Lost Speculation Revisited

NOTICE: Contains spoilers from last night's season finale. Come back and read this later if you haven't see it yet. If you don't intend to watch it, then you can read or not, but mostly I would expect that you wouldn't want to.

After finishing watching season 4's finale last night, I decided to go back to the post I did before the season started, and see how I did on all this guesswork.

1. Richard -- I had decided this character was special in some way, due to his lack of aging over the decades. He is still an enigma, but we know he's more important now that this season is complete. He has been recruiting John Locke, basically since birth, and he definitely seems to be the non-figurehead leader. It's like the opposite of the Queen of England who's all for look and has little to no real power. I look for him to be very important as the last two seasons progress.

2. Mikhail -- After surviving the sonic fence and a gunshot in the back, it appeared Mikhail was invincible on the island. After his hand-grenade-in-the-underwater-station trick, though, he hasn't returned this season. Is it possible that being just off the coast of the island was enough to lose the island's protection, and he finally died? Or is he just lurking out of view for a season with a return to the show still in his future?

3. Ben -- I opined that Ben was a poser, and had never been special. However, now it seems likely that he was special at some point, and has since lost favor with the island for something. Perhaps it was as simple as the island getting John Locke, and therefore being done with Ben, or it might be that Ben did something to make the island mad, and he is now being punished. I may have to go dig for more details on this one to see what I may have missed on that front.

4. John -- He was, indeed, the man in the coffin. I was so excited when I saw that I'd gotten that right -- like maybe I've developed some kind of intuition on this story along the way. Regardless, now we have a new name for him -- Jeremy Bentham. This appears to be some sort of code name so that other people in the regular world don't get wind of the fact that this is another of the Oceanic survivors. We know he becomes the leader of the others in place of Ben, but we'll have to wait to see what made him leave the island to try to return the Oceanic 6 to the island.

5. Christian -- I had thought that maybe there was an alternate time stream where Jack's dad was still alive. That seems clear not to be the case. However, he'd had all these weird red-herring-style appearances before, and now he seems to be more and more of a player in this saga. And how is Claire now becoming a similar enigma to her dad. It makes me wonder if she died?

So, on these predictions, I turned out to be a big 2-3. Not so bad, but there are still so many questions remaining. For example:

We know there is a time differential, and not really a split. However, we we don't really know how that time differential plays into things, completely, so that will continue to be in the mix of stuff to be elaborated further.

We still don't know why Ben became the leader of the Others. His extinction of the Dharma Initiative folks was more of his proof that he was committed to the group, but it doesn't give us any idea as to why they gave him the chance. Just because his dead mama talked to him as a boy? That seems a stretch.

Are there any Dharma folks left? On this, I would say a hearty...well, mostly no. However, if Charlotte was actually born on the island, is that because she was part of the DI? Or did I misunderstand, and she's looking for some other mysterious place that she came from? Hard to say, but it's clear that will be more story, and she may be part of that Dharma thing.

That crazy specialness is also still a mystery. Now we have this idea that Hurley is "special", too, because he saw Jacob's cabin. That's certainly a different kind of special than I had identified at the beginning of the season, but maybe that's just because he didn't have a physical calamity to be healed from. Maybe the island made him mentally better, and that's why he's back in the institution after returning from the island.

Plus, the new characters are just questions for the future seasons. All very interesting, and keeping me ready for that next season, and wondering why I'll have to wait so long for that.

Friday Random Ten

I mentioned last week that I would use the Pandora website to come up with some different music to list on this site. You start with the name of a song or artist, and it generates a radio playlist for you based on stuff that is considered to be related. I thought I'd start this little game off with the groups I've seen live over time.

This first week, I thought I'd use the first concert I went to. The opening band was a new band in the music scene, one called Jars of Clay. You may have heard me mention them before. I was one of those obssessed fans who read everything I could find about them. When I heard they were doing a concert for about 300 people just 3 hours away, I suckered three of my friends into road-tripping with me. They were a small-time band, back then, with just one album, so it wasn't too tough to know all their songs. That tour, they traveled with most of a string section, and it was a great show, the best even. A year or two later, I saw them again at a much bigger venue, and a few years back at Stubbs in Austin. I'm a big fan of these guys, in case you couldn't tell. Here's the gratuitous YouTube video of their well-known mainstream song, to remind you how you do actually know who these guys are (and to remind you that 1995 was a really long time ago -- just look at those haircuts and outfits!):



And now, without further ado, here is what Pandora gave me to go with these guys.

"Worlds Apart" by Jars of Clay* on Jars of Clay
"My Savior My God" by Aaron Shust on Anything Worth Saying
"Indescribable (Live)" by Chris Tomlin* on Live From Austin Music Hall
"Love Heals Your Heart" by Third Day on Whereever You Are
"Love Song For A Savior" by Jars of Clay* on Jars of Clay
"Dare You To Move" by Switchfoot on The Beautiful Letdown
"In Christ Alone (My Hope Is Found)" by Promise Keepers on The Awakening Worship
"Stillness" by Aaron Shust on Anything Worth Saying
"The Day Before You" by Matthew West on History
"Disappear" by Jars of Clay* on The Eleventh Hour (which I somehow don't own....hmmmmm)

Well, the randomness left something to be desired, but I suppose that's the point of the site. I'd never heard the Third Day or the Matthew West song (though I've heard others by them), and I did like them, so I think that counts for something positive learned today. Every day should be so lucky. Plus, with a visual to go with each song, I feel like I have a chance of remembering songs that go with a particular artist (I'm terrible at that particular skill -- I think it stayed in the untappable back of my brain with the audio learning that I never got either. I still wonder how I got a degree in a lecture-styled education system.).

* Acts I've seen live

Weekly 5Ks

I signed up for an event that runs every Wednesday night from March to August. There is a 1K ocean swim and a 5k run each week, and you can do one or the other or both. I am still not brave enough to enter the frigid waters of the Pacific (currently around 55 degrees Fahrenheit), so I haven't done the ocean swim, but I have now done 4 weeks worth of 5k runs. Last night was a personal best time.

It's a really easy course, uphill for about 2k and then downhill 3k. It's so nice to have that net downhill (finishing a ways below the starting point), and that makes it easy, in my book. Plus, it's in the early evening with the calm ocean breezes and lots of people out with their dogs and kids making it busy and animated.

The first week, I ran it cold, with no training runs for a good several months prior (can you tell I was suckered in at the last minute?), and was shocked to still finish under 35 minutes. I know, 7 minute kilometers (11:30ish minute miles) is nothing to be impressed by, but I derive my happiness from small accomplishments -- I jogged the whole thing and didn't have to walk, and that counts for something in my little brain. The second week, I cratered (it was either the lack of water all day, or starting out the run too fast, or the poached egg I'd eaten that afternoon -- all of these things are strict no-nos!!!), and took almost 41 minutes to finish the little run. The third week I was back on a bit better track, but still took around 36 minutes to finish.

And then there was last night. I started out slow, forcing myself not to keep up with people around me, not to allow the speed of the group to push me faster than my little legs and heart can handle. At the 1-mile marker, I was surprised how good I really felt, so I sped up. As the downhill started, I really lengthened my stride to allow gravity to just pull me down to the finish. I know that my legs are pretty long for my height, but I don't have them trained for the right length stride for serious speed, yet. But this was a measure of what might be possible, as I careened in for a 32:18 finish. That would be my best 5K yet, and I now see the possibility of breaking the 30-minute mark before the end of the summer.

I know I'm still not fast (the fastest time last night was still twice my speed, and the fastest woman was sub-19 minutes), but I'm still proud of what I did. And now we'll see what happens from here.

Tiptoe Through The Tulips: Epidendrums (Star Orchids)

This one suprised me by turning out to be in the orchid family. The flowers are so small, they reminded me of the lantana bushes from Texas. I guess that's why I was so sure they had to be nearly a weed, only pretty. Our versions are purple and orange, and you can see the long-stemmed growth in this picture.


The side view of one of the purple clusters can be seen here. The picture ended up being fuzzy, but I really tried a lot of times (darn macro setting on a tiny flower that keeps moving in the wind), and this was the best I got. Meanwhile, I'll close out with a pretty top view of an orange cluster that sat nicely for its portrait to be taken:

So, as I mentioned before, I was surprised that while investigating the boat orchids of last week, I came across a picture of these guys. Wasn't expecting to find them there. However, on closer review, the petals with the central showy beak that is common in orchids, not sure why I didn't make that connection. Oh, right, I'm a plant idiot trying to change her ways. Regardless, these are definitely Epidendrums, also known as Star Orchids, and these are nice and hardy (which should be read as Heather will likely not kill them). However, the fact that they are long and gangly in my backyard means that I'm not fertilizing them with a low-nitrogen fertilizer (no duh -- not fertilizing them at all, yet), and I'm not watering them enough. At least I know how to keep these guys going stronger in the future!

Friday Random Ten

"We Are The Dinosaurs" by Trout Fishing In America* on Big Trouble
"What's In A Name" by Petra on Beyond Belief
"The Me Nobody Knows" by Marilyn McCoo on The Me Nobody Knows
"No Holly For Miss Quinn" by Enya on Shepherd Moons
"Rock 'N Me" by Steve Miller Band on Greatest Hits
"Sweet Little Loving" by White Lion on Pride
"The Joker" by Steve Miller Band on Greatest Hits
"War Child" by The Cranberries on To The Faithful Departed
"Dying Man" by PFR* on Goldie's Last Day
"Famous Last Words" by Jars of Clay* on If I Left The Zoo

This week appears to be an identity week -- we're everything from dinosaurs to unknown to a joker to a child of war to an adult at the end of life. We like rock and loving (okay, I'm stretching here to keep to the theme), but overall we may not be ready for our last words, depending on who we know. Interesting stuff, that iTunes.

Next week, I'm planning on employing Pandora for this space to see what it gives me based on my seed group or song. Should make for some interesting collections of stuff, and some discoveries, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of that. Plus, I need to add some new stuff to my iTunes library for future listening.

* Acts I've seen live

Where Ye Be Going?

In a recent perusal of the keywords that have brought unsuspecting people to HIAHS, I found some special selections. These are generally phrases that really make me wonder how search engines work. In the "Go Figure" category, we have:

court martial for heather post -- Currently, I'm wondering if Heather Post is being court martialed, or if someone was looking for a post on the court martial of a more generic Heather. Regardless, there is no past, present or future court martial for this Heather, so you may want to move along.

green jelly -- Apparently, once upon a time, I had a Friday Random Ten that included a song by a group of this name. Never even knew I had such a band reflected in my collection. Clearly from a mish-mash CD of random stuff. Meanwhile, if you are hoping to find out about jelly made from pears or granny smith apples or grapes or jalepenos, you should look elsewhere. At least until I post the recipe for such things.

french bread varieties -- I'm no expert, but I thought there was just the one variety. You know, French bread. For more options, find someone who knows stuff.

derailleur? i hardly knew her! -- People actually put these kinds of things in search engines?

chicken marsala when you are pregnant -- I can vouch for chicken marsala being tasty, but I have no insight into how that might taste when you're pregnant.

Also, in the "Maybe I should Collegify My Vocabulary" category, apparently "um yeah" and "eh" also brought people to my blog. Of course, if that's how they are searching, I assume their expectations of the content here should be similarly low, and that could be a good thing...

Recipes are Good Blog Fodder

Last week I was in North Carolina visiting my sister. I was there to go to her graduation and her commissioning as a Naval officer, and stuck around the whole week, because traveling from one coast to another and back just for a weekend seems silly. I worked from her apartment for the week while she went to work, and then we hung out at night doing various things -- chilling in bars where a guy tried to pick up yours truly, doing karaoke where another guy tried to do the same, sucking at trivia, and just generally drinking too much and being out too late. It was a good week.

Anyway, by Friday night, I was pretty tired. My sister informed me it was my job to plan our evening's festivities, and I was really itching to cook. So I did. And I even had access to recipes from home, just via an internet connection.

Isn't the internet grand?

Tiptoe Through The Tulips: Cymbidium (Boat Orchids)

This homely plant looks remarkably like an iris with its long straight leaves and its clustered appearance.
It just sits in the back against the fence, quietly enjoying life, until the day comes along that it POOF blooms all over the place. That day was recently here at the HIAHS household. Here you can see one of the stems with several flowers on it.

You can also see a closeup of the flowers here:

Gorgeous little orchids that they are, my identification journey took me to find that they are most likely in the Cymbidium genus, and are also known as boat orchids. While I'm likely going to kill this plant with its watering needs (don't let it get dry, but don't let it be too soggy), it appears to thrive with the cool nights we have here. Plus, it is definitely an established plant, so I'm hopeful that with that on my side I won't do so badly. Meanwhile, it's good to know what I should be doing with that little guy.

More to Learn, Eh?

I stole this meme from Niobe. The rules aren't too hard:

1. Click on this link. The title of the page is the name of your band.

2. Click on this link. The last four words of the final quotation on the page are the title of your album.

3. Click on this link this link. The third picture is your album cover.

4. Take the pic, add your band name and album title.

I'm not particularly artistic, but I do like the result I came to:

It's pretty basic, so I'm not too sure why I like the end product so much. I think I like how the album title is almost nestled in the safest part of the flower, just waiting to be pushed out into the crazy world. I feel that way, sometimes, in my more depressed and sentimental moments. And I can imagine that I have enough of those to make a whole album from them, were I able to write music.

I would love to see the results of anyone that does this -- include the link in the comments, or if you just can't add two lines of text to a JPG, include your resulting band and album names in the comments, instead. I hope most of you that read this will participate. What if I say, "Please"? Please?

Friday Random Ten

"We Live" by Superchick on Beauty From Pain
"Overweight" by Blue October on Foiled
"Three Little Pigs" by Green Jelly on Dr. Dememto 25th Anniversary
"You Lord" by PFR* on Pray For Rain
"Sara" by Fleetwood Mac on Greatest Hits
"Pat A Pan" by Mannheim Steamroller on Christmas Live
"Solid As The Rock" by Michael English on Michael English
"The River" by Rich Mullins* on The World As Best As I Remember It, Vol. 1
"Lullaby" by Trout Fishing in America* on Big Trouble
"My Home Town" by Tom Lehrer on Songs & More Songs

This was a nice Friday afternoon mix of stuff that makes me wonder if my iTunes pick different stuff when I'm not at home. It wasn't a particularly Carolina-esque grouping, but it was mellow and very enjoyable.

* Acts I've seen live

Lo5tr0c%$

I recently changed my main password at work, so I can now share what my last one was. The title of my post is the password I used to get into my computer, several tools I use frequently, to get to about 3 other computers that I use regularly, and to get my email over the web. Not surprisingly, I typed it a lot. And every time, it made me smile. I know that's not a password's job. It's supposed to be secure, and I darn well think it succeeded. However, this password is a morphed version of:

LOST ROCKS!!!!!

So that's what I thought everytime I typed it, and that made me happy to think about. That password almost lasted me the full season, and I appreciate that happy spring pick-me-up that I've had.

Season 3 started to drag a bit, but season 4 has made up for it with a vengeance! There is a whole lotta story left, and just two more seasons. Can you tell I'm going to be in Lost withdrawal when I have to wait until the next season starts? Well, I will. Check in on me periodically -- I may have to write some of my posts from the Santa Rosa Mental Hospital if things get too bad!

New Name for the Crazy Sister

I definitely know people that know my family well, and for those people, I refer to my sisters by their names. However, for the many people with whom I speak that do not know my sisters, I have descriptive monikers for them instead -- they are my crazy sister and my baby sister. For a long time, it was just "my sister" and "my baby sister", but then the middle child embarked on a set of life experiences that deemed a new adjective appropriate for her.

The crazy sister has been through some drama in her life. She's testified at felony court martial proceedings, had a nine-month marriage involving restraining orders, spent time in nearly all Austin-area medical hospitals, gone to four different colleges, went missing from jobs and apartments, etc., etc., etc. I can't even begin to try to count the number of wallets/sets of keys/cell phones she's lost to have people throwing irresponsible in with the crazy. She's the kind of girl that, while not being the cause of all the drama around her, is certainly a magnet for cases of the crazies.

However, as she's grown up and matured in the last seven years since she enlisted in the Navy, she has really not had a crazy moment that I can point to in the last several years. They decided she'd make a good officer, and this weekend I was in North Carolina to celebrate with her as she graduated cum laude with a Nuclear Engineering degree and was commissioned as an Ensign in the Navy with orders to report to her ship in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in June. We had a wonderful weekend, including a graduation party she threw for all of the NE graduates, a spa day to celebrate our mother, and absolutely no scheduling snafus. Nice stuff. I'm proud of her, and all that she's come through to get to this major milestone this weekend.

So, it feels like I need to come up with a new name for her than "Crazy Sister". I could call her the "Navy Sister", but crazy was just so colorful that it was fun. I think that's why I kept using it while she was getting less and less crazy all the time. I'm sure it would help me remember that she's not so crazy if I quit calling her that, though, so I guess I should change it in my personal vocabulary.

If any of you hear me refer to her as the crazy sister in the future, please remind me she's no longer crazy.

(Not) Recommended: The Corrections

Kyle, previously/currently of Eight Parts and newly of The Letter Eleven regarding his new twin girls (hey, Kyle, what's up with the numbers in your blog names??), recommended that I read The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.

I completed reading it several months ago, but I've had a lot of trouble writing about it. At its most basic, the storyline is about a older midwestern couple that are trying to figure out how best to interact with their three children and the life choices they've made, choices that mostly go against everything that a midwestern family would have considered valuable. On the other side of things, the book is long enough to explore each character's complicated motivations for the way they interact with their family. There's the dad, who had been the breadwinner as an engineer and now is in failing health. He isn't sure how to connect with the family that he provided for, but was otherwise mostly uninvolved with for his whole life. There is the overinvolved mom, whose entire life is in the memories she built with her family in their midwestern house that is falling apart. If she gives in to the failing house, her life must be a failure, too, and you can see the struggle as her ailing husband has more and more trouble in that house. There's the oldest son who is fighting depression in a relationship that hasn't been supportive for years. His own kids have been largely turned against him during this time. He wants to support his parents, but only in the way that he deems best. The middle child, a daughter, ran to the big city to become a famous chef, married a much older man and had a closeted (to her family, at least) lesbian affair. She seems to be the only of the kids that actually sees her parents as people with real feelings, and wants to help them where they are and with whatever makes them most comfortable. Finally, there's the youngest son whose near addiction to sex got him in some trouble in his last job, making him reckless with new opportunities that come his way. After enough badgering, he puts on a show of caring about his parents, but almost in a my-life-is-such-a-mess-and-you've-got-a-place-I-can-sleep sort of way.

I can't say I really liked this story. It was so bleak (some may say realistic), and depressingly sad, not cathartic-emotional-outbreak-sad, that I can't really recommend it. Originally my title had been meant to indicate that the book had been recommended to me, but I realized it could also be taken to mean that I recommended it, so that's why you have what you have instead. The characters were incredibly realistic, the individual stories were each heartbreaking in their own way, but I just came away with this overall sad feeling for the way that we move on and ignore the people we came from that I can't say it was enjoyable. I just keep coming back to "bleak". If you've forgotten what that feeling feels like, please, by all means, use this book to remind yourself. Otherwise, just try to respect your elders and continue on with your life.

Friday Random Ten

In the spirit of getting back into the mode of posting regularly, I'm bringing back the random ten. You know, in case you're wondering what's in my iTunes these days.

"It's the End of the World As We Know It" by R.E.M. on Eponymous
"Alleluja from Exultate, Jubilate" by Mozart on Lutheran Summer Music Camp
"Almost September" by Trout Fishing in America* on Closer to the Truth
"Take It Easy" by The Eagles on Their Greatest Hits
"How Blue Can You Get" by B.B. King on B.B. King Anthology
"Stay" by PFR* on Pray For Rain
"I Wonder As I Wander" by Wayne Watson on One Christmas Eve
"This Blood" by Carman on The Absolute Best
"How To Grow Up Big and Strong" by Rich Mullins* on A Liturgy, A Legacy & A Ragamuffin Band
"I'm Coming Home" by C.J. Chenier on Zydeco Essentials

I've recently moved all my digital life to a new computer, so that lost all my records of which songs I've played in the iTunes library (I'm sure I could have transferred that, too, but I was too lazy to figure out how). Now, though, I'm thinking this resulted in an extra-crazy mix of music for the random ten today. Ah well -- nice start to a schizophrenic travel day.

* Acts I've seen live

Stolen Meme

I've gone to stealing memes from other people. I took this one from George. Here are the nitty gritty details of this meme that I stole.

Here are the rules:
A) The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
B) Each player answers the questions about himself or herself.
C) At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1) Ten years ago I was...

Stressing about my Complex Variables class, wondering whether I would get to graduate. To add to that stress, I was also finalizing the craziness on my fast-approaching wedding. Why I ever think I'm stressed now, I just don't know.

2) Five things on today's to-do list:

Get a customer's import working once and for all (it's been marginally working for several years)
Clean both bathrooms in preparation for being out of town next week
Change the utilities over to our names from the previous owner
Clean up the kitchen
Run a 5k

3) Things I'd do if I were a billionaire:

Reduce my job to part-time (I still have to do something with my brain to keep from going insane!)
Pay the house down significantly
Buy a Tesla Roadster
Find groups that are doing good alternative energy research, and donate time and money
Go back to school for a completely different career

4) Three bad habits:

Only three?!?!?!?

Biting my nails
Getting down on myself
Leaving the dirty dishes for the next morning

5) Five places I've lived:

Only five?!?!?!?!?

Hong Kong; Barrio Magsaysay, The Philippines; Ames, Iowa; Austin, Texas; Fort Wayne, Indiana

(I have quite a few more, but these are the ones you get.)

6) Six jobs I've had in my life:

Nursery worker, waitperson, summer camp counselor, tech support manager, math department grader, customer service representative.

I have more of those, like the one I have now, but hey, the meme only asks for six. Meanwhile, I tag James, Monica, Stephanie. I also think Cat and Rosa should do this, and even though I don't have a blog to link to, y'all can do this in the comments. Shouldn't take too long!

Blind Date #2

Yesterday I went on my second blind date with a girl from my Craigslist experiment. You can read the result of the first, here.

This second date wasn't quite as great as the first one. We met for happy hour, and she drank water, which immediately made me uncomfortable with my margarita order. However, the conversation flowed smoothly, and I'm sure we'll get together again. So, while I say it wasn't as great as the first, it still was great in its own more-subdued way. I'm hoping this is just one of those relationships that starts out more slowly, but builds to something deeper over time.

So far, I'm two for two. There will be second dates in both cases. Woohoo!

Tiptoe Through the Tulips: Epiphyllum (Orchid Cactus)

Several things collided at once to lead to this new feature on HIAHS. One is that I seem to need a motivating reason to post periodically, or we'll end up with no new posts here. Another is that we have a bunch of plants in our yard (!It's really ours now, so I better get a handle on it!) that I really need to identify -- who knew that California plants would be so different from the Texas plants I already know? As a result, I'll be taking a picture (or multiple pictures) each week of plants in the yard here, and then working on identifying them. And you'll get to be witness to all the botanical mistakes that I'll make along the way. Lucky for you!

Our first entrant for TTTT is this lovely hanging cactusy thing in the yard:








It hangs in the trees, and the blooms are 4-5 inches across. It appears to be one of the many epiphyllum hybrids (not sure which one, but it might also be a type of disocactus, but that seems less likely). Sometimes referred to as Orchid Cacti (though those bloom strictly at night, and ours is more of a day-time bloomer), they shouldn't be watered more than once a week, as they get grumpy if too moist. Mostly, though, they just pick up moisture from the air, so they do fine on their own. Usually they will flower in the couple of days after being watered, so if you're coming for a visit, remind me to water it, so you can enjoy all the pretty flowers on it in person.

I hope my tentativity (sounded better than tentativeness in my head, grammar be darned) with plant identification gets better. I think we all will be able to see pretty clearly why I didn't become a botanist.

Future Dating will Save Me

I clearly suck at posting. When I do post, I find myself wanting to write 3-4 posts and then if I post them all, people will be back the next day expecting more. And then I just imagine all their depressed faces when they notice it's been 6 weeks since my last entry. I hate the idea that I am adding so much sadness to the world (can you all detect the sarcasm dripping off my fingers?), and now Blogger has come to my rescue. I will now be able to put together all my crazy posts, and then space them out to keep you coming back for more. Because that's what I'm all about. Type-written whoring of my self for your consumption.

I hope you're all a little happier.

* This post future-dated, just for fun.

In the Not-Sure-How-That-Happened Camp

The six-month offer process on our hours came to a close about a week ago. I haven't written about it, mostly, because of a whole host of reasons. Let me try to go into them here.

1. I'm not completely convinced it was real. Besides the fact that in this state you sign documents and then wait a couple of days for the really anti-climactic "closing" to happen, maybe, it really feels like the second shoe is waiting to drop.

2. I'm not sure that buying a house in an expensive market in an economy that is approaching depression (or at least recession) during a mortgage crisis is the smartest financial move we've made. More likely the worst one.

3. Until the owner removes her belongings from the house (circa 2030 at the current rate of things), it's pretty hard for us to start doing the remodeling that I know will get me all excited about owning a house again.

4. The first mortgage bill hasn't come, and until that happens, I can't really be sure the loan went through (see item #1).

5. I don't have another reason, but five reasons just seemed more symmetrical than four.

So, we have a house. And I'm a little freaked out. But I expect that to pass as we start doing more and more crazy things to it. Fast-forward to the nifty idea we just discussed about a secret passageway to the basement from the stairs in the living room for an idea of the direction we're planning to head. Expect pictures to chronicle the craziness that will be our improvements.

Blind Date

I know I've been MIA for a while, but traveling and house-buying and general craziness has been going on. I'll be filling you in on all those things that have already passed, but in the meantime, I wanted to tell you about my blind date from yesterday.

Yes, I went on a blind lunch date yesterday. It was in response to a Craigslist personal ad. It is as sad and pathetic as it sounds. And it went loverly.

I've decided that this whole trying-to-make-friends thing is WAY harder than I expected it to be. I knew I worked from home and I knew I wouldn't have a lot of ways to meet people, but I really expected everyone in this town not to be so, well, old. There are college kids over by campus, but I've been out of college a long time now. I've met some people watching basketball at sports bars, but they are all widowed men over 70. Not, precisely, my type for the casual friendship. Now, if I wanted a sugar daddy, I'm sure I'd have no trouble. But, see, I don't want a sugar daddy. I've met some wonderful ladies at my church, but I'm younger than the group I know by a good 20 years. At least. Lovely ladies, but not likely to join me for a cocktail on a Friday night. My neighbors avoid me like the plague. I'm assuming that's just carryover from the previous owner who everyone seems to have hated, rather than something aimed at me for all the wild parties we host here. Even the people standing next to me in lines look at me like a mental assylum escapee when I try to strike up conversations with them. It's like I violate every known rule of polite society when I go to the grocery store.

So, I responded to a few personal ads from other desperate women, like me, looking for that elusive friendship in this town. The first face-to-face meeting was lunch, yesterday. I really felt like I was prepping for a date. I referred to it as my blind date with GB, which made him just laugh at me. I was nervous, and prepped a few conversation re-starting questions, should they be necessary. Would she like me? Would she think I'm a dork? Would we have anything to talk about? Would she be fake? Will I hope to get that hour of my life back?

It turns out I had nothing to fear. Heather and I hit it off immediately. How couldn't we? -- we have the same name! After the two-hour lunch, with margaritas, we wandered over to the rose garden, which is just exploding with smells and beauty this spring. After a few more hours, we headed to our respective homes with vehement statements about how we must do this again, real soon.

I have my next blind date from this experience on Monday for Happy Hour. Be sure to check back to see how that went. Already, though, I feel better. My meeting on Monday is likely to have so many less nerves than yesterday did. Maybe I should have done a practice blind date to prepare for it....

Finally

I have finally finished playing an online game that has been taking up my blogging time. My team won tonight, and now I can safely exit the world of the real-time simulated browser war game. Never to return again.

I am so ashamed, but I wasn't ashamed enough to stop playing, so take that for what you will.

Death and Taxes

Today I would prefer death to taxes. Well, not really, but man did they suck this year. Combine the fact that we sold our big deduction-stuffer with moving to a state where we have to pay 10% income taxes over and above the federal taxes, and they just were not pretty this time around. The sales tax is maybe half a percent higher in Texas with no income tax, so this was a rude, rude awakening. Where does all that money go? I can tell you it doesn't go into the highways. At least not the ones I drive on. I feel like I'm paying the state government for the good weather. I'm just going to assume that money is used on services that don't apply to me, which while not particularly ideal, makes me feel better than some alternative idea that some politicians or lobbyists are getting fat on my 10%.

House Update

The pests have been exterminated, the rotted wood has been replaced, the deposit has been wired, and lots of other details have been figured out. I'm returning from Hawaii (another post to come) today, GB returns from his work trip Thursday morning, and we will be signing lots of paperwork that afternoon. Then I leave on Saturday for a week in Austin during which we officially become house owners in California. Nothing like cramming a few too many things into a few too few days.

Anyone have ideas for gifts for the many people involved in pulling this all together? My current list looks like this:

1. Our realtor -- Above and beyond doesn't begin to describe what she's done over the last seven months. Everything from updates during the nothing-is-happening part of this process to pulling strings to make a pest fumigation occur with 24 hours notice. She's gotten quotes on custom spindles for the front porch, and her contacts for various parts of the necessary renovation and repairs have been wonderful, professional people. I can recommend her whole-heartedly to anyone that needs a realtor out in this area -- just drop me a line! And some ideas on an appropriate gift!

2. Our mortgage broker -- GB and I are beyond financially risk averse. Any more afeared and we'd just cash our paychecks and keep the money in our mattress. Combine that with a sketchy mortgage market and a significant hike in real estate prices and you have a couple of nervous nellies that need a whole lot of assurance that we can really do this thing. He did more calculations and comparisons among different possible products and options and payments and craziness than any person should have to do. To make us comfortable with what we're doing would take superman, and that's what we got. (No worries -- we're not getting in over our heads...at least not too badly.)

3. The bank manager -- At the last minute, we needed to wire money from our bank account while we were in Hawaii. The bank manager, while indicating that she couldn't wire money without our original signature, came up with the alternate solution that we could do a cashier's check without said signature. Deposit crisis averted!

What great people we've had to work with through this process. Now I just have to figure out now to properly thanks them.

Recommended: Theories of Relativity

This was another book suggested for reading by James. This one was phenomenal. It was one of those books I was happy wasn't 1000 pages, not because 230 pages was enough, but only because I couldn't put it down. I've never been able to read 1000 pages straight, without sleeping. I could have easily gobbled up anything more that Barbara Hawother-Attard had told us about our protagonist's life. He was just that fascinating.

Dylan is a 16-year-old kid whose mom has decided he's inconvenient for the story she's telling the latest boyfriend. Dylan has to go, and she doesn't really care what happens to him after that. He's relegated to street life where he befriends good and bad while learning to navigate this entirely new world. There's no time for school, what with needing to beg for money and food and looking for places to sleep that won't end up with you on the wrong side of anybody. But he's a smart kid -- he wants to use that brain of his. As someone who's never lived on the streets, it seemed to be an appropriately alternating experience for him, from destroyed trust to hunger to opportunity to lost chances to self-discovery to rock bottom to second chances. I ached with him and rooted for him and found myself hoping desperately that he would find some sort of redemption through all of this.

Pick up a copy, and enjoying this journey of the human spirit. You might just find yourself volunteering at the local homeless shelter, and how can anything that makes you help your fellow man be bad?

Travel Crisis Averted

We had booked our next trip, a flight to Hawaii for an old friend's wedding, through Southwest on some airline no one's heard of. Said airline declared bankruptcy and ceased passenger operations this past week. Today I spent one hour, 16 minutes, and 37 seconds on the phone with Southwest as they worked to reaccommodate us on another flight. The rep on the line was so apologetic with the time it took to get it all done, but ultimately? Success! We have a flight out on Northwest and a flight back on US Airways. The timing of these flights aren't as nice, but what the heck -- I don't have to call the bride and tell her we won't be there, so that's a win-win in my book! Yay for reaccommodation!

The Foolish Man Built His House Upon The Sand

Do you remember that old Sunday school song?

The foolish man built his house upon the sand.
The foolish man built his house upon the sand.
The foolish man built his house upon the sand,
And the rains came tumbling down.

The rains came down and the floods came up.
The rains came down and the floods came up.
The rains came down and the floods came up,
And the house on the sand went splat.

Something like that. And then there is a verse about the wise man building on the rock and doing so much better, but hey, that doesn't apply to us and our house.

After our offer was accepted, we went into inspection overdrive. We started with the physical inspection, which uncovered some concerns. So, we had a pest company, three electricians, a plumber, and four foundation experts come out over a two-week perios. We'd had the pest report done before when this process stalled out six months ago, so we knew what to expect there. The electrical review looked pretty much like we expected. However, the plumber found that our water heater under the house is incorrectly vented, so we are at risk for carbon monoxide in the living areas. I haven't keeled over dead yet, but I'm all for blaming any slow down in my productivity on low-level CO poisoning. :) Meanwhile, the foundation review was the most disheartening of them all. We knew that some retrofitting of the foundation had been done, but it was less that what was necessary, so we now need a full perimeter redo and some drainage correction (there was a lot of moisture under the house and rotting boards in the existing foundation). I guess this is common out here, but there's something about a repair that is half the cost of your last house that is downright depressing. But, we really like this house. So we put together our request for repair, and sent it to the owner who, shockingly, approved it.

At this point, we're targeting a closing for two weeks from now. With all the scare about mortgages, the lender won't give us a loan without a whole lot more paperwork, including the pest work being done. While we were in Oregon, they did the tenting and fumigation of the house for the flying termites that appear to get every house out here about every 10 years. This house had had them for a while, and there was also dry rot, so now we've got carpenters at the house every day working on replacing the rotted or eaten porch boards and siding areas and whatnot. They are expecting to be done next week some time, so the painter can get in and do his thing, so the pest company can say the house is pest free so the lender will give us the biggest debt we'd never imagined. The hoops, I tell you!!

In order for the fumigation process to be done, the gas company had to turn out the gas. When they came out today to turn it back on, they said they couldn't legally turn on the water heater because of the venting problem. They left us with no hot water. Ugh. We turned the water heater on anyway, but it's clear we're going to have to take care of that issue pretty quickly. With all the work we need done, all kinds of folks will be in and out of here with permits, etc., and it just won't do if they all complain about the heater.

Who knew that in addition to an unstable wreck, we were also getting ourselves into a death trap? We've been living here a year, and paying rent, and that just makes me grumpy. Soon enough we'll be able to take care of these issues and get the house back to where it belongs.

Oregon Trails

We returned last night from our long weekend trip to Oregon. We took the train up there...correction...We took the train to Sacramento, and then mudslides on the tracks required us to take a bus the rest of the way. The train ride was wonderful, the bus ride was cramped and awful. Let's just talk about the train ride and pretend the bus ride didn't happen.

The train runs along the coast from where we caught it in Santa Barbara up to just about San Francisco. You've got the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other, and it's like you're in this gorgeous mural. It just doesn't seem real -- the colors are too bright or something. The train was also very relaxing. We were just hanging out in coach, but the seats are like first class on an airplane with a nearly full recline, foot rests, and extra-wide seats. It makes it confortable for sleeping when you're on the train for 12 hours at a stretch. Then, you don't have to stay in your seat -- you can get up and walk around, sit at a dining table for lunch, or strike up a game of cards with one of the strangers you're traveling with. Very relaxing and almost luxurious travel. It's cheaper than flying, but takes longer than driving, so there's your tradeoff.

Once we got up to Oregon, we saw several plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. A Midsummer Night's Dream had been done in a 70's disco style, and was a lot of fun. High energy and happy people in the audience always make a play more fun to be at. We ended up seeing Coriolanus on opening night, and it was clear there was still some rust to be worked out, but it's a good story on class struggles that, while it's not one of Shakespeare's most commonly done play, is a good thought-provoking study. I'm sure this one will get better as the season progresses. Then we saw two non-Shakespeare plays, too. One was a play that had been commissioned for OSF called Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter. This was a different take on the war play, focusing on the difficulty of one returning vet to readjust back into civilian life after her experience. It was well done, with great little quirky characters to keep it from getting too heavy. Finally, we saw August Wilson's Fences. This is GB's favorite play, and I can see why. The characters have such powerful relationships with each other, and they're such good people struggling with the changes in the world, that the poignancy is strongly applicable to virtually everyone (okay, awkward sentence, but I'm moving on). When you have a play where three separate characters move you to tears, there is no way to get out of the theatre afterwards without everyone knowing you've been crying -- red face, puffy eyes, the works. But a great story, and really well done.

All in all, a great weekend. The kind that makes you ready to get back to work and hit the ground running. Time to get back to that!

Spring Travels in Full Swing

We have managed to seriously overschedule our spring this year. We have quite a few trips planned, and we just got back from our first one.

We went to Orlando for a week. GB had a class to go to for work along with a couple of coworkers, so I tagged along with the intention to work in the hotel while they were in class. The hotel internet connection had different plans for me, so it became a catch-as-catch-can week of work. That part of it was stressful, but somewhere along the line I've figured out how to turn off the work thoughts when I stop working. I think it's called something like "burnout". Oh well. The world shouldn't cave in on itself if I have a less than 110% productive week, and it turns out that it didn't.

While we were there, we did Universal Studios and Disney World. While I had a nice time, I think I have enough of prepackaged fun for a while. We also went to a science museum with lots of cool hands-on exhibits. I enjoyed that quite a bit, especially the phone-booth-sized category one hurricane simulation. We hit up a dinner murder mystery theatre, played pirate mini golf, and ate a lot of good food.

But the clear highlight of the trip for me was the early Tuesday morning shuttle launch that we witnessed. The launch was at 2:30am, and it was a cloudy pitch black -- no stars, no moon, no natural light at all. We were set to watch the launch from about 6 miles away. As we listened to the countdown approach zero, the light from the ignited jet fuel lit everything up like it was mid-day. It was phenomenal how fast the dark went to light, and then when the shuttle got past the cloud cover, it went right back to black again. I worked as an intern in one small portion of the space program back when I was in college, and I've always wanted to see a launch, so this was extra exciting. I did try to take pictures, but they just didn't do justice to the experience, so I'm leaving them out.

This was also our next installment in vacationing with another couple. It worked pretty well, but there's nothing like spending 24 hours a day for 9 days with people to find out what annoys you about them. But, for the most part, we all got along pretty well. Course, GB actually has to work with them, so if there is going to be any awkwardness, it'll be on him. Poor guy.

Anyway, so we made it through our first trip. More installments coming soon!

I Guess We're In Escrow

For the strangest house-buying story in these many years, you've come to the right place.

Labor Day week, 2007 -- We made our first offer on this house a full six months ago. The owner said she had to get a few things in place to be ready for that. By the end of September, we were already steeling our resolve for this process.

October, 2007 -- By this point, we'd mostly figured we were in to waiting for the old year to leave and the new year to appear before there would be any moment.

November, 2007 -- The owner has the gall to say something to the effect of "I'm still not ready to deal in writing, but let's talk verbally. If I would have come back in September, XX would have been the number." I was ready to walk away. The number was only 4% off her asking price that was excessive. (Why do you think she's had this house on and off the market for two years with no offers? hmmmm...priced too high, maybe??) Besides being disgusted with the number, what's that about pretending that two months hadn't passed since we put our offer in? Doesn't that count for anything? We say thanks, but no thanks, we'll wait until she can deal in writing.

December, 2007 -- We keep getting updates every couple of days that she's "really close now."

January, 2008 -- We get the word that she's ready to deal in writing! Hallelujah! We submit a new offer that looks remarkably like our offer from September. The market here basically hadn't changed, so that seemed reasonable to us. Two days later we get a request for a 5-day extension. The extension is granted. And expires. Apparently she wasn't as ready to deal in writing as things were presented to us. Meanwhile, there are a lot of new houses going on the market, so we get out and look at the new inventory. There's not a lot we're interested in, so we keep waiting.

February, 2008 -- Crisis! We find a house we LOVE! It's quirky, cute, in great shape, cheaper than the house we're in, and quirky. Ultimately, we decide it's too quirky and that limits resale potential (and there's nothing we want less than to be stuck with a piece of expensive California real estate we can't sell). We go back to waiting.

Last Wednesday -- We hear she's ready to deal in writing. Yeah right. Pardon my skepticism, but we've heard that one before. So, we resubmit our same offer a third time. Friday afternoon I get a call from our realtor. Sit down -- we have a written, signed counter! And even better, it's in the ballpark of our offer!! We sleep on it, and send our counter back on Saturday (split evenly between our offer and her counter, and magically, our target price). We have counter 3 back to us within a few hours (just $5k more -- she apparently had some superstitious issue about the number we countered with, and over 30 years, that's just $43/month, so I think we can handle that). She signs it, and we have an executed contract Saturday night. Wait -- did that actually happen? After six months of waiting, we have a deal in three days?? And it's a deal I'm happy with?

Well, I've slept since then and rechecked the docs. We do actually have a signed contract. She wanted a 30-day close, too, rather than the 60-day one we proposed. So, that would put us closing on April Fools Day. I think we found the joke. Since we'll be on a train that day, we'll actually likely close on the 2nd or 3rd and avoid all that. Why will we be on a train? We've got a long weekend we planned to Oregon back in our we're-never-buying-a-house-anyway days. In the meantime, there is a lot to do. And since I'm the one with the early afternoon schedule, I'll be dealing with most of it. Tomorrow we have the inspection scheduled. Tuesday I meet with the mortgage company. The pest inspection will be no later than Wednesday. We'll probably have to have a carpenter out for a quote on some of the pest work that will result in some wood replacements. All needs to be done by Friday. Why Friday? Well, we leave for Orlando on Friday, and we'll be gone for the week on a trip we planned back in (you guessed it!) our we're-never-buying-a-house-anyway days. Since we're pretty confident the house will need to be tented for pest issues, we want that to happen while we're gone. Plus, with these two trips, we'll be gone 14 of our 30-day escrow, which means we have some really busy days the 16 we're actually in town.

I'm overwhelmed just thinking about it. But I'm smiling, too. Can't you tell how excited I am by all the punctuation I've used in this post? That and the run-ons and sentence fragments? Hee hee. :)

What do They Say About the Eye of the Beholder?

I have a new piece of art. It's jewelry, sort of. At least that's how I've decided to treat it. Here it is -- my new bracelet:



I know, it's a piece of bike chain. But you have to understand that it's not just any bike chain, it's the piece that caused so much fun a few weeks ago.

There's nothing like a bracelet with no opening requiring a person to slide it on and off to remind you that the right side of your body is significantly larger than the left side of your body. It's really hard to get this thing over the right hand, but on the left, I'm convinced it will slide off of its own accord. My right foot is half a shoe size larger than the left, and let's not even discuss what that means for brasierre purchasing. Regardless, do you have one side of your body that's bigger than the other? Which side is it?

My Husband and Privacy

My husband (let's call him GB), has an overdeveloped conspiracy gene. I had a boss many years ago that woud spout off these theories from way out in left field (his one about how the sniper in DC some years back was actually a mercenary of the US government planted there so they could declare a military state is one that comes to mind). I would bring these home and share them, and GB would chime in, "Well...you know, that might not be that far off."

He is a technophile, but won't pay bills online. He's convinced that there would be a breach of security and our number would be used by everyone and their dog. He freaked out when I was buying things online before he'd gotten a chance to research a company and their security methods. Every once in a while he mumbles something about a manifesto and moving to Montana and living like a hermit.

When he found out that I use my real name on my blog, he lectured me on the need for anonymity in this internet world. Because there aren't, you know, a gazillion Heathers out there in the world. But see, he knows I have a tendency to share too much. Sure I've had bad experiences (stolen credit card numbers, threatening phone calls, house eggings, car keyings, attempted break-ins), but I've had significant good experiences in life to feel optimistic about what I share on the internet. Like the time I told a church member that I would love to play French Horn in the church brass group, but I just couldn't afford to buy one, and wouldn't you know she had one sitting in her closet at home waiting for one of her boys to want it. Or the time I shared I would cook something different every day for a month and got invited to write my first feature article for an actual printed publication. Plus, I don't generally think people are out to get me, which is likely the primary difference between GB and me.

Meanwhile, last year he saw his name in a couple of early posts, and nearly went ballistic. DIDN'T I UNDERSTAND THAT HIS NAME NEXT TO MY NAME NARROWED THE FIELD OF WHO WE ARE DOWN TO A MUCH SMALLER NUMBER??? Well, yeah, but most of the people that read this set of drivel are people I know in real life. Or at least the ones that comment. And others are such regular commenters that I feel like I do know them. But, since I'm apparently supposed to be afraid of all of you if I put GB's first name on here, I decided to come up with that nickname for him. See, typing the word "husband" is exceptionally tedious and lends to very poor sentence construction around any reference to him. So, I'm done with that. He will be referred to as GB, and for those of you who know his real name, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't cause panic in our household by using his actual name in the comments.

It took me a surprisingly long time to come up with a nickname for him, considering GB is short for the most common thing I call him. Creativity has never been something I've been particularly good at. I can brainstorm with other people towards a good result, but I can't really do it on my own. I've tried and it's always a really bad attempt. GB thinks all blogs should be completely fictitious. Or at least mine should, anyway (you know, so that way I don't give out any real details). Essentially, I should make up a persona and write entries from this completely other point of view that I should inhabit as wholly as possible. And that sounds much too much like a novel or creative writing or some other thing that sounds like a pretty daunting thing to attempt. How would I keep my lies straight? I've never been good at that. On the other hand, there are topics I could feel a lot more comfortable writing about if no one I knew was reading. So maybe it's worth a try. But if I do that, don't expect me to ever link off this one to the other.

Recommended: Speak

Periodically, people recommend books that actually sound interesting. More often, people recommend books that sound perfectly hideous, and I tend to smile and nod and forget the title and author as quickly as I can. Every once in a while, though, something strikes my interest and I put the book on my list. At the beginning of the year, I took my list and ordered them all. I thought I'd tell you about some of the ones I read and what I thought of them.

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, was brought to my attention by James, and sounded like an easy read, if not an easy subject. It only took a couple of pages to figure out what had happened at the party last summer. So, while the story seemed to be trying to accomplish some big surprise ending, that part of it didn't work. However, the rest of the story really gets you into our protagonist's, Melinda's, head, and that makes the whole read valuable and even enjoyable.

After the "party incident", Melinda retreats into her own mind. She loses all her friends and starts to fall way behind in school. She won't talk to anyone, not to peers, not teachers, not her family. She has no one that really sees or notices how much she's changed since last year in the "before". Her only sort-of-friend is a new girl who moved in this year. She has all new teachers. Her parents are much too self-absorbed to notice anything about her personality changes. So, she is left to her own devices, and they aren't really enough. Through some caring teachers and some well-placed graffiti, she finds that she must give voice to the secret she's carried all year, leading to a triumphant turnaround in her life.

It's an interesting read, especially since so many people are the victims of the myriad varieties of sex-based crimes. I would imagine that a lot of people would draw strength to share their own stories based on a book like this. The more stories people hear, the more likely they are to see the signs of such a sad situation for what they are. Not everyone reacts to such an experience in the way our character did here, but it's one more reaction to add to your known list of "symptoms" for the sufferer.

Interesting Movies about a Lack of Interestingness

This week, we went to a screening of Helvetica over at UCSB. My husband has an obsession with documentaries, so we've seen a lot of them. Some of them are beyond boring and some of them redeem the genre. I fully expected 80 minutes about a boring typeface to fall into the former category. And while it didn't fall into the latter category, either, I learned something, so I guess most documentaries would consider that a win.

The font ended up just being a starting point from which to examine the changes in the graphical design world over the last 50-60 years. Who knew people could get so worked up about how great or evil a font is? The whole film pitted the Helvetica-is-so-clean-there-is-no-confusing-what's-being-said folks against the Helvetica-is-so-regimented-it's-akin-to-"The Man"-keeping-you-down folks. You'd think a little conflict would make for a compelling story, but it barely made a story. At least they tried to have a plot, of sorts.

I guess there's a reason I'm not in graphic design, and I can't really recommend that you run out and watch this immediately. However, if you are interested in the design aspect of various printed materials, you could find this an enlightening little piece. I personally found this a perfect reason to dig up this old YouTube video about a different font. I found this a lot funnier, and it's certainly shorter.

Friday Random Ten

"Daddy" by Jewel on Pieces of You
"When I Get Home" by 4HIM on Face The Nation
"Cry the Name" by Rich Mullins* on Brother's Keeper
"Everything I Said" by The Cranberries on No Need To Argue
"Papa Loved Mama" by Garth Brooks on The Hits
"Fear" by Elizabeth Donihoo* on Dream
"A City on a Hill" by Patsy Moore on Regarding the Human Condition
"Say It All Again" by Wayne Watson on A Beautiful Place
"Heaven Knows" by When In Rome on When In Rome
"The Scotsman" by Brian Bowers

I can't find any kind of theme on this one, but any random ten that includes lines like these especially choice ones is okay by me:

"Papa loved Mama; Mama loved men. Now Mama's in the graveyard and Papa's in the pen'."
"I wonder if it's true what they don't wear beneath their kilt."

And so, I accept this random ten, even if it's too random to come up with anything to say about it.

*Acts I've seen live.

Friday Random Ten

This week appears to be an instrumental week. Normally I would mind, but these were good instrumental things.

>"Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean" by Explosions in the Sky on The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
"Twisting By The Pool" by Dire Straits on Money For Nothing
"Oh, Boy!" by Buddy Holly & The Crickets on From The Originial Master Tapes
>"Linus And Lucy" by the Vince Guaraldi Trio on A Charlie Brown Christmas
"Cuyahoga" by R.E.M. on Life's Rich Pageant
"When You Called My Name" by the Newsboys on Going Public
>"Horn Concerto No. 2 in E Flat Major" by Mozart, played by Dennis Brain on Mozart: Horn Concertos
>"78 Eastonwood Green" by Rich Mullins* on A Liturgy, A Legacy & A Ragamuffin Band
"The Icicle Melts" by The Cranberries on No Need To Argue
>"Rainbow Chaser" by Hewlett Crist on The Rio Grande Songs II

The Horn Concerto would be the sleeper of the group, except that I played that as a solo for contest one year, so I know it very well. Mozart wrote annoyingly difficult pieces for piano (almost difficult for the sake of being difficult, rather than for a particular sound), but his pieces for French Horn really highlight the strengths of that instrument. I wish I still had one of those laying around to play periodically.

* Acts I've seen live
> Instrumental entries

Jars of Clay in an Unlikely Spot

So, I admit it. I watched the pilot of "Eli Stone" that came on after "Lost" last week. Go ahead. Get in all the comments you know you want to make about me being sucked into the marketing monster.

I probably won't watch it again. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this is no earth-shattering piece of television work. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.

The thing that makes it notable was that while I was watching it, I thought I was going crazy. Just after the opening credits, I frantically looked to see why my iTunes spontaneously started playing. See, I heard "Good Monsters" by Jars of Clay, and who'd've thunk that would be in any mainstream TV show. But there it was.

And, of course, it makes sense. A song about people struggling to do the right thing in a world that expects the other (a big law firm in this case) would fit nicely into such a song. Jars had attempted such a foray into mainstream video media before, with a song they wrote for the movie The Long Kiss Goodnight. The scene the song was for was cut, but the song was still on the soundtrack for the movie. It was nice to see they didn't get cut this time, though I don't imagine it will be long before this show is cut. Unless the writer's strike lasts and this is all they have filmed.

Non-Standard Cell Phone Uses

I know cell phones are primarily for talking to people that are somewhere else, but golly gee whillickers, they have some fancy other uses. I'm sure others of you have used them for clocks (who wears a watch anymore?) and for alarms (who travels with an alarm clock or wants to depend on the one in the hotel room?).

But do you use yours as a flashlight? I do. Every morning I get up, get dressed in the dark, so as not to disturb the sleeping husband, grab my phone off the nightstand, and step into the dark house that exists outside of the bedroom at five o'clock in the morning. It's a scary place, and I don't keep it as picked up as I should. To avoid stubbing my toe and making all manner of loud noises that would undo all the quiet dressing I did moments before, I open my phone and let the soft blue backlight lead the way to my upstairs office.

Any odd uses you put your phone to?

Running Again

I've decided I'm done being a slacker. I haven't been running or doing much else in the way of exercise for a long time, and that's just not acceptable.

Today, I just got back from my 1-minute run. I know that sounds pathetic, and it is, but hear me out. There is a certain amount of aerobic exercise that is just there to get you going and warmed up and to remind your body how to burn fat and not just the easy glucose that hangs out in the bloodstream. Most everything I've ever read says that takes about 30 minutes. That means everything before that half-hour point basically is just the stuff you do before the part of the workout that actually does you any good.

And after months of no running, I'm just glad my run today actually counted.

Friday Random Ten

I think iTunes was trying to make me feel bad about not using the random feature for a while. It served up a lot of old favorites, and seems to nearly read as a "who's who" of bands I've seen live.

"Keeping My Eyes On Him" by Geoff Moore & The Distance* on Pure And Simple
"Peace (A Communion Blessing from St. Joseph's Square)" by Rich Mullins* on A Liturgy, A Legacy & A Ragamuffin Band
"Just Around the Riverbend" from Pocahontas
"One For My Baby (And One For The Road)" by Bette Midler on Experience The Divine
"California Girls" by The Beach Boys on The Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
"He" by Jars of Clay* on Jars of Clay
"Peace To The World" by B.B. King on Live At The Apollo
"No Holly For Miss Quinn" by Enya on Shepherd Moons
"When I Was A Dinosaur" by Trout Fishing In America* on Big Trouble
"Blind Man, Deaf Boy" by PFR* on Great Lengths

It was an excessively mellow ten, but it was just right for where I was today.

Lost Speculation

Just in time for the start of Season 4 of Lost this week, I completed rewatching all of seasons 1, 2, and 3. I was looking for clues, and I think I found some interesting ones that have me onto a new theory. For example, the guy that child-Ben meets in the woods when he goes looking for his mother is Richard (the guy that gives Locke the file on Sawyer). I'm almost certain of it, though I can find no confirmation nor denial of that in the credits -- that character is entirely uncredited. Or maybe he's not, because he also appears elsewhere in that episode, so he's credited for that name. Also, I was reminded of the fact that Mikhail came back from fatal injuries twice (being pushed through the sonic wall and the speargun to the heart in the Looking Glass station).

This really got me thinking that there are people that must really be "special" people. These people are completely invincible on the island. This is why some of them actually want to stay. Richard is one of these people (no aging in the time from Ben's boyhood to adulthood -- 30ish years?), and Mikhail and Walt. John Locke is also, clearly, one of these people. Not only was he cured of his paralysis, he recovered from the shot Ben made to his chest. Those are pretty much the only ones I know for sure. Ben, however, is not special. He is aging, he got a spinal tumor, he didn't recover from that quickly, etc. He is a poser, and works very hard to keep up the facade, but he knows he isn't really one of the special people. He's even more afraid when he finds that Jacob talked to Locke -- more confirmation that Locke truly is special...and will figure out that Ben isn't, soon enough.

This also makes me think that John Locke is the man in the coffin during the flash-forward. Locke's specialness must have been revealed somewhere along the way, and Jack is now convinced that he was the only way back to the island. Of course, off the island, Locke would be without his invincibleness, and could die.

There are also a couple of unanswered questions that I have no idea how to fit into what we know. For example, in the season 3 finale with the flash-forward, Jack's dad is alive again. Does this mean time was really split before the crash event, and there's a timeline where Jack's dad didn't die in Sydney? That doesn't seem to jive with the idea that the island magnetic event caused the crash/split, which seems pretty crucial to be true. Why did the Others/Hostiles allow Ben to become their leader after the purge of the Dharma Initiative folks? Are there any of the rest of that group still around, or were they all imports that have since died? Also, it's clear that some people are "special" and some aren't. What this "special-ness" really entails is still a mystery. It's odd that Ben puts so much emphasis on having been born on the island, like that's what does it, but we can be pretty sure that 3 of the 4 "specials" weren't born on the island. Maybe the importable "specials" are very rare, and that's why they are working so hard to get on-island pregancy to work out. That's my best guess, at the moment. There are plenty more questions, but those are the big ones in my mind. What are your biggest questions? Your wackiest theories?

I'm so excited to see what transpires in the next couple of seasons. I don't have any TV reception (no antenna, no cable), so I'll be watching online the day after it airs. Please don't ruin any surprises for me, but I shouldn't be too far behind you. Happy puzzling!

Visiting Austin

Continuing with the catchup phase of my blog, we find ourselves in the middle of December, and in Austin. I keep finding an excuse to make a trip to Austin about once a quarter. This time it was to train a new person for my team. Conveniently, that coincided with the company holiday party, and my husband's food poisoning back home. I can handle most all kinds of injuries and illness, but puking puts me completely on edge, so I'm happy I missed that little adventure.

As far as the trip to Austin, I'm glad I went, and wish I hadn't, all in the same breath. I love seeing everyone, and I really feel I have to stay a while to catch as many people as I can, but it's also so tiring. Partly, I've become a wimp, but I just can't stay up until 11pm every night. I just wake up between 5 and 6 each morning, even on the weekends. So, after 10 days of 6 or 7 hours of sleep a night (and I'm strictly an 8-hour night girl!), I was really tired. Tired Heather leads to grumpy Heather and it's not pretty after that.

As much as I love working from home, I find myself needing to be in Austin periodically, just so the people I work with don't forget about me. And those are stressful visits, where I'm working, but not getting anything done for all the meetings and conversations I get pulled into. Not sure what to do with that, but it's been weighing on me. I think the unansweredness in my head is what made it hard to finish this short, little post.

Persistent or Stupid? You Decide

We have tickets to one of the local theatres here, but the night we had wasn't going to work out. So, I needed to exchange them for another night. I also really wanted to play with the handbell choir at my church here, because I just haven't played in a really long time. Neither of these errands was particularly close to the house, but my husband had to transport something large to work that day, so he had the car.

My choice was to bike to these two places, or not to go.

I hadn't been biking for a couple of weeks, so I knew it would be tough going. Also, the front derailleur on my bike was broken off in the move, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it. That reduces my 21-speed bike to a more sedate 7-speed. And you never really know what set of seven you'll get, because the chain is rather loose, so it skips around on the front set of gears. I had bought a new front derailleur, but hadn't gotten around to installing it, because the one I got wasn't fancy enough to be installed around the chain, and I didn't have a chain tool to take my chain off and then to get it back on.

All this is just to point out that my bike isn't in tip-top condition. But that's okay -- I was just heading to a couple of places, and I didn't need to go in any particular hurry, so I decided to go for it. The theatre was first on the list, just 2 miles away, and mostly downhill. The last block I turned up a hill, and

BAM!!!

The pedals stopped turning, the bike stopped abruptly, and it was all I could do to get my shoes unclipped before I fell over. I got the bike over onto a sidewalk to assess the issue. I had, somehow, ripped my rear derailleur off the bike. Sheared the bolt that holds it onto the frame. Never knew I had that much strength. I imagine my chain-with-issues got locked into some weird position, and the torque was just right as I had just started into an uphill.

My bike was completely useless. I managed to find a way to arrange the chain and derailleur so that I could still roll the bike. It's a touring bike, so it's a steel frame, and it's heavy. I don't think I could have managed if I'd had to carry it. I completed my ticket trade at the box office, and then decided I could walk my bike back up the hill to the house and skip bell practice OR I could wander over to the nearest bike shop and see if they could help me out. Well, I'd come this far.

And could they. There was a guy there that went right to work on making my bike ridable again. Yep, I'd really done a number on poor Randy. (We name all our modes of transportation. The car is named Bruno, in case you were wondering. My last car was named Hans. I know. Weird.) The guy at the shop trued up the wheel (it had gotten bent), managed to work the sheared half of the bolt out, bent the frame back in place, and set me up with a new chain and a fancy new derailleur. Well, not new, exactly, but it's a top-of-the-line used-for-one-month racing one that they sold to me for about 40% of its new value. I now have the fanciest component a crappy bike like mine has never seen the likes of.

So, there I was, an hour later with a bike as good as new. Well, there's still no front derailleur, but at least I was better off than when I left the house. It was starting to get dark, and I knew I wasn't going to make it the 10 miles to my church before I would need the bike light that I don't have. But, I'd made it this far, so I decided to go ahead and do it. I got lost twice, stopped at a gas station for Gatorade once, almost got run over...no times. It was a success, and I was ecstatic. It was fun to play handbells again, and then my husband picked me up for dinner and the ride home (since I really don't have a light on the bike).

That was the first week of December, and I haven't ridden my bike since. Even with the fancy new chain that doesn't need a tool to be disconnected, I haven't put the front derailleur on, either. Nor have I gotten a bike light....

November Food Experiment Results

I'm going to start to try to catch up on all the posting I should have been doing in the last month. Almost a month ago, one of the most amazing things to come my way actually happened. I became a published writer. Two weeks ago, I even got a check for that. Crazy, huh? I'm a physics degreed programmer with minimal creative leanings, and here I've actually gotten my words affixed to printed paper that I didn't send to my local printer. It's a little surreal, but I'd appreciate it if you click the link to see for yourself. Since I'm guessing the link will go away at some point, so, I'll reprint it below for your future review.

30 Meals, 1,000 Dishes
A Cooking Challenge of Unusual Proportion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, December 13, 2007
By Heather Tufts

Out of boredom and the desire to challenge myself with a simple cooking experiment came the idea to test my stubborn persistence: make a unique homemade dish every day for a month. To bring this one zany idea to fruition I needed:
• 28-31 days
• 18 trips to 5 markets
• 9 cuisines from around the world
• 6 new recipes
• 1 spectacular failure
• 2 cookbooks
• salt and pepper with friends to taste
Set aside a few selected meals intended for guests, so you don’t use the prime recipes before their time. Next, head to the store to pick up the necessary items for the next few days. Wash the dishes that are sitting, dirty, in the sink, but only those that you need to make the current meal. Prepare and serve, preferably to adventurous friends who gush over your talent in the kitchen. Stare at the dirty dishes. Vow to do them all tomorrow and get the kitchen all cleaned up. Go to bed, and repeat for one month.

Some of the more notable results followed:

Szechuan Fried Fish — We all must start somewhere, and my roots are in Hong Kong and China. So, in the beginning it was good.

Pork Tenderloin — Again, I showed my roots with a garlic, ginger, and soy marinade. The tenderloin was seared before roasting just to medium. Why do so many people overcook pork?

Taco Stew — This is one of those meals where the hardest part is operating the can opener. It’s really soup, but my husband, won’t eat soup. So, when he’s around, it’s "stew."

Parmesan-Crusted Snapper — This dish was most notable for the fact that it was the most hideously awful meal I made all month. It smelled like feet and I couldn’t stomach more than a couple bites. Of course, my husband ate it anyway, including the leftovers. I guess there’s really no accounting for taste.

Lentil Chili — Since I have relatives from Texas, I would appreciate it if no one told them that I made a meatless chili (with beans, even!), and especially not that I liked it.

Balsamic Vinegar and Oil with Pasta — Two weeks in and I was hitting the backsplash. My husband generously offered to make the meal I told him to make, but only because it has less than five ingredients.

Other — I may have missed a meal in here somewhere. Let’s try not to harp on that, shall we?

Bulgogi — This is an easy meal (literally “fire meat” in Korean) to make, and a terrible one to have to clean up.

Mardi Gras Pasta — All you fusion chefs out there, eat your heart out on my Cajun-Italian entry.

Szechuan Fried Chicken — I know this may look like my entry from day one, but I promise, they are nothing alike. And I cannot tell a lie.

French Toast — With my husband out of town for work, I decided I could break the rules and eat breakfast for dinner.

Hoi Sin Chilean Sea Bass — This must’ve turned out well. Two weeks later, my dad is still talking about how good it was. I was just happy that Mom helped me with the dishes.

Penne Arrabiata — I love the irony of serving “angry” pasta to my parents.

Thanksgiving — I made the full traditional spread, from turkey and dressing to homemade apple pie and ice cream. It’s my favorite meal of the year. No planning necessary.

Tortilla Soup — This is really nothing like the Taco Stew, which is mostly beans. It’s just a flavorful broth to spoon over avocados and chips and cheese.

Thai Basil Chicken — Delicious, but its only resemblance to the food of Thailand was the use of native basil.

Shrimp Curry — I made this meal with a can of Yeo’s Singapore Curry Gravy. Really good stuff when you’ve only got 45 minutes to make curry.

Lamb Ragoût — A brilliant success, which will likely make it into the regular dinner rotation in the future.

Ham and Mushroom Waffles — Again, this isn’t a repeat of my French-Toast-for-dinner meal. When you put Swiss cheese and buttermilk with ham and mushrooms and pour it all over cornmeal waffles, it’s dinnertime somewhere.

Chicken Marsala — Twenty-nine days into the month and I was just cooking on autopilot. I’m pretty sure I ate it, but I can’t remember.

Green Chicken Enchiladas — I finished the month with a lovely stacked enchilada done in the Crockpot, which is my favorite kitchen appliance, so it seemed a fitting way to end the month’s effort.

A freezer full of leftovers

If I learned anything from this month of cooking, it’s that I hate to do dishes. We’ve got to get one of those fancy dishwasher things … and a garbage disposal … and maybe one of those water sprayers for the sink. That would be nice. I also learned that I really only use two cookbooks. I’m not sure why I have all the others on the shelf, but I constantly refer to Solomon’s The Complete Asian Cookbook and Hazan’s The Classic Pasta Cookbook. Everything else is either one of Mom’s recipes or an improvisational masterpiece (or a parmesan-crusted disaster). Finally, and most unexpectedly, I found that I don’t really like to eat my cooking. I lost three pounds this month cooking something new every day, and I didn’t have three pounds to lose. I think this has to do with the fact that after shopping and prepping and cooking and tasting, I just am not interested in the meal when it gets to the table. I would love to hear if other people take this challenge and come to a similar conclusion. It could be the next diet phenomenon to sweep the nation — “cook more, eat less.”

But next time, someone else can do the dishes.

Kinda surreal. But it was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I had the opportunity. It's always neat to see how these things sometimes happen. No worries, I haven't quit my day job, but it was a fun little diversion.

Where Is Heather?

I was reading Snick's latest post, and she summed up how I feel right now, perfectly.

I'm all out of practice. I think part of the problem is that I have so much to blog about right now that I don't know where to start.

And that's me, too. I'm just too overloaded with things to share that I hardly know where to start. But I will be working to get caught back up soon. Part of it seems that I only have a certain number of posts in me per year. And since I posted (nearly) every day in November, I'd used up my posting quota, and nothing more could be posted.

So, please don't abandon me, like I've abandoned you. I will have some posts about past events mixed in with current events, but I expect you will have no trouble keeping up with me. The issue is much more of an issue the other direction.

Brief Return to Posting

I know I've been out of commission for a while. Soon enough, I will be back in regular mode, and I will explain what I've been doing for the last month. However, I just wanted to check in and thank the Iowa voters for jumbling up this presidential election season. For those of you that haven't seen the results yet, here's how things shook out last night.

On the Democratic side, Barack Obama came in first, with John Edwards second, and Hillary Clinton in third place. This is a beautiful jumble. On the Republican side of things, Mike Huckabee got the top spot, Mitt Romney came in second, and Fred Thompson in third. That's a crazy pile. I have to say that I love the fact that the two declared frontrunners (Clinton and Romney) did not win their respective caucuses. That's probably because I tend to root for the underdog, but I'll take it, regardless.

I know Iowa doesn't determine the nation's pulse, and this one primary doesn't mean that Obama and Huckabee will be the candidates, but it just bodes for a competitive primary season, and that makes me a happy camper. Now we just have to wait and see what New Hampshire does with the next phase of the race. Clinton and Romney are still expected to win there, but we'll just have to see.