The postoffice is TOO SLOW! Damnit. Priority mail is 1-2 days…not 1-3 or 4 days…right? Maybe I shouldn’t have bothered and went with regular mail because that seems to move faster. Maybe it got seized…hm.

I made chili today. I totally winged it. Now THAT is a sign that I can cook. It’s weird to think of that. It’s simmering right now for the next hour or two. Simmering = better.

This morning I decided to sleep in. So after not being able to sleep in at 6.40 because the cat was scratching obessively in the box, the alarm kept going off and that damned chipmunk is chirping I got up to eat some cereal and look at the news. Man, Charlie Shortino has grey hair! He is a much superior weather man than that other woman that was subbing for him. I want my Charlie telling me to have a good ____ morning. Anyway. After Tim left, I went back to bed.

Pluto started whining. I told him to go to bed and lay down. He whined more…and after awhile I managed to ignore it all and fell asleep. A brief sleep because soon the sun woke me up (I dreamed it was a car crash). Pluto was whining again, so I said “FINE!” and got up to let him outside again. He went out to the yard right away and started pacing. I thought he just had to go poop and probably didn’t go this morning.

I let him in after awhile, he does more whining and pacing and finally settles onto the couch. I figured he was depressed. Then I got busy with my morning of cleaning, internet wasting, and writing. Later on, I was looking for my sandals so I could take laundry out to the line and bring in that red sheet that has been there for over two weeks….and stepped in something. I looked down and see that the entire floor in front of Pluto’s crate is covered in dog barf. Great. I took my sock off and went to call Tim and tell him how horrible of a owner I was.

Poor Pluto was just telling me that he wasn’t feeling well…and I tell him to go to bed.

So I played with him this afternoon in the backyard, and he gets a walk this evening. Tim fed him old meat and we think it went bad.

– oh wait, my brother said that they DID get the package. Just no one ever tells him.

Copco 2-1/2 Quart Teakettle Prescott, Sunset Red

I forgot to mention our newest addition to the household. The newest item makes the dehumidifer look lazy. We got a new tea kettle! You see, I had this really old, aluminim type one that I had inherited from a roommate … oh about 10 years ago. For the last ten years we have used this kettle almost daily, and over the years calcium builds up on the bottom. Last week I had this cat dish I couldn’t get clean because of the calcium build up, so I poured vinegar in it and let it sit for a day. It was clean as a whistle in no time!

I did the same thing with the kettle…except it wasn’t working the same. I think there was just too much calcium for it to do any magic…and I would have had to use 20 gallons of vinegar to clean it. After I poured out the first vinegar I decided it would be a good idea to poke it with a butcher knife. Poke, the calcium I mean. I slowly started to break off chunks of the calcium build up that had been softened by the vinegar. I counted at least 3 or 4 layers of different calcium, but eventually started to get bored and did little “drill bits” in the thicker parts to break it up more. Well, I think you can see where this is going.

I accidentally drilled and poked all the way through in about 4 spots. This tea kettle was done. I went and reported the sad news to the DH and told him we needed to go buy a new one (especially since I wanted tea that afternoon). We headed over to Orange Tree Imports on Monroe to on our bikes (and for the start of that big bike ride), and hemmed and hawed over the outrageous prices. But since we had already been to target earlier we couldn’t justify going back. We ended up getting the 20$ model, with a high handle, little trigger to open the spout and the color red. This is the most amazing purchase ever, folks. I can’t believe we gimped along so long with that inferior tea kettle before.

Now in like 5 minutes (instead of 15) we have hot, boiling water from a tea kettle that doesn’t require you have an oven mitt on to touch it AND it lets us know when it’s done because it whistles. Geez…if you don’t have a kettle like, I suggest you go out and get one, because anything else is a waste of energy, time and money.

This just in! I have a new scent. I had tried it on someplace…I can’t remember, and I thought it was awesome. I think vacation….yeah that must have been it. It’s been in the back of my head since thing, and today when I was picking up something for a friend, I treated myself to a perfume. It’s a small roll on stick — of …..*drumroll*

Wysteria!

I can’t explain it…it’s so nice. I think an important role model in my life must have worn it at one point, but maybe it’s more than that. Lily of the Valley is nice…but right now Wysteria is speaking to me.

This weekend was low key. We bought a dehumidifier to help the basement. It got lots of water from all the rain, and had been smelling moldy. Mold is never good, so I cleaned up the water but it wasn’t going anywhere because the humidity was so high. The new humidifier is Energy Star approved and works like a dream. It was also on sale at Menards….it’s amazing how much water is in the air.

Tim and I went on a 30 mile bike ride in about 2.25 hours. We were tired at the end, to be sure. Then not an hour later Laima called us asking if we were up to riding bike over to Orton Park to see the modern dancers …dance with swings… (arial dancers). We said sure, because we were hungry. We went, saw some movement and then stopped at the Glass Nickle for cheap drinks and some eats and headed home. It was a good night.

Sunday I …. uh….played lots of video games, and cooked. I made macaroni salad, jello, chicken/apple salad, and some kind of tomato/egg dish … a fritta as my coworker said it was, with breaded tofu.

I had to ride home in the rain today so I got all wet. It wasn’t supposed to rain past noon….dangit. At least I didn’t melt. I am thinking of spending the next two hours on the couch with a cup of tea, a dog and some letter writing or newspaper reading. I smell wonderful! I should spend some time with me.

There was a malfunction in one of the tornado sirens this morning at 4.30….it went on for about 35 minutes…after ten minutes and determining that there was no tornado or impending doom, I went back to bed with some ear plugs. Over all it was a crappy nights sleep, made apparent by Pluto not wanting to get up this morning to do his bidness. When the dog is a slug butt, that tells you that it was rotten all around.

I sprained my left toe! I sprained it at sparring and it did hurt then, but went away. I didn’t feel the stiffness and over all “ugh” until a few hours later. Is this my first sparring injury? I think so.

I told you about that one guy that kicked his toe off right? EWww! At least that didn’t happen.

Yeah, so I am taking the day off from Monkey Bar today to clean the house, walk the dog and make sure my toe doesn’t get too hurt. Besides I have TKD tonight…and house cleaning is exercise, believe it or not. I also want to spend some time stretching today. It’s been awhile since I have actually spent 20 minutes doing a good stretch. I can’t be confusing strength with flexibity….as I think I have been.

The coffee this morning was not to my taste. I decided to make a pot of chai tea instead….oh and there are leaves all over the ground! Dang it. I thought I ordered summer to stick around for quite a bit longer…. I don’t want winter to be here yet….But I can tell it’s getting darker again earlier. The afternoon sun is looking more “golden,” and some mornings I am beginning to debate the need for a light jacket.

I need to go wash my face now. It feels oily.

Since I don’t want you think I had a BIG head by talking about my estimate of 100 people (two people pointed out they checked from at least three different ISP’s). Well then, let’s take a look, shall we? I chose to focus on July because it was the most recent complete month.

Year to Date Web Statistics
Month–Unique Vistors –Number of Visits–Pages—– Hits ——- Bandwidth

Jan06 —–827 ————-1467 ————-4308 —-21977— –191.89 MB
Feb06—- 478 —————932 ————–4446 —-16914—–145.00 MB
Mar06—- 582————— 1133————-6385—–22193—-183.54 MB
Apr06– –621————— 1115————–4960 —15727— 147.87 MB
May06—- 474————– 1006———- 4404—-16997—- 155.01 MB
Jun06 —–400————– 813————-4296—- 14832—– 135.35 MB
Jul06—- 423————– 802————5480— 24675 —-474.27 MB
Aug06—- 304————– 601—————1839—–7307——79.69 MB

Total—— 4109———— 7869 ———–36118 ——–140622—— 1.48 GB

Page Views – Page views are the amount of pages that are viewed on average.
Unique Visitors – Unique visitors are individual new visitors to your website.

FOR JULY 2006

–> Most connect to my site via direct address, followed by links from other pages (not including search engines, and finally search engines.

–>The most popular two days that people check my website are on Tuesday and Wednesday.

–>The average time spent at my site during July: 235 seconds

–>Most people visit my site between 7:00AM and 11:00 AM.

–>I had 423 new people visit my site, which means there are 379 regulars per month.

So, if Sarah, Laima, and other folks each check my site with three different isps, that would still be at least 126 people per month.

I stand by my earlier estimate.

Hey! Check out it, my long time friend Lori (the mother of my younger brother Andrew) got a Blog! Now she is really new to the world of obessive internet blogging, so be kind and check her out, give her a little encouragement.

The link to the left is: Swamp Tales

Baby steps. This week is already better. Yesterday I met my mini endurance goals of not overeating, exercise, cooking, and coffee with Hilary (though sometimes I feel like a bit of a dud). Anyway…I was a dud who went out and tried.

Today, I plan on doing more of the same except with healthy doses of laundry and putting it away as well as taking a shower. Gah, I hate taking showers. The rubber matt thing on the bottom that I got at Dollar General 3 months ago has disintegrated. I should throw it out before I take the shower. I also plan on wiping down the bathroom counter.

I also have a phone call that I have to make that I don’t want too.

OH! And on our way home yesterday, Tim and I ran into Andy A! He has brown hair now…he said it grew in like that but under the impression that it was still light. Whatev! It was totally medium brown, no light about that. Anyway, he still lives in Madison with his gf, works two jobs without benefits and has an awesome bike.

Last week was pretty rough, culminating in the roughest Friday night ever. Tim did his best to cheer me up, but it was a challenge. Even now I still feel the remnants of that crummy week, but I am going to continue with my motto of “endure.”

I know the blues is only a phase. This won’t last, and even if it feels like nothing matters because nothing is going to change…that too is part of it. Sure, I don’t believe anything with change right now, but I know logically that I won’t always think that. I don’t always think that on a day to day basis, so it would make sense to know that this isn’t going to be forever.

I don’t know why I am affected right now or why feel so antisocial, and hopeless about everything. It just happens, I guess. You can’t have good times without the bad I suppose. It’s not that things are bad either. I have had several moments in the past week where I appreciated just how nice my life is with Tim, Madison and where I am. I like the choices I have made so far, and have felt quite cozy.

I guess when it all comes down to it, I am frustrated by the things I cannot change or that don’t seem to be changing no matter how hard I work at it. They say that to persevere is the key. Keep on trucking. Don’t stop! Don’t be discouraged. Well that is easy to say if things are constantly progressing for you in some way. What happens if you try and try and try and nothing changes…at what point do you give up? I mean, I can smash my fist against the great wall of China and hope that one day I’ll break through — but on another level I need to come to terms that this might not be the best method. But the question is, at what point do I give up on that method? Because sometimes — you do have to give up something in order to find another path. You can’t take two roads at one time.

How do you know when to give up?

It’s all confusing here. I am talking about knowing when to give up, keeping on moving, enduring, etc. That is how my brain is right now.

And in other news, the end of the world is supposed to happen tomorrow. It would be kind of nice for it to happen. I feel like I have been waiting for it for my whole life. There are many times when I sit around doing something mundane and think “It could happen now, I am ready.”

But until then, and if it doesn’t happen, then my plan for the next two weeks is to just live a little life and endure.

—-
But to show you that I just didn’t sit around enduring I did do stuff.

Friday night we walked Pluto, and went to Borders to buy a CD (I got an Acoustic Guitar Barque CD) and The Anvil of the World (I don’t think I’ve read it….), Tim got a Misty something book … I should get the name of it.

Saturday: Kennel Days at Lake Geneva where we walked dogs and took one home with us (transportation only). Man was that dog fluffy! Tim brushed him at the kennel for his bath, and I brushed him at home and there was a whole nother dog underneath! Afterward we got our vegetables, cooked, napped and then headed out for a night on the town to celebrate Brian’s birthday. We started with dinner at the an irish pub/resturant called Broache and then went to: Paul’s Club, Irish Pub, City Bar, Irish Pub, Genna’s and finally the Paradise. Tim and I both overindulged a bit, we rode bike home safely and slowely.

Sunday: I started Kingdom Hearts that my friend lent me. It’s not t00 bad so far. We napped ALOT (recovering from the week…we were both really just…tired), watched some TV (4400 and AFV), and made dinner – fajita’s, cucumber salad and rice.

I get kind of tired of people saying that my best quality is being “candid, honest, straight-forward, blunt, to the point…” etc. That is not something I work on, it’s just there. And I know just as well as everyone else, that this isn’t really a compliment and that it can go both ways. In fact, it’s a trait that I try to reign in most of the time. People don’t REALLY want to hear what I have to say about things or my opinion.

I have been toying with the idea of seeing what it takes to be a “life coach.” The idea of it intrigues me, and I think that I am quite good at listening and distilling the information folks give me — try to organize their thoughts and what not. In that case, being candid might be useful. I could be choosy about the folks I “coach” and try to pick ones who are motivated for real life change and don’t just need a “best friend for hire.” You know, those folks who are just really looking for someone to complain too, and tell them what to do with their life, or validate all of their choices. Sure everyone needs a little validation sometimes, but you know the kind of people that I am talking about.

If you don’t know them, then you are probably one of them.

In other news, I am getting together with the DH, Matt and Kathleen for lunch today at Vientienne Palace for lunch. This will be the first time I will have lunch with my Darling and Matt during working hours. I have had lunch with Kathleen a few times before. I am hungry for it now – and leaving work early for it. I am going to have to make up for it next week, but that’s okay.

You know, I get about a 100 hits a day from unique visitors … no it’s not just Hilary checking a 100 times a day to see if anything new is posted….but actually about 100 different folks. I wonder who you all are sometimes. I know about …. 20-30 of you. Anyway, I just wanted to say I appreciate you stopping by and would like to return the favor if you have a site that I don’t know about.

Yesterday and today were those kinds of days where you just resign yourself to not being happy about anything…realizing there is nothing that can be done about, and instead just force yourself to do some productive things while distancing yourself from the world.

That said, I didn’t yell at Tim or get mad at things that were out of my control, or weren’t going right (although he was creeped out by my calm and kept asking what he did to piss me off…and then would be preemptively mad….he said this morning that he preferred the ‘hollering Laura’ instead.)

I kept thinking that I wanted yesterday to be remembered for something other than being crabby. This what I did:

-put a metal storage shelf together in the basement, it was very difficult and already had been given up twice by Tim saying it needed major help, vice grips and what not. It really just needed a lot of patience and elbow grease. It’s done though!

-I went to TKD
-I went to sparring (not saying if any actual sparring ensued)
-Wrote a long letter to Sam (but couldn’t print it, stupid printer/computer)
-Started a hand written letter to Myrna
-Walked Pluto
-Called my Mom (big bonus! And dangerous considering how I get “yelly” at the drop of a hat with them. Last night I got mad because she started badmouthing my Dad. I said “Where are you getting that information?”
“The boys” she replied (referring to my older brothers).
“When was the last time either of them talked to Dad?” I demanded.
“Uhhh….” she quavered.
“I can tell you the last time Shane talked to Dad was at Diana’s funeral, and Doug? It’s been months.” I said.
“Well, I know what he is like…” she said.
“Do you? When was the last time YOU talked to him?”

Silence.

“You see?” I said, calming down. “None of you talk to him or know anything about anything. So unless one of you actually talk to him within the last three months, I don’t want to hear it. Let’s change the subject.”

She agreed to do that).

-Cleaned up the living room
-Went to bed early.

Okay, gonna go make Lasagna now. I’m hungry!