Thursday, August 28, 2008

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Since I have just noticed that it now gets dark before N.'s bedtime (which makes things much easier), I thought now would be a good time to do some kind of Summer Wrap-Up. As all three of you may remember, at the begininng of this summer I was feeling "plateau-y;" for the less erudite reader, that implies a blockage of creativity. Thankfully, I got over it. And so, without futher wordbutchery, I offer you Our Concrete Accomplishments of Summer '08:

1. We turned this garden

into these (and other) tasty vegetables:


2. We turned this

and this:


into this record, which will be out in a minute, but forget I told you, because I'm not doing any advance:

3. We made this dress for Giselle. And a matching one for N., who makes me wear the dress I wore to my mom's wedding (also purple) and dance around with her - this is called "Going to the Ball."


Sheesh. What else did we do? Made lots of pizzas,


went on the boat ride I vowed to go on when we moved here (and LOVED it),


went to like thirty-two beaches and playgrounds, and made next to no progress on the quilt. Ah well. Anycomplishment, this was one of the best summers ever. Seriously. Outranking several awesome summers I remember from my own childhood. Sigh. Thank you, summer. Love you.


Monday, August 25, 2008

Briefly

At this very moment, I am making the possibly terrible mistake of eating jalapeno-cheddar ramen noodles that I bought because they were steeply discounted.

I couldn't resist.

Previously, the weirdest flavor of ramen noodles that I had eaten was "shrimp," during the blizzard of '96.

This is also the first time I have eaten ramen noodles in about four years.

In case the internet wanted to know.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Back to the Future, part a billion.


I re-re-discovered a letter I wrote to myself in 1999, that I wasn't supposed to open until August of next year, but have periodically anyway. I really needed to find it again, too.



I bought N.'s lunchbox today.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Friday, August 15, 2008

Oh, Hooray for This!

Sometimes things on YouTube inexplicably fill me with joy. Like this:

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Chugga Chugga.

Oh, I think I can. I think I can. I think I can! I think I can! Eat a jar of mayonnaise. Oh, wait.

No. I think I can...buy a single pair of doll shoes off the internet to match the outfit we've been working on all summer.



For 75 cents (plus $6.50 shipping), you can too. Now, we can hold the doll with the dress and the shoes while we wear the matching dress that momma made us while we're watching the climactic ballroom scene from the movie that we love with rapt attention for the 87 gazillionth time. Woe betide interrupters. Seriously, woe.

What else? I think I can finish this @#$@ record before school starts. I have one song left to torture. I mean torture. I mean, produce. For a change of pace today I started working on the cover art.


That may or may not have anything to do with what it ends up looking like.


I think I can...make delicious rotisserie chicken tacos with fresh tomato corn salsa. Excellent 10 minute dinner, AND, the non-trans-fat taco shells were on closeout for $1.49. Of course, the chicken cost $100. N. said to me, just to clarify, "Chicken the food, momma. Not a chicken animal." She calls the skin "peel." I'm leaving that one alone for now.

Ok, ok. I think I can eat a tub of chive cream cheese. I mean eat a tub of - I mean, get back to work.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

A Woman of Independent Means

Well, sort of. I was extremely proud of myself this week, as I had a rash (ew!) of minor misfortunes that I dealt with All By Myself, like the Strong Single Mother that I am, um, emulating.

Firstly, I got a nasty clot of paperwork in the mail from my life insurance company, informing me that my policy had lapsed. Hillariously, two weeks before that, I had called to pay the bill over the phone, and secured the promise of the lady to call me if the transaction didn't go through. Which, of course, she did not do, however, thankfully I had written down her name and the date. Take THAT! Tropical Storm Edouard. Which had apparently hit the policy services department the previous day. Sigh.

Anysurance, it only took about 4 hours of calling, pleading, repeatedly getting disconnected and mashing buttons on the keypad of my phone to sort that one out.

THEN, my microphone broke, RIGHT in the middle of recording a track for the release I am planning for next week, so I cried about it to my mother, and she gave me $40.

THEN, I got a flat tire! My first ever (awwww). Thankfully, I was in the parking garage where I pay by the month for work, and I know the guy. He had a very neat little pump that you plug right into the lighter, and it pumps the tire up quickly, and incredibly loudly. We drove to the gas station and it was holding, so we came all the way home. This morning it was about half flat, so we drove to the gas station down the street and spent the $40 on a patch and a half-tank of gas. Ah, well.

THEN, the garbage men didn't take my garbage! What the heck?! They took my recycling, and left my trash can neatly where it was on the curb. I looked up the solid waste department of my town on the internet, and found that if they have done this for a reason, they will leave an orange sticker on your trash. No sticker. Total mystery. So today, I called the dump, and inquired as to their policies, and the lady said just bring my drivers' license. Of course, when I got there, the, hmm, procedurally oriented gentleman at the window asked for my town pass, but again - I had gotten the woman's name on the phone. "Heather said my drivers' license would be fine!" And so it was. Except that I had worn crocs. Eww.

Yeeps. I am a little edgy and knocking on wood all over the place, because I really want this record release to be, uh, divinely perfect. Perhaps I should manage my expectations. Perhaps I should make another backup disc.

;)

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Where have you been?

...you ask?

Why, here, of course.

;)

Monday, August 4, 2008

I promise a real post either later or tomorrow.

I have a CD of pictures from the past 2 days in the car, but I'm slightly concerned about going out to get it, as the neighbors saw a coyote in their driveway last week.

Still.

In the meantime, I am so down to do this!