My Brain Hurts

But I'm Happy!!!

Hurley showed his shadow this evening, so that means at least 7 more weeks of Lost.

Thank God, because I'm just about HGTVed out.

Save me Al Gore!

This Global Warming is killing me.

So for the second time in less than a week, it snowed here in Atlanta.

Not tons of it, but more than we had the other day.

Tonight, the temperatures are supposed to go down into the teens, so what we have will probably freeze over during the night and I will definitely be stuck come tomorrow morning.

I was fine with that, until I realized that I'm out of Diet Coke. Truthfully, I've been trying to cut out drinking so many of them and have done pretty well since the first of the year. But the more that I thought about spending two days without one, I just couldn't take it, so I broke down, drove over to the gas station/convenience store down the road and got one before the roads got bad.

Took this shot of my house on the way back.

Now I'm ready to curl up and settle in for a while. I've got my Diet Coke, my blanket and a couple of left over Vicodin, which should be helpful as the cold is making my knee hurt again. I've also got the first season of Dexter and the second season of Life on Mars on my TiFaux, along with a couple of movies, so I think I'm set.

Wheeeeeee!!!! It's Snowing

Before anyone makes fun of me, please understand that I live in Atlanta, and it never really snows here. So when we get flurries of any kind, and they actually start sticking, it is a big ole "Run to Publix and Buy Milk and Bread" kind of deal for everyone.


As an added bonus, we got sent home from work an hour early. Because when it only snows once every four years, and usually no more than an inch or two, our state doesn't really invest in all the road cleaning gear associated with real heavy snow. So traffic can get pretty messy really quick.


You can't really see the snow in this last one, but I thought it was a pretty shot.

12 of 12 - January 2008

This month's 12 of 12 is pretty weak, seeing as how it was a Saturday and I've been sick most of the week. So today was the one day that I could sleep the morning away and feel no guilt. Of course, not much to document either, but I tried.

11:17 am - Once I recalled that it was the 12th, I had to search the rubble that has been accumulating on my desk to find the camera. It was buried under all this. Maybe I will make cleaning off the desk a project for the day.
11:26 am - I'm actually a little bit hungry, so I made some Eggo Waffles in the toaster. That is really about the extent of my cooking skills. Oh, and this picture features my favorite kitchen utensil - Toaster Tongs from Pampered Chef. Best $3.00 I ever spent, and at least I was able to say I ordered something at my friend's party.


11:55 am - FX runs episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 7:00 am, so I will occasionally TiVo them and have a mini-marathon when the mood strikes. We are currently in Season 7. I think this was from the episode "First Date" where we find out that Principal Wood (DB Woodside - such a hottie) is the son of the slayer that Spike (James Marsters - also a hottie) killed in the 70s. Don't know why I TiVo these, as I have all 7 seasons on DVD.
1:40 pm - Since it is obvious I'm not going anywhere today, I thought that I'd at least take advantage of the semi-warm temperatures and sit out on the front porch, read and get some fresh air. Well, as fresh as it can be this close to the airport. But thankfully, we are no where near the flight paths, so it is reasonably quiet.

1:41 pm - another one from my chair on the porch. Told you it was a slow day.

1:42 pm - I'm reading "Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door" by Lynne Truss. You know, maybe I should go back inside and bolt the door as she suggested.

2:50 pm - Heading back indoors, I spot the dining room. Well, at least if I don't get the desk cleaned up, I still have one clean room in the house.

5:30 pm - I really need to get this case of water put away before I end up tripping on it, or worse, kicking it with my little toe. But it is just so darn heavy.

6:05 pm - I need a nap. Be back with you in a bit.

8:37 pm - OK - Nap over. Let's see if I can get that desk cleaned up. Of course, it will probably take hours, since I will stop to read everything on the desk while I'm decluttering it. See - here is my Entertainment Weekly magazine, and I must at least scan it before I move on. Can you believe that all 4 Baldwin Brothers are on TV at the same time? And some of them are actually on good shows.

11:14 pm - Yay! I got the desk area cleaned up and all of my stuff filled. I took this from the distance so you could see a little more of the house, since several of my out of town friends still haven't seen the place. But maybe, little by little, I'll photo the house and put it all together in one post.
11:15 pm - And the view from the other direction. You may notice in next to the door are my canes - the bane of my existence lately. I have two - an inside one (with the old lady feet) and an outside one (black and sleek, goes with my outfits.) I'm able to get around a little better around the house without them, but any long distances or steps still requires the support of one.

So I guess that is it. Nothing too exciting, but at least I feel a little better after lounging around the house all day.

Happy 2008 2.0

Yeah - I'm trying this again.

Hopefully my second attempt at kicking off the new year will go better than what happened last week. I've already got my lunch ready to go for tomorrow, have an extra alarm set for the morning, and have planned a new route to work to avoid the invisible traffic light that only one cop can see.

Wish me luck.

I Want a Do Over

One working day into the year and I already want a do over.

I had resolved to start the year by setting the clock a half hour early, to allow plenty of time for me to make breakfast at home and prepare a lunch. This would help me save money by not eating out, and would be healthier for me since I wouldn’t be eating as much junk.

So of course, I woke up this morning at 8:30 (30 minutes past when I’m due in at work) with my alarm clock flashing at me. Unexplained power outage during the night. Since I had to rush out the door, homemade breakfast and packed lunch were quickly forgotten.

Then I am stopped by the police on my way to work. Now, I only work ½ mile from my house. And yet I still manage to get pulled over for running a red light. Only, there was no red light. There was a stop sign - which I stopped at. There was a red light 80 feet down at another intersection. But where I pulled out, there was only a stop sign. Which I stopped at. And waited for two other cars on the main road to pass before I pulled out. But apparently, there is a special invisible red light that only this one cop can see. Cause to every one else in the world - there is only a stop sign at the intersection of Harding and Virginia.

To make the experience all the more enjoyable, he pulls me over as I'm pulling into my office building entrance, and so all my coworkers, boss, etc. get to witness me standing there with the police as they arrived at work for the day. Now I am my father's child - I very much respect authority figures and am always polite to the police. So when I was accused of running a red light, I told him (nicely) that I pulled out at Harding, where there is a stop sign, and not at Rainey, which is where the light is. So then he tells me that there are red lights at both streets and that I was obviously lost and probably had no idea where I was going and just didn't notice the red light. I explained that I only lived one street over from Harding, and that I drove that road every day to work, so I wasn't lost, and that I knew that it was a stop sign. And he told me that he didn't give a damn where I lived, that he patrolled that street every day and he knew it was a red light. So at this point, I was starting to get a little upset, and I offered to ride back down the 100 yards to the street and show him that it was a stop sign. Well, that really made him mad (I guess since it would ultimately prove him wrong) and then he threatened to take me in and have me tell it to the judge. But then thankfully, he started backing down off of it and said he would just let me off with a warning, and to not run the red light (WHERE THERE IS NO RED LIGHT) anymore.

By the time I get into my office, I am shaking. Both from the 18 degree cold and the whole being pulled over and threatened with jail for no reason. And so, as I start signing into my computer, I see something red all over my keyboard and I realize that my finger is bleeding all over the place. And not just a little bit, it was bleeding bad. I think it must have been from when I smashed my finger putting my suitcase in the overhead bin a few days earlier. I ended up with what looked like a bruise, but apparently was a blood blister of sorts, and it must have burst when I hit the keyboard, is all I can figure.

So, at that point I had only been awake for 30 minutes and was late for work, pulled over and threatened with jail, hungry and bleeding. Not really an auspicious start to my new year. Although, maybe like in Garp, my year was just being predisastered and now that I have all the crap out of the way for 2008. Nothing bad can happen to me again for the rest of the year.

Or maybe I'll just have to start over next week and have a New New Year, and try to start all of my resolutions over again.

Of course, that will sort of blow my "I will not procrastinate" resolution.

Happy 2008

New Years Day in my family means three things:

Black-Eyed Peas

Collared Greens

Corn Bread

Thanks Mom!