the un-blog

i'm so terrible about blogging as soon as school starts... i think it's because all other areas of my life come to a screeching halt! i abandon projects on the house, i neglect my yard, i don't clean, i don't cook anything creative, i don't go anywhere or do anything interesting, and i decrease my already minimal social activity. i thought maybe i would have to turn this into an un-blog, like instead of being a blog about home renovations, photography, cooking, and decorating i would have to start writing about my FAILURE to do these things. remember when i had the anti-decorating post showing off my piles of dirty dishes and unmade bed? well, i don't think i'm quite that desperate yet, but felt the need to post about something, ANYTHING, so...

i actually feel i've done pretty well so far this school year: i've had TONS of work, with my new position as the special ed department chair (in addition to the same job i already had as special ed teacher for students with emotional and behavioral disorders), but i've managed to keep quite a few other things on my social and personal agenda! here's what i've been up to:

*reading: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand; loving the stodgy old Major and his ever-changing perceptions of people he might have once viewed through prejudicial lenses.

*running: not really that much. want to do another race in the near future but having trouble figuring out how to fit running in with work during the week. best time for me to go would be right after i get home, before dinner, but it's been SO BLASTED HOT. and i'm so darn tired right after work that usually i just plop down on the couch and then there's NO chance! i've thought about starting a series of unglamorous facebook posts about running... you know how people will post their workouts, like "i ran 29 miles and felt great!" well, good for you! aren't you just awesome! i kiss the ground you walk on! so, i thought about posting things like, "i plodded for 5 miles and felt like dog poo!" or "i dragged myself along for 3 miles and my face exploded like a bubbling volcano of fire!" what do you guys think? i think they would be very popular posts. anyway, i created a training plan for myself on runnersworld.com and do plan to give it a good effort, but so far i'm logging most of my miles on the weekends and laying big old goose-eggs on the weekdays.

*sweating: the theme of school this year so far has been: let's-see-how-many-days-the-AC-can-break-down-before-the-students-start-to-riot-and-teachers-resort-to-violent-episodes. plus we had a power outage last friday in which we first evacuated to the football field and then were told to re-enter the building and try to conduct class with no power (no lights, no AC, no phones, no computers, no projectors, no intercoms, no security cameras, no metal detectors, no common sense... oh wait, that last one is purely editorial).

*socializing: i have managed to have enough energy this year to not entirely abandon my friends! i've had some quality time with co-workers, the Timmers, Laura and Tiff for brunch, Laura and Sporting KC for some excellent soccer:

and soon to come i will be enjoying some KSU football and US Women's National Team Soccer (again with Laura... i'm getting lots of good Laura-time!).

it's amazing how full my life is now that i'm not taking classes AND working! yay!

experimenting with a new recipe (aka trying to find a cooler way to cook in this inferno we call july!)

although her toothy smile and her irritating habit of occasionally turning on a thick italian accent annoy me, i generally like the food that giada de laurentis prepares on her cooking show "giada at home." the woman adds cheese to everything, therefore she has won my heart. so, i saw this recipe on her show the other day and decided to try it with a few mendy-alterations. the recipe is for butternut squash penne.

Penne with Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese on the Food Network

i had sweet potato on hand, so i decided to substitute it for the butternut squash which is not in season during summer. i also decided it was entirely TOO SCORCHING to crank my poor oven in my tiny kitchen in my small (albeit quaint) house up to 450 degrees for 45-50 minutes to roast the potato and onions. i don't like to use the oven in summer if i don't have to as it damn near heats the entire house! in the winter, this is a perk, but right now it only makes me want to toss the whole idea of cooking at home out the window and instead call a favored restaurant for take out! so i thought to myself why not use the grill instead? and so i did. or rather, kirk did. i also decided to add some turkey sausage to the dish because it sounded good to me.

so here's what i used in the order of appearance:

*those turkey sausages look a bit disgusting, don't they?

in a foil packet for the grill:

chopped onions

cubed sweet potato

olive oil

salt

pepper

stove-top:

whole wheat penne pasta

chopped turkey sausage (kroger brand)

add to pasta after draining all but about 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water:

soft goat cheese (add to the pasta while still hot and stir until creamy)

chopped fresh basil

add the heated turkey sausage and the contents of the grill packet

pepper

shaved parmesan

being an experiment of sorts, a few mishaps are bound to happen. for example, i had the grill set at too high of a heat and ended up having to cut the burnty ends off of some of the sweet potato. this resulted in far less sweet potato than i would have liked in the dish. also, i could do with or without the turkey sausage. since this was our entire meal, i'm glad we had a little more substance to the recipe, but i do think that this addition distracted from some of the great flavors of the original dish.

ok, i think i may veer away from food posts for a while. i might do a series of posts featuring different rooms in our house and some of the project ideas we have for those rooms. kirk and i have a hard time making decisions about which projects to do, which ones to abandon, and how BIG to make each project. anyone relate to that? really, there's any number of improvements, renovations, and alterations one could make to one's home, but we cannot do them all. so maybe i'll get some tips or advice from some of you with this next series of posts!

nonsensical words

If you read my posts at all, you've probably noticed my fondness for creating my own vocabulary, taking a bit of liberty with words, if you will. I like to think that JK Rowling and I have this in common! (side note: I'm writing this as I watch the first 6.5 Harry Potter movies on Blu Ray in preparation for the final movie!) Anyway, in honor of made-up words, I've included a few gems from the Washington Post's Mensa Invitational (my comments in italics):

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
Here are some of the winners:

*Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

*Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

*Intaxicaton: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

*Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

*Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

*Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

*Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

*Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

*Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer. Apparently this definition was written by Miss Teen South Carolina ("like such as")

*Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you. I am still in training for a decafalon, it should be noted, as I have yet to complete one single day eating only healthy foods!

*Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

*Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web. This is a close cousin to the strange halting-then-sprinting dance I did upon encountering a large snake on the trails while going for a run.

*Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

*Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.
And the winners are:

*Coffee, n: The person upon whom one coughs.

*Flabbergasted, adj.: Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained. Love this one! The definition. Not the state of being flabbergasted, I should clarify.

*Abdicate, v.: To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach. I'm not quite ready to abdicate yet... still optimistically searching for those strong muscles that once existed in my torso region!

*Esplanade, v.: To attempt an explanation while drunk.

*Negligent, adj.: Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown. I can relate to this, although I do not own any nightgowns... what would be the word for answering the door wearing glasses, flannel pajama pants, with a good case of bed-head and bra-less at 2:00 in the afternoon?

*Lymph, v.: To walk with a lisp.

*Gargoyle, n.: Olive-flavored mouthwash.

*Flatulence, n.: Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.

*Balderdash, n.: A rapidly receding hairline. Oh Kirk. Wah wah wah.

*Testicle, n.: A humorous question on an exam.

*Rectitude, n.: The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

*Pokemon, n.: A Rastafarian proctologist.

*Oyster, n.: A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

*Frisbeetarianism, n.: The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

*Circumvent, n.: An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

former high-capacity rule-follower trying to make a plan and stick with it

(side bar - please do not judge for it is 2:02 am and i am posting on my blog. can't sleep. no apparent reason. too hot and humid perhaps? it's uncomfortable to sleep when the backs of my knees are sweating.)

please note: this will be a rambling rant. stay with me.

so, kirk and i often talk, with no attempts to disguise our envy, of "high-capacity" people... you know the type: those people who have intense jobs, busy personal lives, loads of kids, perfect yards, and still manage to impeccably renovate their old houses, run 10 miles every morning before dawn, and cook an organic gourmet dinner every day with foods grown and harvested in their own sustainable gardens. ok, i really do not think anyone is that ideal, but my hyperbolous (i know, not a word) description appropriately illustrates the image that i think we all measure ourselves against. anyway, the bit that really causes a twinge of pain in my heart when we talk about such people is that i used to be a high capacity person and somehow lost that version of myself over the past 10 years. here's what i think has occurred:

1. i am not 20.

2. i have "adult" responsibilities now (mortgage, job, graduate school, household projects, retirement fund, the need to "keep an eye" on cholesterol).

3. i've discovered that i'm actually an introvert (for years i got by being outgoing, but really i am totally energized by time by myself and drained of energy when i do not get to be by myself).

4. i learned how to say NO. high capacity mendy cared more about being a people-pleaser than being honest. the new mendy is less afraid of offending people (believe it or not, but i really don't enjoy offending people, i'm just resigned to the fact that i probably will offend at least 5 people every day). former mendy would have agreed to coordinate this, organize that, attend this, pick up that, deliver this, schedule that, and bake 5 dozen cookies by tomorrow for the other thing... that's just not going to work for me anymore. first of all, i don't like to bake all that much. secondly, (see item #3) i don't want to be around people every waking minute of every day. thirdly, being good at planning, organizing, and other administrative duties, and enjoying them are not mutually inclusive. so, with my new self, you can pretty much count on my yes being yes and my no being no; if i say i want to do something, i probably mean it. i wouldn't agree to it otherwise... unless the consequence of saying "no" outweighs the positive effects of not being over-committed.

is this making any sense?? am i the only one that has lost the capacity to be high-capacity??

anyway, 12 years ago, not only was i high capacity, but i was also a rigid rule-follower (goes hand in hand with the people-pleasing thing). i'm not just talking about parental rules, or rules of the road, or the 10 commandments, or constitutional laws... i mean that if a person i respected or a person of authority told me "you should do x, y, and z" i did it. because they told me to. and they know what is best. and if i could not follow the "rule" i would commit myself to penance of regular doses of guilt, shame, regret, and remorse until i felt i had adequately compensated for the failure to comply.

examples:

rule: "you should do devotions every morning"

failure to comply: did not get up until 8:10 am when i have 8:30 am class halfway across town = oh crap! = no bible-reading until 10:00 pm = layer after layer of guilt slathered on my conscience until i have thoroughly shamed myself into having daily morning devotions at least 3 consecutive days!

rule: "you should not swim until 30 minutes after eating"

failure to comply: having to eat lunch was just an annoying distraction from my sole purpose for living as a child in the summer: to spend every daylight hour at the pool. so i usually wolfed down the pb & j, ran like i had ants in my pants to the pool, and cannon-balled into the deep end before 10 minutes had elapsed. result: hypochondriatic cramps in the tummy ("oh no! i'm probably dying because i ate and then swam 10 minutes later!"). cramps more likely due to the child-ulcer caused by feeling guilty for every blasted broken rule!

point being: in any given day, there are so many rules to follow/break and these rules were very important to me. so, if i made a rule for myself i was pretty good at keeping it. plus, i was a high-capacity person back then, so i could juggle quite a few rules before my systems started to shut down.

at some point, i decided to free myself of these stressful ways and began to embrace my rebellious side. this may or may not have been a noticeable change to the outside observer, but for me it was a definitive shift in my thinking. i would say there are a lot of positives that have resulted from this shift. i'm more of a grace-giver (to myself at least, and i like to think i do the same for others) and i've finally allowed myself to receive grace (that's huge, isn't it??), i've experienced new freedom (freedom to do what i'm good/gifted at, not just do what i "should"), i've mellowed out (this is virtually undetectable by anyone not inside my brain), and i'm more honest with myself. all good things.

however, i've noted a few downsides as well, chief among them is my seeming inability to STICK TO A PLAN. it's like i have commitment fears or ADHD or something. i've always been one for plans. i like to look at the big picture and break it down step by step. i like to have a goal and work toward it. i like to have time to prepare, brainstorm, sketch, collaborate, and then attack. but now, i spend time planning and preparing for ___________ (fill in the blank with any scenario... grocery list, lesson plans for school, exercise plan, healthy meals for the week, etc), but fail to follow through with the plan. i plan, but do not execute. or i change the plan mid-course to avoid failure or the discomfort of having to discipline myself. you all know what that is like, right? take new year's resolutions, for example: who among us has not started out with a supremely ambitious resolution, only to fall off the wagon by january 8th and find yourself cleverly revising the resolution?? "no soda" becomes "no soda on weekdays" and then mutates into "no soda on mondays." pretty soon, you're drinking more soda than you were before the cursed resolution was ever uttered!

so now i'm struck with the dilemma: should i keep my plans realistic and overly simplified (dumbed-down, if you will) so that they are achievable? or should i take the risk of saying the thing that i really, ultimately, want to achieve only to look a fool if i cannot accomplish it? and don't tell me that "the answer probably lies somewhere in between." well, thanks, i never thought of that (sarcasm). sure, sure, balance, moderation, whatever, that's the ideal. but if we're honest, we probably spend the majority of our time pin-balling off one extreme or the other.

i have so many things i want for myself (goals) that i'm literally afraid to say out loud, afraid to write them down, afraid to commit to them, because i'm afraid i can't achieve them. i may have been afraid to disappoint people, afraid of failure, afraid of rejection, etc as a 20-year-old, but i NEVER thought that i would not achieve the goals i had set for myself (pardon the double negative). with all the fear, anxiety, stress, insecurity and whatever else i had as a kid, it never occurred to me that i might not accomplish what i said i would do. i was ruthlessly optimistic, maybe a little naive. so, i don't know when exactly that i stopped believing that i could do anything, but that is not a good thing. that's not good fear. how can i tell my students that it's ok to experience failure, not to be afraid of it, because you'll learn from it and it will make you stronger, when i'm afraid to dream for my own self? i think it's the ultimate dilemma, isn't it? it's really impossible to achieve a personal goal that you have not set. i don't want to say it or write it for fear of letting myself down or having to face others that are actually living out their goals/dreams (isn't that the worst?! it's like looking in a mirror of everything you're not! please, you all know you think the same things!). so i could keep on NOT stating my goals, not writing down the plans for how i'm to achieve the goals, and i'll have guaranteed results: i will continue to NOT make any progress towards the fictional, imaginary goals. but, at least i will have met my expectations.

my goals for myself include how i want to spend/save my money, what projects i have in store for my house/yard, places i want to visit or live, what i want for my emotional/behavioral disorder program (EBD program for short, but i never know if people know what in the tarnation i'm talking about when i use all these acronyms!), what sort of eating habits i want to abide by, what i want to look like, what i want to accomplish as a runner, and the list just goes on. i'm sure you all have your own things to add to the list, maybe you're afraid to say it too, maybe not. maybe you're one of those darned high-capacity types that's already living out your dreams as a marathon runner/super-mom/dad/employee-of-the-month/organic gourmet chef who looks like a model and who's home is featured in House Beautiful magazine and who has raised all gifted children and prize-winning pets. in which case, i would like you to please not take it personally that i will not be able to be friends with you any longer. just kidding. no i'm not. ok maybe. not.

so here's the question: how do i make a plan (that i will stick with) for these goals? i don't want to do anything crazy that only lasts for a short while. i don't want to just run one marathon and then flame out. i want to be a runner. i don't want to do a "diet", i want to have healthy habits. kirk and i have a list of "need to do" projects for the house and then we have the "in our dreams" list, so we need to make choices and budget for them, but we also recognize that being good homeowners may mean being willing to spend some money to invest in improving the house. i don't want to make the "rules" for life too rigid to follow, yet i know that to achieve the results i have to make sacrifices. what is the right amount of sacrifice?

these are the questions that have been rattling around in my head and the conversations i've been having lately. my guess is that these are not unique to me. they're not even new revelations to me; they're recycled, revisited, and newly-worded versions of the same conflicts within myself for the past 12 years. i have no great intentions or purpose for sharing them, other than to get them off my chest, have a little fun, find the humor in life, and test the water with my proverbial tippy-toe to see if there are any like-minded people out there asking the same questions and trying to measure up to the same idealized versions of themselves. and i just really could not sleep.

i have not disappeared...

...i'm just busy, nearing the end of a long school year, and out of clever thoughts to share with the blogging world. maybe i should share un-clever thoughts. maybe i don't even have un-clever thoughts to share! so here's a brief summary for now:

*i have to take my comprehensive exams for my masters program tomorrow. it is four hours of writing. bleh. i will be finished with my masters in may barring a terrible disaster resulting in failure on an epic level! i'm excited and proud to finally be finished. but mostly excited about being able to just work without also being in school.

*the students are squirrel-ly, it's spring, we're all just holding on by the thinnest of threads of sanity. i'm running extremely low on grace, patience, logic and other positive qualities that are helpful for teaching.

*i have some new vintage finds (old-new, new-old, whatever) that i will eventually post...i've been storing up. there is a theme among the finds...i like items that function as containers, i like to contain...that's my teaser.

*i have tried running again for the first time since the maybe-stress-fracture...nothing spectacular, which is to be expected. the hip seems ok, but the knees are rebelling against this newfound activity called jogging!

*i have gorged myself on basketball but i'm not quite done! one more weekend of blessed basketball. go VCU! or Butler! i know they can't both win, but i'd really rather root for the underdogs than see stupid uconn or kentucky take the ultimate prize!

*to get me through the drought between the end of march madness and the beginning of football season i have indulged in purchasing some Sporting KC tickets (formerly KC Wizards...MLS soccer). fun times.

*couldn't decide what to give up for lent. so here's a list of things that have fallen to the wayside that i could choose from to give up: working out, reading for pleasure (not for my classes), sleep, blogging. i'm just kidding. is that sacrilegious? no, i'm just being dramatic because this is the time of year when everything else in life comes to a standstill to make way for "just getting through" to the end of school.

so that's all for now...the least i could do.

i'm not ok with bill self and other sports thoughts

been a while since i've done a sports post, so i'm due for one i suppose. let's start with the good: here's some of my highlights from this year's NFL postseason. i realize it's a little late, but i've been really swamped with work, school, masters (had to do a video taped lesson... heinous! as soon as the camera's on, a few of my students decided to go insane! good news, i think i'm thinner on camera than i was at this time last year! may be an illusion, was wearing a black shirt. hmmm.). anyway, so every time i had a thought, or a rant, or a favorite sports moment in the past month instead of posting i've just had to set it aside and focus on other things. time to free my thoughts. release the kraken!

i realized that most of my favorite postseason moments this year have been from the NFC teams... odd. well, what else would it have been? matt cassel throwing an interception in the chiefs playoff game? i don't think so. but it's not time for "i'm not ok with that" yet so let's get on with the good stuff.

highlight #1: marshawn lynch's amazing td run for the seahawks! i watched this happening live and i was like "oh wow. oh my gosh, he's still going! Oh NO HE DIDN'T! HE JUST PUSHED THAT GUY RIGHT DOWN! OH MY GOSH!!!! WOW!!!! THAT WAS AWESOME!!!" or something like that. the crappy thing about being the sports genius that i am is that i knew immediately this was an amazing moment in sports, but i didn't blog about it immediately, and then within 2 hours it was ALL OVER THE PLACE, and here i am a month later writing about that one awesome thing that happened that one time. great. still worth another look-see if you ask me.

highlight #2: this is just one measly example of why i chose to root for the packers during the superbowl... because aaron rodgers is the kind of quarterback that i love to watch... gritty, hard-nosed, takes a tackle head on, and doesn't play "scared" when he has already had 2 concussions this season. i don't know if that's just stupid or if it's the smartest thing ever! when you play scared, you get hurt. so what does rodgers do? dives for a rushing td headfirst against the bears in the NFC championship, that's what! note the mini-weight belt celebration at the end. also, i always enjoy a rushing td where the carrier stretches out over the pylon... it's such smart play to use every inch of the field, the entire width, to stretch the defense. check out how deep he runs for this play to develop before he turns for the end zone. i just think it's brilliant.

highlight #3: big fella does a little dance. becomes an instant classic. if this isn't one of my favorite things of all times i don't know what is. no need for explanation, it is what it is...pure awesomeness.

i will not show any highlights from the super bowl. i was glad that the packers won, i've been a packers fan since reggie white, which i realize is still pretty recent history, but i was a kid when his career started so it's where my memory of loving the packers begins. you know, for the same reasons that i like how rodgers plays i find it REALLY hard not to like how ben roethlisberger plays too, but he's just not a very likable person. from a pure sports perspective, though, i would still probably prefer rodgers over big ben because he takes his risks on the field and not in life.

ok, now on to what i'm not ok with this week and that is bill self. i've always held that, while i will never be able to bring myself to root for ku and the fans drive me insane (except holly, she's just great and completely rational in her fandom and she's about the only person that i'm allowed to watch sports with because she won't judge me when i have to say some words), i've always had great respect for bill self as a coach and a person. well, he has been on a slight downward trend in my heart for the past month with how he has chosen to handle, or not handle, the mario little situation and the hot-headed morris twins. first of all, 4 weeks or so ago mario little was arrested for assaulting 4 people. within a few weeks he was back on the court. not only was he back on the court but his playing time mysteriously seemed to increase! not only this, but last week he was on the court scoring 17 points and being named player of the game against rival MU. well, i am simply dumbfounded. a month ago, when self was questioned about the incident of assault, he was defensive and even slightly disrespectful to the female member of the training staff that was assaulted by mario little, saying she wasn't "part of the team, oh but she was 3 weeks ago, oh but she's busy with classes now so she's not working with the team at this time (semantics, bill!), oh but there's no proof she was his girlfriend, but, but, but..." i was irritated at the time, but i thought i would just ignore this irritation because people are misunderstood in the press all the time and maybe bill was just still a little stunned by the news that one of his veteran players just assaulted 4 people. so i cut bill a break. but to see little's minutes go up and to see him getting the recognition and the applause from the fans, and the hoopla... ick. just ick.

so, in that same game, the mizzou game, markieff morris had a flagrant foul for a -not-really-a-punch-kind-of-a-shove directed at the face of an MU player. the broadcasters thought he maybe should have been ejected, i don't know, could go either way. i thought at the very least that he should not have gone back in the game, yet he did. what's more, self didn't even seem to have a problem with morris' dirty play. he didn't yell, didn't glare, didn't seem even all that frustrated that one of his star players almost got ejected and got an unnecessary foul called against him. no, self did not even say a word to markieff about it. not only was it just plain bad sportsmanship on markieff's part, but it's also extremely selfish and completely without regard for his own team! as one of the best players, in a rivalry game that was still a game at the time, you can't afford to risk being ejected! you can't afford to risk sitting the rest of the game. you need to be available for your team and you're not available when you hit a player in the face and get ejected or sit the bench...but wait. he didn't get ejected. and he didn't sit the bench. so i guess it really wasn't selfish play after all, because he must have known that bill wouldn't have the stones to sit him in a big game. yeah i said it. so then i thought, maybe bill just didn't see the not-quite-a-punch-kind-of-a-shove hit. maybe he didn't know how bad it was. maybe he'll watch the tape later and he'll address this in a press conference later this week. maybe he'll suspend morris for a game. i mean they're facing ISU in their next game, they can afford to teach markieff a lesson in that game. surely he'll take this seriously. there have been too many problems with the morris twins crossing the line from aggression to just flat out losing their tempers for self not to treat this with seriousness. i mean, surely he values his integrity as a coach more than he values beating ISU by 50 points. right? RIGHT? well, if you can't tell, i was typing with a very sarcastic tone there. because bill's only response this week was to say that people shouldn't be worried about it, that it looks worse than it really is (REALLY bill?? can you say that it "looks" worse when it has happened more than once in a season? when it has become a bit of a pattern? can you really say that?), and that it's being "addressed." then he went on to sing the praises of the morris twins and how much they've matured. eh???

look, i'm fine with the fact that self may not want to put everything out there in the public eye. i guess. and really, i don't have a MAJOR problem with any one specific event, it's more a problem with the cumulative non-addressing of things, the collective ignoring of things, if you will. because i'm watching my team, my coach, frank martin, get blasted for being tough, for being a disciplinarian, and for having players leave his program because they are too poo-poo-pants to cope with having to share the spotlight and not getting enough playing time. so yeah, i have problem with people NOT having a problem with bill self for doing nothing and i have a problem with people HAVING a problem with frank martin doing SOMEthing. i'm not going to make any snap judgments about self because i've respected him for longer than i've not respected him. but, the recent events are a bit of a crimson flag to me.

p.s. and by the way, freddy asprilla, what the crumb do you expect to happen to your precious playing time when you played like crap every time you were in the game??? really.

p.p.s. you will recall that last year when the doo-doo-diaper ku football and basketball players got into a fight on campus over some gross girl, it was hefty mangino that did nothing of consequence to discipline his team while self came home from the recruiting trail to hold team meetings and discipline his players for their stupidity. so here we are a year later and...

p.p.p.s. i would like to congratulate myself for using words like "poo" and "doo" and "crumb" instead of the more passionate language that i would typically use when i'm not self-editing.

short term memory...a snow day post!

i'm in the midst of enjoying yet another snow day...got to sleep in until 8:15!! that's 2.5 extra hours of sleep people! so far this "blizzard" has more bark than bite, but it is still early i suppose (update: in the time it has taken me to write this post, the little wisps of snow have truly become a blizzard indeed!). i will say that weather.com has pretty much got it wrong all along, i recommend accuweather.com instead. according to weather.com, the snow was supposed to start yesterday morning...oops.

anyway, enough about that. i realized that two

posts ago i promised to do a post showing off some new old found things. that promised post then promptly slipped my mind. i have a short term memory problem. i really do. i need to start doing puzzles or something.

ok, on to the new old found things:

*mom and i dug around in her basement a little over christmas and pulled out a bunch of her grandmother's china. since she doesn't use it (mom notoriously has about 40 different sets of dishes!), i brought it home with me... the pieces i'm not using are carefully stored away in china storage bags. there's a whole set of the floral china like the teacup, plus this great fireking bowl (the pink bowl), and a couple of mismatched dessert plates. i've always wanted a little collection of mismatched teacups, but even better than buying a bunch of mismatched cups is getting my great-grandma's teacups for FREE!

*so, ever since we moved, i have been trying to remember where in the BLAST i put our silver set that was a gift to kirk from his mother... i know, i know, i'm the most HORRIBLE person to not remember where i stashed the gifted silver!

short term memory, what can i say. i could remember where i stored it when we were living in the old house, but for the life of me could not find where i'd put it in the new house (i've torn the house apart searching and it's not a large house!). so, i went back to check the old house several times and still could not find it!!! my worst nightmare was that i had accidentally put it in a pile destined for goodwill! kirk insisted that even i am not THAT evil, which only made me feel worse for not being able to find it! this has literally kept me up at night, wracking my brain, think, THINK! where is it?!?!?! so, finally mom and i decided to look one more time in the drawer under the stairs at the old house. little did i know that there was about a foot and a half extra drawer all the way at the back under piles of mom's serving platters and place mats which was secretly hiding my precious lost silver! so, i've brought it home, washed it, and put it out for display and use! i decided that i did not want to keep it hidden away in the box now that the

prodigal silver has returned.

recent etsy finds:

*i love colorful vintage enamelware and have been looking for just the right piece. i like reds and turquoises in my kitchen and i wanted to get a piece that i will actually use because i just DO NOT have room in my tiny kitchen for things i won't use. i'm not really a collect-and-display type of person. things need to have a purpose. well, i do not have a stock pot so i found this dansk enamelware pot for a great price on etsy and the enamel on the inside of the pot was in great shape so i bought it! and i've already used it to make lentil soup!

*found this great little creamer to add to my white collection... it's not really a collection, i just have white dishes. the stripe-y pitcher is a gift from my friend, hannah, from france... apparently they use pitchers such as this to serve wine!

free finds:

*i snatched this old, outdated, extremely dirty globe from the school library (with the librarian's permission, of course!) for FREE! it was

caked with dust and has some damage on the

metal because of the layers of dust...but i cleaned it up and i love it! you all know how i feel about globes.

so, what have we learned today?

*check accuweather.com for accurate weather forecasts (hence, the name).

*always, ALWAYS look in the very back of the

drawer under the stairs...you never know what treasures you may find.

*free stuff is always better than not-free stuff.

*when starting a collection, check with your mom who has thousands of dish sets first to see if there are heirloom pieces that she's not using.

*only buy vintage pieces that you a) love and b) envision using. unless you like vintage globes. it's ok to buy vintage globes, or get them for free, even if they do not serve a very practical purpose. because they look awesome. and they are cheaper than traveling to exciting places. although traveling to exciting places really is an adventure that cannot be replaced by globes. that's all.

p.s. i am having a great deal of difficulty posting pictures today so apologies for the confusing pictures in the wrong places and wonky typing!

when the dog bites...

it was a dog-biting kind of day yesterday at school. a beat down. so, i'm taking this moment to simply remember my favorite things in an attempt to drown out the angry mendy. atop the list of best things of late:

1. best cure for bad day of work: weekend

2. best book in a long, long while: The Help by Katheryn Stockett - one of the most important books i've read since I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings or Kaffir Boy and destined to land on my all-time favorites list. you should read it. today.

3. best food indulgence: homemade chicken pot pie with sweet potatoes, curry, and whatever other veggies i need to clear out of the fridge before they spoil...definitely a comfort food. mmmmm.

4. best way to get arrested: dressed as a bagel. true story: my activist sis recently got herself jailed for the day for participating in protests of Bloomberg's AIDS Awareness Bagel Breakfasts. the reason for protest: it's all a lot of pomp and circumstance. smoke and mirrors. bells and whistles. much ado about nothing. a lot of talk and no action. while breakfasting with important muckety-mucks, Bloomberg continues to raise the rent on properties where NYC's housing works (my sister's employer) tries to provide housing to low-income AIDS patients and cut funding to programs that benefit AIDS patients. so, they protested the ill-spent time and money for bagel breakfasts dressed as bagels. well done, sis.

5. best lighting to hide the extra holiday squidge around one's middle (resulting from "best" #3 chicken pot pie): my vintage globe purchase from etsy. as you can see, it is still quite dark even with this delightful little orb all aglow, thus it is this season's best tummy-trimmer. they say black is slimming...darkness is more slimming!

don't worry, friends, i'm not actually that worried about holiday squidge, i just wanted to use the nonsense-word squidge! and now i've said it 3 times!

6. best way to drown out the noise of an angry mendy (or best thing since Boys II Men, take your pick): The Sing Off (see previous 2 posts) or blasting Christmas music (did Boys II Men ever do a Christmas album??? if so, that would be the ultimate best way to drown out noisy angry mendy! kirk has informed me that yes, not only does Boys II Men indeed have a Christmas album, but we also own it. how this escaped my notice, i cannot say. short term memory perhaps?).

7. best way to cope with clutter and cleverly disguise dust bunnies without actually cleaning: Christmas decorations!

(please do not think to mock our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree...it is the only tree that our cats will not attempt to climb! i have no desire to come home from work to find my mercury glass ornaments shattered on the floor because cecil and percy were playing jungle cats in my living room.)

i'm an adult now!

ever since kirk and i got married 8 1/2 years ago and i moved into our first apartment to start making it "home" i have been on the lookout for a bed frame. and ever since this time my mattresses have sadly rested upon the frail little metal rails that are free with the purchase of any mattress set. you know the ones. the ones that roll freely so that every time you toss, turn, or so much as cough in bed it shifts away from the wall by 5 inches. i have just never found a bed that i like and that i'm willing to spend some money on. even now, now that i am well into my adult years, it is hard to spend hundreds of dollars on a single purchase. my other dilemma is that i love, LOVE, LOVE old iron beds, but, as we americans have continued to grow wider over the decades, thus requiring larger beds, i have a queen-sized mattress and queen-sized sheets and blankets and all the great old iron beds are no larger than full-sized. it's truly tragic. every time i see a wonderful old iron bed i try to imagine how to squeeze my super-sized mattress onto it, but i've had to reconcile myself to buying a new bed. and i have done! finally! i found a bed and was able to purchase it for 20% off, assuaging my guilt over spending so much money at once, and i've ordered it! so now i feel that i'm officially an adult since i will have a "real" bed with headboard and footboard.

i also took advantage of the 20% discount to purchase a medicine cabinet for our bathroom remodel that will take place at some time in the near future. i've been looking for just such a cabinet on craigslist and etsy, wanting to buy antiques

or used furniture as much as possible, but have found nothing similar. craigslist has plenty of retired bathroom furniture for purchase if you are looking to remodel your bathroom in the motif of ugly-80's-faux-wood-hideousness style. however, this is not my particular taste. or if you like old rusty metal medicine cabinets that would require updated tetanus shots. again, not my heart's desire. this is exactly what i wanted and i'm more excited than ever about the bathroom project. so, now we've got the tub (although it needs some tlc), the sink with faucet, the medicine cabinet, the toilet (reusing our current toilet), and a tall metal cabinet for storage. still need: flooring, tiles or wainscoting for the walls,lighting, hooks or towel bars, and the fixtures for the bathtub. does anyone have any good suggestions for the bathtub fixtures? we'll need the usual faucet, but we'll also need to be able to use it as a shower. i've thought about just using regular shower fixtures and running the plumbing up in the wall, but they also make some clawfoot tub combo faucet/shower fixtures. what do you guys think? i want it to be cheap but look nice. is that asking too much?

the anti-design post...and random thoughts on football and cats

i do sometimes like to post about my design ideas and projects, although this is not strictly a design blog as i am neither a designer nor a focused-enough blogger to have a single-themed blog. if your heart's desire is to read a design-renovation-education-green-sports-rants-gardening-photos-books-movies-culture blog, you are in just the right place!

anyway, my design personality takes a bit of a back seat in the fall when school starts and football season commences and my energy and creativity levels drop significantly. so today i have for you the anti-design post! apologies for the foggy cell phone pics. i will warn you, i usually avoid letting people see my house in this condition if it can be helped. prepare yourselves. if only un-made beds, piles of laundry, stacks of mail, mountains of leaves, and towers of dirty dishes were aesthetically pleasing! my house would be featured in every home and garden and design magazine in the land!

in other news, it has been two weeks since k-state was able to reclaim some of their former dominance at ku's memorial stadium, and we have since lost to baylor (i've been in complete denial this week, i can barely get the words out now...it's shameful really. i don't care if baylor's offense is better and if people want to say that it is not the baylor of old...it's still bad to lose to baylor). but, i will allow myself to remember with joy how the ku fans were already clearing out of the stadium at half time and how carson coffman looked like a quarterback for the first time in his college career! here's some pics from the 3rd quarter: note the empty stands except for the corner filled with purple!

finally, it's been a while since i've posted pics of my little love-y cats. they get so snuggly when the weather starts to change...looks as if they actually like each other! here's some shots of percy, quite the snuggler!

more than the average man...

so apparently, according to some statistic from usa today, the average man watches 3-6 hours of football a week. now, if you're not a football fan, you're probably thinking, "that's a lot of time to spend watching a game!" and you're probably thinking that because you're relating watching of sports to watching regular tv shows, which are 30 minutes to an hour long. so you're thinking, "that's 6 episodes of grey's anatomy" or "that's 3-6 episodes of glee!" but, if you're a football fan, you realize that 3-6 hours is really only 1-2 games a week (although there are only four 15-minute quarters and a 20-minute halftime, you also have to factor in all of the stop time...time outs, between plays, injuries, booth reviews, penalties, etc). first of all, that statistic has GOT to be a big fat lie. second of all, it's now official: i watch more football than the average man.

to my first point, you CANNOT convince me that the average man only watches 1-2 games a week. but, i suppose if you're only counting watching football games, and not factoring in time spent listening to sports radio, checking scores or fantasy football online, and watching other non-football sports, then that statistic may be accurate. to my second point, i think i EASILY watch 3-6 hours of football a DAY on saturdays AND sundays. this should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me, so don't judge. plus, i listen to sports radio whilst (i like that word and have committed myself to using it more frequently) driving to and from school everyday (it's the only way i can manage to stay awake). and i watch at least part of sports center almost every day. i also attend ksu football games. and SOMETIMES i even watch multiple football games at once, channel-surfing between the games that most interest me. i actually rank the games that are playing simultaneously according to my interest level and that is the order by which i rotate through the channels. think i'm troubled yet? i also play sports two evenings per week. i play soccer with a "co-ed" league on wednesdays and a women's league on thursdays. and by "co-ed" i mean 13 men and 1 woman (me...yeah, it takes some amount of courage or moxy or something).

all this has proven to me that i am one big giant freak show. but that's ok. i don't anticipate that is going to change anytime in the near future so we might as well all get comfortable. and i'll get comfortable whilst (haha) cozying up on my couch with football on my tv and the remote in my hand poised to switch to the next game during the commercial break.

i'm back!

i've decided to take a cue from my friend, shannon d, and choose 15 random things to tell you all (you all...wishfully thinking that i still have some friends that occasionally check my blog to see if i'm still living) about my life in the months since i've fallen off the blog-wagon (hahahaha).

1. percival had a near-death experience but is back to his thriving percival-self minus a functioning tail. whew! kirk says he looks like snuffleupagus because his tail just kind of hangs. very sad.

2. i successfully survived my first year of teaching!

3. i am OBSESSED with the world cup. i've been watching as many games as possible and trying to pretend that i'm studying while i watch. i had to do a case study and conduct observations for an hour for one of my classes in an area of interest, so i decided to observe spain vs. portugal! i kept a stats sheet and wrote a research question about whether cristiano ronaldo is a "selfish" player. my hypothesis was that he would take more shots and have fewer assists than anyone else on his team. my hypotheses were correct.

4. i've "run" almost everyday since summer began. and by run i mean shuffle. me running + humidity = me not really running, per se.

5. i have not made much of a dent in my summer reading stack.

6. i planted flowers! and they are still living! mostly. i'll post pics soon!

7. i think i may have broken my finger in, like, march or february. it involved trying to carry too much to my car on my way to work at 6:00 am (ick), dropping things, trying to catch things, and jamming my finger in the process. so, i can't fit my rings on my finger anymore. sad. and it's still hard to grip things with my finger. i know i should go to my chiropractor to get it fixed, but now i'm just afraid he's going to have to re-break things which makes me want to vomit.

8. i'm getting a new camera! i don't know when, but i'm excited!

9. i have this problem when i run that my calves start to get really tight and then it starts to spread down to my achilles tendon area and across to my shins and it just becomes horrendously painful! i don't know what is going on. any runners out there, please tell me what to do! i've tried stretching better, using those band-y things to stretch my calves, eating potassium sources before or after the run, warming up for longer, altering my stride, new shoes, icing my shins, massage (ouch, that really hurt! having my shins massaged is NOT fun)...

10. i'm not losing any seniors this year, and i'm gaining something like 7 freshman! that's a whole lot of freshman! teachers, you know what i'm saying.

11. i'm getting a new classroom next year. it's bigger, which is good.

12. i had about 13 zillion things that i was saving for summer to do, or plan, or re-work, or fix, or whatever, and summer is just FLYING by. how does that happen?!?

13. resource books i've found very useful lately: garden anywhere by alys fowler, national geographic photography field guide, voices of protest by i can't remember who (for teaching), no time to garden by anne swithinbank, and runner's world complete book of running.

14. i have an antique dresser sitting in my basement waiting to be sanded and painted! as soon as that project is complete i'll post pics. trying to decide what direction to go with new hardware for the drawer pulls. the dresser is a short 2-drawer with a curved front. i'm painting it a bright, glossy yellow. suggestions for hardware??

15. i have been strangely silent on all things football, basketball, etc. and the formerly-big-12-but-still-called-big-12. mostly because i don't even know what to say. i hate texas now more than ever. they have quite a little dictatorship going. sassy move, nebraska. sassy.

funny percival story

so, cecil's brother, percival, is just the sweetest, most playful cat.  taking a cue from my friend tiff, i have a litany of cute-sy nicknames for him:  percy, muffin, muffin-face, biscuit, smudger (i don't know), etc.  

anyway, he got into a little scrape a while back and had a gash on his arm.  he never seemed to be bothered by it (because he's just a sweet cat, so playful), no limping, no cringing when i touched his arm; i thought i would just let it heal and skip the vet.  well, it wasn't healing, so finally i took him to the vet and found out it had got infected.  i know, gross.  anyway, antibiotics didn't help, so finally, we had to take him in to cut away the infected part and stitch him up.  traumatic.  

kirk dropped him off in the morning, they put him under, shaved him and stitched him up. later that day i went to pick him up.  i just felt so awful, his arm looked horrible and the stitches ran the length of his arm!  i was looking at him and i noticed that his whiskers had been shaved!  here's the conversation (my thoughts are in italics):

"what happened to his whiskers?" i said to the vet.

"what do you mean?" said the vet to me.

"his whiskers have been cut."

"i don't know what you're talking about."  (what the - ?!  how can you not see this?!) 

"look.  half of his whiskers are gone!"

"well, we didn't do that."  (WHAT THE - ?!  who says that??)

"well i certainly didn't do it.  when we brought him in this morning, he had whiskers!"

"well, we didn't cut his whiskers."  (i want his whiskers back!  give them to me NOW!)

well, see for yourself.  the shaver-guy must have been on drugs.  i nearly asked for a discount on account of his whiskers being shaved.  

random questions

my friend laura always finds these surveys with the greatest questions, so i stole some of the questions off of her blog.  i'm not going to lie, i chose only the questions for which i had witty answers because i like to edit myself so that i appear to be more awesome than i really am.  

1. Song that always makes you sad?  ok, maybe it's just me... but i love a good "sad" song because the lyrics are usually really honest and it makes me feel like less of a freak show!  so, i can't really think of many songs that truly make me sad... although country songs usually make me sad just because they're awful.  sorry, country fans.  

2. Last person you argued with?  a student tried to argue with me about why i wouldn't "help" her (translation:  give her the answers) on a test.  so, i stole her student planner, flipped to the "rules and regulations" page and wrote at the top, "MENDY IS ALWAYS RIGHT" and told her that it was the #1 rule at LHS, so, sorry, guess there's no arguing with me.  i don't think she thought it was as hilarious as i did.  
3. Do you put Peanut Butter before putting the jelly on? totally.  otherwise the jelly makes the bread soggy... peanut butter is a buffer.
4. One of your stuffed animals' names as a kid? Lamb-y.  it was a stuffed lamb.  i was really creative with my naming process.
5. T.V. show you secretly enjoy?  i'm not terribly embarrassed by any shows that i watch... i am, however, embarrassed that i am sitting at home on a friday night blogging and watching The Masters... The Masters... really? and this after taking a 3 hour nap when i got home from work.  i think i actually skipped my 30th birthday and went straight to 84.  
6. Would you rather play basketball or hockey?  i love basketball.  in my imagination i was always a really great player, but then it never seemed to translate into actual physical talent.  
7. Do you know all the words to the Canadian national anthem? i'm with you, Laura, i can't even make it past the first 2 words... O Canada, dum da di dum di da... seriously, what are the words?
8. Favorite Cheese?  all of them?  eww, except gorgonzola. bleh, it tastes like sick.  
9. Did you go to your high school prom? oh prom.  hideous bridesmaidal dress (yeah, i made that word up), awful "dyeables" shoes from payless (ugly AND uncomfortable), do-it-yourself hair-do, and an AWFUL sunburn from a soccer game earlier that day (shin guard lines and sleeves lines don't really flatter)
10. Do you use your queen right away in chess? no, and i've yet to win a game.  so, i'm no prodigy.  
11.Ever been in a car accident?  yes.  and it was my fault, which sucks even more.  side note:  i've also backed into a police car.  kirk and i have also both backed into the same exact car belonging to a total stranger on two totally separate occasions.  i know.  
12. Closer to mom or dad...or neither?  both.  i think my mom is "close" to everyone she's ever had a conversation with. she has this way of drawing people out and having deep heartfelt conversations with just everyone.  dad and i are sports pals.  and rolling-our-eyes-at-mom pals.  dad and i tend to have the same exact spiritual thought processes. mom and i read the same books and love the same movies.  my family never really lacks for things to talk about.  i'm sure you are all shocked.  
13. What decade during the 20th century would you have chosen to be a teenager?  i would never have survived any era when girls were supposed to be LADIES.  i think i would have been a quite rebellious '50's teenager!  yeah, the '90's were probably the best fit... you could get away with wearing t-shirts, baggy flannel shirts, baggy jeans.  anything earlier than the '60's and i would have had to wear dresses and skirts.  nope. 

14. Were you in track and field? my track career was short-lived.  i did summer track club in 4th grade.  while waiting for mom to pick me up from practice one day i decided to practice hurdles on this little chain fence.  i think we see where this is going.  caught my foot, face-planted, looked around to see if anyone saw me.  kirk has a great pole-vaulting story, you should as him about it sometime.  
15. Baseball hat or toque?  what in the world is a toque??  i like baseball hats, but hair's a little poofy for them. 
16. Have you thrown up on a plane? yeah.  but only thing i'd had was oj, so... it was flying into NYC... i think flying so low over the tall buildings made me wretch.  
17. Have you thrown up in a car? not that i remember.  i'm not generally a puker.
18. Have you thrown up at work? no.  but i make puking noises when i see kids sucking face in the halls. seriously.  it seems to be more effective than asking them to stop.   
19. Who was your first prom date?  ha ha.  ryan aylward.  michelle's cousin's husband.  awkward.  point of clarification:  he was not anyone's husband when he went to prom with me.  i did have a really huge crush on him.  but he was just a really great friend.  i was really good at being "friends" with guys, i think it was the sports thing.  anyone else remember that hated phrase, "you're just a really great friend?"  bleck.
20. Who was your first roommate? the browning house girls.  
21. What was your first job? I Can't Believe It's Yogurt.  great name.  it was a popular choice for all the "Classy Cats" dancers that went tanning next door.  they always ordered large, non-fat vanilla, with candy bar toppings.  i never quite understood the purpose of the non-fat vanilla in all of that.  
22. Who was your first Best Friend and are you still friends with them? Carrie, and yes, we're still friends!  we were an unlikely pair.  the first time we met was when i moved to the neighborhood when i was 5 and she was 6.  she rode up to me on this brown bmx bike (she was a total girly-girl which made the choice of bicycles even more ironic) and asked if i wanted to ride with her.  her definition of "riding" was to shuffle along with her feet on the ground instead of pedaling. we were always together after that.  we had our own weird little way of talking with each other.  her mother thought we were retarded.  yeah, she actually used the word retarded.  hilarious.  
23.Who is the first person you call when you have a bad day?  kirk.  poor guy.  
24. What was the first concert you attended? DC Talk and Michael W Smith.  yeah.  i was a cool christian.  
25. First tattoo or piercing? the cartilage of my ear.  lost a bet.  made Todd go with me (he was the winner of the bet) because i am a chicken. 

26.   First celebrity crush?  ahh, ralph maccio (wait.  was that his name???).  karate kid.  christian bale has been my longest running celeb crush (going strong ever since Newsies)

grody

i used the word "grody" for the first time since perhaps 4th grade the other day. i don't even know how to spell it. but, i used it in reference to myself. i got sick on friday, so suddenly and so dramatically that i have not left my house since friday afternoon. i showered today for the first time since thursday (yeah, i went to work and didn't shower on friday, so what?). that was the longest that i had been standing up since i was at work on friday. i have gone through a box and a half of tissue and a roll of toilet paper since saturday morning. there is only one word to describe me: grody.

p.s. i am getting ready to venture out of the house for the first time in four days...don't be too impressed. i am going to dillons to get some meds. i live a block from dillons. and i'm not wearing a bra.

cecil adventures...funny story...even if you are dog person

so, cecil is a rather social cat. all of our neighbors know him and regularly report to us about his visits to their yard or porch. during the summer, he comes home every evening smelling of bbq because he frequents all of the neighborhood cookouts. he's quite popular.
anyway, due to cecil's roamings we have a little collar and a tag that says "CECIL" and my phone number on it. the other day, cecil came home in the evening with a piece of masking tape on his collar. on the tape was written, "i think every dish is mine" with a smiley face. "oh no," i thought, "cecil's pilfering from a neighbor's cat dish again." there's nothing i can really do about this. i mean, if you put catfood outside, you can't really be surprised that it becomes a community dish, right? i figured if the mystery sticky note person was really offended by cecil's behaviors then they could call me.

next day, cecil comes home with a new note attached to the collar. this time it says, "cecil t catt at facebook." we looked on facebook and, yes, cecil now has a facebook page. courtesy of a neighbor that has been wooed by his cecil-ness. i don't have a facebook page but my cat does. he doesn't even have thumbs, but he has a facebook page. hilarious.

so if any of you facebook-ers want to "friend" my cat you may do so. cecil t catt.

shots...and disorders

well, our trip to south africa is official...i've gone to get my shots. well, one shot. to my delight i discovered that i could get the typhoid vaccination via capsules, and it lasts longer than the shot! boy howdy! so, all i had to get is the hepatitis A booster...yeah, that's right, the booster. 4 years ago, when i went to china i got the first round of the hep A series, but never went back to get the second round because i'm a huge wimpy baby about shots. so, kirk and i go to the health department last night to get our shots. and i'm a nervous wreck. those of you who know me understand. i didn't even get my ears pierced until i was 19 (and even then it was because i lost a bet to my good friend todd...and i made him go with me for support). anyway, i only have to get ONE shot. just one. i nearly passed out. i was physically shaking. kirk had to come in with me. i made him read sports scores off of his cell phone while i was getting the shot. wow. i am a big baby. does anyone else have this problem?

in other news, i've discovered what has been wrong with me all of these years. as i am studying to get my masters in special ed, i am studying in-depth all of these various disorders and disabilities and it is abundantly clear to me that i have all of them. i'll be reading along in my stack of textbooks and i'll suddenly shout out to kirk: "kirk! listen to this! it says 'inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances' and 'general, pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression'! doesn't that sound like me?! i think i have a emotional or behavioral disorder!" so far, i have ADHD, Tourettes syndrome, anxiety disorders (see aforementioned story about getting shots), BD, and a few phobias. it's bad, folks. by the way, there's also a good chance that i am schizophrenic as the symptoms are very similar to those of BD/ED. i guess that explains a lot.

the incident

well, we closed on our house on friday and promptly began working so that we can get moved in! we are painting, refinishing cabinets, buying appliances, varnishing window sills, tearing out old shelves and dry wall from the basement, cleaning, trimming bushes, etc....the major things that we are trying to get done before we move in are the painting and refinishing cabinets (or at least the sanding part). so, we're at the house on friday night working and i'm painting the crown molding in our living room white. suddenly, the quart of white paint slips out of my hands and upright on the hardwood floor! no sooner do i think, "whew! that was close! at least it landed upright!" then i look down to see a volcano of white paint shooting up at me. it splatters my face, hair, the ceiling, my arms, the window, and the floor! i didn't know whether to laugh or cry. plus, it was a lot of paint and i hate wasting good paint! so, kirk and my friend nancy started cleaning up my mess while i went to clean myself off. feeling badly because they are cleaning up my mess, i hurry back to help them. they are almost finished wiping up the paint from the floor. i grab a step ladder that is in my way so that i can help them. unfortunately, the very same cursed quart of white paint is sitting on the lower step of the ladder. it proceeds to slip off of the ladder, tip on its side, and fall onto my foot and the floor. i don't know what was wrong with me. it was bad. the irony: i got more paint on the floor that night than i did on the wall.