All Things Woompty

Coming home

I've written about the Freeway Lights before. They're back, again, so the holiday season is really, truly here. And this year's display is much better than last year's. last year there was a ton of missing lights and the strings were never all on at the same time. But this year only one light string seems to be malfunctioning, so I took a couple of videos to show them off to you. (Never mind the fact that I was driving and it was raining when I took the videos, mmkay?)





And after this I took a video of my cat falling off the top of the shower door but managed to not save it so...enjoy the lights!

posted by Melinda @ 9:58 PM 0 Comments

When I grow up, I wanna be an old woman

How many days behind am I on Holidailies? SO MANY. So many that I could very well give up but I am refusing! I will persevere! Or something.

I spent my entire weekend baking and not really eating. Seriously, yesterday I had coffee and three Candy Cane Joe-Joe's for breakfast, some cheese and crackers (and bits of cookie dough) for lunch, and then I went to my company holiday party and downed a couple martinis. Thank goodness for the awesome appetizers I picked out is all I have to say about that. Otherwise, I would have ended up drunk and embarrassing before the first course.

Speaking of drunk and embarrassing, there's these two coworkers of mine that I call The Kids. I call them The Kids because they are 10 years younger than me and their lives are still about roommates and parties and dating a lot of people at once and finding free food and free drinks because they are broke. So imagine how excited they were when they found out that I convinced the CEO that we should have a martini bar during the cocktail hour last night, in addition to the beer and wine that we were serving. Now imagine them asking me if they could leave their cars at the resort the party was happening at.

"First off, a cab ride from there will probably cost you close to $100 considering where you live," I told them. "And second of all, it's a company Christmas party. You should not get drunk enough at this party to need a cab, free martinis or not."

And then I shook my cane at them and told them to get off my lawn.

Seriously, when did I turn into the resident old lady wisewoman giving advice to the young 'uns? I suppose it was right after I gave in and started watching NCIS reruns on the weekends. Meh.

posted by Melinda @ 8:50 PM 1 Comments

Mr. Boobers has a boo-boo

Hey, guess what? I have another cat story!!

In case I never mentioned it, we now have three medically odd cats.

Abbie has an overactive thyroid, whicch means pills twice a day and quarterly bloodwork that costs $150. And also, she is totally uninsurable because of it. Oh, and she's got allergies that lead to her pulling out the fur on her back, which needs another pill to stop her from looking mangy.

Vivianne? Oh, she's a bleeder. When we tried to get her fixed this summer, we discovered that her blood clots slower than average...slow enough that we had to consult a specialist and run a bunch of bloodwork to make sure she didn't have some strange and deadly syndrome. Eventually we got her fixed and the vet said it should never be a problem again since she shouldn't ever need surgery again. (Which of course means she will need at least 3 more surgeries over her lifetime, right?)

And then there's Riley. Sweet, emo Rilley Boobutt McGee. Kevin added Mr. Boobers to Riley's nickname list recently; it stuck, unfortunately for my little mama's boy of a kitty. Anyway, first there was the undescended testicle that necessitated major surgery for his neutering. And then there was his $1000 ear infection brought on by odd ear canals and overachieving ear wax. and now? Now he has managed to almost declaw himself.

We're not sure how and we'e not sure when but he tore most of one of his back claws off. We pinned him down to do some cleaning and matted fur removal on it and oh, the howling. The neighbors must think we have a mountain lion living with us now. And then it was bleeding EVERYWHERE, which worried Kevin until he consulted Dr. Google DVM and found out that hey, claw injuries bleed a lot and we do not need tot ake him to the vet, just keep an eye on it.

Of course, now he won't let anyone near his foot so we're just assuming it is healing the way it is supposed to.

(On a side note, someone found the above picture searching for "scurvy in cats". Now there's a cat with Issues.)

posted by Melinda @ 5:06 PM 1 Comments

Maybe I should try decaf

Dude. I have not done ANY of my Christmas shopping yet. Part of this is because duh, we're broke just like the rest of the country. But mostly its because I have been all full of ennui and SAD and stress about class and thus, totally bah humbug on the whole HOLIDAY FUN thing. I didn't even make Kevin go get the decorations out of storage this year because I just couldn't be faced with the whole "unpack everything, put everything up, pack everything up again" sequence of events. Plus, can you imagine the havoc that could be caused by Hurricane Vivi? Ugh. Instead, I bought a little prelit silver tree, stuck some tiny plastic balls on it and called it a day. oh, and I hung up a gigantic fresh evergreen wreath so at least it smells like Christmas around the apartment.

ANYWAY.

My lack of Christmas shopping has led to me sitting and staring at Woot.com, refreshing madly through the Woot-offs that have been happening this week, hoping desperately for the perfect Christmas presents to appear. presents for who, I have not determined. I guess I'm just hoping that something will appear for $5 that just screams Leslie/Laura/Mom/Tracee/SOMEONE. Unfortunately, none of them are the type to be excited by cheap hard drives and I'm sorry, but they are not getting a Roomba from me. And in the meantime, I looked at Shirt.Woot.com and found this shirt and had to remind myself that no, I am not shopping for me.

So to sum up: no shopping, slightly manic, addicted to Woot.com and not getting much done today. (Also, may be slightly overcaffeinated.) (WHEE)

posted by Melinda @ 9:24 AM 2 Comments

Some people never learn (especially me)

Oh shit, it's midnight. Fuck it, I'm still making this count at December 8. Because I can.

You might think I would automatically write about today's tragedy here in San Diego but you would be wrong, because it's such a depressing story and I'm too tired (and now "I Don't Do Sadness" from Spring Awakening is going through my head). I drank too much coffee again tonight, but that was okay because I needed to slog through my paper. It's a pansy ass 10 page paper on a subject that I could wax eloquently about for hours if I was just talking to my professor but for some reason I have constipation of the brain and so I got out 6 pages of gobbledy gook that is going to have to be edited and expanded on like mad tomorrow. Man, I have procrastinated like this since junior high. Apparently, I will never, ever stop doing schoolwork at the very last possible second. I used to do papers for my comp classes in college the day they were due (I got B+'s on rough drafts, why should I have put in more effort than that was my way of thinking). Basically, I'm really good at bullshitting.

At this point I think I'll be working on the paper in between frames at the bowling alley tomorrow night. And if you think I'm joking, you don't know me very well.

posted by Melinda @ 11:55 PM 0 Comments

Excuse for my professor

I had one of those insane holiday-time days yesterday, the kind where you end up being awake for 20 hours straight and then wake up the next morning completely unable to function or comprehend anything which is not good since you need to write a paper for your Organization Behavior class and damn, that shit is boring.

Up at 7:30, away to my crazy ass workout class (it was apparently Butt Day, since we did squats and lunges and then more lunges and more squats and also hey, do a million bicep and tricep exercises while you're at it and ow). And then home for a fast shower and away again to take pictures of babies and kids and families and drink coffee and gossip and yay Cranberry Bliss Bar! After that it was time for the scrapbooking and cookie exchange and more baby holding and then woo, party time! Make up and party outfit and seeing people who hadn't seen me in almost three years which meant getting to go through the whole "Wow, look at you/I barely recognized you/you look great/how'd you do it?" conversations that have been a distant memory for the past 6 months. But there was wine and good nibbles and oh, the peanut butter/Ritz cracker/white chocolate sandwich cookie thingies that I haven't had since college. And after that there were pomegranate-pear martinis and an hour of reminiscing with an old friend about back when we were crazy drunk college kids, and a husband who was begging to go home because all of a sudden it was very early on Sunday morning.

And that is why I did not write my paper today. Instead, I took a nap. Such is my life. Guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow!

posted by Melinda @ 11:01 PM 1 Comments

posted by Melinda @ 10:41 PM 0 Comments

Daddy's girl

This is my new favorite photo that I've taken lately. Morrigan is one of my nieces-by-association, since her mom is one of my forever friends. And oh, how she loves her daddy. Watching them tell jokes and play on rocks and have adventures is beyond heartwarming. She's got his hard head and his blue eyes and his warrior spirit and soon she'll be too big to be picked up and hugged to bits, but at least I managed to capture the sheer joy she gets from her dad's hugs on film.

posted by Melinda @ 10:56 PM 0 Comments

Yet another cat story

So we all know we have these three cats, right? And we all know Kevin and I totally anthropomorphize them and give them stupid nicknames like Teeny Bean and Fatty Fatpants and Mr. Boobers. Of course, that means you all know that they are all nutty and I talk about them way too much and you know what? That's cool. I don't mind being That Woman who talks about her cats all the time. Because my cats are awesome and also hilarious and the world should not be robbed of moments like the one that happened today.

See, last night was the first time Vivi really got into the whole "let's play in the paper shopping bag" thing. It was very cute, watching her dart in and out and let us carry her around like a sack of potatoes (seriously, why did we buy her a carrier if I could just as easily take her to the vet in a Trader Joe's bag?). But this morning was when the awesome happened.

Yes, she got her head stuck in the handle of the bag. Yes, it freaked her out when she started running away and it followed her. And yes, we stood in the middle of the living room laughing our asses off so hard we almost peed our pants as our kitten tore around the entire apartment like her ass was on fire (bedroom to living room to kitchen, repeat), scaring the other cats as well as herself. I mean, she was going too fast for us to catch her so really, laughing was our only option until she finally lost steam and huddled in a corner, terrified and waiting for us to rescue her.

I have to say, it's pretty much in the Top 5 ways to start your morning off right. But something tells me she won't be playing in any more bags anytime soon.

posted by Melinda @ 4:04 PM 0 Comments

Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated

Holidailies starts tomorrow. I'm not promising deep thoughts or anything but I'll be writing SOMETHING.

posted by Melinda @ 11:07 AM 0 Comments