Notes

It is early return week at school. This means we go there for three days this week and get paid extra to sit in meetings in the morning and work on our rooms in the afternoon. The meetings have been so exhausting that I haven't gotten all that much done in my room. Today I almost took a nap at my desk because I was so tired.
Anyway, I'm going to be the team leader this year for my team. This is a pretty big honor considering that this is only my second year teaching. Really, I know it's just a result of the two senior members of my team being department chairs and therefore being ineligible to be a team leader. It was okay for me to know this, but it kindof hurt when my principal, after congratulating me and me making a comment that my boyfriend was surprised by this said, "Well, it was a process of elimination. Tricia couldn't do it because she's department chair and Peggy couldn't do it because at the time we were picking team leaders she was still the science department chair [she has recently been replaced to her great joy] and you have seniority over Malcom [the long term sub from last year who has been hired for this year]." Gee, thanks Mr. Davis! Way to make a girl feel special.
Today, my cats have been exceedingly cute. I was doing crunches on the floor near a cabinet. Both cats hopped up on the cabinet and were looking down at me with their little cat faces showing right next to each other. It was cute. They were sitting together and looking at me. It made my heart smile.
Also, I found a tasty alternative to cinnabon popcorn. Air pop popcorn and then melt a tablespoon of butter (or, in my case the margarine that's made with yogurt), cinnamon, and splenda and sprinkle over popcorn. Very delicious.
Time to try to go to bed while the cats chase each other around the apartment. At least they like each other and the new table and chairs they enjoy sitting upon.

Thank goodness Ben pays attention for me

So, Amazon.com now sells vibrators, condoms, massage oil, etc. They have partnered with quite a few adult stores and they have a ridiculous amount of stuff. I suggest looking in to it. They seem to have a lot of stuff on sale and lots of neat multi packs of things.

However, I'm not so sure what this would do.
As Ben said as he walked into the bedroom, "You do what you like to do [shop for vibrators] while I'll do what I like to do [play video games]." It's nice to be with someone who understands you.

Wikipedia is made by nerds like me!

I hit the random page button on the side and the first page that came up was on the A6 (English roadway). The next page was on group sex and had pictures and descriptions of multiple positions used in group sex.
The text: spitroast or roasting

the penetration of one person in the mouth at the same time as they are being penetrated in the vagina or anus. Sometimes called a wobbly H or (Chinese) fingercuffs, since the person in the middle is stuck between.

Me thinking: just like in Chasing Amy!

The text: (See also: Chasing Amy.)

Hahaha. That made me laugh so much! Again, this is probably another example of me entertaining me.

Sometimes the Washington Post is funny

I know Ben will think this is amusing. Or maybe he won't. I'm never all together that sure what he thinks is funny. You all might think it's amusing, too. Or maybe not. I guess I'm only really good at finding things that amuse me. Like yesterday when we kept looking up people on the Teen Choice awards and I amused myself by talking about how many of them had been on Buffy. Ben hit me; he thinks Buffy is stupid and people that like Buffy are idiotic.

"Guess what? I got a fever. And the only prescription... is more cowbell!"

For truly nerding it up, try the Wikipedia excerpt on cowbells. Truly illuminating.

Take two

I had another post, and it disappeared. I used to laugh at people when they said this in their blogs, but now that I, too, know this annoyance maybe I'll stop mocking them in my head.
Okay, here are the main points of my other post condensed for less amusement but more getting down to business.
Oh no, here come the bullets again!

• I put together the cabinet I got yesterday at Ikea. It looks pretty good, but I don't know where to put it. It sticks out from the wall too far to really make work well where the telephone is now. I think I'll need to put it somewhere else, like maybe move to futon to the loft or something. The whole other point of the post was me complaining that Ben is pretty useless when it comes to decorating and furniture moving decisions because he doesn't care and doesn't pretend to care in order to help me.
• Second, the new table is getting delivered on Wednesday instead of in October. This is nice because I get it now, instead of later, but it leads to all sorts of anxiety issues. Does one tip? How much? How? This is freaking me out just like the AAA guy when he came to fix my tire.
• Also, I love Buffy. Why the hell didn't I watch the show when it was on the first time? I now spend four hours a day watching Buffy. This will be made impossibly when I start back at work in September due to the unfortunate hours school is in session and the lack of FX in my classroom. Humm...maybe since we have a new librarian then we'll have FX to watch. Our other librarian only let the Speed channel, A&E, and Fox News through on the TVs. Not much to watch there.
• Oh crap, I totally forgot about this and I've totally lost my train of thought. Oh well, let's hope I put everything in this post that I wanted to.
  

Where is my spam comment?

So, now Kayla and Jen have spam comments on their blogs. I'm feeling a bit left out. However, my cat doesn't want me to feel left out so he is all in my face and on the keyboard. I know I wanted a cuddly and attention seeking cat, but sometimes he is too much.

Let me run down the things I got accomplished on Friday and so far this weekend.

• cleaned out the fridge
• cleaned out and organized the lazy susan (Ben fixed it so now the top shelf doesn't fall onto the bottom shelf anymore)
• cleaned and organized the washer and dryer area
• made Indian food
• set up banking software
• purchased groceries
• purchased cabinet for telephone (still haven't found a baker's rack I liked, although I did find something that I liked at Ikea, too bad it was all sold out. Stupid Ikea!)
• did dishes multiple times

Wow. What an exciting and productive weekend! Ben spent most of the weekend playing video games. He keeps switching between two different football games. It's really, really dull to watch.

We went to Ikea today. It's funny how many couples you see there who are about to punch each other or break up. I think it brings out the best in people. Ben is pretty good about not getting mad, but he does rush me through the store. They should offer relationship counseling with each purchase. Ben remarks that the counseling should need to be put together with an allen wrench. I don't see how that works, but he did make this comment when he was angry and in the store. I don't expect Ben to be logical in Ikea, it takes too much of his energy to keep from breaking things in annoyance and anger.

Think Positive Thoughts

Here are the things I should be doing today. As you read the blog, please send positive energy my way so that I can complete these tasks.

• do the dishes
• make a grocery list
• clean the washer and dryer area
• clean the refrigerator
• clean the cabinets (wipe them down, get the chocolate residue off the front of the fridge)
• go shopping for food so I can make the Indian recipes I downloaded
• go shopping for some sort of cabinet to hold the telephone (it needs to be something different from the baker's rack I'm going to order online tomorrow)
• make food
• research grad schools for spring semester
• set up banking software program

I have set a list of fairly ambitious collection of things to do tomorrow. Let's see if they actually get done since I haven't been good at being productive for the past two days.

Vacation - Day 4

Oops, I skipped writing yesterday but it would have been really boring. I pretty much watched TV and slept. I did that today, too, but I did some more interesting things, too.
I want a carpet shampooer. I bought a little mini carpet shampooer and spot cleaner and just spent like an hour cleaning up the stains by the coach and on the way to the door. The carpet looks so much better. There is a now a new way to get everything all clean; I want to be able to clean the carpets whenever I get the obsessive urge to assert control into my life through cleaning.
Tomorrow I'm going to make Indian food. I found a couple of recipes I want to try on Allrecipies and I'm going to get the stuff tomorrow afternoon and cook. I'm hoping I can add a couple more things to Ben and mine's menu.
I am going to look for something to make for dinner tonight because I think Ben expects me to have food ready for him since I am not working. This sucks. Just because I'm not working doesn't mean that I want to cook and clean for him.
There he is now. Time to pretend to be busy.

Vacation - Day 2

Today was much more exciting than yesterday. Today I drove to my parents' house and went with my mom to the dentist where I sat and waiting for her to get her teeth cleaned for about an hour. Then we drove another and and a half to get to Belfort (my cousin's furniture store) to order my table -- it's a dark colored counter height table with a leaf and six neat counter height chairs. We met up with my other cousin (well, really first cousin once removed) and ordered from him. Then we went to the new store they just opened and saw his mom (my other cousin). We learned about all her children and buying houses and things like that. I like the new store -- it has nicer, more contemporary furniture and is more open than the bigger show room.
Next, Mom drove to Rockville where we went the a Buddhist, organic, and vegetarian restaurant called The Vegetable Garden. I love it there, it's delicious and really healthy. Then we drove to Bethesda Naval to go to the Exchange to look for a baker's rack for me. It was a no go. But, my mom did get some shoes and I got a little steam cleaner to clean up Ben's and the cats' messes on the carpet. Ben food, cat vomit, Anna orange juice. Then we drove another half an hour back to my parents' house where my mom showed me rafting pictures. My dad did not look too pleased in them. He had his, "I don't like this being up on the roof" face on most of the time.
Then Mom made me clean my bedroom. I got to clean it the fun way -- stuffing things into drawers and the closet and throwing trash away. My mom didn't listen when I told her that a box I had was stuff that was going home and she opened it. It's not my fault that's where I keep condoms, if she didn't want to be weirded out then she should have listened to me. It wasn't nearly as awkward as when we found my dead 83 year old grandmother's giant vibrator in her bedroom when we were cleaning out her things. That was a pleasant experience to share with your mother and her younger, obsessively Christian brother.
Then I went downstairs and enjoyed the big tv and took a nap with my special fluffy princess cat. She's gaining weight because my mom and wussy dad are feeding her her thyroid pills wrapped in chicken skin. My mom has a little gladware container in the fridge of chicken skin to sneak pills into my cat's stomach. Foxxy's tail is still looking a little weak -- it's missing a lot of her super fluffy fur, but, overall, she does look a lot better.
Then my dad come home and my mom went to swimming and then I drove home. Now I'm watching Spiderman 2 with Ben and he's oggling Kirsten Dunst in her tight, wet dress. Maybe this will translate into me getting lucky tonight [But then again, probably not --Ben].
He ruins all my fun.

Vacation - Day 1

So bored. So bored. Too bored to even do anything. I called my mom, she wasn't home. I did the dishes. I'm doing laundry. I'm researching things to do this weekend. I've been hanging out with the kitties (they've been following me around and sitting on my lap -- both of them).

I'm running out of things to do. I know I should be relaxing and recharging so that I can be well refreshed for school when it starts in September, but I can only sleep for so long.

I know I shouldn't be complaining because everyone else is working, but if you aren't a teacher then you don't know how much recharging time you need.

I'm going to go back to watching Buffy. Too bad I missed out on Buffy when it was first on TV. Good thing summer school ends at 12:45 and I can get home to watch most of the two episodes FX plays in the afternoon.

Mega Stores

Ben and I are thinking about getting a membership to a warehouse store. We're thinking of Costco because it's near to us and better than BJ's Warehouse which is close and more expensive. Anyway, I want to get a spot steam cleaner for spills on the carpets and upholstery and I was looking on Costco's website to see what they had (which turns out to be useless since they say what's on their website is probably not what's in their stores). I was quickly scanning over the navigation categories on the side of the page to move from looking to cleaners to baker's racks and thought I saw something that said "Urns and Caskets." I did a double take. Urns and caskets? Urns and caskets! The store that sells cheese slices and paper clips in bulk also sells caskets and urns. Somehow I am very disturbed by this fact. Would you offer samples of these in the store next to the new brand of microwave pizza?

Unfortunately for those of us living in Maryland and Virginia we are not allowed to order caskets on Costco.com -- it seems that only people in 26 states can order caskets and urns.



The Renaissance Urn Company offers a soft and comforting resting place for your loved one. These lightweight fabric urns are ideal for memorial services and scattering. Each urn is beautifully crafted of fine silk and is completely lined. You will appreciate the quality materials and simple, elegant lines.

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Size: Urn
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Color: Sage, maroon, or steel blue
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Silk fabric
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Fully lined interior
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Meets U.S. transportation security guidelines for easy travel
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Includes: Plastic inner urn, plastic bag and tie
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Volume: 220 cubic inches
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Dimensions: 8.5" W x 6.25" D x 4" H
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Weight (w/box): 2 lbs.

There is something grossly frightening about the description of the silk urn. It has a plastic inner urn, plastic bag and tie? Tie? Like a garbage bag or bagel bag? A twist tie? It seems like such a contradiction considering that this is product is toted as a soft and comfortable resting place for you loved one's ashes. I understand the psychological need to have a comfortable bed and liner in a casket -- it's basically the bed your loved one will rest in for eternity. In fact, it really looks like a dead person is sleeping in the casket. However, why would you need the same thing for ashes? Ashes are the least like the form of a person remains can take. Not to mention, the idea of cloth and dead people is just icky. I want something solid, like steel or stone to keep dead people away from me. Cloth is airy and porous. I don't want the barrier between me and death to be permeable.