Fun Times

©1987 -MGM

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I took my little red truck down the street to a garage today to get some work done and my daughter picked me up. On the way back to the house she said she wanted to try "Yoostar." I told you about the dancing game we did on the x-box kinect, where you don't use any sort of hand device - the game just uses your body. Well "Yoostar" is a game that inserts you into a movie scene and shows you the lines, like karaoke does for music.

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The first scene I did was from The Princess Bride. I played Inigo Montoya where he's explaining to Wesley just before their swordfight about the 6-fingered man, and I actually got to say, "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father: prepare to die." It was hilarious, because I was doing the voice. Okay, I was doing my version of his voice. It was really funny.

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My Sweetie got home from work while we were doing this and we said, "You try one!" and he was all, "No, no." And then my daughter and I got distracted with something and then he's over there doing a Humphrey Bogart scene from Casablanca. He made the highest points of the day! We were jealous and yet teased him for being all "No, no" and then jumping right in.

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Way later in the night, I was watching "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and Liv Tyler was on and she showed a scene from her new movie and Rainn Wilson delivered a line that went something like, "People spend all their time trying to find happiness. I think happy people are....arrogant." And I was all, "What? Really?" Do happy people seem arrogant? Then I must be considered one giant arrogant fool. (((Sorry about blogger being a dick with the paragraph breaks. I'm giving up after 5 tries to format this thing right!!))))

My Brain is on Fire!

Okay, not like the guy in Limitless, but I had a great run on "Jeopardy!" As I've explained before, our goal is to know an answer that none of the contestants know. We watched a TON of "Jeopardy!" over the weekend because they were backed up on the DVR because we had been watching all the basketball. I don't remember all of mine, but two of them were "What was Prizzi's Honor" and "Who is Rod Stewart?" I had a pretty good run.

I also invented a new word today: Slackadaisical. Maybe it's redundant if someone is a lackadaisical slacker, but I thought it was funny. And the way it played in my head was, "Who knows if he'll even go to college? He's pretty slackadaisical like most of us." And by "most of us" I was referring to a certain branch of the family. But at least some of us are good at game shows and making up words.

Not Much Ado About Anything

I got the rest of my doorknob/handle/lever/things on Friday and installed them on Saturday. All of those were for the inside doors. Now I'm looking at the doors that go outside. That dog was in front of me at the home improvement store. I feel like I'm going there as often as I go to the grocery store. But there are no little shaky dogs at the grocery store.

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I was sitting on the floor the other night watching my team play and I noticed this footprint in the carpet next to me: It's my footprint. I have the flattest foot in the world. Like Fred Flintstone.

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Now I'm just 3 weeks away from my trip. Last week I was all excited and now I'm thinking: Three weeks!! What? I have so much to do! What am I going to pack? I need to get more sun! I need to work out my feet on the treadmill more! I'm sure I'll be very productive this week, and next week I'll be all excited again.

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On the basketball front, my team lost and my brackets are shot. For some insane reason I am in third place in the brackets but I think it would take a crazy miracle for me to win the money. But that's okay. Life is good. Spring is here and we had a great date night Saturday night. We saw Limitless and I really liked it. The premise seemed somewhat unique and there were lots and lots and lots of great New York City shots. Hey! I'm going to New York! I can't wait!

An Odd Week So Far

I didn't wake up right on Monday. First off, I slept too long and that always screws me up. Sometimes it will go away in a few hours, but it didn't. It took me forever to come up with something for lunch. And that's bad because I take my heart pill with lunch and I try to keep a consistent time each day, but by the time I finished lunch it was 3:00. And for some reason I had only bought enough stuff on Friday to make dinner through Sunday. I knew there was no way in hell I was going to the grocery store feeling all slow and stupid. I did manage to come up with something for dinner that was actually pretty good.
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I woke up great on Tuesday, and I expected that because fortunately, I'm never deadheaded two days in a row. I even woke up early, all refreshed. I broke out my new easy peasy electric screwdriver and replaced all the doorknobs. (new):

old:

The store actually didn't have enough when we bought them so I have to get three more, but I replaced all that I could, and I chose the main ones that we see. I guess "doorknob" isn't really the right word because there really are no knobs involved, but I don't know what else to call them. Are they door levers? Door handles?

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I really like that type because you can open a door with an elbow. You can't do that with a knob. Well, I can't. Maybe you can. And I have osteoarthritis in my thumbs and you don't even need thumbs to open these. You just push down with your fingers. You pretty much need a thumb with a knob.
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So to recap: Monday = deadhead and lifeless, Tuesday = alert and productive.

Well Wednesday was really unique. I actually got up, showered, got ready, and ran out to pick up something for lunch. I never do that. Seriously, I have done that maybe once a year in the past 4 years. Then after having lunch, washing the sheets, taking a little nap, emptying the dishwasher and washing the pans, I went to the grocery store. (If you are someone reading this blog for the first time ever, I used to be about 95% agoraphobic/anxiety/never leave my house and that's why I am so proud of myself for going out to get lunch.) So I was very pleased with myself. I recovered nicely from deadhead Monday and got a lot done. But to be honest I'm looking forward to today being an IN day. I actually did a little clapping cheer that went like this: Thursday IN day clap clap clapclapclap.

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I think I will putter around, relax, and admire my new door thingamabobs.

Four Weeks!! Four Weeks!!

Although I have never fully understood this expression: I am fit to be tied! Exactly 4 weeks from right now I will probably be brushing my teeth at my best friend's house getting ready to go to sleep. No I won't be going to bed early - it's an hour later there. I am so excited about my birthday trip!
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Loretta and I took our first trip together in October 1999. It was the first anniversary of Dad's death and I wanted to get out of the house. We didn't really know each other but she knew my Dad well and I thought she'd be fun and she said yes and off we went to Vegas. I have never had a better travel companion. We totally fill in each other's gaps when it comes to travel. It's the little things. I'll have a safety pin and she remembers to get the ice. It's always perfect. And we laugh and laugh and have so much fun.
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We've been on so many trips together, we have it down to a science. First order of business: Have the cab driver stop somewhere for beer and other goodies. Second order of business: Enter the hotel room and order extra towels and ashtrays and tip that person well. Third order of business: Play!!
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And I love showing Loretta around. We nearly always go somewhere that I have been to before, so I know the ropes a little bit. She has not been to New York. She doesn't even know what to expect. I expect she will love it. And as usual, I have some plans, but not too many, leaving lots of free exploration time.
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We'll have two full days in New York - Wednesday my birthday and Thursday. Tuesday and Friday will be coming and going. The Saturday after my birthday we are going to color Easter eggs with my brother and nephew. And while I am in North Carolina I'm going to have pork barbecue and and good ol' North Carolina hot dogs.
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It's going to be a great vacation and I can't wait. Four weeks! Four. Weeks. (woot woot!!) What a fun celebration of my 50th anniversary of being alive. Dude!!

Nice Day This Year

I was looking over my posts from a year ago and apparently it snowed last year on March 21st. Hmmm. This year it's going to be 80° on March 21st. We went out to dinner Saturday night and sat outside. And I wore shorts. I spent the afternoon sitting on the deck getting some sun. (Barney loves it when we are outside with him.) We also did some yard work. I can't remember what that groundhog said, but if it was the same as last year, that groundhog is pretty stupid.

I am enjoying Spring and Basketball

The Floors! The Floors!

I never understood why someone would pick out tiles, that when placed together, would look like cheap linoleum:
But those were our entryway tiles. Or you can call it the foyer, if you like. Here it is being redone:

And here it is done:

This is a view into the kitchen from the hallway. You have a good(?) view of the fugly tiles:

Here are the new ones:

This view is looking into the kitchen dining area (the table was out at this time):

And here is the after:

Our bathroom is what is called a "Jack and Jill" layout. There are individual counters and sinks on either end with the tub, shower and toilet in the middle. For some insane reason, the carpet from the bedroom flowed into the bathroom on both sink ends, with tile in the middle:

Now, the entire bathroom is tile.:

And since the flooring guys have to unseat the toilet and take it out, I decided to buy a new toilet. When else are you going to get free toilet installation? The toilet brand is Jacuzzi! Now I can say I have a Jacuzzi!:

Next up: See this ugly '80's looking doorknob? We just bought new knobs for the whole house. So those ugly things are going away. I will be working on that all week with ice pack breaks for my thumb. (My thumb hates screwdrivers.)

In The Interim...

Jazz seems to get a kick out of how my brain works, so I thought I'd share a little thought flow that I had today:
I was reading an entertainment article about Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn apparently dating and it stated their ages as 26 and 50. I thought "Ewwww. That would be like If I dated my daughter." Then I realized what I had just thought and laughed and thought, "Well, no, not really, because that's just bizarre." Then I thought, "Oh, okay, it would be like if Kate (my daughter) dated "M" (a high school buddy)." Then I imagined my daughter, who thinks deep thoughts, saying something like, "The main problem with helping ravaged countries is that large inflows of cash tend to corrupt their governments." I pictured "M" saying, "Huh?" Then I had a good chuckle.
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And just now: My Sweetie has a recurring joke when someone has a shortened version of a name such as "Wil" or "Jon" that goes "His parents were so poor they couldn't afford the other "L." Or in the case of "Jon," they couldn't afford the "H." So when I looked up the spelling for Scarlett Johansson, I thought, "Man! Her parents must have been really wealthy!"

Job is Done! (But I'm Not)

That's a close-up of two of the cracked tiles that were in my kitchen. The tiles were hideous enough, but add cracks and well, it's just crap. And I didn't even mention the GIANT grout line. Yuck! We've always hated that floor.
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The tile guys finished and left at 4:35. So what I thought would be a three, or maybe slightly more day job, was finished in two. I was so happy - and I felt a little stupid for being so irritated by their LONG day on Monday.
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There's still a little scuzz on the tiles but I can't mop until Thursday afternoon, so I will wait for my after pictures and then post a long picture post of everything. After I sleep as late as I would like today, I'm going to be cleaning up the rest of the dust and putting all the stuff back in the kitchen and bathroom. I do love my new floors.

A Short Summary of So Far

It was loud.

It was dusty.

It was inconvenient.

And they didn't leave until 7:35 pm!!!

That was too long.

I will have them out of here by 5:00 today.

Seriously, that was too long.



(The pic was taken in the early afternoon. Most of the tile has been laid. As Naomi is wont to say: There will be more to come...)

No Sleep For Me

I'm getting new kitchen, master bathroom and entryway flooring starting Monday morning at 9:00. am. That's right, A. M. As in ante meridiem. Which is Latin for: way before I normally wake up. So I will have to get up EARLY and put on a bra and there will be jackhammer type thimgs or maybe actually jackhammers removing the old tile. And dust. Those 3 or 4 days will suck. But then I will have nice new floors. I will take lots of pictures and have many show and tell type things to come. And I will probably eat a lot of dust. I'm glad I own earplugs.

The Life of Food

I read one of those Heloise hints from some lady not too long ago and she said that with her busy family, they prepare meals for a week every Sunday. I hope they freeze the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday meals. I don't know about you, but I have a three day fridge rule. And by three days, I mean it's inedible in three days. If it doesn't get eaten within 2 1/2 days, it is thrown out. 72 hours is too long. If I know it won't be eaten and it's something particularly good, I will freeze it. My mom has told me horror stories about my step-dad finding something in the back of the fridge and eating it. I can't believe he is still alive.

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I also see those articles every year around Thanksgiving with catchy titles like "Great Recipes For A Week Of Turkey!!" And they never mention freezing. YUCK! Is it just me? I'd like to hear your opinions. How long do you keep leftovers?