The Girl From Mars.

Circle lenses

2011-08-04T09:36:00.002-05:00

I am all about circle lenses these days. Looking like a doll is fun! If you don't know what circle lenses are, check out the banner on the right for Korea Big Eyes. You'll be in l♥ve!

Journal in a Jar- January 25, 2010

2010-01-25T09:58:00.000-06:00

What are your favorite activities and hobbies?

I enjoy reading a lot. My favorite thing to do is take a nice, long bath and read a book. I usually read a paperback or a book I've read many times so that if I accidentally dropped it in the bathtub, it wouldn't be the end of the world!

I also enjoy taking weekend trips. If I had the money and the time, I would visit somewhere different every weekend. I wouldn't even need to know where I was going--just hop in the car and drive! I like to visit kitschy little towns with history, shopping, or a combination of the 2. New Glarus and Cambridge are some of my favorite destinations on weekend trips.

I'm hoping to be able to travel more in general, to further places than I've been in the past. I've never been out of North America, so anywhere outside of the continent would be the furthest I've ever been.

(Above photo: Ryan enjoys a bottle of water with a New Glarus cow.)

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Journal in a Jar- January 13, 2010

2010-01-13T15:57:00.000-06:00

Describe your favorite uncle

This is a very difficult question. I'm not sure that I have a favorite uncle! They're all unique and different, and I like talking to them all for different reasons.

Since I can't really choose a favorite, I can talk about the uncle who gave me a job. My uncle Russell owns a produce market in my home town of Winneconne, WI. He raises many different vegetables and also strawberries when they're in season; however, he's best known for his famous "Allen's Allenville Sweetcorn." Most people probably don't think that one type of corn is better than another, but they obviously have never tried Russell's corn!

I worked the produce stand from probably around 1995 to 2000. I know this because when I get my social security statement every year, I have income reported from the time I was 12! I worked at the stand wearing a fanny-pack full of money, sitting on the edge of the truck bed full of corn. Rain or shine, there was always a constant stream of people stopping to buy corn or whatever we were selling.

For a while Sherry worked with me at the stand. We decided that we would split our wages in half and work together; at least it wouldn't be boring that way! We sat and listened to Cd's in the Discman, read books, just talked, or sometimes threw stray strawberries out in the road to see them get hit by cars. We didn't make much money splitting the money, but we had a good time.

My uncle also runs a successful greenhouse during the warmer months; my mom works there during the spring planting flower arrangements and selling plants. She also sells produce at the Allenville stand when it's in season.

(The above photo is not Russell's stand, but it looks pretty similar to what we sold.)

Journal in a Jar- January 12, 2010

2010-01-12T10:26:00.000-06:00

Favorite Flower(s)

Honestly my favorite flowers are any that are given to me! I love receiving flowers. I know that most men are of the opinion that flowers are worthless because "they just die anyway", but I am one of those traditional women that loves to get flowers. They don't have to be expensive and they don't have to be fancy; I'd be happy with any $5.00 bouquet that can be purchased at the grocery store (although Ryan insists that he would never, under any circumstance, buy me flowers from the grocery store.)

I like all types of flowers. I really like unique roses that are different colors. Ryan has given me really cool roses before that are white with pink on the edges; those were beautiful. I also really like lilies of any variety, especially exotic-looking varieties like tiger lilies.

(If you are interested in obtaining your very own Journal in a Jar, please contact journalinajar@yahoo.com)

Journal in a Jar- January 8, 2010

2010-01-08T11:00:00.001-06:00

What instrument do you play or wish you could play? Why?

When it comes to instruments, I am a jack of all trades but master of nothing. Here is a list of the instruments I have played and how long I've played them:

Piano-1990-1998 (lessons)
Flute-1994
Percussion-1995-2000 (this includes drums, marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, timpany, triples, quads, and awesome instruments like cowbell and slide whistle)
Guitar-1999-2000 (tinkering with it more than anything)
Bass Guitar-2000-2002 (played in the band Mediocre at Best)

I think that's about it. Piano is the instrument I have played longest, though I am by no means skilled. I do believe that having a strong foundation in piano theory is what allowed me to pick up on other instruments so easily.

By far I am best at playing the mallet instruments like xylophone and marimba. My marimba quartet was, if I'm not much mistaken, the first Winneconne Middle School group to ever get a first place award at the State Solo & Ensemble Competition. In general, middle school students from Winneconne were not allowed to select songs of the difficulty required to go to the state level; however, our quartet must have shown enough promise that an exception was made.

(Above: me and Ryan in 2000 at his graduation, me in my band uniform)

The next year (my freshman year) our quartet again received a first place at the state level, as did the percussion ensemble I partcipated in. My sophomore year was the year everything blew up. Our percussion ensemble received a starred first at the district level, meaning we were selected to perform at the state competition. Our band director did very little (if anything) to help us prepare for district competition. In fact, he only practiced with our group once, perhaps twice at the most. We battled through it as an ensemble and pulled the piece together regardless of his absence. When the scores were posted, a "concerned" parent overheard one of we percussionists stating that the teacher would "probably take all the credit for it anyway."

The next week, the teacher pulled our whole percussion section into his office and screamed at us for about 10 minutes. His face turned bright red, and he admonished us with insults like "you're not as good as you think you are", "you don't even deserve to go to state," "your performance wasn't worth of you going to state", "there is nothing special about you", "you're not the most talented group I've ever had", etc. He told us he would not be permitting our ensemble to perform at the state level. He then screamed that none of us were to refute his accusations, and ordered us from the room.

Anyone who knows me realizes that my musical skill is one of the few things I have ever felt pride in, so having someone tell me (as well as many of my best friends) that we were talentless was a true slap in the face. The only way I felt fit to retaliate was to quit band, along with several other members. The teacher was left with a weakened percussion section, and had to pull band members off of other instruments in a sad attempt to rebuild what he had lost.

That teacher retired several years after I graduated, and never once apologized to me or anyone else in the percussion ensemble. The sad thing is, before all this happened I favored him above many other teachers. Me and my friend Sherry would sometimes do yard work for him, or even just stop by for a chat. I never spoke a single word to him again after I quit band. I hope he realizes that he didn't just "teach a few kids a lesson" by barring us from state competition; he took away the pride we felt for being self-sufficient and capable of our own success. I hope he still thinks about it sometimes.

Journal in a Jar- January 7, 2010

2010-01-07T10:03:00.000-06:00

What does the mail mean to you? Are you a good letter writer? Who do you or have you corresponded with?

I'm a fantastic letter writer! Back in middle school I had over 100 pen pals all over the world. I still have boxes of all their letters that I've saved. I used to do "friendship books", where you'd basically hand-write a little blurb about yourself and then pass it on to another pen pal. You could meet tons of new people through the mail by writing to people listed in friendship books (FB's.)

I still write to Lia from Australia, and keep in touch with a few others like Bre and Maureen via Facebook. Having pen pals was a great way to meet new people and learn about other cultures before the internet came along and really made it easy to do that.

I also wrote to a girl named Rebecca Sealfon, who was quite different and unique- she lived in the Bronx, was homeschooled, and didn't have a TV. She was such an anomaly to me! I mentioned many years later to my husband, after we'd been married a few years, that I used to write to this girl. His response was "THE Rebecca Sealfon?!?" As it seems, she was a very famous pop culture icon around the time I used to write to her as she had won the National Spelling Bee. Her win was a TV smash because of her unusual method of spelling the words spoken quietly into her cupped hands before she spoke them aloud. It looked quite bizarre, and made her the talk of many TV shows and the news. To this day there are still internet groups devoted to her and her "strange" behavior.

Rebecca and I are once again in contact via the internet, though she uses an alias on public sites so as not to draw attention to herself. I see now why she liked writing to me so much- I wrote to her because I liked her, and not because I just wanted to get a piece of her fame like most. How could I? I didn't even know she was famous.

Journal in a Jar- January 6, 2010

2010-01-07T09:52:00.000-06:00

Tell about some of the notable people in your hometown.

This depends if you're asking about my hometown or where I currently live! I grew up in Winneconne, WI. I can't say that many famous people have grown up here, but a few politicians and business people got their start in Winneconne. We've also had a few professional athletes and TV personalities, but that's about it.

My current city is Sun Prairie, WI. Most notable here is the birthplace of Georgia O'Keefe. We've also had a few politicians like the Hebl's. I'm sure there are other people too but I'm not too familiar with the history of Sun Prairie.

(Above, a view of Winneconne, WI across the bridge on the Wolf River.)

Journal in a Jar- January 5, 2010

2010-01-07T09:47:00.000-06:00

Do you have a favorite author? Who? Why? Tell about favorite books as a child, youth, adult.

My favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I first began to enjoy his work when I was in high school- the apathy was very familiar to me at the time. It was a very sad day when the world lost him.

As a child my favorite books were the Boxcar Children series. I also enjoyed the Ramona Quimby books quite a bit.

(to the right, you will see an image from the Boxcar Children.)

It begins: Journal in a Jar 2010

2010-01-07T09:40:00.001-06:00

For Christmas I got a really unique gift from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. It's called "Journal in a Jar." This is a gift that they hand-made consisting of a canning jar full of questions on slips of paper, and a notebook. The idea behind this is that every day you draw out a slip of paper and answer it in your journal; by the end of the year you'll have a full journal!

I tried this for a few days and realized that I am painfully slow at writing by hand. The internet age has made it so that I can literally type faster than I can think, and writing by hand is a dreadful undertaking. In order to do the questions in the jar-journal justice, I've decided to move my "journal" over into the realm of my blog.

Entries from January 5-7 have been transcribed from the handwritten versions in my journal. From that point on, all entries will be typed up directly onto my blog.

If you're interested in purchasing a Journal in a Jar for someone, make sure you contact my mother-in-law at journalinajar@yahoo.com and she'll hook you up. :)

Wanna see my wiener?

2008-04-01T17:18:00.011-05:00

Due to the Oscar Meyer factory being in Madison, we often see Wienermobiles parked around town. The newest wiener to be added to the fleet is nothing short of marvelous....it's a MINI WIENER!

AWWWWWWWW!

The Minster was so excited to meet Lil Link!

The headlights give you away, MINI!

Truly, size is not everything for this wiener.

You have one new message.

2008-03-04T10:19:00.003-06:00

Actual answering machine greeting for someone I just had to call for my work (number removed for obvious reasons):

“You have reached 555-5555. Beginning February 15 is Nascar season. If you are calling on a Saturday or Sunday, I will NOT be answering the phone. If you are calling to sell me something, GO TO HELL. Otherwise, please leave me a message and I will return your call as soon as possible.”

I've got a merch store, yes I do!

2008-01-04T12:25:00.000-06:00

As you can see by the lovely thing in the sidebar, I have my own Zazzle store now. This is where I will design useless junk that no one but me will be interested in. The main reason for opening this store is because I am designing a 2008 Hedgehog Calendar, and needed an outlet for doing so. As it turns out, designing stuff is really fun, and really free, so now I've got my own store. Go look at my crap.

Worst Morning Ever

2007-10-18T07:44:00.001-05:00

On my drive in to work this morning, things were going well. I was actually early for once. I was listening to Faith 1190 (don't ask) as I so often do, and thinking to myself that Thursday might just be okay.

There is a street I must navigate every day to get to the courthouse called West Wilson. It is almost like the video game Paper Boy- pedestrians cross without looking, open manhole covers occasionally pop up in the middle of the street, delivery trucks block whole lanes, and bicyclists weave in and out of traffic. Driving down this street requires an extraordinary amount of attention to detail, or you will most certainly kill someone or something.

That is exactly what happened this morning. I was enjoying my rarely pleasant mood when a squirrel (complete with nut in mouth) bounded out into Wilson Street, directly under the tires of the car in front of me. The car in front of me made no attempt to stop or avoid the squirrel, nor did the driver provide any indication that she recognized the squirrel as a living being whose head she had just crushed (at no point did her brake lights go on and her car never deviated from its path). Lucky for her, not so lucky for the me and the line of cars behind me who had to watch the squirrel twitch and struggle on its back as it slowly and excruciatingly passed into death.

I probably should have finished the job and just run it over, but I simply cannot kill something purposely (nor can my Mini for that matter). I certainly hope that one of the cars behind me, whether accidentally or intentionally, was able to put that squirrel out of its misery. I have no clue how long a squirrel can live with half a head, but I imagine it's quite a while.

And now that my morning is officially ruined, I hope you have a pleasant day.

LOL Laika

2007-08-31T11:35:00.000-05:00

2007-07-09T11:58:00.000-05:00

If you have a cat, I highly advise that you get the ScoopFree Litterbox. It actually works, which is amazing. You have to buy these stupid disposable cartridges for it, but you can buy a permanent one off of E-bay by searching for "Forever Litter Tray." This litterbox has changed my life, and the way my cats poop.

Headaches

2007-05-03T12:34:00.000-05:00

Seriously...what is the deal with headaches? I am very tired of getting them. After my car accident, it was to the point where I was getting them EVERY DAY. That sucks--majorly. It's not every day now, but it's still most days. If it were just migraines...I think I could deal with it. But it isn't. I run the absolute gamut of headaches--tension, migraine, sinus, etc. In order to handle all these headaches, I have an arsenal of medication. It seems like I always take the wrong medication for the headache I have, so it never quite goes away. I've tried meds, chiropractors, physical therapy, massage therapy, had x-rays, CAT scans, had injections--none of it is enough! The doctors are baffled. I don't display symptoms of one type of headache, but rather, EVERY type of headache. If anyone has any suggestions, please offer them. I am at a loss.

Vote-a-doo!

2007-04-25T12:47:00.000-05:00

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Directly to your right, you will see an obnoxious, blinking ad asking you to vote for the CDP in the Blogger's Choice Awards. Please heed this gif, and vote immediately. I CAN make it blink faster--don't force me to do it. Thank you for your cooperation.

Thursesday.

2007-02-15T14:49:00.000-06:00

A Spam Break-Up Letter

2007-02-11T10:47:00.001-06:00

(Few people recognize the beauty of the spam email. I have painstakingly composed this letter from bits of spam email I have received. Enjoy the absurdity.)

Dear Bulb-

From day to occipital day, I lived on level alone. Well, here I am helpless at last-thanks to an unseasonable excess of the most powerful aphrodisiac of all, seal penis soup. I know that the Liberal Lord will torture me no longer! This is, however, the far most common final thought experienced by every single Galapooter in the history of Galapooting. Let these remarks suffice on the subject of substance.

Quality, that which takes its character from quality, has a name not called sweet because it is affected in a specific way. All relatives have correlatives: determinate sense. Thus, individual branches of knowledge are not relative. Indeed, if our definition of that which is relative was change in both directions is impossible. It is in the case of space that quantity most plausibly appears to be the contrary of any primary substance. To sum it up, it is a distinctive mark of substance, for one is at the same time both sick and healthy.

Do you remember when we threw a few snowballs at each other, but it was fairly wet and cold and slushy so we didn’t stay out too long? I am beginning to visualize odd magpies flying around as well as big mules blowing out noxious, poisonous gases everywhere. It’s really quite the interesting experience. Have our winter meetings outlived their usefulness? Should we abandon them completely? I do not dare open my eyes for fear I might not be able to stop crying.

Do you recognize this bit of parchment, all of which I took from a small locked portfolio under a yellow hen that was sitting- the chicken that eats the bugs? It reminds me of the time we sat down to enjoy the Sunday morning breakfast of coffee and steak and you thought so hard that the pins and needles began to stick with a violence which would have killed any other boy. And yet I clamored for candy!!! You always chose with taste and judgment.

When we are offered infinite choice, the true shape of demand is revealed. There is a new line in the sand (yet none of this is worthwhile fodder for discussion.) It showed I was not such a good scarecrow, and the copper man stepped off as briskly as any of them. The occasional star agent will always make a bundle- sight is not sight of blindness. Perhaps some explanation of the dilemma may be found? Have you no idea whatever?

I know you are currently a massage therapist and at times, although you love to massage your clients, you wish you had gone to nursing school. I realized that during the fifth time in three years that authorities had detained me in a mental institution because of my protests against forced evictions and abuse of land rights. This was later upgraded to subversion. So please…take time every day to do what you love- move your body, challenge your mind, and know that you can be the best you can be. But I need to practice what I preach.

Today the sunset will be beautiful, as I flick you off, push you in the lake and yell, “I am breaking up with you, you awful!” And why? To make you see the unbelievable truth: that aliens are in the hell-hole called Texas.

Sincerely, Archibold

P.S. You can skip to the end and leave a response. What about flamingos, owls, or chickadees?

February is National Pet Dental Month

2007-02-08T16:20:00.000-06:00

I'm not dead, but my voice is.

Is that figurative? Why, you may never know!

Happy Holidays

2006-12-22T12:09:00.000-06:00

Merry Fricken Christmas!!!

:(

2006-12-06T12:11:00.000-06:00

(Sometimes life just isn't a nice thing.

I hate Pitchfork, but I have taken this off of their website as it is very nice and well-written. If you don't know who Logan is, I hope you take the time to find out.)

We are saddened to report that Logan Whitehurst, former drummer for much-loved California trio the Velvet Teen, passed away yesterday from brain cancer. He was 29.

Whitehurst co-founded the Velvet Teen with Little Tin Frog bandmate Judah Nagler around the turn of the century, and played on the band's early EPs and two full-lengths-- 2002's Out of the Fierce Parade and 2004's Elysium, both released via Portland imprint Slowdance Records. Whitehurst exited the band after Elysium, and the Velvet Teen welcomed new drummer Casey Deitz for this year's Cum Laude.

"Logan was an incredibly special and endlessly gifted person," wrote Slowdance Records owner Ezra Caraeff on the label website.

"Possibly the most grounded and mature person I have ever met, Logan also had the pure joy of a child, always approaching life with a[n] inspiring sense of optimism, despite how downright unfair (my words, never his) things can become. I speak for everyone involved with this label, its bands and those associated with us, when I say that Logan will be missed terribly...If you ever were lucky enough to meet him, you'll know why I am saying these things."

Friends and fans expressed similar sentiments on the Velvet Teen's MySpace page, as well as that of Whitehurst's solo project, Logan Whitehurst & the Junior Science Club.

Logan battled brain cancer for some time-- successfully it seemed-- until it returned in August of this year. "According to my doctor and a recent brain-and-spine scan, I have had a hell of a recurrence of brain cancer," wrote Logan in a profoundly sad MySpace blog entry dated August 30, 2006.

"My doctor is fairly well convinced that this will kill me within the year. Sucks to be me right now. I will do what I can to get the Very Tiny Songs album out on Pandacide Records, but it looks like it will honestly be my very last release. Thank you all-- I love you for being there for me."

We offer our deepest condolences to family, friends, fans, and all whose lives were touched by Logan.

Posted by Matthew Solarski on 12/4/06

Potty Time.

2006-12-01T12:36:00.000-06:00

See you in your nightmares...beh heh heh.

I'm really getting sick of having dreams about going to the bathroom. It's always the same: I'm in a public bathroom, and the stalls have no doors. There are either rows of toilets side by side, groups of pay-toilets out in the open, or bathrooms whose doors I just can't keep closed. Seeing as I have this dream at least once per week, I decided to look up its meaning. According to www.dreammoods.com, it can be interpreted thusly:

The notion that you are naked and in a public washroom indicates that you need to express and/or release the emotions, worries and fears that you have kept inside. Being naked makes your feel vulnerable and exposed. This may be how you feel if you were to express yourself. You are BEARING your soul. Note that bear is a pun on bare. You truly feel naked if you were to "bare" your soul. You fear that you might be judged or criticized by everyone around you.?The feeling that the bathroom stalls are too small suggests that you are trying desperately to keep these emotions to yourself. However, people around you sense that something is wrong. They can see right through the doorless stalls as you try in vain to discretely relieve yourself. You need to learn to let people in and trust that they will accept you for who you are?

I'm not generally "naked" in the dreams persay, but I certainly am aware that I'm out in the open (although the "naked in public" dreams are becoming quite pervasive in my sleep as well...) I've never been too confident in supposed interpretations of dreams, but I'm not sure why this dream keeps popping back up again. Maybe I just really hating using public lavatories. That's probably what it is.

Do you have any persistently recurring dreams?

My Head=Large

2006-11-17T12:41:00.000-06:00

"You mean people will think I'm a dork if my hair looks this way in 20 years????"

I asked the husband the other day why I rarely see adults wearing pigtails. He reasoned that pigtails are a style historically worn by children, and generally are only worn by adults for fashion reasons. Adults generally morph the pigtail style of youth into the ponytail style of maturity.

I wear pigtails about 75% of the time. Not because I think it is fashionable or cute, but because it takes a short amount of time to do. I would love to wear a ponytail like most reasonable adult women, but I can't. It looks terrible. Why? My head is huge.

So if you're wondering why I wear pigtails, it's because my massive head requires two ponytails instead of one to compensate for its size.

One for the Rubbish Heap

2006-11-08T12:48:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, the majority of Wisconsin voters decided to amend our state constitution with this garbage:

“Marriage. Shall section 13 of article XIII of the constitution be created to provide that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state and that a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state?”

I am really not sure when I was beamed over to this bizarro world where the majority of voters WANT their civil liberties taken away, but I think I'm ready to go back to earth now.