You would think

You would think

That it wouldn't be so hard to pick up the phone and say, 'hey, I'm not coming." How much effort is that exactly? Aarrgh.

It must be Thursday. I never got the hang of Thursdays

It must be Thursday. I never got the hang of Thursdays.

Another long work day. I'm about ready to take my lunch break, but I can't leave until Nan gets back. We have money missing from our register, and until it turns up we've taken our regular employees off the till. This morning was prayer breakfast. As the first Mission function post-rumor I wore grungy jeans, a grey top and no makeup, just to send definate "Not interested" signals. Didn't work though, I got hit on by some random guy on the way in the door. I wasn't even wearing my fuzzy sweater. Maybe just owning them gives interesting luck. Not necessarily good luck. Just interesting.

We're clearing the main parts of the shop of all Christmas. Hurrah! No more chintzy christmas nic-naks. I hate them. Oh the little santas and snowmen running around underfoot. Stupid pre-lit decor. Ugh. I like Christmas, but why do we need all the crap?

I'm starting to get really hungry, but the longer I hold out, the less time I have to work after my break. And I need to deposit my Christmas checks to pay some bills. And I've got to run by St. Paul's to turn in my hours so I can get paid on the 15th. I hate that they've moved our payday. I was all set to have my credit card paid off by the 1st. Messes up my year end report to have that debt.

And speaking of which, January 1st is annual Year-End-Report day. Those of you that ledger don't forget! And if you haven't, you should invest in another credit report to check on any glitches.

Office Romance

Office Romances

So from what I hear, some guy on the program at the mission has started the rumor that we are dating. In spite of the rather obvious facts that 1) I'm never at the mission proper, and 2) I've said hi to the guy once. Nancy wasn't going to tell me about it, but her parents let it slip.

Isn't it funny how I can have whole dating lives and not even know about them.

Bar Study

Bar Study

Another day at work. Another employee calling in sick so I had to work the register. I don't like that part of retail. People are difficult. And I get worn out quickly trying to small talk with everyone. I suck at small talk.

Then, after a several hour nap and a no-cook dinner of crab and cucumber wrap with ranch dressing, it was time for our weekly Bible study at Jackson's Sports Bar. No, really. Denise and I are quite proud of ourselves. We've finished Genesis as of last evening, and will be moving on to Exodus Saturday. Jacksons has good crinkle fries. Needed fry sauce though.

Then kareoke. Another great evening. Minus Mexi-pro getting completely hammered. But Metal/Hella/Pro-pro showed up for the first time in months, which was awesome. He must take naps on tuesdays every week. Hail, hail the gang's all here!

Alright, back to the grindstone.

Post-Christmas Jubalation

Post-Christmas Jubalation

Last night I rushed home from Seattle for a semi-annual meeting of the girls' night out. Bean called and was only going to be in town until this morning. So I had Denise do the calling while I tried to make it over the pass quickly. Two years ago we met at the Barrel House, but the lateness of the evening being a factor, we opted to hang out at my place this time. Unfortunately sans multiple bottles of wine and Godiva hot chocolates. We did have a pot of Pecan Praline coffee and some leftover Christmas exchange cookies.

We talked for about 5 hours about everything under the sun. Well, ok, we didn't cover that much ground. Mainly recent flings, new boyfriends, related miscelaneous, I talked about the Calzones, Denise had stories of Oklahoma!, Bean and I exchanged teaching anecdotes, and we ended with a rather heated discussion about Harry Potter.

I'm glad I've stayed in touch with everyone. And it's great when we get to meet up again.

What it takes to make a Pro blush

Just what would it take to make a Pro blush?

I think that the Calzones need to do a cover of Bette Davis Eyes just for the sake of these lyrics:

She's precocious
And she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro blush

So this morning,

So this morning...

I awoke to knocking on my door, and thought it was Nancy. So I dragged myself up and opened the door. Standing in my hallway was the jail force work crew and their warden.

Nine men saw me in a pair of black lace boy shorts and a white tank top. This has capped off my week.

Sleep...FInally

Sleep...Finally

I got nine hours of sleep last night after four nights insomnia lasting anywhere from 2-4 hours. Not being able to breathe is a pain.

Today we skipped prayer breakfast. The mission staff is on vacation now, so we felt we could use a break, too. It was nice to sleep in.

Last night I watched "While you were Sleeping." It's a good flick.

Today is more of the half off sale. The merchandise is starting to clear out, finally. We've been needing to dejunk this place for a while. Once we get the trees down in January we're going to be able to rearrange the store. It will be nice to refresh the place. It's been just stuffed full of things since thanksgiving.

Hopefully my lunch break will be at New Thai today.

The Voiceless Wonder

The Voiceless Wonder

I have a killer cold. Exacerbated, I'm sure, by the fact that half of our building isn't heated, and band practice. The only bummer with being an "above the garage" band is trying to play in sub-freezing temperatures. Sunday Mini-pro had the heat cranked from 8:30 until noon, and it was still unbearably cold. I do alright because I pile on the layers. I'm not sure why the guys still show up in t-shirts. Amazing amounts of machismo or something. Speaking of which, today I dressed for the arctic to go to the annual gift givaway at the youth center. All hands on deck. The boiler has been out for weeks, so we were told to come prepared. They didn't send out a second memo telling us they'd brought in propane heaters. So I showed up in my two pair of long underwear, nylons, jeans, three shirts, wool sweater and two pairs of socks, and it's the warmest I've been since the freeze happened.

This half off sale is going well. I'm tired of Christmas retail, and I don't think I've told a single person "Merry Christmas." The Christmas station finally got bored of the same 15 songs and have started playing the Muppets and Barbra Streisand's Christmas album. And the Oakridge boys. We've had trees up since September, so I'm a little Christmas-ed out. I almost didn't put a tree up in my place. Last week an entire box of victorian ornaments in white, pink, and red came in, so I took them upstairs and filled a four foot. We've sold almost all of our pre-decorated trees today. Note for next year, instead of selling boxed trees, we should just decorate them all and sell them for an obscene amount of money. At least the smaller ones.

My last day of teaching was today. Two week break! Hurrah! In the absence of my voice (I'm singing notes I'm not capable of hitting) we watched the Disney 12 Days of Christmas. I saw it three times.

No symphony chorus tonight, so I have a few hours to sit and read before the Tuesday Evening Activities commence. I hear we're forgoing Jackson's in favor of the Kareoke competition at Suzie's Saloon. Sean and Angela are both in the finals. Denise and I have yet to come to a concensus about where to have Bible Study beforehand.

Mary Hunt Revisited

Mary Hunt Revisited

I had to go to the bank again. True confessions time for all of you financially confident ones out there. I had an unexpected expense, then let my accounts go for a bit while I was out of town, and realized I'd gone over too late to stop a three check landslide (ouch). So today I went to the bank to see if any of my overdraft charges could be waived. Luckily one could.

The guy I was working with was very polite. As long as I was there I wanted to get a truly free checking account (My California one was free as long as I had direct deposit, but I don't anymore), and see if there was anything that would link overdraft into my savings, instead of a credit card. He said there was, but with a minimum daily balance of $1,000. Ha. As if THAT'S ever going to happen on my paycheck. Anyway. So he kept pushing the credit card option, which I don't want to do because in college that was the beginning of my debt landslide. I continued to "Roll over" things from my checking onto my credit card, and I maxed it out three times, my limit was increased, and I continued spending. So that isn't really an option for me. I'd rathe rpay the occasional overdraft than be tempted to spend money that isn't there. Once he heard about that he kept pressuring me "Based on my financial history." But he wouldn't believe me when I said that I've had things under control for a while, and it isn't really a problem anymore. I mean, one landslide in a year isn't bad compared to my college years. But he only saw me for what I had been, not the progress I'd made, and I'm so frustrated!

Luck of the Pink Sweater

Luck of the Pink Sweater

I have a pink sweater. It was a present for my birthday. It happens to be the softest sweater ever made. Turtleneck, long bell bottom sleeves, the bottom cuts right across my hips. The sleeves are a little long for me, but it's like a cuddle sweater I used to wear with (gasp) leggings in front of the fireplace in winter when I was little. All in all the perfect article of clothes for me.

My luck began the first time I put it on. At my early birthday party a few days after Thanksgiving. I bowled well for starters. But that could have been a fluke. Later that evening, Grant hugged me goodbye. Then hugged me again. And a third time. "Man, that is the softest sweater ever. I'm going to just take it with me."

Tuesday I wore it again to kareoke. A total stranger came up and asked if I would dance with him. I did.

I've worn the sweater several times since then, and each time something like this has happened. So, I'm going to start a chronicle of the Luck of the Pink Sweater. Starting tonight. Because I'm not feeling well, and my pink sweater is just the thing.

Sick

Sick

My lovely roommate decided to share her even lovelier cold with me. I worked half a day and then retired at 3 for a several hour nap. I'm taking the day off tomorrow. Stupid sore throat/headstuffiness/eye itching/body aching cold.

Bored at Work

Bored at Work and Running like Crazy

Today is another one of those packed full and overlapping days. Today we got up early for our 9am tutorial on the new alarm system. I showered last night and put my hair in rollers to take a few minutes off the morning ablutions, and woke up with a serious case of 80's hair. It has been tamed. Barely.

I relied on Sharon, Lois and Brahm today for a lesson plan. My entire semester of teaching is on their live concert video, so it was nice not to have to think or entertain for a day. My 1st grade overachiever made sure I knew that they didn't know any of these songs...but the next song was "Fish and Chips and Vinegar" so that put the end to the frantic hands in the air. They really liked "Jenny Jenkins." And I still have half of the video left to use for another day. My John Denver and the Muppets Christmas album is going to take care of the rest of my classes until Christmas break.

Then I ran to Gilbert to pick up old Wilson band uniforms. Our "Drummer Drumming"'s costume needed some attention. I hope he's my size. I grabbed the one that fit me. I am about the size of the average 5th grader. As my tourmates told me as I got lost in a crowd of schoolchildren touring a museum in Sacramento.

They played the Muppet's 12 days of Christmas on the Christmas station about an hour ago. That made my afternoon. Even though in general hearing that song, after singing it six times a day, three days a week, and playing learning games with it, makes me want to curl up in a ball, rock back and forth, and mutter gibberish (Too many rings, precious, only need one...).

My big triumph yesterday was: During the dress rehearsal all of my kids sang all twelve days and impressed the heck out of the other faculty that they all knew it. (Ok, true confessions, my kindergarteners got a little lost after 8 Maids a Milking ... but they sang REALLY LOUDLY on FIVE GOOOOLD RINGS!)

I'm blogging between trips to bring stuff in from outside. It's COLD out there. Duh. The freezing fog can stop. Can't. Feel. My. Fingers.

Tonight is my Christmas Program. Finally. Then Symphony Chorus, if I make it to any of it, then Bible study and finally, yay, kareoke. Which I rarely partake in, but it's fun to watch the pros get up there.

Brrrrh. Three trips that time.

Alright, I guess I need to go do stuff. Like finish that pot of coffee I brewed. Pecan Praline. Wouldn't want that to go to waste.

Drea

Hey Drea

As per your request, my "Recently Overheard" has been updated and moved up the sidebar. Merry Christmas

More Christmas Ideas

More Christmas Ideas

Might I recommend the World Vision 2005 Gift Catalog. For only $75 you can provide school for a child for one year.

Nitpicks

Nitpicks and Accolades of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

1.Lucy steps into the wardrobe as they explored the house, not in a game of hide and seek. (Query, wasn't it also a hide and seek game in the 1897 version?)
2.Wardrobe was "the type with a mirror in the door." Nope. Carved and Ornate. And huge considering that an apple tree was cut down to make it.
3. When Lucy opens the wardrobe two mothballs fall out. One point for the movie.
4. Mr. Tumnus had "a red woolen muffler around his neck." Two points.
5. Above the mantlepiece was a "picture of an old faun with a grey beard." In the movie it was on the sidetable?
6.All of the book titles in the case come straight from Lewis, including "Is Man a Myth." More points indiscriminately tossed about.
7. Mr. Tumnus asks if he may keep the handkerchief.
8. Aha. Hide and Seek was why Lucy got in the wardrobe the second time and Edmund followed (And not in their bathrobes either).
9.The dwarf doesn't attack Edmund for not recognizing the Queen. The White Witch calls him to task herself.
10. The White Witch tells Edmund that his brother and sisters will be Duke and Duchesses, not servants.
11. Susan, not Peter, says "it's not as if we're taking them out of the Wardrobe."
12. A general observation, it was really nice to see the talking animals in proportion. In "The Magicians Nephew," Lewis said that all the small animals were made larger, and the larger animals smaller, when they were given the ability to talk. In older versions, full sized humans played some of the animals. Regardless of the reviews of the CG, more points for the relative sizes of the animals!
13.The Beavers and Peevensies don't make a treck to the Witch's castle, but go straight to Cair Paravel once Edmund is found missing. (Speaking of which, did anyone else think the Witch's castle looks a good deal like the castle at Minas whatever in The Two Towers where Frodo and Sam start climbing the stairs towards Shelob's Lair?)
14.Needless to say there was no frantic escape from the Wolves scene, including the ice flow. They and the Beavers had quite a head start, so by the time the wolves got to the dam it was cold and dark, and the snow had begun again, so there was no trail to follow. Except that Edmund had heard about the Stone Table.
15. "Come in, come in, fortunate favorite of the Queen...or else, not so fortunate." My second favorite line. Another point.
16. They spent the night in the hollow underground before they met Father Christmas. (Another scene that looked a good deal like LOTR -- where the four hobbits are hiding from the Nazgul under the hollow)
17."Battles are ugly when women fight." I'm glad they changed that line. I've never liked it. One commenter and Cinema Veritas says it best. 'I have to say that "Battles are ugly when women fight" struck me as a bizarre remark even at age eight--what are battles when men fight, ballet exhibitions?'
18. Susan in given a "little ivory horn," not the big brass sucker in every other movie. More points for accuracy.
19. Here's a change I liked very much in terms of Edmund's character development. In the book he was never in prison, merely given dry bread instead of Turkish Delight while waiting for her sleigh to be hitched up. But putting him in the dungeon with Mr. Tumnus, forces to see the direct consequences of his actions was an inspired move. Way to go in terms of departure.
20. Also the fox was not a spy in the book, but a member of a Christmas party that was turned to stone. We can pretend, since I very much liked the bit with the fox apologizing to "Your Majesty" and then telling the Witch that he wasn't speaking to her, that they skipped the Christmas party altogether, and met with another fox in the woods. That takes care of both contingencies.
21.The instructions given to the Wolves was to go to the Beavers' house, and if they were gone already, proceed directly to the Stone Table. Negating the ice flow scene. Those wolves then treed Susan (but not Lucy) allowing Peter his first battle experience. The other wolf stays hidden in the forest until he runs off to find his mistress, promting Aslan to send his rescue party.
22. In the book it refers to the Pavilion at the Stone Table, and the 1987 movie does as well, but I was rather glad to see a camp that looked more like an army and less like a garden party.
23. "The witch, after staring for a few moments with her lips wide apart, picked up her skirts and fairly ran for her life." That would have been way cooler than her looking startled and sitting back in her chair. Although I suppose running would have been difficult in the spray on insulation they called a costume.
24."Despair and Die" intact and well delivered.
25. The entire scene with Aslan on the Stone Table was very well done.

George Muller

The Orphan's Friend

I skipped church today and instead read the biography of George Muller. He was an amazing man. Enough money was found to build an orphanage capable of housing 3,000 children without him once in 50 years soliciting money. Every day he prayed, and every day somehow the money came in. God provided for his needs and often just his wants. Muller said "We do not serve a hard master."

Nancy and I have noted this phenomenon, as did the Wycliffe team on tour. One day a girl was at the end of her rope and prayed for internet connection and a hottub. We arrived at our house for the day and found a computer in the guest room and a whirlpool bathtub. I was grateful that I got in on the blessing. A few days ago, just as I was having a major craving, a box of gourmet french chocolates appeared in a donation box. I suppose I could brush it off as coincidence. But I prefer to see it as a gift.

I love how Muller depended on God entirely to support his ministry. The fundraising part of show always rankled, even though all excess funds beyond the cost of the production were given back to the church. There is a fine line I suppose between making people aware of an opportunity or need and soliciting funds. I once donated to a certain organization, and they've kept better track of me than my credit cards or student loan company through all my moves. Once a year I get a call reminding me that they care. I'd rather they leave me alone about it. I found them once unsolicited, and if I want to donate again I will. Anyway, back off the soapbox.

I've had Muller's story in my head since I heard an Adventures in Odyssey sketch about him years ago. This is the first time I've read the whole story.

And Dickens stopped by the orphanage once to see if conditions were better than the workhouses he abhored (hence, Oliver Twist), and left favorably impressed. Yay Dickens.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

I saw the movie yesterday. It was amazing. As far as adaptations from a book go, I think I was more favorably impressed with this than with Lord of the Rings. I had read some reviews that were not happy with the computer graphics animals, or the pacing of the movie. For the first, go watch the BBC production from the 80's. Anything is better. I didn't notice a problem with the pacing either. The book kind of takes a good long time about actually getting them all into the Wardrobe and the races through the rest.

I didn't understand why they inserted the ice flow scene. That was the only glaring jar to me.

I loved the additional Edmund footage. Especially the scene imprisoned in the Witch's castle. He ends up face to face with Mr. Tumnus, who he betrayed. It's the first time Edmund is forced to see the consequences of his selfish actions. In the books Edmund is self centered and greedy, then he disappears while the others look for him, and he reappears after Aslan's scouts rescue him. The character development happens mostly behind the scenes. In the movie, a few extra seconds of footage gives Edmund much greater depth. Susan seemed more harpy to me than I remembered, but I'm going to have to re-read the book. Lucy nearly stole the show, and Liam Neeson is a superb Aslan.

As a sidenote, I was more moved by Aslan's death than the entire Passion of the Christ.

Foolanthropoy 2005

Foolanthropy 2005

Donate to this year's foolish charities. Heifer International made the top 5.

Good Heavens

Good Heavens!

The sixth book in the Wheels of Time series has a 72 page prologue. That's almost a tenth of the book.

The best part

The best part...

...Of having a grandmother who marries a vitner is having her buy you your yearly Brighton accessory (This year a pair of Secret Garden sunglasses). Which comes in handy when you are called by Miles to help him buy Christmas presents for his wife, Becky.

She sent us with a list of possible gift ideas (hoping for forstall another year of two nearly identical pairs of earrings purchased in the same Christmas). Item two was "Brighton - belt or other fun thing." So to Brighton we went. As we walked in, I realized I was wearing no less than seven Brighton originals, and I commented to Miles that we should have salesladies flocking to us by the dozen. True to prediction, they were coming at us from all sides. The combination of my wardrobe and Miles' "lets get that too" attitude towards shopping got us all the attention we could ever want. Three purchases and some extensive gift wrapping later we were ready to move on to the next place.

I'd always wondered what Julia Roberts felt like in Pretty Woman. Now I know.

Run Run Run and never stop

Spinning Wheels Got To Go Round

Still to do tonight: practice My Immortal for tomorrow. Finish learning Jungle love, and shape up ending to Mr. Brightside and Boys of the Summer. Do month end spending log entry, update ledger, pay bills. Read more of the Robert Jordan Wheels of Time prequel (I've lost track of the titles. Numbers only from now on)

Tomorrow: Work, Teach, Work, get dressed in a hurry for Calzones gig, Load Equipment, Show, tear down.

Saturday: Drive to Seattle to help with Logsdon Christmas Present. Spend Night.

Sunday: Drive home. Watch Lost with Denise and Nancy.

Monday: Begin week over again.