Shock Me Like an Electric Eel.

Here is a pretty flower.

So, whatever it was I thought I was coming down with, seems to have disappeared today. Yea! I had a great dinner with friends tonight. Many different kinds of sushi, great conversation and it was so good to catch up with my friends from college. It's weird that we live in the same town and never see each other.

Tomorrow should be even better. I only work until noon and then I'll go running and head to the store to get a few art supplies. I'll finally have to give plasma - which is the only part of the day I'm not looking forward to, but I'm sure it won't kill me or anything.

Saturday I will clean my house as much as possible and make a pot of potato leek soup. I'm also going to try to go on the zombie march - it's where people meet at a park, put on make-up and walk around looking like zombies. I won't do the make-up part, because Stinky and her boyfriend want me to go to dinner with her boyfriend's parents at 6:30. After that I have a couple of options. One of my neighbors is having a backyard party to watch the Iowa/Arizona game in his backyard or G. wanted me to go to Sam's Pizza to watch the game with some friends of hers. Maybe I'll figure out a way to do both.

Sunday is my arts and crafts party. I'm making soup and salad and heating up apple cider and my friends are coming over to make a bunch of stuff. I'm not much into crafts, but I plan on trying my hand at tag/graffiti art. I have some bigger canvases and I'm getting some spray paint and I'm going to see what kind of funkiness I can create. My living room is reserved for Dance Dance Revolution and Rock Band shenanigans. I hope it ends up being as fun as it sounds.

What about you kids? Will you be watching a game or gaming?

And In the Streets You Run Afree

Here is Coadster at a Hawkeye press day as a baby.

So, this week just breezed on by, didn't it? I gave myself a lazy after work evening. I ran but then came home and did some dishes and planted myself firmly on the couch. It felt pretty nice.

This weekend is only two days, and I'd like to say I was going to calm things down this time around, but it doesn't look that way, It's the Iowa vs Iowa State game in town this week, and I've decided to go tailgating for the first time in my life. Right now, the plan is to pick up D. and go to our friend M.'s (who's never tailgated either) and check out the scene. We'll go to the Magic Bus and another friend of ours who has giant TV's to watch the game on once it starts. I won't drink, but I can't wait to eat and people watch and take in the spectacle for a while.

My friend E said she might want to go on a late day bike ride, so I could do that after the tailgating. In the evening, a bunch of girls are going out to E.'s house and have a fire in the pit she dug in her backyard last weekend and watch a movie outside on her big screen. Then I'll drop most of the girls off downtown and I'll go home.

I'm running the Beat Cancer 5K on Sunday afternoon, so I don't want to stay out very late the night before.

As we've all seen before, my plans can turn into something altogether different as they play out...Or don't. So,who knows what I'll actually end up doing.

How about you guys out in blog land? Will you be watching people, or movies of both?

Or If I Ever Need a Reason to Smile

Me, G and K. I think K.'s t-shirt has the perfect anti-Valentine's Day sentiment.

My, but the weekend goes by quickly, doesn't it? It did actually turn out to be pretty lovely. Saturday I got a lot of cleaning and kitchen prepping done. I also had a really great run. It was one of those nice, slow ones, where I just got way into my head and felt like I could run forever. It's been a while since I've felt like that. It's hard in the Winter to just relax and run and not worry about falling on the ice or how cold my feet or hands are.

B. and his friend from high school and D. and G. stalking in the background. My friend Jen sent me a FB message that was a copied entry from the Urban Dictionary. Apparently, that kind of stalking is called a photobomb.

The girls I was supposed to have dinner with on Saturday night, were unable to make it, so I texted K. to see if she wanted to go on a little girl dinner date. She was into it. So, we ate greasy food at the Hilltop which is right by where K. lives and then picked G. up on our way downtown.

The Dublin was really fun at first. Then many of my friends left me to go to a show. I couldn't go, because I told Eggo that I would give her and her husband a ride home and I wanted to be available for that. Of course, my friend B. left this guy he went to high school with alone and so I was stuck talking to him for a while. He was a nice guy...Just a little odd. He and his baby mama aren't married, which is pretty common and not that big of a deal, but they're together as a couple and don't even live in the same house. I know everyone is different and maybe that works for them, but he says his daughters are 3 and 5 and live at his girlfriend's house and he visits them there. I can't imagine not wanting to live with my family. That was one of the hardest things about getting divorced for me - I only got to see my girls part-time. Like my friend Eggo said when we talked about it on the way home, it's like they're preparing for an imminent divorce.

Today I spent more time on my kitchen. I think the reason it's taking me so long, is because we use that room so much. So, it's really hard to have it torn apart and I also feel like I have to wash the dishes and stuff before I work on the cupboards and it seems like dirty dishes are a chronic condition in a house with two teenagers. Sigh. I am chipping away at it and getting further along...Just not as quickly as I'd like.

I did a cameo at a Superbowl party tonight. It was with all my rocker guy friends who I used to watch Steelers games with. Because I was so busy obtaining a house and then I was so house poor after having obtained said house, I only made it to one game this season. So, I felt like I should at least show up for a bit. K. was there with her guy and we all had a good time and there was tons of food and most importantly, the Saints won. Wooo hooo!

Everybody's Coming Home for Lunch These Days

This is a guy wearing fake corn on his head...Apparently, he's proud of his Iowa roots.

Well, this weekend wasn't as productive as I'd planned. So, it goes. I'll just have to try to get more done during the week.

Friday night I stayed home with Coadster. You know how I said I had fulfilled my quota on Hitler assassination plot movies? Well, on Friday we watched Defiance. So, yes. It was about the Holocaust and I'm sure if they could have assassinated Hitler, they would have, but it wasn't really about that. We both liked it, though. I always appreciate it when they show good people who are shot full of flaws. It makes a movie so much more believable.

Saturday was pretty mellow. Coadster was at her show choir dealie and Stinky went to the Fieldhouse to work-out and then to her high school to watch the speech team tournament. she had never been to one before and thought it was pretty interesting. The left me to hang out by myself. I ran in the rain (which felt really weird in January) and sorted through a bunch of crap I've been putting off. My moving in and fixing things up process has been me moving all the stuff I didn't want to deal with into the kitchen after I did each room. So, yesterday I finally tackled all of that. I still have a ton of papers on my kitchen table to sort through, but the bulk is done. Finally.

Here's me at Soldier Field for the Bears/Saints game almost exactly 2 years ago. I'm a Bears fan first and foremost and sorry to all my readers who are Vikings fans...But, GO SAINTS!

Saturday night was fun. It just ended earlier than I had hoped. As I said, my girl crush was in town with her husband. I picked G. up and headed down to the Dublin. A bunch of our friends were there, but the girl crush was at the Yacht Club seeing a band. She got down around a quarter til 11. Of course, 15 minutes later, I got a text from the people Stinky was babysitting for saying they were coming home and I could pick up Stinky. So, that was that. Quick, but not nearly dirty enough. Hopefully, next time they come, it will work for me to stay out later.

On Sunday, I woke up with a migraine. Shit. I haven't had a bad one in a long, long time, so I guess I was due. Even with my migraine meds, it knocked me out for most of the day. I get the weird vision thing that makes me feel like I'm going to puke with them and that's super fun too. Somehow, I managed to get a run in today. I actually took the second half of my pill this evening, so I think it's finally sufficiently snuffed out. Of course, that just means that I have my work doubly cut-out for me this week.

I hope you all had a much more or less productive weekend than I had...Depending on what you were shooting for.

If You Can't Groove to This Then You Probably Are Dead

Lookee what I saw out of the corner of my eye when I was running down Clapp Street tonight? I think it's a pink donkey pinata half-buried in the snow.

Sooooo, tonight I wasted a bunch of time doing one of those "25 things about me" Facebook memes. Apparently, I thought that was so much more important than cleaning or organzing. Who the hell knows? What I do know, is that I need to gear up for this weekend, because it could be busy, busy.

Tomorrow night, I was going to try to see FMDM's band play at the Picador, but I was fooling myself, because I don't have any money, and I do have the girls. So, instead I'll probably do my normal Friday night gig where I go running and then sit on my ass and watch movies all night. It never gets old.

Here is a side view, just in case you were as obsessed with it as I am.

On Saturday night, I think I'm going to some party in a little town called Hills with my friend G. and a few other folks. Because we have no imagination, or maybe we do, but the rest of the bars don't, I'm sure we'll end up at the Dublin when said party is over.

On Sunday, I will not rest. Instead, I will make chicken enchiladas and beans to add to all the other awesome food that will be at the Superbowl party at my friend J.'s house. I'm really excited, because the Steelers are playing, of course, but I also like Arizona. We never had a professional football team when I was growing up in Arizona and that guy Vai who lived down the street from me used to play for the Cardinals back in the day, so they're probably my third favorite football team, after the Bears and the Steelers. I can't lose for winning this time.

The party itself should be fun too. A few nights ago after midnight, my friend J. was drunk and sending us extremely excited e-mails about the the Superbowl party to be. Of course I didn't get them until I got to work at eight a.m., but they were still pretty funny.

Anyway...Plans for the Superbowl, or happy fun times for the rest of the weekend? Lay it on me in the comments.

I Know Some People Wanna Make a Change

Here is a blue dress receptacle.

So, uh. Yeah. I've been a little absent from blog world this weekend. I was trying really, really hard to get some shit done in the real world, so blogging was thrown to the side for the most part. Did I get a lot done? Yes, I did. Did I finish my taxes? Um, no. But I've got it all set-up, so hopefully tomorrow will be tax day.

What I did notice after Saturday, is how much of a time suck kids can be. I know, I know. I've been a parent since I was 26 years old and I'm just figuring that out now? No, I've been very aware of it, but this weekend just brought it to my attention all over again.

Remember how on Saturday I told you that I had the day to myself? Yeah, well I got all kinds of shit done. Then on Sunday the girls were both home and they were all needy and wanted to hang out with me, and I figured, what the hell. So, we went to the mall and made fun of all the 70's clothes and ate food and then all got groceries together, and then when we made it home, it was late and almost time to watch the Steelers make it to the Superbowl. Guess what kind of practical things got done on Sunday? Not a whole hell of a lot. Guess how concerned I am that I didn't clean and sort a room or finish my taxes? Not at all. It's what I signed up for. In four years, when both the girls are gone and I'm living on the Riviera with a young stud named Bruno and I look back on this three day weekend, I doubt I'll agonize about what didn't get done. I'll probably just sip my Margarita, while Bruno applies sunscreen to my back and try to remember the names of those two girls who I had such a great day with all the way back when I lived where it was cold in the Winter.

No, really. I did get a lot done this weekend. I finally went through and pitched all my old tapes, both video and cassettes that I've had trouble parting with. Okay. I did save Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Anchorman and The Matrix, but everything else got tossed - including my Best of Blondie cassette and an old mix tape titled "Hits Del '95" that a coworker from Great Midwestern made for me 14 years ago. Sigh. If I remember correctly, there was a lot of Pavement, Morphine and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on that CD.


Here are some chairs that are really stacked.

Though I didn't go out on Saturday night, I did a couple of social things so that I talked to people other than just high schoolers. Since I'm not in a relationship and don't have an adult to speak to around my house, I find it very important to try to socialize with adults especially on long weekends. You know, just so I don't start every sentence out with, "OMG!" or "Totally!" It helps to keep my co-workers from killing me when I get back to the grind.

Anyway, I went to my friend's house where I watch football on Sundays on his 60" screen in HD and it was great, until they kept showing Hines' brutal knee twist about 7,000 times. Then today I went to George's at five to meet some ex-co-workers (again from Great Midwestern days). One is a professor in the Center for the Book here and the other is getting her master's in library science. Oh yeah, and they're both gorgeous. I could sit and talk about books with super hot women all day long, but I had to take Coadster to show choir only an hour and a half into it. Hopefully, we'll find time to meet again another night.

Okay. Tomorrow's Obama's big day. I'm so excited. I certainly don't envy the man, I'm just glad he wanted the job.

Please Don't Keep-A Me Waiting

Here are some more photos I took last week when I was bored and waiting for the show choir photo shoot to be over.

I have one more day to get through before things get better. Just one day. I can handle one day, can't I? Then I have three glorious days off and the temperatures are supposed to warm up forty degrees to be in the twenties on Saturday. I'm sure it will feel like Summer to us, and I won't be surprised to see idiots wearing flip-flops and shorts either.

Here is a trumpet player messing around with his mute.

I'll just warn you right now that I'm going to be talking about the weather tonight. Call me shallow and boring, but the weather is the most exciting thing going on around here. I woke-up to 46 degrees below zero with the windchill and 21 below zero normal temp. I'm fine, I have all the right clothes for layering and walking a mile to work. Of course, the people in Iowa are so awesome, that they won't just offer you a ride when they see you walking in that cold, they'll insist on it.

I walked a half a block before an older gentleman stopped and offered me a ride, not even knowing where I was going. I politely declined, because I'm 43 and am finally smart enough not to trust strange men. I walked one more block, and a college girl was walking to her car that was warming up in her driveway. She asked me if I would please let her give me a ride to wherever I was going, and that time, I took it.

When I got to work, it seemed a little chilly, but the longer we sat at our desks, we realized there wasn't any heat coming from the registers. Apparently, some pipe exploded and most of the heat in our building and a few others was out. Sweet. It was partially heated, so it was closer to 50 degrees inside. It wasn't unbearable, but really annoying and distracting. We were told the biology building was the priority because of the animals. I think the facility guy's big joke was, "Hey, lab rats are expensive!" Ha ha ha ha ha...Shut-up.

Anyway, the heat started working by around two, but then it went into overdrive. The facilities guys came by and said, that they were waiting on a part and they couldn't regulate the heat. It was either full on or all the way off. Which did we want? We all said, "cook us." So, we spent the rest of the afternoon and we'll probably spend tomorrow being uncomfortably warm.

Here are some of the kids in the jazz combo.

So, like I said, tomorrow will be another brutally cold day, and then I'm off for three. My girls have had snow days since Wednesday. They will have a 6 day weekend altogether. I'm so jealous. Stinky got so bored today, that she cleaned and organized her room. She came out with a trash bag full of clothes for Goodwill. Maybe we should have excessive snow days more often.

Stinky also wants money, so she's cleaning the kitchen in addition to her normal vacuuming. Hopefully, I'll come home from work to a nice clean house. The girls and I are planning on running at the rec building, and then I'll make stuffed pork chops, rice and steamed broccoli with white sauce for dinner. I think Stinky's going to a basketball game, but I'm going to stay home and watch The Wrestler and drink a beer or two. It sounds like heaven to me right now.

The rest of the weekend, I plan on running and hibernating. On Sunday I'll go to a friend's house and hopefully watch The Steelers win their way into the Superbowl.

Okay, kids. Stay warm and let me know how your weekend is shaping up.

I Ate It Up and Spit It Out

This is my mom in 1956. I think she was at Machu Pichu in the Andes in South America.

Well, kids. Only one more day to vote. It looks like I'll be doing it at the last minute tomorrow evening. But don't you fret, I haven't missed an election since the first year I could vote in 1984. Not that my vote did all that much good back then, but at least I tried.

Tonight I ran and then went over to my friend James' house to watch the Steelers play on Monday Night Football. My friend K. and her boyfriend showed up with homemade wings and James had some really good apple cider, so it was perfect. It didn't hurt that The Steelers won after a slow start either.

So, tonight I think I'll post that playlist of swank music that I made for my co-worker. The one I talked about last night. It definitely won't be for everyone, but I like a little crooning and early, early, rhythm and blues now and again. Tonight, you need to dress up a little. You know, wear some cufflinks or gloves if you're a woman, and take a seat in the way-back machine.

My mom is way to the right in this photo. She's with some of her friends from art school in the 50's.

1.) "I Say a Little Prayer" - Aretha Franklin. My co-worker said she loved Aretha, so I made sure she was first.

2.) "Fever" - Peggy Lee. I love this song.

3.) "Beyond the Sea" - Bobby Darrin. In the late 90's I worked with this guy who was in his early twenties who loved Bobby Darrin and helped me appreciate his music more.

4.) "Are You Having Any Fun?" - Count Basie and Tony Bennett. The only other Tony Bennett song I really know is "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". I may need to check out more of his music.

5.) "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" - Dean Martin. I've been meaning to write a blog post about The Dean Martin Show, and then forgetting. I'll have to try to get it done in the next week or two.

6.) "My Way" - Frank Sinatra. I have a version of this by Darby Crash of The Germs, but I have an idea my co-worker wouldn't really appreciate it as much as I do.

7.) "I'll be Seeing You" - Billie Holiday.

8.) "Jump, Jive an' Wail" - Louis Prima. I've heard some covers of this song, but this is my favorite version.

9.) "Forty Second Street" - Mel Torme'. I can't think about Mel Torme' anymore without remembering the show Night Court.

10.) "L-O-V-E" - Nat King Cole.

11.) "My Baby Just Cares for Me" - Nina Simone.

12.) "Hit the Road Jack" - Ray Charles. She loves Ray Charles, so I had to get at least one of his songs on here.

13.) "Be-Bop Beguine" - Sammy Davis Jr. When I was a kid, Sammy Davis Jr,'s "Candy Man" was really big. I remember going to school and telling all the Mormon kids that the song was really about drugs and how horrified they were. I'm not sure if it really was, but it was always fun to get a reaction from the Mormon kids.

14.) "One Mint Julep" - Sarah Vaughan. If you haven't heard this one, you should. This song seriously kicks ass.

15.) "Tequila" - Stan Kenton and His Orchestra. When I was in junior high, my uncle had an 8-track player in our Chevy Suburban and about 5 tapes that he would listen to over and over and over and over. One of them was The Best of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Band, which had a version of "Tequila" on it. The others he had were, Elvis Presley's Greatest Hits and John Denver's Windsong, and I can't remember if there were others that I've forgotten. Anyway, it's taken me many years to be able to listen to those songs again.

16.) "La Dolce Vita" - Xaviar Cugat and his Orchestra.

17.) "The Look of Love" - Dusty Springfield and Burt Bacharach. Burt Bacharach is probably the king of cheese. Which means that Coadster loves him and this song.

18.) "Come On-A My House" - Rosemary Clooney. George's aunt.

19.) "The Way You Look Tonight" - Frank Sinatra. I love this song. I never said I wasn't a big cheeseball.

20.) "Heart" - Peggy Lee.

21.) "Kansas City" - Wilbert Harrison. I think the world needs more rock stars named Wilbert.

I'm pretty sure that's just enough cheese for one night. Now, who's job was it to bring the wine?

Somebody Gotta Save My Soul

I ran my seven mile route that goes past the Halloween barn on North Scott Road. I hadn't photographed it in a couple of years, and I saw some new stuff, so I went back with my camera.

So, I took most of the weekend off from the blogosphere. I needed a break and I had a great weekend. I think most of that was due to the fact that I didn't have a migraine. So nice.

When I got off work on Friday, it was raining. Both of the girls took off to their different social engagements and I had most of the night to myself to hibernate and watch movies. I saw The Big Bad Swim, which had an ensemble cast. It was a little slow getting going, but I liked it by the end. If you're into fast action and shit blowing up, this probably isn't for you. The other movie I watched was Fracture with Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. It was pretty interesting, and it had Ryan Gosling in it. There was a courtroom scene and some things seemed a little unbelievable, but it had Ryan Gosling in it. I think the most memorable thing about it was Ryan Gosling. Did I mention Ryan Gosling had a pretty big role in the film?

I liked this skeleton in parts on the fence.

The girls worked most of Saturday. I try to do at least one crappy practical thing during the day on Saturday. This week, I took in my recycling and did some house cleaning. I couldn't run my eight mile route, because there was a home game and the West side of town was crawling/stumbling with drunken Hawkeyes.

Apparently, you get dead from jumping on the bed.

Around six o'clock, my friend Sara came over and we ate nachos and drank beer and I let Sara burn some CD's of my incredibly cheesy music and caught up on the last year. It was perfect.

At one point, some of Coadster's friends came over to pick her up for a party. Sara hadn't been around teenage girls for a while and when they left, I asked her if her head hurt. She said, "A little." I told her the key was not to show fear around them. I just talk a ton of shit, and they always tell Coadster how cool they think I am, even though I'm probably the biggest dork they'll ever meet.

The skeleton on the lawn chair was the first thing that caught my eye when I ran past the barn.

Originally, I thought I was going to the Picador, but I guess that's next weekend. I figured I'd probably just stay home after Sara left. Around 9:30, I got a call from my friend D. asking me if I wanted to meet her at the Dublin. Sure, I did. She said she had just been on the phone with a woman she met when she was studying in Germany. The woman told her about how she had been in Europe for three weeks. The first week, she was at a wedding in England and the other two weeks, she walked across Spain. She then described her wonderful life in San Francisco, where she does swing dance competitions. After D. hung up the phone, she decided that after all her friend does, she should at least leave her house.

This demon head was pretty creepy too.

After some picking up of Stinky girls, I finally made it to the Dublin. It was packed full of twenty'ish year old boys. My friend Dexter, looked around at all the guys and told me it wasn't the best singles bar for him. I said, it wasn't for me either because they were all too young.

I love it that they used a rusty farm implement to make this creepy monster.

I finally decided to take my leave of the Dublin and as I was going, my friend D. introduced me to a guy she knew. He was pretty hilarious and very drunk. He was telling me about how all the women in the world wanted to sleep with him. He then pointed to the one table of cute young girls in the whole bar and said, "See them? Yeah, they're chubbie chasers. (he was heavy set) They're totally checking me out." I looked over at the girls, as they were all checking out some other hot young guy.

"Oh, yeah. They're all over you," I said. Then I told him I had to go.

"Is my hotness too much for you? You having a hard time controlling yourself?"

"How did you know?" I asked. "Was I that obvious? I'm going to run home and take a cold shower right now."

Here is a zombie coming out of the ground.

Sunday was pretty relaxed. I got a text from my friend K. to meet her and her boyfriend and his son at the Vine for football. Our friend James joined us a little later too. The Steelers won, my Bears won and The Cowboys lost, (if you're a Cowboys fan, I'm sorry. I like you, I just don't like your team) so it was the perfect football trifecta for me.

I've photographed this goblin before, but I still love it and now it's on the ground so I was able to get a better shot.

I also obviously ran my seven mile route and took some creepy photos. Now, all I have to do is gear up for Monday, and since it's after midnight by the time I'm actually finishing this post, what I really need to do is go to sleep.

Here is a head on a stick on a fence.

You Think You're Higher Than Every Star Above

Here is a picture of construction being done on Clapp Street, on the way to Hotz Street - the sexiest part of town.

My stupid migraine followed me around all weekend. I would take my meds and get all spacy and tired, and then it would come back and I'd take more meds and so on and so on... I did make myself do a couple of things, so the weekend didn't seem like a total waste.

On Friday night, Coadster and I watched the movie Driving Lessons together and then I made a vat of fresh de gallo salsa. It was a nice, mellow night.

My girls worked most of the day on Saturday. I slept a lot, but I did make myself run my six mile route, because the weather was perfect and I know these nice days are numbered.

I drove kids around for a bit in the evening and then I sat around and watched the last Die Hard movie. My migraine was under control at that point, so I was kind of in the mood to watch people trade wisecracks and see shit blow-up. Weeee! My friend K. texted me to see if I wanted to go to a cookout and then to the Picador to see a band called Petit Mal. I passed on the cookout, to watch the end of the my shit blowing-up movie, and really didn't want to go to the Picador either, but I thought I should talk to adults at some point over the weekend, so I made myself.

I'm glad I did, because I had a great time. Some of my girlies were there and a lot of my guy friends. Oh yeah, and the band was awesome too. Plus, I got to have a guy use one of my new favorite pick-up lines on me. I thought the last band that played sucked, so me and some of my friends were going to the beer garden to hang out. Just as we were getting ready to head downstairs, some guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted to dance with him to the suck-ass band. I thanked him but told him I was going downstairs with some friends and then he said, "Well, um. I just got back from flying a helicopter. You know, just in case that fact would make you change your mind about dancing with me..." So, of course, I had to dance with him then... Just kidding, I told him I already promised my friends I would go to the beer garden with them. I thought it was hilarious, though and you all are totally welcome to use that next time you're trying to hook-up. I will warn you, results may vary.

I heard another funny thing on Saturday night. I was talking to this guy B., who I used to work with at Great Midwestern about ten years ago. He told me that I intellectually flustered him sometimes when we spoke. At first, I was all ready to take that as a compliment, but then I remembered that the last few times I've talked to him, he was really drunk and from what I've seen, most really drunk guys can get intellectually frustrated by a gnat, so I don't think it meant much.

Here is a hot air balloon that was making what sounded like heavy breathing noises when I stepped out of my house on the way to work a couple of weeks ago.

Today was our first football Sunday at The Vine. My friend C. was supposed to come up from Fort Madison, but he didn't make it. Stinky came with because she's a huge Steelers fan, but Coadster had to do some volunteer work and she watched the Bears game later tonight and got to feel superior because they beat the Colts. Anyway, we watched the game and ate wings and other greasy food and drank some soda and the Steelers won by so much, that the game was almost boring and my migraine seems to have lost its hold on me. The end.

And When Your Hands Get Dirty, Nobody Knows You At All

Here is a picture of me with my face all different kinds of distorted in the fun house mirror at the arcade at Hyde Pier.

Seriously, I don't know what kind of bizarre juju is hanging over our town this year, but it's getting pretty ridiculous. At work this afternoon, I got a message that there was ANOTHER lock-down at my daughters' school and both of the other schools they went to when they were younger. Jaysus! We live in Iowa for Christ's sake.

This time it was because of this creepy professor in town. He was accused of groping co-eds for the promise of an A+ and was suspended from his job. All of that was weird enough, right? Well, then we started hearing all this other shit, but like how this usually goes, it's all partial knowledge and hearsay and supposition and on and on like that there.

What I could figure out from all of it, is that the creepy professor wrote a suicide note and took off with his high powered rifle. The authorities (whoever they are) found his car parked at upper Hickory Hill Park and then at some point decided to put all the schools nearest to the park on lock-down for about 15 minutes. I called my girls and told them to stay away from the park, which is just two blocks from where we live.

Some people were saying that they weren't sure if the girls who accused the professor were telling the truth. As far as I'm concerned, once you take off in your white Ford Bronco, or head to the park with your high powered rifle, it's pretty evident that there's something real going on.

Here is a picture of the girls in front of the Hilltop Tavern, when we used to live above it.

Tonight we met at The Hilltop Tavern for supper club and everyone there was still talking about all the drama at the park just down the street. There was supposedly a SWAT team combing Hickory Hill and I wondered how a 66 year old professor was able to elude them all these hours. Sure, we also talked about other stuff, like our weekends and about how excited we were for NFL football season to start, so we could spend our Sunday afternoons at The Vine eating wings and watching men beat the shit out of each other, but mostly we were trying to piece all the afternoon's events together.

A couple of us girlies went back to my friend K.'s house afterward to hang out on her back porch. K. lives right next to the cemetery and park, where the creepy professor was said to be lurking. At first we talked about how little we understood men and all agreed that if you asked a guy why he did the things he did, he'd likely just say, "I'on'tknow." My friend T. wished they came with a manual, but I'm sure guys could say the same thing about women...Or else they'd just write us all off as crazy and not care about exactly why we do what we do.

Then we saw a helicopter fly over, and K. texted someone who was a little more in the know, who told her that they were using ultraviolet (I wrote ultra violet here, but I meant infrared. I'm leaving the original as further evidence of my dorkiness) lights to look for what they thought was just a body at this point. Not long after that, we heard what sounded like a gunshot coming from the direction of the park. It was kind of eerie. I went home pretty soon thereafter, and while I'm writing this, I have no idea what happened to the creepy professor.

I'll update you when I know.

Now Bo Diddly Didn't Stand No Mess

My friend Rory was getting all artsy when taking pics of us on Saturday night. I look a little befuddled there, don't I?

Okay, this one makes me a little dizzy to look at.

My big goal tonight is to go to bed as early as possible. So, we'll see how quick we can make this. I'm sure you'll all appreciate that.

The girls are supposed to go to their dad's on Monday nights, but for the last few months it either hasn't happened, or they had choir concerts or last week, Stinky needed me, so I haven't had the night off. It was all fine, except that tonight when they actually went to their dad's at 8, I really appreciated a few hours to do with whatever I wanted.

My friend J. emailed me this Sunday and said our friend C. might be back up from Fort Madison and wanted to know if K. and I wanted to meet them at the Vine for all-you-can-eat wings. We actually tried to organize this in May. Our friend J. has been so great about hanging out with us and watching the Steelers on Sundays in the Fall and Winter, that I figured we'd try to be cool about watching a St Louis Cardinals game with him in the Spring or Summer. The big problem with that, is that Iowa City is apparently Cubs territory, so the only time you can really go to a bar and watch the Cardinals is when they're playing the Cubs, and it didn't work out last match-up and the next time they meet is during the July 4th holiday.

So, we decided to say screw watching a Cards game and we watched hockey instead...Well, we kept an eye on the game and ended up paying more attention to our friend C. sweating and his legs spazzing because he ordered the hottest wings they had, and they were seriously kicking his ass.

Anyway, it was a nice mellow night. We all drank soda instead of beer and talked about such interesting topics as Bo Diddly's death, all the movies coming out based on comic books, the last time and the first time we tried psychedelics and if there was any way in hell we'd ever even think about dropping acid at our current advanced ages. The answer was a resounding hell no. The boys went to The Picador to catch Buckethead, and I made it home by nine. Perfect.

Can You Dig It? (Yes I Can)

This photo was taken in the photo booth at The Holiday Club in Wrigleyville. Neither one of us has a skin condition, it's just the blotchy photo booth ink doing that to us.

I decided to back track a bit now that I have some photos to add. Tonight we're going back in time to last weekend when Erik took me to Chicago. As most of you know, I was born in Chicago, moved away when I was about a year old, moved back to the South suburbs when I was 10 and moved away for good when I was 14. A lot of my family members still live there, and I will always have a little junior high school girl crush on that city. Would I ever want to live there again? I doubt it, but I love to visit.

I know I've already said this, but the 3 1/2 hour drive there and back was almost the best part of the trip. It was a great way to cut all the distractions and talk about a bunch of stuff. One thing I will say about Erik, is that I've never been bored with him or run out of things to talk about. We made it into town around eight o'clock. After getting our Bears tickets, we went straight to dinner, which, as I've said, was all-you-can-eat sushi. You had to bring in your own alcohol, so Erik ran to the liquor store and picked up some sake and Sapporo beer.

After dinner we went to a few bars. Our first stop was the Holiday Club where we took that picture in the photo booth. After that we stopped into some bar that had a country band playing "Redneck Girl" and the owner and his wife were noticeably lacking in teeth. I told Erik that we could just as easily be in Iowa at this bar. We finished up at a sports bar that is probably crazy busy during baseball season, but was pretty tame that night.

The next day we woke up too late for a proper meal. We were going to stop at a Star bucks for caffeine and pastries, but luckily we spied a Dunkin' Donuts across the street. Which made us very happy and gave Erik occasion to flip off the Star bucks as we walked past and say, "Fuck you Star bucks and your four dollar pastries..." Amen to that.

First and foremost, this photo is up here so we can all see how adorable Erik is, but then if you look behind him, you can see DIANE! Unfortunately, we didn't photograph her Bears tattoo at the top of her back.

The game weather started out okay, but then the sun went away and the wind kicked up. The most entertaining part of the game was meeting a woman named Diane - pronounced DIANE! because she was just that loud and larger than life. She loved the Bears more than any person I've ever met and I lived in Chicago for several years. She lost her ear muffs when she first got there and when Erik found them, she kissed him. Later, after she found out that he was a Saints fan, she kept wiping her mouth and complaining of cooties. DIANE! definitely made our Bears experience. She said the f word at least four times in each sentence and refused to sit down during most of the game. I had a hard time choosing between watching DIANE! or watching the game. At one point, the camera guy turned around and we all got on TV. I'm sure the camera guy was just trying to film DIANE!

I got a migraine about halfway through the game, but Erik was really good about taking care of me. He rubbed my back during the ride back on the El and after we stopped to get gyros and tres leches cake, he drove the whole way back to Iowa where we had another great car conversation.

You Got to Get it Underway

Here is some kind of building brace I felt the need to photograph.

I mentioned in a comment on My Boring Life blog that I keep forgetting it's almost Christmas. LauraB. asked me how I could possibly forget, what with being bombarded with all the stuff in stores and commercials and all. How I do it, is that I live in my own world. I see all the stuff when I go into stores, and think, "Oh yeah. It's that time again." But then I go on my way and start thinking about some other stupid shit and forget, until I accidentally walk into a wrapping paper display.

I know I've talked at you about my love/hate relationship with Christmas many times before. I've had so many crappy ones in the past, that the last few years I've tried to do as much of the parts I like as possible and forget the rest. I still do a family Christmas thing or two, but I keep the gift buying and holiday festivities to a minimum...Unless I think they're going to be really fun.

This weekend will be my first holiday celebrating of the season. Friday night I'll make some frosted sugar cookies. On Saturday my aunt and my sister will come up and we'll go to the matinee performance of Coadster's Winter show choir festivities. In the evening, there are a few fun events. One is the The Load of Craft sale at the Picador where my friend J. and this other guy Fodge (they call themselves Killed by Death) will spin their funky fresh serious metal grooves from 6-8. I've wanted to check them out forever, but they usually spin records on Tuesday nights and I think we all know that I'm too old to stay out late on a school night.

Later in the evening, I'll be meeting a bunch of chuckle heads for the the Santa Crawl. I've got my clothes all picked out, and my boots are made for walking and then maybe stumbling a little by the end of the evening.

On Sunday we won't rest like we should. Instead we'll go to a farm on Dane Road and cut down our tree. At three I'm meeting friends down at the Vine for the BIG GAME of the Steelers against The Patriots. I pretty much have to watch it for sure, and even then, I'm a little afraid that my mojo won't be enough.

Once the game is over, I'll go home and the girls and I will decorate our tree. I'm kind of excited about coming home for the next couple of weeks and having our house smell so strongly of pine. I still need to do the tiny little bit of shopping I actually do for people, and so I'm taking a half day of vacation on the Friday before Christmas so the girls and I can go see a movie and finish anything that didn't get done beforehand.

Cookies, beer, football, RAWK! and movies - see what I mean? None of that should really be too bad, and some of it will probably actually be fun. Bring it on, bitches.

I've Been Waiting to Awaken From These Dreams

Here is a picture of the condom/lubricant machine in the bathroom of my friend C.'s bar. There should be something there for all of your needs, and a bargain for just 75 cents.

I am so pissed at my computer or blogger or whoever's responsible. I can't upload photos to Blogger the way I normally do. Now, I have to go the Photobucket and make an html code for them and then copy and paste that into my post. It's kind of a pain in the ass, and more importantly, I'm worried that there's some kind of weird virus causing the problem. Wah.

So, tonight I watched the weirdest football game I've ever seen. Since it was on network television, we could go to my friend James' house and watch it in high def on his movie theater sized screen. Normally, that is really awesome. Tonight, it was more of a sloppy mess (that wasn't just the rainy, muddy field) and no one scored even one point until the very end of the game. I was kind of bored and tired with it, but because of my special powers, I was afraid that if I went home and stopped watching, the Steelers would lose, or worse it would go into overtime and ultimately the game would never end. So, I stayed and the Steelers won 3 -0. I think they said that's the 6th game the Dolphins have lost by three points this season. Weird.

For those of you who hate football, and America and apple pie, I'm trying to think of an ending for this post that will interest you...Um, sometimes when I get really tired, I think I see things out of the corner of my eyes, plus as my friend Jo Anne pointed out, being old and tired makes my face look like it did when I was tripping and 19 years old. So, maybe that's why almost no one doses past the age of forty - we can just get all sleep-deprived instead. That's enough...Okay, too much bullshit for one blog post. I'll just try and get some sleep, because feeling all sleep-deprived at work is one really bad trip.

I Can't Keep Up With What's Been Going On

Here is a picture that I love that Coadster took of me walking away from her in a parking lot.

So, I have two kind of weird/funny things tonight.

1. I was dropping Coadster off at show choir tonight, and I saw this guy walking out of the same door Coadster was going to enter. I asked Coadster, "Hey, who's the kid with the seventies hair?"

And Coadster responded, "You need to put on your glasses. That's not a kid, that's Jackson Browne." Oops. I totally forgot there was a rally for John Edwards at the high school tonight. Bonnie Raitt was supposed to be there too, but we didn't see her. Oh, and I have a question for you. Why do you think it is that anytime I hear of Jackson Browne, the first song that comes to mind is "Lawyers in Love"? He's actually written some decent other songs, but that's the only one I always think of and then I have to remember the video and giggle to myself.

2. You know how when I first started hanging out with my cell phone I was all enamored? I couldn't believe I met one device that met most of my needs - it had an alarm clock, an mp3 player, a calendar and it freed me up to be able to go places without my daughters? Well, it's not that I don't still really like it, but I've realized I've become a little complacent about it. I still think it's pretty and I definitely appreciate it, it's more that I don't feel the need to take it with me everywhere I go and sometimes, (please don't tell it this) I kind of forget I even have it.

So it was last night, when I went to bed and was going to plug it in, when I realized I had missed a text from my friend K. two hours before. I checked it out and it said:

U suck.

I replied:

Why do I suck this time?

I was surprised K. was awake after midnight, but she immediately responded thusly:

The Steelers lost in OT. We're blaming u.

Holy shit. Can you believe it? I didn't have time to go to The Vine on Sunday and I totally made the Steelers lose by not watching them.

To those of you who love the Steelers, please know that I wasn't having any fun during the game. I had to pick Stinky and her gaggle of girlfriends up from the mall. When I drove onto I-80 there was a fresh accident up ahead and I had to basically sit in my car for a half an hour and crawl to the next exit ramp off. Then, while I was driving down the Coralville strip, a car with Nevada license plates cut me off and it was wet outside, and when I hit the breaks, my obstinate car wouldn't stop. It finally did, just before I would have slammed into the Nevada car and it would have served him right, but it wouldn't have served me right. Anyway, it sounds like both me and the Steelers had a bad day on Sunday.

When Does it Stop, Where Do You Dare Me to Draw the Line?

Here is a fire hydrant on Market Street.

Boy, it got cooler on Wednesday and my body shut-down and went straight into hibernation mode. I didn't just not go running or leave my house, I tried not to really even move much at all. It was one of those nights where I put on the most giganticest pair of lounge pants and thermal shirt I could find, wrapped myself in blankets and drank a beer and watched the first part of a new mini series on HBO called Five Days. It's British, so the only actress I recognized was the woman who played the mom in Shaun of the Dead. So far it's really good. I just have to wait patiently for the next three installments. As you know, I'm not very good at that.

I got back to normal today. I ran after work and picked Stinky up and got stuff done before I played a little Halo 3. I still wanted to lie around and do nothing, though.

This weekend should be way busier than I want. Stinky asked if she could have kids over to watch movies and play video games for a couple of hours on Friday night. I told her it was fine, as long as they were all gone by nine.

On Saturday we're going down to the big zero (Ottumwa) to finally celebrate Stinky's birthday with my family and see my sister's new house. I'm so glad we have the iPod, so we won't be slaves to the radio and the girls and I can have a big sing-along to Duran Duran and Hall and Oates. You can quit being jealous right now, because I know you can't not sing to " I Can't Go For That"...No can do.

Hopefully, on Saturday night I'll hook-up with my friend M. who's supposed to be in from NYC. I haven't seen her in forever. When I worked at the business office at the hospital, she was working as some big wig's assistant at the NFL. She used to send me tons o' schwag. (the free logoed stuff, not the crappy weed) I'd get all kinds of great running paraphernalia and starter jackets for the girls when I was so broke I didn't know how I was going to pay my rent, let alone afford a pair of running shoes or tights. One time she was talking to me on the phone and said, "Oh, I gotta go. Jerry Jones is on the other line..." Honestly, I think I'm way more important than that joker, but her boss apparently didn't agree.

Sunday is a byweek for The Steelers, so I won't be watching football. Instead, I might have one of my many friends named Sara over for dinner. We live two blocks away from each other, and we've seen each other once since she moved back in August. How crazy is that?

Since you've read my blog before, you know the likelihood of any of these plans actually panning out, are very slim. The fun part for me, is seeing where I go and what I do instead.