The Literate Ferret

iPod

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:31:01 GMT

Y'all: I am in the market for an iPod. I want 60-80 GB. I don't want to pay more than $200 for an 80G or $160 for a 60G (video). These are the best prices I can find on e-bay. This is to replace my 30GB Zen Vision M.

If you have something else you're contemplating selling, let me know. I might be interested. I probably will commit my money within the next 48 hours, max.

ETA: Pending outcome of e-mail negotiations, I think I have one: a 60GB video for $175. A little over, but instant gratification, nonetheless.

Friends, this is what we call "blackmail."

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 02:57:08 GMT

My child and her friend willingly provide me all the ammunition I need for the coming teen years:

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:01:29 GMT

Well, this is it. The MS150 once again is upon us. This year, all three of us are riding: Me, Mark, and Burgundy. I'm very proud of Burgundy; she's nervous, excited, afraid, and determined. She's an inspiration.

I haven't ridden my bike since my last adjustment, so I don't know whether I'll be pain-free for the ride, but we shall see. There's always ice.

If you want to support us, here are my and Burgundy's e-donate links:
Mine: http://ms150.org/edon.cfm?id=189876
Burgudy: http://ms150.org/edon.cfm?id=199206

I don't think Mark has an e-donate link.

I'm way behind this year in the fundraising. This time last year, I was near $700. This year, I'm at $200, and I have to raise $400. Time for the note-writing campaign.

From Spiffstress

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 18:22:22 GMT

There are 234 movies in this list, supposedly if you have seen more than 93 of them (40%) you apparently have no life.

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
() Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
() Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
Total: 7

(x) The Princess Bride
(x) AnchorMan: The Legend of Ron Burgandy
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
() Saw
() Saw II
() White Noise
() White Oleander
() Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates
(x) The Princess Diaries
() The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total: 6

() Scream
() Scream 2
() Scream 3
() Scary Movie
() Scary Movie 2
() Scary Movie 3
(x) Scary Movie 4
() American Pie
() American Pie 2
() American Wedding
() American Pie Band Camp
Total: 1

(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
() Resident Evil 1
() Resident Evil 2
() The Wedding Singer
() Little Black Book
() The Village
() Lilo & Stitch
Total: 4

(x) Finding Nemo
(x) Finding Neverland
() Signs
(x) The Grinch
() Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(x) White Chicks
() Butterfly Effect
(x)13 Going on 30
() I, Robot
() Robots
Total: 5

(x) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
() Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
() Along Came Polly
() Deep Impact
() KingPin
() Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
() Eight Crazy Nights
() Joe Dirt
(x) KING KONG
Total: 5

() A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
() The Lizzie McGuire Movie
() Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
() Dumber & Dumberer
() Final Destination
() Final Destination 2
() Final Destination 3
() Halloween
() The Ring
() The Ring 2
() Surviving X-MAS
() Flubber
Total: 2

() Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
() Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
() Ghost Ship
() From Hell
() Hellboy
() The Secret Window
() I Am Sam
() The Whole Nine Yards
() The Whole Ten Yards
Total: 1

() The Day After Tomorrow
() Child's Play
() Seed of Chucky
() Bride of Chucky
() Ten Things I Hate About You
() Just Married
() Gothika
() Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles CLASSIC
() Remember the Titans
() Coach Carter
() The Grudge
(x) The Mask
() Son Of The Mask
Total: 2

() Bad Boys 2
() Joy Ride
() Lucky Number Slevin
() Ocean's Eleven
() Ocean's Twelve
() Identity
() Lone Star
() Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
(x) Predator II
() The Fog
() Ice Age
() Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
() Curious George
Total: 2

(x) Independence Day
() Cujo
() A Bronx Tale
() Darkness Falls
() Christine
(x) ET
() Children of the Corn
() My Bosses Daughter
() Maid in Manhattan
() Frailty
() War of the Worlds
() Rush Hour
() Rush Hour 2
Total: 2

() Best Bet
() How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
() She's All That
() Calendar Girls
(x) Sideways
() Mars Attacks
() Event Horizon
() Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
() Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total: 6

(x) X-Men
(x) X2
(x) X3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
() Sky High
() Jeepers Creepers
() Jeepers Creepers 2
() Catch Me If You Can
(x) the little mermaid
() Freaky Friday
() Reign of Fire
() The Skulls
() Cruel Intentions
() Cruel Intentions 2
() The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total: 8

() Swimfan
(x) Miracle on 34th street
(x) Old School
(x) The Notebook
() K-Pax
() Krippendorf's Tribe
() A Walk to Remember
() Ice Castles
() Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old-virgin
Total: 4

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
() Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total: 5

() Love and Basketball
() Hostel
() Waiting for Guffman
() House of 1000 Corpses
() Devils Rejects
() Elf
() Highlander
() Mothman Prophecies
() American History X
() Three Amigos
Total: 0

() The Jacket
(x) Kung Fu Hustle
() Shaolin Soccer
() Night Watch
() Monster
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
() Shaun Of the Dead
() Willard
Total: 3

() High Tension
() Club Dread
() Hulk
() Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicals Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
() 28 days later
() Orgazmo
() Phantasm
() Underworld
Total: 2

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
() Mortal Kombat
() Wolf Creek
() Kingdom of Heaven
() the Hills Have Eyes
() I Spit on Your Grave
() The Last House on the Left
() Re-Animator
() Army of Darkness
Total: 2

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
() Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
() Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total: 6

(x) the Matrix
(x) the Matrix Reloaded
(x) the Matrix Revolutions
() Animatrix
() Evil Dead
() Evil Dead 2
(x) Team America World Police
() Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
() Hannibal
Total: 5

Total = 74. I have a life, but only because such a high percentage of these were horror, which I can't tolerate.

Invitation wording

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 16:50:14 GMT

Burgundy told me last month that she wanted to do something like her Angel Tree efforts of a few years ago again this year for her birthday. I told her that proud as I was, I could not run the AT project anymore; it's too much work/too many hours. Also, it's hard to find a family enough kids for her to sponsor an entire family. Plus, the names don't get to me in anything like a timely fashion, so it's hard to plan in advance or tell people what we want. I asked if she would be willing to do gift-gathering for a shelter or something, and she seemed open to the idea.

She's brought it up several more times, and she still really wants to do a benefit party, but couldn't decide on a beneficiary. Well, last night she decided she wanted to do it for an animal shelter, and when I brought up "For the Love of Ferrets," she immediately jumped on the idea. Last year when Sugar dies, the couple who runs this organization, Jimmie & Gail, really helped us out emotionally.

So for her birthday, Burgundy would like for people to bring in supplies or donations for the ferret shelter as their birthday gift to her.

The only problem I really have is how in the world to make an appealing invitation for her friends! I think that ideally I would like to do it somewhere Big so she can invite lots of friends and family, and ideally, we would be able to have a large 'visiting friends' pen where the kids can touch and watch the ferrets.

Help! I'll take any ideas. I might x-post this to ferret lovers comm if they ever approve my membership.

Also, because she's putting her birthday towards charity, Mark and I will be looking to get her something Extra-Special for her birthday/Christmas gift from us. Last night she checked out a small Specialized road bike with Shimano 105 front to back. It would have set us back $800 retail, but because of a pretty serious scratch on the top tube, I might be able to get it for around half of that. I hope so. We are going to have to rearrange the finances a little bit to be able to make it happen, but hey. Who needs to eat? I told Burgundy that we just flat couldn't afford it, while I negotiated with the shop manager to store it for us once we bought it so we could give it to her on her birthday.

Decisions, decisions

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 16:58:03 GMT

My little girl has a livejournal. Two, actually. I set one up for her, and recently, she set one up for herself. She's also 10 now, going on 11, so I'm thinking of taking my journal friends only so that she cannot get into what I'm writing because you know, that's never good. Some things she just doesn't need to know.

so this is your warning: if you're lurking, please declare yourself so that we can Mutually Friend and you can keep reading.

I'm going friends-only in one week.

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 23:47:38 GMT

An update to my virtual model due to a little more weight loss. Here I are:

October 2006

Previous MVM post here.

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:02:19 GMT

Oh MY GOD! Super thanks to wyllow42 for the new icon!

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 18:36:18 GMT

My Personality


Neuroticism	78
Extraversion	62
Openness To Experience	55
Agreeableness	2
Conscientiousness	26

Test Yourself Compare Yourself View Full Report

MySpace Surveys, MySpace Codes and MySpace Layouts by Pulseware Survey Software

Oracle Gurus?

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 13:20:57 GMT

Good morning! My company is in great need of Oracle programmers. They pay well and it's a great place to work. If you've ever considered Houston, consider it now! We have GREAT benefits, too. If you know Oracle and are interested, e-mail me at mslilly at livejournal dot com.

Waiting for Burgundy

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 00:58:47 GMT

This week Burgundy had an hour long lesson with tabbyfoo to make up for rescheduling last week to go to the Astros. So I've been sitting here for the last 45 minutes or so goofing off on the laptop. I intended to work on the Oracle stuff so it would be ready for the office tomorrow, but the signal here can't decide whether it wants to be 1Mbps or 11Mbps. So the two or three tasks I did finish, each one got erased when I tried to upload it. So I said screw it. I played minesweeper for a while and got exasperated with the mouse "function", then I surfed myspace for a while.

Now I'm just waiting for Burgundy to get done, then the three of us will go to Starbucks. Afterwards, I will run. Looking forward to it, actually.

OH! Burgundy just came out to tell me she's going to sing "Ain't Misbehaving" for the jazz festival. Oh! There is a God.

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 03:21:08 GMT

Well, here I sit on a new laptop, putting off our inevitable separation while I sleep. God. What a waste of time. Getting new computers makes me wish that I knew how to do programming and stuff. That would be cool.

I altered one of Burgundy's tank tops this afternoon - it was just as easy as I had predicted.

Day one of Junior High down. Just two point nine years left.

Sigh.

Big Pouty Face

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 20:41:50 GMT

Our wonderful students went home yesterday. We stayed up until 2AM Sunday night/Monday morning. Suzanne and I made a midnight run to Kroger. I taught Axie to knit and gave her a couple good balls of yarn and two pair of needles (size 15 clovers and size 8 boyes).

When we dropped them off Monday morning to go home, I cried so hard that I could barely see. As we drove away, Burgundy broke down, and she cried all the way home and most of the morning. Eventually, I had to make a deal with her that I would not allow her to cry anymore. Basically, she was crying because she couldn’t stop crying at that point.

Today we’re both much better, but I still get a little teary-eyed when I think of them. That’s kind of funny, really. We’ll see them again – maybe even next year. All the same, I feel so sad without them in the house.

It makes me want to evaluate the possibility of taking on a foreign exchange student here next school year. Then again, it would go well beyond breaking my heart at the end of a whole year. This was only two weeks and I’m heart broken!

I just wrote them both thank you notes for their gifts to us. Tomorrow I’m supposed to pick up a book that I wanted to give to Suzanne on Harry Potter, so I’ll probably pack up some Oreos for her as well. Apparently, one cannot buy Oreos in Scotland. Barbarians. I also want to send Axie a copy of Stitch & Bitch. Her grandmother is an avid knitter, so I have no doubt she’ll have plenty of support for her new ~~habit~~ hobby, but the S&B is a good book for someone younger. So I’ll try to get all that in the mail tomorrow. I hope it doesn’t cost me $50 or something.

Okay. I need to get back to work. I’m being held prisoner by a vicious array formula that doesn’t seem to want to work.

Help! Someone stole my pattern!

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 03:21:42 GMT

Let me backtrack.

Last year, I went on honeymoon and bought the Spring 05 Interweave Knits. I fell in love with the pattern called "A Good Bias." I knitted it, then stored the magazine for a while. I decided to knit it again, and started carrying the 'zine around with me. After a while, it fell apart, and I began carrying just the page with the pattern on it with me.

One day about two weeks ago, I went out to my car to go to work in the morning, and someone had thrown a landscaping brick through my window to take my purse, which he or she apparently fancied.

I've looked for the pattern everywhere, and all I can figure is that it must have been folded up in the purse when it was taken. I am about halfway through the second sleeve of the work, and I have the whole thing memorized except the three increase rows (where I am right now), and the number of repeats for the remainder of the work.

Does anyone have the 05 Interweave who would be willing to help me? I only need the graph of the second sleeve. I can photograph my WIP and my falling apart fall issue if necessary to show I'm telling the truth.

Thanks in advance. misslilly at gmail dot com.

x-posted like a crazy woman

Marche Slav

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 14:58:45 GMT

International Space School. This is our second year to host students for the school. Previously I wrote that we were to keep our students for one week, then they were to go to another family. This was due to us having no advance notice of their arrival at all. Indeed, although we had asked several times for information, we heard nothing until the Tuesday before their arrival. By then, we had plans for family to be here in the middle of the kids’ first weekend here. We knew we wouldn’t have enough sleeping space for everyone, so we told the organizers that we could host for the first week only. The students were to go to another host family beginning Saturday.

Friday night at 11:30, Mark got home from picking the girls up to inform me that the girls had nowhere else to go. Apparently, both of the other families the girls might have stayed with changed their mind or had problems at the last possible moment.

In the meantime, Mark signed up months ago to take a course this weekend making him a certified instructor of Adult, infant and child CPR and of the Red Cross babysitter’s course. He would be gone until late Friday night, then all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday.

And in an alternate Universe, I had told the students that I would let them go to the Galleria Saturday while I took Burgundy bed shopping in our Honda Civic. The students found out that three other young ladies were without anything to do on Saturday and asked if these stranded students could please go with them on Saturday.

So Saturday morning I woke without my husband, cleaned a little and made breakfast, then tried to figure out how to give our students a place to sleep for the next week (they are here for school! I couldn’t just say, “too bad, you’re going to have to sleep wherever someone will let you”), how to transport seven people (comprising 5 teenage girls, Burgundy and myself), how to take them shopping at Wal-Mart (a special request of my Scottish student), Baybrook Mall and the Galleria, how to get to IKEA and buy a bed, then back Somewhere Else to buy a mattress, get all five girls to Clear Lake Park by 5 PM, move furniture into a larger bedroom to accommodate my incoming family, and finally get from Clear Lake back up to Intercontinental Airport by 7 PM to pick up my incoming family. Home again, home again, jiggity jig, to pick up our young people by 10:30 or 11.

So it went like this:

Call Annette and inform her that
1. We will be picking up the three entertainment-less students, and
2. We will continue to host our students throughout the two weeks. Annette offered to loan us a couple of camp cots, resolving the earlier issue of “where do we all sleep?”
Borrow the neighbor’s huge, old, red Suburban. We got into it, and Axie, from Canada, said, “Oh my God, can you drive this thing?”
Take the girls to the Post Office, then to Kolache Factory (neither had heard of kolaches before).
Call to see if the three other girls are available. Find out they have not been heard from yet even though they are about ½ an hour overdue.
Take Suzanne and Axie to Voldemart. Suzanne (Scotland) walks about open-mouthed for a while, they get lost in the cheap DVD section, check out clothes, furniture, vacuums, etc.
Leave, track down the Three Musketeers at Baybrook, and pull up to meet them outside the Sears automotive center. I see them roll their eyes when they realize the lumbering, decrepit yacht on wheels is there for them.
Drive all girls to the Galleria. Took us longer to turn right onto Westheimer from 610 West Loop South than it did to drive from Clear Lake to Westheimer. Finally gave up and dropped them at the Starbucks, explaining that they should cross the street (it’s only six or seven lanes, and there’s a stop light there!) and enter at the Neiman Marcus. Turns out crossing the street was the girls’ greatest adventure of the day.
Drive to Ikea, shop shop shop, buy a bed, drive to Parker Road north of Houston and check out the dirty discount furniture stores, looking for a cheap mattress.
Give up, drive to Galleria, retrieve students from Starbucks.

It’s now 3:40 PM. Remember I still have to rearrange furniture at the house, get a mattress, get the girls to the park by 5 and get back to Intergalactic by 7. Oh, and unload the Suburban and return it to the neighbor.

On the way home from the Galleria, accidentally enter 59N instead of 610 W Loop South, sit in traffic for 30 minutes, swear at other drivers, and learn over the phone that the BabyDaddy will be joining us this weekend as well. Now we are back to being one bed short. He’ll have to sleep with his mother.
Get home, have students unload the van. Axie and I moved the bed from the students’ room to the larger spare bedroom after I rearrange some of the furniture in there, vacuum, and take out the trash
Make the bed, take the students to the park.
Drop them off and go to the gas station. Forty Freaking Dollars to put the needle to a little higher than it was when I borrowed the thing. Given the cost of gas and the neighbors’ gracious loan, I felt it completely appropriate to give back more gas than I took.
Go home, drop off the Suburban.
Burgundy and I go back to Walmart because I’ve realized that I don’t have enough sheets and blankets for all the cots and beds.
Leave Walmart and realize we don’t have my cell phone and the car is full of crap so there will be no room for luggage
Go home, unload the car, get the phone (which turns out to have been in Burgundy’s pocket). It’s now 6:30. 45 to 60 minute drive to Intergalactic, and we’re supposed to be there at 7.
Drive, drive, drive
Get to the airport and Mimi and Daniel have between them a purse, a backpack, and a kiddie suitcase. Between the phone in her pocket and the minimalist luggage, we didn’t need to go home

Meanwhile, Tabby calls and asks if Mimi Mike and I want to go to a sex toy party. At this point, I’m thinking, “Why the hell not?” So when I picked up Mimi, I asked her and we pretty seriously considered it. “But,” I said, “we have to stop and buy a mattress first.” This of course leads to a wonderful course of humor for our evening. Unfortunately, we didn’t finish buying the mattress until after the party started, much less get to Clear Lake in time for it, so we had to decline.

So the four of us buy the mattress, drive to Clear Lake while planning to go to Kemah for dinner. It’s 9:30 by the time we get home, unload the mattress, and get back in the car to eat. Meanwhile, I need to wire gas money to JB so he can drive to Houston. Back to Voldemart, because I can’t wire after 10PM. Never mind that it’s the total opposite direction from Kemah. By now I’m yelling at Burgundy for daring to speak to me, chewing out the cashier for screwing up the wire and taking 20 minutes to fix it, and snapping at Mimi for daring to suggest that she look at clothes while I’m standing there dealing from Impatient Idiot Teenager Voldemart Minion from Hell.

We leave Voldemart, now 10 PM, and head out for Kemah. The car stalled at the exit onto Bay Area Boulevard. Out of gas. Oh the irony. Mimi Mike and Daniel get out and start to push the car while I steer. We’re about ¼ mile from the gas pumps at Sams. I get out and start pushing as well, and Mimi decides to steer. Daniel and I push the car, and we’re running to keep up with it, me in my dress shoes (at least they weren’t heels). We push the car up into the Sams parking lot and realize that all the pumps are dark. These are not 24hour pay at the pump. I nearly start crying. I feel like Janet: “Look, I’m cold, I’m wet, and I’m just plain scared!” Except that I’m hot, I’m tired, and I’m just plain pissed.

Daniel and I push the car into a parking space and we all walk over to Texas Roadhouse. Like I can afford this. I’ve easily already spent $300 today.

At the Roadhouse, I had a margarita. I could have had ten. We all eat dinner while we wait for Mark, who doesn’t get out of class until 10:30. Mark comes with a gas can (from Kemah no less) and puts gas in my car. We drive to a gas station, fill up, and then home. Swap cars. Mark goes to get the girls and the cots from Geoff and Annette’s (we’re only at least an hour late now).

I don’t know what time we went to bed, but I remember Mark telling me that he was so tired and had worked so hard at his training class.

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 16:28:59 GMT

Burgundy finally came home this morning. I picked her up from the airport at about 8:10 AM. I had some fears and concerns about seeing her. She’s been with my mom for two and a half weeks. Mom encourages her to be really sassy. She thinks the sassy, catty behavior is cute and funny; it is funny in moderation, but sometimes I think Mom encourages her to behave badly 24 hours a day so she can stockpile funny Burgundy stories.

Last night I talked to Burgundy briefly and reminded her that Mark and I do not allow her to talk back or be a smarty-pants at home. I could tell she thought she was being chastised, so I let her know that it simply constitutes a difference in rules from one house to another. I insist on respect and honor from my child in my home. A sassy, flirty response is cute and funny from time to time, but it is not the way we “do business” in general. My mom wants to have a great time with Burgundy all the time. And that’s what grandmas are for, right?

When I picked her up this morning, she was genuinely happy to see me, but she seemed a little stand-offish. Almost like a little stranger. I seemed to be overboard no matter what I did. I hugged too hard, squealed too loud, talked too much, etc.

We went to IHOP where we planned to meet Tabby, and over breakfast we talked about the house and plans going forward. I told her about the new Ferret Plan (more on that later), and I told her that her room had to have some SERIOUS work done on it. She and I will spend spare time over the next week sorting through ALL of her stuff, starting with the closet and working our way out through cupboards, dressers, shelves, and boxes.

At the end of it all, we are going to let her have a garage sale next Saturday, and she gets to use the money she makes to go shopping for school clothes. Her face lit up at that. We have a rule that whatever money she makes, she has to save 10% and give 10% to a charity (generally the church, but if she ever wanted to give it somewhere else, we’d probably let her), but whatever else she makes, there are no rules about how she spends it. If she wants $15 in gum, it’s her money and her decision.

Mark and I are throwing in a lot of stuff for the sale, including a working vacuum cleaner (we have two), a couple of nice, functional armchairs (okay, one of them is butt-ugly, but it’s so ugly that I’ve kept it as a conversation piece for years), and whatever else I can find as we go through it all. Hopefully, she’ll be able to make at least $100 out of it all. I’d like her to be able to get some stuff she really digs.

The Ferret Plan

Saturday when we cleaned up the house, Tabby had to clean the Filthy Ferret Den of Doom. Afterwards, she suggested (and I agreed) that Burgundy get one more chance of only two weeks to get her act together with regards to taking care of the ferret.

I put together a list of six standards that her care has to meet, and I made a checklist of them that I will use five times a week to check her work. She gets no warning of when I am going to check up on her; I will go in at some point during the day and see if she’s taken care of her responsibilities and score her on each one, pass or fail.

I explained to her that the only way she’d get a break is if I came in and she was in the middle of cleaning or caring for him. Otherwise, she just has to beat me to it. Basically, care for him so often and well and carefully that no matter when I come in, he’ll be in good shape.

So for two weeks I’ll do this, and she has to score at least 87% (that’s no more than four missed criteria per week) each week to keep the ferret. If at the end of two weeks she makes the cut, then she has to succeed for two more weeks. After that, I’ll check up on her monthly. If she ever fails the monthly check, it’s back to the two week routine.

Here’s the list:

Ferret Checklist
P / F	Food
P / F	Water
P / F	Litter scooped (not “Turds buried under fresh litter”)
P / F	Ferret clean (Stinky animals suck!)
P / F	Fresh bedding in place; bad smell not present
P / F	Cage catch pan clean

If she makes it through for a month, I’m going to build a rolling cabinet to go under the cage. I haven’t told her that yet.

Okay, that’s about it for now.

Gucci?

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 05:07:43 GMT

So today after WW, tabbyfoo and I ended up at the ICM resale shop where, at the last possible minute, I spotted something I didn't really need: A cute little purse.

Good Lord, I'm turning into a girl. A quick glance revealed it to be a Gucci purse, explaining the $10 price tag in a thrift store. Normally I won't spend that much on a piece of furniture in a thrift store, but you have to understand: the bag is CUTE. and it says, "Gucci."

So I bought it and took it home, and just now made the mistake of looking on e-bay for a matching "kiss-clasp" coin purse. I determined that Gucci bags, in good shape, retail for $25 to $900, assuming authenticity.

Now the possibility that it might not really be a Gucci bag never crossed my mind, and frankly I don't really need a Gucci ANYTHING except for one detail. If this bitch is authentic and worth the average $200 - $400 I saw for similar bags, I am going to sell it.

So now I need to know, how does one go about verifying authenticity of designer label clothing and handbags? spiffstress, I'm counting on you.

Okay, here's the plaque on the front of the purse.

And here's a view of the whole thing. I still haven't solved the problem of needing a coin purse to go with it.

Mon, 22 May 2006 23:08:44 GMT

Well, all offers and counter-offers are in. UW wants me and offered me the job Friday night with a 15% salary increase, but I lose a week of my vacation. I said no deal, I want the full 20% increase. They said they would have to see and call me back.

This afternoon, the company I work for now called and offered me about a 22% raise and I get to keep my three week vacation accrual rate if I stay. The new company said that 20% with 2 weeks is as good as it gets.

So you tell me:

View Poll: Which job to take?

Thank you!

Fri, 19 May 2006 04:22:37 GMT

poetpaladin,

Thank you very much for the paid account gift. I really do appreciate it.

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 04:57:12 GMT

WOW!

Today has been a good day, and I ate chocolate. What else in life is there but chocolate? Peeps. There are peeps. And here's a shout-out to all my peeps. You were delicious. And I think I shall eat some of your remaining number. Yes. Hmm. Mmmf. Sglorp. Mmm. Pink bunnies to keep the yellow chicks company. I love my peeps.

God I'm a goofball.

It's been a heavy week. My co-worker's mother died last week. Another one's mother has cancer and has been given 3-6 months to live. Another lost her mom to cancer just a couple of months ago. Also last week, my best friend's father in law died rather suddenly. I had called to tell her that whatever she needed, I would do it for her. She called Friday to say that Robert Lee (who was her foster son until his 18th birthday) had lost one of his guardians; he died during the week. Apparently, Robert was very distressed, and my friends would not be home from Michigan (where the father's funeral was) until late next week. She asked me to attend the funeral for her. So I have to go into work tomorrow and tell them I have to miss work. For the umpteenth time. If I'm getting tired of saying it, I KNOW they're getting tired of hearing it.

I didn't ride much at all this past week. Starting about Tuesday, I started having allergy attacks. It kept getting worse and worse, and I had to choose between getting on the bike to keep myself ready for the Big Ride and staying off the bike to preclude getting so sick that I wouldn't be able to do the Big Ride.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked to my friend Kira during a soccer game about running. Apparently she has been running for 20 years (and hasn't even done anything wrong!). So I tried it out tonight. She had suggested that I try running three minutes, then walking a couple of minutes, then alternating to build up my endurance. I was shocked to find that I could not run for three straight minutes when I first got outside. So I set my sights on two-minute alternations, and was doing fine. I used my heart rate monitor to pace myself and to time myself. About 20 minutes into the run, I noticed that I wasn't even looking at the clock for the first 90 seconds or more of my run, so I started trying to push it out to three minutes. After two alternations of 3 minutes/2 minutes running/walking, I started the next run cycle and was at 2 minutes the first time I looked down! So I just kept going. That alternation was six minutes, and the next was six and a half; I walked two minutes between them. One thing I noticed early on was that my heart rate would exceed the target zone before I finished my "running" cycle. So I played with breathing and pacing and managed to stretch it out. As I did that, I found that if I tried to force myself to breathe in a long rhythm (four footfalls in, four footfalls out) when I was starting to get tired, then my heartrate would accelerate too quickly. So I got into a rhythm of breathing four/four, then when pulling in four breaths started to feel forced, I would switch to three footfalls in, three out. During the two longer cycles, I was able to keep my heartrate within the correct zone almost the entire time and to bring it back within the zone very quickly without stopping running when I did go over. In all, it was a really good experience.

I do have some questions, though. For one thing, my right foot points slightly outward, and toward the end of the run, it hurt to run on it. I found that I was running on the outside of my foot, and it hurt the inside of my calf. When I tried to force myself to point the foot in while running, it relieved the pain on the inside of my calf, but caused a burning sensation on the outside. For another, I need better shorts. I hated having someone's headlights point out that my shorts had crawled up my thighs and were trying to lodge themselves permanently into my crack. Just . . . gross. Is there such a thing as running shorts that do not make me feel like I'm going to get picked up for indecent exposure?

I thought of a lot more as I ran along, but I'd better be hopping off to bed right now. Good night!

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 04:42:37 GMT

Livejournal is doing this irritating thing where it will load pages, but it won't show icons. It will show the outline color, but there's a big blank spot where the icon should be. I hate the internet. It's worse than TV: sucks me in and disappoints me.

Today I left work about 10 minutes early, picked up Burgundy from her after-school program, and we went bike riding. I should not have taken my heart rate monitor with me because it beeped the whole time, and I snapped at Burgundy several times as a result. Suck.

Anyway, we had fun. Afterwards we went to Coffee Oasis for knitting, and Mark picked her up around 7:30 while I stuck around for innuendos and craftiness. Made plans with Eric and Hannah to meet tomorrow at 5 for biking, then remembered that I'm supposed to have my haircut tomorrow at 4:30. And I honestly don't expect to be out of the office early tomorrow as expected/planned, either.

So now I need to go make a sandwich and pack lunch for tomorrow. Also, I need to log my food for this evening. Would also be nice to get some of that bike time logged properly.

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 13:54:43 GMT

Oh boy, I’m still working hard! So hard that I have not been able to update much. Sorry!

My weigh-in yesterday was pretty good. Last week, I officially passed the 50% point, and I have now lost more weight than I currently have left to lose. I know you want to see photos, and sooner or later, I will get some up, but for the most part, I just don’t have time.

In the last month or so, really good and really bad things have happened. First, I went and had an affair. With a girl. Mark wasn’t too upset about it, since I broke it off before I did too much damage to our relationship or our finances, but it really was a close shave. She had sweet, clean lines, and she was hard and chiseled. She was definitely as into me as I was into her. She was fast and gentle and protective . . . oh I could swoon now just thinking about her. And oh my Lord the paint job. Silver and blue and sparkly. She was a Cannondale R700 Optimo for women.

When I took her out for our first ride, I knew I had a match. She was $1200, which was my budget for the bike and all the gear and equipment I needed, and the store wasn’t going to budge on any prices, either. I went to another store, where they were willing to cut me a pretty sweet deal on the gear and equipment, but it would be at least 3 weeks before I could get the bike. In the meantime, I decided to test ride a Giant OCR1. This bike (a guy, by the way), came closest to competing in ride quality with my first love. He had better components and a lower retail price, too. A couple hundred less.

Compound better componentry and equal engineering with the fact that for the Giant, the store was willing to work on both bike and accessory prices. I walked out with the Giant, a cycle computer, specially fitted handlebars (I have pretty narrow shoulders), biking sunglasses (dorky wrap-around – how hot is that?), clipless pedals, a special extended five-year warranty, and new gloves (my old gloves were tight when I got them, and now they are falling off!) for a grand. I am as in love with my sweet deal on a sweet bike as I had been with the unattainable beauty for which I initially fell. Now I can hardly remember the differences between the Giant and the Cannondale, and I love riding my new bike. Love it. I have put 115 miles on it since I bought it. I should have put on twice that much, but c’est la vie! Je n’ai pas les heures.

I have been squeezing in rides where I can. I try to do an hour every other day in the neighborhood behind my house. There’s a loop of wide roads with low traffic about 1.8 miles long, so I can get good work in there. On last Saturday and yesterday, I commuted on the bike to soccer. I had reservations about riding to the game on Saturday. It was seven miles, about a 30 minute commute, and I didn’t know whether it would hurt my game. In the end, I decided that even if my game suffered nobody would notice because in general I suck so hard that a performance decline wouldn’t really show up. So I rode the bike to the game and arrived feeling fit, warm, healthy and ready. I proceeded to play my best game ever (in my opinion). I played almost the whole game, only coming off so other people could play. I made quite a few fairly long runs, feeling okay afterwards, and I only screwed up receiving the ball once. I chalked this up to riding over. My muscles were warmed up, and it didn’t take me a full half to get there! What a concept!

I tried that again Wednesday, and Hannah, Eric, Andrew and I all rode out to practice, about five miles. Although I was good and ready to play when we arrived, it took about 15 minutes for everyone to be ready to play, and rather than continue to run or pass or whatever, I kind of stood around waiting. Thus I didn’t do as well in the scrimmage as I had hoped I would. Regardless, I played most of the scrimmage as a mid or forward, a really new experience for me. I really enjoyed what I was doing, and towards the end of the game, I took a couple of shots on goal! A whole new experience for me. Now I want to work on my stamina so I can play midfield. I really love that game.

Both experiences I had to get home off the bike. On Saturday it started to rain just as the game ended, and I did not want to ride on freshly rained, super-slick roads when I was already tired and hungry. I caught a ride home with another player. On Wednesday, it got dark before we finished our scrimmage, and I don’t have headlights yet. So Mark came and picked the three of us up (Eric had already ridden home because he did not want to play in the scrimmage due to his previously broken ankles).

Good stuff going on at home, too. Burgundy finished fourth place with her science fair project this year. We and several family friends came to her awards ceremony at the school, then we all went out to BJ’s Brewery, site of her brilliant idea, to have some of their homemade root beer and some early dinner.

Yesterday when we all got to the house and things finally settled down enough that I thought to ask Mark how his day went (after 9PM! Shame on me!), he smiled and said, “I had a really good day today!” I looked up at him and stopped folding laundry. Usually, it’s “yeah, pretty hard work, but things are okay,” or “I’m keeping a solid grip on things.” His face broke out into a huge grin as he said, “They made me lead over [insert project name here, something to do with Honeywell].” Oh, man, I am so proud of him! Promoted to lead in two months! Pretty sweet! He already has people reporting to him! YES! My man the manager!

Just one more thing, I guess.

Early during the school year, we found out about a Science Magnet program run locally at an intermediate school. Burgundy really enjoys hands-on science, and she decided she wanted to go to the magnet school. She brought up her grades, knuckled down on homework, and focused on academics. She asked me to teach her how to write an essay, and then she practiced writing essays in the weeks before the “tryouts.” There are about 100 slots for students in this school, and there are about 300 applicants annually, so students have to complete an application, obtain teacher recommendations, then write two essays on the day of “tryouts.” They don’t know what the essay questions will be so that all students get a fair crack at coming up with their own creative answer.

Burgundy came home the day of the essays and announced that she didn’t think she had made it. When I asked her why not, she said that one of the essay questions was something she hadn’t really thought about before, and she didn’t know what to say. However, when I asked her what she had said, I remember thinking that it was a really good answer to the question. I don’t remember either now. So I encouraged her and told her to keep her chin up and that I thought that based on what she said her answer was and on her hard work she had a pretty good chance.

When the science fair results came in, we all felt that she had the matter cinched. She had worked hard, applied herself, carefully considered the requirements of getting in and worked to meet them, and now on top of all that, she had demonstrable scientific accomplishment (for a ten-year-old, mind you). We relaxed and waited for the letter to come in.

Last Wednesday, I picked Burgundy up from school at 4PM after Yearbook Club ended. I told her that I wanted us to go home, then maybe to the library rather than going to her after-school program, VISIONS. We pulled up to the house, and I grabbed the mail bundle and thumbed through it on my way through the front door. There in the back of the bundle sat a business-sized envelope addressed to Miss Burgundy. The return address was a big florid logo from the school. We sat down at the table, and while Burgundy made herself a snack, I quietly opened all the mail, saving Burgundy’s letter for last. I didn’t tell her about it because I wanted to know before she did. If she hadn’t made it, I wanted to have a couple of minutes to prepare myself for comforting her.

I opened the envelope and pulled out the letter. It was the longest two-paragraph letter I’ve ever read, and I read it twice before I could believe what I read.

She did not make it.

I had a whole flood of emotions. Anger. Sadness. Fear. Disappointment. Worry. I calmly took the envelope and the letter and said, “Burgundy, I have to make a phone call. I’ll be right back.” I walked outside and called Mark. We talked for a few minutes about what it meant and what to do. Being a guy warrior, Mark wanted to grab a white horse and storm the district citadel to demand justice. Frankly, I did too, but we agreed that if this had been a track meet and she hadn’t placed, we would not storm the podium to demand a medal or a trophy. She had competed fairly, and she hadn’t made it, and we knew she would look to our reaction to decide how she should react. I read the letter to him, and we couldn’t tell whether she had been flat-out rejected or placed on the waiting list. Mark said he would follow that up. I hung up, folded the letter, put it back in the envelope, and walked back inside. I found Burgundy in the living room curled up in a chair playing her Gameboy. “Burgundy,” I said, “You have a letter.” And I handed it to her.

She saw the return address and looked up at me with the question in her face. I tried to remain impassive, but I was fighting back tears myself, so I raised my eyebrows and looked to the envelope. She ripped the paper out, and I watched her read it, watched the disappointment spread over her face and her cheeks flush. It took her an eternity to read it, too. When her eyes started to close and her mouth made that sad little square shape, I knew the wail was coming, so I opened my arms, and against my will I was crying myself. She jumped from her chair into my lap and sobbed these gulping, frenzied, heaving cries. She curled into the fetal position, and I felt her tears running down my neck and shoulders while I rocked her back and forth and stroked her hair and back. We stayed that way for a while, both of us crying, until we recovered our emotions and were able to try talking again.

Her initial words were, “It just seems like all that work was wasted.”

“I know honey, it seems like that,” I said, “but we both know it wasn’t wasted.” She nodded. “What were some of the good things that happened because of this?” She immediately brought up her higher grades in math and science and the success of her science fair project. I added her better grades in reading, spelling and social studies, her predominance of As over Bs, her improved conduct marks, and her increased confidence in her academic ability.

I held her for a long time until she said, “I just don’t want to think about it anymore. Can we go to the library?” I agreed, and we set off.

That’s about it for today. Long day ahead, I can tell.

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 13:19:38 GMT

I got a letter and some MS150 support in the mail yesterday from grammardog! I love gettign mail. Thanks for the support, G-dog! I know it's kind of corny, but I hung the letter on the wall next to my desk at home to keep me encouraged.

Sunday morning, I did a 36.7 mile ride. Around mile 24, my knee started hurting, but I kept riding. By the time we got back to Coffee O, it hurt so much that I could hardly get off my bike, much less ride the 1.7 miles home. It hurt all day, even though I iced it, and yesterday morning, I called my old chiropractor and asked for an appointment. He's really more of a sports therapist than chiropractor even, but he's really good at what he does, regardless. He did some therapy and pinpointed some issues in my shoulders, then he told me to lay off and come back Wednesday. I'm totally banned from the bike until then. Poop. So tomorrow I'll go back, and he'll tell me then when I can get back to training.

That's about it for me. I have to go get ready for work.

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 19:46:56 GMT

Well, it's not exactly morning, but good morning all the same. I am at my mother's in Vancleave, Mississippi, and we are about to leave to go check out hurricane damage. Mom's house is almost completely back to normal now, but I can tell where the damage was, and there are still a few tell-tale signs outside like blown-down fences and the tin roof of the greenhouse sitting across the yard from it.

I hope to go see JB's ex-house today and to just drive around Ocean Springs and Biloxi. I want to go see the domino bridge; Daddy told me that it did exactly the same thing in Camille; it just dominoed over. He said that it was supposed to be built to sway and move with the wind and water of a hurricane; needless to say, the effort failed.

I knitted most of a glorious orange sock on the way over here Wednesday night, and I finished it late last night. I started on its partner this morning, and I hope I can finish it in time to wear it with my orange shirt tomorrow. Gorgeous.

This morning, I was stretched out across the bed, and Mark stepped back and took a long look at me and said, "Wow Mel, you're really getting slender." I could have cried. I did kiss him. Or maybe I just blushed and rolled over; I don't know.

I put on some of my mom's perfume this morning, and it's giving me a headache. Allergies; damn.

Momma gave Burgundy a boatload of scrapbooking supplies for Christmas along with a Build-a-bear gift card and an outfit for her bear (pink and black with a cat on the front; it looks French) with a little pair of matching boots. Needless to say, the Burg was thrilled.

All right; I'm off to knit and read a few of y'all's entries.

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 04:11:03 GMT

Wow, well, it's been a very busy week or so since my last update! Let's see, some general things first. Crackers, our cat, ran away on Dec. 8, presumably to punish us for getting Soren. We weren't really worried at first, but there was a cold snap, then he didn't come home. Three weeks went by before we started to really give up. Last week, we were saying things like, "Oh, that just reminds me so much of Crackers," and the other would reply, "Oh don't bring it up, I just miss him so much!"

Then I've had to adjust Soren's collar three times in two weeks! He's gotten so big that I think I can justify a studded leather collar now just for the fun of it. It's time for him to get his second set of shots, but we haven't gotten him over to the humane society yet. Need to do that tomorrow, I guess.

Speaking of tomorrow, we are supposed to leave to go to Mississippi tomorrow to see my mom. Originally we were going to leave today, but Burgundy's dad was here to visit. He came over on Christmas Eve in time for bedtime and cocoa, and we all celebrated Christmas together. He gave Burgundy a set of monkey bars for Christmas, and he spent most of Christmas day and yesterday constructing them.

Boy did Burgundy ever make out. The monkey bars, for one thing. They look great. Mark gave her a computer. I gave her a Creative brand mp3 player, 512mb, a speaker set for it (complete with a subwoofer), and I knitted her a carrying purse for the thing. I also knitted her a matching cabled hat, scarf and mittens (with pink eyelash trim), and she had a boatload of clothes. And a pair of Skechers and a pair of Converse. I wore her Skechers last night and all day today, which totally blows my mind. How is it that my tiny baby girl shares her shoes with me?

Mark bought me a wine making kit and a wireless keyboard and mouse, and Burgundy bought tennis rackets for me and Mark (and gave them to me as MY Christmas present! I had to razz her for that). She also painted a brick to look like a snowman and gave me that for Christmas.

I got Mark a pocketknife, an mp3/cd player for his car (along with new front and back speakers), a tiny little thumb drive for work, and a shirt and tie for the new job. Burgundy got him a great (and I mean fabulous) game called Curses; I highly recommend it.

Burgundy bought her dad DVD Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit. Mark's parents gave Burgundy an air hockey table and gave us the third set of our silver that we had registered for. We also went ahead and spent the last of our Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards for our third/final set of dishes.

Enough of all that. Yesterday JB mentioned that having lost all his stuff in the old house (when Katrina ate it), he would be very excited to have some of the stuff in our garage, should we desire to be rid of it. This motivated Mark and I both, and we worked for about five or six hours each yesterday and today. We have made a POWERFUL dent in the work. I have made four trips to Goodwill in my car and JB filled up his truck and made a trip, too. When I showed up this morning (3rd trip), there was another worker there. He looked in my trunk, turned to his co-worker and said, "Oh, it's the book lady."

JB took home enough stuff to thoroughly equip his new place, a full truckload as well as a fairly packed cab. I have cuts and abrasions on my fingers, my eyes are itching, and all my joints ache, but it looks really good. We still have another couple of days of work to do easily, and we have at least one more trip to Goodwill already ready to go tomorrow. We managed to put up the bike rack and hang our bikes on it, and we've been through a veritable ASS load of books. We went through all the games and put them up on a shelf that we cleared out and set up, and we sorted all Mark's "keeper" books and shelved them. I could see us spending three more days in there easily, but with an hour of shifting, I could park in there now.

We put so much stuff out for the trash that you can't see any grass on our curb. It's really probably as much trash as they'll pick up on the whole rest of our street. Crazy.

All through the cleaning, we would find hidden piles of cat turd and remark on how much we missed poor Crackers, hoping against hope that he was at least alive and taken care of somewhere. Around 4:45, Mark looked up and said, "Oh my God, there's Crackers!" Sure enough, the damn cat was sniffing around the trash! Mark tried to catch him for about 30 minutes, finally giving up and figuring we'd at least be able to track him now that Mark kind of new his route.

I made a run to the grocery store while Mark cleaned up the yard after our cleaning. When I got home, the garage doors were closed, and there was still all kinds of stuff in the yard. I went inside, but before I could say, "Mark, you know there's still stuff in the yard, right?" Mark said, "Mel, look! It's Crackers." Sure enough, he crouched in the doorway of my study and looked at me; he even let me croon at him and smother him with a little affection to say hello! So now we're all together for Christmas.

JB left about 2 hours ago, and I made turkey bean enchiladas for dinner. REALLY good stuff. I took 2 c. leftover turkey and sauteed it dry with about a quarter cup each of green pepper and onion. Added some black beans and 1/2 can enchilada sauce and scooped it into fat-free tortillas. Threw on some cheese and rolled 'em up, poured on the rest of the enchilada sauce and a little more cheese. I baked them about 20 minutes, and we all ate happily. It was about 90% ww recipe and 10% improv. Delicious. Mark and I shared a Shiner, he cleaned up the kitchen, and I started this update.

And they all lived happily ever after. The End.