Of Birds and Bugs

A darling downy woodpecker couple has been monopolizing the bird feeder off our deck lately. They look so soft and fluffy when the wind ruffles their feathers. Woodpeckers are supposed to feed mostly on insects, but these seem to be enjoying the black oil sunflower seed in the feeder. I went outside last night after work to pull a few weeds before dark. We have a bit of scrubby woods at the back of our yard, and a small pond beyond the woods. Lovely - and the vegetation and water make for lots of bugs.

I now have a fiery red bug bite under my left arm that's the size of a quarter. Hey, you little woodpeckers - get your downy butts off my bird feeder and get out in the yard and eat some bugs! Please.....

another gloomy week

The sun just refuses to shine around here. I'm wanting to take a picture of something blooming, but it's too cloudy...and I'm a lousy photographer. I've tried several cameras, various lenses...hoping it was just a matter of buying the right equipment...and my pictures are still disappointing. So it must be me. I marvel at all the beautiful photos on all the flickr photo blogs. And thanks to flickr, I can enjoy spring around the world through everyone's photos. Here's a picture of my muscari in a little cream pitcher; the picture doesn't do justice to the rich purple-blue of the flowers.

...and I hate Microsoft...I installed Internet Explorer 8 on my work pc to test it out...and it totally crashed my pc. Feh! We use IE at work for most work apps, so I'm stuck with supporting it. I love Firefox. Go (use) Firefox!

Geez, I can only whine so much. Last week was the work week from hell. The weekend sucked...cloudy, rainy, windy, cold on Saturday, muggy on Sunday. All not my favorite things. I am so much better when the sun shines. How many of you feel that way?

Happy Earth Day!

Finally -- Spring is here!!! My favorite season of the year...actually the only season that I like...wish it was spring all year. Love the mama robin nesting in the crabapple tree outside our window.

WTF am I talking about?

Don’t you all wonder why you spend so much time slaving away at the office on some project that will just get undone or abandoned in the next 5 years, if not the next 5 minutes…when the sun is shining and the fresh air is beckoning outside? Well, umm, actually…I live in Iowa where the weather pretty much sucks outside for half the year…and the other half of the year…you are lucky if it isn’t pouring rain or blowing tornadoes during the 2 precious weekend days that you get out of each work week. I don’t even know where I am going with this thread. Am I complaining about working, or complaining about the weather? Damn, I’m just the complaining bitch that I told you I was!!!

It’s the weather here…making me crazy…high winds for the past week…damp and rainy…a brief spot of sun to get excited about…and then it clouds up again. The spring flowers are just beginning to pop up…daffodils and scilla and my favorite muscari (grape hyacinths)…but it’s too freaking damp and windy to enjoy being out in the garden. I managed to nab a few grape hyacinths for a little vase, but the vase is at home and I am here. I could use a sniff of that lovely, grapey muscari scent right now.

A facilities maintenance crew is steaming up the old tiles and laying fresh tiles in our hallway today. That’s it…it’s the glue fumes making me crazy…I knew I could blame someone else for my mood. Ok, now I’m satisfied……

...only half a glass of whine...

I'm coming down with something...my throat has been scratchy for a couple days, and now it's moved into my chest and I'm getting a cough. Crap. And I'm pretty sure I can blame a co-worker for this. A certain person who comes to work when infested with the plague and sneezes and coughs and hacks all over the place...till we all catch it.

Meester said "I can tell you're not feeling well. You haven't been whining as much today." So is that comment supposed to make me feel better?! At least the Meester accepts me -- whines and all.

...and to all the people in the Target parking lot that can't take their shopping carts back to the cart corral after they've loaded their groceries into their cars... Really? It's that hard to walk 20 feet to the cart corral?! From the back...it appears that some of you could use the exercise. I'm just sayin'...

Why Red?

In case anyone is wondering...no, I don't have red hair. My natural hair color is was medium brown, with some streaks of auburn. I think Aveda has my hair color fairly close to what it used to be...sigh.

The "Red" in Hamster kind of comes from Breakfast at Tiffany's, the book, not the movie. I loved both (Audrey Hepburn is still my favorite actress), but in the book the Holly Golightly character was more moody. Remember her having the "mean reds"? As she described it seemed more of an anxiety attack, but for me the "mean reds" are pretty much just that...a dark mood.

...and "Hamster"? Like I said, I'm small and can't sit still...unless I'm in front of a computer screen...then I'm blog surfing, listening to music, watching YouTube, drinking tea, and whatever. This is my favorite video. It pretty much describes me when I have something in mind to do.

Holiday of good food and annoying tech

Happy Easter, or Passover, or whatever you are celebrating today. Since our children are grown and most have moved on to live in other states, the Meester and I were on our own today for Easter brunch. So we drove to the small town of Marengo about an hour away and had brunch at P.H.A.T. Daddy's. Small-town charm in an old building, reasonable prices, friendly attentive service, and real food. Food actually cooked right there in a kitchen by a real mom and her family - how cool is that!? We don't care much for chain restaurants; do you know that a lot of chain restaurants don't have real kitchens? A lot of chain restaurant food comes from factories, and is just thawed or reheated at the restaurant. Yuck! P.H.A.T. Daddy's is family owned and operated, and we are all into patronizing American businesses as much as possible. ...and their food is delicious...there is nothing like baked goods made by a mom instead of a factory...and I love my baked carbohydrates!

Anyway, Meester had a new portable GPS system that he wanted to test out. This required lots of fiddling with the handheld GPS in the car, which makes me nervous when the driver is constantly looking at a new toy rather than driving, so I insisted on doing the driving to Marengo. This, of course, makes Meester really nervous. I am a perfectly good driver, I just have an, ahem, more aggresive assertive style of driving than Meester. Meester keeps at least 2 car lengths between him and the car in front; I like to let the car in front of me know that I am close behind and in a hurry. I don't know why that's a problem, sometimes it makes people speed up, so it works.

Anyhoo, the GPS system made me nervous. We know exactly how to get to Marengo, but we prefer the scenic route, and the GPS was set to the shortest route, which meant taking the interstate. The GPS kept telling us "turn this way", "turn that way", trying to get us back to the interstate. Then Meester kept setting the system to recalculate...then we got more instructions for turning this way and that...and I got tired of listening to the GPS voice. So when we actually got to the turn into the town of Marengo, I didn't even hear the GPS voice, but I did hear Meester yell at me "Turn here, turn here!!!" So really - do I need a GPS? We'll be taking a trip soon, so Meester has been fiddling more with the GPS.

His real mistake was in telling me that it's not safe to have a GPS system permanently in your car, because a thief will steal your car and punch in the "take me home" GPS setting... and then he get directions to your house, and of course you aren't there because he stole your car while your were in the mall, or something...so he can empty the contents of your house into the trunk of your own car, and now you are totally screwed. So...this means that every time we take a trip and bring the portable GPS with us...I have to carry the GPS in my purse every time we leave the car...and I will be so totally screwed with another pound of crap to carry in my purse.....

It's not easy being green

The Meester and me aren't like manic treehugger, trying-to-save-the-world types, but we try to be environmentally aware and save some carbons here and there. For instance, we only own one television set...shocking, isn't it?! And we never let that tv run continously while we're home, like some people we know. We record our favorite tv shows and watch them when we have time; tv is not our crack.

Anyhoo, here's a typical evening:
I am at the computer in our tv/computer/family room - reading my favorite blogs and surfing and emailing and generally running around the internet. Meester comes in and switches on the tv.

Meester: I'm going to watch my recording of Bones.

Me: That show is gross. They always feature icky dead bodies that are mutilated in some bizarre way. (See previous post regarding my feeling on "Bones")

Meester: I don't watch the dead bodies. I watch it for the funny love/hate chemistry between the forensic pathologist Bones and the FBI guy Booth.

Me: OMG! What is that! Acckkk! gagging noises...

Meester: It's the body of a guy chewed on by a tiger, but the tiger didn't kill him...the guy was murdered and put in the tiger's cage at the zoo and Bones and Booth have to figure out who murdered him.

Me: See? Exactly what I was talking about - that tv show is gross.

Meester: The relationship between Bones and Booth is cute, and touching...see, Bones has these issues with intimacy...and...

Me - interrupting with a shriek: How can they have a relationship with a guy chewed on by a tiger lying on the examining table between them?! Gross!

Meester: I like this show.

Me: Why does it have to keep showing the guy chewed on by a tiger! Why do you have the tv picture formatted to "stretch"?! It's making the guy chewed on by a tiger look bigger!!!

Meester: This is one of my favorite shows...

Me: How can you like a show that keeps showing a guy chewed on by a tiger???!!!

Meester: Maybe I should watch something else.

Me: No, no, go ahead and watch the guy chewed on by a tiger... if you like that kind of thing... but I don't know how can you watch that show - it's gross.


Meester - turning off tv: I'm going to go read a book.


Me - turning off computer: Me too.

And that's how we save some electricity at our house...not speaking to each other the rest of the evening saves some carbons, too.....

Can't get enough YouTube videos

SQUEEE! Hamster video on YouTube!

Big sigh.......last night was the final episode of my current favorite tv show "Life on Mars". I am not linking to ABC(the Already Been Canceled network) because I am hating on them right now. They canceled this show without giving it a real chance to catch on, especially after bouncing the show around different time slots and putting it on hiatus.

"Life on Mars" was superbly written. Each cast member had depth and talent and style on his/her own, and together they had real chemistry. Each episode was witty, stylish, and thought-provoking while avoiding the nasty, bloody, degrading 'special effects' of shows like "Bones" and "CSI".

Maybe I loved "Mars" because I could relate to all the hippie, long-hair style. (giving my age away) I prefer to think "Mars" was just a gem of a show that was overlooked in a tv wasteland of shallow rubbish that passes for entertainment these days. I'll miss you - Sam, Abbie, Gene, Ray, Chris, and my alter ego Windy.

Title - of nothing!

I've got to find the time to do something with this blog. Umm, yes, that's why I'm like a hamster. I've been busy doing I don't know what, but obviously not doing anything with my blog. I don't have a real purpose for this blog, and I've got plenty of company on this issue, but I intended to vent and share online rather than dumping everything always on the Meester. Anyhoo, I've registered for BlohHer '09 in Chicago, cause it's within driving distance. Some enthusiastic support from other bloggers should get me spinning in the right direction. ...and I really don't know any other bloggers personally yet...need to get myself out there and networking, although I hate phony glad-handing and kissy-kissy stuff. ...hmmm, I should be real fun at that conference...