Love Song for a Sandwich

SkyWatch 35

2009-03-12T15:03:00.008-05:00

We went camping this past weekend with the son's cub scout pack. The moon and the landscape were very inspiring. So was the haunted-feeling house we used for the bathroom. Unfortunately, the other parents were mostly lame.

We went hiking along a stream.

And caught a few baby catfish while midnight fishing. I totally forgot that they "talk" and it had me almost falling over laughing. This guy was saying "hello."

Check out SkyWatch Friday for more photos from around the world.

SkyWatch 31

2009-02-12T13:25:00.004-06:00

Stupid power lines. I'm not sure I'm completely behind power lines being installed underground, for environmental reasons. Pipelines seem like enough crap to put in the earth, but it sure would make the landscape prettier. And there would be fewer power outages. So maybe I'm for it.

I took this while I was out house hunting. Found one! I close on it March 27th. Yay! No more apartment!

Go see more great photos of the sky (maybe even some with power lines!) at SkyWatch Friday.

I've been told that three percent of the population is insane

2009-02-10T13:26:00.002-06:00

I'm finally buying a house after three years of looking and a (so far) failed attempt to build one. I had a home inspection done today. Everything was pretty ok there, but it seems I will have a crazy neighbor. Who doesn't, right? No, just wait.

The inspector and I parked in the driveway and my parents came later because they hadn't seen the house yet. They came in separate cars and parked in the street in front of the house.

After we had been there for a while, a blue Trailblazer drove up and stopped in the middle of the street just behind my parents' cars. We thought maybe they were looking at the house, which still has a for sale sign in the yard. After a few minutes, they pulled in the driveway. A guy got out and started talking to the inspector, Doug, who was in his truck. We still didn't think anything weird was happening. If they were looking at the house, maybe they were asking Doug about it or maybe it was a neighbor wondering what was going on. Whatever.

Then I hear, "I've lived hear fifteen years and no one's ever parked in the street!" from blue Trailblazer guy (BTG), who is now waving a cell phone wildly in the air. How is that even possible? So now I'm wondering what the hell is going on. By the time I got outside, BTG was going back to his car.

Apparently, he stopped by to yell at Doug because there were cars parked in the street, on the curb, and to tell him that he had called the cops about it. Then he angrily sped down the street out of sight and eventually came back to his house two houses down. But the cops never came. At least not while we were still there.

BTG also told Doug that the only people allowed to park in the street are "church-going people." What does that even MEAN? How could he know that we are not "church-going people?" From looking at our cars? Church-going people would NEVER drive a Mercedes, a (silver) Trailblazer and an F-150. Heavens no!

Maybe BTG is a psychic medium. Maybe I should become friends with him so he can tell me what's in my future if he can tell so much about people by the cars they drive. This should be fun!

SkyWatch 30

2009-02-05T16:51:00.006-06:00

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SkyWatch #28

2009-01-22T14:32:00.002-06:00

These are two of my favorite photos taken not too far from Denali National Park, Alaska. I love the clouds in both of these pictures.

Check out SkyWatch Friday for more photos of the sky.

SkyWatch Friday

2009-01-16T12:28:00.004-06:00

It was cold last night (20F; cold for us in the deep south) when I took this, but luckily 5 or 6 Jack and Cokes helped with that. These were not photoshopped or anything, I just used different settings on my camera.

Visit SkyWatch Friday for more views of the sky from around the world.

This will be a little more interesting than I planned for

2009-01-13T16:11:00.003-06:00

I went to my first photography class last night, which I am pretty excited about. I've always been interested in photography, but I've never taken formal classes for it. Well, I did take Photo I during my second year in college and somehow got the film jammed in my dad's 35-year-old Minolta, got way behind in classwork and had to drop out halfway through. I don't really count that one.

I got to class a little more than 10 minutes early, but the class was already mostly full. I took a seat all the way in the back. I wanted to be near the front at least, but I guess people started getting there 30 minutes early or something.

I got to sit behind a flamingly gay, 18-year-old, self-proclaimed expert wedding photographer. He was dressed in a newsboy cap, patterned hoodie, Gap 1969 skinny-legged jeans and black/white Converse. His boxers were also from the Gap. How do I know? I spent half the class being distracted by smiley faced Jack'o lanterns, frowny faced Jack'o lanterns and upside down Jack'o lanterns.

Moon!

2009-01-09T17:45:00.005-06:00

I've already submitted my SkyWatch photo for the week, but I just took these and I'm so excited that I got the moon to show up as more than a bright, white ball. I don't want to wait until next Thursday to submit them, so I'm making this my own personal SkyWatch. And hopefully I'll have something better and different to post for next week.

SkyWatch

2009-01-08T18:07:00.002-06:00

I dig these fluffy clouds! At one point, they looked like mountains behind the trees, but you couldn't see that in the picture. So, I give you this one instead.

Go to SkyWatch Friday to see more photos of the sky from around the world.

Umm...I believe you are mistaken

2009-01-06T15:31:00.005-06:00

You can't really tell from the picture, but this is a refrigerator magnet. I know this because they were sent out around my town before the election. Note the edges starting to peel up. Why would anyone think this is a bumper sticker and why would you want to put it on your car anyway? I'm just confused. I took this picture last night, Jan. 5, 2009.

Here is the magnet that I got off of my refrigerator.

I wonder if this person glued it to the car to keep it in place. I can't imagine any other way it would stay on for so long with the edges peeling away like that. This makes me kind of sad.

SkyWatch Friday

2008-12-26T14:40:00.004-06:00

I took these the same day as the ones in the post below before Christmas Part I with the boy's family. I do hate power lines, but the vapor trail there fits the theme. So, what the hell. And I really like this picture anyway, power lines or not.

Here's another shot a few minutes later after I walked down the road. What looks kind of like a mountain is actually a cold front and it did get really cold when the sun went down. Which let to my infiltration of the boy's club. See story below for details.

I hope everyone had a great holiday!

For more shots from around the world, check out SkyWatch Friday.

No girls allowed!!

2008-12-23T10:40:00.004-06:00

I went to a Christmas family gathering with the boy for the first time the other day. I've met everyone a few times and felt comfortable going. No problems there.

As soon as everyone was done unwrapping gifts, all the men started running around gathering all the wrapping paper, empty boxes and other trash. I took my gifts and went to put them in the truck and smoke a cigarette. All the guys came out right behind me and headed straight for an old 50-gallon barrel and set all the trash on fire.

I was standing pretty far away and thought, hmm, I bet it's pretty warm by that fire. I was trying to decide if I should go over or not when the boy looked my way and started walking toward me, so I decided it would be ok. I mean, it was pretty cold. I stood just outside their circle and didn't join in the conversation.

When I was about to throw my cigarette in the fire, the boy's dad looked at me and in mock surpirse said, "Oh, there's a woman out here! Women aren't supposed to be here!"

"Well, I'm leaving," I said, threw my cigarette out and walked away.

"He was just kidding," the boy called after me.

"Yeah, I know. I just wanted to smoke my cigarette by the fire."

"Yeah, I was only joking."

"No really. I just wanted to be by the fire for a minute. I'm done."

And I went inside.

When everyone came back inside, I could feel the tension. No one would look at me. I felt like I had done something really, really bad. I sat by myself for a few minutes. After a while, the boy's dad came and sat next to me. A few moments later, the boy sat on my other side. No one said anything.

I asked his dad, "You didn't really think I was mad at you, did you?"

"Well yeah, the way you stormed off."

"I didn't mean to storm off," I told him laughing a little.

He explained what happened to his sister-in-law, Aunt H. Oh my god here we go.

Aunt H: "Oh yeah that's been a tradition for what, 30 years? When did me and D get married? Thirty-one years at least. Women NEVER go out there. Ah ha ha ha."

Seriously. I took a gulp of my drink.

On the way home, I asked the boy if there were any other traditions I needed to be warned about. Please let me know. We had a pretty good laugh about their "stupid" tradition (his words) and thought about ways to get his dad back for calling me out.

Other than that, I actually enjoyed myself and got some pretty good gifts out of it. I managed to keep a power drill during "Dirty Santa" and the boy got an iced tea maker. Oh, and these pictures:

I love taking pictures of old things. Merry Christmas!

Sunset, streetlight

2008-12-18T17:26:00.007-06:00

I don't usually like to have streetlights and such in my photos, but I got home just in time to snap a few before the sun went down completely. And then the battery in my camera died.

Here's another rulebreaker from earlier in the week when the moon was the closest it has been in, what, 16 years I think?

For more photos of the sky from around the world: Skywatch Friday.

SkyWatch 22

2008-12-11T14:33:00.006-06:00

This was taken on a stop on the Turnagain Arm between Anchorage and Girdwood, Alaska.

More photos at SkyWatch Friday.

Christmahanukwanzakah

2008-12-06T22:26:00.006-06:00

I decide every year that I don't want to bother putting up a Christmas tree. As soon as December is here, I change my mind. It makes the holiday season a little more bearable. Not that I hate the holidays or anything, but my brain does. As soon as the time changes every year and it starts getting dark at 5 pm, something changes. I'm pretty depressed off and on until January. Then it's a little better. Not completely better until spring, though. Today, I hated everyone and everything for no reason and I found myself in tears a few times. It would be a lot easier if I would just go ahead and get some seasonal Xanax or something.

But aside from that, I do really like this time of year. It brings back a lot of childhood memories. I love the glow from the lights on my tree and all the things that come with this time of year: festive lights everywhere, bonfires, Christmas movies on TV, warm sweaters, eggnog, pumpkin flavored coffee, peppermint bark. Yum!

And my most favoritest ornament. No story behind it, I just like having a piggy bank on the tree.

SkyWatch Friday (Well, Thursday for me)

2008-12-04T14:45:00.005-06:00

This was taken Thanksgiving day about 5 pm as the sun was setting. Right before my second giant meal of the day.

Check out more shots at SkyWatch.

I'm pretty much in love with roses

2008-11-26T12:40:00.004-06:00

It's funny

2008-11-23T15:54:00.003-06:00

to watch two men pull a dead lawnmower with a rope tied to another mower, pulling the rope to steer. Good times! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of that.

Well traveled and persistent

2008-11-17T22:09:00.003-06:00

I have a turquoise ring that really like, but never wear. I don't usually wear any jewelry other than earrings. Last night I had a dream about wearing the ring. In the dream, I decided to look for it and wore it that day. I woke up thinking about finding it and wearing it. By the time I actually got up, I had forgotten about all about it.

Later, I went to lunch with a friend. When we sat down at the restaurant, I looked over and the ring was sitting next to me. We were sitting in a booth and it was on the outside of the seat. I would have had to slide over it to sit down. I couldn't figure out how it had gotten there and if it was my ring. I even asked the waiter if he had seen it there when I sat down.

What I guess happened: When I got money out of my purse in the car, I must have absent-mindedly grabbed the ring, carried it in the restaurant, sat down and put it down next to me. Without knowing any of it. I didn't even know it was in my purse. I knew it was at one point, but I thought I had taken it out and put it on my dresser with my other rings. I wore it the rest of the day, taking all this weirdness as a sign that the ring wished to be worn.

The boat I've known my whole life

2008-11-14T21:22:00.004-06:00

My friend just got back from a month long vacation in Mexico. She brought a few bottles of liquor back with her on the plane. That was fine from Cancun to Houston, but on the flight here from Houston they made her buy a $30 box to put the bottles in and check the box. Then they lost the box during the one and a half hour flight from Houston. She just spent a whole month living out of ONE backpack partly because she didn't want to have to deal with checking bags. Airports are so fucking rad! When she told the person helping her at lost and found what was in the box, she said, "You're not going to get that box back." But guess what? SHE DID. I couldn't believe it. The baggage people were actually decent enough to return a box clearly marked "liquor." Maybe there's still hope for mankind.

If you care at all about the title of this blog, it's something the boyfriend said during a conversation last night. He was telling my friend about us dragging an old paddle boat out of a pond by his parents' house. That's a picture of him cleaning it.

The aftermath of the trampling

2008-11-12T09:31:00.000-06:00

Nothing. No bruise. Nothing. It turns out, he got headbutted, thrown into a fence, fell down, got thrown a little, THEN got stepped on. Sure he's sore and it hurts to move, sit down or stand up, but there is no physical evidence of getting his ass kicked (pun?) by a thousand pound creature. If that had happened to me, I would be radiating black and blue from my butt over my entire body.

Don't let the refrigerator door hit you on the way out

2008-11-11T16:19:00.000-06:00

Today in a gas station getting a drink, some super scruffy guy came up behind me and, I guess, was waiting for me to move. And if I am calling him scruffy, you know he was really in need of a shower, haircut, etc. I mean, I haven't cut my hair in six months. When I got what I wanted, I felt someone violently grab the door to the cooler and pull it all the way open. I spun around to see what the hell was happening

"Excuse me, ma'am!" he said with an exclamation point and a strange look I couldn't quite figure out.

I couldn't tell if he was being rude in a passive aggressive, thanks-for-finally-getting-out-of-my-way way or if he just realized that he had kind of freaked me out.

"Excuse me," I said. Weirdo.

I got hit by a ton of bricks shaped like a cow

2008-11-10T18:15:00.000-06:00

I got a call from my boyfriend this afternoon when he got to work after helping a friend with some cows. I can't remember what he was doing exactly but it was something like getting cows ready to be inseminated, then pushing them back into the pasture.

W: I just got to work.
Me: Really?
W: Yeah, I've been working with those cows all morning.
Me: Oh.
W: One of them ran over me.
Me: Ran over you?!
W: Yeah. I got hit by a ton of bricks shaped like a cow.
Me: Oh my god!
W: Yeah, she kind of ran over me and stepped on my butt.
Me: Stepped on your butt?!
W: Yeah.
Me: Are you ok?
W: Yeah, just a little sore.

This is really kind of normal for him.