Music Professor!

New Music! Found a playlist on Playlist.com that is titled, get this...

Shower Anthems

Appropriately described as "songs you'll sing along to". Rockin' baby, rockin'. Hope you have sing-along with me. I however will be sitting at my desk and trying to get some work done, so there might not be a lot of singing out loud. : )

Happy weekend!

10 Random Things for a Friday

1. I decided to bleach all of our bath towels. We have colored towels. I figured out how to do it pretty effectively. Except for the one bright green one. It isn't so green anymore.
   
2. Budweiser was inspired by a trip taken by Adolph Busch and his friend Carl Conrad to Budweis, Czech Republic. I can't stand Budweiser. You know how some people say that after you've had a few really good beers that you don't care what kind the next one is? They lie. Even after 2 good beers, I still don't like Budweiser.
   
3. A friend was diagnosed with breast cancer this week. I feel awful because I asked her a question about something that I didn't connect as anything and she started crying. Then I was fighting back tears. It was all downhill from there. Pray for her, will you?
   
4. I still haven't gotten that oil change for my car. Or hung the pictures that are sitting on the floor leaning against the wall. Or cleaned the carpets.
   
5. The dachshund that was driving me crazy has been living temporarily at the same house that Son2 is staying. It's been nice to have the canine dynamics in my house back to normal. But I do kind of miss the little guy. And then I find something else that he chewed up and I don't miss him so much any more. Is that awful?
6. The 30 Second Smile infomercial gives me the yeebie jeebies. i have no idea why. I think it is something to do with watching someone brush their teeth on TV. The thing looks absolutely freaky. Has anyone bought one? Aye yay yay.
7. This is the blog I got when I pushed "Next Blog" just now. I love the butterfly dress.
8. There is a Beer Pong World Series. Can you believe it? Beer Pong. A World Series. Frat boys who didn't grow up I'm guessing. Anybody want to put together a team?
9. Bill Clinton has gone veggie. I think that is AWESOME.
10. I had a cat that I named after Charlie Sexton. His name was Charlie Sexton. I wonder what Charlie Sexton would say if he knew I named my cat after him?

I've got to fly my dears. I have to get the Babe to the sitters and myself to a meeting. Catch you on the flipside. Ok? Ok. See ya then.

500 posts of Random Things

Dear Friends,

This is my 500th post. I apparently have a lot of carp to say. Or in reality I just ramble about nothing quite often.

So, I've been thinking all week about what my 500th post was going to be about. I was going to wait until tomorrow and make it a "10 Random things for a Friday" post. Those have become my favorite posts. Not much thought involved. But usually sums up the week and the nothing that is going through my head really fast. But when it was all said and done, I thought it best to pay homage to my favorite posts. The ones that when I think about this here blog, stand out as the most therapeutic things. The ones that made me smile. The ones that made me cry. The ones where I was crying while I wrote them. The ones that are the real reasons why I write. The ones that help me "get it out".

So here we go. 10 Random Things That Aren't So Random. And they are in no particular order. I tried to order them. They wouldn't listen. And I couldn't decide on my own. So I called the Pusher. She didn't have an idea for an order either. So I gave up. The order makes no sense. Don't count it for anything. But enjoy the walk down memory lane. Which is good. Because God knows what I'll remember down the road.

1. The Sally vs the Skunk post. Selsun Blue and the Smelly dog are the most common reason people end up here. And it was the perfect way to deflate after I was REALLY pissed off at dealing for hours with the smelly dog and bad Brady Bunch advice.
2. The Pusher and Sushi. Two of my most favorite things about Omaha. God love her. :)
   
3. The first 10 Random Things for a Friday post. They really are my favorite.
4. My NOT conversation with the Pusher. It pretty much sums up talking to myself all of the time. LOL
   
5. The day I announced that we were adopting the Babe. One of THE best days of my life.
6. January 31, 2008. The day I became a grandma. I love being a grandma.
7. April 24, 2008. The day that I became a grandma for the 2nd time. These babies have changed our lives in ways I never knew possible.
8. The first post I migrated over from my MySpace blog. I wrote it there and later moved it here. My mom wanted my rambling somewhere where she could read them without having to sign up for the chaos that is MySpace. I wrote it the day my grandma Rachel died. Right up there as one of the most whirlwind of emotions days of my life. Amber's graduation party. My eldest niece's first birthday. A beautiful day of celebration. And evening of extreme sadness.
9. The day after my grandpa died. At first I had no words. Then I couldn't get them all out.
10. The reason I started this blog in the first place. I was losing my mind. I didn't think I could take any more. But it's Erin. I had to get it out. I needed to find some semblance of sanity. Still haven't found it but I keep on trying. This is probably THE most honest post I've ever written. I've thought about taking it down a few times. But it's still here.
11. Hope. They found Shawn Hornbeck. We can find Erin too, right.
    

OK. well that was 11. It's Pusher's fault. She can't count.

Love you all. And thanks for sticking around. Unless of course you have bailed. And then you won't be reading this anyway.

Post a comment. I still have lots of crap on my porch to get rid of. We'll do a drawing at the end of the weekend. And I'll send you some.

Love you all! You are my sanity. Thanks for putting up with me. **big slobbery kisses**

--- Carolyn

There is a Cry in There Somewhere

I have a cry that is stuck. It's right there. Right under the surface. You can almost see it.

It's directly impacted by all of those things that build up. All of the things that I try to avoid. All of the stress. All of the anger. All of the desperate sadness. The grief. All of the minutes, hours, days, and even years of stuffing. Do you do that? Do you stuff? Do you try to make it all go away? Assume that if you just leave the pile of garbage, of stress, of emotional turmoil, of little things, and big things, that they'll all go away if you just ignore them long enough? It might fix itself. It might quit eating at you. It might go away.

The cry below the surface is the exact reason that I have zero success at bringing myself down. Zero success at true relaxation. Massages, meditation, thoughtful reflection. Can't do it. I've tried. But that flight of fight thing? Kicks in every time.

It's going to come out. A death. A birth. or something little. A song at the right time. Or wrong time. Some stupid movie. A TV show. When I need it. Is that even a concept? Is it a "need"? In the meantime it just sits there.

It's right there. Right below the surface. Can you see it?

_________________________

OK. So here we are the next morning. I should NOT blog at 11:00 at night. Can I hear an amen?

Things aren't worse than they ever are. Just seemed more so last night. Had to do some things yesterday that just brought carppy stuff up to the service. And Hubby wasn't home from work until really late and fell asleep soon after. So I couldn't talk to him. So I was left with marginal TV and too many internet searches and way too much time to get stuck in my own head. Which of course happens more often than it should.

But I am as OK as I ever am. Thanks for your concern. : )

Big Blue Frog

Iowa Hawkeyes - Fight Song

Nice Hotels and Naked Men

Tuesday evening post from Facebook --

We are in a hotel for a conference today. Walking down the hall we go past the guest laundry room. I thought, "cool, a laundry room". and then noticed the naked guy standing by the dryer. he had a very hairy back. that is as much as I care to know. We laughed so hard going down the hallway that I couldn't breathe. it was the best laugh I've had in forever. sorry you weren't here to share it.

The 10 Random Things That Didn't Get Written on Friday

Happy Saturday!

1. Yesterday's post did not happen because I was too busy trying to keep my eyes open and make my head see straight. You see, Thursday was my birthday. And I had the brilliant idea to celebrate with a few friends, dueling pianos, a couple of dirty martinis and a Blue Moon or two. Or maybe it was three, or four, I have no clue how many to be honest with you. But I remembered the "liquor before beer you're in the clear" thing. I know we had fun because apparently there are blackmail pictures to prove it. Let's just state for the record though that I am no longer 21 and I can no longer party like I am.
2. My birthday was Thursday. : )
   
3. As was explained in another post.... I was at a conference Tuesday - Thursday afternoon. Got way more out of the conversations with colleagues than I learned at the conference. But the refresher courses are always good.
4. Being gone for 48 hours seems a lot longer when you include 2 overnights in there. I was so looking forward to a couple of days away from home. And then all I really wanted was to be at home. See how I am?
5. Remember the post about the fridge last weekend? Well my friend was nice enough to call and tell me that the problem is that I have a Whirlpool. ok. maybe that's not the way he put it. What he said was, "your fridge is a Whirlpool, right?" "It's the thermostat." So then he told me how to fix it. And it seems pretty easy. Except for the part where I have to clean out the thing and let it thaw out so that the lines all drain. So now we are trying to use everything in the fridge without buying anything new. Which is cool because I don't have to go to the grocery store. But not so cool because egg, avocado, sauerkraut and ketchup sandwiches weren't well received.
6. The Babe is stuck on Scooby Doo at the moment. It was cool at first. Now it is going in the same direction as WonderPets, Dora, SpongeBob, and Care Bears.
7. I miss Calvin and Hobbes comics. If there were new ones, I'd subscribe to the paper again. Ok, maybe not. But I'd look them up on the internet every day.
8. I am craving sushi. Can you imagine that? Me? I think a Kirin Sake Bomb might help with the fog still lingering from Thursday night. Anybody?
9. I don't drink anywhere as much as my posts would suggest. For those of you who are concerned. And to you who are concerned... thank you. I love you too.
10. I am wearing a sweatshirt and shorts today. Which means that weatherwise, this is an awesome day.
11. 
    
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16. No matter how many times I hit 'Enter' Blogger won't stop with the numbers. And I'm too lazy to go figure it out at the moment. It's some easy code thing I'm sure but I'm not much of a coder figureouter today. Happy Happy to all of you! May the rest of the weekend rock.
    

That Hurt :( -- Warning: Cryptic Post

So earlier tonight I had a 20 minute cry. Maybe longer. It's not like I timed it or anything. My feelings are hurt. Hurt bad. Someone (two someones actually) said something about me that I can't believe they could say. Flat out said that they thought I was doing something that I am not. I can't believe they even THOUGHT that I was capable of doing such a thing. The person that told me about it I think knew it would hurt my feelings. But thought I needed to know none the less.

For the record. I'm glad I know what they said and what they thought I am capable of. Hurt. Crying. But it's good to know. I'll never tell them that I know. But it sure will shape how I deal with them going forward for a while. I really thought they knew me enough to know I couldn't even POSSIBLY do that.

hurt. crying. and I really need to go to bed. Maybe this will all look better in the morning. I doubt it though. I should be done crying by then though.

Cleaning Out the Fridge Adventures

I have to admit. I'm not the best at cleaning out the refrigerator. Nor am I good at spelling refrigerator, which just took me 3 times to figure it out. Spelling is obviously not one of my strong points. But anyhow... I realized night before last that it was time to clean out the fridge.

Very often I open the fridge and think to myself, "Self" because that is what I call myself, Self. "Self" I say. "You really should clean out the refrigerator. It's looking pretty full and there is no way that everything in there is within it's expiration date." But then I argue with the self that wants to clean out the fridge and point out that it is only Sunday (or Friday or Thursday or whatever day it is that isn't Wednesday) and the garbage truck doesn't come until Thursday morning. And all of that food stuffs that I am going to clean out will just stink to high heaven if I throw it out on Sunday (or Friday or Thursday or whatever day it is that isn't Wednesday). Because, you see, the garbage truck doesn't come until Thursday morning. And it will stink by then.

But on Friday night (or maybe it was Thursday night) Son2 was over for dinner. Have I mentioned that I like having him around? So he was over for dinner and we were having strawberry shortcake for dessert. He wanted whipped cream on his. There was a can in the fridge on the top shelf in the front and all the way to the left. Apparently he got lost in my directions and instead of getting out that cool can of whipped cream that squirts when you push the nozzle, he instead found a tub of fat free cool whip type stuff that I bought at Aldi a while back. which I had apparently forgotten about. He opened it up while standing at the kitchen counter.

It smelled like a meth lab. Or more to the point it smelled like what I would think a meth lab would smell like. It was awful. He shut it up quickly. I got up from my perch nearest the computer and went into the kitchen to get him the whipped cream in a can stuff. And then I looked at the expiration date on the cool whip type stuff. It only expired 10 days ago. So I read the ingredients on the tub. It had more chemicals than I could count. And this fat free stuff is good for us how?

So anyway, I obviously needed to clean out the fridge. And yesterday I did. And I realize now that

1. I need to clean it out more often.
2. The fridge is freezing everything on the top shelf. (i knew this already)
3. It is leaking water pretty badly.
4. the leaking water and freezing top shelf means that the jar of roasted red peppers in the back of the top shelf in the center will be frozen to the shelf.
5. Sauerkraut seems to never go bad.
6. I don't know when I last bought applesauce but there are 2 jars of it on the frozen top shelf.
7. We do not need to buy provolone for a while. We have 3 separate open things of it.
8. Worchestier (sp?) sauce has an expiration date. So does mustard. but both seem to keep indefinitely.
9. We have 4 kinds of jelly.
10. water accumulating in the bottom of the veggie drawers make veggies age too fast.
11. The dogs love leftovers. I probably should have just given it to them originally.
    
12. There are some leftover type things that come out of the fridge that you can't even feed to the dogs.

Yes. It is Sunday. And yes. I did just write about cleaning out the fridge. Have you come to expect anything less?

10 Random Things for a Friday

Happy Friday. Yes. It is Friday. We made it through another week. Mostly in one piece. Some bruises though. But we'll try and not focus on them.

1. My "not quite son" has come to live nearby. I'm pretty happy about it. And yes. I won't be happy until they all are nearby. : )
   
2. I downloaded the pictures from my camera last night. There were 127.
   
3. My car still needs an oil change. Which means I have to go get the stuff from the parts store. You'd think that with having a mechanic for a husband, I shouldn't have to do these things by myself. But I do. It's a shoemaker's children thing.
4. The new seasons of CSI and Bones and House better start soon. I need some good TV to record to watch at 11:00 at night when I can't get to sleep.
5. The word internet is not in blogger's spell check. Neither is "Blogger's" How weird is that? Weird is though. Because I just spelled it wrong twice. Because I type faster than my brain works sometimes.
6. We had to take a "family" picture of Hubby and the Babe and I last night. I think it is the first and only one that we have of just the 3 of us. Is that pathetic or what?
7. I never had 4 year old pictures taken of the Babe. Do you think that 2 months later would be stupid? I mean, we are going to take Christmas pictures in about 2 months. I should probably just wait, right?
8. There are 6 pictures framed and leaning against the wall that need to be hung on the wall. I don't even that I can remember when I put them there. I should probably fix that this weekend.
9. I am spending part of the weekend with baby BAM. Who is really not a baby anymore. He's a toddler now. But he is still a baby. I like it that way.
10. If you had the choice between cleaning house all day or getting things done at work, which would you choose?

So what are you doing this weekend? Please post and tell me. I'd like to live vicariously through y'all. Because, me? I'll be cleaning the house or working all day. See how exciting of a life I lead?

First Day of Pre-School

First day of pre-school. Isn't she cute? Why yes she is. Thank you for noticing. Not that I'm a proud mama or anything.

I Love This Picture

127 Photos. This is one of my favorites. : ) I love it when they laugh.

No One Can No Longer Live at my House

You know the water I mentioned having in my room? Well you see the sprinkler broke. And it was pointed at the house at the time. And the sprinkler was left on. No idea how or why. But it ran. Apparently for a long time. And the water came in through either the basement wall which is covered with drywall or it came up through the floor which is covered by carpet. Do you see where this is going? And somewhere along the way the carpet was nice enough to soak up the water. We pulled all of the water up that I could. Ran a fan. and it mostly dried. but now it just stinks. and gets worse every day. The internet peoples say that I should use white vinegar. Or Borax. But you know that those home remedies will probably prove to be about as effective as the tomato juice and vinegar and baking soda was at getting the skunk smell off of the dog. Speaking of which. "Skunk smell off of a dog" and "does Selsun Blue work" are still the highest searches that brings people to this here blog.

But anyway... back to the nasty water smell

So tomorrow I am renting a carpet cleaner. And a dehumidifier. Which I should have done on Tuesday. And some serious kind of chemical to kill the nasties in the carpet. Which probably won't help at all. Isn't Nature's Miracle an enzyme cleaner? I wonder if that will work. But I am sure by now that I should probably just cut my losses and pull the stupid carpet up. All of this for a stupid broken $12 sprinkler. And the fact that someone forgot to shut if off. And of course NO one did it.

I think I'm going to kick no one out.

9 Reasons Why I Didn't Post 10 Random Things for a Friday

1. I was helping to organize a Ride for Their Live event that was in Lincoln. I got to see wonderful friends and meet some new ones.
2. I took a kind of mini vacation and didn't get on a computer.
3. I have children who had forgotten who I was.
4. I have a grandson who didn't remember my name.
5. My "not quite my son" needed attention.
6. The house was a wreck.
7. There was water in my bedroom. I don't want to talk about it.
8. My car needed an oil change. Never did get it though.
   
9. My office mates wouldn't let me on a computer when I went there for a few minutes.

I promise to do better this Friday. : )

Postcard

Hello.
How are you?
I am fine.
We are playing lots of games. I learned to tie knots.
The songs around the fire at night are my favorite thing.
I don't like the mosquitoes and I think the repellent is killing me slowly.

I miss you.

Love, Me

Camp Hitaga was my favorite summer place. And I hear through the grapevine that it is in trouble financially and might be no more. This makes me sad.

And why I am thinking about this at 3:45 on a Tuesday that is really a Monday, I have no idea.

I Love A Good Meme

Why do they call these things meme s anyway?

Thanks for the tag, Harmony!

1. Why did you start blogging? I started in December of 2006. Started on MySpace but then migrated here to blogger so my non-myspace mom could read my ramblings.

2. If you could travel any where in the world with no restriction of costs, where would it be and why? I'd hit as may countries as I could. but I'd have to have unlimited vacation time too.

3. Did you have a teacher in school that had a great influ­ence on your life? If so, what? I had a few. Mr. Halstead I had for two different years in elementary. He helped me figure out how to have confidence in the work that I completed. Mr. Constance taught me about writing and how to write what you love. Unless of course there is an assignment. Mr. Fitzpatrick gave me amazing experiences in the fine arts.

4. If you could spend the day with a famous person, who would it be, and what would you do? Dead - Thomas Jefferson. And I'd invite my mom to come with. I'd spend the whole day in conversation and learning everything he'd choose to tell me. Alive - Nelson Mandela. He's led an amazing life. I'd love 24 hours of his wisdom.

5. Toilet paper — over or under? Over. And if somebody does it differently, I switch it.

6. Name one thing in your life that you would do over if possible. All of the things in my life have brought me to where I am today. But regardless of the changes it would make, I'd go back and come home and give Erin the ride to her friend's that night.

7. Tell about your pets — if any. We have a big ol' orange cat named Jack. He runs the house. Sally is a lab mix that has a problem with attracting skunks. Roxanne is a shih tzu. She fits well most of the time. And at the moment we have a dachshund named Copper. He belongs to Son2 but Copper is staying here until Son2 has an apartment of his own.

8. Do you live in a small town or a large town. (You don’t have to name the town.) I live in a small town attached to the big city. I like it that way.

I am not one to tag others. But if you feel so inclined, please feel free to grab it and let me know that you did. I'd love to read your answers!