I've been testing the function on blogger to add photos, but I'm not able to get it to work. I tried setting up the folder myself so the image could upload correctly, but that didn't seem to work either. What that means I suppose is that I will have to manually upload photos and then link to them. Which takes away from "instant" feeling of pushing a button and getting it to work, but there you go :)

Some photos from the party last night, which was very nice. Also: a bonus photo of me with "gi-normous" 80s eyeglasses :)

Hormones suck. They just totally, totally suck.

Candyce and Kevin are hosting a costumed Samhain party tonight. But after polishing my boots (how can one be a blue fairy without high-heeled black Bandolino boots, I ask you?), I'm sitting here thinking of how miserable last winter was.

I move in circles of happy couples. I want to be half of a happy couple, where time and distance don't matter, and everything has a chance to work out juuuuuust right. I want to walk into a room and have someone's face light up when they see me.

Feeling this way is so annoying because you know, the world doesn't revolve around me and my little life. I like it much better when I'm not feeling blue. So tonight, I will put on a smile and have a nice time then come home. It would be nicer if there were someone going with me to the party and someone (the same someone!) coming home with me. I'm still going to laugh and play games and have fun.

And I must remember to enter rooms sideways so my beautiful blue wings don't get caught on any door frames.

Today felt like the Return of Sisyphus :( Oh, well. At least the day is (almost) over.

I work on the second floor of my building and at the top landing, there's a long table where food was put out for folks on crunch days. Today as Matt and I were on our way out to lunch we passed the table and simultaneously stopped dead in our tracks and said, pivoting around for a better look, "Oooh."

Someone had put out a bag of candied corn. I love candied corn, even if it's not made of chocolate. Apparently Matt likes it too so we grabbed some and continued on our way. This was a high point in my whole day...candied corn! Yay!

We went to a different sandwich place today as neither of us had cash. This place takes plastic so we were all set! Matt ordered his sandwich and the girl looked from him to me and asked, "Are you together or separate?"

"We've been separated for some time," I replied, staring at the menu. "Just need to work out the last details."

She looked at us both, trying to figure out if I was serious. Matt said, "I get the house." I said, "Then I get the dog." She said, "Well, both your orders are coming out under one name."

It wasn't as much fun as it could have been, but at least she was somewhat sporting.

We end tonight's tale of woe with some haiku:

No cell minutes left
Lots of texts can be sent, but
No conversations

Some days, you just feel like Sisyphus, ya know? :/

In other news, the Science Channel is rerunning Bill Nye's "100 Greatest Discoveries" series. Now, Mr. Nye is a real scientist, but when I see him the first thing I think of is the old Almost Live segment in which he was one of the Streetwalking Lawyers of Aurora Avenue. :) Just thinking about him strutting his stuff with a briefcase, leaning into a potential client's car window gives me the giggles. Hee!

Once upon a time, I read a book excerpt and as a result went to the library every week to hunt down every book in the series. Naturally, since I'm obsessive-compulsive, I do tend to read everything written by someone once I get started, but after a while I usually get bored and move on.

In this case, I enjoyed the books so much that I collected all of them and now find that there are peripheral books as well.

These books are my guilty pleasure...the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. Apparently I'm not alone in my obsession since there is an entire society devoted to these books :)

What I find so fascinating is that these are stories based on real people. The heroine, Betsy, is based on Maud Hart herself. And one of my favorite characters, Carney, is enjoying her posthumous 15 minutes of fame as a collection of her letters and a biography were recently published.

It struck me as odd, that a fictional character should generate enough interest that her real life inspiration should get a biography. But like any dutifully obsessed person, I am going to collect all the books about her, too.

Could be worse. I could collect like belly button fuzz or something :)

Some photos from my trip to Hawaii, plus a few of Phil's works at the Museum of Art.

That sounds so grand, doesn't it? :)

The concert was great! It's always good when they sing the songs you want them to sing mostest of all. The final encore was Desperado, which is about my favorite Eagles song. They're playing again in a couple of weeks if anyone else wants to invite me. :)

Since this was a corporate entertainment thinger, Larry got a hotel room for me so I wouldn't have to drive home afterwards, which was great since by the time the concert finished I was exhausted. And as it happens a huge mall is across the street from the hotel, so after breakfast, I went shopping! hahaha!

The Eagles have an interesting demographic spanning several decades. Larry and his friends are over ten years older than me, so sometimes during dinner I felt a bit out of my element. I mean I don't remember the Cuban missile crisis as it happened. Still, they were an entertaining group who apparently wandered off at intermission to smoke a joint. Mind you, I have no direct evidence (just olfactory) since I stayed in my seat to people watch.

When we exited the venue, Larry commented about all the "nice uncles taking out their nieces," meaning all the older men with their arm candy. I glanced at him and realized he was being totally serious; I don't think he realizes how much older than me he is and that, well, he looks his age. Heh :)

It was also a sort of throw-back to the days when I was always the tallest person I knew. I bought some black flats to wear because Larry's shorter than me. Little did I know the other couple was also shorter than me. I don't think I've slouched in my seat that much since high school!

In any event, I had a fantastic time! And as I flitted around this massive mall in a fashion frenzy, Phil called to let me know he now has his learner's permit! Aieeee!

Larry invited me to the Eagles concert on Friday! He's entertaining a couple of brokers and asked me along. He told me who they are and one of the names rings a bell, but I don't think I've ever met any of these folks.

One of them asked, "What's your date's name?" and Larry, who is a comedian, replied, "Before or after the surgery?"

He suggested I chat up our time in the Army together (there wasn't any) and he plans to address me as "Fred...I mean, Tracy. I just can't get used to calling you 'Tracy!'"

I said I'll wear my combat boots and a scarf to cover my Adam's apple. Halloween comes early this year :)

I need to wander over to the camera docking station and download the photos from this weekend. Dianne and I took some before, during and after shots of our letter burning.

The camera comes with a timer mechanism that mystified me. Since I'd spent an entire week in Hawaii and came away without any photos of me and Kurt together, I was determined to get a shot of me and Dianne. Pressed the little timer button, dashed to the sofa and we sat there for a bit wondering why the camera wasn't blinking or anything.

"I wish Chris were here," I said finally, giving up after the twentieth try.

"Oh! Does he know how to use the timer?" asked Dianne.

"Well, no...but he could maybe take the photo..."

Be sure not to miss our act when we tour Sacramento perhaps in January next year!

Here's the photo we had taken by the information desk lady at the airport. :)

Dianne's flight home left later than expected tonight, which is fine for me (not so good for her) as we had so much catching up to do.

Saturday we sat down with our letter collections and read all day, interspersed with reviewing our old annuals to see who was whom. Most of the stuff I had was from our high school years; Dianne's collection was mainly letters I'd written to her while at basic and advance training, so between us we had about 5 years of history.

There were episodes in our letters that neither of us remembered until seeing them again. Some rather unhappy episodes in my life date to that period of time and it was odd to remember them after having buried the memories for so long. I'm sure Dianne felt somewhat the same about some of her notes to me.

We called Kurt up around midnight; he commented that he wished he were here to read these things with us to which we emphatically said, "NO!" Heh :) While we're pretty sure none of our family members would know who we were talking about (and in at least one case, we have no idea who we meant), Kurt would know pretty much everyone...especially since he himself showed up in these things now and again. Hahaha!

So much angst! Sometimes we wrote intelligently about life and love; other times we were befuddled and confused about everything around us. We counseled each other, dished about the boys we knew and asked for help unraveling what "he" meant when he said whatever; "he" being whichever guy we had a particular crush on at the time. We said some things that, looking back, turned out to be eerily prophetic.

The whole day and night we rocked with laughter, quoting to each other when something was particularly funny or prescient. Points were clarified, decisions re-debated and episodes relived. The process was not only fun, but in a way healing.

This morning we burnt our letter collections. There were so many that at one point I was concerned we'd set the chimney on fire as well. It would have been fitting; some of these letters contained hot stuff! :)

Coffee time is 4PM amongst my office worker pals. Most of them aren't in the office this week, so yesterday I had to hunt down Drew, who is one of the programmery dudes who beats up on Matt at racketball (or something) and coerce him into going with me.

I could go get coffee on my own and often do, but this whole week has been filled with friends and family and I just wanted some company. Like the good sport he is, Drew went with me and as it turns out, most of the Sbux girls were the ones who know me by name (and I know them by name, too...which just goes to show how often we go there).

Tonight Dianne's coming in for the weekend! I'm so excited; we've not been able to spend time together just the two of us in years. :) We are going to gossip and giggle and maybe even like paint our nails as we burn old letters.

There's something so comforting about having an old friend who knows what an ass you used to be and still likes you because they know you're not always such a goofball.

And it's also comforting to know that there's friends of friends who are willing to go get coffee with you even when they've only seen you in passing as you flip off their friend. Wheee!

Hahaha! My wireless network went down sometime while I was on holiday but after only a handful of choice, colorful words I fixed it all by myself! Broos will be so pleased.

:)

Dianne's coming to visit this weekend! I need to dig back out the box of our old high school letters so we can have our letter burning! It's here by the bed, hiding with several friends beneath a duvet cover, filled with our deepest, darkest secrets and yearnings. Definitely not for the cherubs to find, even if they won't know who any of the folks involved are!

On Monday, Kurt drove me past our friend Lisa's parents' home but I couldn't make myself go up to ask where she is now. :/ Her mom really, really hated me; she thought I was a bad influence on her daughter. And even though you, gentle reader, may be nodding your head over this, know that I was a very good girl in high school. Except for the truancy thing, but hey...I never made Li cut class with me. I was honestly a good girl! Honest! And still, evidently, scared of Lisa's mom. Heh.

I am safely returned from my trip :)

Thank you to my family and to Kurt for taking large chunks of time out of their weekend to keep me entertained. I have photos that need me to wander out to the living room and put the camera on the recharger and transmitter thinger. Apparently I made a video of the exciting contents of my purse that drained its battery. Heh!

After the most excellent Loggins and Messina concert Friday night, Kurt drove us by our old stomping grounds (our high school campuses). They've dug up the Oval and its trees to build some stuff (he told me what, but I was dismayed and now I have no idea). Such sacrilege!

No okazuya again, but we went to the Discover Moiliili Festival where I got to revel in local kine stuffs and watch the Okinawan dancers. And that made me get all lump-in-the-throat because everything was familiar but different. The music, the smells, pidgin English everywhere. And yet, it's not my home anymore, even if I could still lapse into enough local chat with the ladies at one of the craft booths that they would probably not suspect (much) that I've lived elsewhere for the past 25 years.

Sitting on the little balcony of the hotel room, I reflected that so many folks save up for the chance to sit and watch the sunrise over Diamond Head, to walk barefoot in the waves, to visit all the touristy shops and consider souvenirs, then see the sun set over Waikiki beach at night. I grew up with all that and I still enjoyed them. Probably because it's not my home any more; I'm just another tourist now.

Later, more da kine stuff, li' dat. I stay tired. Alooooooha!

Leaving today for Hawaii. :)

I hope the weather gods are with me so that I can lay out for a bit, walk over to my mom's or my sister's on occasion and just relax.

Ciao!

My sister got me hooked on Final Fantasy back in the old NES days. I own just about all the versions of the game and now to my delight have gotten the GBA version in time for my trip. Yay!

It's slightly disconcerting that the game is much easier than I remember and there are new translations and spells. The GBA is perfect to play it on.

I also have Pokemon Pinball to take along. That's an addicting little deal too, since I'm obsessing over not being able to evolve those damn little thingers. Chris watched me playing the other day and didn't know what one of the critters was. "I'm old school," he said. Apparently they've added in dozens of new guys since my cherub was young enough to collect them. Some help he'll be.

I spent the weekend with several coworkers and folks from our game's community. It's not a fan gathering, it's more of a focus group where we get input directly from some of the game's fan sites and players.

One of the women I met runs a website that I know Chris has used when trying to figure stuff out. We chatted quite a bit over the last couple of days and this morning were visiting again before heading home. She mentioned she used to play GS3 and how she now belongs to a guild that includes some former GS players. Then she mentioned her old character's tag-line and I shrieked in recognition, "You were the Ambush Healer!?" Hee!

Chris and I are still mourning Megan, though he still doesn't want to talk directly about it. When I checked the mail upon returning home from the hotel, I noticed the vet's office had sent us a nice card and a little package. Chris opened it up and we both welled up in tears. They'd made a cast of Megan's paw print and decorated it nicely. She'll be cremated and her ashes will be scattered at sea.

Now to get caught up on Tivo!

I've been testing the function on blogger to add photos, but I'm not able to get it to work. I tried setting up the folder myself so the image could upload correctly, but that didn't seem to work either. What that means I suppose is that I will have to manually upload photos and then link to them. Which takes away from "instant" feeling of pushing a button and getting it to work, but there you go :)

Some photos from the party last night, which was very nice. Also: a bonus photo of me with "gi-normous" 80s eyeglasses :)

Hormones suck. They just totally, totally suck.

Candyce and Kevin are hosting a costumed Samhain party tonight. But after polishing my boots (how can one be a blue fairy without high-heeled black Bandolino boots, I ask you?), I'm sitting here thinking of how miserable last winter was.

I move in circles of happy couples. I want to be half of a happy couple, where time and distance don't matter, and everything has a chance to work out juuuuuust right. I want to walk into a room and have someone's face light up when they see me.

Feeling this way is so annoying because you know, the world doesn't revolve around me and my little life. I like it much better when I'm not feeling blue. So tonight, I will put on a smile and have a nice time then come home. It would be nicer if there were someone going with me to the party and someone (the same someone!) coming home with me. I'm still going to laugh and play games and have fun.

And I must remember to enter rooms sideways so my beautiful blue wings don't get caught on any door frames.

Today felt like the Return of Sisyphus :( Oh, well. At least the day is (almost) over.

I work on the second floor of my building and at the top landing, there's a long table where food was put out for folks on crunch days. Today as Matt and I were on our way out to lunch we passed the table and simultaneously stopped dead in our tracks and said, pivoting around for a better look, "Oooh."

Someone had put out a bag of candied corn. I love candied corn, even if it's not made of chocolate. Apparently Matt likes it too so we grabbed some and continued on our way. This was a high point in my whole day...candied corn! Yay!

We went to a different sandwich place today as neither of us had cash. This place takes plastic so we were all set! Matt ordered his sandwich and the girl looked from him to me and asked, "Are you together or separate?"

"We've been separated for some time," I replied, staring at the menu. "Just need to work out the last details."

She looked at us both, trying to figure out if I was serious. Matt said, "I get the house." I said, "Then I get the dog." She said, "Well, both your orders are coming out under one name."

It wasn't as much fun as it could have been, but at least she was somewhat sporting.

We end tonight's tale of woe with some haiku:

No cell minutes left
Lots of texts can be sent, but
No conversations

Some days, you just feel like Sisyphus, ya know? :/

In other news, the Science Channel is rerunning Bill Nye's "100 Greatest Discoveries" series. Now, Mr. Nye is a real scientist, but when I see him the first thing I think of is the old Almost Live segment in which he was one of the Streetwalking Lawyers of Aurora Avenue. :) Just thinking about him strutting his stuff with a briefcase, leaning into a potential client's car window gives me the giggles. Hee!

Once upon a time, I read a book excerpt and as a result went to the library every week to hunt down every book in the series. Naturally, since I'm obsessive-compulsive, I do tend to read everything written by someone once I get started, but after a while I usually get bored and move on.

In this case, I enjoyed the books so much that I collected all of them and now find that there are peripheral books as well.

These books are my guilty pleasure...the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. Apparently I'm not alone in my obsession since there is an entire society devoted to these books :)

What I find so fascinating is that these are stories based on real people. The heroine, Betsy, is based on Maud Hart herself. And one of my favorite characters, Carney, is enjoying her posthumous 15 minutes of fame as a collection of her letters and a biography were recently published.

It struck me as odd, that a fictional character should generate enough interest that her real life inspiration should get a biography. But like any dutifully obsessed person, I am going to collect all the books about her, too.

Could be worse. I could collect like belly button fuzz or something :)

Some photos from my trip to Hawaii, plus a few of Phil's works at the Museum of Art.

That sounds so grand, doesn't it? :)

The concert was great! It's always good when they sing the songs you want them to sing mostest of all. The final encore was Desperado, which is about my favorite Eagles song. They're playing again in a couple of weeks if anyone else wants to invite me. :)

Since this was a corporate entertainment thinger, Larry got a hotel room for me so I wouldn't have to drive home afterwards, which was great since by the time the concert finished I was exhausted. And as it happens a huge mall is across the street from the hotel, so after breakfast, I went shopping! hahaha!

The Eagles have an interesting demographic spanning several decades. Larry and his friends are over ten years older than me, so sometimes during dinner I felt a bit out of my element. I mean I don't remember the Cuban missile crisis as it happened. Still, they were an entertaining group who apparently wandered off at intermission to smoke a joint. Mind you, I have no direct evidence (just olfactory) since I stayed in my seat to people watch.

When we exited the venue, Larry commented about all the "nice uncles taking out their nieces," meaning all the older men with their arm candy. I glanced at him and realized he was being totally serious; I don't think he realizes how much older than me he is and that, well, he looks his age. Heh :)

It was also a sort of throw-back to the days when I was always the tallest person I knew. I bought some black flats to wear because Larry's shorter than me. Little did I know the other couple was also shorter than me. I don't think I've slouched in my seat that much since high school!

In any event, I had a fantastic time! And as I flitted around this massive mall in a fashion frenzy, Phil called to let me know he now has his learner's permit! Aieeee!

Larry invited me to the Eagles concert on Friday! He's entertaining a couple of brokers and asked me along. He told me who they are and one of the names rings a bell, but I don't think I've ever met any of these folks.

One of them asked, "What's your date's name?" and Larry, who is a comedian, replied, "Before or after the surgery?"

He suggested I chat up our time in the Army together (there wasn't any) and he plans to address me as "Fred...I mean, Tracy. I just can't get used to calling you 'Tracy!'"

I said I'll wear my combat boots and a scarf to cover my Adam's apple. Halloween comes early this year :)

I need to wander over to the camera docking station and download the photos from this weekend. Dianne and I took some before, during and after shots of our letter burning.

The camera comes with a timer mechanism that mystified me. Since I'd spent an entire week in Hawaii and came away without any photos of me and Kurt together, I was determined to get a shot of me and Dianne. Pressed the little timer button, dashed to the sofa and we sat there for a bit wondering why the camera wasn't blinking or anything.

"I wish Chris were here," I said finally, giving up after the twentieth try.

"Oh! Does he know how to use the timer?" asked Dianne.

"Well, no...but he could maybe take the photo..."

Be sure not to miss our act when we tour Sacramento perhaps in January next year!

Here's the photo we had taken by the information desk lady at the airport. :)

Dianne's flight home left later than expected tonight, which is fine for me (not so good for her) as we had so much catching up to do.

Saturday we sat down with our letter collections and read all day, interspersed with reviewing our old annuals to see who was whom. Most of the stuff I had was from our high school years; Dianne's collection was mainly letters I'd written to her while at basic and advance training, so between us we had about 5 years of history.

There were episodes in our letters that neither of us remembered until seeing them again. Some rather unhappy episodes in my life date to that period of time and it was odd to remember them after having buried the memories for so long. I'm sure Dianne felt somewhat the same about some of her notes to me.

We called Kurt up around midnight; he commented that he wished he were here to read these things with us to which we emphatically said, "NO!" Heh :) While we're pretty sure none of our family members would know who we were talking about (and in at least one case, we have no idea who we meant), Kurt would know pretty much everyone...especially since he himself showed up in these things now and again. Hahaha!

So much angst! Sometimes we wrote intelligently about life and love; other times we were befuddled and confused about everything around us. We counseled each other, dished about the boys we knew and asked for help unraveling what "he" meant when he said whatever; "he" being whichever guy we had a particular crush on at the time. We said some things that, looking back, turned out to be eerily prophetic.

The whole day and night we rocked with laughter, quoting to each other when something was particularly funny or prescient. Points were clarified, decisions re-debated and episodes relived. The process was not only fun, but in a way healing.

This morning we burnt our letter collections. There were so many that at one point I was concerned we'd set the chimney on fire as well. It would have been fitting; some of these letters contained hot stuff! :)

Coffee time is 4PM amongst my office worker pals. Most of them aren't in the office this week, so yesterday I had to hunt down Drew, who is one of the programmery dudes who beats up on Matt at racketball (or something) and coerce him into going with me.

I could go get coffee on my own and often do, but this whole week has been filled with friends and family and I just wanted some company. Like the good sport he is, Drew went with me and as it turns out, most of the Sbux girls were the ones who know me by name (and I know them by name, too...which just goes to show how often we go there).

Tonight Dianne's coming in for the weekend! I'm so excited; we've not been able to spend time together just the two of us in years. :) We are going to gossip and giggle and maybe even like paint our nails as we burn old letters.

There's something so comforting about having an old friend who knows what an ass you used to be and still likes you because they know you're not always such a goofball.

And it's also comforting to know that there's friends of friends who are willing to go get coffee with you even when they've only seen you in passing as you flip off their friend. Wheee!

Hahaha! My wireless network went down sometime while I was on holiday but after only a handful of choice, colorful words I fixed it all by myself! Broos will be so pleased.

:)

Dianne's coming to visit this weekend! I need to dig back out the box of our old high school letters so we can have our letter burning! It's here by the bed, hiding with several friends beneath a duvet cover, filled with our deepest, darkest secrets and yearnings. Definitely not for the cherubs to find, even if they won't know who any of the folks involved are!

On Monday, Kurt drove me past our friend Lisa's parents' home but I couldn't make myself go up to ask where she is now. :/ Her mom really, really hated me; she thought I was a bad influence on her daughter. And even though you, gentle reader, may be nodding your head over this, know that I was a very good girl in high school. Except for the truancy thing, but hey...I never made Li cut class with me. I was honestly a good girl! Honest! And still, evidently, scared of Lisa's mom. Heh.

I am safely returned from my trip :)

Thank you to my family and to Kurt for taking large chunks of time out of their weekend to keep me entertained. I have photos that need me to wander out to the living room and put the camera on the recharger and transmitter thinger. Apparently I made a video of the exciting contents of my purse that drained its battery. Heh!

After the most excellent Loggins and Messina concert Friday night, Kurt drove us by our old stomping grounds (our high school campuses). They've dug up the Oval and its trees to build some stuff (he told me what, but I was dismayed and now I have no idea). Such sacrilege!

No okazuya again, but we went to the Discover Moiliili Festival where I got to revel in local kine stuffs and watch the Okinawan dancers. And that made me get all lump-in-the-throat because everything was familiar but different. The music, the smells, pidgin English everywhere. And yet, it's not my home anymore, even if I could still lapse into enough local chat with the ladies at one of the craft booths that they would probably not suspect (much) that I've lived elsewhere for the past 25 years.

Sitting on the little balcony of the hotel room, I reflected that so many folks save up for the chance to sit and watch the sunrise over Diamond Head, to walk barefoot in the waves, to visit all the touristy shops and consider souvenirs, then see the sun set over Waikiki beach at night. I grew up with all that and I still enjoyed them. Probably because it's not my home any more; I'm just another tourist now.

Later, more da kine stuff, li' dat. I stay tired. Alooooooha!

Leaving today for Hawaii. :)

I hope the weather gods are with me so that I can lay out for a bit, walk over to my mom's or my sister's on occasion and just relax.

Ciao!

My sister got me hooked on Final Fantasy back in the old NES days. I own just about all the versions of the game and now to my delight have gotten the GBA version in time for my trip. Yay!

It's slightly disconcerting that the game is much easier than I remember and there are new translations and spells. The GBA is perfect to play it on.

I also have Pokemon Pinball to take along. That's an addicting little deal too, since I'm obsessing over not being able to evolve those damn little thingers. Chris watched me playing the other day and didn't know what one of the critters was. "I'm old school," he said. Apparently they've added in dozens of new guys since my cherub was young enough to collect them. Some help he'll be.

I spent the weekend with several coworkers and folks from our game's community. It's not a fan gathering, it's more of a focus group where we get input directly from some of the game's fan sites and players.

One of the women I met runs a website that I know Chris has used when trying to figure stuff out. We chatted quite a bit over the last couple of days and this morning were visiting again before heading home. She mentioned she used to play GS3 and how she now belongs to a guild that includes some former GS players. Then she mentioned her old character's tag-line and I shrieked in recognition, "You were the Ambush Healer!?" Hee!

Chris and I are still mourning Megan, though he still doesn't want to talk directly about it. When I checked the mail upon returning home from the hotel, I noticed the vet's office had sent us a nice card and a little package. Chris opened it up and we both welled up in tears. They'd made a cast of Megan's paw print and decorated it nicely. She'll be cremated and her ashes will be scattered at sea.

Now to get caught up on Tivo!