The Wittiest Blog Title You've Ever Seen

So.  A funny thing happened on the way to this blog post.  I had yet another epiphany.  (Of course when you forget things as often as I do, epiphanies are just what normal people call "consciousness".)

Anyway, I've had the realization that part of the reason I have trouble keeping track of things like blog post topics is because I'm not multitasking enough.

For those of you that know me in "real" life, you'll know that was I just said will strike fear into the heart of those closest to me.  Because, my mind already goes 3,000 miles an hour (that's 1,652 hectares* for my Canadian readers), makes lists faster than ENIAC (look it up), and since I work in the field of project management, am already obnoxious with letting those habits spill over into pretty much every aspect of life.  

*This is mocking an homage to Mr. Eggshells.  He's way better at metric conversion than I am.

But I digress.  (I just spent a few minutes looking up ENIAC to make sure I had the right acronym, which I just spelled with the wrong "write" instead of "right" and had to go back and fix.   See, I'm still digressing.)  On my drive home tonight, I realized that while I was driving , listening to music, and figuring out what was going on at home this evening, I also wrote an entire blog post in my head.

And it was freaking awesome.  Riveting dialogue, fascinating characterization, seriously, much better than this tripe you're slogging through now.  Of course as soon as the car was in the driveway, it was gone.  But for a brief and shining moment my head was alive (with the sound of music), with the burgeoning masterpiece that is not this post.

It gives me hope though, that somewhere in my head, it's still lurking, like the glittery dust squirrels under the sofa.

Now, without further ado, the recentest list of things I learned!

In descending order because countdowns make me feel like David Letterman back when he was semi-relevant.  Yes, I'm that old.  

5.  Family seriously needs to stop reminding me how old my nieces and nephews are.  Telling me they're over 30 or graduating high school...it's bad for my complexion.  (By the way, congrats to the family on these achievements!  :) )  However, forever you will be 6, maybe 7.  Thank you, that is all.

What I learned:  a state of denial will work with anything, if applied liberally and with abandon.  

4.  Usually I carpool with Mr. Eggshells to work - he drives.  I have a co-worker who likes to play with hair, so she usually does something to mine on one of our breaks.  This week, I had to drive myself to work twice and also had to do my own hair twice as well.  I declared resource fail and have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again.  

What I learned:  yes, I am a princess (this is probably more of a reminder than a true learning)

3.  While Mr. Eggshells was busy not driving me to work, he was working industriously around the house, including finishing projects that I'd started but hadn't been able to quite complete.  (Although some of that might have had to do with my plan to jerry-rig a step-stool in a bathtub to be able to paint the hard to reach parts of the wall.  I thought it was a good idea.  Everyone I've mentioned it to just looks at me blankly then nods slowly and backs away.)  

What I learned:  the definition of "good idea" varies by user and context.  Contents may settle during transit.

2.  I was going to write a post this past weekend but instead I spent 45 minutes ripping ivy out of the yard.  And then I spent all day sitting in a chair in excruciating pain, so moving my fingers/hands/arms to type was pretty much out of the question.  Plus, I couldn't breathe or see.  

What I learned:  that when I think I'm still good to go I'm likely not.  And that Mr. Eggshells will think he's right because he's been telling me that for years. But we won't tell him...it'll be our little secret.

1.  I don't realize the level of geek that I'm am submerged in, until I try to explain something of my weekend to my co-workers.  Saying things like "bag of holding", "blueprints to a mechanized dragon", and "did you know kobolds speak draconian?", while super-awesome for my geek-cred, are really not de rigeur in the wireless industry.  

What I learned:  the wireless industry would be a lot more interesting, not to mention challenging, if we had to deal with dragons and kobolds.  Just sayin'.

This Week's Revelations

I've made some new friends on Facebook which means that it's very possible some of them (you) may pop in to check out my blog.  Ta-da!  Here it is.  *pets it*  

A couple of things for new blog readers to know about me and this blog.  There's reading involved.  I know, I know, but honestly in a text-based medium, what were you expecting, cartoons?  True, sometimes I put pictures in my blog, but they're certainly not my art.  Except that time when I posted pictures of my art.  

The other thing to know is that while I started it as a means to keep up my writing on a regular basis, it's really become just one more thing I procrastinate about.  But it does have the added side effect of promoting great greasy gobs of guilt.  Bet you thought I was gonna say gopher guts, but really, that's kind of gross.

(Wow I don't think I've typed that many letter 'g' words in a paragraph in like, ever.  How about a contest?  First person to count how many words that start with g are in that paragraph and posts in the comments below wins the honor of being the first person to post about it!)

Oh!  A third thing to note, that I talk about anything and everything, so if the subject matter (of anything and everything) offends you, then you're probably in the wrong place.  Although if you got here through being my friend on my Facebook page, you're probably a raving lunatic anyway (said with love, really).

I've thought that maybe I should do a 'cast of characters' for the people that keep popping up regularly in my blog, but that's too much like work.  So stop being so lazy and go read through the archives.  Sheesh, do I have to do everything for you? 

It was about a week ago that I declared that I should do a weekly list of things I learned or that had an impact on my life.  Because if you stop learning you die, or you get stupid and since I'm already losing brain cells due to aging and alcohol, it's really in my best interests to keep gaining knowledge.

In retrospect (read: now that I'm sober), I still like the concept, but am not sure I'm going to manage five things each week.  It's not that I don't think I can learn or be impacted that much, I think it's mostly that I'm not going to remember five things.  Because I'm over 40 a victim of short term memory theft.  I don't know how the thieves keep getting in, but they do.  Sneaky britches!

Let's start with the most recent and the reason I keep referring to alcohol.

1.  I have a Bailey's milkshake.  Yes, folks, for the 2nd time in 8 days I'm having an alcohol drink.  Obviously I'm well on the way to rehab at this rate (move over Bynes and Lohan, it's my 15 minutes).

But the Bailey's milkshake is a something special...because my honey, Mr. Eggshells made it.  And he makes gooooood Bailey's milkshakes.  Mostly because he adds extra alcohol besides the Bailey's, specifically cassis liqueur.  I like typing that because it's French and makes me feel smart (and there are an abundance of the letter 'u' there and y'all know how I like my missing u's).  

Cassis is black current.  As I was wandering the interwebs looking for a picture to share of the brand we have, I came across this blog post and decided that it may be the next best way to use cassis liqueur.   Since there's no way in h-e-double-hockey-sticks I'm going to all the trouble of making that, I hereby nominate one of you to make it for me.  Let me know when it's done.  

2.  Boobies are awesome.  Okay that wasn't exactly something that I learned just this week, but I did read this excellent article on them a couple of days ago.  BEFORE you click that link, you need to know that there are no pictures of naked boobies on that page.   I know, but you can't have everything, that's why God created porn sites*.  This article will also provide justification for going bra-less, so you need to decide carefully who you want to share it with and how much you want to opt-in or argue it.  (I'm writing this blog post naked so it's obvious Mr. Eggshells got his way on that discussion.)

*3. Before y'all get all freaking outraged by that comment, it's true!  Christian porn is apparently a real thing.  This site kinda really completely scares me.  A lot.  Of course not as much as the concept of Christian sex toys, which "they" say is merely the regular sex toys but with no pictures of nudity so Christians can shop online in comfort.   I really don't know what to say about that at all, but I'm thinking of ways to make it a blog post all its own. 

4.  I've become marginally addicted to TED talk.  It's kind of like mini-forays into other worlds.  I know I'm probably also about 10?  maybe 20? years behind the times on this one.   But that's okay there's probably a TED talk that explains why I was behind on it.  At my current rate of TED video consumption I'm sure I'll find it.  Soon.

5.  This completely made me laugh, because as only one of two humanoids in my seven-creature household, this happens on a regular basis.  Plus the guy's voice is awesome.  

  

Sad Cat Diary

And really, that's all there is to say.

Click it or... don't click it?

My best friend in the webiverse, Wikipedia (sorry, youtube, but when I have a headache you're just too noisy!) tells me that wearing seat belts in cars became mandatory where I grew up in B.C., Canada on October 1, 1977.

(I have to stop right here for two reasons.  One, I had to change the font, because I'm a font aficionado and apparently cannot write with the wrong font on display.  *cough*Princess*cough*  Two, I held a lengthy debate with myself, in my head, about the merits of writing in serif versus sans serif while having a headache.  If I've lost you, you should probably be happy because that was major geekage right there.  In public even.)

Where was I?  Oh yes, seat belts.  Anyway, even though I was an extremely young zygote at the time, I was aware enough to recall certain aspects of the campaign they had to make sure everyone started wearing their seat belts.  Over were the fun Saturday afternoons where we rode on the wheel wells of the pickup. Or so they thought...because we still did it!  Viva la revolucion! (Which is apparently Spanish and not French as I was trying to type it...damn, not perfect again).

Several years pass and the campaign works.  Now to anxiety Eggshells grrl, not wearing a seat belt...bad!  Not having enough seat belts for your passengers...super bad!  Seat belts.  Must.be.worn.at.all.times.  Until finally it's such a habit that it feels weird to not wear one.  Oddly enough, this was also around the time when I was no longer able to get away without a bra in public and had apparently become used to being trussed up in various forms of bondage.  That's the story I'm sticking to anyway.  

Then I move to the U.S. where wearing seat belts have been mandatory and law since sometime that y'all should know because you're from here and I couldn't find it easily on the internet, so gave up after a minimal attempt at searching.  (About 15 minutes ago, I told my hubby I wanted to watch that t.v. show with the faeries and quests...he started laughing and fired up the video game he's playing that I was referring to, so now I'm kinda distracted by this episode. Erm, quest.)

Anyway so I move here and to give the benefit of the doubt (I'm just so magnanimous no wonder y'all love me!), let's say it's only been 20 years since these laws were passed.  It's probably more like 30, but we all know there has to be someone fighting a safety measure because it infringes on their right to off themselves dramatically in a fiery spectacle along with several innocents.  Which of course would tie anything like this up in legislative red tape for a while.  I might be snarky tonight.

This means that for the last 20 years, this has been a law, punctuated by fines if you're caught breaking it.  We are told by experts in their fields that learning something new to make it a habit takes about 3 weeks of repetition.  Considering the car-culture here, I think that's being generous in this particular learning curve, but okay we'll take it.  That leaves 19 years, 11 months and 1 week of learned behavior.  Learned behavior that is in our best biological interest (read: doesn't kill us off as a species), is one that is typically passed down to future generations, whether on a genetic or a shared knowledge level.  

Where am I going with this you ask?  Wait, where am I going with this?  Oh yes, to the point.  Which is...*stalls for time*...

That we've had cars around since 1879 (holy crap, dude!) and that we've only been regulating this one safety aspect for 20 years obviously means that this is totally the man repressing our rights!  No, wait, what I mean is that it's obvious that there should be no one older than say, 30, in existence because of this life-saving measure.  

And yet...there are old people EVERYWHERE.   I know because I am one they're in every place that I'm trying to walk, drive, or otherwise exist.  So if these people have been driving for more than 30 years, they drove without seat belts.  And survived!  We've been hoodwinked but good!  Bastards!

All I can say is that they went to a lot of trouble to stop me being able to enjoy that ride in the back of the pickup.   

(And of course, put on the seat belt...I'd miss you if you weren't around maintaining my readership levels.  ;)  )

Hiatus

Apparently that's what I've been on, without even realizing it.  Go me!  It's truly impressive in my own mind to be doing something when I really thought I was just slacking. 

In truth, life has just been extremely busy, and frankly, very disheartening on some levels.  Personal "stuff" that I don't really want to share (but I do still love you all, with the burning intensity of a supernova...and I had to go look that up to make sure I was actually talking about a real thing that was sufficiently high enough on the star life-cycle scale so you know my love is true), but needless to say it's been hard to feel like being my usual ditzy effervescent self with a millstone around my neck.

But sometimes, sometimes, you just have to push through.  Life stuff happens to everyone at some point, and <insert positive reinforcement here>.  It makes us stronger, or better, or more tired.  Or something.  Anyway, like some really witty analogy, I'm back.  (And there was much rejoicing!  You are rejoicing aren't you?  If you're not, you know I'm pouting at you vehemently!)

I should probably mention that I'm tipsy right now.  But this post still counts!  Waxing prosaic (since we're all very aware this is so not poetic!) while tipsy is really a time-honoured writing tradition.  (Ooh, look what I did there, a Canadian spelling.  You can take the girl out of Canada...).  I'm like Hemingway or Poe.  But then, loyal readers, this is probably not news to y'all.  

Okay you didn't realize it but I just took a 20 minute cat break.  People say that the hardest part about writing is just settling down and doing it, but they're wrong.  Those people do not own cats.  Because for a cat owner, the hardest part about writing is prying the cat off the paper/keyboard.  True story.  And it's not just fiction as some might suppose, I have cats that will sit on non-fiction and even schoolwork.  They are multi-talented, my wee beasties.


Segue:  Fun sized Snickers.  The ultimate evil or best creation ever?  I can't decide.  Right now I'm just calling them dinner.

I've decided (just this second mind you so this might be a really crappy plan when I sober up), that to help me post more regularly, I will attempt to do a weekly round up of 5 things that I learned or that caused some sort of impact to my world.

Here goes for this week:

1.  Bridges fall.   Here on the West Coast, I-5 is pretty much the gateway to everything.  When I-5 is stunted, the world slows, colours are dimmer, and the balance of power shifts.  Remembering that we are but mere mortals against such forces as gravity (and other physics concepts I'm sure were in play but of which names I'm ignorant) when you see something like this on a road you've traveled hundreds of times....well it's a little startling at best.  Thankfully, there were no major injuries or any fatalities.  

2.  Sometimes I am smarter than I think I am.  I keep thinking that I'm a relative newbie in my job, but then I'm reminded (usually by a client meeting) that I've actually got a lot of this handled and under my belt.  (Except that I don't wear a belt, so that's really under my pants, but honestly, it's not that kind of job....).

3.  Family, no matter how far away, is always close in my heart.  And for the most part, I'm always in theirs.  That point was brought close to home this week.  I'm very thankful for them, no matter where they might be.

4.  I have several dozen ways to slack from things that I should be doing.  This week I'm working on being cognizant of when I'm overdoing the slack and trying to remedy.  (Tomorrow, since that's how procrastination works, right?)

5.  Taking a break, even of only a few minutes, can change the perspective and perception a hundredfold.  (Wow, just think of what my months-long hiatus did for that!)

And on that note, I will bid you adieu.  To you and you and you.  

Because really, a t-shirt is pretty awesome.

On this morning's commute we had the radio on for a traffic notice and when it was done, we switched to a local radio station.  Note that we normally opt to play MP3s on our drive, since we hate commercials.  

Note also that we're both really tired today.  Which isn't so different from other days, really.

This conversation starts as an ad finishes for Lasik, where the woman radio person thanks the man radio person for the gift of 20/20 vision.  Several years ago I facilitated Mr. Eggshells' own laser eye surgery and he routinely thanks me for making it happen.  

Me:  And you're welcome for the gift of 20/20 vision.  Actually you're welcome for the gift of me in your life.  Because I'm just that awesome.

Mr. Eggshells:  You got me a t-shirt once.  I liked that.

He wins, again, the bastard.  I'm still laughing.

Proof We're Not Morning People

This is an actual conversation between my husband myself this morning.


Me:  What are you doing?

Him:  Putting on my pants.

Me:  *stares at him, confused*  Then "Oh, putting on your pants!"

Him:  *stares at me, confused*  What?

Me:  Well in my head, I asked you "Which is what song are you whistling?  Putting on your pants was a little confusing."

Him:  *laughing*  It was September Morn.

Me:  It should have been Forever in Blue Jeans.


(Which makes sense if you know Neil Diamond's music.  Or me and my husband.)

Who's Gonna Save Me? Or the post with the potential-plethora of parentheses problem

I have no reason for the post title except that I was listening to Midnight Oil while trying to figure it out.  I guess it could be a valid question though, thinking about it.  I wonder what all I need saving from these days.

Ooh, sounds like a list!

1. Political ads.  This should be self-explanatory.
2. "Fun size" chocolate bars.
3. Writer's Block.  
4. *mumbles something*
5. Cats that got left alone for 1.5 days and ohmygodthedrama.
6. Myself.  


That's probably about it.  At least that's as much as I can trick out of my brain.

As I'm writing this, Hurricane Sandy is opening a can of whoop-ass on the denizens of the US's East Coast, and I just want to let my friends there know that I'm thinking of you and crossing my fingers and toes for y'all to be safe.  Of course this is only gonna be read by people who still have power.  The rest of you are likely ignoring this blog anyway, with the lame excuse that you have no power.  Hmph.

Of course, being from the rainy Lower Mainland of BC (which translates from its native Canadian to a rough "Pacific Northwest" in US English - which is actually an oxymoron, because it doesn't sound anything like English at all - and I have too much punctuation in here now so I'm confused and have no way to gracefully remove myself at this point so I'm going to pretend that this is completely planned and you can't say it's not, well you could, but I don't have to agree and I can delete your comments anyway so NYAH!), I have webbed feet so I don't get my tail feathers in a knot over rainy weather. But I will concede that the wind is worrying.  

(By the way, I know that last paragraph was a mess, but I'm calling it a creative foray so shut up.  Writer's privilege.)

It's been proposed that Sandy and the weekend's 7+ point earthquake off BC's coast are a direct result of my actions.  Honestly I have not found evidence to refute that proposal; to the contrary all indicators point to my involvement.  

I went camping this past weekend.  Apparently the balance of nature was completely tossed and Ms. Nature is having fits at my daring to leave my natural habitat.  I'd tell her off but she gets really nasty.  Plus, I live closer to Mt. St. Helens than I did growing up and I know she's gonna use that one on me one day.  The old adage of "never piss off an active volcano or its momma" still stands today.  If only the Brady kids had figured that out when they went to Hawaii, Greg wouldn't have died in that surfing accident.  Or something.

Actually the news that I went camping isn't such a big deal.  The news that I survived camping is.  Of course, I went with two grown up boy scouts (that sounds very wrong), a very savvy chica, and a two year old that has numerous survival skills superior to mine (seriously, that is not a joke).  I did manage not to cut off a limb (no one let me have anything sharp), burn myself (didn't get to throw myself in the fire for warmth), or drown (they made me walk around the puddle between the cabin and the indoor washrooms).

Yes, cabin and indoor washrooms.  There was even a heater in the cabin.  Because my type of camping rules.

I jest a very little though, I was a Brownie, and a Girl Guide - *ponders if I need to explain this to the non-Canadians and decides, no, that Google is your friend so do your own damn research people!* - and have camped in all seasons and all kinds of weather.  Here's the thing though...on the first multi-day camping trip, I was handed a jack knife** and proceeded to "whittle", ultimately producing a lovely scar on my left index finger.  (Seriously, what numb nuts hands a jack knife to an accident-prone 8 year old?  I'm lucky it was just a flesh wound.  I could have been killed!)

**Brief segue - years later, like maybe last year, I finally put together a "jack-knifed semi" that was named as such because it looked like a jack knife partially distended.  Who knew???  Not me, that's for sure!  Mr. Eggshells laughed at me, but really, flashes of brilliance can happen anywhere.

Anyway, I camped as a child when I didn't have to do all the work, left the outdoor survivalist groups when they conflicted with my regular viewing of "The Greatest American Hero" (I know...I wish it was for something way more poetic, like "The A Team" but that wasn't on the air yet), and as an adult I camped with people who offered to teach me the ropes/fill in the gaps (which largely consisted of me being the water fetching and dishes girl).  Needless to say (which is really a dumb phrase, because it's obvious I'm going to say it), I didn't learn much about putting up a tent (most pointedly does not say pitching a tent because I have learned that well), securing tarps and the like.  

Essentially, I didn't learn much about that this time either, but it was a good trial run for the next camping trip.  Since Mr. Eggshells and I had never been camping together, despite our many years of marriage and the almost yearly conversation of "we should go camping", cabining was a relatively easy dynamic to start with.  By the time we work our way up to tenting, I might have convinced him to let me play with matches.

Holy Crap, it's still September!

Okay, just barely, but it still counts!

I would still be counting, but once I'm done with my fingers and toes, that's it, that's all you're getting out of me.  It's been a really busy Summer, with a really busy intro-to-Autumn chaser; despite my belief that we were winding down, it looks like we're still on the Summer pace.  Looking at my schedule through the end of November, if I'm still alive at Christmas, it will be proof there -is- a Santa Claus.

Because of said busy-ness (which is not spelled 'business' but that does explain a lot about why my job is beating me to a pulp of late), I have not been able to put two concrete thoughts together.  Oh who am I kidding, I haven't been able to put together two jello thoughts.  Or jello shots.  Which actually might have helped.

So without further ado, I will attempt to summarize my life since the last time I shared here:  Random Thoughts for the Month of September

Goals

I'm a big believer in setting goals...so much so that I set goals for myself daily.  True, some days the bar is set very low - "get out of bed" - but for the most part it's a daily thing.  Relatively recently I have discovered a couple of things about the goals I set myself.

One, is something I read that intrigues me.  The article was talking (in a deep chocolate male baritone no less) about how it's possible that goals aren't met because when the goal-setter shares the information or intent of the goal, that's enough to satisfy the 'goal-fulfillment'.  Essentially the action of telling someone that you have a goal provides a feeling of completion so the drive to achieve the goal itself is minimized.

I find this really interesting because, as I mentioned earlier in this blog, I had set a goal for myself to write daily starting on September 1st.  My achievement of this goal is abysmal, but I've learned it's not my fault.  It's because I told you all about it that I failed, not because I'm a lazy slacker.  Absolution!  

Two, is that goals need to be achievable.  I have a really cute tendency to overload myself with way too much and then stress myself out.  Actually all my tendencies are cute.  It's just my way.

But I digress.  I've been trying something new...pacing myself.  It's definitely a learned activity but I'm practicing well.  I'm also counting everything I do toward my day's activities (hence the goals of getting out of bed, getting dressed, etc.).  In fact, pretty much any moment I'm lucid and upright, I'm giving myself points.

All my points go into sexiness.  

Critical Reading

I've re-started reading a series I enjoyed back in the 90's.  What it is isn't important (FBI type thriller), but what I'm noticing is that I'm not simply reading to enjoy it.  It's been long enough that they story lines are "new" again, but I'm reading them with analysis.  What makes the characters tick, why do they appeal to me?  How does the author use pacing, and tension?  It's kind of odd because I've always been able to lose myself in a story and now I'm thinking through it.  It's not bad...actually it's kind of neat to be able to enjoy it on two levels.  It's just weird.

Paper

I swear to goddess it's multiplying overnight.  Where does it all come from?  I clean up everything I can see, shred, recycle, file.  Within hours it's accumulated again.  I'd think it was Mr. Eggshells but I've had him tied to a chair for the last week, just to make sure, and it still multiplied while he was unable to contribute.  

Thinking about it though, I didn't check the cats.  I'll just bet he convinced them to work for him on this.  Bastards!

Video Games

It's still one of my greatest joys in life to watch my husband do what he calls "driving" in video games. 


Intelligence and Learning

Despite being a fairly intelligent person as well as a quick study, I have determined that I have some extremely interesting gaps in my knowledge base.  For example, a joke that Mr. Eggshells told me last night went right over my head because I didn't know the term 'lead' in reference to aiming and firing a gun.  I.e. you aim to where the moving target is going to be, not where they are.  There was math and probably science but I tuned that part out.  So now whenever he kills some bad guy in the video game, I exclaim "Yay, you shot him in the lead!"  He just looks at me and smiles.

Getting a Rock is a Good Thing

I'm still fuzzy on how the conversation turned the way it did...but with the advent of Fall, Mr. and I have resurrected the phrase "I got a rock.", uttered by the beleaguered Charlie Brown in the Peanuts Hallowe'en special.  (No, I'm not explaining it, you should know it.  Do your part!)

We had finished grocery shopping and that phrase came up again.  Only somehow it turned out that the "rock" was frozen urine (seriously, it made total sense at the time and I wasn't even drunk!).  And that the frozen urine was only Mr's.  I said that it bothered me that I wasn't sure if I should be upset or not that he wasn't collecting my urine as well to freeze and hand out on Halllowe'en.  

It was about that point that we decided we'd go out that night instead of handing out anything to trick or treaters.  Because we're obviously confused.

We did agree, though, that if we were trick or treating and got a rock over frozen urine, we'd be happy.  

****

Okay I'm tired and I need to go to bed because, as you probably deduced, the subject quality of this post tanked around the 3rd line.  From the top. 

Hopefully will be back sooner than the end of October.  

Holy Crap, it's September Already!

Hi!  Remember me?  Yes, I'm still here.  I hope you're still here too...otherwise I'm talking to myself.  It wouldn't be the first time, nor, daresay, the last.

Now that the season of activity is winding down and our social life down to its usual simmer over the rapid boil that was our summer, I'm getting back into "projects".    These are everything from house stuff (did you know that it never ends?  I mean seriously), crafts, reading, and of course, writing!  While it's not all blog related, there should be a good increase of that from the current dry-as-dust riverbed with its teeny trickle.  

The goal I started on September 1st was to write daily.  This is in preparation for the NaNoWriMo event that kicks off November 1st.  Unlike last year, this year I plan to be prepared when I start, and hope to even attend some of the local 'write-ins'.  

Of course, I missed September 2nd, but it wasn't my fault.  I had to watch Slither again.  (Hey, there's only so many hours in a day!)  Plus, don't look at me like that, I'm a grown up - at least chronologically.


Okay, now life stuff.  Just what have I been doing when I wasn't here?

• Kicking ass in Munchkin.  Not always winning but doing much better with the game in and of itself.  Of course, it helps that one of the rules encourages cheating (a tasty paradox).  Being the good girl I am (shut up!), I tend to play fair unless I'm allowed to play dirty.   This sets me up in the perfect scenario because I'm told to be bad.  Oh, it feels soooo good.  ;)
  (By the way if you don't know about Munchkin or haven't played, you are a loser!  Okay not really, but honestly, super fun stuff there!)
• Job!  OMG so much volume, and lots that I'm still learning.  Apparently from all sources I'm kicking ass there too.  Come to think of it, if anyone wants their ass kicked, apparently I'm your gal.  Step right up!  I think I still have my Dad's old steel-toed boots around here somewhere.
• Being social.  Or should I say Social.  Because it is a fairly auspicious event when a cave troll manages as much time outside the cave as I have, so I think it deserves to be capitalized.  Especially since I can't take my happy little Xanax pills right now, so I've been going straight.  (The horror, the horror.)  Let's not ask Mr. Eggshells how many breakdowns before and after each event I've had...it'll be our little secret.
• Traveled!  Starting with a trip to Eastern Washington for a wedding, and most recently a whirl-wind trip to Seattle, we've been uncustomary in our "out of the house" time.
• House 'stuff'.  Continuing work on the bathtub install/bathroom renovation.  This is the last major thing to be done before a few minor ones and then we can list it.  Because commuting an hour plus each way for work bites.  And not in a good way.  Starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel...
• Grieving.  One of my dearest friends has had devastating loss in a brief period of time.  Considering my history with loss, this situation has brought to me some things I've needed to cope through.  I've valued it, though, because it's helped me be in the right mental place to help her through where I can.  Which has been very important to me, and I hope, of help to her.
• Writing!  I have been writing, just not here, and never as much as I'd like.  You know, if anyone wanted to adopt me so I could just write all day, every day, I'd be okay with that.  Let me know.
  
  Anyway, I have a few different writing projects on the go, and am enjoying them.  So at the very least there's that.  My hope is to actually finish one or two even.  

But now I may need a nap.  This was a lot of thinking for a holiday Monday.  

Wildlife and Other Such Calamities

As evidenced by this earlier post that you really should have read already, I am most decidedly a city girl.  Well even a suburban girl would work as a descriptor.  What I am not is a rural girl.  The upshot of this is that it makes for some really good anecdotes and aren't you all so lucky that I'm sharing.  (Fully expects you all to be nodding at this point...off to sleep perhaps but in my world you're just agreeing with me.  ;)  )

We recently made our way to Eastern Washington to attend the wedding of one of our beautiful nieces and spend some quality family/friend time.  Deciding it suited our scheduling needs, we stayed in Spokane and traveled the hour or so to where family was.  As such, we spent a lot of time going up and down that highway number I can remember when I'm there but can't remember when I'm not.   Yes, that one.

I don't do a lot of the driving around that area; Mr. Eggshells schooled, worked, lived there most of his life so he's much more familiar with the streets and such.  Actually, if I drive our truck too long he's in real jeopardy of my declaring it to be "my" truck, and he likes it too much to risk that.  Plus, a lot of the driving is in decidedly rural areas, which, as I've already established, is not my ideal match.

I will now confess that I'm afraid of cows.  I take a lot of crap for this fear, being assured by rural people that they are harmless.  Bull!  (See what I did there? *flex*)  I believe this to be a reasonable fear; they are, actually, several hundred pounds bigger than I am, and I'm sure they know I've drank their milk and eaten their cousin.  I'm fairly certain they are currently plotting a coup, but sadly, I cannot find enough proof to back my claim.  I saw something similar with chickens in a movie once (and holy crap, that movie came out 12 years ago?  WTH?), and it was totally true. 

Needless to say, from the farming on the hill slopes to the variety of wild animal life there is to be had in that region, it is a fairly good understatement to say I'm out of my element.

It happened on the off-ramp of that one highway to get onto the other highway where, as Mr. Eggshells was navigating the abrupt curve (seriously there's acres of land, no curves need to be abrupt...these people went to planning school at the same place as the guy in our town who designed the northbound access on the I-5 - a neat little some kind of math/circle degree curve that's really awkward).  Where was I?  Oh yeah, the curve and it was there that I saw the stuffed animal.

We'd just gotten past it when I commented to hubby that someone had put a dead stuffed animal on the off-ramp concrete barrier.  He gave me a look and asked me to clarify what I meant.  I told him that I'd seen this upright animal on the guardrail, and that someone must've put it there as a joke.

It was about this point that I got the other look, the one that's half-amused and half-incredulous with just a smidgen of "facepalm, let me educate you", and he informs me that it was likely a real animal...based on my description, a marmot.  

Okay so I've heard of marmots, at least.  Apparently they're fairly prevalent in that area, and I was forced to believe him when he pointed another one out in the same location the next day....that moved.  

I still think the first one was a college prank.