The Inmates Run the Asylum

I got my federal tax refund yesterday and with it ordered my new TV, which should be here between Friday and Tuesday.

You guys, I can't tell you how excited I am for this. My TV (that I've had for about 15 years) is dying. The picture is squished, with at least a third of the bottom and maybe a quarter of the top black. Like widescreen, only smooshed. Also, there are lines going through the top of what pictures I can see that distorts it. Everybody ends up with extra poofy hair or Frankenstein foreheads. Any text on the bottom of the screen can't be read. Also, it's sometimes hard to tell who people are.

And if the picture is in widescreen? Squished even more!

So, yes, a new TV (particularly before baseball season!) was a must. For the love of my eyes! It's getting hard to watch.

And now that my new TV has been ordered, it's a race to see if the old one will hold out until it gets here.

I wouldn't be surprised if it died all together just to spite me.

I went to Target last night to get a couple of shelves, the idea being I could put a few of my pictures on one and my baseballs and prized cards on the other. I ended up getting what I was looking for and a hula hoop.

I know right? What? Hula hoop?

Yeah, hula hoop. This is going into my exercise routine and I'm going to master this sucker. I don't know why at 31 I have this urge to be good at hula hooping, but I do and there you go.

I hung the shelves today. I didn't do a horrible job, though one is definitely crooked, despite my use of the level, which I dropped behind my DVD shelves after I lined up the second shelf. It's not too bad, but yeah, I'm going to get shit for it not being level.

The stuff on the shelves looks nice though and it looks good in my room.

I've spend the day cleaning/purging/rearranging/fixing and I've got just a couple of more things to do before I can call it all done for the day.

Then I get to do two blog posts, some revisions, and hopefully have time to paint my nails.

My weekends aren't long enough.

Today was one of those days at work. Not a bad day; just a pain in the ass day. And really, my part of the day wasn't that big of a pain in the ass. I mostly got the trickle down effect from Albert and Chad.

But since Chad was gone all morning and then running behind this afternoon, I got to schedule my first trips in the computer. All it involves is filling out some info, putting in the locations, and determining the times of arrival. Sounds easy, right?

I'm sure one day it will be, but for my first time, I ran into a bit of trouble and got frustrated because of my ineptness.

Now, I told you that story to tell you this story.

When I was three, Papa found me in the closet at his house, crying because I was trying to read a book way beyond my level and was frustrated because I couldn't read it. I was learning to read and couldn't understand why I couldn't read this book.

Fast forward 28 years and I'm getting frustrated for exactly the same reason. I'd been shown how to do it, therefore, I should be able to do it.

Chad helped me out and it turned out that I wasn't as horrible at it as I thought. I am slow, though. Speed comes with experience, I know. Right now turtles are quicker.

In other news, Dad bought a new printer. We actually needed one since the old one wasn't feeding paper right anymore, but I'm still telling people it's because Dad couldn't work it.

It also saves me from having to buy new ink cartridges.

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Questionable: Tastes, Talents, and Times

Speaking of questionable, Carrie gave me an iTunes giftcard for my birthday. And since I still had 12 bucks in my iTunes account, I went on a music shopping spree. Here's what I got:

"She's Always a Woman"-Billy Joel
"Angie Baby"-Helen Reddy
"Close to You"-The Carpenters
"Band of Gold"-Freda Payne
"Knock Three Times"-Tony Orlando and Dawn
"Magic Man"-Heart
"Crazy On You"-Heart
"Want Ads"-Honey Cone
"Magic Carpet Ride"-Steppenwolf
"Wild Horses"-The Rolling Stones
"19th Nervous Breakdown"-The Rolling Stones
"She's So Cold"-The Rolling Stones
"You Can Leave Your Hat On"-Joe Cocker
"Here Comes the Hotstepper"-Ini Karmoze
"Why Don't You Get a Job?"-Offspring
"Aeroplane"-The Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Scream"-Michael and Janet Jackson
"Blood on the Dance Floor"-Michael Jackson
"Swingin'"-John Anderson
"Consider Me Gone"-Reba McEntire
"Strange"-Reba McEntire
"Turn on the Radio"-Reba McEntire
"Fire Burning"-Sean Kingston
"Ain't NoRest for the Wicked"-Cage the Elephant
"If It's Love"-Train

It was a conscious effort on my part to get a few songs that were actually recorded in the last ten years. Not as much of a struggle as I thought it'd be.

Dad had finally discovered the wonder of the internet and now we can't get him off the computer.

So far he's limited himself to shopping sites, though he did spend a lot of time last night amusing himself looking for matches on a dating site. Don't ask. As far as I know, he hasn't found the porn yet.

Shocking considering he's been using Google.

So it looks like Dad has chosen to join us in the 21st century.

I still don't think he can check his email, though.

Happy Humbug!

Dad, Carrie, and I took Hobbit and Smurf (Hammie didn't want to go) down to Aunt Jo's house to have Christmas with her, Papa, Nancy, and Jake. Aunt Jo's friend CJ and her son Frank were there, too.

It rained all day yesterday and with a frost line of 3 to 5 inches, there was a lot of standing water on the way down. We took the back roads and had to drive through it because the road had flooded in a couple of places. I've never seen that before. Of course, the temperature dropped and it snowed all day, so I can only imagine what that turned into. We took the freeway back, so it'll always remain a mystery.

Dinner was good. Aunt Jo forgot to get the sweet potatoes and stuffing out of the oven until after we'd all eaten. The sweet potatoes were fine, but the stuffing didn't survive. The bottom was all burnt.

We opened presents. The girls made out like bandits, as they always do. Barbies and art supplies and gift cards, oh my! Papa got Carrie more Twilight stuff and I got two new books and season six of NCIS. Ah, the gift of Gibbs.

Dad wrapped Jake's present in camo duct tape over packing tape. It was great. It took him about fifteen minutes to get it open. What did Dad get him? A knife. Did Jake cut himself on it? Of course. That's how you properly break it in.

We managed to play a couple of hands of Spit before it was time to pack up and take the girls home. It was a long day, at least for Hobbit. She fell asleep on the way home. She told me earlier than Santa came to her house too early this morning, that's why she was tired.

I'm tired because Christmas never fails to wear me out. But it was a good one.

I hope yours was good, too.

Dad got a new Jeep today. It's a blue '98 Jeep Cherokee that's pretty much just like his old white '93 Jeep Cherokee, just newer, a different color, and not deer marked.

Dad mentioned ysterday that if he could get off work early today, that he might be getting one. He'd had his eye on it for awhile and the price was right. If it ran nice, he'd get it.

I didn't think anything of it because he's said that before about other cars and didn't even bother to mention it to Carrie.

Today, Dad bought the Jeep and I was recruited to drive the old Jeep home. All of this went down before Carrie even woke up.

There was some talk about hiding the old Jeep and trying to convice her that the new Jeep was the jeep we'd had the whole time, but that was too labor intensive.

So when Carrie got up, I pointed out the new Jeep.

Me: That's Dad's new Jeep.
Carrie: No it's not.
Me: Uh, yeah, it is. He just bought it this morning.
Carrie: Nuh uh. It's the loaner. Your dad was talking about taking the other one in to be fixed.

At the point, I stumble into the living room, laughing my ass off, to tell Dad, who also laughed his ass off.

It took Dad actually showing Carrie the receipt to get her to believe us.

Carrie is apparently self-pranking. Just set her up and her own misconceptions just carry the joke along without any effort at all. No fuss, no muss.

Handy dandy, indeed.

Right after Carrie was convinced that Dad really bought the Jeep, she looked at me and said, "This is going in your journal, isn't it?"

Of course!

Did anyone else watch The Unusuals tonight?

It was...entertainingly different.

Really, that's the best my brain can come up with. It was weird but it was serious but it was funny but it was touching and they shouldn't have been able to chuck all of that stuff into a show and make it work, yet I think it did.

At least it did for the pilot episode. I have no idea how they're going to keep it up. And if they can keep it up, I wonder if it'll get the ratings to keep it alive because it's pretty damn offbeat.

I like it though. I think.

At the very least, it had the most interesting cover of a Kid Rock song I've ever heard.

I'm looking at laptops again. I've been doing this off and on for years. My primary motivation for getting one is that I could write on a computer, but do it in my room where I wouldn't be disturbed by every human and cat living in this house.

Now, I don't like to spend money, whether I have a job or not, which is why I have yet to acquire one. But, my dad has yet to get me a birthday present this year (for those of you playing the home game, my birthday is in January). At this point, I figure he owes me double. He does not disagree and is actually open to the idea of getting me a laptop* for my birthday(s) present.

So I've been browsing.

Now, I don't know much about laptops and in general I'm fairly easy to please. I don't need it to do fantastic things (I don't think they've got a model that can do laundry yet); it would pretty much be for writing purposes. Still, any laptop advice anyone could give me would be appreciated.

*The reason why I'm not asking for a new computer, even though mine is almost seven years old, is because I think if I can just get this baby some new memory, it'll last me another three or four years (it actually works incredibly well for being old). I'm rather attached to Gringo, even if it is a cantankerous bitch sometimes.