The Land of Rach

Hey, hey, July is underway

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:52:57 -0700

Today is July 2. Happy Birthday to my cousin Louie - he's 17 today! I can't beleive it. I can remember when he was just a baby. On his first Christmas, someone put a bow off a present on his head, and in the home video, you can hear my dad saying "Get that bow off that baby's head." Also we used to wrap him up in this sleeping bag pad thing (for camping) and say he was a burrito.

Monday I stayed in bed for way too long and then I took a shower and repeated last Monday's trek to B&B Grocery. I got another Dad's Killer and a brownie. Later I went to my regular Hy-Vee and got groceries. I think mostly I worked on the Billy Mays tribute site that Jess Higgins started and asked me to run with her.

Tuesday was Baseball day. First, I went and watched Jay (Louie's younger brother) play in Slater against Ballard. They lost the A game but won the B game handily. Aunt Lisa told me it was the first loss of the season for the North Polk 8th grade boys. They have only a few games left so that was a real streak they were on! When I got home, I had the DVD's Eastbound and Down, and The Scout waiting for me in my mailbox. I watched EB&D and I can say it honestly lived up to the hype, but mainly because I celebrate Danny McBride's entire catalog.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I filed for unemployment and looked at a few job postings. The main thing I did, though, was tape the Pitchmen marathon on the Discovery "Manly men doing dangerous things" Channel. By pausing during the commercials, I got almost 12 hour-long episodes on an 8-hour VHS tape. Yes, I realize there's no small irony in dubbing the commercials out of a show about commercials. I really enjoyed the show, even the deluded people with their crazy dreams. BIlly and Sully arguing was the best, though.

Today I watched The Scout and I really liked it! Even though Albert Brooks didn't direct, it still had his trademark dryyyyy humor. I was kind of hoping his character would hook up with Dianne Wiest, even though that would have been totally superfluous to the plot. Also I got excited when I saw Bob Tewksbury, because when I was following the Cardinals in junior high and attempting to be a sports nerd, he was my favorite player. (I had a whole wall in my room dedicated to sports stuff....banners for my favorite teams made in Print Shop, a Brett Hull poster, and box scores/clippings from my teams). I walked the DVD down to the P.O. for exercise, and then I showered and turned in my final work paperwork. I didn't really know what else to do but I didn't want to go home so I went and shopped for a gift for that bachelorette party I got invited to. That was kinda cool since I hadn't been to Christal's for a while.

This evening, Jesriedl came down, and we had a mini-tour of my 'hood with dinner at Taco Casa and dessert at Snookies. Then we came home and jammed on Guitar Hero: World Tour. "Hey Man, Nice Shot" was friggin' stumping me on Bass:Hard so we had to call it quits.

I told you, I don't know how to read

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:52:12 -0700

Today is June 28. Title of this post brought to you by America's new sweetheart, Zach Galifianakis as "The pretentious Illiterate."

So last night I went to the races with Dad. That was a lot of fun because I hadn't gone at all yet this summer. It was a World of Outlaws night so everyone brought their A game.

Today I got some breakfast and then watched the Sam Rockwell movie "Safe Men." I have had good netflix luck with some underrated gems lately, this one and Ruthless People. Both are well-written with interesting twists, and fun characters. I will do an #8wordsorLess of Safe Men (in honor of @DougBenson) - Hockey themed Bar Mitzvah; Paul Giamatti in Zubaz.

I walked the movie down to the Beaverdale P.O. and I was planning to take a quickie shower and head up to Ames. But right before I got home, I saw a tweet from Jess Higgins on my phone saying that Billy Mays had died. Needless to say, it came as a total surprise. As you may know, I have been a fan of Billy Mays for several months. (I distinctly recall getting upset with my dad at Thanksgiving because he muted a Mighty Putty commersh. So it was at least before that). Jess joined Tumblr last week and we started a Billy Mays tribute site....that has now turned into a memorial site. It was originally called "Fuck Yeah, Mighty Putty," because every fan site on Tumblr is FYeah this or Fyeah that.

So yeah, Jess Higgins and I were big fans of Billy Mays, to the extent that our other friends knew this about us, as a semi-defining characteristic. This comes as a huge blow. He was such a positive guy, full of life and a crazy work ethic. He left behind a son, 22-year-old Billy Mays III, who is on the twitter (that's how we found out about this in the first place). I think, as with MJ, there will never be another one like him. I mean, Ron Popeil is a great salesman too, but he is nowhere near the character or larger-than-life personality that Billy was. (Even if he did get a good Weird Al song written about him....might be a good tribute for Al's next album!)

There's some talk that Billy's death was related to a bump on the head he sustained during the rough landing of a flight he was on yesterday. I know it won't bring him back but I am interested to know the results of the autopsy. If anything good can come from the loss it will be to make people more aware of head injuries, so they can get checked out even after a seemingly innocent accident. Of course it is entirely possible it was unrelated to what happened on the plane.

I guess I'm going to keep posting stuff on that Tumblr and hope they still show the Pitchmen marathon on Discovery on Wednesday.

The simplest of tasks, I cannot complete them

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:00:09 -0700

Today is June 26. Sorry for falling behind on updates. A lack of personal responsibility, I think.

Tuesday I had my 2nd day at career counseling. Got a lot of good ideas for companies to learn about and apply to. I had my lunch at the re-opened Billy Joe's. I had been there many times to the bar part as well as the movie part, but never during the day for lunch. Interesting experience. It also rained REALLY hard when we were leaving class. That night I watched an MST3K disc from Netflix. It was "Ring of Terror," and it had a cool bonus feature with a bunch of songs from host segments throughout the series.

Wednesday BIG day. I got up, cleaned the north gutter, lined up all the bags of gutter compost, took a shower, and went up to Ames. Austin and Jess Higgins and I drove up to Story City and had kumla dinner at the Royal cafe. A first-time experience for both of them. We dropped Jess off at her apartment, and Austin and I checked out a new arcade on the west side of Ames. Then I traded off again and picked up Jess and we saw The Hangover and got Red Lobster with a gift card she got for Christmas. Movie as good the 2nd time, tho laughs not as big from me since some of the jokes rest on the element of surprise.

Thursday I went to my last hair appointment (that I had already paid for) and bought some new khakis to aid me in my job search. It is almost impossible to find full-length khakis with pockets for women. Capris are so ugly and they lack dignity, not to mention are inappropriate for the office. Plus I need pockets to put my cell phone into. Maybe they think chicks all carry purses and so we don't need pockets? Who knows. After the mall, I came home and watched Ruthless People from Netflix and then went to the WDM Farmer's Market with Dad for the community band concert. It was ridiculously hot out but we still had fun playing. Dad and I were cracking up when we heard a Tony Orlando and Dawn cover band on our way back to the car. We grilled up some of the burgies from B&B grocery and had a nice dinner, and watched coverage of Michael Jackson on CNN. Dad also had me look up Richard Jeni on youtube and we watched a special of his that someone had uploaded in 10-minute chunks.

Friday (today) Oh so lazy for most of the day, but I got it together enough to head over to the Vierows' for another great MST3K night! We watched Joe Don Baker in Final Justice, as well as Rifftrax of THE ROOM. I had wanted to see Tommy Wiseau's masterpiece since he was on Tim and Eric. Leigh and Giselle are both so awesome (and Gir the dog too) and I always have a great time at their place.

You left me far behind

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:59:25 -0700

Today is June 22. I have fallen behind on journaling, and I have chosen that Candlebox song to represent it. Don't forget to let it get stuck in your head and make you remember how sad you were when you were thirteen.

So basically all weekend I was watching the Premium Channel preview pak thing on the satellite. We had all the HBOs, Cinemaxes, Showtimes, Encores, etc. I guess I am bad at understanding the passage of time because I kept being overly impressed at how new the movies were that they showed. Particularly of note were The Dark Knight and the new X-Files; I think it's been less than a year ago that they came out! When I wasn't in the icebox basement (yay) I was...

Saturday: At Can't Stop the Serenity down at the Fleur with Austin. I would link to their site but it said Bandwidth Exceeded. =( This is a shame because it was a charity event. There are showings of Serenity (a/k/a The Firefly Movie) all over the country to benefit Equality Now. It was a good time. Saturday night I grilled some chops and cleaned out my south gutter. Pulled some real good compost outta there.

Sunday: I went up to Ames to visit Jess Higgins and also see my dad for Father's Day. Dad and I had supper at Old Main (I refuse to type the 'e'; the URL is fine b/c I just pasted) and then we went and saw Year One at movies 12. Now it has received some horrible reviews, but Dad and I both enjoyed it. I was particularly happy to see such a large film role for Crossy. Probably the most he's been in a movie since Run Ronnie Run. Of course there were many great comedy people to pick out. I personally think they could have stuck some great comedy ladies in there--the film was rather lacking in women's roles. A subtle comment on how women are viewed in History? Or just studio comedy business as usual??

Today I mowed the lawn and took my ID card and a few other odds 'n' ends back to work. Then I treated myself to a Killer Sandwich from B&B Grocery. I finally tried the Dad's Killer and it was delicious! The pepper cheese added just the right amount of kick. I also got a big ol' box of 24 hamburger patties from them. I only wanted a few, but they just had these giant boxes, so I said "why not." If I get sick of eating them, I have a perfect excuse to throw a BBQ.

A day wearing pants

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:27:21 -0700

Today is June 19. It is no big secret that I have been wearing mostly gym shorts since I ~~got laid off~~ had my position eliminated during a restructuring. Today, as you can see from my careful language, I had my first session of career counseling at Career Resource Group. It was an all-day deal, over in an office park building on Westown. We learned a lot of techniques for telling about our accomplishments, and many resume tips. I think it was worthwhile so far. This Tuesday I go back for day 2. But yeah, the dress code is biz cas so I had to wear pants. I wore my black slacks with pink pinstripes (so cute), a lime green polo, black socks, and black Danskos. After the class I went up to Ankeny to visit young Shasta again, and then I came home.

I changed into shorts (yay!) and watched The Rocker with Caylor. It was a pretty cute movie, recommended just for all the great comedy folks in the supporting cast. And the music that the teen band played wasn't bad either. I decided to be cool and walk my Netflix envelope to the post office, like I used to do in days of yore. It takes me about 45 minutes to walk from my house to the mailboxes and back. It was super swampy outside. It would be nice to have some dry, sunny days to even everything out.

Pizza Montage!

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:04:01 -0700

Today is June 18. Title stolen from one of Mike Birbiglia's jokes about how his dreams are better than real life. "I wanna go to the store...cut to the store! Fade to black...pizza montage!" We actually had a pizza montage today because Caylor ordered delivery but it didn't go through (he thought) so then he ordered carryout and i went and got it. But by the time I got home, the delivery person had brought the original pizza. Just wacky times around the house I guess. Click around on the related videos for some more Birbiglia goodness.

I don't have much else to report today. I have a first-draft updated resume. I can now legally say I know SQL. (Woop - make a circle in the air with your finger). Tomorrow I have my first all-day career counseling sesh at CRG Lee Hecht Harrison. Actually I should get to bed soon so I can wake up early for it. I'll probably need an electric tip-over bed if that's going to happen.

I watched Reversal of Fortune, on the recommendation of Jill and Andy both. It was very well made, and Jeremys Iron is creepy as hell. Christine Baranski is fab, of course, and Felicity Huffman does a good job as a semi-whiny law student. Reminds you how stone messed-up rich people are!

Chilltown, Population Me

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:30:17 -0700

Today is June 17. Dang, this month is skipping right along. Today I wasn't productive but at least I wasn't completely idle. I watched 2 Netflix, and visited Kim's cat Shata again. Kim and her family are on vacation and they've got auto-everything set up for her, but she's stuck in an enclosure. So Kim asked me to go visit Shasta and let her out a few times. I went Monday and today both. Shasta loves to be cuddled and held so it is very nice to visit her. She carries herself in a unique manner; her tail is folded and is perpendicular to her back.

I also made it to band practice and then the gym. Next week we're playing the WDM Farmers' Market. It's our first FM gig of the year so I am excited. Right now I'm just hanging out in the basement with Petey Peterman. He likes to rub his head on EVERYTHING. Soon Pete will get to have his own photoshoot and the RVAS can replace the crummy pic I took where he's hiding under the bed!

Today I also got really cocky because I thought I was out of bread but then I still had pita pockets. So I was still able to make a turkey sandwich. The reason for the title is because I turned on the air conditioning for the first time this year. Since Caylor's and my schedules are so different, I had to leave a note asking him to shut all the windows upstairs. I tried to make it as non-Passive-Aggressive as I could. I just wanted to respect his room and not go tromping in there to shut the windows myself. Plus he had to open the windows in Pete's room, so I wasn't about to count on myself for getting them shut.

Cheese 'n' taters at the Waveland

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:04:47 -0700

Today is June 16. I went out for breakfast-as-lunch with my friend Kelsey. We used to work at the App1e store together. I tried to get the nickname K-Bless going for her (c.f. Jack Black as "Jbles") but it didn't stick. Oh well!* She is an amazing photographer and you can see her work at shops around the DSM area! I know the old saw claims that "any hot girl with a camera is a 'photographer'" but Kelsey is SRS BIZ.

So yeah, we had a delicious lunch at the Waveland Cafe and then we checked out the little health food store across the street that I have always seen but never visited! It is called the New City Market and it smells just like Wheatsfield inside, ha ha. Kelsey got some yogurt made from coconut milk, and I got lemonade and coconut water.

In the afternoon I played some Beautiful Katamari - finally beat the game - and then went up to Ames to visit the convalescin' Jess Higgins. She's walking around, so good to see her out of the hospital bed. We watched The Wedding Singer and looked up old tv commercials for record compilations (think Freedom Rock, Sounds of the '70s, basically anything with "Can't Fight This Feeling") so that was hilarious and nostalgic.

We also watched some Yacht Rocks and then I just checked on VH1 Classic and they are showing the movie FM tonight! I'm excited because I think it's out of print or never was released on DVD. I've heard it was like if WKRP was a movie, but according to JD Ryznar it made him sleepy. So we'll see. Just now a concert film of Supertramp is ending up. At one point they had two keyboardists on stage: boss.

*I should ask Kristofor if anyone else calls him Ktofor. His nickname was modeled after K-Fed

Ennui, Trinity & I have it

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:13:06 -0700

Today is June 15. Yesterday turned out pretty OK! I made it to the Pride Parade in plenty of time and I had a blast marching with everyone. We handed out/threw candy, beads, and these little collapsible frisbee/fan things. I didn't have much stuff to start with, so it quickly turned into "Rachel smiles and waves at the crowd like she's famous." It wasn't very hot techically, but the sun was very bright and I was hot and tired from marching, and I couldn't find a lemonade stand to save my life, so I split. I went to Hy-Vee and got a few things, including a 32-oz ~~Gator~~Powerade that I made short work of, and some hot dogs.

Sunday evening I watched my friends play softball out in Clive. 2 of the wives that I know showed up so we had a nice time visiting. I don't think the team won either of their games, but they put up a good effort and had some big hits. Today I went up to Ankeny to check on Kim's cat Shasta. Shasta is a dilute tortoiseshell with white socks, and she is full of loves! She wanted to be held and cuddled way longer than any cat I've ever interacted with. Very fun and relaxing to hold a purr-monster who's not trying to get away.

The new Mars Volta album comes out a week from tomorrow, so I decided to pre-order it.

"Designate Auto-Download Machine" -- doesn't that seem like it should be the first track off the album? LOLOL I'M SO WITTY LOVE ME NOW PLS.

Today I also ran the dishwasher and watched Albert Brooks's directorial debut Real Life. Like all of his films I have seen so far, it is subtle in its humor, but definitely with some laugh-out-loud moments. As an avowed hater of reality TV, I wanted to shake my fist and say "What hath you wrought, Hank Scorpio?!" but of course it wasn't his fault.

Wristbands two Saturdays in a row

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:13:06 -0700

Today is June 14. Here is a small wrap-up of Friday and Saturday.

Friday was a typical hang-out-and-do-nothing day for most of it. I finally got it together enough to go mow the lawn, but by that time, it was raining. Of course. So I watched a documentary from Netflix called Prom Night in Kansas City. It was pretty much an MTV's "True Life" style project, but the filmmaker's personal interest (she grew up in KC and had all these conflicting feelings about prom) gave it an edge. I enjoyed it but there was a big divot in the middle of the disc that prevented me from watching a couple of chapters. Hali Lee, the director, had a good contrast between different types of proms in the KC metro, including Shawnee Mission North! That was relevant because my first roommate Carol went to Shawnee Mission South. Also there was an LGBT youth center called Passages that hosted their own prom. So cool!

Eventually it started raining pretty hard, so I went outside to presoak. Then I took a shower and went to a boutique opening downtown at Vitae. The shop features art and clothing by local DSM women artists, including my pal Kelsey. It was fun and it felt exciting to be a small part of the local art scene.

After that, I took my computer back to work (the one they loaned me to use at home) and cleaned out my desk. This was a tedious process, but I had old episodes of I Love Movies to pass the time. Leaving behind my pop bottles and back issues of MSDN magazine, I was able to fit everything inside a Rubbermaid container intended for Christmas tree ornaments. Then I went home and watched The Soup and the last-ever (sniff) Best Week Ever.

Saturday I woke up to the sound of the smoke detector. I stumbled out into the kitchen and saw Laura and eggs on my stove. I guess she was making scrambled eggs, and moved the pan, and the eggs sloshed out and got on the burner and set off the smoke alarm. Caylor got the alarms shut off, and disarmed the security system thing. We ate the eggs, along with some sausages and biscuits. The sausage, for reasons of Demonry, was seasoned with Tabasco sauce!

After breakfast, I went back to bed and slept for way too long. I woke up at 11:40 and was supposed to be at the JCreek Petco at noon for an adoption event. I hustled around and got Pete out there at a reasonable time. The event went well; a nice family who has already adopted 2 cats from RVAS expressed a strong interest.

The rest of the day: I watched another Netflix, had KFC for dinner with Laura and Caylor (a two-biscuit day!) and mowed the lawn. Then I got ready to go out on the town with Laura and her friends. While we were waiting, Jesriedl and here mom stopped by on their way back to Ames from the aeropuerto. They met Pete and were naturally charmed by him =)

Finally Laura's friends arrived and we headed downtown. First stop was the Surf Shack which was having a street party of some kind. That was where I got the wristband. They had a DJ and a band concurrently, and depending on where you stood, you could hear one or both of them. They band was actually pretty cool! They played some G'n'R and AC/DC, and also that Stone Temple Pilots song about "I am, I am, I am, I said I wanna get next to you." After that we went to Liar's Club which I had heard a lot about but never been to. It was packed to the gills with party people, especially, it seemed, bachelor/ette party people. Laura and I left after a while and stopped at Fong's Pizza before we decided just to go home. I would like to try Fong's again when it's not rondo drunk hour.

Fun in 2003, fun now

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:32:15 -0700

Today is June 11. Another nice day around the house. I made it to the gym today, which I hadn't in a long time. (My excuse was that I was driving up to Ames so much to visit Jess Higgins in the hospital but really a lot of it was just not wanting to go.) So that was kind of cool. They switched from Dish Network to Directv on the gym TVs. Big Cat Diary was on while I was there, and it's always cool to see the cheetahs and lions walk around and see how much they look like felis domesticus.

I got home from running an errand and someone alerted me to the fact that I Love the '70s Volume II was on. I happened to catch it at the start of 1973 so I started recording. I now have '73-'79 on a DVD. On my old VHS tapes, I have I Love the '80s, '80s strike back, '70s, and '90s. I have some of '80s 3D - not sure how many episodes. I remember one year they had a marathon over Thanksgiving while I was in Sioux City and god bless me but I took over Chris's cousin's VCR and taped episodes there. I wish I could have been on those shows. I have lots of great comments about slap bracelets, neon things, and bike shorts.

P.S. to yesterday, I did watch Hot Rod with the commentary. It still can't beat Mr. Show for BEST commentary, but it was pretty great =)

The Hangover: must-see

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:10:44 -0700

Today is June 10. I had a great day. I had a doctor appointment in the morning (no big whoop, just wanted to get a couple scripts filled before losing insurance) and had a breakfast sam. I also went out with the lovely Steph C. for iced cream at Snookies! Such a handy little place, and so tasty.

Dad came down and I grilled some burgers for us. We also had potato salad, carrots, and chocolate chip cookies. I had my band concert at the Woodlands Creek Retirement Center, which is located right by where my friends play in their Sunday softball league. I was all worried about finding it, until I figured out it was just up the street from the park.

The concert went well, and then Dad and I went to see The Hangover. I had been wanting to see it, and Jonno recommended I see it with someone, so I talked Dad into it. Some people might think it's weird to watch R movies with their parents but we are pretty much beyond all that. There were some Dumb Texting Teens in front of us, but I was able to ignore them because the movie was so awesome. You guys, it is a must-see for any fans of raunchy comedies. I would describe it as "If Planes Trains and Automobiles could gently caress Superbad, while Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas watched." Basically it has great factors from all those movies. And Zach Galifianakis, who I hope becomes America's new sweetheart. For Zach fans, I can say there are some nice eastery eggs in the movie. The Nard-dog was also amazing. I wish I could give him some hugs and high-fives.

I am wayyyy too jazzed to sleep. Maybe I'll go watch Hot Rod, since I feel like I'VE BEEN DRINKING GREEN TEA ALL DAY LONG.

Linens and Other Things

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:10:44 -0700

Today is June 9. Pretty much all of this day has been a waste. I finally took a shower at 2:45 and then I tried to tape some episodes of Pop-Up Video, but they were all ones I've already taped. I honestly don't get it: VH1 Classic theoretically has almost 200 episodes of Pop-Up Vid to choose from, but they keep repeating the same 25 episodes over and over. Boo! Then at like 6:000 I started doing some laundry. Soon I'll have clean sheets, towels, and all the rest.

I got the movie Fanboys from Netflix today. It's pretty cute and has a great cast. Though I gotta say, if Kristin Bell in a brown wig can't get her cute nerdy guy friends to notice her, the rest of us are in for a world of hurtin'. It was also, technically, a period piece from 1998, so the soundtrack had all this great late-'90s stuff. Particularly I liked "In The Meantime" which Jesriedl and I have rediscovered lately. PLUS there was a character who had a sweet custom van and a box full of Rush tapes. So that was nice for a chica named Rachel. I'm actually wearing a Rush shirt as I write this! (Baseball-style Presto bunny with red sleeves) Overall I would say Fanboys is worthy of the road-trip comedy genre.

Finally, this: (last reunion reference, I plomise)

Scanned it myself, bitches!

Reunion report

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:57:26 -0700

Today is June 8. So Saturday the 6th was the first half of the reunion festivities. Austin and I went to the wrong bowling alley first but luckiy we saw Stephanie Elmer (nee Merrell) on the street and she told us where the new Carousel Lanes was located. Saw so many cool peeps and spouses/significant others. There were so many folks there, I ran out of time to talk to everyone. I hope I didn't bring people down with my tale of downsizing, but I figured it would be better to tell the truth. Michelle was a hit with her tales of WNTW, and Faith's husbear Eric seemed to enjoy talking Philosophy with some of the assembled. I cut out a little early to take Sharon to her folks' new place. Her bebe Elise was having a hard time w/o her.

Austin and I originally were going to go back to the party, but the parking situation was deemed too unsurmountable of an obstacle. So we went to Hollywood Video and rented "Bender's Game" and got some microwave kettlecorn. I have decided that k-corn is the bomb because it is tasty but doesn't make your fingers greasy. The Futurama movie was fun too. I don't know if I have a favorite or least favorite of the new movies; I have liked them basically all equally.

Sunday morning I was runnin' on empty like Jackson Browne so I had to stop in Ankeny to get some gas before making the trip back up to Ames. I picked up Austin and we made our way to Story City again. I was worried we were going to be late--what happened was, I got the fact that the brunch was catered by The Cottage confused in my brain and thought we were eating there. Since it's a nice place, I was self-consious about tromping in late. Well it was actually at Sons of Norway, which I figured out as soon as I drove by the Cottage and there were no cars out there!

There weren't as many class-of-99'ers at the brunch but people's kids were there, so that was nice to see Genetics In Action. Jim Gaffigan has a joke about how people are always so surprised when a baby looks like the dad or mom. "That's kind of the point!" The kids were mostly good except for when they got bored and knocked over a bunch of tables and one of them almost got sqwushed. Also I had perfect joke timing - the friends at my table were talking about cats, sort of complaining about some of their bad habits, and meanwhile some toddlers were filling up a Frisbee from the drinking fountain and throwing the water on the ground. "Now, a cat would never do that," I said. Big laugh sur le table. I had a great time at both events. I apologize if I offended or bothered anyone with my Ways.

After brunch, I visited with David and his mother some more, and then I came home and took a nap. Laura woke me up around 5:15 and said she wanted to go to dinner. So we all went out to El Aguila Real, the one in Beaverdale. She had one requirement in a restaurant, and that was chips + salsa. I think I delivered. El Aguila's salsa is awesome b/c it's all pureed and easy to dip. It started raining really hard and then I got some texts that softball was canceled =( It was a little bit nostalgic to be woken up from a nap early on a Sunday evening to go to dinner. Reminded of my days of catching some Z's after a 6-2 Hy-vee shift. I mean the foggy feeling was exactly the same, after 5+ years.

Today I had to go into work for an informational session on career counseling, and then I drove up to Story city to get a new tire put on my car. This was my FIFTH day in a row driving to Ames and/or Story City, and I am pretty well tired of it. Although the trips went fast because of listening to old episodes of Doug Benson's I Love Movies. Right now I am watching the original Jamie Lee Curtis "Prom Night" and I've got Petey Peterman in the basement with me. Door shut so no other kits can come down hurr.

David's visit

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:52:20 -0700

Today is June 6. Yesterday I goofed around and then mowed the lawn. I wore my Snapper hat even though I became "that guy." Don't wear the hat of the mower you're going to go use, and all that. Much of the day was devoted to bumming around.

In the early evening, I drove up to Ames and picked up David outside the Memorial Union. He was back in town for a short visit and he had invited Jesriedl and me out to dinner. We went back to her house to pick her up, and she showed him all the improvements she had made to her place since the last time he was there. My favorite to vicariously show off is always the wall that became an entryway, and vice versa.

Per my suggestion, because I am a bo$$y boots, we went to Dublin Bay for dinner. I got chicken oscar because that's what I always get. It's a chicken breast with some kind of sauce, atop a crab cake, with some asparagus. You also get mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. We had a good time at dinner basically cracking each other up. Sometimes my weird friends bring out extra weirdness in me and I feel embarassed for my more normal ones.

After dinner, we went back to Jess's place and she showed us around the grounds, all the improvements she had made to the outside. She has a fish pond with real live fish, so cool! They kind of hide but you can see the big orange one if you know where to look. Then we went inside and just hung out and visited and that was fun too. We discussed everything under the sun, from "Valerie" and "Call on Me" to Lindsay Lohan doesn't change facial expressions and internet memes in general.

Today I got my hair colored at 8am (I had paid up through this month so technically it's not wasting money...I have one more EXT session in 2 weeks and I'm trying to extricate myself from the hair club. They're not making it easy, but that's their job, I guess. I have so much product stockpiled I think I'm going to be OK. Plus I was thinking about quitting anyway so this is a perfect excutse.) I took Pete to a mobile adoption event for RVAS over in Windsor Heights. He did well and a lady seemed interested in him, so that was cool. I was supposed to stay until 1:30, but at 1:00 I started feeing awful so they let me go home. I took a nap and rested on the heating pad and I'm feeling a lot better!

In a few minutes, I'll get up and get ready for the big REUNION. Scary! Wish me the lucks.