I feel alone today

I'm beat. Who knew that decorating for a baby shower would take FOREVER. It's a baby shower for pete's sake.
I had purchased 2 of what looked to be THE cutest ceiling decorations, with dangling ducks and butterflies.
Pulled from the package last night and strung between me and Alicia it LOOKED to be the cutest decoration ever made on this planet. We ooooo'd and aaaahhhhh'd and commented about how these 2 decorations would be the center of attention.
Only 1 made it up....barely.
After walking around the house 4 times, holding the damn thing up in the air, trying to find the perfect spot, we finally found it. At last!
We realized we needed a ladder because of her fantastic cathedral ceilings. We fetched one from my garage and propped it up in her living room.
Now people, I am the queen of fall. The last time I was hanging a decoration, I fell and gave myself a concusion. Oh...and only a week and 1/2 ago, I fell down my own stairs. Both times doing significant damage to myself.
So up the ladder I went. But we did this over, and over, and over, realizing that the damn thing was not truly designed to hang from the ceiling at all. There was no way it would ever look as cool as it did strung from 2 people holding it. So , after the 6th attempt, perilously balancing from my ladder, we thumbtacked the freakin thing to the ceiling. Alicia used a broom handle for the finishing touches, making all the wrinkles and folds, that were not supposed to be there, even.
The 2nd beautiful ceiling decoration looks fantastic on the kitchen counter.....in the package.

LMAO

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1935465

NY City

NY CITY

I walked until my white sneakers were black...solid black.

He was on a mission...find the right subway. I was on a mission...to buy at least one thing from someone selling stuff on the side of the road. Cool stuff. I almost became one of the official missing, name on a milk carton kind of missing, when a bracelet caught my eye and I slowed to only 25 mph instead of our 45 mph pace.

Slowing down to smell the roses doesn't exist in this city, it's a place someone would step over their mother to get a $10 cup of coffee.

But, you can do it.

You just have to step off the beaten path.

Semi-dark alleyways held incredible works of art. Store windows held mannequins doing strange things. Museums held disturbing paintings.

Buildings had gardens and trees growing on the roofs.

Everyday street poles were covered in beautiful mosaic tiles.

ChinaTown had the coolest storefronts.

I wandered into a temple while in Chinatown. Ate the best Coconut Curry i've ever tasted. Wandered through Central Park. Rode the subway with my husband, not having a clue what we were doing...but we made it from Brooklyn to the City alive, with wallets & limbs intact. We wandered the street at 10am and looked for a store that was actually open for coffee. We learned that the city doesn't wake until noon. I went into a store that sold nothing but long forgotten fur coats...hundreds of them...I just stood there, gawking.

I enjoyed my trip to NY City. I would go again when I want to walk 40 lbs off.

Brown Furry Animals in the Road

So i'm driving down the road to work this morning and have to swerve to avoid hitting a squirrel. Damn thing...running all over the place, all crazy-like. I looked in my rearview mirror, only to see something that certainly was NOT a squirrel.

I backed up...of course.

In the process of backing up I ended up in the wrong lane so I could be closer to the animal perched on the edge of the road. It was obviously trying to decide the best course of action. I think it was confused by the reverse action of my x-terra.

I stared at it as the large brown creature that resembled a lemur / monkey, ran up the road in front of me, then, in leaps and bounds, jumped it's way across the road.

I was enthralled. I had also forgotten that I was sitting in the road...in the wrong lane.

A car rolled up beside me and, being incredibly excited, I started pointing like a madwoman to the side of the road that was now blocked by the other car. I figured they may see the phenomenon I had glimpsed.

Turns out the sheriff was not as amused as me. He looked a bit concerned.

When it dawned on me that it was an officer, I started laughing histerically and rolled down the passenger window. Mind you...It did not dawn on me to be embarrassed. I was actually considering jumping out of my car to follow the little brown fellow into the tall grasses for another look.

When the window came down far enough, I yelled to the sheriff "I swear I saw a monkey crossing the road!" If it had been nighttime, I would have been asked to step from my car.

I started laughing again when I realized how that must have sounded.

The poor guy was looking at me with concern. He asked "Are you alright miss?". I gathered myself and told him I was fine. I inquired whether there were any wild animals in the area that looked like lemurs. He told me there was everything from bobcats to any number of animals.

I inwardly thought to myself that I was happy I was dressed in my work clothes or else I would have seen the "hippie light" come on over his head. I would have been late for work.

I thanked him and he looked at me like he wanted to ask if I had run out of my medicine.

He nodded, then sat there staring at the road for a second, and drove off.

I pulled into the driveway closest to me, and sat there trying to decide if I should get out and wait, hoping to see it again.

I knew I was going to need medicine if I didn't quit it.

I pulled away and set off to work. I told that story 5 times througout the day, then got home that evening and shoved my husband off the computer. I looked up small mammals in NC and found only 1 animal it could have possibly been. Unless someone's pet lemur had escaped and was on the run, I had found a Mink.

I was wondering why it couldn't have been the Chupacabra......sometimes the internet sucks.

Steampunk Adventure

What is Steampunk?

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction, frequently featuring elements of fantasy, that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" of such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or digital mechanical computers (such as Charles Babbage's Analytical engine); these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or with a presumption of functionality.
Steampunk is often associated with cyberpunk and shares a similar fanbase and theme of rebellion, but developed as a separate movement (though both have considerable influence on each other). Apart from time period and level of technological development, the main difference between cyberpunk and steampunk is that steampunk settings usually tend to be less obviously dystopian than cyberpunk, or lack dystopian elements entirely.
Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.

That said....
We are going to re-do our main bedroom bathroom in such a style. It's going to be cool..really cool.

Have you seen Sherlock Holmes? If you have...check out the style used in the rooms. Tin ceilings...kick ass wallpaper. Steam heat and wood.

We found an awesome old radiator at the fleamarket with the most beautiful scroll work in the metal. Against hardwood floors....yeahhh. 1st piece down

We were incredibly lucky to have met many people involved in this wonderful movement. We have attended the most fantastic New Years Masquerade Balls & gatherings. It's fun to dress in petticoats and see the men dressed in finery from another time.

I couldn't believe how many websites cater to petticoats & bloomers! I am a proud owner the most beautiful black petticoat.

My husband, Anthony, has found a use for the incredible amount of junk (sorry...treasure) that he has gathered for years. One wall of his workshop...aka "The Garage", is covered with the many guns he has created. Not to mention lamps, robots and assorted steampunk weapons. It's kinda cool.

Check it out......

Krystal was letting us know we were definately stuck in mud that smelled like poo......and somebody was gonna have to get out...lmao

Funny stuff...

I find it funny that when you are talking with someone, they usually tend to be thinking about how to get their kid's marker masterpiece off the kitchen floor...or if mushrooms on pizza really is gross. But while online, they follow 15 blogs, facebook, the recipe network & can post 37 videos of little Suzie's 5 minute dance recital on youtube.
Is this neat? Is it sick? Maybe a bit of both.
One thing it does do....it doesn't make me feel like an idiot for posting random thoughts on this blog.

RESIDENT UPDATE
I had a resident ask me for all new appliances when the family moved to a larger townhome about 3 months ago. He asked me 42 times, in 2 days. That would be 3 seperate phone calls, so it wasn't nearly as annoying as usual.

Being a longtime resident I was happy to try and please him. His wife is a tremendous cook and I knew that a new stove meant more goodies for me.

So...it was worked out and he got his fridge & his stove one month...his dishwasher was coming the NEXT MONTH. Budgets are killer to work around.

I only heard from him 6 times a day for 28 days while we waited. His dishwasher was literally falling into pieces on the kitchen floor.

So, he finally got the new one. It was Gleaming, It was NEW, It was Amazing.

Approximately 1 week and 2 days went by before I heard from him again. I figured he would be calling me to say thanks, hoping that maybe he'd be bringing me some of that potato stuff his wife makes.
Nope.
He started begging me for his old dishwasher back. Literally....the old one he had. The new one doesn't clean his dishes as good as the old one.
I wanted to strangle him.

I said "No.... You need to clean your dishes off before you put them in the dishwasher like every body else."
He laughed, I laughed. We hung up. Good times.

P.S.
I do enjoy taking pictures.....I did take the ones at Duke Gardens that I posted. I normally really suck at picture taking, but I guess if you take a million and 2 pics, eventually a couple turn out alright.....

Check out Duke Gardens if you ever have a chance to swing into Durham, NC. If you dig checking out some beautiful greenery and love meandering through a garden, you'll LOVE it! You can't beat something to do that's FREE

My Thief of a cat, Ivan, would step over my mother for veggies

What is wrong with people?
Hmmmmm...not a very hard question to answer for most of us.

ANIMAL ABUSE IS EVERYWHERE!

Working in the business I do, you see a lot of crazy things. A lot. Really.

A tenant called the other day to inform us that a small dog was bleeding through the upstairs patio onto theirs below. We checked it out. The pup was dead.
When the authorities got there to deal with it, the gentleman that lived in the apartment had dragged the "evidence" inside and wouldn't answer the door. His apartment had to be forcefully entered.
There were 7 more dogs inside...all in different states of malnourishment and condition.
He was taken to jail for animal abuse.
So here it is....
He showed up the next day in our office wanting to know why he was being evicted. He didn't get it...what's wrong? Why, Why, Why??
I am not an angry person.....I wanted to spit in his face, it made me sick to my stomach.

I'm throwing a baby shower.

I never thought i'd have anything to do with 20 insane, cooing, fussing women. Let alone be the reason they were all together.

I made a diaper cake.

I couldn't help it.

I saw a picture of one and had to make one myself...just so I could say I have. So I did. It's pretty cool.

"Blog this and Blog that...what the hell is a blog?"

I'm sick...a cold, it blows. I'm bored...so I did it...I typed Blog in my Google tool bar.

So many things popped up that I closed my eyes and clicked on one link, kind of like picking out cereal nowadays.

Behold, I am here now.

I have no idea if I can get back here later.

Talking to my father recently, he informed me he may be moving to Equador or Honduras, or somewhere else, when he retires. I guess that's what working for the post office does to you. You either go postal or move to the jungle to shit in a hole.
I guess his cultivation skills and his long white wizard mullet just aren't fitting in these days. Either that or he's exhausted the supply of people that will be a captive audience when he's on a role. So, off he's gonna go, dragging that giant sunburst beltbuckle and his trusty leather vest. Maybe he'll learn to make his own, new, Equadorian vest.

Anyway......I will never tell him i've now integrated myself further into the internet....into "the system". Mainly because I have no idea what the hell I just did......