KirstenL4W

Today is February 29, a day that rolls around only once every 4 years. Gotta love leap years. Normally, February is a financially difficult month, since it’s 2 - 3 days shorter than all the others, it seems that we don’t get paid as much and bills are due a lot more often. But this leap day is special. I get paid today, and since Leap Day occurs on a Friday this year, it makes this February all the more rare. This is what is known in budgeting circles as a 5 week month. There are 5 Fridays this month, so for those of us who get paid every Friday, it means an extra paycheck. Next month there will still be 4 paychecks. I myself get paid every other Friday, so today I get my 3rd paycheck of the month. Yeehaw!

I haven’t forgotten about the follow-up to my previous post. The weekend is coming up and I’m tired from the week. I ended up napping yesterday instead of checking email and blogging when I got home from work, then it was our usual Thursday night out. If I’m not too tired and Boyfriend has nothing planned for tonite, I should be able to get some time then.

Happy Leap Day everyone!

I have been toying with the vague idea to go back to school for quite some time. Years, actually. But it’s hard to come up with some plans without any clue as to what direction one wants to travel in.

Here’s a bit of history: When I was in high school, I was never very academically inclined. I did well in my classes, but overall wasn’t interested. I felt a calling more towards interior design. Rooms were my canvas, and I preferred to shop for sheets rather than shirts. As I was planning the rest of my life, I looked at schools that had design programs. I really wanted to go to a school in Atlanta that I had seen in my mom’s decorating magazines, partly mostly because they had an exchange program in London. But neither one of my parents was wild about the idea. My mother thought I should focus on something more practical like French, since I was doing well in that class, and my father just had that look on his face. That look wasn’t enthusiastic. I was disappointed, since going AWAY to school was a big part of the appeal. But I digress. I looked at schools a bit closer to me and ended up at the esteemed University of Lesser Knowledge Hesser College.

Hesser was in the next town and had an interior design program. Still infatuated with the away at college idea, I took a room in the dorms and immersed myself into college life. Oh, you’re wondering about the comment above? Well, my I found the college prep program in my high school to be more challenging than the course of study at Hesser. But other extra-curricular activities, which found me studying mixology more than interior design, saw me on academic probation and changing my major. I went with the path of least resistance and chose a major that featured classes I actually did well in despite my inebriated state. I focused on small business management the next semester, redeeming myself and my academic standing, but also letting a childhood fear of math get the best of me.

During an English final at the end of the second semester, I was answering an question with a total ass-kissing essay and ended up believing what I wrote. It sure sounded good at the time, and would certainly make a lot of people proud of me. I changed my major again, this time to liberal studies, with the intention of transferring into a 4-year program with a double major of English and education. I graduated Hesser with an Associate of Arts in Liberal Studies, and prepared for more studies at New Hampshire College (known today as Southern New Hampshire University).

Something weird happened when I was at NHC. I threw myself into my studies, but something was off. Something major in a cosmic sort of way. I started feeling like I was on the outside looking in, like I was in the wrong place. Bigger than that, actually - like I was in the wrong life. This life was so not the one I was meant to be living. The feeling became so overwhelming that I withdrew from classes to figure out exactly where I was supposed to be. I took a string of retail jobs, spent some time in Europe, got into office work, and lived a marginally fulfilling life.

In 2003, when I moved to Vegas, I had a bit of money to play with, so I decided to take a course at the local community college as a way to get out there and meet people. While perusing the non-credit courses, I figured why not? Why not take up a course of study? I did come here for a change, after all. But there was this pesky residency thing. Being the cheap shit that I am, I didn’t want to pay an exorbitant fee just because I hadn’t lived here long enough, so I only took 2 classes and took a part time job (Shoe Job). But finish up the core requirements that wouldn’t transfer in, and taking only 2 classes at a time, I lost steam. I needed to work full time, so school fell by the wayside.

That brings you all up to speed of the life of Kirsten, b.b. (Before Blog). As my longtime readers know, I have worked in a variety of administrative jobs, which while not exaclty fulfilling, kept me fairly happy. Until recently. Last year, as I was looking for yet another new job, I was searching for something, but I didn’t know what. I did know that I didn’t want to file and answer phones for the rest of my life. I needed direction.

And right now, I need sleep.  Stay tuned for part 2.

I was going to compose a post about academics, but I burned my finger while preparing dinner tonight.  I have a tendency to be a bit of a clutz in the kitchen.  Anyway, the pad of my right middle finger (the exact part of the finger that touches the keys while I’m typing) has a large and still-growing blister.  I will try to type up something to post tomorrow, but right now I have to try and finish making dinner without cutting my finger off.  That might make it feel better, though.

I have rediscovered joy in the mundane.  I heard it was coming, and even took a quick peek once or twice once it was here.  But today, I did it.  My first real grocery shop at the new chain: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.  It’s Tesco’s foray into the US market.  I shopped at Tesco when I was in London, and aside from the joy that is shopping in a foreign supermarket, I liked the small store geared for city shoppers who cannot schlep home their week’s shopping on the Tube.

I also used to work for a supermarket, off and on, from the time I was in high school until I left to move to Las Vegas.  Added up, it was something like 8 years, but if you start with my original hire date of 1/1992 until I left in 5/2003, you’ll see that I just could not stay away from the place.  I even enjoyed shopping there.  When I moved to Vegas, I saw that the grocery scene was very different.  People aren’t loyal to a particular store.  How can they be?  No one store will carry everything that you want, like stores back home will.  Here, getting all that you want, all the brands, varieties, and flavors, requires trips to the 4 or so major chains.  Then there’s WarMart and her secretly smart and pretty cousin Kay, only one of which I have found actually has a food section.  We also have 3 chains of soccer mom natural grocery stores - Whole Paycheck, Wild Hay, and Trader Joe’s, where Boyfriend and I have taken to shopping lately.  But there wasn’t as much variety as I like, and I was getting really sad.

Enter Big Bad Mama Detroit.   BBMD lives right next door to a F&E, and loves shopping there.  Boyfriend and I were on our way to her house for dinner the other night, and we said we’d bring dessert.  Since she pointed out the F&E in the directions, I figured we’d stop there to pick something up.  The store is super organized, which appealed to my sense of order.  It’s small, with lower shelves, so you don’t get lost and don’t get whiplash looking for what you need.  And OMG the produce!  Being in the middle of the desert where it’s darn near impossible to grow anything, Boyfriend and I have both commented that we’ve thrown away better looking stuff than can be found in the average supermarket here.  But F&E has super fresh, great looking produce!  The best part is that it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.  I picked up some rosemary, potatoes, strawberries, and salad fixins.

But wait, there’s more!  I nearly short circuited myself in the meat aisle.  I’m not a huge meat eater, but I like a variety.  Not only did they have big ol’ slabs of meat, they also had some ready to cook options like kebabs, seasoned meats, stuffed meats, and other delicious meal options.  I wanted it all.  I couldn’t decide, but finally settled on some chicken drumsticks for dinner tomorrow, and a big pork roast that I’ll stick in the crock pot on Wednesday with some BBQ sauce.  Both will give us plenty of leftovers for the rest of the week.  They were marked down because they were both going out of code in like, 2 days, but they looked just as good as the stuff with more recent dates on it.

The store carries a lot of its own brand for the rest of the groceries, but they did have a selection of name brands too.  Boyfriend and I are trying to focus on fresh foods, so we don’t buy pantry items as often as we used to, but they did have tahini, which I know can be hard to find at conventional megamarts.

Boyfriend and I have been spending less at Trader Joe’s than we ever did at a regular store, and even though I didn’t buy as much as we usually do, I found the monetary outflow to be on par with TJ’s.  I stopped in on my way home from work, and other than the quick dessert run the other night Boyfriend really hasn’t had time to explore, so I think we’ll try to stop by next time we do a grocery shop so he can really check the place out.  Even if it’s not a regular thing, it will allow a stop by the free sample bar to try the delicious foods they offer.   I know I’ll be returning.

I’m sure there are a lot of use who like cover music. Some of us find special joy in cover songs sung with an original twist.

Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine is a band that sings songs - not necessarily cover songs - songs that were originally written and sung by other artists. I say they aren’t cover songs because there’s such a humourous twist in these lounge style renditions, that it’s quite obvious that these songs are not being sung for the sake of being sung. This also isn’t a group that takes the songs and puts a whole new meaning to them, with new lyrics to beat, a la Weird Al. I hope you can all follow me. Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine sings these songs in the lounge music style.

You really have to have a sense of humor to appreciate Richard Cheese. Otherwise, you’re just not gonna get why Baby Got Back is so funny when it’s “swankified” (this is the term the band uses to describe what they do to the hits). Also, you really can’t be a prude. Part of the fun of a Richard Cheese concert is the way he “reaches out” to his audience - particularly the female members of the audience. It’s quite funny, actually. Here’s someone singing songs in the style of a washed up lounge lizard, who by definition is supposed to be a repulsive character but doesn’t quite get that. Richard Cheese takes the angle that he has a huge, female-centric fan club. At the concert that Boyfriend and I attended back in November, there was a CD sales table with two sign-sheets: Join Richard’s Mailing List, and one that said Women Who Want to Sleep With Dick.” What a kidder!

Now that I’ve inadequately described the genius that is Richard Cheese, check out this video:

On Monday, Boyfriend and I headed to LA to have lunch.  I know what you’re saying - there are plenty of really decent places here in Vegas to eat, but there was more.  Boyfriend wanted to meet some Silly Little Game friends.  Since LA is a 4-5 hour drive from Vegas (depending on traffic and where in LA you are going), it is on the lower end of reasonable for a day trip.  Heck, I go to LA just to shop at IKEA since they still won’t believe that Vegas is a viable market.  But I digress.  The topic here is lunch with friends.

The friends chose the Monte Carlo Deli in Burbank as the place to meet.  Just hearing that it was an Italian deli had me excited.  I’m from the east coast, and while the deli as a popular lunch spot is more of a New York thing, I just wanted a little individuality, which Vegas is sorely lacking.  There were some tough choices to be made, but I ended up with a bit of a lighter dish - the tuna salad with sides of green salad and pasta salad.  I just didn’t want anything heavy since we were spending a lot of time in the car.

We met the SLG friends outside and all went in together.  One of them is from MA, so we had fun whipping out our Boston accents, much to the amusement of Boyfriend.  I just don’t understand what it is about the Boston accent that turns ordinary speech into a circus act.  But hey, it keeps Boyfriend laughing, and his happiness is important to me, so I just roll with it.  Anyway, we all ate lunch, chatted, chatted some more, had some gelato, and chatted some more before the time dictated that Boyfriend and I get back on the road.  There’s a store in Fullerton that we wanted to get to before they closed, and then get home so that I could get at least a few hours sleep before work in the morning.

I was noticing a few things on the way home.  Barstow is about halfway between Vegas and LA, and provides a really good area to stop in - there are truck stops, outlet stores, and even some people that live there.  On the way back to Vegas I noticed a sign that said “California Welcome Center Next Stop.”  What I didn’t really understand is that Barstow is really the last real town before you hit Vegas, so why oh why would there be a Welcome Center for a state that most people, when passing that sign, are on their way out of the state?  Californians are weird.

There is a town rest stop about halfway between Barstow and Vegas called Baker.  Baker has a few tiny motels, convenience stores, and fast food places.   Baker is the home of the world’s tallest thermometer, which is a pretty neat feature - you can see exactly how hot it is in the Mojave desert when you’re on your way to Vegas or Death Valley.  My mom, when I told her about this, just had to ask, “Is it a rectal thermometer?”  Silly Mommy.  But we did stop in Baker for a reason, and that was Greek food.  Boyfriend is of Greek ancestry, and has gotten me to like a bit of it.  So The Mad Greek was the last destination of our trip.  We both got gyros with yummy rice pilaf and some baklava to go, all of which was yummy.

We rolled back into town around midnight, so I had to get to bed right away.  It was a great day - we got to get out of town, meet some friends, and eat excellent food.  Can’t get much better than that.

‘Splain something to me.  This past week saw me eating way too much fast food, since Boyfriend and I didn’t go grocery shopping.  We ate out, ate fast food take-out and too much junk food, didn’t track points and didn’t exercise.  Yet today when I weighed in at WW today, I was down 1.6lbs.  I do not get it at all.  All the rules were broken and I was still down.  This totally sends the wrong message!

In other news, the computer issue has finally been fixed.  Turns out all I had to do was update the driver for the network adapter.  Lesson learned: stay away from Vista.  Research done regarding my problem shows that many, many people have issues with accessing the internet via wireless even though the actual wireless connection is strong.  It’s unique to Vista.  Save yourselves and get a Mac.

Boyfriend and I went to LA on Monday to meet some of his Silly Little Game friends for lunch.  I was going to blog about that earlier in the week, but the computer issue was more pressing.  I’m hoping to get around to it this weekend, while it’s still fairly fresh in my mind.

This is freaking hilarious, especially considering the recent electronics issues I’ve been having (which, btw, I think I’ve fixed, at least on the laptop.  Hello updated driver!)

Go to Jen’s Blog to view this - she’s the one who sent it to me.  It’s not a YouTube video so I don’t know how to properly embed it.  Alternatively, you can go here to see it directly.  And don’t worry, it’s safe for work and non-offensive, unless you have issues with office machine abuse.

In the interest of just getting a post out there yesterday while in the midst of computer hell, I didn’t quite explain what the problem was.  So here’s an explanation:

I usually use the laptop in the living room, connecting to our home network via a wireless connection.  The laptop has Vista, btw, which is of an important note because it is the only one of our 4 computers running Vista.  The others are XP.  Anyhoo, all indications were that I had a very strong internet connection, and I was even able to get the weather widget to work, but trying to actually access the internet using Firefox or IE was an effort in futility.  If I was lucky enough to get a website, it was after a long wait and there was no guarantee that graphics would be included.  Again, just as a reminder, the laptop was the only computer afflicted with this strange illness.

The computer had been sitting idle since Sunday evening, so it had been close to 48 hours that it was powered down.  There was plenty of battery life left, and everything else appeared to be working normally.  Vista even thought my connection was fine; the diagnostic check recommended that I contact my ISP.  Since Boyfriend was online playing his Silly Little Game, I knew that the problem was not with my ISP, it was in the laptop, somehow.

At Boyfriend’s suggestion, I installed some new anti-virus software. (Side note: I have run a computer for many years without any such software; when I finally did install some it only found some tracking cookies.  In all my years of computing I have never had a virus.)  After the hour or so of updating Vista, uninstalling the Norton that came with the laptop, installing TrendMicro, and doing a scan, only a few tracking cookies were found.  Performance was not improved.  Some more diagnostics ended up resetting the internal wireless adapter, which solved the problem … for about 5 minutes.

Boyfriend did a hard restart, which helped a little, but it was still very slow (not super slow, as it had been), and I was still getting some sites without graphics.  I had already given up by this point and was all by my lonesome in the bedroom on my desktop.  I did start the disk defrag, but as of 5:30am it was still running, so with the screen saver and power saver settings, I don’t know if it stops running when it goes into power save mode.  There’s no way to visually check the progress of the defrag on Vista, either.  However, the internet issues were pretty much gone this morning, since I was able to check my email just fine.  This is so perplexing.

Boyfriend mentioned yesterday that his satellite radio was not able to access a signal.  Since it’s in the truck and there aren’t that many natural barriers to the signal here in Las Vegas, I’m wondering if these events are related.  The Pentagon seems intent on shooting down a wayward satellite, and with a 10 second window to push the button to send a heat-seeking missile to an object that is not outputting any heat, along with the coincidental news coming out of Cuba this week, I’m wondering if the electronic issues of late are a signal that the end of the world is coming.  But don’t listen to me.  I’m not a conspiracy theorist or anything.

At least my iPod still works normally.  I don’t know where I’d be without that.

I’m having computer issues tonight.  Just with this damn laptop.  I’ve spent enough time trying to fix it, and I just want the damn thing to work already.   This is very frustrating because it only seems to be affecting the new Vista laptop.

I’m giving up before I end up hurling this thing across the room.

Yet another CD mix exchange! It’s my last one for awhile, at least as far as swapping real CDs goes. I’ll probably do mix related posts on here, though so don’t worry about the Music on Mondays feature.

This mix is a traveling theme - music for the long ride home. I love road trip music, as this post will tell you. Here’s my contribution:

1. Drive - Bic Runga
2. 1000 Miles Away - Jewel
3. California - Semisonic
4. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams
5. Watching the Wheels - John Lennon
6. Cars and Guitars - Tori Amos
7. Closer to You - Brandi Carlile
8. Crossroads - Cream
9. Diamond Road - Sheryl Crow
10. Don’t Leave Home - Dido
11. Driving With the Brakes On - Del Amitri
12. Driving Sideways - Aimee Mann
13. The Long Road - Eddie Vedder and Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn
14. 200 More Miles - Cowboy Junkies
15. Runaway - Pink
16. Vegas - Sara Bareilles
17. Long Ride Home - Patty Griffin

This mix was thrown together a bit more hastily than my previous mixes since I needed to get it done ASAP, but overall I’m satisfied with it. These are all songs that sound good when you’re on the open road, which is one of my favorite places to be.

Yesterday I didn’t get online at all.  Boyfriend woke me up much earlier than I would have liked (about 2-3 hours earlier than I usually sleep until on Saturdays), with the expectation that we would be going out to help a friend set up for a party.

In the meantime, we were trying to figure out what to have for breakfast when I came up with the brilliant idea to use the new waffle plates that came with the Panini press that Boyfriend’s mom sent for Christmas.  I looked online for a waffle recipe, and found one that purported to be an excellent recipe that was originally provided with another brand of waffle iron.  The mixing part went well.  That’s about all that went well.  The first one went fine.  The second one had too much batter, and as a result I had batter oozing out the back of the waffle iron.  The rest oozed out a little bit, since we couldn’t seem to get the batter amounts right.

Then we ate them.  Or rather, I ate one.  Boyfriend had two bites and threw his away.  They were the worst waffles we have ever had.  I’m not sure bland is even the right word.  They were just… ew.  They currently reside in the trash.  After that I didn’t even want to clean the kitchen.  I’ll be doing that today.

After some showers, we went out for a late lunch and headed over to our friend’s house.  There were some errands to be done in preparation for the party, so Boyfriend and friend went out to do some, and I was sent out to do the rest.  We met back up at the house, set up, had a fantabulous party, and got home really, really late.

Today I am catching up on all the websurfing I didn’t do yesterday, along with important things like email, blogs, and message boards.  I also have to clean the kitchen, figure out what to eat for dinner (I slept till 2pm so I haven’t had breakfast yet), and do some laundry.  I’m off from work tomorrow, and Boyfriend wants to go to LA to meet up with some of his Silly Little Game friends.  I figure that’s a fun way to spend the extra day off, so I’m all for it.

So there ya go, my semi-boring weekend.  I’m off to finish up a few things online and then get to the housework.

A few days ago, I asked the question “Do You Keep A Written Journal or Diary?”  My thought was that like me, most personal bloggers started blogs or keep them as an extension to or instead of their written journals.  The results really surprised me.  Though hardly a scientific poll, the results showed that most people do not keeps personal journals.  With 8 votes, the results were:

• 3 Votes, 38% - No, never have
• 3 Votes, 38% - No, haven’t for years
• 1 Vote, 13% - Yes, but stopped when I started blogging
• 1 Vote, 13% - Yes, in addition to my blog
• 0 Votes, 0% - Never have, but my blog is my journal

So it seems that the popular thinking regarding personal bloggers is not really true - personal blogs are mostly NOT just online diaries.  With that being said, why do you blog?  Leave a comment and/or write a post about it, and link back here so I can read all your results.  I’m very curious now.

I still hold my stance that romance should happen every day, not just on a designated day. But I did have to do something special for Boyfriend; it was simple, inexpensive, and really didn’t require a lot of imagination. I went to the craft store and bought 3 packages of red heart-shaped paper doilies - three different sizes. Then I bought some stickers with various sentiments on them and applied them to some of the doilies. This morning I woke up early on time and sprinkled them in various places. Most of them ended up all around his computer, chair, and the floor area around his desk, but they were also on the tv, battery for his truck (it was in the house to be charged), mirror, the underside of the toilet lid, the wall behind his towel, in the shower, medicine cabinet, kitchen cabinet, fridge, microwave, dishwasher, underwear drawer, and on the hanger that his shirt is hanging on. He liked it.

I get the distinct feeling that Boyfriend has something up his sleeve for me, but I have no idea what it might be. He’s been asking really vague questions lately that have to do with all sorts of romantic topics, so I know the little hampster in his head is spinning away on that wheel. I’ll let you know later if there’s anything to report. Dinner, though, is out of the question - it’s our regular Thursday night oil change lactose event.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Edited at around 6pm:  Boyfriend decided to go the traditional route, since I never really had that before.  He got me a super sweet card, a mini rose potted plant (lasts longer), and a shiny heart shaped box filled with Hershey chocolate truffles, because he remembered that I said Hershey chocolate is one of my favorites.  Then he kissed me and hugged me until I had to pee. 

On the Aussie Blogger’s Forum, there is a discussion regarding 15 Design Decisions that Annoy Readers.  I shared my imput in the discussion, and an interesting point emerged on the topic of search boxes.  I have a search box on my blog - it’s the default WordPress search.  I put it there because I think it might help people, but I’ve never used a search box on a blog before, and never heard of anyone else using one until I saw the responses.  My own typical experience using search boxes is on an actual search engine, on large sites such as Wikipedia, or on an actual website instead of a blog.  On blogs, I’ve been content to just surf around, and if there’s something I know I’ll want to refer to frequently (like Sephy’s post on how to FTP, because I forget every single time I go to do it), then I bookmark it.

Lani pointed out some downsides to using categories, and Snoskred mentioned that she uses the search box all the time, even on her own blog.  Snos mentioned that having some links to favorites in the sidebar is a great feature for that very reason.

So with that objective in mind, how does one determine favorite posts?  I could go by the ones that have the most comments, but are those necessarily the posts that people will want to refer back to?  Because I see the whole search function as a reference, so I would want a link list feature to serve the same purpose.  So, getting away from comment count, do I then choose MY favorite posts?  Is that helpful for you?  And since I don’t often (or ever) post the über-useful how-to posts like Snoskred, Sephy and others, then what exactly do I post that you want to keep going back to?

Since  “Posts People Want To Read Over and Over Again” is not something I can really track with stats, I’d like some input from you, my dear readers.  What are your favorite posts on my blog?

Valentine’s Day is coming up. Having been single for pretty much every Valentine’s Day until now, I’ve come to expect absolutely nothing on this day. It is a day full of expectations - more so than any other day. We expect that it will be the most romantic day of the year. We expect “romantic” gifts from our partners - flowers, a fancy dinner (usually at a fancy restaurant), candy, jewelry, lingerie, and of course a big fancy card gushing with romantic sentiments. Anything red or pink does the trick if you are a gift buying dunce. Personally, pink is so not my color.

I suppose my single status for so long has jaded me. I just can’t get into it. Not only is there the expectation of gifts, this holiday tells you how you are supposed to feel and express those feelings. See, I don’t like being told how to feel or what to say. Of course, I do love Boyfriend. I just don’t like a card company telling me how I have to express that. I want to express it in my own way. I don’t want to make him take me out to eat. (The owner of a restaurant we frequent calls Valentine’s Day “Amateur Night”) I don’t want him to feel that I love him any less, or that I feel he doesn’t love me enough, if he doesn’t go all out with the aforementioned dinner, flowers, chocolates, etc. You just can’t manufacture romance like that and save it all up for one big night of showmanship.

I was telling Boyfriend earlier this evening about one of the most romantic things I’ve seen. I was over my aunt and uncle’s house, and my aunt had gone up the street to fetch one of my cousins. While she was gone, my uncle carried on with some housekeeping. My aunt returned to find that my uncle had emptied the dishwasher, putting away all the clean dishes. My aunt was ecstatic! That is one of her least favorite chores to do, and seeing that my uncle had done that for her totally made her day. She threw her arms around him and showered him with hugs and kisses, thanking him profusely for doing this mundane chore. That, to me, is romantic. Romance is the little things that all add up to reaffirm and strengthen the love two people have for each other.

To the casual observer, it might seem that Boyfriend and I live a very boring life. I won’t kid you, it’s not one exciting adventure after another. We have jobs to go to and other obligations that keep life so very ordinary. But there are things that we do that I’d consider romantic. Take right now, for example. I am on the sofa, feet up, laptop in my lap, tv on, blogging while Boyfriend is sitting at his desk playing WOW. He has his headset on so he can chat with the guild and listen to their inane conversations. Yet every 10 minutes or so, he will take the time to look over, exchange our silly little greeting, and tell me that he loves me. Sometimes he even starts making kissy faces at me so that I have to get up, go over to him, and kiss him. It’s not a chore, so don’t read that as if it were. It keeps us connected while we are each in our own little virtual world. And he NEVER minds it if I come up to him out of the blue and throw my arms around him. That’s romantic. I don’t need all the fancy stuff - flowers die, chocolate makes me fat, restaurants are crowded and service sucks on that day, cards get forgotten, and lingerie doesn’t matter because it just gets ripped off. Save the money and show me you love me in your own unique way. But don’t worry. I won’t be a total cynic and blow the holiday off completely.

Enjoy your Valentine’s Day, and this classic sonnet from Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

I’m moving up some of my mix exchanges. I wasn’t due until March for this one and May for next week’s, but I need to get them done right now or I won’t be able to honor the commitments I made to the groups. So you’ll be getting 2 mix exchanges in a row.

This week’s is another theme mix. This is the second theme I did, with the last one being the Road Trip USA mix. This time I opted for Rain. A few people have already done similar mixes, one with Water, one was Rain or Shine, and another was about Weather in general. I feared flooding some people out, but honestly, when the whole theme thing came up, Rain was the first thing I thought of because I pretty much already had this mix made, at least in my head. It came about not on a rainy day weatherwise, but a rainy day for me, emotionally. I’m feeling like that again as I continue through this growth period (I’ll write more about that later). Here’s the mix:

1. I Think It’s Going to Rain Today - Bette Midler
2. Feels Like Rain - John Hiatt
3. A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall - Edie Brickell & New Bohemians
4. Rain - Patty Griffin (the song that started this whole mix!)
5. Raindrops - Regina Spektor
6. Rain Come Down - Eastmountainsouth
7. Downpour - Brandi Carlile
8. Let Her Feel the Rain - Tara MacLean
9. London Rain (Nothing Heals Me Like You Do) - Heather Nova
10. Only Happy When It Rains - Garbage
11. Come Rain or Come Shine - Etta James
12. Purple Rain - Prince
13. November Rain - Guns N Roses
14. It Can’t Rain All the Time - Jane Siberry
15. Last Rain - Tanya Donnelly
16. Bursting Through - Bic Runga

For me, it’s a perfect rainy day mix, no matter if it’s rainy outside or I’ve just turned on the waterworks. Enjoy!

When I started this blog, it was as an extension of my personal journal.  I’ve kept a journal for years, and I saw that blogging was a way to journal, stay anonymous, and have the possibility of feedback.  Over time, the use of my written journal waned, and now I only keep a weekly journal for a specific purpose not related to blogging.

A lot of people who don’t blog or who do blog but don’t really network within the blogosphere are of the opinion that blogs are merely journals.  For a lot of personal blogs, this may be true.  But I don’t know.  I am curious, though, so I created this poll:

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This poll is aimed at personal blogs and the bloggers that keep them, but if you are a niche blogger, don’t let that hold you back.   You are always free to leave more information in the comments if you want to elaborate.

Edited to add:  This poll is now closed, and I wrote a follow-up post on the findings.  You can read it here.

Sorry if I turned anyone off with yesterday’s post.  This is a blog about me, and I do try not to blog about my bodily functions, but I came up with the idea of blogging about it when I was IM’ing a friend.  I’ll get this blog back to normal now.

I want to blog about the Blogger service.  I know there are still a lot of people still on there.  I had my reasons for staying for  so very long.   First of all, having the access to the css and html code for free was great.  I learned so much having that access.  And lots of blogs are on Blogger, so if you’re looking for new stuff to read, it’s pretty easy.  But I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  Blogger has made some changes that are not friendly to the blogging community at large.  If you are on Blogger, it doesn’t really matter much.   But if you aren’t, then it sucks.

The single biggest change they have made is to the comments.  Without warning, Blogger started requiring an OpenID or a blogger account to comment on other blogs.  I saw my comments drop off to nearly nothing.  I didn’t have a lot of comments to begin with, so seeing them dry up like that wasn’t fun.  Blogger changed things back a bit, allowing a commenter to enter a URL along with their name, with the idea that it will leave a direct link.  Ok, fine.  Those using a Blogger ID still get directed to their blogger profiles - NOT their blogs - and some of those profiles are private so you never get to see the blogger who left the comment.  All in all, it’s a very Blogger-centric way of doing things.

Here on WordPress, if you leave a comment, you are required to leave your email address, though it’s not public.  I don’t collect them for any purpose, but if I want to reply to your comment privately, I can do that.  It also gives you the option to leave a link to your website, which is a direct link, no matter what blogging platform you use.  You can subscribe to comments using any email address.  When commenting on Blogger blogs, I only had the option to subscribe using Gmail.  I have a Gmail account as a backup, but I don’t really use it.  I’ve been using Yahoo for years, and I find the Gmail interface a bit clunky.  I know there are lots of tips out there to get the most out of Gmail, but I haven’t seen enough to make me inclined to want to use it more.

But enough about email.  I’ve ranted enough about Blogger, and if anyone is thinking about leaving, I have an option for you.  I use WordPress, and to elaborate I’ll tell you which one: WordPress.org.  I paid for my own domain name, took a blog friend up on the offer to host it, and making changes and customizations require knowledge of php, which I do not have at this point.  There is an easier way, and that way is WordPress.com.

Wordpress.com has a lot of the same features that Blogger has - it’s free, you can have your blog on line in minutes, and it’s free.  You WON’T have access to the code unless you pay up, but there’s more to a great blog than a great design.  For those who are iffy on switching, Wordpress has thought of that too.  They have an easy import tool that imports all your posts, pictures, comments, and categories with one easy click (just don’t do this more than once or you get double posts).   Then just put a link on your Blogger blog telling people where to find you.  That’s it.  Pretty neat, huh?

Now you will need to recreate your sidebar information, but that isn’t too difficult.  But wanna know what else?  You can have multiple pages, just like a real website.  That is probably my single favorite thing about Wordpress.  New pages are just as easy to set up as a new post is.  Even if you’re not ready to switch, go ahead and set up a Wordpress.com account and play around with it.  When you are ready, it’s super easy.

When you have a few minutes (or more), and/or if you have BBC America, then check out one of my favorite shows: Top Gear.   Even if you aren’t really into cars, it’s a great show.  It’s been described as Motor Trend meets Jackass.  Right now I’m watching them attempt to launch a rocketship made with a Fiat into space.

Is anyone here lactose intolerant? I am. I don’t have to religiously read the ingredients on food packages, and there are dairy products that I can have without much issue. But sometimes the rules decide to change themselves on me.

I don’t care to drink plain milk, but I make pudding and chocolate milk with Lactaid, which tastes the same as milk. I’ve never had a problem with my favorite ice cream, and I love cheese, especially a nice sharp, hard cheese. I don’t have issues with these things. I do avoid creamy dishes, though because of the cheese I’m OK with alfredo. I avoid all ice cream products from Sonic, which I learned the hard way. Even real whipped cream has been known to mark its territory. Italian food, which is often times smothered in mozzarella cheese, has never bothered me. Until last night.

Boyfriend and I were out for our weekly oil change last night. Our regular Greasy Spoon very suddenly shut its doors this week, leaving us in the lurch. We quickly came up with a new place to meet, which is a place that we’ve been to a couple times before. I ordered the chicken parm sandwich, which was delish. I didn’t notice until later, but there was an awful lot of cheese on it.

TMI ahead