Fish Girl Dreams

The Fairly Odd Behavior of a Waiter

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:17:00 +0000

It was a Thursday afternoon in Durango, Colorado, and like most tourists of the Southwest, my daughter and I had a hankerin' for some good French food. (Don't ask.) So we mosied in to John Pierre's Bakery and Restaurant.

The waiter asked if we would like anything to drink. My daughter ordered hot tea, while I opted for water. He left and returned with a bowl of packaged teas, a small tea cozy of hot water and a mug. The teas were all decaf and not particulary interesting.

Since we weren't very hungry, we decided to split an appetizer and a main dish. We perused the menu and chose an olive plate for an appetizer and a garden pasta dish as the main course. The waiter returned and we ordered the olive plate.

'Well, I think we are out of olives. We used to have that, but I don't think we have olives any more.'

I looked at the menu. 'What about the cheese plate?' I asked.

'Well, we have some cheese. I'm not sure what we have actually. Let me go ask. I will come up with something for you. Would that be okay?'

'Sure, whatever you think,' I replied. Hey, I'm on vacation and feeling pretty laid back.

He returns a few minutes later with a plate of cheese and fruit, along with a basket of french bread. Close enough.

Our food arrives. The waiter explains that the pasta bowl is hot. He tries to maneuver it onto the table, but is obviously uncomfortable with the heat searing into his fingers. (I resist the temptation to explain to him the importance of oven mitts or a well-placed kitchen towel.) He drops the hot bowl onto the table. 'There you go!' He retreats to the kitchen, which is good, because by now we are laughing at the entire fiasco.

I feel sorry for him. He appears to be the only employee in the place, serving as cook, waiter, and bartender.

When we finally look at the bowl of pasta, we are stunned to see that the dish is loaded with olives! I guess these are the vegetable pasta olives and not suitable for an olive plate. Well, to be fair, they were simply black olives and not a variety of olives one would expect to find on an olive plate. The pasta was good, but no overwhelmingly so.

We have dessert, my daughter the creme brulee and I had a dark chocolate rum truffle. The desserts were very good. We took the remainder of the French bread home and I made French toast with it the next morning. It was far better than the dinner we had at the French restaurant.

If you go to Durango and have a hankering for some French food, stop by Jean Pierre's and purchase a loaf of their freshly baked French bread, take it home with you, and make some french toast. You won't be disappointed.

Driving Hangover

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:00:00 +0000

I have a driving hangover. We drove two days, about 24 hours in the car, plus one overnight for some sleep, to get back home from Pagosa. When I finally stopped long enough after carrying in bags, I realized that my body felt like it was still in motion. I imagine this is what you feel like after you get off a boat after many days at sea. I closed my eyes and could see the white lines passing along with various cars.

The trip was mostly uneventful, just one traffic accident in St. Louis that probably set us back an hour. Other than that, it was smooth 'sailing'.

For entertainment, we listened to two different comedy channels on Sirius radio. It really made the time fly. I'm sure there were several times that passing motorists looked over and wondered about the two crazy chicks laughing hysterically. The only problem is that the stations re-run the comedy routines over and over, so that by the time we arrived home, we had nearly every routine memorized.

Now back to the routine, whatever that may be.

Strange Mating Ritual...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0000

I'm glad my guy just drops a hint or pours me a glass of merlot. This would get old really fast!

Make sure your sound is turned up so you can enjoy this guy's strange noises!

Video copyright Damian Elias.

Cat in Box

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0000

My cats love boxes. I don't know why I spend money on cozy beds for them when a simple box will do.

I received a package from Amazon today and set the empty box on the floor. Within thirty seconds, Willow had occupied the box...

The box wasn't quite large enough for her to lie down, so she vacated it after a few minutes. At which time, Ivan arrived to inspect the box....

Much to his dismay, he could neither sit nor lie down in the box....

So in typical cat fashion, he sat next to the box as if that was what he had intended to do all along.

Snowboarding

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:40:00 +0000

My daughter and I went snowboarding yesterday. We only get to snowboard once a year which means that although we enjoy it, we basically have to relearn how to do it every year. Fortunately, the learning curve is shorter each year as muscle memories (surprisingly) kick in a lot quicker than the year before.

Our first challenge is simply getting from the car to the ticket booth. Well, I should say MY first challenge, since my daughter who lives on a college campus and is accustomed to walking everywhere has no problem with walking. And it isn't the walk so much as it is the lack of oxygen at nearly ten thousand feet that does me in. I find myself stopping twice just to catch my breath. I worry that I may just have to sit on my board and slide back to the car. That doesn't happen, however, and soon, tickets securely fastened to our jackets, we are on our way to the 'bunny' slope.

The first challenge whether you are skiing or boarding is simply getting off the chair. The main thing to remember is to keep the front of your board or ski tips elevated. The last thing you want to do on either is get the front caught on the mound of snow built up beneath the location where you are supposed to stand up and glide off the chair.

I've had some interesting chair lift experiences. Some funny, some quite frightening. One time, I was skiing with my son who was about four at the time. Somehow, rather than ending up sitting on the chair, he ended up sliding off the chair as we dangled about six feet in the air. Fortunately, he was partially hung up on my skis and I was able to hoist him back up into the chair.

Another experience was when I was boarding with a friend who was just learning. The second most important thing to getting off a chair with either skis or boards is to stand up, look where you are going and don't run into anyone else. I find getting off a chair on skis a lot easier than getting off a chair on a board. On a board, you have to 'hang a cheek', which means you have to turn your body slightly sideways to get your lead foot pointing in the right direction so that when you stand up, you head straight off the chair and not into another person, or heaven forbid, a ski life post. (I've done this and thank goodness they are padded.)

So you hang a cheek, get your foot pointed in the right direction, stand up, slide away from the chair AND don't grab anyone else if you lose your balance. My friend ended up grabbing me, I went down and her board went across the back of my head. Fortunately, I only ended up with a headache.

Yesterday, after three goes at the bunny slope, we were ready to advance to the beginner slope. It is my favorite. It's wide enough that I can carve and turn without worrying about going off the side of the mountain. The last place you want to be if you are a beginning snowboarder is what they call a 'road', the narrow trails that come down the mountain.

You usually don't find many snowboarders on roads. What you do find, however, is families of skiers with small children who don't understand safety or etiquette. They frequently stop right in the middle of the road, usually on the other side of a hairpin turn where you suddently come up on them and have to stop so quickly you end up on your butt while they stand their, mouths open, looking at you like 'you' are an idiot for nearly plowing into their precious children when all you were trying to do was to keep from knocking them off the trail and into a snowbank. Fortunately, it was a light day yesterday and this only happened once. We stayed away from roads after that.

We had a great time and I only fell about thirty times. I got really brave (stupid) at one point and decided to try an intermediate slope. It wasn't groomed and there were these huge piles of snow (moguls). I think the key to going down a slope like this (based on my experience of WATCHING other people do this) is to try to go in between the huge piles of snow. I didn't do this. Instead, I took the 'close your eyes and it won't hurt' approach. I faceplanted six times. It wasn't all a lost cause, however, as the snow melting off my face quenched my thirst.

I thought my body would protest more the next day, but this morning I awoke pleasantly surprised by the lack of stiffness, especially after one fall in which I felt every single bone in my back popping and crackling. My daughter said that I probably snapped everything back in place. Kinda like going to the chiropractor for an alignment? Only a lot more fun!

In My Next Life...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0000

I want to be a cat...

This is the first patch of sun we've had in a while. I can't blame them for wanting to enjoy it!

Pagosa Springs

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:23:00 +0000

No one in their right mind would get in a car and drive for two days unless they really love a road trip And no one in their right mind would plan a Spring Break to a place where their is four feet of snow on the ground, especially if they live in a place where the snow is just starting to melt and the temps are finally becoming more tolerable. I must not be in my right mind.

Along the way we met an old Indian in Elk City, Oklahoma. He said he learned to swim in the hot springs at Pagosa Springs sixty six years ago. He said back then there were streams of hot water bubbling up out of the ground and an old Indian had run cool water to the pools to cool them off, as some of them were nearly boiling. Back then the pools had tin sheds built over them. He said they used to swim in the pools and then go up to Wolf Creek to go trout fishin. I asked him if he ever skied. He said, 'well, no Who would want to slide down a mountain. That's dangerous.'

We laughed and told him there was a ski area at Wolf Creek now and that the hot springs was a fancy resort. I'm sure he wouldn't recognize the place. He said he didn't much care for snow.

We love Pagosa Springs. It's one of those places that although it has changed, you can still almost feel how it was before it became 'improved'. There are plans to build condominiums and hotels up at the ski area. I have mixed feeligs about this. On the one hand, it would attract more visitors to the area. But on the other hand, it would vastly change the character of both Wolf Creek and Pagosa Springs.

Well, I am not in my right mind. If I can get my daughter out of bed, we will be heading up to Wolf Creek to slide down a mountain on our boards. If we get banged up enough, we'll probably go soak in the hot springs and try to imagine what it was like sixty six years ago.

Sisters...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:53:00 +0000

Today is my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday, Sis!! I love you. You are the best.

Here is a flower for you. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Strange Cosmetics....

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:42:00 +0000

I knew I would one day regret not collecting all that cow manure I used to complain about stepping in. It seems in India they've determined that cow excrement can be used for much more than just fertilizing your crops. Researchers there are drying it and using it in medicine according to ancient Hindu texts. They also claim it is a good facial scrub that can kill bacteria and heal wounds. See here.

I experienced the cow excrement facial scrub one time when my Airedale returned from a romp in the pasture and proceeded to lick my face with his manure-laden beard. Had I known at the time how good it was for my skin, I might not have overreacted so dramatically.

So, you need to read that article carefully. They have plans to use the cow urine and feces in everything from soap to toothpaste and even a soft drink. Wow. I hope they label that one clearly.

Multitasking

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:44:00 +0000

Do you think animals multitask? I know my cats don't. They stay focused on only one thing at a time and usually not even one thing. Usually they are asleep. But I can just imagine what they might do if they decided to multitask. Ivan would say to Willow,

'Now I'm going to go over here and check out this box, while I'm on the way over there, I'll jump up on her desk and scatter the papers all over the floor and hide the pen. Why don't you run into the other room and see if there's any food left in the dish. Then we'll pretty much be done for the day and we can just nap all afternoon. K?'

I've determined that I can do about nine things at once. Well, that's a bit of a stretch, because I do get help from some modern appliances, but let's see how far I can get with this.

1. I go let the dogs outside so they can run around and do their business.
2. I start the washing machine.
3. I go upstairs to gather clothes.
4. While I'm there I feed the birds.
6. I gather up all the trash.
7. I put the birds in the washing machine.
8. I put the laundry in the trash can.
9. I go outside and put the trash in the dog kennels.

Seriously, some days it's like that. I find myself rinsing off dishes to put in the dishwasher while gathering bits of trash from the counter. The next thing I know, I'm throwing away a spoon and putting an emply soup can in the dishwasher.

So much for multitasking.

Perhaps I should just be more like my cats and stay focused on one thing at a time. Then I could just eat the birds and sleep in the sun all day.

Cleaning, Cleansing and Strange Body Art...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:13:00 +0000

I really didn't have cleaning in mind this morning, but thirty minutes after my son departed for school, I found myself 'flying into it'. (That's a Kentucky-ism for those of you who are wondering if I sprouted wings.) So, I flew into this cleaning job and started dusting, clearing countertops, sweeping, mopping floors. Power cleaning is good exercise and after about an hour of this, I realized my back was aching and I desperately needed a cup of coffee. So here I am, blogging, which is a lot more satisfying, especially since it is now 'Mud', umm, I mean March here and cleaning the floors is about as futile as shoveling the sidewalk in a blizzard.

I tend to 'hit the high spots' (another Kentucky-ism) when I power clean, thanks to my Mom.

Hi Mom!

Now, Mom keeps her house very clean and if I cleaned as well as she does, we could just do away with the kitchen table and eat off the floors. I just remember on those occassions when we helped clean house hearing her say, 'just hit the high spots'. Which meant you only had to get the really dirty spots. I've modified this a bit to 'just hit the REALLY high spots'. Which means I basically run a broom, then a mop down the center of the high traffic areas and neglect anything beyond the length of the handles. If I can't reach it, it doesn't exist.

I'm always shocked to find a mountain of dog hair-dust-crud behind a chair a month later.

So, I flew into it and now I am tard (tired) and consuming my second cup of coffee of the morning.

Oh, in case you are wondering, the cleansing is going okay, but I am undermining my efforts a bit. I picked a very bad time to do this anyhow. But, then again, I do not know when I would find a 'good time'. The Raw Cleanse protocol isn't too harsh and I do find I am starting to feel better. The aches and pains have subsided a bit.

On a strange note, check out this from the
World Bodypainting Festival Asia

Photo © Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
I was going to wear that today, but it's still a little chilly outside and the tentacles would have interferred with my power cleaning. Perhaps next Friday!

Nothing strange to report...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Day Three of cleanse/detox. Not sure where I am going with this. This week wasn't a good one to start the cleanse because I have a lot of work to do and cannot take time off when I feel really crummy-which is how I felt yesterday. I haven't yet given up coffee, or my wine for that matter. I'm being completely honest here.

The Raw Cleanse has three elements. The first thing you do in the morning is take a packet of Toxin Defense and pour it into your mouth. This is followed with a bit of water to dilute the powder. You swish all of this around in your mouth for 45 seconds then swallow. It wasn't bad at all, though I did nearly choke on the powder prior to adding the water. It tasted rather vanilla-ey. It gets a little gooey and sticks to your teeth as well, which I find mildly annoying first thing in the morning before I've consumed anything else.

The second element is the Organ Detox capsules. You take six a day, three with each of your largest meals. I took three at breakfast and three with dinner.

The final element is the Digest and Elimination powder which you mix with juice and drink before bed. This doesn't taste bad at all and it REALLY gets you going in the morning. If you know what I mean.

I am hoping this will help with the aches and pains I have been experiencing lately. My back hurts all the time, along with my left elbow, left knee and my neck. I haven't been exercising as much lately because I am so sore all the time, but I think it is time to start again.

I've had one cup of coffee so far this morning. My goal is one cup of coffee, one glass of wine a day. I justify this because both coffee and wine (in moderation) are supposed to be good for a whole host of health issues, like Parkinsons, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Of course, I can't drink the amount of coffee the diabetes study suggests migt lower risk, which is six cups. If I did that my heart would race uncontrollably and I'd never sleep. But at least it's good to know I'm not doing any damage with the amount I allow myself each day.

On the Strange side: If you decide to throw your hot coffee at a cop, then perhaps it is time to switch to decaf.

Cheers!

Photo copyright: © michael ledray

Dreamstime.com

I am so ready...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:41:00 +0000

To sit on my porch, look up, and see this....

Stranger Than Ficton...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:39:00 +0000

This month's blogging theme is Strange(r). Of course, the phrase Stranger Than Fiction pops into my head. This was a movie starring Will Ferrell and Maggie Gillenhaal about an IRS auditor who hears a narration of his life. As a writer, I do not find this all that strange.

I often feel like I am a character in one of my own stories. I find myself 'observing' the things around me as I go through my daily routine on autopilot. I often wonder with great curiousity what might happen next. I often create elaborate stories about even the most mundane things, like computers conspiring to drive me crazy. Usually, nothing very exciting happens, however, beyond the usual madness of a cat jumping on my desk and sending all my stuff crashing to the floor. But every so often, something unexpected happens and I find myself thinking, 'Wow, she didn't see that coming.'

The unusual and unexpected event usually happens about five minutes after I sit down at my desk to work. It usually involves a phone call in which I am either put on forever hold or end up in one of those automated systems where I am forced to speak to a computer-generated female who patronizes me for not pronouncing my requests in perfect English. In utter frustration, I punch the zero key a couple hundred times and finally get a living, breathing person in India who can't understand me either, but anything is better than talking to a computer. I'd much rather talk to my cats.

Strange Fact: Some moths don't eat anything as adults because they have no mouth. They have to live their entire adult life on the energy they stored as caterpillars. Imagine that the next time you sit down to your third, fourth or fifth meal or snack of the day.

Cleanse update: I completed the Raw Cleanse routine yesterday. I will post more about my experience with this tomorrow. I drank a lot of coffee yesterday, but had no wine in the evening and felt like I slept a lot better. I want to start cutting back on the coffee today, but we'll see. So far I've had one small cup, but I feel like there's definitely another cup in today's future.

Cleanse...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0000

I've decided to get healthy. I've even publicly declared it in an on-line forum, yet I continue to do things that I believe are undermining my health. I love coffee. But I don't think it loves me. I gave it up for two weeks in February, along with my nightly glass (or two) of wine. Once the initial headaches were over, I actually felt a lot better. I felt more relaxed, focused, and better able to cope with my extremely busy and demanding schedule. I stopped feeling so achy all the time and felt like I actually had more energy.

Then along came a 'bad night'. I don't recall exactly what kept me up until two or three in the morning. Most likely I had fallen asleep and then was awaken by something. Sometimes it's just like that. You get the Big Eye as my Granny used to say. I should have just toughed it out, but that is almost never possible. When I stumbled downstairs, I reached for the pot and the two-week, no-coffee health kick was over.

It started out as just 1/2 cup, then a whole cup, now I am back up to 3 or more cups a day. Then the anxiety starts. I can't cope with the mountain of 'things' I imagine that I need to get 'done' every day. It really isn't as bad as I imagine it, but I find I cannot focus for very long on any one task.

So this month, starting today, I am going to 'try' to get healthy. Are you with me? haha! I am going to start with a cleanse. I've done this before and it ain't pretty. Your morning usually starts with a very exciting trip to the bathroom as your body tries to purge itself of the 'toxins' being flushed from your system.

I've chosen the Raw Cleanse product by Garden of Life because it is only seven days and all-natural. I think this month my blog will be devoted to my experiences with cleansing, going off coffee, exercising and well, getting healthy! If you have any experience with the Raw Cleanse product, I'd love to hear about it!

The NaBloPoMo challenge theme is 'Strange'. Well, I will comment on strange things along with updates on my getting healthy. After all, I'll probably have some fairly strange side-effects in the process!

Goodbye February...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:33:00 +0000

Well, the last day of February has finally arrived. I am filled with a mix of emotions this last day of the shortest month. I'm happy I blogged every day this month, but I am sad I am yet another year older.

In February I managed to: clear off my desk, become a little more organized, set some goals for March, stop drinking coffee, stop drinking wine, re-start drinking coffee, re-start drinking wine, exercise less, take my son to get his driver's license and write a poem for a beloved neighbor who passed away on February 15th.

The shortest month of the year was filled with enough activity to fill three months. I cannot wait to see what March has in store!

Goodbye February. See you again next year!

More Driving....

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:18:00 +0000

A few more driving stories.

My daughter was about six years old when she came to me and said, "Mommy, I don't know about all this growing up and stuff. How will I learn to do everything?"

"Like what, honey?" I asked.

"Like driving," she replied, then continued. "I mean. It looks pretty easy. All you have to do is move that stick and then turn the wheel, right?"

"That's pretty close," I answered.

A few days later as I was getting her younger brother into his seat, she climbed out of her car seat, into the front and proceeded to try to 'drive'. I didn't notice until the car started inching toward the garage door, at which time I reached across and moved the shift back to park.

One time, we were driving through the country. It was a warm Spring day and I felt like taking some back roads we had never been down before. After a while, my two-year old son became fussy. I realized that I didn't have a clue where we were, so I pulled to the side of the road and got out the road atlas.

The level of my son's vocalizations rose along with my frustrations until I looked at him and said, "Honey, you need to be quiet so Mommy can think. She doesn't know where she is."

My son, with all the wisdom of a two-year old, looked at me and said, "But Mommy, you are right here."

Ahhhh, yes, You can't argue with the obvious.

Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:10:00 +0000

This month is the first time I tried to blog every day for a month in the NaBloPoMo challenge. I have two days left. It has been challenging, yet rewarding, to blog every day. I don't have a particular theme that I write about, so it gets a little difficult to write something which I think might be interesting. I am anxious to see what the NaBloPoMo theme will be for next month.

When I started my blog, I intended to post poems and short stories I have written over the years. Perhaps I will post more of those in the future. I also have a goal of getting healthier and exercising more. Perhaps I will blog about my successes and/or failures with that endeavor. Or, perhaps, I will just remain really random and post whatever pops into my head on a particular day! I am a Pisces after all.

I find that when I feel like I have to blog every day, it keeps me thinking about writing and trying to come up with new ideas. So, here's looking forward to another month of blogging and whatever that might bring.

Driving....

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:09:00 +0000

My son got his license yesterday. To say I am nervous about him driving would be an understatement. My brother said I should get the big bottle of valium. I think he is right.

My son is pretty excited about it and I understand this. Driving represents freedom. You are finally, for the first time in your life, not dependent on any one to get you to your destination. You can simply get in the car and go; providing, of course, you have enough money to purchase gas, which is incredibly expensive compared to when I started driving. No, we won't go there, thank you very much.

I have a lot of pet peeves when it comes to driving:

Very slow drivers who won't move over to let you pass on a narrow country road.
Drivers who are in a hurry and ride your ass for miles and miles even though you slow down and do move over to let them pass.
Drivers who repeatedly hit their brakes for no apparent reason (even when you aren't riding their ass).
Drivers who pull out in front of you, forcing you to slow down or nearly stop, then turn at the next intersection.
Drivers who speed through parking lots.
Drivers who see you have your signal on to take a parking spot and decide they need that spot more than you and sneak in as the other car is backing out of the spot.
Drivers who can't park straight and take up two (or more) parking spaces.
Drivers who text and drive all over the road.
Drivers who text, type on their computer, drink coffee and drive with their knee.
Drivers who sit through a protected left turn because they are texting, typing on their computer, drinking coffee and weren't paying attention to the light.

Okay, you get the idea. I basically don't like driving. Unless I am driving through the mountains of Colorado at 3 AM when there isn't another car on the road for hours. It's especially cool if there's a full moon and the snow-covered mountains are silhoutted against a blue-black star-studded sky. Then I love driving.

Sometimes driving gives me a chance to relax. I like to sit back and listen to music and just let my mind wander; within reason, of course. Don't want to be one of those annoying drivers going 20 mph in a 55 mph speed zone!

Okay, gotta get back to work. Have a beautiful day!

The Anti-Greeter...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0000

I find the anti-greeters at Sam's Club to be very amusing.

You need a special card which you show to the greeter at the door when you enter.

You fill your massive cart with enough stuff to stock a small school, then proceed to the check-out where you once again have to show your card to the check-out person. Then you approach the door to leave with your 500 items and your two-foot long receipt where the anti-greeter awaits with her neon yellow highlighter and a stern look upon their face.

She takes your receipt, scans it in 2.5 seconds and proceeds to 'count' the items in your shoppping basket with her yellow highlighter. She 'dots' the air above and around the items with the highlighter while whispering non-sequential numbers just under her breath, as if she is actually counting every single item in your cart; 'twenty, thirty-five, fifty-one, ninety-nine, , two hundred seventy-three, aaaannnnnd, five hundred. Thank you Mr. Smith. Have a nice day.' She says as she swipes a long yellow line through the receipt and then hands it back to you.

Come on! No one can count five hundred items in twenty seconds. Why bother? I find it all rather annoying and amusing.

No customer service annoys me as well. Recently, I had to get on-line to pay an invoice. The website for the company (which shall remain un-named) was very annoying and not at all amusing. They have multiple areas where you can go depending on whether you are an 'agent', or a 'customer' or a 'company', etc. I simply wanted to pay my invoice. Now, one would think that if you ran a business, you would place a big, red button on your website that said something like PAY INOIVCE
I guess I'm asking too much. I finally called 'Customer Service' and explained my frustration to the company's representative. She said, 'yes, a lot of people have expressed their frustration with our website. I will have to bring this up in the next meeting.' Ya think?

I now receive a paper invoice and print a paper check and put it in the mail. Not a step in the right direction.

And the Winner Is.... our ties to the movies and celebrities.

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0000

The Academy Awards are coming up on March 7th. I can't say that I am all that excited. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy a good movie. Of the ten movies nomiated for best picture, I have seen four; Up, The Hurt Locker, Avatar and District 9. If I had to pick one of these four for best picture, I would be at a complete loss. They are all very different movies and I enjoyed each one of them for different reasons.

Up was very cute and whimsical. I enjoyed the story, felt it was very original and the characters were very memorable and delightful.

Avatar was incredible. I could see this movie again and again. The graphics were amazing. The storyline, which entertaining was very familiar; sorta like Dances with Wolves meets Fern Gully. But the novelty of this movie made up for the what the storyline lacked.

The Hurt Locker was gritty and real. Jeremy Renner as Sgt William James, did a wonderful job of pulling you into the story.

District 9 was probably my favorite. I enjoyed the story and the aliens were fascinating in their initial repulsiveness, which quickly turned to fascination, then finally admiration by the end of the movie. I purchased this movie and plan to watch it again. If you don't like alien movies, then you might not like this.

A Serious Man, classic Coen brothers. I watched this movie thinking that it seemed oddly familiar and was delightfully surprised to learn it was a Coen brothers production. This movie made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. I wasn't thrilled with the ending, however.

All in all, I am not that interested in who wins. I just like that we get so many good movies that come out toward the end of the year. Six of the ten movies nominated came out October and later. Only two, Up and The Hurt Locker, came out in the beginning of the year.

Kinda makes you think. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese?

Birthdays..... ties to time.

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:27:00 +0000

I'm not big on celebrating my birthday. I think birthdays stop being all that exciting once you hit the milestones, like one, sixteen, eighteen and twenty-one. When you get to be my age, your birthday has a way of sneaking up on you like an annoying toll booth on life's highway. You find yourself thinking, 'hey, do we really have to go there? Should've got off at exit twenty-one.

I've always thought it would be fun to take a hot air balloon ride. Floating high above everything, surrounded by the quiet, broken only by the sound of the burner. Out of curiousity, I searched and found a site where you can buy used hot air balloons. Adding this to my bucket list now. Haha!

Perhaps this is another color thing, like the rainbow hex keys. Besides rainbows, hex keys, is there anything prettier than a field of hot air balloons all rising up into the air. My oldest son and his wife live in Albuquerque where they hold an annual balloon fiesta. The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is in October. I think I need to go this year.

Incidentally, and quite oddly, as much as I like hot air balloons, I do not much care for latex balloons. They always startle me when they pop, even though I am not startled by other loud noises. Someday, I will blog about my really strange reasons for not liking balloons.

Until then, I will just look at pics of hot air balloons and smile as I imagine floating high above the earth on a clear, crisp day. Time stands still. For a moment, there is nothing else.

Photo copyright 2009 Cindy Petrehn Photo - cphotovail.com

Color....

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:38:00 +0000

Vibrant colors really catch my eye. The movie Avatar blew me away. We saw it at the Imax in 3D and I wanted to reach out and touch the beautiful, exotic plants. If I close my eyes, I can still see them.

I'm not an artist, so I do not know what colors go well together. I tend to wear dark colors and prefer black to almost any color when it comes to clothing. Perhaps if I brightened up my wardrobe a bit, I would be more creative or inspired. I read that active colors like red, orange and yellow create energy and the cooler colors like blue, promote tranquility and peace.

I wonder what happens when we see all the colors? Does our mind, or our emotions, go a little haywire? I know that every time I see a rainbow, I can't seem to take my eyes off of it. It never ceases to amaze me. I love the sight of a colorful hot air balloon, or anything that contains colors running from warm to cool.

Recently, I received an email from Amazon listing some items that were on sale. One particular item caught my attention; the PB Swiss PB 212 HC-10 RB 9 Piece Set Hex and Ball Color. (see link below) It's a hex key set. I sat and stared at it, trying to justify purchasing it. I have a hex key set I use with my bicycle, but they are black and boring hex keys. These are beautiful. Just look at them! Ummm, then I noticed the price. Wow! But they would make me so happy. Well, actually they wouldn't 'make' me happy. It would make me happy to stare at them. But I can't walk around all day staring at a hex key set. People would start to worry. No, people would worry more than they already worry. Okay, stop it. You don't need a $36 hex set. Incidentally, that is the sale price. You can buy those along with the long set for only $99. What a bargain!

These hex keys are the 'rainbow' model made by a company called PB Swiss. I went to their website and discovered that a lot of their tools are brightly colored.

I really don't want or need a $36 hex key set, but they are very pleasing to behold. Perhaps I have Spring fever. Perhaps in a few weeks the first tulips and crocuses poke their heads up from beneath the snow, my color appetite will be sated. Until then I will have to be happy with pictures of pretty hex keys.

Fake it 'Til it Feels Good

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:33:00 +0000

I wake up grumpy and stumble toward the coffee pot. I grumble as I let the dogs out to do their 'business'. I hurry back to the kitchen, nearly slipping and falling on the wet tile. It isn't a good morning. The sun isn't up and even when it does rise, it will hide behind the clouds all day. I have ten million things on my never-ending to-do list and a bunch of errands to run. My head hurts and I'd rather just crawl back into bed.

Doesn't sound like the start of a good day, does it?

Well, it all depends on how you look at it.

I read an interesting book recently that suggested that if you want to feel differently about something, you should 'act' different. For example, if you wanted to feel happier, you should smile more. I thought this sounded rather odd. The old school of thought was that if you wanted something, you should 'imagine' it. 'Think it and you can be it.' That never worked for me. I imagined for years that I would some day be a writer, but I never actually wrote anything. I tried imagining that I didn't feel overwhelmed and stressed out all the time, but that didn't work either.

Recently, I thought I would try the 'smile' theory and guess what? It really works! I went to the grocery store and rather than grumbling about the people who were in my way, I tried smiling at them. It is really amazing the responses you get from people with just a simple smile. Now, granted, some people are not very happy and even if you walked up and handed them a check for a million dollars and told them they just won the lottery, they would probably grumble and say 'Great, now I will have to pay taxes on all this!'

But even if you run into the occasional pessimist, you should keep smiling. The goal here is to feel good.

So if you want something in life, don't just think about it, act like you already have it. And if you are feeling doubtful or worried or uncertain, just fake it! Serioulsy! I'm not saying that you can act like you a millionaire and go to the bank machine and drain your bank account, but if you simply want to feel better or happier, give this a try. What's the worst that can happen?

BTW, the book is 59 Seconds, Think a Little, Change a Lot:

The Cluttter Chronicles

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillatte) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0000

I have conquered the clutter on my desk! I even conquered the clutter in the bins next to my desk. But, I have made a colossal mess of the table in the center of our office. I moved a great deal of the Important Papers over to this table. These are documents awaiting filing. Something that isn't likely to happen any time soon, unless the filing fairies show up in the middle of the night and do this for me.

Actaully, my son informed me today that he wanted to do some work around the office. I am thinking that filing these very Important Papers would be an excellent job for him. We'll see how long it lasts.

I never thought of this before, but filing must be my least favorite job in the entire world, right below cleaning the litter box or scrubbing the toilet. In fact, I'd much rather clean the litter box or scrub the toilet than file. At least the litter box and/or the toilet only take a few minutes to finish. The filing could take days or even weeks. If I would simply file something as soon as I finish with it, then it wouldn't be such a chore, but inevitably, I always end up with a stack of papers next to my desk, and once it reaches a certain height, I am so overwhelmed by it that I can't find the time to just dive right in and complete it.

Paperless is the way to go. We have computers. Why am I still surrounded by all this paper? I need a system. I need a scanner so I can scan everything into my computer and save it electronically. I purchased such a device last year thinking it would finally end my paper problems, but the model I purchased wouldn't network, so I couldn't save things to our server where they would be backed up. And I didn't want to save everything to my laptop, so I took it back to the store.

I just did a search for network scanners and found the Fujitsu fi-6010. I think I need this. You can get software for it that will organize your documents into virtual binders that sit in virtual file cabinets. I'm liking the sound of this a lot! I think I will order one and implement it this weekend.

Will keep you posted!

Death to Clutter!!