I'll open them up on Tuesday. Until then, you spammers will need to find another playground. Okay?
Pissy. That's the mood I'm in.
I'm feeling all pissy and overburdened and hungry. I'm trying to calculate points, make good food selections, and avoid temptation. It's just barely working at the moment, but it's early in the game.
I realize that it'll take me a couple of weeks to get some of this figured out. In the meantime, I'm blowing points right and left. And this coming holiday weekend is going to be particularly weird, as we'll be away from the house for four days. But I'll survive the process.
Hopefully I won't kill anyone.
Just got back to my desk after having a quick breath of air outside, followed by lingering in front of the convenience store, then a slow detour by the Burger King.
I could devour my phone right now.
Just gotta remember, it's all about keeping my body healthy and getting my ass onto roller coasters and flat rides. There's a Fabbri Eclipse out there that gave me the finger last year. There's the new Zamperla Disk'O. There's the unearthly Mondial Top Scan.
And a fat little Intamin Impulse coaster just a few miles from my house.
Must ride! Must ride!
Preparing to be assimilated
First Weight Watchers meeting tonight. Dues, Motivational meeting, orientation, weigh-in, points, flex points, portion control, quiktrack, hoopla.
I've got a lot to do. The next week is going to be a process of learning and tinkering.
I may get crabby. You are warned.
Comments are re-enabled. Have at it.
Lileks says, "Had a guest for lunch today: Mike J. Nelson, bearing a small jar of home-roasted coffee. I know what you’re thinking: he roasts his own coffee?".
No, James, I'm thinking, "you had Michael J. Nelson over for lunch? I hate you."
You bastard. You unmitigated creep. How dare you throw that in our faces. I am now glowing green with jealousy.
You'll pay for this, fanboy. We're sending Fred Travalena to your house.
A note on comments. Since I blew my stack last week and banned the entire world, nothing has changed. You may see that comments are still in place on posts, but attempts to add one will result in failure. Sadly, it'll be that way for a while.
I'm tired of trying to boot spammers, and I'll be migrating this blog to another engine in the next few weeks. I've had it with MT.
Once I get it moved, I'll open up the comments again and you can have at it. In the meantime, please feel free to send me an email if you want to comment on anything.
Heartless Bitches International
Are you a Heartless Bitch? Apply for membership now! (I can think of a few female friends who could easily pass the test. And I mean that in a really positive way. Right, Carrie?)
Hat tip to Boyd.
I took the day off today. I was feeling a little overwhelmed, so I made a command decision to take the day off.
Good idea, as I feel much better now. I lay around the house, I went for a long drive, I did some yard work, I visited a computer store and a greenhouse. I bought and planted a barberry bush, and I cleaned up the back yard.
And I thought. And thought and thought and thought.
I sometimes need to do that, you know?
At any rate, I came to several decisions. Number one is that I need help with my weight. I can't do this alone, no matter how hard I try. I give in to my impulses far too frequently, and have no backup support. Fred is there to help me, but I need someone impartial. So I'm going to go with a weight-loss service of some sort. Whether it be Weight Watchers, or TOPS, or some other (even eDiets,) I'll find an organization that can assist me. I think it'll help a lot.
Number two; I need to revisit the idea for rules that I had several years ago. Some of you may remember the early days of this website, when I kept a calendar and gave myself gold stars for following the rules I set up for myself. It worked great until I tried to make too many changes too fast, and crashed in a heap. Well, it's time to revive that idea from the trash and try it again. But this time do it in BABY STEPS.
Number three; while driving, I had a small epiphany. I love this country. Okay, I always have loved it. But today really seemed to set it ablaze in ways that I don't always notice. It's exhilarating to drive through the US, and see nothing but blue skies and trees, wide spaces and straight highways.
Some people may read this and think "jingoistic". They're missing out. They're so busy seeing the horrible, they sneer at the greatness.
While I don't agree with everything that happens here, I truly love the US. This country is like no other in the world. There are so many possibilities here, so many good hearted people, so many beautiful places, so many ways to be. This is a rich, fertile, grand place to live, and I consider myself very lucky to be part of it. I thank my ancestors who had the courage and determination to come here. I thank my grandparents who homesteaded in South Dakota, and created the farm that I grew up on. I thank my parents for being there when I needed help. I thank my siblings for being the loving bunch of people who shared my childhood experiences, and who understand me better than anyone, save one person.
And I thank my dear husband Fred, who is my soulmate, my friend and my partner in all the best ways.
This happened here. This happened in the United States of America. Nowhere else would my life have turned out this way, and nowhere else would I have the boundless opportunities I have now.
Where ever you are, look around you. And see the wonders of your home. They're there. You may not even see them anymore. Go look for them, and revel in them. As I love this little bedroom suburb of Minneapolis, you should love your city/state/province/county/country.
And if you don't, then you're not looking hard enough.
I'm on day two of my Blackberry trial.
You know, those little PDAs with the thumb-board.
Okay, so you've never heard of them. But I assure you that they exist, and they're very popular with white-collar professionals.
They are often referred to as "crackberry" because people get obsessive about them. The things are an always-on email and calendar device. These new ones also have a phone built in.
I'm rapidly getting addicted to it. It's quickly supplanting my Palm, which I didn't expect. Though I miss the stylus, I'm getting used to the thumb board.
I can stop anytime. I swear.
For the moment, commenting is blocked. I'm testing something.
Blame the comment spammers. Arrgh.
We've got fun with alarms today. Brinks keeps triggering alarms. Or more specifically, the cats keep triggering alarms. Fred missed the motion blocker this morning, which makes the upstairs susceptible to kitty detection.
And of course, Brinks didn't shut off the alarm like he asked them to, so it got set off again.
The tech told Fred how to alter the motion sensors so that they won't pick up the cats. That gives Fred an afternoon project, and solves our problem. I hope.
I have this image of wild-eyed cats running for the basement when the alarm starts bleating.
Or where a series of unrelated decisions leads to joy
Fred called me up early in the afternoon and asked if he could pick me up after work and take me to dinner. I said yes, because few things are finer than being chauffeured by my honeybear.
At 4:30 he was waiting outside my building. I threw my bag in the back and climbed in. We zoomed off.
I suggested that he go left, to avoid the traffic. He went left.
I suggested that we go up University Avenue rather than the freeway. I also suggested that we take the third avenue bridge across the Mississippi, rather than the Hennepin bridge.
Due to a huge number of buses in the right lane, we scooted past third avenue. I said, "fuck it; just go on to Hennepin." He disagreed, and doubled back to third.
We crossed the river, and got to the turnoff for University. I said, "where does that go?", and pointed straight ahead. He said, "let's find out", and went straight instead of turning.
We went through NordEast, the North-East section of Minneapolis and continued up to Columbia Heights. (note: the term "NordEast" is a play on Minnesota accents.)
We went by The Heights Theater, a small theater that holds the claim to the longest continually running theater in the Twin Cities. It was purchased by a pair of guys in 1998, and has been undergoing a serious restoration since then. I've wanted to see a movie there for some time.
The marquee showed that The Triplets of Belleville was playing. Fred had been dying to see it, and I'de been extremely interested too.
We made an abrupt U-turn and I ran up to the box office to check the times.
It started in twenty minutes.
Fred parked the truck, I went in and bought tickets, we got popcorn and drinks, and went in. The theater is a marvel of old Beau Arts style, complete with a massive organ and an orchestra pit. (The organ is played Friday and Saturday nights before the 7:00 showing.) The Men's room has old movie posters. You can take a steaming dump under the watchful gaze of The Duke. I opted to pee in front of Gregory Peck.
The movie started with a single trailer, a policy reel, and headlong into the feature. Oh, and the curtain was drawn, which is something I just love to see.
The print was immaculate and smooth as glass. The sound was excellent. The theater was empty. Okay, actually there were four of us total, plus the guy running the theater. (I think he was one of the owners.)
If you get the chance to see The Triplets of Belleville, take it. It's a very odd piece of animation. Gorgeous hand-drawn animation, with some nice computer assists for backgrounds and vehicles. Weird characters. A big fat dog that hates trains. Three singing sisters that are off their group rocker. Frogs. Explosives. The Tour de France. Wine. Dark deeds. Music.
Almost no dialog. Most everything is broadcast via body language and grunts and groans and sighs.
It's a quirky little film, and we got to see it in a theater. Hurray for lucky chances and being in the right place at the right time!
The phrase "In Vino Veritas" shows up in the movie. For us, it was "dans la joie de serendipity".
Or something like that.