Where’s June?

I think this is a bulleted list kind of day. It’s Saturday, it’s early, and I’m not sure I can string together cohesive thoughts yet. Besides, the randomness in my head lends itself very well to bullets.

• I have friends in London this week, who are supposed to be traveling back to the States today. Send them good vibes, will you? I’ve been a little on edge since all this explosives talk started up on Friday. I know everything will be fine but I’m sure it dampened what should have been a great, relaxing vacation.
• It is now Day 3 of the stray CAT watch in my backyard. It hasn’t moved and it’s owner hasn’t come to retrieve it. I haven’t fed it or named it, so I can’t understand why it’s still hanging around, but hanging around it is. If it is still here on Day 7, I do believe that baby is mine.
• I broke down last night and boxed up some of my books. I am simply running out of bookshelf space (I have very little) and I couldn’t stand the clutter any longer. (Of course, a few times doing this doesn’t really help the situation.) It was extremely difficult to decide which ones I could ‘part with’, even if they are just going into the upstairs closet. I just kept telling myself that whenever I end up moving and/or getting more bookshelf space, it will be like Christmas when I get to re-open those boxes. Yeah, I didn’t buy it last night either.
• The bookshelves now look much better. That helps a little bit.
• Did you know that I own Love in the Time of Cholera? Or Pride and Prejudice? How about The War of the Worlds and Little Women? I didn’t either. But now I do because they now reside in my ‘classic literature’ section. It was sort of like Christmas just rearranging the shelves.
• Isn’t it funny how neat freaks get excited about having their bookshelves organized by genre? What dorks.
• Nobody reading this is going to believe me when I say this and I can’t even believe I’m saying it, but…if every day in Illinois could have weather like we’ve had the last couple of days, I would be fine with never having snow again. YIKES! Did I say that? But it’s true. As long as Wisconsin and Michigan still had snow so I could travel to it, I really wouldn’t mind living in weather like yesterday’s. There, I said it.
• I’m rather excited because I have Monday and Tuesday off next week. With the 4th on Wednesday, I have 5 days off! In. A. Row. I have so many things I want to do, I have lists just to tell me where my lists are.
• I recently joined Blockbuster Total Access and I *heart* it very much. I know, you all have been ordering movies since God was a baby, but I haven’t, so let me revel in it just a bit. The Blockbuster deal is identical to the NetFlix deal, except if I want to return my mailed-to-me movies at the store, I can get the same number of rentals for free. So basically, I get twice the movies for the same price, plus a small inconvenience of having to run by the store. But since I have a Blockbuster right on the way home from work, it really isn’t too bad.
• I’m really loving it because it is all part of my master plan to wean myself off cable. I *heart* thee HBO, but I can *heart* thee just as well 6 months later and on DVD.
• I can’t believe it’s the last day of June already. Half of 2007 — gone. I always thought people were strange when they would talk about how fast time flies as you get older. Turns out, they weren’t so much strange as strangely accurate.
• Being the last day of June, it is my Mom’s wedding anniversary. I wonder where she and her husband are today? They have been traveling all over the US and Canada so I hope they have a great day and weather like we’re having, wherever they are.
• And it is also this guy’s birthday. Which is another reason I love Blockbuster Total Access. It is All D’Onofrio, All the Time around my house. Which is like Christmas.

On the bookshelf, #16

The Quiet Game, by Greg Iles

Okay, I know you don’t read these reviews. How do I know? ‘Cause I don’t read yours either. Oh, don’t look offended. Just stick with me through 2007 and I won’t write book review posts again.

That said, remember the last review I wrote? Of course you don’t because you don’t read reviews. Well anyway, I absolutely *loved* that book, Turning Angel, which was also by Greg Iles.

Yeah, I think I’m over Greg Iles.

The Quiet Game actually takes place chronologically before Turning Angel so I read the two out of order, which might have contributed to me enjoying The Quiet Game less. In my defense, I read the two in this particular order because of Greg Iles’ Web site where he has a section called “Which Order Would I Read Greg Iles’ Books In?”, which in and of itself is an absolutely cool idea. However, this is where I read “If you have just read Turning Angel, you should next read The Quiet Game…”.

So…

I read Turning Angel and then The Quiet Game. This turned out to be comparable to watching the last episode of the TV show Friends, and then watching episodes in which you wonder if Ross and Rachel will end up together. What’s the point?

Every major plot point in The Quiet Game was disclosed in Turning Angel. There was no suspense or thrill to any of the life-and-death situations or even in the ending itself. I already knew that Ross and Rachel ended up together.

I hope that if I had read books in reverse order that I would have loved them both because I still believe Greg Iles has a lot of talent and the man can tell a great story.

He just can’t write great Web site info.

Finders keepers!

Look what I found in my backyard tonight! Can I keep it? Pleez?! It just followed me home, I swear!

Isn’t it purty?

Click to enlarge

Seriously though, I’m not having any major landscaping done so why, exactly, do I have this parked in my back lot?

The sad thing is, this isn’t the first time

Rule #1: When standing half-naked in the closet in the morning, do not select a shirt that needs ironed, even though it looks really nice with the slacks in which you’ve already clad your lower half.

Rule #2: If you do select a shirt that needs ironed, make sure you have enough time to do so before needing to leave for work.

Rule #3: When you ignore Rules #1 and #2, at least have the good sense to put something on your top half while you hurriedly rush through the ironing of the chosen shirt.

Rule #4: Since you have now chosen to ignore Rules #1-3, FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS on the job at hand.

Rule #5: If you deign to ignore all Rules above, by all means, do not, under any circumstances, lean over the ironing board to see what the cord is catching on.

Rule #6: Remove the slacks you’ve already donned before dousing your front parts with icy cold water.

Rule #7: Select an entirely new outfit to wear now, because a) the first outfit now has bad-day karma all over it (and the slacks are all wet because you blew off Rule #6) and b) you’re back to just your underwear now anyway.

Rule #8: NEVER ignore Rule #1.

Even Mr. Rogers probably let one fly now and then…

 

Courtesy of Mingle² – Online Dating

Yes, it seems I am the Sesame Street of Blogs. That’s not too surprising, is it? Although I have been known to let a few curse words fly at times, I really don’t like seeing them in print. It offends my eyeballs. According to the little rating gizmo, the most offensive word I’ve blogged is pain. That’s not suprising either!

Which reminds me of something that happened last week.

Back story: I get physically ill when I’m surrounded by yelling, squabbling, nagging, and incessant needling, even when I’m not involved. I am constantly asking people in my home, my car, and my cubicle to refrain from foul languge, sniping, and general negativity. I don’t like that type of energy around me. It makes my head and my stomach hurt.

It’s not that I’ve led a Pollyanna/Mayberry life — quite the contrary. I grew up in a home and extended family in which constant grumbling and put-downs were the norm. So as an adult, now that I have some control over certain areas of my life, I refuse to put up with it anymore.

Now, back to last week.

I let the F-bomb fly. At. Work. In front of people.

I was, shall we say, fed up? And obviously I was on the edge…hanging by my fingernails.

Luckily, I didn’t say it in front of anyone who would say anything about it. In fact, they probably didn’t even notice it because it is pretty much part of their everyday work vocabulary, like meeting, budget, and more coffee now.

But I noticed. And I was very disappointed in me. But since I’m opposed to yelling, even at myself, I let it go.

And then immediately scheduled a day off. I think I need it.