OOooo! My favorite!!

I'm only sort-of looking forward to the weekend.. Tomorrow night I get to play "Wifey" at a business dinner with my husband. It'll be nice food (I hope) but it sounds like a pretty boring thing. His bosses are celebrating 25 years in business together.

On Sunday, I'm hoping to see the Toy Story in 3D double feature.

Tonight I need to make sure to take the picture of my mixer for subtlefrog.

This week has been boring. Bleh.

my neighbors are lawn bullies. no HOA, no city ordinance, they have financial motivation - they want me to use their lawn care service. anyone have any experience?

[www.flickr.com]

Open Thread!!!

This time I made sure to finish lunch before noon, so I could catch this one on time. And I just returned barely a few minutes ago :D

So, Lets see...

1. I'm in a apartment cleaning and reorganizing phase right now. The apartment is starting to shine. By bachelor pad standards. Parents are coming over on Monday, and my mom is a cleanliness freak. No matter what I do, she will think it is filthier than a sewage pipe... oh well...

2. Going to watch a WWE fight live tonight. Just to get a feel of how incredibly boring it is in person.

3. Still willing to do Unforgivable Things for a Google Wave invite, including, but not limited to: Cruciatus, Imperious, Avada Kedavra, and as a bonus, Sectumsempra.

4. Happy Diwali!!!

I figured since I am begging for an invite, I should cut some slack for the noobs still looking for stars. Here goes...

I formally endorse the following for getting a star:

A. Smashville: Threatened to block me on wiki if I did not do this.

B. Kimaroo: Has 20% more kitty. Basically gives 120%. Deserves a star for that.

C. HogwartsAlum: See Imperious Curse. Also, she promised to set me up for a date with Luna.

D. Katstermonster: Cut 'er some slack. Shes a grad slave.

E. Subtlefrog: Firefly fan. Also agreed to let me come dressed as Niska for the Serenity viewing party.

F. Squinko: Well, I figured I should have atleast 2 guys in this list.

I am sure I forgot some well deserved names. Sorry. And get a life.

@catastrophegirl: Haha I saw that in your twitter feed earlier. Hilarious.

yay for weekends! 4 soccer games, two parties, 4 loaves of pumkpin bread, one meal of Falafel and brand new recycling bins! Woot!

@MostlyHarmless: are you one of the people on twitter following me that i don't follow back because i don't know who you are?

@catastrophegirl: know what your twitter username is, i mean

I have been sick for 2 weeks. I used all of my sick days. I am dying here.
Today is the longest day ever. AND I have 6 more hours of work to go at my second job after I finish up here.
I singlehandedly credit Assemblage 23 for encouraging me to meet all my deadlines this month.

@catastrophegirl: or alternatively, does anyone have any suggestions on a safe, natural way to kill the current lawn that won't prevent planting drought resistant ground cover in the spring?
[sorry, GitEmSteveDave, your salting the earth suggestion is still rejected.]

@catastrophegirl: Yes. I imagine that is the case.

@catastrophegirl: Man, I'd kill to have someone eat my mowed-weeds.

@MostlyHarmless: Yay!!! Thank you : )

-Always giving 120%, even though mathmatically impossible. That's how awesome I am.

@h3llc4t has a slow work day: Wow thats rough :( Get well soon!

@catastrophegirl: I have no experience in the matter, but I think you're handling it perfectly.

This four-day week has been a real pain... I've had enough annoying meetings to fill a five-day week, and about enough meaningful work to fill a two-day week. I'd love to take a day off, but I have meetings almost every day, and my commute makes half-days pretty worthless as stress relievers. On the plus side, I have Brütal Legend.

> "The readers who joined that got error codes and were unable to get the annual sub will be recontacted and provided a link to sign up for the one year trial."

So how's that going?

@MostlyHarmless: I love number 1.. I wish we could do that at my apartment again.. Or technically: finish the time we did it the last time.

And there's no pleasing mothers, I've already learned that myself.

@catastrophegirl: Yay for you, standing your ground (Hee!!)

I hate passive agressive notes like that. But they're fun to read when they're not directed at you.

Why do infant snowsuits come with 8 zillion pockets that are too tiny to fit anything but a quarter in them? As if they were adult ski jackets with, you know, ski pass pockets and things? Who's the baby going to call? And where's he going to find a pay phone, let alone one that only requires a quarter?

(In other baby-cold-weather-news, Columbia makes THE MOST ADORABLE baby fleece winterwear in the WORLD.)

Teething is horrible. In my next life I'm being born to some species without teeth. Almost don't care which one. I'll take suggestions.

@catastrophegirl: ooh! ooh! This is actually a common -- well, not SCAM, exactly, but sales tactic. Lawn care services will leave these notes, especially about how your lawn looks like crap and the neighbors have noticed, to try to shame you into using their lawn care service. It's very effective. It's a little awkward since he's your actual neighbor, apparently, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing this to other people too, even ones NOT nearby.

As for killing the lawn -- quit watering, flip the sod over, just overplant it with better things. Grass can't outcompete ANYTHING, so we generally just flip the sod and plant the better thing.

We're working towards a no-grass backyard. Leaving the front grass, though.

@catastrophegirl: PS -- when I first moved in, my neighbors (who have since moved away) mowed my lawn and attempted to apply fertilizer and weed killer because they didn't like the way we were caring for our lawn. I was hopping mad! But apparently lawn nazis are not all that uncommon.

@MostlyHarmless: I can help you with a wave invite just send me your email and I will give you one when I get home tonight.

Last weekend I made soap. With lye and fat and that fun stuff (no trip to the lipo clinic though). For anyone who may want to try and make soap, it's really not too difficult and the end product is nice. you probably want two people. More expensive than buying Zest or any of the cheap bars, but could be much cheaper for anyone into regularly buying handcrafted soaps provided you skip the shea butter. Next time I want to scent it as vanilla and include something for texture.

It could make an awesome christmas gift!

@Ratty: A girlfriend and I tried to make soaps once out of a kit that we bought from Michaels. It was a great idea and a ton of fun, except we drank too much and I'm still finding tiny flecks of soap in my kitchen months after the "incident".
It's funny, the soap we made at the beginning of the night was pretty okay. The soap from the end of the night was a trainwreck, smells like an air freshener, and covers you with more glitter than a Claire's store. Whoops.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): ooh, thanks. it's been too hot for me to do the manual labor parts of it due to medical, but it's cooling off now and maybe i can do some this weekend after the yard sale.
i have the portulaca seeds already, i bought them before i even decided on a house. regardless of the rain all week, we are still 'condition yellow alert' for drought around here.
also, about 1/3 of the lawn is clover and it's just full of 4 leaved ones, i hate to kill it because i love the smell of clover when it's blooming. [i also have honeysuckle all over]
so it's great to have a non chemical way to kill the grass but not destroy the local plants that i want to keep.
i also want to keep the nightshade that's growing in the back too, i may want to save the seeds to plant along the property line if this keeps up!

@tawnie is waving: OMG SERIOUSLY??

it is nayaksatyam {you know that 'cat' sign} gee-mail.

[Yeah, I had to mess it up to avoid bots and smartbots]

It was not advertised, but I am still offering Oral sex for the invite. So I owe you one ;)

Thanks SOOO much!!! You get a heart for that.

And yeah, I know, rest of you folks, I'll send out invites to a bunch of you too okay :)

@MostlyHarmless: Stars for Kimaroo! Stars for Kimaroo!

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Do we get pictures of the adorable baby fleece? Preferibly with the baby in it?

And as for the teensy pockets.. I don't know. I have a pajama shirt that has a similarly sized pocket on it and I have no idea what I need that for either.

My brother used to have some shoes that had a pocket, and when he was too small to remember it, he had our phone number written on a small piece of paper, and put it in there.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Maybe they just put regular adult snow-suits into a shrinking machine? :D

@Ratty: Oh that's cool! :D
I've always wanted to make the clear soaps that have toys in the middle of them - but those are made with glycerin instead of fat I think. Not sure.

I'm seeing GWAR tomorrow night! And Rammstein's new album is coming out next week! I am a very happy camper. Although my MIL is coming up tomorrow to stay for a few days. I hope it won't be too bad... *cross fingers*

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): yeah, that just reinforces my plan to buy a no trespassing sign when i go get the lawn sprayer for the vinegar i am going to apply this weekend. the vinegar should weaken or kill the grass and weeds. i was going to put wheat straw over it and let it compost itself all winter.
they better be glad i picked wheat straw and not newspapers!

@catastrophegirl: Get a shovel. Procede to dig up your grass. Use the shovel sort of like a spatula, and just pull it up (with some dirt, granted) and you can make nice little sod sheets. This will take the ground level down a bit, so you can add whatever sort of top soil you'd like! :D

@Oranges w/ Cheese wants it to be winter already: Yeah, glycerin. That's a different process. the fat ones are opaque and very very smooth when done.

@h3llc4t has a slow work day: I imagine a soap that coats you in glitter could be a cruel, cruel prank.

@MostlyHarmless: !!! WOOO!!!

I'm excited and I don't even fully know what it is! (I've not gotten to involved in it because I didn't want the invite-lust.)

@MostlyHarmless: Ugh. I have to clean my apartment. My mom will be here at the end of the month. Ugh.

@MostlyHarmless: I am not a dude. :(

@squinko - is pretending there's a star: The new Rammstein video is terrifying. And so, so NSFW. The boy and I watched it in slack-jawed horror/fascination.

@MostlyHarmless: No nominations for lab coats?

@Nidoking: Oh man! I forgot to pick up my copy of BL! I'll have to swing by GS and get it, since I reserved it at some point over a year ago.

I don't care if the algorithms flagged the debut video of Earl Tea Gray or not, damn it.
It should be included in the round-up.
...Along with that adorable hip-hoppy White dude, 'natch. Err, yo!

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): I'm telling you. Get some Evan Williams and mommy AND baby will be happier about teething.

@GitEmSteveDave_#GitEmSteveDaveRocks: One cause at a time. I have too much on my plate right now.

@squinko - is pretending there's a star: Well you are now an honorary guy with an honorary lower horn.

@Ratty: Did you burn your bf's hand with lye? I will buy your soap if you did.

Well, almost finished with the baby blanket I'm crocheting for my niece, and just found out that they think she may be allergic to synthetic fabric (she keeps breaking out in rashes). Of course, I always make baby stuff out of acrylic, because it stands up to most things small people can do to it, and is super-easy to care for (machine wash and dry on gentle).
It's not that I mind the work of making another one, but this just went from a budget-friendly $15 material cost to a much-less-happy $60.
I suppose that sounds stingy, but I'm broke.
Oh, and found 2 good-sized holes in my favorite cashmere sweater. So, guess I'll have some cashmere yarn soon. Hopefully I can get a couple of good scarves out of that.
So, this weekend is finish baby blanket, probably for donation, and deconstruct my sweater. That and several Mythbusters episodes on the DVR should make for a good weekend.

@Trai_Dep: Yeah. That was pure gold.

And now we will officially call Tigre "Earl Tigre" or "Earl Tea Gray". (Though i prefer the first one, sounds clever and more "inside-y").

I just got a note from my dad, he finally figured out why his Shell card that he has had since 1983 landed on my credit report and they said after a dispute that it was mine, they somehow had my SS# on file. I am not sure how they managed that since I doubt my dad wrote the wrong number (if they were collecting SS# on the application ) back then.