Jabberwocky for 2002 January

Finally, finally, I have at least taken Christmas down and put it away in the shed. This is not to say I have restored the house to pristine glory, or weeded the garden, or paid bills, or any of the other things I have to do. I made reservations to go to Houston for Kristen's wedding, talked to Nancy Schile at length, and planned that little trip. I also bought an airport bus ticket. Now, I have to find a substitute.

I spent yesterday reaming out the house. It looks really good, but I haven't brought all the stuff -- saxophone, antique trunk, chairs etc. back in from the garage. I packed away all the Christmas stuff and only found six things left out. (a new record.) One of the six is a box of ornamanents I was positive I had bought but I couldn't find when I went to do the tree. Yikes. I almost took my receipt back to the store and accused them of not putting them in my bag, but they had fallen down behind Gretel's crate. Today I need to pay bills and then do something about my address book and planner/calendar.

I stayed up until 3 this morning trying to format Calendar Creator 6.0 to print onto my Franklin Planner pages and then trying to make a 2002 calendar without having to buy a Franklin refill. Gaaah. How much money is my time worth?

Today I spent the entire day paying bills and so on. We are broke, broke, broke. (a feeling I really, really, really hate.)

I just scored 74 points playing the word "poisons" in Scrabble. Appropriate, since I've been spraying weed killer in the yard today, and I'm planning to go to bed with the Surflan instructional brochure for a bedtime story.

Last night I had a dream that Lynette Smith called me with a recipe for a dessert that used ground up pecan sandies instead of graham cracker crumbs in the crust. I think that could work, and I intend to try it some day. The rest of the dessert involved strawberries, strawberry Jello, Knox gelatin, and whipping cream. I really do think this could work. Of course, when I woke up, what she was really calling me about was to tell me that I made a mistake in Josh's address in the church bulletin. I accidentally put his Macao post office box with the Hong Kong office street address. Wonder where the letters will go.

Today I planted a tree wisteria in the not-so-Japanese garden, and all by myself I moved the huge pot where the flowering crabapple used to live. I am just about ready to do the ground cover in there. I hosed off the deck with the intention of setting the papasan chair out there, but the deck needs more than just hosing.

Same Scrabble game, another bingo, another 74 points. "Darkens". I spent the day spraying Roundup mixed with Surflan; the Surflan is dyed orange, which makes it convenient, because you can actually see where you sprayed. I'm exhausted.

I got my hair cut at Supercuts (too short, too butchered and I hate it!) and the lady gave me a senior discount without even asking how old I am. I'm not 50 yet fercryinoutloud. I took the discount anyhow.

This bites. I told the college I would work full time Spring Semesater. They gave me an 8 a.m. class and a 1 p.m. class. On Friday. School started Monday. I stayed up way past midnight ever since preparing for the classes. Now I find out (NOT from the person who was supposed to have told me on Monday) that they are cancelling the 1 p.m. and I have to prepare for a completely different one at 11 a.m. I expected to teach 3 or 4 classes; instead I'm wandering around the computer lab. A job nobody wanted.

Oh well it's money.

Then I got the locks changed. It cost $50 to replace the lock that got drilled. (long story.) I paid the locksmith for ten extra keys and promptly lost the whole wad of them somewhere over about a mile away.

I left Gretel in boarding school to get trained, jahwohl. I have to catch the airport bus at 5:30 tomorrow morning.

I am happily ensconced in Houston at the home of my friend Nancy Schile. Today we went to a Shangri-La called Hobby Lobby, where I bought a 16 bunches of fake poinsettias for 40 cents each, some strings of Christmas lights for a dime each, and sundry sundries. We bought a penguin for Leonard. I also got a plastic "rock" that says "If you have time to read this, you have time to pull weeds."

I wish to go on record that I hate fake flowers and would never buy them, except that I assume I'll be in charge of the church Christmas party again and the concept of a centerpiece for less than a dollar sounds mighty attractive. I promise to have no part of them in my home.

Actually I do have some fake chyrsanthemums in my kitchen, but they were given to me as a going away present by fellow teachers at EBHS, and their hearts were in the right place after all, so what can ya do?

My big purchase was a counted cross-stitch pattern of Arthur and Guienevere, which is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. We are now going to ignore the fact that I have nobody to hornswoggle into stitching it for me and there is no way I could embroider it for myself, having neither patience nor eyesight nor inclination thereto. It cost $7.50 for just the chart and instructions, no floss or cloth or anything of that nature included. Oh, but it would make a beautiful stitchery.

Ha. How long have I been [intending to knit] that Irish Fisherman afghan?

Houston is apparently the third largest city in the USA. I do believe it's more sprawled out than Los Angeles, however, which would put it in as no. 2. Robert met me at Nancy's and we drove up north and found the family dinner, the temple, the wedding, drove to San Antonio (which hasn't changed, the Alamo doesn't HAVE a basement), stayed with Anne and ensuing chaos, went to church and Davy's Eagle Court, and then Leonard and I drove back to Houston yesterday. We stopped along the way at an antique store in a little town, a "historic" town whose name now escapes me. I bought a milk bottle. I would have bought a black and white leather minidress--Yves St. Laurent!-- for Rachel, but I didn't have $50.

All over Houston to take Leonard to the airport today, and I go home tomorrow. I've met a bunch of Nancy's sewing friends.

Nancy and I passed Houston's new ballpark, Enron Field. Yaaaaah! I asked her if a movement were afoot to change the name of the field, and she said it's quite a disappointment that unfortunate reference can never be elminated because "The Agreement" was to name the place Enron Field. Huh. A younger and less cynical me would have also thought that "The Agreement" might also have included not cheating/shafting/screwing the lower echelon workers. No such Agreement. No such company. I parody Aldonza's lament from Man of La Mancha: One set of books Is like another I don't know why Or who's to blame They'll dump on you Or on your brother It's all the same It's all the same. I have learned That when the stock falls No bailout comes (No White Knight came) It proves to me Behind the eight balls It's all the same It's all the same. Sheesh. I'm becoming even more of a Marxist. The front page of today's Houston Chronicle included a story about a laid-off Enron worker who observed the wholesale shredding of financial documents and used boxes of shreds she took from the hallways to pack and transport her personal belongings. She has now turned these shards over to the court. Duh-oh. If we can't have the White Knight, can we at least have the Red Queen?

Drat. I forgot to put in my carriage return codes and the above paragraph is all one block and the editing feature only yields Leonard's 404 limerick.

cf: A browsing Victorian chap

Encountered a server mishap

The page was no more:

"Alas! Four-oh-four!"

Enough with this limerick crap.

Let's see... What went on while Crummy was down? I visited Gretel at the dog obedience school. She is doing wonderfully but we miss each other terribly. I hate not coming home to her. I planted a Rose of Sharon and a weeping pussy willow, four blueberries, and all the odd stuff that I didn't have planted yet, including the Shasta daisy seeds from Pat and Alan's anniversary party. I put in the block sidewalk. I am slowly getting a handle on this job at the college. I gave up on Saturday and washed my car and watered the yard, so it rained. Naturally. The temperature has dropped to a three year low, and the dog obedience guy said it was snowing out there this afternoon. Bleah. I am thinking serious thoughts about the down comforter Leonardw gave me for Christmas. I have such a wonderful brother. Annnnndddd... It's paired with the flannel sheets Leonardr gave me last Christmas. I have such a wonderful son. I'll climb into the flannel pajamas I sewed myself and curl up with Jellybean. But first, I have to make some more worksheets.

It never snows but it flakes. (What it did yesterday.) Here in Bako I was on my way to work this morning and slammed into a six car pileup. I really do believe airbags are filled with some kind of deadly poison which will put us all six feet under before our time. Koff koff. And my head hurtz and my back and shoulders and most of all my throat feels like I swallowed lysol.

I showed up at Precision Collision and told them I was their best customer and were they happy to see me? Nope, they are trained to be sympathetic to see me. Ann Orr came and rescued me from there and I think I might go to bed with some Advil instead of working on the church newsletter. In the meantime, what to do about wheels, since Rachel's car isn't even started yet. John Fleming (Precision Collision owner) said they are still waiting on parts they ordered. He also said airbag stuff is considered hazmat.

A previous quote from John Fleming: "It's all junk on the way to the junkyard, it's just a matter of when it will get there."