30.3.04

So, this is kind of funny. On Saturday, I was watering all my plants and I found a small pecan tree growing in one of the pots. [thank you squirrels] I didn't know that's what it was until I pulled it up and a long root and a whole pecan came out with it. So, Doug and I picked a spot near the fence and planted it. Our backyard is almost entirely shaded anyway, but that would fill in one big open area, if it gets big enough. It's a little tiny thing right now, so we put a border of rocks around it to keep Doug from mowing it down.

The Alamo Drafthouse Downtown was showing Turkish Star Wars on Sunday. Doug and I tried to go see it, but we wanted to use these free passes that we have and we found out after we got there that we couldn't use them for that show. That's the second time we've gone to the Alamo downtown and gotten turned away at the door. The first time was on Halloween when we tried to go see a Mr. Sinus Theater and it was sold out. That wouldn't be *so* annoying except that it's in the middle of downtown which means hunting for a parking spot and then walking to the theater... Oh well.

26.3.04

Wow, I've been very delinquent in my postings this week! I guess it's been a busy week. Or an odd week. Or something. Maybe it's because I am so tired and I keep going back to sleep after Doug leaves, so I have to cut things out of my schedule to get all the important stuff done. Maybe.

And now I'm sitting here, twiddling my thumbs, trying to think of something to say. These dry spells are tough. Maybe my story telling abilities are asleep.

Oh, fun news - I'm hosting a Murder Mystery Dinner Party at my house next week. If you live in town and you weren't invited, please don't be offended. It's a *very* small party. And who knows, maybe we'll do this periodically and invite different people every time! Anyway, I'm very excited. I've always wanted to go to a murder mystery dinner show somewhere, but they're so expensive! This way, it's inexpensive and everyone involved is someone I know and am comfortable with! :)

23.3.04

Romans 5:1-2 - Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Not much exciting to report today. I made myself a schedule yesterday. It's all pretty and colorful! :o)~ I'm glad I did it because I think it will help me stay on task during the day and possibly get more done. I have a short attention span, so I tend to get side-tracked easily.

Now it's time for lunch...

22.3.04

John 14:27 - (Jesus speaking) "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

Angela sooooo sleeeepy........ I do hope to find out in the near future what the problem is with my body that I stay somewhere between tired and exhausted *all* the time. If you would like to take guesses on what is causing the fatigue (endometriosis? allergies? sleep apnea? something else?), feel free. I'll give a cookie to anyone who guesses correctly.

So, Doug and I did go and see Alexi Murdoch on Friday evening and the show was WONDERFUL! The man just has an enchanting voice and he writes very thoughtful lyrics. [sigh] Doug liked him OK based on the EP that I have, but now that he's seen him live, he's a convert and is just as excited for the full cd to come out as I am! If Alexi is coming to your town, I highly recommend checking him out! Heck, just buy the EP! There are only four songs on it, but they're four great songs! You can get it at www.cdbaby.com. (note: this was CDBaby's most popular cd of 2003!)

19.3.04

Isaiah 26:3 -

You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.

I'm very excited - Doug and I are going to see Alexi Murdoch tonight at the Texas Union. Alexi is a relatively new addition to my list of voices I'd love to steal. And he is currently the only male on the list! I discovered him when I heard him playing live on KGSR last year (during sxsw, i think) and I loved what I heard so much that I came home and found him online and ordered his 4 song EP. Now he's working on a full length album - woohoo! This is the first time he's been back to Austin since last year (as far as i know) and I'm pumped about getting to see him play!

For anyone interested - his website is, simply, www.aleximurdoch.com. :)

18.3.04

Psalm 29:11 -

The Lord gives strength to his people;
the Lord blesses his people with peace.
One of Doug's Chinese coworkers is in town for a while and he brought us some gifts. One of the things was a nice wooden comb! The best part is the English translation of the text on the packaging! All misspellings, capitalizations, missing spaces, and bizarre punctuation are original...

"Brief Introduction of Our Products of this brand wooden comb are with high grade Chince little leaf box, sandawood,nanmu and other natural famous materials, The comb are smooth, clean and good with high temperature and pressure, comb's colour is natural and it feels wess.

"Sui Dynasty famous doctor chao yuanfang points out that comb can prmote blood circulation and keep your hair black. Su Dongpo said that comb your hair and kept sound sleep till next morning. Chinese little leaf box combs are best because of its solid and mild specification. Modem mdeical fungus'growing, stop itching, get rid of dandruff. Peach tree has the saying that it can dispel bad things.Wooden comb won't produce static electricity and have kept you healthy And you will realize that 'comb and comb, but never stop'"

17.3.04

1 Thessalonians 4:17 - After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Funny smell update - I proceeded on Tuesday afternoon to scrub the outside of the screen, but all my scrubbing was to no avail. The smell was still there and as strong as ever.

So I went to PetSmart yesterday and bought some stuff that's specifically made to get rid of cat stink. Doug hosed the whole area down with it, but you have to wait 24 to 48 hours for it to dry completely before you'll know if you got it all.

It already smells better. The smell is still *there*, but it's not as bad. Once we totally get rid of it, I'm going to start spraying some anti-cat stuff around on our porch to prevent any further smelly events! At least we know now it wasn't Charlie!

Today's adventure was babysitting a 2 year old for four hours. It really wasn't bad - we had fun. Our only major battles were over him refusing to come into the house and refusing to take his socks off. At one point, he said something that I chose to interpret as, "Miss Angela, you're my favorite babysitter!"

16.3.04

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 - Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

Funny smell update - I nearly drove myself mad yesterday trying to locate the source and get rid of the smell. I pulled everything out of the entryway closet and sniffed it all until I was hyperventilating myself! I vacuumed and mopped in the closet and took all the things out to the back porch. I *could not* find a source for the smell and it was still there!

After all that, I discovered that the smell was actually coming from our front door! It was strongest on the screen, near the bottom. So, I drowned the whole area with 409 and scrubbed till my hands were about to fall off (and i don't even want to THINK about all the nastiness that touched my hands) and the smell was still there!

Then I discovered that the actual source of the stink (i have visual proof this time) was on the outside of the screen! Oy!

15.3.04

John 10:28 - (Jesus speaking) "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand."

So, Charlie has planted a funny smell somewhere near our front door. We have narrowed it down to the entryway closet, but have not located the exact location yet. In trying to find the source of the smell yesterday, I sniffed both of the kitties and that is how I came to the conclusion that Charlie is the culprit - he posessed the smell. This inspired me to give him a bath and since I couldn't be unfair and have him thinking we love Cordy more, I decided we'd give them both a bath. So, I talked Doug into it and we locked them in the bathroom with us and bathed them.

Due to the breed of cat that Charlie is (Maine Coon), he has waterproof fur. This makes it difficult to actually get his fur wet! However, we succeeded and he was bathed against his will. Cordelia actually took it much better than he did, which was a surprise since she's such a spaz. After we dried them with towels and let them flick their legs around some, I took the hairdryer after them. Charlie didn't like it, but he put up with it. Cordy was terrified of it, so I quit trying. The good news is that they are still speaking to us and they haven't punished us (as far as we know)!

12.3.04

John 6:40 - (Jesus speaking) "For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

It's Friiiday! It's Friiiday! WooHoo - it's Friiiday! :) I woke up with another bizarre pain this morning. This time it was... I'm not sure. It was either my right pectoral muscle or a rib. I really couldn't tell. All I know for sure is that it *hurt*! A LOT! All morning I kept yelping in pain because I moved wrong (which constituted about half the moves that i made). Thankfully it's gotten better over the day and is almost completely gone now. Weird. What do I do in my sleep!?!

I went to the grocery store again today, but unfortunately I have no strange tales to tell. Although, when I was going in to the store I did see the same lady that I was in line behind when I was there on Monday. A little odd, don't you think? Also, I bought some vegetarian "ground beef" and vegetarian "deli ham" slices. That is definitely weird. And potentially disgusting. But I think it's worth a try. I can tell you one thing for sure though - do not ever buy vegetarian hot dogs. Gag me!!!!!

11.3.04

Job 19:25-27 -

"I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand upon
the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes--I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!"

These words came from a man who had lost everything and was being hounded by the few friends he had left... pretty cool.
Like, Hi! How are *you* today? :o)~

Okay, I typed that and now I've been sitting here for five minutes, picking at my toenails and wondering what to write. Obviously I haven't had anything overly exciting happen lately.

It finally stopped raining so I have been able to get some gardening done this week. I finally finished pruning our crape myrtles - I never realized how tiring that could be! It wears your arms out. I also repotted our spider plant. [well, resoiled really - same pot - fresh soil] It is already looking much happier. I think the old soil was totally drained of nutrients! Doug and I bought little basil and cilantro plants a week and a half ago (at least) and they've just been sitting on our back porch, slowly dying, since then. Yesterday I brought them inside and pinched off all the dead and wilty stuff. So hopefully they'll perk up now. I think herbs are more high-maintenance than I'm used to. I also finally finished re-mulching around our roses. I found some interesting things in one of the beds - a few large pieces of broken glass, an old nail...

10.3.04

All I have to say is, "Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Also, "Oooooooh, the pain!"

And, "Naughty uterus!"

Other than that, things are swell! I have hardly gotten any house cleaning done this week because I've had other unusual things pop up. If I don't straighten up our bathroom soon, I think Doug is going to go on strike! (i still haven't unpacked my stuff from our trip to houston this weekend) :oI~

But at least kitties are cute and the weather is nice and we have lots of fun wildlife in our backyard to look at! I need to get a cheap little book on the birds of central Texas so that I can identify all the ones that come to our bird feeder. I know the Cardinals, Blue Jays, Doves (although, not which type), and Grakels (sp?). But there are a couple of others that I don't know. And it turns out that there are *three* thieving squirrels living in our backyard! Cute, but sneaky! :)

8.3.04

Well, in a turn of events, I'm actually itching to get some housework done today, but I have an inbox that really needs to be cleaned out some. Plus there are a couple of business-type emails that I really need to send out. But I want to *clean*! So, the faster I finish this post, the sooner I'll be able to get to cleaning. Oh and I have to go to the grocery store today too because I was gone on Friday afternoon (which is when i usually go). Ack! AND I need to prune that last crapre myrtle before they start growing again!

7.3.04

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.............................

If it hadn't been three days since the last time I did this, I'd be avoiding it. I'm very tired, mostly because I just spent the last *hour and a half* playing video games! That may not be so outragious for some people, but I usually don't play more than an hour straight. I just got totally sucked in and kept thinking, "I'll just play for half an hour. . . . I'll play for an hour. . . . Just as soon as I clear out these two rooms. . . . Well, I might as well go ahead and finish off this level. . . . Okay, I'll stop at an hour and a half. . . ." Whew!

Do you ever go through these weird spells where nothing tastes right to you? [no, i'm not pregnant!] Maybe it's my body's way of saying, "Hey! I'm sick of all this sugar you're giving me! Why don't you give me some water! And vegetables! What? You think you're still in college? Come on!"

In closing, I'd just like to say that I'm glad that humans don't have to lick their butts to clean them like SOME animals do.

4.3.04

I tried desperately to keep my husband home from work today! My first plan of attack was a backscratch. I almost got him that way one time! I was sitting on the bed and he leaned over to hug/kiss me goodbye and I started scratching his back and he ended up laying on the bed and almost fell asleep. My fatal error was dozing off myself and the scratching stopped and he came to his senses. Curses! But this time I had no such luck - he's onto that trick now and he saw it coming.

My second plan of attack was tempting him with promises of a grey, rainy day spent snuggling and reading and napping, etc. I used all the snuggly, comforting words I could think of (including 'kitties') and he was very torn and tempted... but it still didn't work. Such self control!

My final plan of attack was trying to physically restrain him. You can imagine how well that worked. I tried attaching myself to his body and throwing body parts into the doorway so that he couldn't walk through, but he was able to shake me off. If only I weren't so ticklish! One of the days, Peeler... One of these days! :o)~

3.3.04

I hope this big round of stomach viruses that's been happening is over! I have successfully avoided throwing up for several years now and I would like it to stay that way!

I have a very persistent little kitty in my lap right now. If I sit at this computer for more than five minutes, she *will* come and get in my lap. Even when I lean forward and put my arms on my legs to make it look like there's no room. She is never deterred by a lack of room. That's why she occasionally ends up falling off of things! Anyway, it's rather difficult to type when you're trying to keep your balance on an exercise ball because you have a cat on your lap who keeps moving around to find a better spot and then she lays down and spreads herself out so that she's pushing on both of your arms and then when you don't stop what you're doing and start petting her she resorts to biting the buttons on your shirt! Little nut!

BSF was good this morning. I was super tired going into it, but the discussion perked me up. And the lecture was the best one I've heard in a month or so! :)

2.3.04

I don't feel like coming up with something interesting to say today, so I'll share some Cat Haikus with you...

You never feed me.
Perhaps I'll sleep on your face.
That will show you.

You must scratch me there!
Yes, above my tail! Behold,
elevator butt.

I need a new toy.
Tail of black dog keeps good time.
Pounce! good dog! good dog!

1.3.04

Well, I guess I just slept funny on Saturday evening and apparently a night of sleeping "not funny" fixed things. My back didn't really get better all day, but it seems to be fine this morning. Who knows... :)

Our cats seem to have lost their minds (again). It started with Charlie, but now they are both running madly through the house. The funny part is occasionally hearing them slide into things. I love having hardwood floors!

I always sleep with an extra pillow that I put in front of me and curl up with. Last night, I woke up sometime in the wee hours of morning and somehow realized that there was something against my front and my back. [i say 'somehow' because i do not usually think coherently until i've been awake for at least 15 minutes.] My pillow was against my back and I don't know how he managed it, but I was on my side and Charlie was all curled up against my front and I had my arm around him. Cute snuggle kitty! Of course, he counteracted the cuteness by clawing the carpet at 5:30 this morning for no apparent reason! Maybe I rolled over on him...?