Kimani Press

I submitted a book series idea to Kimani Press (a Harlequin line) now I'm doing the months of waiting thing.

I must admit that I don't often read Kimani Press but I like the books I've read. It's just I couldn't find anything that really touched me like I have in other Harlequin lines. I decided that the best way to remedy this was to write for myself.

After all, I'm not that much of a wild card that there aren't more people like me.

Here's to hoping!

Gay Paris For Me

I've got my ticket to Paris and I'm gone. After almost a year of battling the IRS, I've finally got my first-time home buyer's credit. Unfortunately, it came to late for me to do anything with the house, but I'm able to pay off debt and buy my trip to Paris cash. Won't Gail Vaz-Oxlade be proud!

I'm planning my trip everyday now and trying to learn French. I hope to get some passable phrases and be able to communicate with someone and make an internet friend.

Who knows that may be possible?

Here's to advenutre and renewing my passport.

How to Hepburn

HOW TO HEPBURN
LESSONS ON LIVING FROM KATE THE GREAT
WRITTEN BY: KAREN KARBO
ISBN: 10-1-59691-351-7

I got this book from the library as well. The lovely Collier branch in Houston, Texas, my favorite branch outside of the Central Location. I got it mainly because of the cover (which you can’t judge books by) and the fact that I am a fan of Katherine Hepburn.

She was a woman who understood the world and her place in it. She loved passionately and with all her heart and she let nothing stand in the way of her goals. Sandra Bullock would come the closest to her true style underneath while no around comes close to her almost manly aggression and stubbornness.

This book, however, is written like a bad Barbara Taylor Bradford novel. So let me says this, BTB can be a great read, A Woman With Substance is awesome! However, she overuses her adjectives and you can find yourself skipping parts because they are repeated so much. (Emma Heart was indomitable and implacable but her enemies always knew she was fair and just, yadda yadda.) Apparently, Katherine Hepburn was brash. At least that’s the thought that Ms. Karbo wants to beat over our heads. She tries to show us through anecdotes but interrupts the showing for more telling.

This would be OK as this book is not a biography on KH but it is Ms. Karbo’s interpretation of KH’s life and how we should emulate her. We’re supposed to look at KH’s responses to things and not only go oohh and ahh, but figure out how we should respond in kind should these same set of life circumstances befall us.

For example, page 6 – The Importance of Being Brash, Katherine is arriving in LA wearing couture that is hugely inappropriate for the weather and general California looks.

During the long train trip across country some steel shavings had found their way into her eye, causing both eyes, for some reason, to turn red…. To Leland Hayward, her agent and future paramour, waiting at the train station to collect her, she looked like a cadaver with a drinking problem.

They repaired to RKO [a movie studio in the thirties], where Hepburn demanded to see a doctor immediately.

Instead of getting the doctor, Hepburn discusses fashions for her first movie, A Bill of Divorcement. She makes a wise crack and gets one thrown right back at her and thus forming a life long friendship.

What does this show us, ladies? What goes around comes around and actors/actresses are opportunists who fight for their chance to the top and will sacrifice (even their eye health) to get there.

The book doesn’t quite make it as a self-help/new living style. It ends up falling short and makes me think less of KH than thinking more of her. In truth, KH was just a woman with goals and a focused mind in real life. In movies, she was an outstanding actress who found good roles with good people (other actors and directors) and wowed the audience. Thankfully, for her and us we still remember and admire her in the movie roles she played.

However, emulating her caustic wit, comically gruff voice, and manish mannerisms will only get you labeled a bitch or worse. (Remember the feminist of the 80s – yeah ladies, we’ve been there done that and got no where with it.)

What made Kate Great was her singularity as an entity. She wouldn’t be great if she were common. Emulate her way of walking, her hairstyle or her manner of dress. But if you were to act like Kate it would lead to problems. Remember the real Kate understood the world and her place in it and I’m sure she would agree.

Out of 5 stars

iPhone & Me

I just got the iPhone. It was actually in my hands a couple of weeks ago but that was during finals week so didn't matter.

I really want to be a techie person and have lots of gadgets but I'm not that way. I've only got a few on there so far.

Contacts
Bejeweled 2 - Favorite thing so far!
Alarm Clock
Good Reader (to read pdf and other software)
aNote (to do list)
Couch to 5K (I really want to be a marathon runner and this app is supposed to help)
Ambiance (white background noise)
Flashcards (to help me study different subjects)
Math Ref
Word Search
Hangman

I've already begun to not play with it as much but let's face it, I don't have a high powered job and I'm not needed 24/7. This fun is my wii on the go.

Speaking of Wii, when I got the iPhone, I also got the bundle package from AT&T which means me and Comcast have parted ways. Also, it means that I'm saving between $60 - $80 a month. I'm waiting to confirm for sure since I haven't had actual bills yet. It also means, I had an adventure with the cable guy.

Let's start off with the window shall we? Everyone knows, when you order cable you get a window of service from the company. The window I got to choose was 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm and I liked that window. It was reasonably small and meant I could go for a late lunch and be back to work.

The really sweet guy who showed me a pic of his wife and kid assured me that this would be the case and that all would be well. Not sure why I fell for that line but I just liked the guy and wanted to believe him.

The guy shows up about 2:15 pm and didn't call before he arrived like the store guy said he would because of the hook up he had. He left a bit before 7 pm.

Unfortunately, I fell asleep and didn't call into work until 4 pm. My boss, didn't chew me out but he did stress letting him know before hand. (I've got to work on this wishful thinking = reality stuff.)

In the end, not only did the nice man get me AT&T cable but he also hooked up my Wii and showed me how to log on to it.

So far. Not really happy with AT&T. Mainly it's channel and remote confusion that is causing the problem. I'll see in a couple of weeks once I've made sure I have the shows I want being recorded if all is well.

I do like the option of being able to go online to record shows. That could really help me in getting my act together on the recording front.

NASHVILLE NOIR - A MURDER SHE WROTE MYSTERY

NASHVILLE NOIR
A MURDER SHE WROTE MYSTERY
A NOVEL BY JESSICA FLETCHER & DONALD BAIN
Based on the Universal TV series created by
Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson & William Link
ISBN: 978-0-451-22927-4

I was a huge Murder She Wrote fan when the series was on and even in repeats I still DVR them. Remember when Jessica and Seth found the guy drowned in the desert! Genius, sheer genius.

The best thing about MSW were the twists and turns that made the story worth watching. Jessica was also a huge part. The everyperson’s best friend/grandmother/cool aunt. People invited Jessica everywhere, she knew how to get inside any locked room, and around law enforcement or mafia goons in order to find the clue she needed to solve the mystery.

In Nashville Noir, Jessica is back on her home turf of Cabot Cove and one of their own is a soon to be rising star. Apparently, the people of Cabot Cove don’t try that other small town stuff of keeping young people at home. Instead, CC has grants given to young people with potential in the arts to send them to another state or city for them to receive tutelage and live without having to work. In this situation, Cindy Blaskowitz, is the chosen one and because she leans towards country music she is being sent to Nashville.

Now, in MSW there was some trite writing and some things seemed forced even in the later years since Jessica had to leave CC in order to keep the viewers from wondering why every other small town had a murder every 10 – 20 years and CC had them almost twice daily. I’m not looking in this book for a new Hemingway or Shakespeare but I did want some semblance of common sense. The show had deadlines and inevitably the stars and co-stars/guest stars would have had input and wanted changes; all making it understandable if not necessary not to have perfect writing in the script in sacrifice for time and budget.

However, this is a book and books are a different animal. You are able to write several drafts and since this is obviously being written to follow the series should have planned with enough forethought to prevent silly mistakes. After all, there is a guaranteed following for this book and the publishers should have spent enough money in preparation to make sure people were satisfied. Poor editing on the writing and publishing end makes me think this was rushed.

Page 13 has the initial plot twist of Cindy no longer being happy in Nashville due to her record label giving her best song away to someone else and worse yet putting that starlets name as co-writer all without her knowing about it. In response to this bombshell delivered by Cindy’s mom Jessica says, “That’s outrageous,” I blurted, “to say nothing of illegal. It’s fraud. It’s theft. It would be like taking one of my novels, putting another writer’s name on it along with mine, and publishing it without my knowledge or approval.”

No, Jessica, it would not be similar to what you just said it would be exactly what you just said. Because you repeated the “real-life situation” Cindy’s mom told you and put yourself in it. Makes me wonder about the psyche of someone who single-white female themselves.

In real life, mothers and daughters argue and go back-and-forth, but when written it interrupts the progression of things and throws the reader off balance. Cindy and her mother arguing on the phone and the constant mother advice of being polite got on my nerves and I couldn’t wait for the scene to be over.

There is also the notes to the readers without explanation. Jessica goes to Nashville and visits a diner “where a waitress took my order of a bowl of fruit and a narrow wedge of buttermilk chess pie, a tasty but very sweet Southern specialty she’d recommended.” Umm… excuse me, Fletcher/Bain, shouldn’t you be showing and not telling? Why not have the conversation with the waitress and have Jessica say I’ll take that blah blah the rest of the order blah. This is another factor that threw me off and almost irritated me, this was originally written for television where the luxury of bad expositions weren’t available and they had to include everything as conversation or a found letter or some such thing. Why not follow up on that tradition here instead of doing the worst mistakes a writer can make?

Page 178 Det. Biddle speaking, “…no love lost between him [the victim’s son] and his step-mother either… They barely said two words to each other in the waiting room.”
“Not a Norman Rockwell family,” I [Jessica Fletcher] commented.
“Meaning?”
“Not the sort of loving family the artist depicted in his paintings,” I explained.
“Not at all.”

Stuff like the above, you’ve got to be kidding me. How could this get past editing? Did they give the ghostwriter a deadline and a word count to meet? You couldn’t have cut this and still had a good book, this exchange was essential for others to know? Why?

OK, once I got into the rhythm of the book things picked up. I knew what I was getting into when I read the inside cover flap, Jessica on a travel excursion solving a murder or MSW – The Later Years. The poor editing and bad writing faded after a while and you enjoyed the usual twists and turns that MSW provides. Towards the end there are a slew of suspects to choose from which heightened the suspense just like old times. Finally, the villain is revealed and all the clues are laid bare.

I must admit to really liking this book but only because it’s based on the TV show. Had it been anyone else’s first attempt I wouldn’t have finished reading it. I got this book from the library but if you’re going to buy it $22.95 is the price though of course by now it should be a bit cheaper on Amazon and the usual sources of book buying.

Out of 5 stars
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New Beginnings

I joined last friday, 4/30/10, and I spoke to a trainer and set up the monthly payments in order to get his services three times weekly.

He wants me to lose 70 lbs in one year, but I'm going for my like 100.

I've taken 2 years to change my eating habits and it should be easy enough to lose the weight. Going to keep track of things to see if I can and if not, why.

Who Gonna Check Me, Boo? - Or Atlanta Chicks Have Balls

So, The Real Housewives of Atlanta premiered its second season last night.

Loved it!!!

NeNe and Sheree are back to being friends. Sheree had the nerve to pimp her She by Sheree line by wearing a t-shirt on the show but the producers treated her like she was pregnant and hid her behind wine bottles, a kitchen island and friend with a cute haircut.

Sheree's husband isn't paying the bills and she's got to support herself on a more limited budget. So instead of getting a "real" job she decides to throw herself a freedom party and move into a smaller house.

This small little thing (biting the style of Shannon Moakler) cost her so much in time but gained her much TV respect and drama. The party planner (why can't she just have friends over and some cake with pigs in a blanket?) Anthony doesn't listen to her much like her former assistant who gave a great face pretending to care but didn't do a whole lot of much. This time she gets more than a bad guest list she gets cussed out, threatened, and then her mother insulted.

Absolutely fantastic. Haven't seen all this kind of something come from nothing since I was in school.

NeNe is doing well, she needs help decorating her new house but who doesn't and with her gay husband Dwight on duty she'll have her house being the best of the best in no time.

Lisa is Lisa being all sweet and bitchy at the same time but managing to make the sweet come out more. She was the one who told Sheree about NeNe singing and ended Kim's friendship with NeNe and I just don't trust her. Why didn't she just stay out of it like DeShawn did?

Speaking of the removed one her replacement is Khandi who is in the music industry and (unlike the others) really makes her own money. She has one daughter and is engaged to someone with 6 (yes, that's right SIX) kids. Her daughter is NOT happy with this wedding and refuses to call her future steps her sisters/brothers but instead calls them "friends" (did Sheree coach her to say that?)

I loved the show and missed it desperately when it was away. I like how these shows boil down the nothingness of life and make it look like something.

Housing Scarage

I'm building a house and would love to move into it. However, the problem is with the economy being what it is right now I'm worried that even though I'm pre-approved for a loan that during closing they will reject me. I've put down $1K in earnest money which is not something I want to lose but I've made up my mind that with the remaining $9K I've saved for the down payment that I'm going to Paris.

I live in a pretty great 2 bedroom apartment and I'm happy here except for the parking situation. I kind of have a curfew of 9 pm because if I get home any later than that I don't have a place to park. I really don't like having a million mexicans partying on the weekends and having to deal with walking through the condom minefield to my door because the teens are leaving the house and having quickies right out in God's house (AKA parking lot bushes).

I would love to have a garage and not worry about the weather to get to my car. I would love to be able to put my favorite designs into practice from my favorite DIY shows. However, I'm really nervous that this can not come to be. I'm hopeful but I've done some dumb things that could hurt me. #1 is co-signing on my sister's car as she has rarely paid the bill on time and now she's going to be over a month late for some BS reason.

Piece of advice to the planet. DO NOT CO-SIGN FOR ANYONE!!!!

Le sigh. Whatever. I've got Plan A and Plan B so I'm not worried but just getting anxious until I know things for sure.

Here's to hoping and wishing.

No Chelios - Late for Class

I had a class last night in the middle of downtown Houston to have a CD Rom and a website explained to me. I'm taking AP II online and the teacher wanted to be sure everyone understood how to do everything.

Not a usual problem except I was 30 minutes late and was the last student to enter the room and figured out I needed to buy a stupid access code in order to do things properly. :-(

I can see the future a bit and in relation to college textbooks, the paper versions are going the way of the dinosaur and publishers are having more things online and what not. I would love that as doing CTRL+F in order to look up something is a grand sight better than hoping a word is in the index and flipping pages.

I like the track this is taking but being in the middle where I still have to drop a couple of hundred on textbooks AND $60 on an access code really blows.

NHL Playoffs Detroit vs Pittsburgh Penguins

I'm sure many people will wonder why a born and reared Texan would have a passion for hockey. I'm not married or dating a transport but rather I love the Olympic games. Winter Olympics 1980 was a major year.

The time was in the middle of the Cold War. Jimmy Carter was president, Americans hated/feared Russians and vice versa, and the US had never done well in hockey during the Olympics. If you look at the NHL roster you'll notice a propensity towards consonant letters and thick Eastern European accents. But in 1980 a near miracle occurred when the US beat Russia and eventually took gold against Finland. I remember watching that and thinking hockey was the coolest sport ever. I didn't have cable but as soon as I got it, I got hooked on ESPN and fell in love with hockey.

Advance a few years and I'm watching hockey and it's their mid-season joke around fest where the MVPs of everything come out and perform for the fans and there being interviewed is Chris Chelios.

He was so cute and playful like a child and I fell in love.

Before this hockey crush came the one I had with the greatest #2 ever - Jaromir Jagr.

His hair was A LOT longer and wilder when he played for the Pens but that's why I loved him. I used to have a pic of him as my screensaver and no one understood why I liked a wild mountain man. See how childish and innocent his smile is, that's what I like.

(But let's be honest, my crush on the Nelson twins was also based on their long wild hair.)

Strange what trades will do to you. When Lemieux and Jagr were ruling the roost, Pittsburgh was my favorite team but when Lemieux retired and Jagr cut his hair, my loyalty shifted to Chicago and Chelios with only occasional strays. Now, I'm fully committed to the Chelios cause as he gets less and less playing time and I have to strain and play to see him skate.

So this playoff season is a little wierd as I was not on the Ov bandwagon when Detroit was winning and I practically hated the Wings. Now, I'm nuts about them and hope they take home the cup.

In a sport where momentum means nothing, and home advantage means everything playing the final game in Detroit I'm sure they will.

Go Wings!!!!

Dark Night of the Scarecrow & Peanut Butter

I'm a TVholic and not ashamed to admit it. I go to the sleep watching Cartoon Network because it doesn't go to Paid Programming and I can always wake up in the middle night, watch TV, then go back to sleep. (Did I mention I wear glasses and I sleep in them to facilitate this action?)

I developed this habit as a child as our family life revolved around the TV. We usually ate our dinner in our laps watching TV unless it was learn to use silverware properly or from the parents' mistake night then we ate around the dinner table.

One night CBS had a TV movie on and it was some kind of special event. They promoted the heck out of that thing and as a child in second grade all of 6 years old I wanted to stay up late to see it. My bedtime in elementary school was 8:00 p.m. which was right before the made for TV movies came on. Plus, I had to take a bath and get ready for bed before that time. This movie however was on a Friday, a stay up night so I could see it all the way through.

Dark Night of the Scarecrow was a great movie - so super scary it made you jump and hide behind your hands as you saw the poor innocent man who helped the young girl get away from the vicious dog only to be murdered inside a scarecrow who later kills the posse members who hunted him down.

To celebrate the night my mother fixed homemade peanut butter cookies. This was a rariety in our house because my mother was allergic to peanut butter. It made that movie stick in my mind and when I came across a recipe for flourless PB cookies from Joy the Baker I had to try it. Will update with results later but here is the link

Adventures in Car Fixings

I have a pretty cool car - Toyota Camry 2007. It looks good, drives well, and feels great. I'm not ashamed to step out of it - unless it's dirty. I don't treat it all that well, however, and I do regret that. After all cars need more than gas and washes.

The fed govt does require some car maintenance and on this track I went to get my car inspected. Multiple time inspectee first time failee.

Totally bummed about failing, it makes me feel stupid. Not as much as failing kinesiology (college gym) twice but enough. I knew my tires were bad because of the light on the dashboard and the ever growing baldness of them, but in times past it was enough to pass. But not this time.

I'm building a house and am virtually there with the down payment the $600 for the tires was my refrigerator money and now I'm still steaming over that. Jeez, I wish I had total and complete control of my life. I just want to do things when I want them done the way I want them done and no sooner and no later with no changes, variations, or adjustments. Is that so much to ask?

The Storyteller

So today was a good day today. The weather was nice though it was warm which is awesome for me. My body is 2 degrees below normal so I HATE the cold but LOVE the heat. Thank God I live in Texas!!!

I'm debating going to summer school since I'm buying a house right now. I had to drop a grand on summer school tuition and will need to get books but I'm $2900 short of the down payment I need for the house. Technically I can get this money but I'm a little worried.

Also there is the tiredness factor. I'm getting really sick of working and going to school and would like a break from the whole cycle. Then again I really don't because I'm a homebody who loves to read and other than the tests and papers to write this is how I normally roll.

I also want to start going out more and maybe do some dancing. Now that the Vit D thing is fading or being under control I could do that.

I don't know how I managed to lose 30 pounds but not drop a dress size. Mainly it's because I lost the weight in my face, arms, and legs. My stupid stomach stayed the same and that affects everything I wear. Hopefully soon this will stop and I can go shopping and look a bit slimmer.

Dirty Thirty

So I'm a big girl and I admit that I'm partially at fault. I don't always eat the best things and I get my exercise sporadically but the real reason was because of a Vitamin D deficiency and now that this has been fixed I'm dropping pounds right and left without changing a single habit.

Who knew?

So as of today, I've officially lost 30 pounds and would be ecstastic except for the fact that my car was towed/stolen this morning. Completely sucky!

I'm trying not to let this get me down but it is quite frankly and because the tow company is on answering service and they can't confirm if my car was towed and it could have been stolen I'm really upset.

But the good thing is that I'm not completely depressed as I normally would be.

SUDDEN UPDATE!!!!

I just confirmed my car was towed, except tow companies hire late risers and I have to wait until people are in the office to get directions and have someone take me there or take a cab.

School Stress

I'm in community college. I know many people would be horribly embarrassed to admit that but I'm rather proud of my college beginnings.

I attend two community colleges, one I receive financing for and the other I don't. This means some classes are paid for because of my college loan, but the ones at the self-financed college are not because - well I'm self-financing.

Now here's the problem. Since I have student loans, I am unable to get book vouchers to have the books I need applied to my loan. I have to pay for the books out of my own pocket which completely sucks. I spent 2 hours today at a college bookstore trying to pay $358.57 for 2 college textbooks. Shouldn't have taken 2 hours that was mainly the fault of AMEX who has the absurd belief that paying off your balance is an act of terrorism. (Operator told me with full snooty attitude on high that they have the right to not apply payment for 21 days even when the bank sends the money to be sure that the money really has been sent. So having it removed from my account and sent to you electronically is not enough?!?!? Next month I'm going to pay it with a check at the store and hopefully that will work better.)

I still need 2 other textbooks and I'm flat broke. Unless I want to play pay-a-bill-skip-a-bill, I'm going to need a miracle to have a good semester. I paid over $100 last semester for a book I used for 6 weeks (summer session) and got back $23 from buyback. Ain't life grand. I don't have a man but I can always enjoy a good screw from someone if I look hard enough. ;)

Thankfully, I joined on with a program and I got the books for one class for free but the other 2 classes, I'm not really confident of getting my books. I hope to do the skip-a-bill thing and pay for it next month. The paycheck upcoming I can't play around with because that's my rent check and I have two other bills on it that come out automatically from my checking account so there's no real give on this check.

Hopefully, everything will work out well and I won't get too many marks against my credit just to get my college education.

Watching the Olympics and rooting for May-Walsh to get the gold in beach volleyball. I can hear the buzzer for some laundry and know I need to put it into the dryer so I can be done with it but honestly it will get all wrinkly. No hope for it as I started the load to late to avoid this. I'm really sleepy and know I won't be getting up to unload until the morning.

Rambling On

I got a B in Anatomy & Physiology I. I wanted an A to make Fall Semester easier but I didn't get that.

I did get an A in Psychology and my professor's encouraging words really influenced me. So much so I decided to major in Psychology as well as International Business/Finance. I sent her an email telling her what her kind words did to me and she responded with thanks but then went on to say I should join Psi Beta, the psychology honor's society.

Umm... yes please. I would dearly want to get some scholarships and like many other academics I want letters by my name and the acceptance of my peers (you know the intelligencia). Always nice to know you're wanted.

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At work, Paula has moved over to the numbers side. At work Accounting (the dept I work in) is on one side of the space and everyone else is on the other. Paula D. has moved over to the numbers side and it's great. She's so sweet and funny and she puts up with me. I just simply love having her here.

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Now that I don't have to drive into another city for school 4 days a week I have the time and inclination to go to the movies. Here are my thoughts on the movies I've seen recently.

Dark Knight

Rocked balls. They wrote a really great script which is 90% of the great movies and they sensibly kept the special effects as only frosting to a well made cake of a movie (only 2-10%).

I really think Albert is underrated in this movie ashis speech about how some men just want to see the world burn is totally true. I liked how they mixed real personality with the characters and didn't lose focus by getting caught up in the cartoony nature of the villains.

Rating: A+

Stepbrothers

More Will Ferrell retardation which I love. He's one of the few actors whose movies I must see the first 2 weeks they open but I'm in no way inclined to see it again. This movie will be added to that list.

Really good script and I like how they mocked the Peter Pan men that roam the earth. The white poop licking wasn't necessary but made the ending make more sense and let's face it if you can't end a movie by using children to beat other children then you're not in America.

Rating: B

Pineapple Express

Seth Rogan et al. are growing on me. He's the new Will Ferrell in that he knows his body isn't the best and he knows just how to reveal it to get a laugh but not seem like he's making fun of himself. The script rocked balls and made the movie. The script was 95% - 98% of the movie and the special effects were virtually none exsitent. The other percentage was the acting and how these crazy people all fit together.

I didn't want to see this movie because there was little released about the movie and I don't like Seth Rogan flicks but I'm going to have to go to Blockbuster and rent some because I have new respect for him. The entire reason I saw this movie was because James Franco was in it and I just love the way he gives face to the camera.

You know how Johnny Depp manipulates his face and Jim Carey over does it? That's James Franco and he simply rocks. I love him and he's the reason I didn't waste $8 but spent 2 lovely hours cracking up in the theatre.

Rating: A+

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Really cute but absolutely predictable and I didn't like the acting at all. None of the girls really stood out except the goth chick and that was only because she was dating that really cute Asian guy that was in 21 (The Vegas card counting movie).

Absolutely nothing special. See this on video or give it a miss.

Rating: D

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I've been trying to lose weight for many moons now and haven't been able to lose an ounce. Earlier this year I was diagnosed with a severe Vitamin D deficiency and it impaired my ability to lose weight. Once it was corrected I suddenly lose 20 lbs overnight for no reason. Then I started eating grits and gained back 10, so I threw out all the grits and haven't eaten any sense.

I'm a huge fan of the BBC America show, You Are What You Eat and decided to look to see if there was a book at my libarary from the show and sure enough there was. I really like this plan as it's something I can do for the rest of my life and lets me eat a variety of foods and doesn't require me to look like a fool if I go out with my friends.

So I'm going to buy the book from Amazon and incorporate it in my life and hopefully I will lose weight.

However, a major part of losing weight is exercise. I meant to start working out on Monday but keep forgetting to get on that first thing when I wake up. Without that I don't get it done and so I'm berating myself. I really want to lose weight... but am afraid I am not committed to doing what it takes to lose the weight.

That's about it.

Laters

Threading the Brow

Threading

How cool is this thing!!! I’ve never tried threading before and for someone who is EXTREMELY eyebrow obsessed this is a must do and a must do on a regular basis at that lest I wake up yelling at Ernie.

A friend from work tells me about a threading shop all the way on 1960 which is great because it’s close but sucks because it’s 20-30 min drive with GOOD traffic and on 1960 good traffic is a rarity. Then suddenly she announces that there is a girl at Woodlands Mall who does threading for $10 right in front of Macy’s and I give her the Scooby Doo Huh before starting my break dancing routine to Hansel’s Messiah.

How cool is that? I’m within walking distance of the mall and finally I can have really decent eyebrows instead of a tribute to the nature channel hanging over my eyes.

I immediately go to the mall and get sidetrack by the Payless store right outside Macy’s and purchase two pairs of shoes. One are slides that I wear around work which are a bit more professional mainly because these have a heel in comparison with the slides they are replacing and a pair of round, open toe high heel shoes, wide width.

I absolutely love Payless. Their quality has improved tremendously and they are really the only shoe store that carries wide width shoes and so I’m all about the Payless. Total price less than $40.

Then I continue down the hall looking for the girl. She’s in a mall kiosk along with a woman that does henna tattoos and I completely miss her because she’s on the opposite side of the kiosk from where I’m walking. When I get to the end of the hall I look back and then ask a girl at another kiosk if she knows about the threading and she points me to the right kiosk.

Not the best atmosphere for beauty care, I’ve ever experienced, even for $10. People are walking by and occasionally I can feel them brush the chair which makes me uncomfortable.
As I sit down there are photos of the same face with different obviously computer drawn eyebrows on them that state the name of the stars that allegedly have that shape of brow. The Uma, The Julia, The Zeta-Jones, etc., etc.

I looked for a second and decided to ask her which would look best on me and she touches my face and finally says I have a natural arch and she’ll just use that. At first the threading did hurt, but much less than waxing and plucking does so I was cool but it felt weird as I wasn’t used to the sensation.

Then I get used to it and don’t feel it anymore.

One thing I learned other than threading doesn’t really hurt: I’m an aesthetic freak.

Yeah, I absolutely love the feel of things. I’m not in a relationship and haven’t been for several years. But when she would touch my face it was really intoxicating. I also liked how her breath floated down on my face and reminded me of sex. Not that I’m getting all into the taste of her cherry chapstick if you know what I mean but I miss those little things about being with another person that are hard to duplicate by yourself.

So in the end I came out of the mall with 2 pairs of shoes, fantastic eyebrows, and a sharper sense of loneliness.

The loneliness versus shoes puts me sharply in deficit as shopping only acerbates problems. However, the eyebrows puts me firmly in the black because they made me feel better, look more attractive, and would surely land me a mate.

I mean the first thing a guy looks at are the eyebrows, right?

Ninja Warrior & OT

So I had to run company errands today and it was awesome. I got to kill over an hour by taking the company car for an oil change and inspection. It rained like God down an entire keg before sex and his split stream wetted the world.

Before that I ran to the post office and chatted up the lady in line who was considering retirement. We chatted for a bit and I'm pretty chatty the PO closes at 4:30 and it was 4:00. I turned for a brief second and saw about 5 people in line. I always hate those people who chat on when I'm waiting in line so I immediately stopped midsentence and said goodbye. She started to keep talking and then stopped and said goodbye in answer to my see you later and she called the next person. I know working for the PO sucks royally but don't liven up your day at other people's expense. That was rude of her to talk to me when others are waiting. You could tell these people were rarin to go. I was the only one in line when I started and suddenly 6 people arrive and do the revving thing where they constantly think they can step up and then stop and then start then move back and bounce in place. It was cute but I've been there so I walked.

Right now I'm getting my transvestite fix from watching Ninja Warrior. I'm not sure how ass backward America is in relation to other cultures and sex but Japan just comes right on out there. They've got like four of them though on the most recent shows they have none. I really miss them they were the highlight of the show with their outfits and flexibility and hard muscles.

God bless the gays they are the only men who know how to flaunt themselves.

I worked out twice this week and loved it. I did a Body Pump class where I lifted weights for 45 minutes and came out feeling like I'd done something. Last time I took this class I used 1 pound weights on the end of my bar. Every one said how they had to soak after their first class and how tired they felt. I left feeling like whatever. This time I almost went to 2 & 1/2 pounds on each end instead I did two 1 pound weights and left completely tired and sore. I love that feeling it's great.

Today I did Body Combat which I also loved even though I was obviously the odd man out with my retarded mind not able to get the moves until well after everyone else was doing them but I felt like in a week or so I'd be able to do them. I didn't give up and it was a fun class.

I switched over to BBC American and am now watching That Mitchell and Webb Look. This show is so funny. I love British culture and they mock it so lovingly. They are thorough and don't miss a trick.

I'm tired and just found out that I have to work extra hard next week due to our home office not telling my boss he would be missing work for audits right before his vacation. So I'm going in over the weekend and working and I'll be going in during the week and working as well. I still haven't gotten my government stimulus check yet and need as much OT as I can get.

Oh yeah, the CEO of my company told me that they'd figured out a way to pay for my college classes. I was ecstatic. I'm going to be reimbursed and be able to pay on my loan or have a good time in Paris. Which ever makes more sense.

We'll see how adult I am later in the blog.

Gardening is a Spark a Minute

I've got a garden in my patio. It's pretty unusual to have a garden except when you have a house, even townhouses don't come with gardens but thankfully I do have one and it's my first.

The problem is I don't want to spend the money on the supplies to get my garden in shape. I need a shovel in order to dig up the crap (rocks, hard useless dirt, clay, roots, and other debris) that currently makes my garden.

I used a reference from a co-worker to get a yard guy and he stopped by and looked at my garden and said he would dig it up, put down fresh dirt, and haul off the old for me all for the bargain price of $75. That's a bit much but I was willing to pay for it mainly because it saved me time. I work 8-5 Mon-Fri and 2-9 Sat & Sun on top of that I'm in college full time. This means whatever time I have to spare, I spend sleeping.

Unfortunately, the guy is technically 2 weeks late and I decided to do it myself. That means I needed the tools to do the job which is not what I wanted. What am I going to do with a shovel after I'm done with it? This was swiftly corrected by a little known fact. Men love shovels.

I have no idea why, what the shovel signifies within the male psyche but men have multiple shovels. I asked my boss and he said sure he'd loan me a shovel but which kind did I need. I only know of two the smooth edge and the pointy one. I said the pointy one so I wouldn't need a hoe. He nods and says he'll bring it for me and he did. I also told my coworker at my w/e job and he let me borrow the smooth edge one. During both of these asking conversations I was made to feel an idiot for not having a shovel of my own as apparently in man culture you are given a shovel to symbolize your entrance into adulthood whereas women get tampons that they bled on and then throw away.

I must say I like the man culture tradtion much better.

My apt. complex specifically said they loved their tenants to garden in the spaces provided but they didn't want the unwanted dirt just thrown willy nilly anywhere or thrown into the dumpsters. When the dump trucks come the dirt goes everywhere and it kills the grass if it sits there in the heat for days on end. So I need to dump the dirt and I don't have a wheelbarrow or a sweet yard guy to cart it off for me.

How did I resolve this problem? I moved recently and still have boxes laying around. I put a trash bag in a box and put the dirt in there. I need like 12 more boxes to make this technique really work but it's all I got for now.

I've recently bought a digital camera so I'm hoping to take pictures as my garden progresses. It will make me feel like Tim from Home Improvement. Remember when they shows his progress with the car and how it had taken him like 4 seasons to build it. Le sigh.

Anyways, it's 9pm which is perfect gardening time during the summer in Texas so I'm off to hoe and dig. Then back in to sleep to rise early and work out.

Still No Exercise But Learning is Occurring

So I still haven't managed to get to the Y to work out but I'm aiming for tomorrow. I really want to work out more but I just don't have the time. Two jobs and full-time school can put a crimp in someone's schedule.

When I'm done writing I'm going to finish watching Family Guy (Stewie's into gymnastics, Mr. Pewterschmidt has lost all his money, and Peter is showing his strict Catholic father's neglect by being all needy around his super-mean father-n-law. [Why would someone keep salt and barbwire together in a jar?]), put out my clothes for tomorrow, then go shower and go to bed. My energy is highest in the mornings so I need to be ready to go in the morning and then head out or else I'll never work out.

I decided against testing out of my computer science course and taking it. It's uncertain if the college I want to attend will take the credit without the grade as that's done on a case by case basis. If I take the class I'm pretty much guaranteed an A since I know the majority of the material already. That's a win-win situation whereas the testaking leads a stress-maybe win- possbily lose-situation. Gambling's only fun with other people's money.

No Exercise & The Run Around

I have not worked out since the last spinning class. That class made me soooo tired and gave me a cramp in my right calf muscle that lasted for three days.

Due to work pressures and rushing to finish my last assignment for my mini-mester I didn't have time to work out during the week. I feel really bad. I need to lose a massive amount of weight and even though I'm eating much healthier than I have in the past I have trouble losing weight due to a vitamin D deficiency. I really need to exercise to change my metabolism.

Now that I'm working out I notice that I'm starving sooner than usual and my blood sugar drops accordingly. This means I'm really hungry and not just bored out of my mind by another day at the office.

I meant to go work out yesterday but due to the run around I didn't have time for that either.

I start Summer I session class on Monday and needed to get my books as well as have the book store buyback the books I already purchased.

I got back $200 bucks for the books I spent $500 on, which isn't that bad. I bought a teacher's edition by accident (darn Amazon) and one book had been discountinued so the college bookstore didn't give me anything for those books but their off-site bookstore rival did ($35) so I'm pretty happy.

I used book vouchers ($500) to pay for the books for the four classes I've signed up for. I've also signed up for some MicroSoft courses. I'm helping everyone at work with their spreadsheets and things so I might as well be able to prove to the world my MS competency. I'm taking the MS Word and Excel courses so I can take the MOUS exam for those lines. Then I'm going to take the PowerPoint and Access lines next year. These classes end in October right before I leave for Paris in November so I'm pretty happy that I'll be certified before I go.

I've got my History and Computer Science book in a brand new back pack I purchased. I wanted something different from the massive purse I've been carting around. This is a wheelie backpack which is the kiss of death on school campuses everywhere because of its nerd association, but I love it. I've got it filled to the brim with books and I'm rocking on with it. Usually, I read magazines while at work (What? Don't judge me. It's the perk of being an operator.) but today I'm going to read my text books so I'm ahead of the game. When classes start tomorrow, I'll be ready to rock and roll from the beginning.

Yee Haw!!!!!! Let's get this party started folks!!!