So...

...now that school is over until the end of August when it resumes, I seem to have some time on my hands. First things first: I went out Friday night and had three drinks and sang some karaoke. There was some sort of incident there - prior to my arrival - when some gal apparently caught (or thought she saw) her boyfriend doing the horizontal mambo with another gal in the parking lot. I heard about this incident A LOT throughout the course of the evening. At any rate, I didn't relax a whole lot, because apparently, the people at the bar missed me or something, and I was being talked to and asked to play darts and be a shoulder to cry on and sing karaoke. Which wasn't bad or anything, mind, but it is hard to relax when you are so popular (LOL... because I am not popular... at least, not as popular as my friend, Duff, who cannot go out into public without everyone bogarting his time... it's like being friends with Britney Spears!)

So, I thought that we would go out Saturday night, to really have some fun now that school is over. Well, we did, and we were, until a couple of moronic jagoffs decided that Kenny's car looked like a cop car (and it does, because it was one), and decided to sprinkle the car with sugar water from a hummingbird feeder. This, after asking the bartender what it would take to get 86'd from the Legion and staring at me and my aunt all night. Well, my aunt caught them sprinkling the car, and confronted them, Kenny right behind her, and they acted all, "Oops" when told that he wasn't a cop, but then proceeded to be even more annoying when they left, as they pulled their truck in right behind Kenny's car and acted like they were going to ram it or something, but we thought they might try something like that, so pretty much everyone in our party was staring outside at them, so they didn't really dare.

So, anyway, now that school is out, I plan on cleaning my house. Monday, I am dealing with the floors. Tuesday, I am going to tackle the clothing in my room. Wednesday, I am re-arranging the porch so that I can have my office out there. Thursday, I am dusting. Yeah, it is an all-day job, considering that I live next to a landscape yard with a dirt driveway and this pellet stove's ash is microscopic, and settles EVERYWHERE.

I have band practice this afternoon at 4, and I need to go see my Mom, being that it is Mother's Day, and all.

I'm Done!

I am finally finished with school!!!!

The Flatu-Cat

My daughter's cat is the world fartiest cat. I swear, this cat smells like it lives on nothing but baked beans and cabbage. Sometimes, I'll just be sitting here at my desk, minding my own business, when the odor of festering garbage and just-lit matches hits my nose, and all I can think of is, "Dear God! What is that smell?!?!?!"

This cat farts all day and all night. It farts when it is happy. It farts when it is upset. It farts when it is playing with the other cats (which sends them running in the opposite direction, too, and you know just how hard it is to gross out a cat!). It farts when it is sleeping. It farts when it is eating. I swear it farts to annoy me. No, seriously. It sleeps in the chair behind me when I am sitting at my desk and just farts up a storm (which, for this cat, is not difficult). When I turn to see if the cat is there, it always is, and it smiles at me (if cats can smile), as if to say, "Wow! that was a good one!"

It is also Camo Cat. It is the same color and pattern as my couch, and the cat likes to sit in the far corner, where no one ever sits, and then it likes to fart as soon as we sit down to watch TV. And you don't know where the smell is coming from for a while because the cat BLENDS. It is like a deer hunter in full-on "hiding-from-deer" attire when it sits on this couch, like the afore-mentioned hunter in a tree stand... except when this mythological hunter farts, there is no one to gag except himself. When this cat lets one rip, the room clears.

If this cat drank beer, its transformation into an uncouth hillbilly would be complete.

So Glad School's Almost Over

School ends for the semester on Friday, and I have a 3-page paper due on Friday, and four more postings to do on the message board, and I am done for the summer. I already had to register for Fall classes, though. One of those, I will have to drive into Spokane on Thursday nights from September to December. BUMMER! But it is a required class. But I have two 4.0s from the classes this Spring, so I am okay with that. But I am really, really glad that school's just about over. I am getting burned out... seriously.

Random Stuff

Finally heard back from a client about a web site, and he FINALLY likes the design, so we are moving forward.

My cold is clearing up. I spent probably an hour trying to unplug my ears, with little success until much later, when I spontaneously yawned and I could hear again.

Apparently, something is going on for my birthday at the Stateline tavern in Oldtown on Friday the 1st. Things get started around 6PM or so. Be there or be square.

I have to write a paper sometime within the next few days. It's due by midnight on Saturday night. I am going shopping tomorrow (Thursday), and then out to the Legion for a while Thursday night. Friday night is the party thing, so I might get some of the paper written Friday during the day, provided I am not hungover or otherwise unwell. Saturday, we are having band practice, and I will have to finish up the paper after that, so I will miss out on the steak dinner thing at the Legion Saturday night. Sunday, I think, I am going to do... NOTHING. Monday is my actual birthday. Don't know what (if anything) is happening.

I Fricking KNEW It!!!

So, now that we've purchased a new couch, the very one I initially wanted is back up for sale. Same phone number, too. I wonder, did the husband get the phone number in the divorce, too? I am going to have Kenny call just to see if the same dippy woman answers. How could it not be? It's a red velvet sectional in Sagle with the same 610 prefix phone number. I knew, just as soon as I bought something else, the thing I wanted would be available. Dammit.

I Have A Head Cold

I feel like crap. I can't breathe, and that means I cannot sleep, either. My ears feel plugged up. I really hope I feel better soon.

I Need Something To Look Forward To

I am so tired of everything being drudgery. Just something else to get through to try to get what I want. I work and I work and I work and it just seems like, no matter how hard I work, it's never quite enough. Something steps up and screws me over and I don't get what I want. Or what I want ends up being a big pain in the ass.

I just want this record done. I have been waiting for it for TWO YEARS. I have worked and slaved and sued people, and I am still getting yanked around... I just want it DONE already. I want to make videos of the songs! I want to sell my CDs to the world and have people love them without hearing, "Oh, the production sucks, so I can't comment on the songs" or, "You suck at singing, so I can't comment on the songs." All people are interested in is the PACKAGING. They are not interested in content. All they care about is how the songs are presented, not what they're saying.

When I wrote "The Cover," it was kind of a rant about how people look at me and go, "Oh, you have big boobs, so you're a slut," or, "You are blonde, so you are STUPID!" Like, judging a book by the cover, which was where the title came from, and the original lyrics said as much. Anyway, so, now I am thinking that it isn't just ME people judge with one glance, but EVERYTHING. Like, my songs. There aren't very many people outside my circle who really get what I am saying in my songs. There are MESSAGES there! They are not just pop fodder!

Anyway, that's what's on my mind. I am tired and need something to look forward to. Getting the CD done? It's not something to look forward to, 'cause, until I am holding the master tape in my hands and am getting it sent off to the replicator and packager, it isn't anywhere close to done.

No, what I mean is, I need something DEFINITE to look forward to, or this depression is going to tear me apart.

I Went To Spokane...

...and I got the rough mixes from the studio. Not much to comment on. It needs work.

In other news, the "B" semester started at school today. I am supposed to read a book that is really boring before Friday because I have to make posts about it. I am having a really hard time getting into it. I found another couch that I am thinking about buying. The couch I have has some springs broken in the center (who knows how), and it must be replaced after 10 years of nearly continuous use.

No! Not That!

My desktop computer did a weird thing this morning. I went to turn it on, but Windows wouldn't boot up. I tried three or four times, and then called Dell. While I was on hold to talk to some East Indian tech support person, I got the bright idea to unplug it from the power. So, I did. I left it unplugged for thirty seconds, plugged it back in, and tried it again. It worked.

I decided I need to schedule regular back-ups. Things could get ugly elsewise, mostly because of my e-mails. I have most of my work and school files on my external hard drive, but all my e-mails are on the main drive. So, I made a back-up today and scheduled back-ups of new e-mails to be made weekly.

But I have no clue what caused the problem in the first place.

Taking a couple days off...

I am pretty much finished with school for the next 10 days, and have done as much as I can on all my clients' sites until I hear back from them, so I am taking a few days for myself.

Any suggestions on what I should do?

I Am Bitchy

Ever been bitchy? For me, it usually takes several days of dozens of things piling up on me for me to get this way. Here's a list of what I am dealing with:

So, a few days ago, I found this gorgeous, red velvet, curved-back, sectional sofa for sale on Craigslist. This gal was selling this couch because her carpet in her new house was pink. I really, really wanted that couch. But, today, after a week of trying to set it up so I could get it, she informs me that she lost it in her divorce; the judge awarded everything in the house to her ex-husband. So, I don't get this couch I want, which was only going to cost me $100 plus a U-Haul rental to move it. Similar couches sell for nearly $3,000 on the 'Net; more on showroom floors. ARG!

The insurance company for the gal who hit my parked car says that my car being parked there made Kenny 25% to blame for the accident (even though failure to yield for road obstructions makes it always 100% your fault), so they only want to pay 75% of their damage estimate: $1,600. Meaning, I would only get $1,200 for damage that, according to several sources and quotes, may cost as much as $3,000 to repair. My insurance company, meanwhile, is doing.... NOTHING!

I have heard nothing about my recording.

Last Sunday, I had an appointment to meet with a client about his web site. Not only did he not call and cancel, but I haven't heard ANYTHING from him since.

Yesterday, I got a phone call from another client wanting to know if she could get in trouble for her book having the same name as another book. I told her, "No, you can't copyright titles." I swear, I am going to institute a $25 per question policy.

When Kenny wrecked my car, he was serving an eviction notice for a client of his. That client has still not paid Kenny the $190 he owes Kenny. So, Kenny called him today, and asked about it. The guy was all, "Do you take credit cards?" Kenny said, "Through PayPal." The guy says, "Screw it; I'll send a check." And hangs up. Douche.

Today, I found out that my student loans for Gonzaga, which I had contract through US Bank for, were unceremoniously sold to ACS. Almost two years ago, this same company bought out my old undergraduate consolidated loans from another company and then refused to release them to a new company when I reconsolidated with new loans. In both of these cases, I was not informed that my loans were being sold until after the fact, and, regardless of the fact that I don't owe anybody anything until I graduate with my Master's, this REALLY pisses me off. How can they just sell something that you signed a contract for? Shouldn't they at least have to let you know that they are planning to sell the loan and let you get one with a company of your choosing rather than a company who has already dicked you over once? Cheese'n'rice!

On Friday, the chimney repair guys came over, and they demanded that we rip out part of the carpet and extend the concrete pad that the stove sits on. They said it was "code."

Video, School, Work, Recording, etc

The video is complete. It is 26 minutes long, and that download is 115 MB. Just so you know. Let me know if you'd rather have a DVD. I thought I did a good job with it. I even layered music with the voiceovers that Kenny did for me... and I synched in little video clips, too. :)

Recording went well. We got all the drums and bass tracks for all the songs finished. We're going to get a rough mixdown now and then the engineer is going to work some magic. We're finished recording for now while the engineer makes adjustments.

I just have a couple things left for this class to do and then I am done. One of those things includes subjecting people to my video. And then another class starts up a few days later.

As for work, I have two web sites that I need to work on on Saturday, at least for a while, as this video has sucked up most of my time.

Why It Takes Women So Long To Get Ready

I bought a new torture device. Okay, okay. It's a bra. Actually, it is a strapless convertible bra attached to a bodysuit. In any case, the thought behind the garmet is a good idea. Not so hot was the execution of the idea.

Let's start with the obvious: if you're going to make a bra/underwear thing like this you have to make it so that the woman can fasten the damned thing herself. I opened the package and looked at it. It's sleek black, glistening fabric. It is very pretty.

I slipped the thing up over my hips and up to my boobs, and then I tried to attach the clips in back, because, unlike a normal bra, you can't fasten it in the front and then pull it around. It simply don't work that way.

You'd have to be a damned contortionist to get this thing hooked up by yourself. After several fruitless minutes of trying, I finally unsnapped the crotch (yes it has a snap-closed crotch), hoisted it up, and tried again from a different angle. No luck getting the hooks fastened in back, again.

So, I tried to re-snap the crotch. After fiddling around with it for probably 5 minutes, I got down on the floor and tried. Nope. Not gonna work. So, I bent WAAAAAY over to have a look down below. And damn it all if they weren't BLACK snaps on the damned thing, so you can't even SEE them to get them re-snapped.

So, fine. I take the whole thing off and examine the snaps. They're not even real snaps. They're more like little plastic blobs with corresponsing little plastic holes surrounded by fabric. They are not even close to being a design with which a woman could feasibly fasten herself while wearing it... which brings up the question: what if you did - miraculously and theoretically - manage to get the thing fastened in the back by yourself and then you went out somewhere in it... what if you had to pee???? You'd NEVER get that thing snapped back up without an assistant, which, now that I think about it, opens up a new job title in the personal assistant marketplace: Bodysuit Crotch Snap Fastener Assistant. Probably pays AT LEAST $10 an hour.

But I digress. Even when you're not wearing the thing, getting the snaps hooked back up is no small feat. it requires the use of a vise, pliers, both hands, and the gravitational pull of Jupiter to snap back together.

After a few minutes of dinking with it, I finally have the crotch re-assembled, and go in for another attempt at fastening the back. After tilting this way and that and bending my arms in ways they were never intended to bend, I finally got it put together... kind of. I got the bottom one hooked up just fine, but then I got the top one hooked onto the second rung, leaving the second hook without a place to go and strange bulge in the hook and eye system in the back. Bollocks.

But I left it for a while, because it was on, and I did look CUTE in it. After about 10 minutes in it, the back started irritating me, though, so I undid the hooks and gave it another go.

Again, you have to be a contortionist to get this damned thing hooked up! My shoulders popped, my elbows creaked, and I bent myself almost completely backward trying to fasten the hooks and eyes in the back. I only managed to hook the top hook into the bottom eye, which was even worse than missing the second one altogether previously, so I tried again.

After about 10 more minutes of fiddling with it, I gave up and decided that I would need help is I was ever to wear the thing properly. Then again, if I ever decide to wear it anywhere, I will need a peeing buddy.

Perhaps, though, there is a method by which one could hook everything up BEFORE putting it on? I doubt it.

Recording!

Tuesday we were in the studio, and managed to capture drum tracks for five of the 11 songs. I had hoped to get more done, but, it is what it is. Looking back, things didn't go as badly as I perceived them as going while it was happening. I had to remind myself this morning that this is how recording sometimes goes; no band - professional, indie, major label or not - comes out with a finished CD in just 8 hours.

So, we're on the right track and will be back to recording next Thursday!

Your Media, Your Airwaves, Your Voice

You'll notice that, in the sidebar to the left, that I have put in a new widget. It is a poll to give our opinions about the most important aspects that need to be addressed by President Obama's FCC chairperson.

It iws important that you vote and let your voice be heard. If you're tired of the pro-corporate bias in the media that has nothing to do with your real concerns for this country and what matters to you... if you are tired of the spin and propaganda that make these things that are only good for big business look like the benefit you and your concerns... if you would like to keep the Internet free for all to use without preference to which corporation can pay the most ('Net Neutrality), then please, take this poll. The airwaves are yours. They do not belong to the government, any media owner, or any corporation. They belong to the American people. Let's take them back.

It Doesn't Rain...

...but it pours.

(Yes, I am re-using the title from my MySpace blog. Because I am being lazy.)

Anyway, so after the awful events of last week, one might think that nothing else really bad could happen here, but IT DID!

This morning, my cat, Cajun, demolished my brand new bag of bagels right in front of the bedroom door. Cajun had bounded through the bedroom, over the bed, and back out. Well, Cajun NEVER comes in the bedroom, so I should have found that odd.

Well, I got up, went to the bathroom, and then went into the kitchen to get the broom to clean up the bagel carnage off the dining room floor, where, apparently, the bagel destruction had started. I had just finished sweeping it up when I smelled heat and heard some crackling. My eyes were instantly drawn to the chimney, and, sure as shit, the wall around the chimney was on fire!

The fire started in the chimney, apparently from the bricks getting really hot and catching the drywall on fire. At one point, I guess, the stove was on the other side of the partition between the dining room and livingroom, but the chimney access was closed off by a metal (aluminum, maybe?) plate when they moved the stove to the livingroom side of the partition. Where the plate was in the wall was where the fire was burning.

Sprayed the fire with a spray bottle, putting it mostly out. I called out to the kids and got them to get dressed and go out to the car where they would be warm with the heater and all. Then, I called 911. For whatever reason, I got a hold of Pend Oreille County, and they had to re-route me to Bonner County. I reported the fire, told them that it was pretty much out but that we didn't know if it was in the walls or not. So, they were on there way. Then, I unloaded everything off my piano (my 121-year-old player piano... you know, the one my Dad bought me) and went outside myself to wave the firetrucks into the house. It was a good thing I did, because they were all over the place, completely lost. But they finally got here and looked at everything with a thermal camera to make sure that the fire was out. (Apparently, this thing is sensitive enough to see footprints on carpet when you're wearing shoes.) The fire was out, but they pried off the paneling and drywall where the fire had been.

While the firemen were here, I was in the car with the kids, getting worried and wondering how much damage there would be when I got back inside. Luckily, the firemen had moved my piano out of the way, so it only got some soot and a little water on it. Soon after, the firefighters left, and I got to clean everything up. Some of the family came over and helped move the piano back against the wall, but away from where the fire had been so that repairs could be made.

So, now, we have to wait for the chimney repair guy to come over and decide how much it'll be to repair it. We can't run the pellet stove until then, so it is pretty cold in here. Dad may come over later and take the kids to his place until we have the heat back on.

I had to cancel a meeting I had scheduled for a web site, and who knows how practice will go tomorrow without any heat. But Cajun was today's hero. If he hadn't eaten my bagels and acted like an idiot, the fire might have spread to the ceiling (the kids' rooms' floor) and we might all be dead. So, I gave Cajun a can of tuna. He earned it.

LTD Damage

I am tired and I don't want to be doing anything...Monday afternoon, Kenny went to serve some papers up north of where Mom & Dad live... somewhere on Jackpine Flats or something. Anyway, so he serves the papers (and he had taken Dad with him), and he is heading back out when he comes to this hill on the one-lane road. Two cars are stopped in the middle of the road, so Kenny stops and waits for them, and then the cars leave. Kenny goes to go up this hill, and the road is icy. He can't get up it, so he starts to back down. The car slides sideways in the rear-end, and Kenny gets my LTD stuck. Yes, he is driving MY car.

So, they try to wiggle the car back and forth for a few minutes, and finally decide that it is well and truly stuck, so Dad goes walking to a nearby house to borrow a shovel. As Dad is walking away, Kenny keeps trying to get the car moving by going forward and then backward. While he is looking backward, a car comes over the top of the hill, starts slipping on the ice and hits my car head-on.

Now, nobody is hurt, I should say that now.

No BODY is hurt, except the body of my car.

The lady who hit the car was driving a two-day-old Suburban. You slide a lot faster than you roll, especially downhill, and, rather than take the ditch, she hit my car right on the passenger side front fender's corner. It DEMOLISHED the fender, the headline rim, the bumper, and all the chrome and lights around the fender - except the headlights... those still work. The impact crunched the fender over the hood, so the hood can't be opened, and jammed the fender back into the passenger door, so that can't be opened, either. Here are some pictures of the damage:
(click for larger views)

















So, I am very upset. Kenny did not get the woman's temporary license number. He did not get her VIN number or her driver's license number. At least, with his P.I. business he could look some of that up, but he didn't even walk to a nearby house and ask to use the phone. He did walk to a nearby house and get them to pull the car out.

The only semi-bright side to this is that she REALLY damaged her Suburban by hitting my car. Apparently, it mashed the radiator into her engine and broke oil and fuel lines and it was not driveable.

Kenny talked to my Uncle Rick (who fixes car body damage), and he talked to our insurance company, and the woman's insurance company, and made a police report. We looked up the blue book value on the car - which, I figure, is somewhere between "average" and "excellent" condition - and my LTD is probably worth somewhere between $6,500 and $9,000 with the 429 in it. But I still figure that her insurance company will lowball it and total my car for what I paid for it: $1,400. I am GOING to get SCREWED on this; I know it.

So, that pretty much ruined my week.

Projects

Today, I finished a pain-in-the-keister project, got most of my school books for the "B" semester that starts in March, and bought some awesome chocolate scented body scrub and body wash. They are The. Awesomest.

I am so looking forward to recording and FINALLY working with TRUE professionals who know what they're doing and FINALLY capture MY awesomeness and my songs' awesomeness and my band's awesomeness.

Because we are AWESOME!

STEELERS WIN!!!

HEY!!!! The Steelers won the Superbowl!!! I'm not going to Disney World, but I am happy!! The first team in NFL history to six Superbowl titles!!! Too awesome for words!!!

About half the people I invited ditched me at the last minute, but, oh, well. Life goes on. I have a ton of leftovers. Heh.

Anyways, not much going on other than that... now, I have to go do school work and some real work. Tomorrow, I start exercising again (oh, joy). Also tomorrow, I am getting my new desk, so, no more painful neck spasms and stuff. It should be awesome!

I sent the kids away to Mom's for the week so I could get all my school projects done and out of the way so I can focus on the recording. Should be a peaceful, if busy, week.