Category Archives: Uncategorized

Song Lyric of the Day:

There’s a burning in my pride, a nervous bleeding in my brain / An ounce of peace is all I want for you / Will you never call again?

Blue October / “Hate Me”

6:31PM.
I gotta say, I’m glad I got a Mac and not a Dell. Not that my Mac may not go up in flames and/or spontaneously combust someday (knock on wood). I guess I should check what kind of battery it uses. Seriously, though, it’s pretty scary to see the damage lithium-ion batteries can cause. This is a prime example of how our dependence on technology can sometimes come back and bite us in the butt.

***
I picked Finn up from the vet after work a little while ago; she had to be hydrated a bit more, via IV, today. I was very pleasantly surprised, and more than a little shocked, to hear that she actually behaved herself today. Today there was none of the hissing and growling and swiping at the staff like she indulged in yesterday. I guess she figured if she behaved today, maybe she wouldn’t have to go back tomorrow (thankfully, she doesn’t).

***
Several days ago, I received a Rocky Top Brigade dispatch about a blogging project being organized for a fifth anniversary tribute on 9/11. The project is called, simply, 2,996. The idea is for each of the 2,996 victims of the attacks that day to be honored by individual bloggers around the world.

I have been wondering for a few weeks now what I would do to mark the anniversary this year; I knew I would write about it–that’s a given–but what exactly would I say? To that end, this afternoon I signed up to participate in 2,996. I will be honoring the memory of a 26-year old man who died in the World Trade Center that day. I was the 1,816th blogger to sign up, so there are still quite a few bloggers needed to fulfill the project’s objective. If you’re a blogger and you’d like to participate, you can sign up here. You will randomly be assigned an individual to honor. Just keep in mind that your post is supposed to go live on 9/11, not when you complete it, should you finish before then.

My reason for participating is really quite simple. And when I can put it into words, I’ll tell you what it is.

*Blog post title comes from the Garbage song, “When I Grow Up.”

Song Lyric of the Day:

I am patient, I am calling you / In the Teahouse of the Spirits / I can feel you / I can hear you / Give it all up just to be near you / I am praying, I am calling you

The Panic Channel / “Teahouse of the Spirits”

10:20PM.
The weekend was a hodgepodge of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Here’s the rundown.

Yum Yum, Movie Star OR My Cat is Ready for His Close-Up, Mr. DeMille
My friend, Nan, made my day early Friday morning. She’s starring in a locally-filmed horror movie spoof, and the director asked her if she knew of any black cats who would like to be in a movie. Amazingly enough, she thought of Yum Yum. Should Yum Yum get the part, he’ll be playing Ralph, a demon-possessed kitty who kills his owners and attacks a man’s crotch (although a stunt kitty will do the crotch-mauling). As Rich says, it’s the part he was born to play.

Premature Demolition
Our contractor didn’t show up on time Friday afternoon. In fact, he didn’t show all weekend. Or call. We’re clueless as to why he’d go AWOL without an explanation. At least we didn’t pay him any money; we’re out what we paid for our new doors and windows, but those materials will still be used. Hopefully when he calls with the most amazingly creative excuse we’ve ever heard. In the meantime, our Florida room sits empty in all its slanted-floor glory.

Earning Our Bedroom Stripes…
While waiting (and waiting) to hear from our contractor, Rich and I finished painting our bedroom. As you may have guessed, the ugly wall incident soured us a bit on decorative paint techniques (again–easy, my ass!), so we stuck with solid colors this time around. We went with a dark purple for the lower half of the wall and a complementary shade of blue for the top half, with an angle in the corners. We’re much happier with the new paint scheme. Speaking of making our furniture look great against the wall colors…

…Without a Bed
Yesterday Rich started to assemble the IKEA bed we bought last year at the Atlanta store’s grand opening. We’d been eagerly looking forward to the day when we finished painting our bedroom, since that was the day we’d assemble our new bed and matching nightstands. Our bedroom suite would be complete. Alas, it was not to be. Rich noticed there weren’t any instructions for the bed. And that maybe some parts were missing. He called IKEA technical support and was informed that we are missing two of the three boxes containing the bed components. Turns out that helpful assistant last year (“Oh, yeah, you have everything you need for the bed! I got it all for you.”) didn’t know her ass from a king-sized bed frame. So now we have to plan a trip to freaking Atlanta, receipts in hand, to claim our missing bed parts. Then, and only then, will our bedroom be complete. I’m thinking a trip to Six Flags is in order while we’re down there.

What a Pisser
Late last night we noticed blood on the kitchen floor. After a frantic pat-down of each animal, we concluded that none of them were in any way visibly injured. A light bulb then clicked on for me–could Finn have such a severe bladder infection that she’s peeing blood? My poor kitty has always been prone to bladder infections, but never one so bad she peed blood. I went down to the laundry room, and–bingo–there she was, straining to go in the litter box. I noticed clumped blood in the box and knew it was definitely her. I took her to the vet first thing this morning to be checked out. Her bloodwork came back clean, which is great news, because with infections like this you have to be concerned with kidney function; hers are working fine. Her radiographs didn’t show any stones, so that’s also good. Her urinalysis results will be back tomorrow, and the vet will devise a plan of action from there. When I went to pick Finn up, Tracy, one of the technicians told me exactly how angry Finn was at being at the vet.

“Any time someone passed in front of her kennel, she would throw her arms through the bars and try to hit us.”

“Oh, God, I’m sorry. I’m so embarrassed. I can’t believe she’d do that.”

Tracy laughed. “It’s okay. We would just watch and laugh. We’ve never seen a cat do that before. She was fine once we had her in the towel.”

Yep, that’s my baby, alright.

I was finishing telling Tracy about Yum Yum’s possible movie role when Ashley, another technician, walked up to the desk.

“Yum Yum as a demon? I can’t see that. He’s such a sweetheart.” Ashley shook her head. “Now, Finn, on the other hand…”

Song Lyric of the Day:

Surrender to nothing / I’ll give up what I / Started / And stopped it / From end to beginning / A new day is coming / And I am finally free

30 Seconds to Mars / “Attack”

6:31PM.
Suddenly, exorbitant gas prices don’t look so bad. Kudos to the British police who foiled an alleged terror plot to simultaneously blow up 10 planes as they flew across the Atlantic from England to the US. Apparently, a few of the terrorists involved were planning test runs this weekend to see how easy it would be to smuggle their materials onboard in their carry-on luggage. Since they had sophisticated bombs concealed in sports drink bottles, to be detonated by disposable cameras, I imagine it would’ve been pretty easy to take those everyday items onboard planes. How scary is that?

As a result, airports are–understandably–on very high alert. Air travel passengers at London’s Heathrow Airport were told they could no longer take carry-on luggage onboard their flights. Stateside, delays racked up around the country as airports instituted their own stricter safety measures. As of right now, the only liquid-type substances allowed to be carried on to planes are infant formula, breast milk, and medications; mothers are being asked to drink from baby bottles to prove that they do, in fact, contain formula or breast milk.

We can no longer take beverages, shampoo, suntan lotion, toothpaste, hair gel, and makeup (among other items) onboard in our carry-on luggage. (For a complete list of prohibited items, check out TSA’s list.) Unfortunately, like so many post-9/11 security measures, I think this one is going to be permanent.

I understand the need for increased security measures, but rather than making me angry, it just makes me sad. It’s sad, and incredibly depressing, that this is what the state of our world has led to. What does make me angry is President Bush stating that our war against “Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation” seems designed to paint the US as the sole potential victim of this terrorist plot. What about the British? How about the passengers from all over the world–French, German, Russian, Chinese, Christian, Jewish, Catholic, and, yes, the Islamic, who are merely trying to safely get from point A to point B? The US is not alone in the war against terrorism, and it would do us all well to remember that.

To anyone travelling by plane in the near future, keep your chins up and remember–all these measures are meant to keep us safe. No matter how big a delay they may cause or how many flights people will miss because of them, they are meant to keep us safe. Here’s hoping they are successful. I know that’s what I’ll be praying next time I have to fly anywhere.

Song Lyric of the Day:

Know you stay true when my world is false / And everything around is breaking down to chaos / I always seek you when my sight is lost / And everything around is breaking down to chaos

Mute Math / “Chaos”

10:32PM.
Tonight’s the first night in about three weeks that I’ve been able to just sit down and do nothing. Life has been kicking my ass lately. Up and down and all around. Don’t get me wrong, though–I’m very happy in both my personal and professional life, but, wow, things have been going a million miles a minute lately. When I’m not working my tuckus off at the office, I’m plugging away on home improvement projects. And I’m not even mentioning all the other activities keeping me busy. Isn’t this supposed to be summer vacation?

By the end of last week, I was really starting to feel stressed. I had my MRI for my hip pain on Friday afternoon. Talk about a miserable experience. I was in a metal tube, hot as hell, with my feet taped together to keep my hips aligned. I became severely claustrophobic, to the point that I was almost hyperventilating. I couldn’t even listen to the radio–the headphones really intensified my claustrophobia, so I opted for earplugs instead. Bottom line is that it was 45 minutes of pure hell. If I ever need another MRI (and I really, really hope I don’t), I fully plan on having myself sedated. I refuse to be awake for another one.

I had a 3PM appointment for a fitness assessment at Fort Sanders Health & Fitness Center, so since I had time to kill after the MRI I ran a couple of errands. During this time a torrential downpour started, upping my stress level since I’m a nervous bad weather driver. By the time I walked into the Fit Test Office at the fitness center, I was pretty cranky. My fit test went as expected. I scored Well Above Average on crunches and ranked Weak as a Kitten on the upper body strength test (a whopping four pushups, and that last one almost killed me). My blood pressure was a new low record for me at 108/58. My weight is excellent, although if I lose any weight I’ll end up in the danger zone for my height. So no real surprises. Once my fit test was over, my test administrator went to get a trainer to help me set up a workout routine. She walked back into the room followed by a tall Wentworth Miller clone. Upon seeing Went Jr., all I could think was, Thank you, Jesus! Just the pick-up I needed.

I paid attention throughout the workout routine, although it got a little awkward when I noticed Rich working out at the same time as I was being trained by Went Jr. After my workout, I ran into Rich as he checked out at the front counter.

“Hello there.”

“Hi.”

“You looked like you were enjoying yourself.”

“Yeah, it went better than I expected.”

“Mmm hmm.”

“Did you see my trainer?”

“Yes. You were practically skipping.”

“I’m sorry, honey, but he was just what I needed. He looks like Wentworth Miller!”

“Yeah, I don’t see it.”

“Well, the green eyes, the mouth, the nose–“

“Okay, okay, I get it.”

***

Saturday afternoon Rich and I drove up to Bryson City, NC, to spend the night at a cabin our friends Sharon and Russ had rented. This was the first time we’d seen them since their wedding last year, and it was just like old times. We had fun catching up, with Sharon telling us about her first year as a teacher, and playing a game that was a combination of poker and hearts, with me even winning a couple of rounds. Due to the thunderstorm that followed us to the far side of the Great Smoky Mountains, we stayed put in the cabin Saturday. Sunday morning, we ventured into the city to hit antique and thrift stores only to find that in this particular tourist town, most of the proprietors take Sundays off. Rich and I then headed back to Knoxville, driving in yet another thunderstorm for almost the whole 3 1/2-hour trip.

***

I spoke with another Virginia-based friend, Lee, Monday night, and despite it being a short phone call, it was also just like old times (made me miss Bob and Sam, too). Lee called to ask a favor of me, and, I have to say, I’m really honored he thought of me for something so important (best of luck to you and Jo!). I was also very flattered when he told me he’s my #1 blog fan. He admitted he’s bummed on days I don’t post, which is why I dedicated this post title to him.

***

Tuesday night I accompanied Tamara, the birthday girl, to dinner at Big Ed’s Pizza in Oak Ridge. Neither one of us had been in a while, and her birthday was as good an excuse as any to go. Rich and I gave her a gift card to one of her favorite clothing stores, presented in a custom-made card designed by the hubby. From Big Ed’s, we drove to Best Buy, where Tamara bought me my birthday present a month early: season one of Prison Break. Come on, now–you didn’t think I’d be able to pass up her offer of getting my early gift on the day it was released, did you?

***

Things are still busy, and about to get busier. Demolition starts tomorrow on our Florida room, and Rich and I hope to wrap up our bedroom painting project this weekend. Since we’ll be homebound due to the remodeling work being done, we’re pretty confident we’ll be able to finish. Which is good, because that’ll be one less source of anxiety for Caleb. We think the monumental state of disarray our bedroom is in is reminding him of when we were getting ready to move back to Tennessee. Of course, that source of anxiety will soon be replaced by the group of men ripping apart the Florida room. Time to break out the Children’s Benadryl again.

Song Lyric of the Day:

I can only imagine / What it will be like / When I walk / By your side

Mercy Me / “I Can Only Imagine”

11:00PM.
My cat niece, Sasha, passed away this morning. She was tiny for her age, but, boy, she was a little spitfire. She put up a very, very brave fight against cancer, but it proved to be too much for her little body. I have to say, she was one of my favorite cat nieces. Whenever I’d go to Samantha’s house, there Sasha would be, quietly sitting in a corner, taking everything in. She’d stand as I approached, knowing I was going to pick her up and cuddle her to my chest. She especially liked being kissed on the top of her head, angling it to be sure you’d land a smacker right on her forehead. While sweet beyond belief, she’d occasionally give me such a stink eye that I would be convinced she was going to smack my face off (thankfully, she never did). I’m crushed that she is gone, but I am comforted knowing that thanks to Samantha, the last few years of Sasha’s life were happy ones and she knew she was very much loved (and more than a bit spoiled). I hope Samantha finds comfort in knowing that whenever she’s sad and misses her special little cat.

Song Lyric of the Day:

Before you can read me you got to learn how to see me, I said / Free your mind and the rest will follow

En Vogue / “Free Your Mind”

11:10PM.
Rich and I are going to pick out a new paint color for our bedroom tomorrow. We need to undo the ugliness that is our attempt at glazing our walls.

Here’s the before color. Pretty, isn’t it? You should’ve seen it when it had the two-foot-tall jungle animal-themed border when we first moved in. No, I’m not kidding. I’ll have to post pics of that someday.
Here’s the long wall primed save for the drying patch of drywall that Rich put in to fill in the hole left by the intercom we removed. Because that’s just what you want right over your bed. An intercom. Here’s the small wall after Rich glazed it. We still haven’t found the vandal who came into our house and smeared a poo-like substance all over the wall.

A close up of the ugliness.As you can see, Rich and I have a long way to go before our vision of a beautiful, romantic bedroom room is realized. And that way involves another coat of primer and at least two coats of glossy interior paint.

Pray for us.

Song Lyric of the Day:

You’ve been hit by / You’ve been struck by / A smooth criminal

Alien Ant Farm / “Smooth Criminal”

11:37AM.
So former *NSync member Lance Bass came out last week. To him I say: congrats on being in a good relationship, being yourself, and having the support of your family and friends. To the people making a fuss I say: what’s the problem?

Why do people still react so negatively when a celebrity comes out? I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read that fans of a certain actor/author/singer won’t watch their movies or TV show/read their books/buy their CDs anymore because they’ve come out. I have to say that’s never been a problem for me. If I admire someone’s talent and work, I could care less what their sexual orientation is.

Despite wider acceptance of homosexuality in general the last few years, it seems the majority of society still wants to be kept in the closet when it comes to their favorite celebrities. We don’t have a problem with celebrities indulging in rampant drug use over and over again (paging Robert Downey, Jr.) or unabashed promiscuity (top o’ the mornin’ to ya, Colin Farrell). Hell, we don’t even care if they’re not actually talented (far, far too many others to name). We’ll see how forgiving we are of alcohol-fueled anti-semitic remarks. Et tu, Mel Gibson?

Now, really, does coming out seem so dramatic now? I didn’t think so.

12:59PM.
Tomorrow is MTV‘s 25th birthday. Here’s a nifty little timeline of some seminal moments in the channel’s history. Ah, I remember the heady early days, when they played nothing but music videos. To commemorate MTV’s big day, VH1-Classic is airing the first 24 hours of MTV’s original programming starting at midnight tonight. When’s the last time you saw The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star?”

11:05PM.
I went to Samantha’s house tonight to help her with wedding invitations. While there, Rich called me. He’d been working on that nifty glazing wall technique that was going to beautify our bedroom and gave me an update.

“I hate to say this, but I think we made a huge mistake.”

“What? Are you kidding me?”

“Um, no. So what do you think of purple or blue or green?”

“We’ll discuss when I get home.”

I got home, looked at the wall, and my first thought was, “Vacancy at the HoJo’s.” Not good.

So now we’re back at square one with regard to a bedroom wall paint color. Let this be a lesson to you: new things are bad! Don’t try new things! Stay with the tried and true. At the very least, it’ll save you having to re-prime the walls and argue over paint swatches in the middle of The Home Depot. Or Lowe’s. Whichever you prefer.

Song Lyric of the Day:

From day one I got things wrong / One day I’ll get things right (maybe) / I never thought I knew the answers / While the whole world thinks they might

Jesus Jones / “Trust Me”

9:09PM.
The weekend got off to a lazy start. Friday night, Rich had another Battlestar Galactica season one on DVD marathon while I watched some more X Men Collection special features; I’m going to need to be weaned off the damn DVD set at this rate. Were it not for my newest distraction and having to fight for viewing time on the big TV, I’d be closer to finished by now. Married date nights really are the best when you’re both geeks, you know.

Yesterday I met Tamara and Cynthia for lunch at Panera Bread. We had fun hanging out, including taking a quick trip to the mall. I split off from them after the mall and came home to help Rich with home improvement projects. Our master bedroom is now a disaster area; we primed the non-wood-covered walls so all our furniture is jumbled in the middle of the room. Due to the overwhelming paint fumes, last night Rich slept on the futon in the office while I took the guest bed. As it is, the guest bedroom is also a disaster since we moved a bunch of boxes in from the Florida room in anticipation of demolition (next Friday!). Nothing like home improvement projects to make your house look like hell.

Dad and Ken came over last night; Ken was in town for the weekend and wanted to take a look at some of the footage from his and Vanessa’s wedding. Caleb put his Uncle Ken to work playing tug of war, while I put brother-in-law Ken to work trying to revive the Vaio (no dice). He’s going to take a look at it again next time he’s in town (he’s an IT genius). I WILL get those last iTunes songs off of it. Oh, yes, I will.

I met Samantha for lunch today at Panera Bread (different location than yesterday). We discussed strategy for her bridal shower next month and then headed to McKay’s so she could trade some old CDs, books, and VHS tapes. I then returned home to again tackle home improvement projects with the hubby. We went to The Home Depot to pick out paint for our bedroom. It was such an ordeal we were ready to run screaming to the nearest marriage counselor. But then we finally agreed on a couple of colors with which we will create a beautiful, glazed effect on our walls. At least, that’s what we’re hoping for.

We bought groceries at Wal-Mart, so that way Rich could pick up season two of Battlestar Galactica at the same time. Guess where he is right now. Go on. Guess. That’s right–the couch.
Now I’m trying to decide how to spend the rest of my evening: Grey’s Anatomy or more X-Men. How to decide…

Very persuasive arguments in favor of Grey’s Anatomy, don’t you think?

Then again…

And, of course, my favorite guy of all…
Hey, I may be obsessive, but I’m not stupid. Who loves ya, baby?

10:35PM.
Mofo. Rich is still watching Battlestar Galactica, and Grey’s Anatomy is Tivoing up here on the big TV. And the TV and DVD are disconnected in our bedroom thanks to our painting project. Oy.

At least I can keep updating my iTunes library. I was able to pull some albums off of our server: You Could Have It So Much Better by Franz Ferdinand, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb by U2, It’s Time by Michael Buble, all the Garbage albums, all the Coldplay albums, a lot of 80s music. I’ve also managed to burn a lot of CDs today in between cooking and cleaning: albums by Erasure, Depeche Mode, Supreme Beings of Leisure, Green Day, The Chemical Brothers, Puddle of Mudd, Interpol, James Blunt, The All-American Rejects, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Academy Is…, and Fall Out Boy, among others.

Ah, the nuances of a new computer–rebuilding my iTunes library is only the tip of the iceberg.

Song Lyric of the Day:

So you were born in an electrical storm / Took a bite out the sun / Saw your future in a machine built for two / Now your rays, make me kind of go crazy, shocked and awe and amaze me / Just a ticker tape parade and me

OK Go / “Do What You Want”

10:29PM.
I’ve been completely scatterbrained this week. I actually woke up Tuesday morning and had no idea what day it was. My mind is going about a thousand miles a minute, it seems. I guess it’s a combination of things: work (busy but fun), home improvement, Samantha’s wedding, planning a visit from out-of-town friends, planning a visit to New York City, budgeting for new tires, finally going to the doctor about my bum hip, yada yada yada. I can honestly say that the week has flown by; I can’t believe tomorrow it will be Friday already.

Tonight our contractor, Jeff, came over to discuss starting demolition on the Florida room. Our doors and windows were delivered a few days ago, so we’re ready to start. I will, of course, be photographing every step of the remodel and posting photos here as the project progresses. I also suspect we might finally have to put Caleb on doggy Prozac. We’ll see how well he handles the noise and disruption. I know Snoops won’t be in the least bit fazed by the activity; she’s a real trooper.

As I mentioned, I finally got around to seeing an orthopedic specialist about my right hip. The good news is it’s not bursitis, as a general practitioner diagnosed in May 2004. The bad news is, the doctor isn’t sure exactly what the problem is, so I have to go in for an MRI next Friday, which has me a bit scared. I’m not claustrophobic, but the idea of being in a narrow metal tube freaks me out more than you can imagine. The nurse who scheduled the MRI for me was nice enough to call the other office and ask if I would have to go all the way in the tube. Lucky me, being tall means that I might only have to go in as far as my neck. Any farther, I’m going to ask for a nice valium cocktail to help me relax.

After work I headed over to my headshot photographer‘s studio, but I missed her by about seven minutes, so I need to get by this weekend to get my comp cards ordered (my agent let me know which two photos she wants me to use). The sooner I get my comp card, the sooner my agent can submit me for acting and/or modeling jobs, and the sooner I can pay back my Apple loan and pay off my last credit cards. Seeing as how I missed her, I headed to Borders (it was closer than Barnes & Noble) to see if I could find a certain magazine, which I did. Any self-respecting Wentworth Miller fan needs to run, not walk, to their nearest bookstore and pick up the August issue of Details magazine. Why? Because he looks like this:

*Scan courtesy of Wentworth Miller Online.

And now you know why he’s called The Pretty.

I think I need to buy Rich a Maxim magazine so we can call it even. For now.

Song Lyric of the Day:

What have you found / That there’s no time / There’s no time / To analyse / To think things through / To make sense

Thom Yorke / “Analyse”

11:09PM.
The BlogHer conference starts this weekend in San Jose, CA. While I am blogrolled with BlogHer, I am obviously not going to make it to the conference this year (maybe next year). So in lieu of me going, I’m going to address their theme for this year: How is your blog changing the world?

So how is my blog changing the world? Easy answer–it’s not. I recently wrote about why I like to read blogs (which is why this post will be fairly short–I already said what I needed to say), and I guess that’s why my 10 regular readers (see, I added one) check in on a fairly consistent basis. But I know it’s not because I’m rocking their world or anything.

BlogHer also asks: How are blogs making a difference in your lives, your families, your communities, your businesses and/or the world around you? I guess the most obvious thing blogs have in common is that they keep us connected. To each other, to our interests, to the world at large. I know why my family and friends check in regularly–to get a glimpse into my verbose, sometimes oddly peculiar personality. As for strangers who stumble across my blog and come back on occasion, I guess they’re interested in reading what it’s like to be a young, married, TV and movie fanatic, dog- and cat-parenting, Puerto Rican copy editor and part-part-part-time actress living in East Tennessee. I’m speculating here, but you get the idea.

I feel fortunate to be part of the blogosphere (and, by proxy, the crazy MySpace world) precisely because these are the very technologies (hello, YouTube) revolutionizing the world on a daily basis. People meet, reunite, and network before meeting face-to-face, products (TV shows, movies, books) can be marketed like never before, and internet stars are born daily, among other things.

As for the future, how long will I maintain this blog? I guess for as long as people stop by to read what I write. Or at least until I can attend a BlogHer conference.