ben is watching waterworld in spanish.
i’m not sure which i’m feeling more of, mild amusement at the terrible dubbing or mild horror at the terrible everything else. damn you costner, what the devil were you thinking?
never a good way to start the morning… 27 December, 2007
my sweetie came shambling downstairs this morning, in all his curly-haired, adorable glory, and asked me, “do you know where the ratchet set is?”
this was not, as you can imagine, the greeting i expected, so i sort of stared at him blankly for a moment. “is it in one of the cars?” he continued. i stammered out a “maybe,” and he scooted off to the garage. when he came back, he said that a bolt in our toilet tank is corroded and leaking – not much, he said, just a little bit – and he was on a mission to fix it.
that was about half an hour ago. and while i haven’t seen a flood of water cascading down the stairs, i also haven’t heard any further updates in the saga of the leaky bolt. it could very well be that the bolt is fixed, everything’s ok, and my sweetie has gotten distracted by one of the news websites he likes to frequent.
of course, it could also be a complete disaster.
on the bright side, it’s the toilet in our master bath, so it’s not like we’ve got plumbing problems in the two guest baths 4 days before our humongous new year’s bash. but still…
*wince*
i looked at the holes in my jeans and turned and headed back 27 December, 2007
santa brought the wii version of guitar hero 3 to my sweetie.
okay, maybe not the jolly old elf himself, but ben’s mom did (at my recommendation). we’ve done almost nothing today but play it. ben’s band, benny kazoos (he promises to change the name once he thinks of something better, so suggestions are welcome), has completed the game on medium, while my band, ur a band name (i couldn’t think of anything either, but i’ll be damned if the word “kazoos” is gonna be in the name of any band i’m in), is at the slash boss stage on easy setting.
what? i never said i was a guitar hero.
what can i tell you of this game after nearly 2 days of playing and/or watching? many things, including – but not limited to – the following:
* tom morello is a bitch on hard setting, but he’s totally a pooce on easy. and cool in either carnation.
* there is no limit to the number of times i can listen to “sunshine of your love.” i’d suspected as much, but now i’m certain. and that’s not even the real clapton version.
* disturbed, as ben pointed out, are really just a heavy, emo version of journey. and who doesn’t like journey? (into the abyyyyss will i run…)
*speaking of silly lyrics, i’d never actually listened to the lyrics to “school’s out.” now that i have…”we can’t even think of a word that rhymes,” alice? really?
we really should go to bed. ben needs to go to work in the morning, and i’m covering for a coworker (in the evening, fortunately, but still…). let’s see if i can pry the guitar from my love’s hands…
hip to be…hippy? 18 December, 2007
i have long felt that i was born in the wrong decade.
don’t get me wrong, i dig that i was a child of the 80s. it was good times, and it gives me a great excuse for a lot of the music and clothing i was into at the time (“i was young, i didn’t know better,” etc). but deep inside, in my heart of hearts, i’ve always wished i was part of the 60s generation. (more…)
traditions of the season 18 December, 2007
at our house, we like to decorate for the christmas season. granted, if you’re outside our house, the only real decoration you’ll find is a wreath and maybe a festive doormat (we’re not really into the excess labor and expensive electric bills that come with hanging a bunch of lights, and i can’t stand the inflatable lawn decorations. i have a beef about a neighbor’s santa-on-a-motorcycle that deflates every night but the dummies keep re-inflating him, but that’s another story for another time..). when you come inside, however, there is much happy holiday goodness.
one of my favorite traditions involves the wall between the living room and kitchen, and some red bead garland i got a fantastic deal on a few years ago. 100 yards of red beaded garland for $4 it was, and most of those beads go to decorate the tree or the chandelier in the dining room. but the wall between the living room and kitchen has a big opening in it, and in this opening we string two rows of beads every year and hang the cards we receive from friends and family. now, i for one love writing and sending christmas cards (i need to get this year’s batch mailed, actually…), but i love receiving them even more. it’s always a wonderful feeling to open the mailbox and find there, among the bank statements, bills and junk mail, a happy thought from someone close to us. the couch is positioned right underneath, so we can sit and stare up at all the cards in a row, with smilie faces and loving words and so many different themes, from licensed properties like a christmas story, disney or curious george to snowscapes to just downright silliness (we always get at least one shoebox greeting card). the cards are a visible reminder that, no matter how hard times might get sometimes, we are rich in love and friendship.
are there any holiday traditions that you particularly enjoy? 
sad news 13 December, 2007
when ben and i first started dating, he took me to meet his family, as is the typical tradition for courting couples. his mom and little sister were both smart and beautiful, and both have only improved with age. his grandma was a fireball who was delighted to hear i was from the mountains and had an appreciation for bluegrass music, and his grandfather was an impressive figure of a man, tall and intelligent and soft-spoken. it was only later that i learned the reason he didn’t talk much was because he had alzheimer’s, and he knew what was happening to him. sometimes when we’d visit he’d remember who i was, sometimes he wouldn’t. as time went by, he talked less and less while smiling more and more, until finally he would just sit and smile, staring absently around him. it was hard to watch this progression, both for the fact that it was clearly draining for the whole family, especially nana ma (ben’s grandma) and you could tell that an exceptional wit and intelligence was being lost in the fog of alzheimer’s.
that was my first real encounter with the ailment. oh sure, i’ve known plenty of people who’ve gotten forgetful in their later years, but nothing like that. i can only imagine (and then, only barely) what it must be like to go through that, to have even the basest knowledge like the faces of your spouse and children erased from your memory. it’s a terrifying thought. so when i read about this this morning, it made me cry. terry pratchett is absolutely my favorite author. and i realize it’s still early in the disease’s onset, and a lot can happen in the next few years, but still…he’s so young for this to happen, and the thought of all of discworld being shrouded by that same fog that took daddy ervin’s mind…
today 12 December, 2007
i turn 30.
i am absolutely certain that i am not the first person to sit and ponder, on such an occasion, on my life so far. and you know, i could be all bummed about my 20s being over and getting old, yadda, yadda, but you know what?
fuck that noise.
i think i’ve had a pretty good life so far. in the 30 years i’ve been wandering this planet, i have seen much. i’ve known a great many beautiful people, and a pretty fair share of ugly ones, as well (calm down, i mean “beautiful” and “ugly” in reference to their spirits, not their faces). i’ve had fun, and being one day older than i was yesterday isn’t gonna change a thing. there’s still a whole lotta world left to discover, a whole lotta people to know, a whole lotta love (insert sweet-ass zepplin guitar “MRRRRROWW” here) to give. and dammit, i mean to discover, know, and give it all.
as i write this, tom and jerry has just ended, and now “a pup named scooby doo” is coming on. it’s a daily ritual: thanks to the lovely folks at cartoon network’s programming department, i can begin each day (or, at least, each day i have off) with a full THREE AND A HALF hours of the cartoons i loved most when i was a kid (tom and jerry, pup named scooby doo, the new scooby doo movies, and scooby doo, where are you?). it is glorious beyond measure. and anyway, just because i’m getting older doesn’t mean i have to act it all the time…
and as for my last evening as a twenty-something? ben had to have dinner with his boss, so i spent four glorious hours watching woodstock. ah, if only i could’ve been born 30 years earlier…of course, then i’d also be turning 60 today…but to have experienced that might just have made it worth it.
anyway, my coffee’s getting cold…
OH MY GOD 1 December, 2007
no shit, my brain literally just melted. it leaks onto my collar as i type this.
PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME WTF. jesus h. tap-dancing christ. you have got to be fucking kidding me. really? i mean, seriously. i just can’t even…my mind is literally boggled. what. the. fuck. but i’ve got to hand it to him, it takes some serious cajones to stand in front of the world and say that your invisible friend – the same friend whose misguided followers once took much smug satisfaction in discussing the “gay plague,” as it was called when it was just a weird bug that was only affecting the queens at fire island – this being with no more validity or substance than zeus or odin, along with his army of abstinence-preaching zealots waving the farcical banner of “faith-based organizations,” is “helping to defeat this epidemic one soul at a time.”
I’m sorry if I’ve offended the more faithful of my friends or family. faith is a wonderful thing, but it should also be a very personal thing. when religion starts influencing politics, you get crazy-ass governments full of fundamentalists bent on oppressing any voice that dares to speak out against them.
“one nation, under god” sounds frighteningly like tyranny these days.
but hey, even if my brain were still solid and functioning, it’s much too late to even begin to wrap said noodle around this…this…hell, i’m too tired to even think of an appropriate metaphor. i’m just tired and and sleepy and grumbly and nowhere near completely rational. and i gotta work tomorrow. and i’d like to fall asleep on a happy note.
if that’s even possible at this point.
fuck that guy, man.
