But why?

An unusual (but awesome) thing about the course design for Joe's marathon yesterday was that we were actually able to cheer the marathoners on as they hit the halfway point.

It was great to see Joe at 13 miles looking so strong. Not struggling at all, just kicking ass and running along with his pace team. It made me feel a lot better about how he was doing and I wish all races were set up like this.

Anyways, as I stood there, a little girl was nearby with her mother. Mommy yelled "Here comes Daddy, cheer for Daddy!"

The girl looked horrified. "What's he doing?!?!" she shrieked.

"See, Daddy's running! Go Daddy go, run fast!"

"But what's he running from? Is a bad man chasing him?"

That little girl kinda sums up my feelings. If I'm running that far, someone better be chasing me. Or there had better be a promise of free wine at the other end.

After the little girl was assured that Daddy was just running for fun, she then required explanations about why he was running in the street when she wasn't allowed to run in the street. And why wasn't he wearing a sweater when she had a sweater even though it was so cold. And why did he have to run so far? And who were all these other people? And why can the runners have a banana but she can't?

As exhausted as I was from waking up so early to see Joe off at the start line, I'm glad I didn't have to also field a bunch of questions from a small child.

We're at the airport now waiting for our flight. Many distractions around so sorry if this isn't very coherent. In fact, it may be completely pointless as I type with no focus whatsoever.

It was a good trip but I'm excited to head home now to my kitties. They'll have a very special post for you on Thursday involving their cat sitter and a visit from the police!

All Done!

My post is so late but my day has been long.

After not much sleep, we woke up before 4am so Joe could run his first marathon. The conditions were perfect and he did really well, beating his goal of 4 hours and 30 minutes (I think his official time was about 4h22m).

The best part is that he did without injuring himself or becoming sick. In fact, after a nap he's doing very well this afternoon. He totally kicked ass and I'm very proud of him.

So that's why no real post today. I'll try harder tomorrow.

Six Word Saturday

Describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. I love seeing what everyone does each week with their entries.

Turkey Thursday, Black Friday, Snoozy Saturday

All that's necessary to participate is to post your own six words. You can post an explanation if you wish but it's certainly not required. If you play along in your blog, please add a link to the Mr. Linky. I appreciate a link back (shiny code below if you like!) but I'm not going to delete your entry or punch you in the face if you don't. Otherwise, you're welcome to leave your six words in this post as a comment.

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26.2 Miles

We are currently in the great warm state of Florida. In addition to spending a few days with Joe's aunt, we're also here so he can run his first marathon on Sunday.

After months of training, early mornings, rainy afternoons, tired eyes and sore muscles... After completing 5ks, 10ks, half- marathons... After logging many miles, many pairs of shoes, and many loads of sweaty laundry...

All I can say is:

WHY?!?!?!? Isn't this why Al Gore invented cars? Why would you ever want to run that far?

I mean. All I can say is: I'm very proud of his dedication. I may have no desire to run that far. Ever. Three to five miles would be enough for me. But Joe's great at setting goals and accomplishing them. And he's doing something that not a lot of people will ever do.

So yes, I'm proud of him.

And I also think he's kinda nuts.

Thankful

This post won't win any awards for originality but that's alright. I've been having a rough time lately so it's good to spend a few minutes on what I'm thankful for in my life.

I'm thankful for my husband. We have our moments but he's a good man and I'm glad to have him by my side.

I'm thankful for my home. It dutifully provides shelter, warmth, and refuge.

I'm thankful for friends, especially those of you who are "new" since last Thanksgiving. I'm glad there are people out there who listen and help me hold the pieces together when the world seems so crumbly. I'm also glad there are people out there who provide laughs and distractions when I can't see outside the doom and gloom. And I'm glad there are those who share with me and rely on me because it makes me feel like I'm offering something back to the world, even if it's just an ear or a shoulder.

I'm thankful that my health isn't worse than it is - which sounds a bit jaded but for all of my problems, I'm very grateful that I'm not dealing with more serious issues.

And I'm thankful for those quiet moments, as rare as they are, when things seem safe and secure and I remember why I crawl out of bed each morning.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

P.S. I'm also thankful I'm not a turkey.

Quotes not by me

Today, I've got absolutely nothing. So I share with you a couple of my favorite Thanksgiving quotes. Feel free to work them into a nice toast or blessing tomorrow.

No turkey, no stuffing, no pie. No nooky. Happy Thanksgiving. -- Dr. Theodore Morris, "Now and Again" (1999)

Save me? Your don't look like you can save a turkey from Thanksgiving. --Sam Cayhall, The Chamber (1996)

And, of course, Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without The Thanksgiving Song by Adam Sandler.

Turkey for the girls and
Turkey for the boys
My favorite kind of pants
Are corduroys
Gobble gobble goo and
Gobble gobble gickel
I wish turkey
Only cost a nickel
Oh I love turkey on Thanksgiving

Told you I've got nothing.

P.S. I almost forgot that Technorati wants me to put this in a post so they can verify I own this blog. Ha, like anyone else would want to claim this crap! Claim Token: VT2PJGUQBSH5

Two Choices

Door #1: Fall asleep quickly, wake up frequently due to coughing. Exhaustion due to lack of uninterrupted sleep. Generally have a sense that I'm losing my mind.

Door #2: Sometimes fall asleep quickly, other times toss and turn. Once you fall asleep, it's a long uninterrupted period (6+ hours). Constant headache and agitated feeling. Generally have a sense that I'm losing my mind.

Bonus: Since I'm currently playing with Door #2, I was "rewarded" with an extra nap last night courtesy of migraine meds.

I don't really like any of these doors. How do I go about obtaining a refund?

Monday Morning

This morning, on the way into my office building, a man was walking out with a little boy. The little boy ran up to me, all excited.

"Look, I got a green lollipop! And I'm licking it!!!"

Don't you wish a green lollipop was all it took to make you so happy on a Monday morning? Or ever?

Ahh, simpler times. Sometimes I really wish we could all just go back.

Bah-Humbug

I'm not really a Scrooge but other than a bit of gift shopping, I'm generally anti-seeing and anti-hearing anything Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Preferably December 1st but with Thanksgiving falling so early this year, I'm willing to give a bit of a pass to that last weekend.

This means the last couple of weeks have been rough for me. All of the stores have their Christmas decorations and candies out, Falalalablah ringing through the speakers.

Still, I've had to start thinking about shopping. Joe and I have some, umm, interesting family dynamics to deal with plus everything has to be shipped. This means we have to consider not only what the cranky greedy demanding difficult-to-buy-for family members would enjoy as a gift but we also have to consider budget and ease of shipping.

A further challenge? We're attempting to have a green Christmas. I'm tired of buying plastic crap or stupid trinkets. I'm also anti-gift cards (because then they still go buy plastic crap and stupid trinkets). We're making a commitment to buying environmentally-friendly gifts. Local vendors. Sustainable products. Minimal packaging.

(I should probably let Joe know we've decided to do this - see what happens when he goes away for a week?)

What started me thinking about this is a new blog by Ryan Ashley Scott of Optimistic Cynicism fame. The new blog is called A Free Christmas. Her goal?

"Cut out the entire cost of Christmas gift purchases, but still be able to give (new - not used) gifts to our regular people."

So far, she's detailed who she has to buy for and the usual budget. She's selling off junk they don't need or use for cash to buy gifts. Taking advantage of giveaways. Rigging Entering sweepstakes.

The best part is that she's sharing all of the information in the blog so you can do the same. Regardless of our financial situations this holiday season, it's always smart to spend less money out-of-pocket.

What does this have to do with my green Christmas?  Check out this post: "The Story of Stuff".  We all have so much stuff. I'm in the mood to decrease it, not add to it. And if you don't know what to do with all the money you save in the process, you could always send it to me.

Six Word Saturday (Important Update)

Describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. I love seeing what everyone does each week with their entries.

Giving myself permission to slow down

Let's have a quick chat about what this means. I love reading all of your Six Word Saturday entries. I just never imagined there would be so many of them! So rather than fly through them, barely even reading them or beating myself up because I didn't spend the whole weekend making the rounds, I need to change how I visit.


I'll still be visiting all entries. But in order to keep myself from a complete mental breakdown, I'm going to visit them throughout the week. Hopefully sooner rather than later. This way, I can actually take a few minutes to enjoy and leave a comment.


Thank you all for spreading this little idea and making it so much fun.

All that's necessary to participate is to post your own six words. You can post an explanation if you wish but it's certainly not required. If you play along in your blog, please add a link to the Mr. Linky. I appreciate a link back (shiny code below if you like!) but I'm not going to delete your entry or punch you in the face if you don't. Otherwise, you're welcome to leave your six words in this post as a comment.

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Inside

Yesterday was a very melancholy day for me. I'm not sure I would quite classify it as sad but maybe more reflective.

Perhaps it's the time of year. Holidays in general make us think of years gone by, how things were, those no longer with us. Holidays also have a way of magnifying the way we wish things could be, the short-comings in relationships, the things that are missing, the dreams that haven't happened.

Especially with Thanksgiving, I think the focus is supposed to be on gratitude for what it is that we have. Not the what-ifs. Not the could-have-beens. Not the if-onlys. But the here and now. Maybe with a nod to the future.

So fair warning - this seems to be the place my head is in lately. It's not necessarily a dark and depressing place, but it's also not all-funny all-the-time. Posts for the next week may tend to be a bit introspective or theoretical or thoughtful. I just can't seem to write anything else at this time. But, well, it's my blog. And you're always welcome to come with me, whatever I'm doing and wherever I'm going. You're also excused from the trip if you so prefer.

I just gotta let me be me.

Relax

I debated not posting this. Because it seems kinda whiny. But know what? Welcome to my life.

Why is it so hard to relax?

It's been a rough week. For those of you not receiving my daily sleep updates on twitter, the brief summary is that I'm still not sleeping. It's been a year now since I started having problems sleeping through the night. My mental state continues to suffer and one day last week I actually fell asleep at my desk (not unusual at this point) and fell out of my chair (hoping that remains unusual). As in, kaboom, Cate on the floor.

I was excited a month ago to reinstate my gym membership, only to be thwarted by new levels of exhaustion and the time change. When I leave the office at 5pm, it's dark and it's all I can do drag myself home for the evening. This is furthering my lack of energy, low self-esteem and weight gain.

But that's not really so much what this post is about. This post is about the inability to take care of ourselves and just relax. Or is it just me? Surely it can't be just me.

I slept until about 8am, lounged in bed until around 9am or so, and had breakfast. Having slept well and fed my belly, I felt energized! I decided I should clean the house today! Maybe go to the gym later! Let's make a list of all the things I'm going to do!

And then I remembered I should be resting. Sleeping. So I'm trying but I feel like I should take advantage of that little bit of energy while I'm home to clean the house! Organize the closet! Return the guest room to a livable state! Oooh, also, I can write some blog posts! Work on the project for Joe! And this and that and ten other things!

What I need more than anything is rest and sleep. Why can't I let myself have that? Why can't I let things go?

I kinda feel like this post sounds like it's sponsored by Walrussians. I'm not looking for pats on the back or "poor Cates". I don't mean it to be all wah. I'm okay. I will be okay. I just need to remind myself that it's fine to completely chill for a day. Maybe even the whole weekend as well.

Age-appropriate gifts

With the upcoming holidays, I'm starting to spaz think about gifts. Everyone in our family is difficult to buy for and expectations are huge when it comes to their expectations from us. You know, because we both went to college and we don't have kids and we know how to manage our finances so we're not currently collecting any kind of social assistance. Yep, Joe and Cate, the rich ones.

Add to all that the idea of age-appropriate gifts for the nieces and nephews when we have no concept of what's proper really. My mother, who should've known better, bought my then 3-yo cousin a pocket knife for Christmas. His parents, who should've known better, let him play with it. I think it was barely February before we received a phone call that he had sliced apart the back of their new sofa. See, not age appropriate.

So we have his nephew (10), his niece (8), my nephew (1.5), my niece? (debuting in January). My niece will be easy and we'll probably just send a token small something since she's not here yet. I'm thinking we'll get my nephew some drums. Or an orange vest and some signs to go play in traffic. Hooker boots for Joe's niece, and maybe a cigarette case for his nephew. All good, right?

Or, we could take a page from my MIL, whom we lovingly appropriately refer to as FruitLoop. She just sent Joe his birthday gift in the mail. Here it is (excuse the lousy pic, Gwen was so unimpressed she was laughing and out of focus):

Yes, she sent him 77 cents. Because he was born in (wait for it) 1977. Age appropriateness at its best!

The only question is whether this is a belated gift or an early gift? His birthday is in late January. I received a definite "Happy Belated Birthday" card from her the next day (my birthday is nowhere near this time of year). No 78 cents though so I think I got screwed. She did call me her "Sunshine Catey" though. Yep, that's me. Sunshine. And Catey. With a Y. Maybe $1.65 was just too much for her to come up with all at once. I'll be on the lookout.

Unsupervised

Joe has left the building. I repeat, Joe has left the building...

Stay calm, don't panic, I am now running amok.

Unsupervised.

Out of control!!!

With my bag of frozen broccoli.

I was thinking, what do I do differently when Joe's not home? There really isn't much. I tend to simplify my meals because cooking for one is a nuisance. I talk more to the cats (which they find to be a nuisance. I sleep in the middle of the bed (if I'm in a bed-sleeping kinda place in my life, which I currently am not).

If he's gone over an entire weekend, I might do a little shopping or indulge in a massage. Maybe an extra trip to the gym or a meal in front of the television.

The biggest difference is probably the noise level. Joe is a lover of sound. I am a lover of silence. So while he has music on from practically the time he arrives home until the time he goes to bed, I tend to sit with my thoughts and be silent in the evenings.

So, farewell, Joe. Safe travels. He's looking forward to this conference and eagerly anticipating running in San Francisco so it's truly not mean for me to encourage him to go enjoy himself. And sometime this weekend, get your booty back home. Hopefully by then I'll be more rested and less cranky.

Yeah, and monkeys might fly out my butt.

Wild Child

Tomorrow, at the butt-crack of dawn, my husband is leaving for San Francisco. I don't know if when he's coming back. Originally, Friday afternoon. But then his boss said to take the red-eye home Friday night. That costs exactly eleventy bajillion dollars at this point so I told him to convince the boss to pay for an extra hotel night and fly him home on Saturday. Late. Because I'm totally digging the alone time supportive like that.

Anyways, on Sunday, we went to CostCo to make our monthly sacrifice purchases. Joe kept reminding me to "buy something awesome" for while he's away. How sweet of him to give me permission.

As we're unpacking the car, I notice him scanning the goods.

Joe: What did you buy for while I'm gone?
me: This!
Joe: Really?
me: Uh huh.
Joe: You're never allowed to call me lame again.

So what did I buy?

Yeah, that's right, I bought frozen broccoli.

I'm so bad-ass.

P.S. If anyone knows the secret handshake for entrance into the "hot dudes" aisle at Costco, please email me immediately.

What I Learned in Cooking Class

Waaaaaaaaaay back on our anniversary, I bought Joe a gift card to a local shop that has cooking classes. We'd talked about doing this forever as we both enjoy cooking and thought it would be something fun to do together. Somehow, we never actually did it so I decided to buy him the gift card, thus ensuring we'd finally make a reservation.

Our class was yesterday and we had a blast. It was a bread-making class. I showed up, ready to dump my ingredients in the bread machine and hit "start" (what, that's not how you make bread?) and learned some interesting things.

• Everything sounds awesomer if you say it with a French accent.
• Apparently, you can make bread without a bread machine!!! Who knew?
• Dough is sticky, y'all. And a lot of work. Where's my bread machine?
• If you have a mild panic attack on the way to class and take a xanax, you'll become so chill you'll forget you even took the xanax. Then you'll gladly drink the glass of wine you're offered at class and be super-duper-loopy.
• The above is the kind of situation that leads Joe to believe I shouldn't be unsupervised in the kitchen.
• Ever.
• French bakers hopped up on percoset are FUN, WHEE!!!!
• That awkward "oh man, I'm doing it wrong, let's make a joke because I feel like an idiot" feeling from high school still exists even in professional adults.
• Sometimes the dough is so sticky and you think it will never end and it's all stuck on your hands and you discover an entirely new way to feel claustrophobic.
• Don't ask the French dude if he has any chocolate chips or cheese to add to the bread. He's medicated and French and a little punchy.

But probably the number one thing I learned at cooking class? "Artisan" and "rustic" are both cooking words that mean "lumpy".

Still, my lumpy Rustic French Country Bread turned out very yummy. And no, I'm not willing to share. If there's one thing I learned from the French dude, it's that it's totally cool to be stabby as long as you say it with an accent. Besides, I put a lot of blood, sweat, and xanax tears into that bread. And a lot of swearing love.

P.S. My bread was much less "rustic" than Joe's. I think he was petting it instead of kneading it.

Six Word Saturday

Describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. I love seeing what everyone does each week with their entries.

Nobody cares about Saturday the 14th

All that's necessary to participate is to post your own six words. You can post an explanation if you wish but it's certainly not required. If you play along in your blog, please add a link to the Mr. Linky. I appreciate a link back (shiny code below if you like!) but I'm not going to delete your entry or punch you in the face if you don't. Otherwise, you're welcome to leave your six words in this post as a comment.

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There really IS an app for that!

No, this isn't a commercial for the iPhone. It isn't a paid advertisement for anything. Besides, Gwen would never allow it. And I will not be switching to AT&T. Anyways...

Wednesday night, I lost my mind a little bit. Specifically, there was a song and I kept hearing it in my head but I couldn't figure out the artist or even the lyrics.

I sent on a search, pleading to a friend over IM, bothering Joe while he was trying to work, and even begging Twitter for assistance. My pleas went something like this:

Help me figure out this song! It's kinda folksy or acoustic. I heard it on Acoustic Cafe on XM. Or maybe on Scrubs. Or it could've been in some Indie movie I hated. I'm not really sure if it's a chick or a dude but maybe someone like Jack Johnson or Ingrid Michaelson. And all I have for lyrics are "Do doDodo dododoo dodoDodo, DO dodoDo dodoDo dodododooo, DO dodedo dodedo dodadoDooo, blah bye you".

What? You don't know it either? What good are you?

Then, @dpringle took the opportunity to mock me for not having an iPhone said it was too bad I didn't have an iPhone because there's an app for that! (cue marketing vomit and eye rolling ickiness - except @dpringle is pretty awesome so I forgive him) He finally convinced me to search for a pc or online version of the iPhone app, Midomi.

Guess what?

It exists. I found Midomi.com and right up top was a little "click here and hum" button. So I gathered my gin courage, hit the microphone, and gave it my best "Do doDodo dododoo dodoDodo". And don't ya know? It came up with the song. Immediately. Way more efficient than 2+ hours of Youtube, Google, ITunes and SlackerRadio searching.

The song was Anyone Else But You by The Moldy Peaches. It may not be Ingrid Michaelson but it WAS used in an indie movie I hated (Juno).

And actual lyrics?

Du du du du du du dudu
Du du du du du du dudu
Du du du du du du dudu du
But you

I wasn't that far off afterall!



P.S. This is a lot like that time I was going on and on to someone (SomeMonkey?) about this word they use in London for guys that are kinda tools. And it starts with a B. She guessed every B word she could think of, British or not. The word I was looking for? Cad. Yeah. Cad. That's how I'm wired. I need repairs.

The Elephant

This may be one of those entries people have no idea how to respond to and that's fine - I think I'm writing it more to hear myself talk. Please feel free to respond but don't feel obligated because Cate's losing her marbles again. Really, I'm not losing my marbles. I'm just trying to figure out what to do with them.

You know that saying about everyone ignoring the elephant in the room? Even though the elephant is completely obvious and there's no way you could possibly ignore it?

I have my own personal elephant that tags along behind me and it's hard for me to be comfortable enough to share with many people. I think a lot of people realize there is an elephant of some sort but they have no idea what it is. Just that there's something.

As an adult, I've only shared the details of my elephant with a handful of people. A few others have gotten just the most basic of information. All of them internet "folks" that I'm quite close to (well, minus one who had a kid and dropped off the face of the earth when I wasn't all excited about the *wiggle wiggle poo report*). And, really, that's fine. It's my elephant. I can share or not.

But I just realized recently, someone I thought I had shared with long ago, apparently I did not. And now it feels kind of awkward to me. This isn't just "oh, hey, did I ever tell you about the time I was in the high school cafeteria and milk shot out my nose?". It's more like "oh, hey, know how you always listen to me rant and rave about the gazillion issues I have? I have an elephant that explains about 99% of those and I kinda forgot to mention it."

Part of me wants to get it off my chest. Part of me really isn't up to talking about it in the amount of detail it would take to explain. A huge part of me is thankful for those few friends I've told because if I'm having a bad day, all I have to do is utter two words and they know exactly what's on my mind. No further explanation needed.

So what do you do about your personal semi-invisible elephant in this situation?

P.S. My elephant would be pretty pissed to be referred to as an elephant. But then, wouldn't we all?

Etiquette

Dear Miss Manners,

Please help me determine which is the bigger breach of etiquette.

A) Family member throwing a baby shower for her second baby in 18 months.
B) Family member hosting an "open house/house warming" in her home that she did not purchase, does not pay rent on, and has lived in for 5 years.
C) Either of above events so people can bring "baby gifts or house gifts or whatever else they want to give her".
D) Non-family member glad she told me about the event I had heard nothing about so now I can rush some gifts for the occasion.

Signed,
Sister "with money" who is told nothing but should send random gifts every week just in case there's a gift-giving non-event

P.S. If one felt inspired, what would be the proper gift in this situation?

Hurry up and wait

Being a bit extremely anxiety-prone, "hurry up and wait" isn't one of my favorite activities.

Airports, for example, make me batty. I'm obnoxious about arriving early, then we hurry through security just to wait forever to board, then we rush to our seats and wait for take-off.

But at least that's a "hurry up and wait" process I understand. What I don't understand is the complete lack of process at my work lately.

• Hurry up, let's put this on the website NOW!
• Oh, wait, we're going to hope that councilman doesn't win re-election so we can ignore the request.
• He was re-elected last night, it needs to be on the website yesterday!
• Hang on, let's tie it up in committee for a month.

This particular project changed status four times yesterday. At the end of the day, we were in stall mode but I decided to work on some of it last night anyways. And guess what? This morning the boss says we're back in go mode.

So, I go. At least until this afternoon. When I'm certain we'll be holding off yet again.

Aren't politics and local government grand?

I <3 my job. (Which means I totally want to punch someone in the face.)

Is nothing sacred?

Yesterday, I received the following email. "Hi Cate! Your Mother added you as a friend on Facebook. We need to confirm that you know Your Mother in order for you to be friends on Facebook."

Ugh. Really? Admit in public that this woman gave birth to me?

Friend?!?!?

And she chose a photo that looks like a mug shot for some reason. I really don't need that staring at me every time I open the site.

Fortunately, I don't really use Facebook much. I use it more to stalk keep in touch with other people than I do to post intimate details or play games or whatever. That's because I realize in a professional capacity, I don't need people seeing that "Cate called in sick because she's hungover" or "Cate thinks her boss sucks at life". Mostly I post things like "Cate is running amok" or "Cate isn't allowed to play with fire" because that's way better.

Some of you were lucky enough privy to a Twitterbarf session about my mother a couple of weeks ago. The history is long and complicated but the less she infiltrates bits of my daily life, the better. Facebook isn't somewhere she needs to be.

Seeing her smiling face may have just ended my association with Facebook for good.

Anyone on Facebook that you feel like you can't not accept as a "friend" that you'd really rather just avoid altogether? What do you do?

Beautiful Sunday Advice

I don't know about where you are, but here in my undisclosed location, the weather is fantastic today. While I have a few inside things to take care of, I'm also planning on taking the camera for a walk to the lake and spending as much time as possible doing necessary computer work from the back porch.

But a note of caution when you're out enjoying this lovely weather.

If you are trying to turn left onto a busy street with poor visibility and no stop signs, be careful what you say when a big truck pulls up on your right, making it impossible to see around him.

Because your windows are open.

And he can hear you.

Not that it makes him any less of what you muttered quietly under your breath blurted out rather loudly. Just, you know, he can hear you. And will remind you about those open windows.

Just a little hypothetical situation advice from your pal Cate.

You're welcome.

Six Word Saturday

Describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. I love seeing what everyone does each week with their entries.

Because I said so - that's why!

All that's necessary to participate is to post your own six words. You can post an explanation if you wish but it's certainly not required. If you play along in your blog, please add a link to the Mr. Linky. I appreciate a link back (shiny code below if you like!) but I'm not going to delete your entry or punch you in the face if you don't. Otherwise, you're welcome to leave your six words in this post as a comment.

<a href="http://www.showmyface.com/search/label/6WS"><img src="http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp35/showmyface/guts/6wsButton.jpg" /></a>

Tell me what to do

Lately, I'm struggling a bit for post topics. It's not a big deal; it just happens sometimes. But this entire week has been tough and this morning I've been staring at the blank page for far too long.

So I'm going to ask you all for ideas. Or questions. What do you want to see me write about? Anything you'd like to know about me? Interested in my thoughts on nuclear physics or bananas? No topic off-limits, no question too big or small*.

Post a question or topic or whatever in the comments and I'll work on addressing them next week.

I reserve the right to bend the truth lie practice being a politician depending on the nature of the question.

First Fursday: Halloween Report

Long-haired human is kinda struggling with this blogging thing lately but I'm happy that I can fill in for her on First Fursday.

The people went away yet again this past weekend. We're starting to take it personally. Or at least I am (not sure that Tonya cares much either way). I'm a perfectly good cuddly purring kitty but they keep leaving us all alone to go to places without perfectly good cuddly purring kitties. Unless of course my humans are cheating on me. How sad!

As soon as the humans were gone, Tonya decided to we should throw a party for Halloween. I didn't think it was a good idea - I never want to do anything to make my humans angry except poo in the tub but I haven't done that in ages.

Tonya called me a wuss and said that as long as we didn't get caught, it would be fine. She started by disabling all three kitty cameras so the humans couldn't check in on us.

What happened next, I cannot tell. She swore me to secrecy and threatened that if I ever told, she'd make the humans send me back to the shelter. I like these humans a lot and don't want to go anywhere so I have no choice.

We estimated the humans would only be gone one night based on the amount of crunchies they had left us so we cleaned up the next morning. As far as I can tell, they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary other than the cameras that Tonya had forgotten to fix. Lucky for her, they blamed it on something called a "wireless router" and all is well in our world!

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Wishing Wednesday

I wish...

• my headache would go away
• my boss would grow a pair and instead of taking away my work from home privilege he'd tell the jealous immature coworkers to suck it because I'm adhering to policy and doing a good job
• Joe's boss would quit twiddling his thumbs and make a move. Or at least let Joe make a move
• nighttime brought sleep or at least rest
• my sister could be here to lend a shoulder
• for some peace and happy for my friends
• people in general were less afraid of the unknown and more willing to learn before making a decision
• I had something more interesting to blog about today

Feeling a bit of a slump the last day or two when it comes to blogging. Think I'll let everyone's favorite fur freaks post tomorrow.

Ketchup

Ketchup. Catsup. Catchup.

Ahh, yes "catch up", that's the one I'm after.

I'm very behind on a lot of things and really struggling to stay afloat. A lot of it's my own doing (yay for launching a new blog though I love it to bits so it's worth it AND I have eleventy bajillion other projects) but I'm fighting right now to adjust to the new routine.

And that's my excuse for STILL not visiting all of your Six Word Saturday entries. I have about ten left. I swear I'll get to them today.

So, anyways, if I owe you email, or a visit, or some cat hair or if maybe my posts are a little late or if I'm sorta stabby, please be patient. Give me a couple of days and then maybe a gentle reminder.

Hey, I said GENTLE! That hurt!!!

P.S. If you're busy like me (nice segue, huh?) and now it's also holiday entertaining season, how about a recipe for awesome healthy bread you can make in only five minutes? C. Beth Blog is giving away a copy of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. She raves about this book and the bread. I want a copy so I can see if she's making it all up. Go to her site and leave a comment to enter. Also, if you mention my name, Beth will come to my house and make the bread for me I get an entry as well.

Overheard at the Grocery Store

A father, his young daughter (3?), and his slightly older son (10?) were ahead of us in the soda aisle.

Dad: What flavor soda do you want? You can have any flavor you like!
Daughter: Umm... Peanut butter and jelly!!!
Dad: They don't make peanut butter and jelly soda. You'll have to pick something else. Maybe orange? Root beer?
Daughter: Dad!!! But you said I could have any flavor I like and I want peanut butter and jelly!!!

Cue exasperated dad trying to avoid SCLM (small-child large-meltdown). A few minutes later, we spotted them again. It was clear that dad was trying to regain favor with the pouty toddler.

Dad: Okay, what kind of ice cream do you want? You can pick any kind you want.
Daughter: Peanut butter and jelly!!!
Dad (realizing his mistake too late): They don't make peanut butter and jelly ice cream. I'm really sorry.
Daughter (lip quivering): But I want peanut butter and jelly!!!
Dad: I can't buy it if they don't make it!
Son: Actually, they do make peanut butter and jelly ice cream.

The little girl of course squealed with glee as dad pulled something from the freezer shelf.

Amazed, I had to see for myself. Yes, Wegmans does indeed make peanut butter and jelly ice cream. And if he didn't, that dad totally should've written the store a thank you letter.

NaNoWriMo

Today is November 1st and a lot of people are embarking on the adventure of NaNoWriMo.

For those of you not in the know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and it happens every November. The idea is that you write 50k words in 30 days, submit it to their site for count verification, and you get a certificate of completion. Plus, hopefully, you have a nice start on a story you can then edit and make awesome.

I've completed NaNoWriMo twice but I won't be participating this year. Instead, I offer my support to those that are taking part in the challenge.

NaNoWriMo didn't yield any great draft for me, by the way. One year, I spun a very personal story into a bit of a tale. The second year, I worked on a story that I hoped to adapt into an interactive game of some sort (never happened). But the most important thing I did get out of it is that I can find time every day to write. It really helped me develop the habit of writing something each day.

And for that, I say "thank you NaNoWriMo".

Good luck to everyone with their 50k words ahead of them. If I can do it, you can do it.

P.S. Also, I hope you all remembered to change your clocks. Except I really hate changing the clocks this direction. Night blindness, yo. Losing that hour of daylight when the days are already getting shorter pretty much limits me to work then home during the week. Basically, my crazy nightlife is over now until March. Are you totally sad for me? Because now I'll have to stay in and tweet more.