles. And Johnny, you don't happen to still have the other key to the car do you?

:)

Monday, January 23, 2012

You bring on the rain

It rained today!
Why is this a good thing?
Because that means it wasn't snowing! Also, all of the rain cleared the snow off of my car for me. And it didn't even ice, because it was almost forty degrees.

Favorites from this past week's musical selection (1928-1933):
 
Bolero, Maurice Ravel
When you're smiling, Louis Armstrong
It don’t mean a thing (if it ain’t got that swing), Duke Ellington

You're getting to be a habit with me, Bing Crosby


Notable things about this past week:
     -HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY JOSEPH!!
 
     -I finished three books. Don't be too impressed. I started
The Handmaid's Tale a while ago, but I just picked it up again recently. TFIOS is a young adult book (so a fast read). And Howl is a book of poems (and was only sixty pages long).
     -Days pass really quickly.

(Debatably) Notable things about today:
I took a shower. (Did you? We might have this is common!)

(As previously stated,) It rained.
I cleaned and organized my shelves (the closet seems much larger now).
Lasagna for dinner!


Love you all.

Monday, January 16, 2012

A Morning Sorrow Song

First of all: sorry everyone if my posts have been naggy of late. This was supposed to be no stress, so I apologize if I have pressured anyone!

In other news, a friend of mine (yes, I do have a couple), started a "100 days project" recently. Basically, the idea is you choose an activity of some sort, then you preform that activity every day for one hundred days. For example, several people involved are taking a picture every day. Some people are drawing every day. Christine is knitting every day. I initially played with the idea of writing every day, but I've never been particularly comfortable sharing unfinished sketches or rough drafts with other people. With the help of lots of external input, I settled on finding a new song every day. To complicate things (cheers for complications!), I decided to limit each day to a year, starting with 1912 and working my consecutively to 2011. So, by the end I will have spanned a hundred years of music!

Sounds great in theory, right? Well, it's actually pretty great in practice! Barring a few minor problems that is...
Starting with, how do you find music from 1912? Because I wanted actual recordings, original if possible. Luckily(!), the library of congress has a "National Jukebox" up online with thousands of historical recordings available for free. Isn't the library of congress amazing?! Seriously, one of us has to become/marry a Senator or something (alternatively, one of us could raise a kid to do so, Skinner style).

Anyway, I figured I'd include a couple of my favorites so far.
I can live without you, Olive Kline
Memphis blues, W.C. Handy
Dardanella, Ben Selvin's Novelty Orchestra

This week I will be breaking into the thirties. Swing jazz here I come!

By the way, it's 2012. What?!!?!
 Lots of new albums coming out this spring though. I'm excited!

Christine and I made a chocolate cake last night. It was delicious.


Good luck to everyone who has recently begun, or will soon begin classes (Dad, Andrew, Adrianna, Olivia, Sarah, Joseph, and Johnny)! Hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Love and miss you all.

New Life...

It was wonderful to see Adri's post up. I enjoyed it.

Ruth, first of all as the prodigal's sister, you have been posting all along, and of course I enjoy it, but like the reprehensible human I am, since I recognize your dependability when it comes to posting, I've come to expect it as a matter of course. :) And I even encroached on your posting day, because I'm a day late. (Please, please, go ahead and double post after me today--the blog is just barely beginning to come out of cardiac arrest.)

Now, all of you other prodigal posters, since I've heard that you can catch more flies with honey than with pixels, I considered including some honey in this post. However, after I visualized all of you licking your monitors in an attempt to taste the honey, I changed my mind. I'll just have to appeal to your.....

I guess if you aren't posting after that, I have no idea what might incentivize you. Socialistically working for the collective good might cut it for Wikipedia, but it isn't working here, and I am sure not going to subject this blog to a series of banners of my middle aged, balding, wild eyed self pleading for your help. Jimmy Wales was scary enough.

I know! Perhaps capitalism...you could each start paying me every time you post on the blog! Or have I gotten something backwards there?

Ideas anyone?

Saturday, January 14, 2012

It's my Day to Post... Fancy That!! - Dri

I realize I haven't been the most diligent of bloggers, but I'm back! (at least for today anywhoo :D )

Not too much has been going here, except classes, and work starting back up. I just finished The Fault in our Stars by John Green, and it's the saddest and probably most memorable book I've read in a very long time. I do believe that Mr. Green still has a ways to go when writing from the female perspective, but after a few chapters, you completely forget about that. It was an amazing book. (thanks ruth!!)

Now, I'm sure you're thinking that I was just going to turn my post into a book review, but I'm not! I'm going to upload a bunch of pictures and tell you about them! Yay!!
 

These are some random pictures of some frost. I decided I needed to take them one morning, before heading to class. I was almost late! Alas, that is a price I'd have had to pay for being an artist! 


Oh Hello! Random shot of the back yard!



Yes. It did snow in Arkansas.... WHAT?!?! I know, right!




Best graham cracker house ever.


Best graham cracker house ever being completely destroyed by two triceratops.
(I'd put more pictures up, but I don't think my adorable cousin's parents would appreciate me putting pictures of their children on the internet. Better safe then sorry! Sucks to be you guys! :P )





West Virginia!

And if you aren't on face book, Johnny and I have had some hiking adventures!!



tiny tiny people :D





And that's it for the picture show folks!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

The Blog is not Dead

It's just on life support.

Andrew, Olivia, Ella, and Aldona were here last night and this morning. It was good to see everyone. Adrianna and Judi are leaving tomorrow. :( Adrianna is currently visiting Caitlin, Megan, and Dakota. Johnny is asleep on the recliner next to us.

Now that you have the basic news.... I thought you might be interested in some surprising, but not particularly happy neighborhood news.

Just thought I'd pass the information along in case anyone knows anything that may help.

"Dobson NC--Three minors were found unattended without food or water over Christmas week this year. They had apparently been abandoned by their parents and were left in the care of a grandparent who in turn left them completely alone and unattended during the holiday season.

Despite clear neglect all minors are now in good health. No charges have been filed but authorities are seeking to contact the parents."

Please follow this link to pictures of the minors. Any assistance in the ongoing investigation will be appreciated.