All Kinds of Crazy...

Robb and I were in Target, and he just stops in the aisle on the way to get milk and starts laughing.  Shaking.  And pointing.  "Come here!" he managed to squeak through his laughter.

I walked back to where he'd stopped.  "What the heck are you laughing at?"



Look.  Look again.  Is that not the most adorable, mischievous little coffee pot you've ever seen?



It makes me wonder if it was intentional.  Who wouldn't want a coffee pot that looks like some kind of high-ranking religious official penguin with a single shiny flipper?  Oh man...and this is part of the reason I love him so damn much.  He has this way of making every day and every mindless chore into an adventure.

His car is currently in the shop because his cousin backed into it.  So we have a rental.  This rental has some odd buttons on the dash, such as this one:



Yes.  Cat Folder.  I'm just glad we didn't bring Marbles with...

In other news, after sushi last night we decided we'd try mochi ice cream.  We got green tea and mango.



It wasn't terrible, but the fondant-like covering over the balls was a little off-putting.  It's been dubbed "squishy stuff."



Lyndsay and Ben seem to be fascinated by it.  It was kind of gross...like silly putty.  If we'd have had a newspaper, we'd have tried to transfer ink onto it.  Instead, we ate it. 

And that's all the news that's fit to print.

Out

Family Ties...

Show me that smile,
Oh, show me that smile!

Okay...I'll stop singing, now that that song is stuck in your head.

What's this post about?  Well, call it a companion piece to go with the strangers post.  I just wanted to show you people from my life who have made an impact on me:  My family.

Let's start way back when.

This is one of two photos I have of my grandpa (Sam), my biological father's dad:



As far as I know, he's still alive, although I hear he moved into a condo a few years ago, so I have no idea where he lives, and since I don't talk to my dad, I guess I'll never know.

I have no photos of my grandmother on my dad's side (Lorainne).  She died when I was a teenager-ish.  I also have no photos of my grandfather on my mother's side (Andy).  He died when I was very, very young.  My only memory of him is him sitting on a chair in my grandmother's house smiling at me.  It may not even be a real memory, as I think she may have moved into that place after he died. 

Speaking of her, this is the only photo I have of my grandmother (Bess), my mom's mom.  We just called her Gramma Gramma:



We have about a million of these pads lying around the house, but Mom packed them away a few years back to preserve them.  We used to draw moustaches and eyepatches on her.  She died when I was about eleven or twelve, shortly after my sister was born.

This is the only photo I have of my dad, whom I don't talk to anymore (that's a long story for another day that, surprisingly, has nothing to do with me being gay):



Yup.  I don't really have anything to say about him, except that he and my mom divorced when I was six, and we visited him regularly until we were old enough to only visit when we wanted, and then I stopped seeing him at all shortly after I started my senior year of college.

My mom got married to Duane a few years after her divorce.  I think I was eight.



That's them.

My older brother Jake is currently in Iraq.  He's due home for good in September.



I have tons of photos of him doing goofy shit.  We're partners in crime when we go out.  He and his wife live in Washington, but they've lived all over for Army stuff.

And my sister (who is really a half-sister, but we don't think of it like that), just rolled her car on Saturday.  She's fine, but the car isn't.



She was...12 in this picture, I think.  She's almost 17.  She's grown up a lot, has braces and beautiful teeth now, long dark hair.  She's a boy killer.  I call her Chris, but she's been known by many names:  Christy Jo, Crispy Jones, Christy, CJ, Turd, Christine, but NEVER, EVER Chrissy!

And that's my family.

Out

Yesterday and Tomorrow...

I didn't expect yesterday's blog to garner as much attention as it did.  Thanks, all!  I just like sharing my random hobby.

I realized after I posted that I left out what could possibly be my favorite random person shot EVER.



Yup.  I'm WAY proud of that one...

Whoever you are, random Asian lady, I apologize for catching you at that very amazing moment.

Moving on.

It is Friday, in case you haven't noticed.  I am sitting at the computer in my old desk chair, since Robb's desk chair broke yesterday, toppling me backwards onto the floor with a scream.  You should have been here.  Except, I wasn't clothed...you know...since I don't dress until after I shower, and I don't normally shower right when I get up.  So maybe you shouldn't have been here.

Anynaked, I'm sitting here in the squeaky orange chair that I got from God knows where (there's a matching one at my mom's house), and I'm dreading getting up, because I know I'll have to peel my ass off the seat.  *riiiip*

No fun at all.

That's not where I was going with this!  Argh!  Now I've lost my train of thought and all you're concerned with is either getting rid of or holding on to the mental image of me toppling backwards out of a desk chair in my birthday suit.

It's the weekend.  Enjoy it!  Tonight we've got a friend's birthday party to attend, and I think tomorrow we're going to see Robb's little nephew in a tee ball game.  So, fun! 

Do something irrational.  Take a stranger's photo.  And then let me see it!

Out

Strangers...

I have a confession to make: 



I



take



photos



of



people



I



don't



know. 



Strangers. 



Without



their



permission! 



I don't know why...



I



just



do.

Viewtiful_Justin...Out

I just got a call from the bank where I had that bad interview.  They want me to drive an hour tomorrow morning for another interview.  I told them I would.  And now?  I just don't want to...but that's not the point of this post!

It was almost 80 yesterday, and it's looking to be about the same today!

I would have been stupid NOT to ride my bike yesterday.  So, off I went in my black tank top and black and blue plaid shorts.  I wanted a tan.  I figured I'd burn.  I didn't really do much of either, despite being out in the sun for almost an hour.  But there's plenty more year left, and I am determined to be tan (without using a tanning bed) before Pride this year!  And I'm hoping to avoid a farmer's tan for once in my life.  We shall see.

Speaking of seeing...I met this happy lady on my ride:



She was chasing a stick thrown by her man.  I rode up and heard a big SPLASH!!!  I thought, "Gosh, I hope that wasn't what it sounded like!  It was not.



She was a good fetcher!  Her man and I chatted a little about how she was living the high life...and how she touched the Kish so she's never leaving DeKalb again.  But hey, when your whole life is get-the-stick, get-the-stick, get-the-stick, I think DeKalb is a pretty good place to be damned.

It certainly is pretty this time of year.  It almost makes me forget about winter entirely when the Violets start poking their white and purple heads up.



They're my next favorite, after Daffodils...maybe because they usually pop their heads up right after.



We were all enjoying the sun.  And today?  I think I'm going to do the same once more.  Who knows...maybe I'll see the Water Guy leaping into the Kish to fetch something...

Except...i just got a phone call from a friend who wants me to help her move.  Right.  I'd almost forgotten.  Maybe I'll just ride my bike over there.

Out

It was the most gorgeous day yesterday.  And today?  It's supposed to be EVEN NICER!  So, as I've been itching to do since fall, I hopped on my bike and cruised through town.  Oh my gosh, it was lovely!  I happened upon some new graffiti on the trail, and it made me wonder if it was put there in the fall or winter or just recently, although it looks like someone tried to paint over it unsuccessfully a while ago, so my money is on fall.  Anywho:



"How many have to die?  STOP THIS WAR"

And about three feet down was this:



"Free Tibet."  Good advice.  I think I'll put it on my to-do list for the day.

And, close to my own heart, someone did this:



A cute little bird...oh, and my shadow.  You can't see it there, but the wind was doing tragic things to my WAY-TOO-LONG hair.  It was a wreck.

But I had this little gem to remind me that it didn't matter:





It says, "Whatever you are, it's beautiful."  I'm just glad they got the punctuation correct.

And then I headed past the old train depot,



And into the college multi-family homes area, the older section of town.  While I was riding I noticed this building that I've never seen before, despite living in this area my whole life:



It looks like an old school or a hospital, but it was completely empty with "No Trespassing" signs all over it.  How strange that it's not in use AND that I'd never seen it before...And here DeKalb is in an uproar about building a new school...they're not even using this one!

But I continued, on a beeline for where the Water Guy works.



I took no photos of his place of employment because I didn't want to seem like a creeper, but mostly because I already have some.  So you get this church steeple and this odd house:



I love that neon lime door.  How cute!

I'd never really been in this area, so I rode around for a while, taking some photos.  This house was all decked out for Spring, and I wondered if it always looked like that:



Cute. 

I was exhausted, though, and I had decided that I needed a hair cut.  Badly.  So, I rode home, past an inadvertently funny sign that's in a neighbor's lawn.  There's a back story here.  The county is discussing building a huge landfill somewhere in the vicinity.  So people are sort of in an uproar over it.  Signs have popped up all over in the lawns of people who oppose it, and this is what they say:



Yeah...it kind of makes me want to take a giant steaming dump in their front lawn.  Not gonna lie.  I snicker every time I see one.  And then I crave chicken and dumplings, because what's the opposite of a mega dump?  A dumpling!  I'll be here all week.

Onto the hair cut.  Here's my truly atrocious before photo:



I look wasted, and sort of stoned.  I was neither.

And after?



Much better!  I got so many compliments on the beard at church last night...it's a little overwhelming.  So...there.  Welcome to my day yesterday.  What you didn't see?  Three hours of Final Fantasy II, and me dancing along to Adam Lambert in my car.  That's about it.

I hope you take some time to get outside and enjoy the weather, if it is, indeed, nice today.  My old college friend Derek (derektb) is coming out here in the afternoon and we're going to drive to our old Alma Mater with the windows down and the music on and then meet some people for dinner later.  It'll be a hoot.

Out

Weekend In Photos...

This is how the weekend started.  I threw on my blue plaid shirt with the green undershirt, the one that makes my chest and arms look bigger than they are.  Then people came over to our place, and we explored the attic space I'd been too scared to look in since we moved in.  No ghosts.  We took some video and ran voice recorders, hoping to pick up some kind of EVP from our apartment ghost(s?).  So far, nothing doing.  Then we took a midnight (train to Georgia...woo woo!) trip to another friend's house.  She wasn't expecting us, and we rolled out the welcome banner we'd made while she poured us some wine.  I drank too much and got kind of silly.  It was nice to visit.

Saturday, Robb and I visited the library in town.  I got some more CDs, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the daffodils (my favorite flower because the portend Spring) poking through the mud next to the walk.



We hung around the apartment, mostly.  It was nice having the boy home for a change, since the ski season is officially over.  So we basked in the homey Saturdayness of the morning and afternoon, and then we headed off.  We stopped to meet friends in Manhattan (not NY) where one of them was working.  Mutual harassment ensued.  Then we went back to her place and met her new friend:



That would be Sadie, the chinchilla.  So adorable, and soooo soft.  She was a little ball of crazy energy.

Sunday morning Robb and I planned to go to church, so we got up at 8:30, realized it was actually 9:30, and went back to bed.  I hate rushing to get ready in the morning.  It puts me in a bad mood.  So I just decided we would skip church entirely.  Well...we slept until 11:45.  I hadn't slept well in almost a week, so it was a nice change.  And then I rushed to get ready for my writer's group, which was having a special meeting. 



I drew this confused cat bird...sort of a way for me to sort out my feelings about a friend of mine who is newly transgendered.  It's really hard to stop calling him Ian and start calling her Elaine...and the pronouns...oh, the pronouns!  I'll get it right one day.

So...after a full day, Robb and I ordered pizza.  I hadn't eaten all day, so we finished the whole thing.  That night, I had the happiest dream ever!  I got a pygmy hippo as a pet, and he LOVED cat food and potatoes.  So freaking adorable I could spit!

And this morning?



I've got a whole list of things to do...one of which I can now cross off.

--Call on resume
--Rip CDs
--Take clothes and computer monitor to Goodwill
--Check jobs
--Do critique stuff
--Blog
--Pet the cat
--Check Wii Shop Channel

Out