How much do I love this?

A lot.

I have to admit that I tend to be 2 things.

I am fickle, and I am obsessive.

These two things are not necessarily bad things, but they sometimes aren’t good.

I latch on to something and obsess about it until I have squoozen (it’s a word!)(ok not so much) out all of it’s juicy goodness.

Then I get bored and need something new to latch on to. Let’s face it people, it’s amazing that this blog isn’t all cobwebby, because I just as probably could have forgotten about it 2 months after I started it!

I just have to say, it’s a good thing I am still married! It must be the sex. One can never get bored with good sex.

Ahem!

OK, so in the past few years, a few of these obsessions can be pointed out. Of course there’s Project Skinny which I’m just not going to get into lest I cry myself to sleep tonight. I’ll just say that this is gonna be my year!

Last fall I got all design crazy planning out how to kit out our newly-floored basement. (Which I really should follow up on and post some pictures.)

Last Christmas I read every photography website on the interweb trying to determine which piece of photographic equipment I should get next.

And now lately, I have been scurrying around reading personal finance blogs, listening to finance podcasts and going all crazy with the google spreadsheets. =SUM! =PRODUCT!

This is me! I latch on, and I obsess! and then 2 months go by, and I am on to the next thing.

I think though, that I have been neglecting to report on the one obsession I have had my entire life. It is one thing that I will never ever grow weary of. Long before I had the most adorable children on earth and a damn sexy husband, I have had this obsession.

When I was growing up, we had a Thanksgiving tradition. We would go around the table, and state something we were thankful.

When I was 12, I said, “I’m thankful for my hair.”

31 years later, and I still haven’t lived that statement down.

That’s right, people, I’m talking about my hair.

So while I have set down some goals for 2008, Important, Adult, and Very Mature Goals, I think it’s important to put this one down in writing as well:

I want red hair by the end of the year. If that is impossible, then at least by my 2009 birthday.

I’m glad we were able to cover the important things in life.

Thank you, and good night.

it’s the 9th, so it’s ’bout time, eh?

(taken place around the dinner table in the last week or so)

james: knock knock
jocelyn: who’s there
james: interupting cow
jocelyn: interupt–
james: MOOOOOOOO!

Ethan: Knock knock!
me: Who’s there!
Ethan: apple!
me: apple who?
Ethan: Apple fart-head!

me: knock knock!
ethan: who’s there!
me: boo!
ethan: boo hoo!
me: aww, what’s the matter, why are you crying?!

Jocelyn: knock knock!
james: who’s there
jocelyn: interupting cow!
james: interupting cow who!
jocelyn: interupting cow macaroni and cheese!

ethan: knock knock!
james: who’s there
ethan: interupting sheep!
james: in—
ethan: BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

jocelyn knock knock!
me: who’s there!
jocelyn: bowl!
me: bowl who?
jocelyn: apple in the bowl!

me: knock knock
jocelyn: who’s there
me: interupting cow
me: inter–
everyone: MOOOOOOOO!!

jocelyn: knock knock!
ethan: who’s there!
jocelyn: MOO!

-fini-

Number three? Number THREE??? I know that I forgot about my weekly friday theme for a few weeks, but I thought we’d be on 4 or 5 at least?

Blah. I suck! wahoo!

So yesterday, I was perusing my stats to see if anyone ever stops by here anymore, what with my prolonged not-writing-ness and continued grumpiness, and stumbled upon an old post that someone had found while searching for “personifying poop” (don’t worry, no poop will be personified (and don’t you think they actually meant anthromorphized?) in the following recyled post below). I clicked, read my own post, and I must say, I cracked myself up. Here’s an excerpt from my near-death experience:

I can only relate the anguish that I underwent by telling you that I thought death was imminent. My abdomen felt like a fiery pit of hell. My head felt all feverish, goose bumps broke out on my skin, and I actually started sweating like a pig. I could not contain the moaning that seemed to come from my throat.

Another thing I love about this post? In the title bar of the browser, it states: “Poop. at Crazy Mokes.” What’s not to love about that?? So click, and go get your poop, at crazy mokes.

So, a near-death poop experience, and a cute kid story at the end to boot. Go read, have a chuckle, and have a great weekend. Mine will be spent cheering on soccer players under the age of 6, and probably buying & putting together Ikea furniture. Yay for cheap scandinavian consumerism!

-amy wears a hat and scarf indoors.

Birthday cake for a co-worker, which reads, “One Step Closer to Death”.

As you know, I have my wallet back in my possession. Despite my earlier statements that I’m purchasing some sort of device that will aid me in it’s recovery when it goes missing, after giving my vehement thanks to whatever gods there may be, I’ve pretty much gone back to normal in it’s regard.

When I first got it back, the lady who handed it to me said casually, “I broke your zipper, I’m afraid..” and I had a brief moment of heart palpitation as I took it from her and quickly inspected it. My mom bought me this wallet from Nordstrom probably over 10 years ago, and no other wallet has ever fit so perfectly into my hand and my lifestyle as well. In short, I LOVE this wallet, and whenever it goes missing, my first lament after the fact that, you know, all my money-getting-cards and info are now in the hands of who knows who, is that it is the PERFECT WALLET, and NOW IT’S GONE, WAAAAHHHH!

Now, I say that it’s perfect, but technically, this is not true. “Perfect” denotes that it is without any flaws or imperfections. That I find absolutely no fault with it. And sadly, I do have one minor complaint that makes it a teeny tiny bit less than perfect – it zips up from the wrong side. It really is a minor thing, and one would wonder how any “side” could be the “wrong” side to zip up from, but all I know is when I pick it up and unzip it I always then have to turn it around to get at the money/cards slots thing. Always. Unzip, flip. It’s always on the wrong side. It’s the way I unzip. But as you now know, this really is a petty little complaint. I love my wallet, love love love it. Even though it isn’t truly correct to say so, it’s perfect and none other have ever suited me as much as this one.

So the thought of the zipper being broken really did grab my heart with the icy grip of fear. Oh my god! What would I do if this wallet had finally gone kaput?! Even before the soft black leather touched my skin I had run through all the possible scenarios how bad it could be and even if it really was broken, I could always have the zipper replaced (and they could put it in the opposite way too!).. I checked it out and saw that the zipper was fine, though some bits of paper from a receipt had gotten zipped into the threads and had caused it to pucker open. This has happened to me countless times (because I keep way too much shit in my wallet) and is easily remedied. You merely grab the zipper handle thingee and yank it over the caught paper really hard. Then pick out the paper bits and zip it up normally. Relief. My wallet was fine. Oh happy day! Oh, and of course, it was found and not lost and all that jazz, yadda yadda yadda.

As I mentioned, after the initial elation, I have largely forgotten about my wallet. Today, I took a moment to open it up, sort through all the receipts and paper bits therein and toss anything that needed tossing. While I had everything out, I careful looked at the zipper, and seeing there were still itty bitty paper bits stuck in the zipper, unzipped it as far as it could go and picked them all out. For the first time in 10 years, I realized that while the zipper is sewed quite firmly to the wallet .. the end isn’t sewed down to anything. THe wallet makers simply stuck the extra 2 inches of zipper length into a (non-sewed shut) opening in the middle where the zipper begun on one side, and ended on the other. I pulled the end of the zipper out and contemplated. I pulled the other end out and pondered some more.

Could this be this easy? To just switch the zipper head thingee (what ARE those things called??) around and have it go the other way? After ten years I could have the PERFECT WALLET in 1 minute of work? What if after I pulled the zipper head thingee off, I couldn’t get it back on the zipper again? I did a little testing and then tossed in the towel and just did it.

Now my zipper zips up the opposite way. Now when I unzip it, the correct side (with the money and the cards) is facing me and I don’t have to flip it around.

I truly have THE PERFECT WALLET!!!

Now that this has been accomplished, I REALLY don’t want to lose it. So I wrote a little message on the back of my business card to any would-be-finder of the wallet.

And I put it where I think it’ll be seen. After they dig through all the receipts that I’m sure will be occupying the center space.

I should still look into wallet finder thingees though.

I kind of missed a new banner for april. But here’s the May banner, in honor of Ethan’s birthday.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go fill out birthday party invitations.

I love playing sudoku. It started with the washington post express when I had a temp job working in DC. I’d get the express, skim through it, and do the puzzle on the train into town. When I stopped doing that, my habit tapered off a bit… ok, I stopped completely. but that has all changed now that I have sudoku on my phone. I always thought I could never do that, I always thought I HAD to have paper and pencil to do a puzzle, but no. The verizon sudoku program is a good one, and I will often carry my phone to bed with me to have one more go at the current puzzle (and maybe start another one) before calling it a night.

Lately, I’ve noticed that I do some weird things while I work out a puzzle. Sometimes, I’m concentrating and everything is clicking and there’s just nothing going on in my brain to distract me.

However other times, when I’ve run into a dead end, I start talking to myself. (Not out loud, becuase that would be crazy.) No, I talk to myself in my head. I tell myself that the 2 can’t go in that column, or I’ll make note of where the 9 is in that other cube, or I’ll just mumble stuff as I stare at the puzzle and try not to be too tempted by that “hint” button.

OK.. so while talking to myself in my head may not be crazy, I’ve noticed that.. well… ahem… sometimes it isn’t *my* voice that is talking to me. The first time it happened, it was a deep throaty man’s voice. and not any man’s voice… the voice had a jamaican accent. Maybe it’s just my own way of amusing myself (and it worked. I was amused.) but it *was* fun to hear, “Ya cyan’t put that 2 there, mon. Think, wooman! think!”

Then it wasn’t anything for a while. Just me. My own voice. Until recently, when I’ve been hearing a man’s scottish accent.

So, yeah, the jury’s still out on my mental stability. But when I’m stumped with the sudoku puzzle, it’s always nice to have someone talk to me about the validity of whether that 2 is eliminated or not. Especially in a sexy scottish accent.

– amy

James and I saw it last Friday night.

Loved it.

Wish I hadn’t read any summary/synopsis of the movie.. it ruined it a little bit for me. The summary always stated something about the girl’s imaginary world, but I think it could have been viewed as “real” events, and I would have done so, if I hadn’t read those and been predisposed to thinking “this is all in her head.”

Other complaint.. “EL LABERINTO DEL FAUNO”

Does anyone else see a mention of “Pan” in there? This obviously says, “The Faun’s Labyrinth” .. and there was no mention of Pan anywhere else in the movie that I could see. The faun was never named as Pan. Isn’t Pan a pretty important mythical character? Am I wrong to feel like I was mislead by the “Pan” in the title? THERE WAS NO PAN! DON’T TRY TO FOOL ME WITH THAT TITLE!

Anyway. For some reason I feel kind of righteously indignant about this translated title.

Oh, but the movie was beautiful. It appealed to the fairy tale lover in me. It felt right, and it was not just the icing of a fairy tale that happens in so many versions. It had real horror and life and death situations (which real fairy tales have), which was mirrored in the physical (“real”) world going on around the girl. It did not leave the taste of sacharin in one’s mouth, as so many modern/updated fairy tales do.

Highly recommended. Hope it wins all the awards it was nominated for.