sidetracked but in the right direction

literary affairs

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +0000

I recently finished my second novel in 4 months in which the protagonist has an affair. In both cases, the protagonist is a middle-aged woman who has been married a while and feels stale. She embarks on a new journey - goes home, gets a new job, whatever - and there, she meets someone. There's instant mutual attraction, blah blah blah. She shakes off her guilt and is madly in love with her new guy. They start to envision a future together. And THEN, he says something weird or she learns something important about her past, and she reverts back to being happy with her husband.

These books make me really angry. I shake my finger at these women and urge them not to be so carefree about tossing their marriages aside. Marriage as a commitment and a way of life and I care about my own marriage too much to be 'moved' or even entertained by a story about someone being careless with hers.

I guess you could say I'm too married.

What kinds of books do you avoid because they rile you up too much?

Weekend recap and Monday-Monday

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Big things are happening at home. This past weekend, Brian was ordained. It's official - he is a Minister of Word and Sacrament, and more concern-worthy, I am a Minister's Wife. I should probably take a moment to go through all my archives and remove every instance of the word 'hell' (all what, three of them?) - just in case.

After a nice dinner with Julia - the last NC friend on my list to see before we left - I drove down to Concord, NC to be with Brian and his family. Brian had left for Colorado more than two weeks earlier, so it was a happy reunion. Saturday was an early Thanksgiving meal with Brian's family and some very close family friends, topped off with a round of trick-or-treaters at the door. Sunday, of course, had Brian's ordination. We got in late last night and the general mood was one of contentedness and complete exhaustion. Brian has a lot of things to do to get us ready to move, and I have made him several lists to help him - because that's what any good Minister's Wife would do. Also, my mom came up last week and made a bunch of freezer meals for us, so we don't have to think about food. Thanks, ma!

This will be my last Monday at work. I think I am mostly done being sad about leaving - or at the very least, I am more excited than sad at this point. I had a real cryfest last week and I've been focused on the mechanics of moving, ever since.

Richmond, I love you, and I am sad to be leaving you. Denver, you'd better be ready to step up.

We have begun the days-away countdown. Five days. I've thought about installing one of those little count down thingers on the blog, but who has the time to research those?

Lou Gehrig on night baseball

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

The job I have right now - for the next couple of weeks, at least - sometimes inspires me to delve into information about Lou Gehrig. (It's Gehrig, not Gherig, by the way.)

Many months ago, I came across a fun interview that Lou did with a guy named Dwight Merriam, of KROC. They talked about all kinds of basebally subjects, but this one comment on night baseball games struck me as odd in a funny kind of way. There was a shift in the days of the Great Depression from baseball games being played in the daytime to being played at night, made possible by electricity and made necessary by dwindling spectatorship. Playing at night meant that folks who worked during the day could come to the evening games, and ticket sales were (as always) important. The first night baseball game was played in 1935, but it didn't really take off until after the war. The Chicaco Cubs were the lone daytime holdout for decades, and they didn't install lights at Wrigley until 1988.

While fans seemed to take to night baseball pretty quickly, a lot of the people IN baseball didn't like the change. As a self-professed analog person in a digital world, I totally 'get' an innate resistance to change brought on by technology, and some of the major arguments from 80 years ago are tinged with quaint antique notions. For example, one major worry was that players would have a hard time shifting betweein lighting conditions and that there would be more injuries during night games (per this site).

Want to know what Lou Gehrig thought? Read this excerpt from that 1939 interview, and keep in mind that Gehrig and the Yankees lost their first night game, in Philadelphia, prior to this interview. (Note: I've put my favorite comment in bold.)

Dwight Merriam, KROC: Lou, what's your opinion of night baseball?

Lou Gehrig: Well, night baseball is strictly a show and is strictly advantageous to the owners' pocketbook. But as far as being a true exhibition of baseball, well, I don't think I can say it is, and it's very difficult on the ballplayers themselves. Of course, we realize that the men who work in the daytime like to get out at night and really see a spectacle, and we do all in our power to give them their money's worth. But after all, it's not really baseball. Real baseball should be played in the daytime, in the sunshine.

I love baseball. I don't really 'follow' it, I don't know many players and I can only tell you the Phillies won the world series last year because one of my best friends is a hardcore fan. It was a long time before I'd return to a stadium or even watch a game after the big players strick in the 90s. But I sure do love going to stadiums, especially major league stadiums, and it doesn't take much for me to get caught up in the traditions of our national pastime.

only for you, Bill

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0000

In my job, I deal with lots of people, including people who are not necessarily tech savvy. This can sometime cause a flurry of small problems, as one of our major fundraising events centers around heavy use of a website.

I have one one fundraising team captain who is not really interested in messing around with the website. He's from an older generation and isn't as comfortable with the ins and outs as we youngsters are. He's also not quite sure yet how much to trust the internet, and in particular, how much to trust credit card transactions over the internet. He is the nicest man, though, diligent and really dedicated to the cause.

He got in touch with me the other day, asking me if it would be ok if he could call me today and give me his credit card information to process a donation.

I said, For you Bill, I would, and gladly.

Ok I didn't actually say that, but how suave would that have been?

What's the most charming thing you've said to somebody?

feelin' right this time of year

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:39:00 +0000

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
Fluttering from the autumn tree.

–Emily Brontë (1818–48)

the road trip with no predetermined destination, revisited

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

So I have road trips on the brain. Back a while ago, I mentioned that I would like to go on a road trip with no predetermined destination, with the caveat that I did want to have some kind of ultimate goal or at least idea of a goal in mind for somewhere on down the line.

Brian said this made him sad, because there IS a predetermined destination. My thought was, yes ultimately you're aiming for somewhere, but that doesn't mean you have to go STRAIGHT there, hence it's an unplanned road trip! Same thing, right?

Brian said that you're supposed to just go and 'see where the road takes you.' I have no idea what that means.

No. Seriously. The concept is unfathomable. How do you decide where to turn?

Apparently, I have nary a spontaneous bone in my body.

How do you decide where to turn, when you're on a spontaneous road trip to who-knows-where?

the video of Anne Frank

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

I saw on CBS.com (and a number of other blogs) that footage of Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager who died at the hands of the Nazis and whose diary has been published and read by many, has recently been discovered. In the video, a neighbor of Anne's is leaving to go to a wedding. Anne is looking out her window. It's easy to recognize her shadowed eyes and dark hair.

You can see the video here.

Of course, I got lost in a timesuck of watching Anne Frank videos and reading about her life, her family, and her legacy. I read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was around her age, and I remember feeling so sad. I could relate to her in many ways, but there were other things in her life that I had no way of comprehending. Heady, heady stuff for a young teenager. I probably would have had a breakdown in her situation. As I often remind Brian, I have little, if any, survival instinct and I might not fare well in a do-or-die situation.

Heady, heady stuff for a Tuesday.

I think I forgot to mention ...

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0000

... that we are moving!

Yes, we are relocating. To a completely different and new-to-us part of the country. Many hundreds of miles away from family.

We leave in 3.5 weeks.

THREE POINT FIVE WEEKS we are leaving Richmond and driving to Denver. And I have only had 2 breakdowns (that I can remember). (and one of those was really small.)

I love Richmond, and I am really really sad to be leaving it. I love my job, I love my neighborhood, I love this town. But I also love snow, and I love major league baseball, and I love my husband. There is some sadness in leaving Richmond, but there is much joy in going to Denver. It means Brian is finally going to live his calling. It means we will have a fresh start in a new place, just us, together, everything as 'we' or 'us' or 'our.'

This is a new chapter in my story, in his story, in OUR story. This will be a major dividing point - we'll have Before Denver, which is a nebulous mis-mash of Ashley's life and Brian's life and Brian and Ashley's life together, and we'll have After We Moved To Denver, which will be wholly ours.

You know what else this means? ROAD TRIP!!

Anybody have any tips on road tripping with a papillon?

Water - it's important, y'all

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0000

It's amazing how big of a difference water makes in day-to-day physical function. I have often sat in a slump at 2pm, wondering why I can't seem to focus my eyes or concentrate on anything, only to realize that I had not yet taken a single sip of water that day.

Granted, I'll have a piece or two of fruit most days for breakfast, which is a good step toward proper hydration. But there's nothing like dehydration to get me permanently sidetracked in a sorry slump. One or two cups is enough to revive me, but it's sometimes an effort to get a full 8 cups throughout the day. Generally, if I don't get it all in while I'm at work, I don't get it all in.

I urge you to learn your body's signs of dehydration. For me, I lose the ability to concentrate. I will 'come-to' with my head to the side, staring at my computer screen, with no memory of how the previous moments passed. Also, the back of my tongue will feel dry. If it's REALLY bad, I'll get a slight headache above my eyebrows and find any movement to require more effort than usual (read: I get clumsy).

How do you know when you're dehydrated? What are your symptoms?

Photo by Nico van der Merwe, from here.

Manic Monday #185

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:00:00 +0000

It's Monday! And that means it's time for another Manic Monday post. This week's MM is coming up in the evening, for a change of pace. At least, that's what I'm going to pose this late post as. Here goes! And of course, please play along here.

What word describes you best?

ooooh..just one word? I'd really like to do some kind of deep philosophical cop-out and say something like 'myself' - but that's lame. I think one word that describes me well, if not best, is actually introverted. I am really introverted, and this is a major driving force behind what matters to me, and in a large part it shapes who I am. Because I'm introverted, I want to be home a lot, and because I spend a lot of time at home, I want my home to be a nice, warm, welcoming, interesting place. Because I'm introverted, I limit the number of people I spend time with, and the friendships I do have are really meaningful to me. To pass the time, I might knit or sew or write or read - solo, quiet activities. I have an interest in photography - always looking and observing, less inclined to be a part of the action and more inclined to watch the action and enjoy it from my own perspective. You know, that kind of thing.

What drives you every day?

A 2001 Toyota Highlander.

Jokes aside, I don't know. I love my job, I like getting up in the morning and going to work. But career isn't what drives me. I don't know what drives me, really. Just a resolute understanding that no matter what, this is life and life goes on.

Where do you want to retire?

Oh! I know this one! Hawaii!

Or maybe Alaska!!

Or maybe a yurt in New Mexico!

Or a house boat!

Or a beach house on the rocky Maine coast!

oooh...I don't know.

How about you?

365 photo challenges

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I'm thinking about doing a 365 photo challenge - maybe this one with Blissfully Domestic.

This challenge is pretty simple - commit to taking at least one photo every day for a full year. In some of them, you put them on a blog. Some you tag in a group like Flickr. Some have a topic, like a color or a subject (the self-portrait one comes to mind). And I'm sure some people just do it, without rules or public disclosure.

I've thought about doing one starting in the days before our big move - say, Nov. 1, 2009 - Oct. 31, 2010. I think it might be fun to have the first year of our new life out west documented.

Have you ever done a 365 challenge? If so, would you recommend it? What did you do with all your photos when your year is over?

rainy days and Fridays

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

There's something special about a rainy Friday. Am I right?

Image courtesy of myfreewallpapers.net.

real and true happiness

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

One of the things about my husband that I find most endearing is his affinity for glass-bottled Cokes. I've always been a Coke girl myself, so we were a natural fit.

Cokes usually come in 8 oz glass bottles - the 12 oz variety doesn't seem to be made anymore. Even the bottles go for 'big money' - $4 or $10 at antique shops.

So when we were shopping at the Evil Empire the other day, we were thrilled to find that there was an entire palette of 6-pack 12 oz glass bottle Cokes. We picked some up, naturally, and have been enjoying their presence in our fridge, and our tummies, all weekend.

The only real hitch with these guys is that the caps are plastic, not metal. Some would consider this great, for the same reason that any resealable cap is great. And hey, they may become our new water bottles until we can make the move to aluminum or stainless steel bottles. But really, there's something a little odd about twisting a contemporary plastic cap off an old-fashioned bottle. This certainly won't stop us from making the most of our newly acquired "happiness in a bottle!!"

And as a side note: if you're into the nostalgia that Coke brings up, I'd recommend you check out the Coca-Cola store website. They have some super rad stuff.

Funday Monday

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Today my workplace is hosting what has come to be known as Funday Monday. I am looking forward to the event - there are still a couple of folks I haven't met yet. There will be food, games, and general goodness running around this wooded park. And it will be the first time I will witness anything close to the whole staff coming together. What's not to love?

Besides the 2 hour commute each way, I mean.

And I, in true and typical girl fashion, can't figure out what to wear. I'm not supposed to wear jeans, according to my chiropractor, because they are too tight across the hips and will exacerbate my hip problem. But what else do I have that's appropriate to wear to a work function involving running around in a city park?

I have yet to figure this out. And I leave in an hour.

a little marriage advice

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Last night I somehow stumbled upon my new favorite blog. And as I was paging through some of the recent archives, something called out to me.

At the risk of sharing too much information, I am a newlywed (by my own standards). We haven't quite been married 2 years yet. And while I love my husband very much (VERY much! extraordinarily much! i-don't-sleep-enough-some-nights-because-i'm-caught-up-in-gazing-at-him much!) our young marriage has not exactly been pure bliss. (That's what happens when you combine two passionate people, one of whom will go to excessively great lengths to ignore every problem no matter what and the other of whom feels the obsessive compulsion to deal with every single problem no matter how minute and get it dealt with and resolved.) (You can guess who is which.)

This blog currently is nothing but a collection of marriage advice from ...folks, I don't know where they come from - friends of the blog author, I guess, solicited to fill in the holes while she's on her email. And some of the advice is hokey (always go on adventures!) but some of it is really meaningful. Which brings me (back) to something that spoke to me.

In this entry, Anna Bond writes a quote that a friend had told her: "Love your other how they need to be loved, not how you need to be loved." This is something touched on in things like Gary Chapman's the Five Love Languages and in any number of sources for good sex advice. But really, that's it right there. That's IT.

The times when I get the most angry or frustrated with Brian are those when he is not loving me the way I need to be loved. I can only assume he feels the same way when the roles are reversed. Do I know how he needs to be loved? And do I know how to show that to him? If I'm honest...no, I don't really know how he needs to be loved. And that's hard to acknowledge, or accept. I am learning, yes, but relating to him his way, and on his level, is certainly not easy right now.

When we're in the midst of conflict, doesn't come naturally, and I can't read his mind.

I could say the same for him. I get so caught up in the martyrdom of 'he KNOWS I don't like this or I need that' that I lose sight of what he needs and how I can be or do that for him. I am not responsible for his actions and inactions - only mine. And mine need to be centered around him - the same way he needs to be focused on what I need instead of what I'm not doing for him, especially when we are arguing.

Talk about a reality check and a swift kick in the pants.

how now

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Unless you live under an even bigger rock than the one I live under, you know that the US Open is going on. (What you might not know is that Roger Federer can play tennis so well that he can hit a ball, back to the net, between his legs, and it will go back over the net just out of his opponent's reach.)

And the US Open, as you may or may not know, is aired on CBS. Or CBSHD if you're high-tech. Which we are not (yet).

You know what else is aired on CBS - at least for the next week? Guiding Light. The longest-running television show in history. (72 years.) CBS canceled the show back in April, and its last episode airs this Friday. I've been watching GL since the latter part of 2005, when I was stuck in my old room at my mom's house, with a head injury that prevented me from reading and left me with radio or TV for entertainment, and all but maybe 2 of my friends had just moved away (graduation and all). I happened upon GL during a pretty interesting young-people story line, and my viewership stuck. I've been pretty bummed that the show is canceled, like many people.

So when I heard that 60 Minutes was airing some kind of special on GL, I decided to tune in. Except the US Open was still going on, and 60M was being bumped back.

It was while I was waiting for one irrelevant subject of great passion to wrap up so that I could watch a special on another irrelevant subject of great passion being wrapped up that I remembered that, despite a lifetime of tennis-watching and even playing, I still do not know how the sport is scored (sorry mom). I've got game-set-match down, and I know that 'love' means zero, and at some point or other, to win you have to have two more of something than the other guy does. End of tennis knowledge storehouse.

So after offering this new insight to my husband for his greater enlightenment, I proceeded to Google to educate myself. I typed in the word 'how' (as in 'how tennis is scored') and some Google suggestions popped up. Would you like to know what Google suggests for search terms beginning with the word HOW?

I knew you would. Maybe you'll see the funny correlation among the top 5.

Here we go:

HOW to tie a tie

HOW i met your mother

HOW to kiss

HOW to get pregnant

HOW stuff works

HOW to

HOWard University

HOW to lose weight

HOWard Hanna

HOW to make a website

Some books I read recently and liked

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I've been doing some reading lately, and I thought that in lieu of writing a slew of book reviews (for now), I would post a list. You can find links to all of these titles to your right.

Here if you need me - This is something of a memoir by a game warden chaplain in Maine. She's Unitarian Universalist, which is...not exactly what I am. But she tells a great story, and she has some great stories to tell. I think I read this book in 2 days, and I loved it. You can borrow my copy!

The end of overeating - To sum it up, Food Industry = Head Games, and also, Understanding Behaviorism Will Help You Stop Eating Crap. I didn't really retain a lot of the science and really relevant stuff in this book, so I can't do much more than heartily recommend that you read it if you, like me, feel an internal tug of war with food. I am not one of the food-obsessed, but I do eat out of habit or availability a lot and I have about 30 too many pounds as proof. Reading this book shortly on the heels of reading Skinny Bitch (which I would only recommend if you can handle a healthy dose of profanity, and p.s. skip the animal slaughterhouse chapter) has had a big impact on my ability to 1. cut back on the crap I eat and 2. cut back on the desire to eat the crap I eat.

His Needs, Her Needs - possibly the second-best self-help book I've read, and I've had a generous dose of self-helpery in my time. (The absolute best self-help book in my opinion is It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken.) Easy to read, relevant examples, and it just plain makes sense. It's in the genre of the Love Languages book, in that you have a list of needs and you learn to identify which needs are yours and which are your partner's. This is one of those books that I wish my husband would read.

Marginalia, by Billy Collins

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I was charmed by this poem, found here (hat tip to @thatwhichmatters via Twitter). Maybe you will, be too. Unless you're my librarian-bred husband, in which case you will cringe. Me, I am often charmed by reading the responses in the marginalia, though for some reason I have never had the nerve to contribute my own. Maybe I will, now, next time I'm enraptured or otherwise moved.

Enjoy!

Marginalia

Sometimes the notes are ferocious,
skirmishes against the author
raging along the borders of every page
in tiny black script.
If I could just get my hands on you,
Kierkegaard, or Conor Cruise O'Brien,
they seem to say,
I would bolt the door and beat some logic into your head.

Other comments are more offhand, dismissive -
"Nonsense." "Please!" "HA!!" -
that kind of thing.
I remember once looking up from my reading,
my thumb as a bookmark,
trying to imagine what the person must look like
why wrote "Don't be a ninny"
alongside a paragraph in The Life of Emily Dickinson.

Students are more modest
needing to leave only their splayed footprints
along the shore of the page.
One scrawls "Metaphor" next to a stanza of Eliot's.
Another notes the presence of "Irony"
fifty times outside the paragraphs of A Modest Proposal.

Or they are fans who cheer from the empty bleachers,
Hands cupped around their mouths.
"Absolutely," they shout
to Duns Scotus and James Baldwin.
"Yes." "Bull's-eye." "My man!"
Check marks, asterisks, and exclamation points
rain down along the sidelines.

And if you have managed to graduate from college
without ever having written "Man vs. Nature"
in a margin, perhaps now
is the time to take one step forward.

We have all seized the white perimeter as our own
and reached for a pen if only to show
we did not just laze in an armchair turning pages;
we pressed a thought into the wayside,
planted an impression along the verge.

Even Irish monks in their cold scriptoria
jotted along the borders of the Gospels
brief asides about the pains of copying,
a bird signing near their window,
or the sunlight that illuminated their page-
anonymous men catching a ride into the future
on a vessel more lasting than themselves.

And you have not read Joshua Reynolds,
they say, until you have read him
enwreathed with Blake's furious scribbling.

Yet the one I think of most often,
the one that dangles from me like a locket,
was written in the copy of Catcher in the Rye
I borrowed from the local library
one slow, hot summer.
I was just beginning high school then,
reading books on a davenport in my parents' living room,
and I cannot tell you
how vastly my loneliness was deepened,
how poignant and amplified the world before me seemed,
when I found on one page

A few greasy looking smears
and next to them, written in soft pencil-
by a beautiful girl, I could tell,
whom I would never meet-
"Pardon the egg salad stains, but I'm in love."

when all else fails, post a meme

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0000

I was tagged! And instead of wasting more time on Facebook, I decided to do a non-update on my blog. Don't worry folks, news is coming soon.

The following meme is brought to you by Angie, aka lala, aka AngStudAng, aka Trigger. Please note that she will not answer to any of these.

Three nicknames I go by or nicknames others have given me:
1. bashtree
2. ash

3. beb

Three jobs I have had in my life.
1. childcare assistant for CHBC's mothers morning out program
2. staff assistant, center for academic integrity
3. administrative coordinator, the als association

Three Places I have lived:
1. charlotte, nc
2. chapel hill, nc
3. richmond, va

Three Favorite drinks:
1. room-temperature water
2. white grape juice
3. vodka (shut up)

Three TV shows that I watch
1. so you think you can dance
2. guiding light (for the next couple of weeks that it's on) (also, stop judging)
3. in shape with sharon mann

Three Favorite Old Shows
1. that 70s show. i'm counting it as old, because it's no longer produced and it's set in the 70s
2. the match game (best game show ever)
3. that pyramid game with the words - $64,000 pyramid? i love old game shows.

Three Places I Have Been
1. st. petersburg, russia
2. san blas islands, off of panama
3. the ruins at ancient ephesus

Three people who e-mail/Facebook me regularly
1. lisa
2. chuck
3. stacey

Three of my favorite restaurants
1. sticky rice
2. hill cafe
3. city diner

Three things I am looking forward to
1. my next mac, whatever/whenever it may be
2. having a swanky downtown loft apartment (in my dreams)
3. getting another dog

Three Places I would like to visit
1. monticello
2. mt. vernon
3. blue ridge parkway

Three books I'd like to finish this year:
1. the way of a pilgrim
2. o come ye back to ireland
3. little heathens

(and much, much more)

Three Dreams:
1. multiple papillons
2. a long, happy marriage
3. a pile of quilts

Three living people I'd like to have dinner with my family:
1. kelly justice
2. john christopher
3. eddie izzard

Three life sweet events this week:
1. a volunteer bringing a special treat for me (little does he know what's in store for him!)
2. eli responding well to his new training and being much more cuddly and at ease and people-oriented
3. brian and his extremely good news - and the new demeanor he's had since hearing it

Three things I am grateful for:
1. a husband who's easy to love
2. people who want to take care of us
3. bark busters

Walt would be scandalized

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0000

PEOPLE!

I need a red Mickey Mouse swimsuit for $11.99 on sale.

Right?

RIGHT?!?

Because everyone needs a red Mickey Mouse swimsuit for $11.99 on sale. Nothing says 'high quality' and 'kid friendly' like a cheap, low-cut-up-top-and-high-cut-on-bottom red Mickey Mouse swimsuit for $11.99

Note: the lady in the photo is not me.

I am not a Trekkie

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:40:00 +0000

I'm not a Trekker, for that matter.

But Brian and I just got home after watching the new Star Trek movie for the third time.

I have NEVER seen a movie in theaters 3 times before, I would like to add. I can't think of any movies I saw twice in theaters, although I'm sure there must have been one at some point.

What movies have you seen multiple times in theaters?

Eli's coming!

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Actually, Eli's here.

Eli's home!! After 3 loooong weeks without my little furry friend to stalk around the house and make me feel guilty deigning to offer him dog food rather than steak, I almost got used to life without him.

Almost.

Oh doggie, how I missed you.

that which matters!

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0000

My Google Reader is overloaded. It's always overloaded. And one of the main contributors is Lifehacker. They send out dozens of posts a day. It's almost too hard to keep up...and if I miss a day, there is much weeping and gnashing and sorting of feeds.

Yesterday, though, Lifehacker proved its weight in posts yesterday when it sent this link to my inbox:

http://twitter.com/thatwhichmatter

a special facebook meme for my friend susan

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0000

50 things you've never been asked....Copy/Paste & Share!!

Once you've been tagged, you have to answer this and tag 15 people, including the person who tagged you.

1. What color is your toothbrush? Blue and white and purple and green

2. Name one person who made you smile today: steph martin

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? trying (and failing) to wake up

4 What were you doing 45 minutes ago? watching so you think you can dance and picking up the house during commercial breaks...it's what I refer to as 'commercial cleaning'

5. What is your favorite candy bar? most days it's a plain straight-up Hershey bar. sometimes it's a york. and sometimes it's a milky way.

6. Have you ever bit your toenails? i think i did a little bit, when i was young. on purpose. come to think of it...i picked up a lot of bad habits by hearing them referred to as bad habits and thinking 'oh, that actually makes sense, i think i'll try it.' the toenail thing is a prime example.

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? 'i'm just sleepy and trying to understand is all'

8. What is your favorite ice cream? mmm....cherry

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? water, and not enough

10. Do you like your wallet? it's fine. i've had it forever, it'll be around another forever i'm sure. coach leather...yes, oh yes.

11. What was the last thing you ate? ugh. don't ask. (kraft macaroni and cheese)

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? no. this month, no. not since mid-june and those were from the Goodwill

13. The last sporting event you watched? i cant even remember!! probably basketball.

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? buttered and salty to the max

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? brian

16. Ever go camping? Yes but i'm due...it's been a while

17. Do you take vitamins daily? i'm supposed to...i take it on days i can remember....

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? generally yes

19. Do you have a tan? 'tan' for me is more pale than you'll ever be

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? almost never. i prefer pizza over nearly everything

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? i don't drink soda, but if i did i probably wouldn't use a straw

22. What did your last text message say? heck if i know and i'm not about to look it up. probably something about bojangles.

23. What are you doing tomorrow? retrieving my dog from the Old North State, which happens to be southward from here

25. Look to your left, what do you see? a cluttered coffee table and beyond that, a TV

26. What color is your watch? the watch i have is 2-toned but i never wear it. i've never been a watch person despite my best efforts.

27. What do you think of when you hear Australia? 'ooooooooooo...let's go!'

29. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? i don't go often enough to have a 'pattern'

30. What is your favorite number? eh. 12 maybe.

31. Who's the last person you talked to on the phone? brian. who is surprised by this?

32. Any plans today? dinner with the trautmanns

33. How many states have you lived in? 3. SC - NC - VA. watch out maryland, you're next

34. Biggest annoyance right now? people

35. Last song listened to? 'if it kills me' by jason mraz

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards? YES, and QUICKLY

37. Do you have a maid service clean your house? i'm pretty sure i have the opposite of a maid service - i'm pretty sure the dwellers of my house mess it up as though it were their jobs

38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time? my birks that i got for half off. yessssssssssssss

39. Are you jealous of anyone? no. i'm cynical enough that i can look at anyone in a 'better' position than me and decide he/she is faking whatever glee that i'm perceiving.

40. Is anyone jealous of you? probably NOT.

41. Do you love anyone? yes

42. Do any of your friends have children? ummm...depends on how you define 'friends.' most of my friends around my age don't have kids yet. although my elementary/jr high best friend is giving birth TODAY at some point. holy cow, and also, word.

43. What do you usually do during the day? a big mix of various administrative things that my happy little (not little) nonprofit needs from me

44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now? no but that doesn't stop me from wanting to bash people's faces in

45. Do you use the word 'hello' daily? i'll usually use 'hi there' instead, but i probably say hello most days

46. What color is your car? royal [dook] blue. gag me.

47. Do you like cats? i have even less patience for cats than cats do for me

48. Are you thinking about someone right now? yes...hi susan!

49. Have you ever been to Six Flags? no but i've been to paramount and busch garden parks. and hersheypark. way better.

50. How did you get your worst scar? i don't have any one big scar, just lots of little scars everywhere. most of them are from running into things.

Manic Monday #177

noreply@blogger.com (bashtree) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Now that life has resumed a semi-normal pace, I present to you: a return to blogging normalcy, aka Manic Monday but on Tuesday! Play along here.

What is one thing that you would change about yourself if you could?

A leeeetle more self control. I also wouldn't mind more shapely, less column-y legs.

Name three exotic countries you would like to visit:

- Greece
- Ireland (it is TOO exotic. shut up.)
- Brazil

What do you think the secret to life is?

Being happy with what you have while knowing what you want. Landing a great husband like mine hasn't hurt, either. Oh...and you need a dog too. Preferably one who cuddles and/or plays frisbee.