Moving.

It's official. I'm moving. I will continue to stop by and read the blogger blogs I read now. I just wanted a different interface and I liked Wordpress.

This isn't goodbye...just see ya later. Or maybe it's Goodbye...hell, maybe it was a 'hello' AND a goodbye.

Just This

I've seen it all...

Ever been in this mood?



Or how about this?

The Pets

Ok. Our pets are sort of the center of the house, so it's only fitting I have an entry dedicated to them. Here is a photo slide show of Brody, Charlie, and Tiny Philip.

Brody is famous...well sorta...ok not at all

In honor of it's *200th viewing on you tube I am reposting my first attempt at video editing. I apologize for the Adobe trademark stamp, but I was using a trial of the program, because I was too broke to actually purchase it.

No dachshunds were harmed in the making of this video...despite the lightning chasing him around the yard.




*200th viewing on You Tube is no Sneezing Panda. I realize this.

Sunday Morning Wii Pee

Ok.

I was stumbling through websites this morning, because it's perfect for my OCD. And I came across this video of a game for the Wii.

I don't even know what to think. But I did laugh, even though I was a bit grossed out.

Early Storms

We're having our first Spring storm. It smells really nice out.

A few days ago someone I know quite well killed himself. The crazy thing is when I heard about it I wasn't shocked. It wasn't surprising. He'd always been this really big strong guy...but I knew he didn't see himself that way. There was a lot of unresolved pain in there...

He was a great guy. I worked with him for about a year at the plasma center, but then he was shipped off to Iraq. During his tour there we would email back and forth.

I would never have considered him a friend, necessarily. The only time we really communicated was while he was stationed Iraq. It was sort of odd. When he came back to the states we probably only spoke a handful of times, that is if you could hold a conversation in your hand. Long story short (I use that phrase way too much.) I left the company for about a year, and when I came back he had just quit. He 'dated' a supervisor from work. So I kept up on him through her.

I'm not going to go into their personal life, nor am I going to talk about why I wasn't surprised. Because I mostly don't think the internet is the appropriate place for their story., at least it's not my story to tell. His story. But what I will say besides feeling quite sad that he is gone, I am really pissed off at him. You know? Yeah he had a painful life...but he also had a lot of people around him who cared about him a lot. And now who are all blaming themselves for a choice he made, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop this painful journey they are on. It's not fair for them. They never got to make a choice. He made the choice for them. Not to mention suicide = no life insurance and no military benefits paid to his child.

The storm is mostly gone now...just some rumbles off in the distance. D. is flying into Cedar Rapids Airport in about an hour. He got caught in San Diego after an Anatomy and Cell Biology conference because of American Airlines and their janky planes causing tons of cancellations. (I love American Airlines response to all the cancellations. They said something like 'we're grounding all the flights to look into wiring issues. We are putting your safety first.' Well, if they were doing that they wouldn't have failed their inspections in the first place.)

Anyway...D was lucky enough to get on the flight he did. There were 40 some folks on standby and 1 person got on. Him. I will be glad to see him. I've been alone in this house all week (except today I went to work...wow it was crazytown busy there. ) It's been a bit sad. Brody does an excellent job of cheering me up, though. He's a good dog.

Well. That's all I got today. Sorry I've been so quiet this week. Just workin' stuff out in the noggin' you know?

*The photo I obviously did not take during a Spring storm in Iowa. We don't have mountains. Just a bit of trivia for you. Iowa = No Mountains.

It's Monday! No Duh!

Brody should be a model. Or an Actor. (He has the sensitivities of an artist...)

It's Monday morning ya'll and I'm not rushing around to get ready for work. I have 3, count 'em THREE vacation days this week. Why? Why not! I have a bajillion days of vacation this year being it my 10th year with the company. Who knew I could be consistent? I have about 6 weeks total. I like to take a few days off in a row every other month as 'mental health' days. I love my job, don't get me wrong. But it can be quite stressful, and lately we've been quite busy (which is good) but we're very understaffed for the amount of donors (I'm the trainer at A blood plasma facility) we are processing.

Wait a minute. What am I doing? Am I writing about work? Holy balls Batman!

Yesterday I decided to go to the plant nursery and see if they had anything new and exciting. I love going to the greenhouse, especially in the early Spring when they start to get all their new plants in. I really love gardening, but since I rent and my backyard is in perpetual shade (thank god for Hostas) I was always very limited in what I could grow. Outside. So I put some shelves along the bedroom windows and hung some grow lights above the shelves to supplement the morning sunlight and now I squeeze as many little trees as I can on that space. I guess some would call them Bonsai...but since I know what a real Bonsai is, I'll just say my little trees aspire to be one of those one day.

My favorite tree to work with is the Fujien Tea or Fukien Tea tree. It has small glossy leaves, rough bumpy bark, and it is hard for me to kill. The last part is the most important. There are some plants that, even though I think they're pretty or they have perfect leaves (small), we just don't get along and in the end I kill them. (Sorry all the Serissa plants I tried to grow. But honestly you were a bit needy.)

The greenhouse had a few very nice Fukien Tea plants and some not so nice Chinese Elms and Ficus. Typical Bonsai fodder. (nerd alert) I had a nice mental debate about purchasing another plant...especially in these times of financial lock down (we move into our new house in mid July, but the bank wants us to have 2 consecutive months of 3,000 dollars in the bank account. ouch!) Somehow I came to the conclusion purchasing the tree was my best option, because honestly, I just couldn't find a tree better. At least not in that moment.

Long story short (yeah yeah I know...a little late for that) I brought the tree home, took it from it's very root bound pot, gave it some nice gravelly soil and squeezed it into the group of other trees. It looked quite nice. I decided to take it downstairs and do some wiring on it, because a few of the limbs were off a bit aesthetically. As I was wiring I noticed...Aphids! I quickly mixed up a batch of soapy water and sprayed the hell out of the leaves. And then sprayed all of my other trees too. Damn it all to hell. I hate aphids. Thankfully, they're fairly easy to get rid of but my trees will drop leaves while I soap them. If I was one of those people born with testicles (ovaries for the ladies) I would call the greenhouse and "raise a ruckus," as my mom would say. If I hadn't already repotted the tree and hacked its root system I might have even taken it back. But I'm stuck with. And sans the bugs I think it will make a quite nice tree.

So that's it. That's my Monday. I'm going to get back to...well...nothing.

a boy, a dog, and a frog.

When D and I first started "decorating" our rental house we had bought a couple of sheik shelves and tables from Target. It's higher echelon low-middle income Amercia, Target you know? It's skies above Wal Mart in concept and design. He said, tongue in cheek. Anyhow. So we had this fancy table and shelves in dark wood but nothing to put on them. We weren't 'collectibles' kind of people. I mean, sure I still I had my Wicket the Ewok and D. had his scary clown doll from Iceland...but no knick knacks and no brick n' bracks.

Can 'collectibles' be a conscious effort? Do you one day just say, "I want to start collecting Geese," or "I'm going to start putting cheesy wooden crafty things such as ladies bending over in my front yard?" I think since I tend to over think most everything I do I've never collected anything. For me, I would begin to take note of, "I just gathered my 5th dainty ceramic shoe. What's the point of this? What have I become?" and then the fun would just be gone.

We decided to just go to The Hobby Lobby (or the Hob Lob as D likes to call it.) It's the ultimate hobby/craft/knick knack/crucifix/holiday store in all the lands. They have shelves and shelves and wooden balls in bowls, ceramic eggs in cubes, shadowboxes of fireman and fisherman, exotic throw pillows of the sort found in genie lamps. And all sorts of other things people should and probably do collect...like shiny objects. Bowls. Vases. The like. We probably sucked at picking things out and it was much more difficult than I expected.

The point to this is because I'm getting tired both of the wind up and for real... We bought a couple of frogs for the bathroom. One of metal, but hollow with holes cut through out and you place a candle in his belly and he lights up the room. The other of wood with dangly legs. He sat with his legs in the sink...but recently he was moved to the back of the toilet. He would just sit there. Watching you pee. I think D. must have gotten bugged by this because today I noticed the frog is now turned; staring at the wall.

I think when we move into our new home I will keep collecting frogs for the bathroom. Why? You ask. Or maybe not but I'm asking that for you...so there. I was thinking of the connection I have with frogs and bathrooms and it made sense to me. When I was a kid I would stay with my Grandparents most every weekend. Grandma and Grandpa H were who I looked forward to seeing all week long. My home life was shaky and I never knew what was going to happen. But at my Grandparents it was perfect and planned. Planned to have ice cream served in little ice cream bowls and eaten with small ice cream spoons before bed. Planned set the table at night for breakfast in the morning. And planned to have a story read to me before I slept. The story I always picked was of a boy and a frog. It was a very short book of just pictures, no words, but my Grandma or Grandpa would tell in their own.

(This is how I remember the story...I just googled it and it was a Mercer Mayer book. hmmm I didn't know. And it was a little bit different than I remembered. But that's memories...)

A small boy walked down to the creek to do some fishing. He looked happy and excited. He had his fishing pole and his tackle box. Once he got to the pond he noticed a quite wily frog who taunted him while he fished. The boy wanted to catch the frog. And tried several times only to be outsmarted and outwitted by the frog. A muddy mess from his attempts the boy decided he best walk home and clean up before his mother caught him in such a state of filth. (they were a clean family don't you know) Anyhoo, the frog followed the boy home. He followed the trail of mud and shoes and pants and shirt up the stairs to the bathroom and found the boy taking a bath. He jumped into the tub to surprise him and the boy was so happy the frog was there.

That is the story. Such a simple simple story, and yet I looked forward to hearing it every weekend. I planned on it.