This is the helpful neighbor's house. 

response and response

In a message dated 11/30/2004 4:15:50 PM Eastern Standard Time, "Bill " writes:
>MK:>>My thanks for your note.>>While we may have our disagreements, I think we can agree that putting >dedicated Americans like your husband in harm's way is something that should >be done only in the most urgent situations. As you suggest, "if it wasn't >worth dying for, the U.S. shouldn't have gone their in the first place." My >feeling about Iraq is precisely that;

I'm sure it is.... and on that we disagree.

>we had many other options for keeping >America and our allies safe from terrorism; the desperately sad situation >we're in, as you suggest, is that too many have already given their lives >for an absolutely terrible decision by our government.

terrible decision or imperfect execution? at some point you have to take action on your threats.

>>As for Clinton's military actions, I have spoken out and written a great >deal against all kinds of military action

um, I've slept since then. ;D

-- "collateral damage" should not >be an acceptable part of any policy, and certainly not if we hope to bring >peace and security to a world that increasingly distrusts us.

well, there's idealism and there's realism. and I think generally people are going to distrust whoever is in a powerful position (that's why France is okay! ;D) particularly this generation.

>>In my view, the best support for the troops is to demand on wise >policymaking by informed, thoughtful leadership, and I think that's clear in >my piece.>

yes, we just don't see eye to eye on "informed" my spouse tends to be of a mind that Iraq was mainly a strategic move. We're in a war on terror and where do many terrorists come from? now we're in the middle of it.

>My best to you and your husband, and thanks again for taking a few minutes >to send along your thoughts.>

Thank you for taking the time to respond. on a side note... my husband blogs occasionaly about this,here are a couple links relative to the discussion:
http://signaleer.blogspot.com/2004/07/41-reasons-why-i-support-war-on-terror.html
http://signaleer.blogspot.com/2004/09/kofi-annan-says-iraq-invasion-illegal.html

MK

>Regards,>Bill

got this email today....

Friends,
1. Humor occasionally has its limits, and that's why this week I've written a different kind of column called, "I Support the Troops." Like many Americans, I've been strongly opposed to the war in Iraq since the early rumblings in the fall of 2002. Patriotic Americans can and will continue to disagree about the wisdom of both the invasion and our current policy; I hope that by sharing my honest and passionate viewpoint I can contribute to that discussion. Please share your thoughts with me after reading the column here:http://www.january2009.com/readings/shein-support.asp

sooooo, here's my response:

Mr. Shein, Being the spouse of one of our troops I though I'd let you know what I though about your column, since you asked. I totally dissagree with the notion that one can "support the troops" by asking them not to do their job. I understand not agreeing with the war, I don't agree with you, but probably neither one of us will change our minds. Most of the soldiers i've been in contact with would dissagree with you also, mainly on the grounds that some of them have given their lives and to give up now would make their deaths meaningless. I know that's how my husband felt after we pulled out of Somalia, if it wasn't worth dying for, the U.S. shouldn't have gone there in the first place. and where was your outrage when Clinton did this? or went into Kosovo and Bosnia? There was a lot of "collateral damage" then as well.

MK

sooooo, usually this guy is pretty entertaining, he ran a get out the vote campaign that was really pretty non-partisan. I could ramble on a lot about how I feel about "supporting our troops" while not liking what they are doing. my other big peeve about it is, what does that make out troops? huh? bunch of dupes? too stupid to think for themselves? yeah, they're under orders, but PLEASE! why join the military if you aren't planning on having to put your training to use? and there's more to it than "I would like to kill people!" maybe there are a few soldiers who think that way, and I really can't speak for all military people but I know for RTO, it's a matter of wanting to protect people he cares about and making things better for others.

quick question

how bad is it when you dream about just going to sleep?

RRRRAAAARRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

they just ran a story on FNC about a school in NJ that has banned the chorus from singing religious music. particularly for the holidays. so what's left to sing? The school board obviously has no clue about musical literature or concert preparation. Of course it's because someone's worried about offending kids who don't want to sing about Jesus. (sigh) for a long time most of the music written was for church. It's hard to sing quality music and NOT have something with religious overtones. I've been trying to think of a good analogy..... oh, got it. It would be like telling someone to teach American lit, but leave out the religious writers.... okay so we'll just leave out the first few years. I really can't think of anything else that relied so heavily on the church for so long. teach Art, but don't ever talk about the Madonna? How many people have used that as a subject? DaVinci.... only the Mona Lisa, forget the Last Supper. A thoughtful choral director will try to include other material. I remember one season in college a bunch of people got offended because we sang some Budhist lit, or was it Hindu? anyhoo, it wasn't Judeo-Christian and I thought there was going to be a riot amongst the chorus members. Then we get into what's left once we take out all religious choral music. Um, anyone want to explain the symbolism of the dying swan to jr. high and high school kids, think that would offend anyone? (side rambling to illustrate my point...... I sang in a chamber chorus in college, the first semester was focused on renaissance music because we always went to sing at some festival in kansas city. let's just say that most of the text was about having fun. lots of drinking and dying swans. towards the end of the day, about the sixth time we'd sung everything the announcer just introduced every tune with. "this one's about sex too!" yay!) I'm no music scholar really though I play one on this blog right now. Let's just say that to come down with this decision at this late date is very unkind to the poor chorus director who's going to have to redo their program, they've probably been working on this music for a month now and to have to discard some of it has got to be harsh. (for lola, I guess there's always "What do you do with a drunken sailor"!)

UPDATE: so I didn't read the article first..... I was going with how it was presented on TV which is very different. seems it's a new thing for the BAND. who cares if there aren't any words involved we all know them anyway and they're probably offensive.

Kitties for everyone!!!!!

RTO's parents live on a farm/ranch/whatever you want to call it. His dad raises horses. Though we all know what it really is..... a cat ranch. we went out there Friday with my parents. lots o' kitties as usual. one very sweet brown tabby. RTO wouldn't let me bring him home. :( okay, actually our two hateful things are having a hard enough time with the dog, probably don't need to add another beast into the mix. There was also an orange tabby that kept following us around, but didn't want to be petted. I learned the hard way that he realllly didn't want to be messed with. We'd gone into the barn/garage and he slipped in the door after us, so I grabbed him, not smart. he started hissing and flailing and biting me. I have a couple of nice puncture wounds on my palm, fortunately he bit my thumb so he didn't break my skin with his teeth, I just kept feeling him clamping down on the nail. hee hee. anyway, I noted on RTO's blog a while back that my sister's cat had passed on, she's recently started looking for another kitty. Last week we mentioned we could get her a farm kitty and she told me that RTO was a cat pimp. yeah, he gets it from his parents. RTO's mom called yesterday saying that the friendly orange kitty that had been missing when we were there had shown up and would my sister like it? (we said we thought she wanted an orange one) So I called lola up.
MK: What are you up to?
Lola: oh, just going to the pet store to check out the kitties.
MK: huh, well, I just got a call that there's an orange tabby at the cat ranch.
Lola: oh, is that the one mom was telling me about?
MK: huh? oh, no, that one was brown, I thought you wanted an orange one.
Lola: um, actually I'd kinda like a stripey one like maggie and Carlos.
MK: oh, well then, the one mom told you about would be perfect. (Carlos came from the ranch) this guy is already fixed too.
Lola: cool, um, but I don't know when I can make it down there.
MK: RTO has drill next weekend.
Lola: Yay! but could you send me a picture?
MK: um okay.(you're taking this cat, you don't need to see him)

ha ha, so looks like she will be getting a farm kitty, I hope he doesn't require too much initial maintenance, like Carlos did.

Silly RTO

christmas lights


We put the Christmas lights up this weekend. The neighbors were also out doing the same, RTO chatted with them for a while about lighting techniques. One thing that was bothering him was how to get lights around the windows. They said they used some little clips that go over the bricks (shaped like this [ ) anyhoo, so RTO is like "let’s go find some of those!" Okay. Went to Home Despot, no luck, they didn’t have very much in the way of decorations. I suggested Wally world since it’s nearby, but RTO’s all like, “I hate them, don’t make me go there.” Fine. So we went to target, no clips, he bought some little adhesive hooks instead. got them up yesterday, talked to the neighbors again, they got the brick clips at.. where else? WallyWorld. Bwah ha ha ha haaaaaa. Oh well, we got most of our Christmas shopping done in the process, just a few more things to go. probably gonna wrap things today, hope the animals don’t decide to unwrap them for once. Yeah, right.

I was lazy....

and didn't send a link this week, but the Carnival of the Cats is up at Watermark.

The Turkey Day that almost wasn't

So, Wednesday night RTO’s cookin’ up a storm. I helped a little, sliced up some sweet potatoes and bread. We’re at the sink cleaning some dishes and he asks hey, what time is it? I look at the clock on the oven. “ummmm, we have a problem” it’s the same time it was who knows how long ago. The microwave above is dead too. So maybe the fridge light isn’t out, the whole fridge is. Yay! He goes to check the breaker box. Everything seems okay. Reset all of them, oven’s still dead. Huh. “why don’t you call your brother?” why? He asks. I told him that’s always what I did when something was wrong while he was gone. Soooooo he calls him up, Matt says he’ll be right out (he didn’t want to watch the bachelor), they go check everything again. I’m sitting on the couch cross-stitching. Finally the timer on the oven goes off. I go outside to let them know it’s working. Turns out it wasn’t just our house, it was the whole neighborhood. The 220 line went out and the electric co sent someone out to fix it. Yay! So we got the Thanksgiving meal done without too much trouble. As usual RTO made more than enough food. He said the goal was to not have to cook again until Christmas, we’ll see how that goes.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

it just keeps raining

grrrrrrr. it's hard to stay awake when it's always so dark outside. the puppy has to stay inside and the cats hate me.

in other news, um, had rehearsal last night. was the only soprano that could sing at the pops rehearsal (one other sop sat next to me, but was too sick to sing), which didn't matter much because most of the time was spent trying to get the tenors and basses to sing the right notes. ha ha! found out I'm on the second row for the christmas concerts so I should get some quality tv time! Not that I'm concerned about whether or not I get any screen time. ;D

Redun came visiting this weekend. He had an interview with PS yesterday. It was nice to see him and would be cool if he moved down here, but who knows what will happen. My parents get here tomorrow. yay!

garden close-up 

in other record player news......

it wasn't plugged in. *cough* RTO *cough* someone will have to find a new outlet for their laptop.

you'd think it'd be obvious

but, it's hard to tell when an instrumental record (herb alpert and the tijuana brass) isn't playing at the right speed.

more backyard blogging

would like to get some better pics of the backyard right now, but it's pouring today. got some good close-ups yesterday, but really should have brought the tripod out a few were a little tooooooo blurry. grrrrr. anyhoo, this is from a few days ago. we haven't had much sun lately so that also doesn't help.

because, of course, I'm well mannered.

regardless of what my family might tell you. anyway, Carnival of the Cats is up at Leslie's Omnibus. Maggie makes an appearance, think I'll go add my own caption.

musical thoughts

This post got me thinking. my freshman year of college, part of the aural skills class required us to go to the lab and listen to some guy lecture about developing perfect pitch. I don't think it went over very well. at least, I don't recall anyone having a breakthrough with it. I don't have perfect pitch. but I do have some quirks. One time in college my voice teacher and accompianist thought they'd play a trick on me. I don't remember what song it was, but they were thinking that I might be more comfortable with it in a different key, we went through it in the other key, I knew it even though they didn't say anything about it, but I think we stuck with the original key after all. ha. then a while back my teacher thought that "Blute Nur" (I'm not sure about the spelling there, it's German and it's Bach) would be good to work on, so he played a recording of it and when we started reading through it I kept having problems. finally he says "that's so cute, you're trying to sing it in the same key as the recording"(which was about a half step up) I eventually worked it out, but that lesson was entertaining to say the least. That reminds me, I did take a pitch i.d. test online a few months ago, it was strange , the first couple rounds of pitches were synthesised and the last couple groups were piano tones. I was much more accurate with the piano tones. Maybe I retained more of the taped lectures than I realized.

I really like the fall, but.....

RTO was complaining about how yucky the weather has been lately, so here's a picture of happier times for him. The back yard, before the puppy.

s-a-t-u-r-d-a-y night!

oh yeah, exciting times here. okay, not really. spent most of the day home, made a trip out to acquire storage boxes. cleaned up one bedroom that we've been keeping the door closed to because we didn't want to look at it and who knows what the animals would have done to all the stuff in the floor. so you can see the floor in there now! yay! tomorrow we'll try another room. Then maybe we'll hang some pictures. I emptied two boxes that were left from the move last year, there's still a couple in other rooms.... one in the office, one in the bedroom, one (maybe two) in the other bedroom, or RTO suggested we call it my studio. except that I haven't really used the drawing table in there, except to hold clutter, too much clutter for me to work around. Got Roxie a new collar, the one she had kept getting loose so I got her a red leather one, it was actually a bit too big, so RTO made some extra holes in it. (mental note, she's a medium dog) didn't ever get the interview call this week, they'll probably call Monday night again while I'm at rehearsal, goofs. oh well. Maybe I'll get some student calls soon. yeah, that's it. Anyone near me interested in piano or voice lessons feel free to contact me. finished another dish cloth tonight. I'm having a problem with this gauge thing, my things are coming out the correct width, but not height. I think I'm still making my stitches too tight, who knows. but it's not like I'm making clothing so at this point it's not soooooo imperitive that things come out perfect. I'm practicing. and RTO will have more dish cloths than he'll know what to do with. hee hee. I guess my family might receive some also, we'll see. After this last one I now 0wn3z the popcorn stitch.

Just think....

this time next week, we'll have the christmas decorations up. Some of our neighbors already have lights up, which is just wrong. Hopefully I'll get some even better pictures than last year.

hello?

not sure what she's looking at. I had fun tonight watching her perched on the window sill while we were eating dinner. she seems to like this spot.

in other fun maggie stories, RTO and I have been giggling at her chasing the puppy. RTO said she reminds him of a badger. we figured out it's because of her shape and that she doesn't alternate feet when she runs, her back legs and front legs stay together.

What's the minimum wage now?

I'm curious to know. Called about a job listing in the paper this morning, it was a relist from a week or so ago (I called about it then and was told it was filled) anyhoo, wasn't sure what they were looking for temp. pt/ft clerical. huh, well couldn't hurt to call them again. $6.50 and hour for filing, phone, light computer. huh? how much? that was right, hoo boy, I think I could get a job at Walmart that paid more, or am I smoking crack?

oh and speaking of job listings, it's always heartening when an ad pops up for something you sent your resume in for like a month ago and never heard from the people. (sigh)

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Let the record show that in their second meeting this season the Superhappyfunkitties once again clawed the KillerBeagles to pieces. With a score of 162.26 to 127.08. Go Kitties!!!!!

AMAZON!!!!

::shakes fists:: as you can see it's late. it's sooo easy for me to waste time on amazon.com, I don't buy anything, but I find the reccomendation thing just fascinating. I guess it works cause it reccomends a lot of things I already own. it's fun to watch the list morph as it finds out about more stuff I have. bwah ha ha haaaaa.

brain...won't....shut....down.....

so I tried to go to sleep, no really I did, but maybe RTO is right and I just can't get to sleep before two. I think, sure I can, just not right now. ha ha haaaaaa. Had chorus rehearsal tonight, there's a topic for debate.... choral singing: vibrato or straight tone. and why pick me as a member if you're just going to complain about blending? maybe it's not me. I don't know. pops rehearsal there were only 4 sopranos and he kept complaining. At one point he asked me to move so I would be next to the others instead of in front of them. k' then had us all sing and was telling two of the others to sing out more. so maybe it's not my fault, the others are just wimpy. yeah, that's it. But there were a couple of times in the regular rehearsal that he's like "that sounds great!" and I noticed it's when everyone uses more of a straight tone, and I don't think it has much depth, but there you go. going back to the pops thing, he's really particular about vowel sounds being dark and I'm thinking "this is going to be like last time.... the pops conductor will get here and tell us to loosen up a bit, it's a pops concert, it's supposed to be fun!" people prefer to hear normal english. down instead of dahwn. okay, that's one thing down out of my head. moving on....

got home, was hanging out in the kitchen while RTO heated up some pizza for me. noticed a note on the counter, not sure what it is, who it's for. debating if I should ask. you know, don't want RTO to be like "what? I have to tell you everything?" not that he's like that, but I'm conditioned that way I guess. anyhoo, ask him what it is. "oh, somebody called about a bookkeeping job you applied for, but I didn't get their name or where they're from, oh and they said it was okay to call until 10:30, which is right now." gaaaaah, so I called, spoke to the lady, she said if I was still interested she'd put me on the list to interview (over the phone cause they're out of town) sometime later this week. oooookay, so I've got a little research to do tomorrow. also thinking about how this will effect the playing for the senior group. I suppose I really shouldn't worry about that till I have a job. ha ha haaaaaa. but that wouldn't be any fun would it?

Where is the time going? I mean, next week is Thanksgiving! I don't have my Christmas shopping done yet. I'm gonna be in trouble if I don't get crackin'. The chorus pres. has been telling us that it's really a good idea to have our shopping done before December, cause it's a mess. and she's right. though, I think RTO has some things stashed around here for people that he brought back from the 'stan. we haven't sat and talked about it yet. I gotta clean up the place too, maybe put some of my fall decorations out finally. I've been so lazy about that this year. Maybe it's carry over from last year, when it was just me and I really couldn't have cared less about how festive the house looked. At the same time though it made me appreciate what I've got. I keep telling RTO how happy I am that he's back and it's soooo much more fun looking at all the holiday stuff with him. but then, I'm also a little anxious about what he's going to do with lights. This will be our first Christmas together in the house and he's always talked about wanting to go all out on the lights so we'll see. I sent him pictures from the neighborhood last year. maybe I'll retreive them from the old comp and post them. There is this one house in Garland near where RTO's brother lives that goes all out. I mean it's like daylight in their front yard, you can't swing a cat without hitting a light display, aaaaaand there's music playing for all the people that stop by. I'm sure their neighbors just love them. This year I should get some even better pictures since I got a tripod. woo gonna wrap this up cause it's long, and I know if I saw it on someone elses blog my eyes would glaze over and I'd never read the whole thing.

good news, bad news

or maybe not really news. We ordered a dining table Thursday, but it won't be here in time for Thanksgiving. though it's nice to finally find something after over a year of hunting.

Had a nice weekend, didn't do anything strenuous. watched movies. RTO doesn't understand it, I'm not sure I do completely, but I love Bollywood films. Last summer turner classic movies showed some every thursday for a month and I'd plant myself on the couch to watch them, stay up reallllly late. I think maybe it's the music, it doesn't matter what the movie is about there's going to be lots of music. Anyway Mother India was on Friday night and I stayed up to watch it. Saturday we watched Suspicion, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Gabriel over the Whitehouse and Dodsworth.

Last night we had a guest for dinner and RTO went all out. He saw it as a kind of Thanksgiving practice run. I think I'll probably spend TG sprawled out on the floor trying not to explode, so maybe it's good that we don't yet have a big table taking up space. ;D

you can tell it's getting cooler outside

the cats are getting friendlier.


actually we spent all day on the bed today, I'm feeling crummy.

same designer as the poppies, I really liked these, will have to do more.


Went through my project bin last night, found quite a few more frames. oh well, lately I've been crocheing don't know when I'll cross-stitch again, just not feeling crafty I guess.

Veteran's Day thoughts

I asked RTO the other night if he feels weird being a veteran. He's not old enough! he said actually he didn't feel like he did anything to deserve it. I don't know how to respond to that. yeah, he wasn't in a reallllly dangerous area. Maybe he thinks he should have fired his gun, been closer to being shot. I don't know. We can't all be commandos. somebody needed to do his job and he did it well.

I'm feeling better

yay! still congested, but not sloppy. probably even more sleep would help. yeah, that's it. anyhoo, thought I should give RTO some public praise. We can both park in the garage now! got home Monday night and was like, "wow!" though, I haven't asked about where some of the stuff went. a lot of it was stuff he brought back from the 'stan. speaking of which we're already talking about his next "trip" it's still a couple years off and a lot can happen between now and then, but it's out there. also got some good news about the symphony chorus NY trip, the symphony association will pay for us to stay Saturday night too! yay! they added a children's concert Saturday afternoon. I was already planning on staying the extra night anyway, just now it won't cost as much. No idea what we're going to sing yet, but that's okay we've got a few months til then. Can't beleive I'm looking forward to going to NY. I kinda dreaded the trip last April, but it ended up being really fun. This time should be even better cause RTO can come. yay!

no clue what these are. 

Tuesday tantrum

soooo, today wasn't much better. I've got one of those things that's starting to go from my head to my chest, looks like I'll be coughing but good the next few days. Played a gig this morning then came home and conked out til RTO got home. and he's like "I know the last couple days have been rough, but don't you think since you're here all day you could put dishes in the dishwasher?" I knew it had to start sometime. ;D don't have anything on the calendar tomorrow so I probably will just rest and try to kick this crud.

Watched the Maltese Falcon tonight. whee!

oh, last night at rehearsal in the Meyerson... the place was lousy with secret service. Read in the paper today that George H.W. and Bar were in the building. last year it was Laura. Anyhoo, had some cute stuff in the paper about it. My favorite quote.....

No. 41 did cop to some paternal fury. "I did exactly what I urge
young people not to do," he said. "I'd sit in front of the TV and yell, 'You
don't like it here, CNN, well get the hell out!'

RTO laughed his [pinky toe] off at that one. You can find more stuff here. Also I tried to post this reveiw Friday.

Christmas concerts start in less than a month. Get your tickets now! I'll be singing in this one toooo. well, it's somewhere on that page, the christmas pops concert. and anyone looking for christmas ideas *cough* RTO*cough* Burt Bacharach will be coming through in March. mmmmm burt bacharach.

This is probably my favorite. I think it's a poppy 

Monday mewling

my throat is soooo sore today. stupid allergies. trying to stay super-hydrated, already snorked up and gargled with warm salt water twice today. I need to come up with some music for tomorrow, if anyone has suggestions for some silent movie type music I'd appreciate it. I'm finding that opera works well, but it takes time to hunt down things for each moment. and I've been really lazy (so what's new?) well, tomorrow they're doing the Radio Dazed show, but are planning on rehearsing Breath of Murder in the afternoon gaaaaaah. I just want to stay here on the couch today.

I think this is a dogwood blossom. yeah, that's it.


btw, if anyone would like one of these please drop me an email. or if there is anything you might like stitched I'd be happy to do it. Maggie's getting really bored.

Sunday matinees

don't they know Sunday afternoons are for napping? apparently this wasn't lost on some audience members. this concert run has been the first that I've seen people so blatantly sleeping in the audience. One night there were these two girls on about the third row both sprawled out and asleep. My theory is that there was some extra credit involved for a few people since there was Shakespeare involved. I guess you don't have to prove you were paying attention, just there in a seat. I admit I thought about conkin' out a few times today, it gets dark, but, then I have an excuse, I've seen the thing like seven times now. anyhoo, we were talking about how we haven't had to sing a sunday matinee in ages, I think they even cancelled one in the upcoming christmas concerts, but we are doing saturday matinees. yay! two concerts in one day, hopefully they'll feed us in between. oops, checked the calendar, it was a Friday night concert that was cancelled and a Monday night and Saturday matinee that was added. I also volunteered to sing the pops concerts, cause they're fun, don't know what we're doing yet, will get the music tomorrow. yay!

Carnival of the cats

is up a Mind of mog this week.

I hate cell phones

haaaaaaaaate them. so after this weekend's shennanigans and a couple of other incedents. my family is pressuring me to get one. oh, they bring it up ever so often. NO NO NO!!!! please just leave me behind on this front. generations before me survived without one. okay, mainly it's just a cost/benefit thing. as little as I would use it, I just can't see paying more than five bucks a month or so. maybe ten. oooooorrrr, just going off the land line, but that's not feasible either. one or the other, not both. Then there's the whole "which plan out of five million would be just right?" my brain just shuts down at that point.

I hope this isn't a new pattern.

It used to seem that everytime RTO left me here when he went to drill that PBS decided to have a fundraising weekend, which really annoyed me because watching the shows on there was part of our normal Saturday evening.

(on phone)
RTO: How are you doing?
MK: raaaaaarrrrrr!!!!! how do they know you're out of town?
RTO: huh? who?
MK: PBS, they're asking for money again.
RTO: Bwah ha ha ha haaaaaa.

so, no telethon this evening, hopefully the phone won't go out everytime he leaves town. if it happens next month i'm going to have to beat someone.

Telco is evil

where to begin... I tried to post something yesterday morning, but blogger kept giving me an error message, and then later everything went to heck. RTO and I had gone out to run some errands before he left. we left from the front door since our garage door has been out of commission all week. came back and he parked in the back, so he's like "we'll just go in the back door" well, we found out that if you open the back door when the alarm is set there is nooooo grace period, fortunately there's still some time if you want to run up and turn it off, but it's embarassing. so we went about our business, RTO packing and me planted on the couch. Later the alarm beeped for no apparrent reason except now there was a red light on and we had no idea why. RTO left, I left for a voice lesson, came back.... the $%$%*$!@ computer still wasn't connecting to the internet, unplugged the router, shut everything down a few times, still nothing. grrrrrr. took a nap, tried the computer again.... nada. at this point I finally go, "I wonder if the phone is working" nope. greaaaaat. I went to visit the neighbors I'd met last weekend. asked if I could use their phone to call in the problem. Their phone doesn't work either. At this point though I need to get myself changed and downtown to sing, so they said they'd try some other neighbors. I come back, still no phone. oh well. Five thirty this morning there's a knock on the door. "I don't care if it's somebody I know(I have no way of knowing, it's still dark outside, no way am I turning the lights on, I'm not opening the door) They unlock the door and come in. RTO? no, his brother, oh, okay, RTO's freaking out since he hasn't been able to talk to me or reach me by email. (I don't have a cell phone, we'll talk about that later) Use BIL's phone to call the phone co. after outsmarting the automated system I talk to someone, they say they'll send somebody out to fix it before noon. fine, I'll just sleep some more. Long story short, went alllll day without phone, left for concert, still no phone. got home, Finally!! so her I am complaining. yay! think I'll make a different post for related news.

Here's another one, don't remember what kind of plant it's supposed to be. I think I made it a little too tiny so I couldn't really get any detail in there. 

bleh

today, (thursday) was pretty much a complete loss. I think the kitties were sending out extra powerful sleepy rays today. i didn't climb out o' bed til just before 3, still had one cat on my head and the other curled up next to me. they're evil that way. I think my allergies are still acting up. sitting through tonight's concert my throat was itchy. gaaaaaah. speaking of which if you're in the D/FW area you should come out and see this thing. I really like it. We don't sing very much, but the actor and lighting and orchestra are good. very dramatic. tonight when we met for warm-ups the choral director mentioned that we should try not to look sleepy. Here's the thing, you go from being in the dark for half an hour to the lights coming on full strength and I don't care who you are you're going to need some time to adjust. eyeballs do not like sudden changes in lighting. so I got home and RTO is already conked out, he had an MRI and CTscan today and says it messed with him.

Message from Carlos

forget to feed the cats will you!?


I'll try to have him calmed down by the time you get home, but I can't make any promises.
MK

I think this is supposed to be cornflower. I like the pattern of it. 

okay, who kicked me in the head?

actually, it's not that bad, but I am feeling a little beat up this morning, combination of hangin out on the patio at Joe's Crabshack watching the returns with a bunch of smokers and staying up really late after I got home. oh, and it's still kinda chilly. I've got one cup of coffee down now, so maybe it will get better. FNC is saying that Kerry has called Bush to concede. yay! maybe i'll take a nap now. I wonder how RTO is holding up today. He probably slept better than I did, he seems to do that. He doesn't let the cats sleep on his head, I don't mind, they keep me warm. Maybe they'll warm up to the puppy now that it's cooler, they always like warm bodies.

RAAARRRRR!!!!!

it's dark outside and RTO isn't home yet. It's cold too. I'm about to go crazy, have rehearsal tonight but not til eight. so instead I'm watching tv and surfing the net, don't want to miss anything! the Eastern Time Zone precincts should be closing soon right? then it should get really interesing, but I'll be in depths of the Meyerson. yay! RTO just showed up.

not quite coffee

so I sometimes have yogurt for dessert, so far vanilla is my fave. today tried coffee flavored from Dannon. it was..... different, a little too yogurty(kinda sour?) tasting for me, it was like yogurt...yogurt...ah, there's the coffee flavor. and not good coffee either more like instant coffee flavor, weak instant coffee.

Happy Election Day!

if that's possible.

coffee,coffee,coffee

I think I'm still feelin' the effects from the two cups I had before bed last night. I woke up before the alarm clock went off. just feel fried. though I think I'm about to crash. It's a blah kinda day, cloudy, rainy, cool. voted a couple weeks ago so there's no need to go out before three this afternoon.

yay!

yay..............yay!..........yay!

sleep?

got home a while ago, had a cup of coffee, RTO offered a second cup a minute ago. WHEEEEEEEE! eh, I rarely get to sleep before 2 anymore as it is. That and with the election coming up we've all been a bit on edge. I've had a couple of deja vu moments the last few days, so then my brain goes "something's going to happen" so, is it right or am I making it alllll up. The thing tonight was in rehearsal, going through christmas music and reading through our goofy piece for this year (some dylan thomas rambling) anyhoo, get to the part about calling the fire brigade and my brain goes "hey, I think we had a dream about this, about singing about something totally off the wall, like firefighters." hmmmm, it could be right. Last night had a dream that Donald Trump was visiting my house, that had me stressed too. my "husband" (didn't look anything like RTO, silly brain) was trying to impress him, and kept telling me not to mess it up by offending the donald or his date. woo I think this time change is messing with me.

next floral

This calls my color matching abilities into question.

Panic moment this morning

ohcrapohcrapdidiresettheclockyesterday?