I am sooooo tired

I'm so tired that I couldn't even unload the dishwasher....

I saw this story which reminded me of one friend. It occured to me that it would be weird to say which friend lest people make wrong assumptions about the person.

Also this just pissed me off. I'm too tired to write bout why, but I'm sure I will later.

Just some stuff to keep in mind

• Is it a good idea to compensate organ donors?


• Amazing things can be done with legos. Finally, a good use of plastic.


• The headline makes it sound like bad news. I'm kind of scared to read now.


• Exact same experience my dad had when he tried to retire.

I am so sore I can't move

Since I spent the weekend painting... I am so sore I can barely move. I took my little mentee to run after work. That was fun. I tried to clean up the place a little bit, but I'm still really tired from all the work. Instead, here's what I found on the internet:

Some fun things to do with my favorite food. Cotton candy?

Oh, the irony. Seriously, where did they think these flags were coming from?

Seven confessions of a mac specialist. Nice to know the one-to-one thing is a good deal.

Some really helpful random websites. Some of these look insanely useful and some of them look like a waste of my time. And one of the best is the Online calorie counter that told me I ran off the latte I drank earlier.

I'd like to thank...

I spent most of the weekend with a paintbrush (or roller) in my hand. Amanda said she was going to help but wound up being more moral support than performing any actual labor. (Thanks for the beer. It didn't give me a migraine this time which is all I ask.)

Last Tuesday night Kelly picked out a paint color for me. She really is the only person I've ever met who can look at 50 swatches of paint and tell me which one I'm allowed to have in under 5 minutes. And be fairly confident in herself. I was just thinking, "what if I ever move away, who will help me choose colors to paint?" I'm not planning on moving anytime soon. I was just thinking how fairly independent I am in my condo. I've learned to do all sorts of home improvement projects. And I have now officially painted every wall in my house. I just don't think picking colors will ever be a strong suit of mine.

Yesterday I painted only the wall where the torture entertainment rack lives. I had to empty it completely and then take down my curtains. Amanda also thought it was weird I wouldn't leave while my curtains were down. Look at the picture, people could see right in.

Today, I did all of the other walls. It took me the entire day.

Here's some before and afters:
Edging on day 1:

Edging on day 2:

And the new color is:

As a bonus, here's one of Amanda's most helpful moments:

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Reasons not to drink

Lizzie's reasons not to drink:
1. I'm on my period.
2. It gives me a migraine.
3. Even the day after the migraine, nothing good happens.
4. I forgot to run my dishwasher.
5. I couldn't show you all the great things I saw yesterday for earth day.

Instead, I'll show you all the things I say yesterday (and today) right now:
25 trees I could never grow.
The funniest and some of the most unfortunate signs I've seen in a while. Love the one on the lava field. I didn't even get through the entire list before writing this.
In honor of earth day, the best Green sites on the web. What is this Grist?
How to have a computer and still not kill the environment.
I never really liked Dove soap anyways, At least now I know why it smells so funny.
Cool "Green" Ads. Maybe that's what I should have done with my life.
I didn't realize the housing market was that bad in Minneapolis until I saw this article. That's a really big number for us. Wow.
50 ways to save the environment. How many do you do? I counted 34. I can't get all the way to 50 because I don't care for my lawn, have a fireplace or have anyone who wears diapers.
For Amanda because she did a really good job this week, An atlas of the human body. It looks cool, haven't been all the way through it yet though.
Yet another reason I'm glad I am in Minnesota where we don't pull crap like this.
Also for Amanda and for me too, What happens when people make decisions we don't agree with, especially about their health and their care. I haven't read the whole thing (do you see a theme here?) but it seems salient.

I just want you to know that one of the finalist videos on America's Funniest Home Video is called "hot monkey love".  Kelly, you know what that's about....

What a nice day off

The best part of my day was when I didn't have to go to the City of Minneapolis to get the condo homesteaded. Apparently, it's already set up that way. I'm not asking questions.

I did some grocery shopping and packed lunch for the week (soup and salad) and saw my little mentee. She has to make a decision about whether she can actually fit Bolder Options into her life. We'll see. And obviously, I played bridge all day on yahoo. While I was doing that, I found some great things on the web:

Most useful open source applications and the best web applications too. What is Windows Live? I'm amazed that Windows made a top 100 list for anything good.

For Amanda and Kelly who like to read, books that scientists think are life changing. I didn't recognize many of them, but maybe you will.

Some types of skin cancer are more lethal than others. Remember the story of Alicia kissing me? The kid who came up to her and said, "you have to go do something or I'm gonna beat the crap out of this kid.." his name was Tim and he actually died of a lesion on his scalp when he was in high school. I've known other people who've had skin cancer in other places on their bodies and it was much less scary. Tim is also Chris' cousin (of Chris, the guy who used to be my boyfriend and I'm still good friends with him)

And finally, I just want you to know that this mildly not safe for work comic actually works if a girl is holding the guitar too. When I took my guitar with me to Malawi I learned that a girl who can play the guitar gets at least as many guys as a girl with a big rack, it's knowing what to do once you've got them....

Still missing "perma tabs" for Firefox 3 Beta

What have I done today? Not much really. I woke up late and watched some television. Then (to my credit) I went to the YWCA and walked around. It wasn't until I got home that I read this story. Woops. It was open when I went there.

I played Bridge on Yahoo, which I think I'll be doing some more of later. And I did a lot of poking around on the internet. Plus, a Harry Potter movie is on television and it makes great background noise.

Strawberries have been on sale at the store a lot recently. Here's another great use for them. I haven't tried it. Seems better than putting a chemical strip on your teeth.

What digg users think of Microsoft's marketing department. Maybe they should talk to the Mac people. They're commercials are always good. Although I suppose they have more to work with right now.

See if you can make the rag dolls stand up. A flash game which is as safe for work as anything can be and still be a game.

I found this awesome page for Kelly although it seems like something she would have seen by now.

Something to make Vista a little faster for those of you who are using it.

And the hits just keep coming for Vista. I haven't used Leopard yet. I'll have to let you know.

And finally, a word of caution to all the cat owners out there.

Still exercsising and eating like crap

I had a wired day at work today, scheduling wise. I was not really in the office, at all. But I was done with work after a training that ended at 3:30. Nice. Which allowed me to go to the YWCA and get an elliptical (I know, that is special) and wear myself out on that completely. I did a rowing machine for 15 minutes. I was going to do it longer but then a guy came and got on the bike right next to the rowing machine. I had a space issue. Those machines are not far enough apart. And the person on the rowing machine always gets the short end of that stick.

I also cooked myself dinner (which was not super healthy) and I haven't had a shake. It seems like that should be a good thing (that I'm eating less) although it ultimately means I didn't get any fruit today other than the salsa on my lunch. I guess I had a sweet potato. Those are the same vitamins. Mmmm. Sweet potato.

I gave up my shift for this Friday night which means when I walk out the door tomorrow (which I will do early) I have a three-day weekend, completely work free. My agency is closed Monday to honor Passover. Just wait until October this year. I have more days off than working. I'm planning on going to Hennepin County to get my condo homesteaded for the year. Hopefully I haven't left it too long. I don't know when else I would have done it.

Every muscle in my body is saying, "seriously?"

Why? Because I ran last night and I ran again this morning. (I know, it is good that I could get up early.) Oh, wait, the running, that was good too. My body doesn't think so any more. By the way, in addition to "Firefox" and "vegan", we also don't know how to spell "doesn't" and "wasn't". I'm thinking it's the apostrophes.

I had a hard phone call to make this morning and I needed to be in a really good state of mind to do it. So I ran a lot. Seemed like the best thing.

After work I went over to Amanda's and had taco salad with her and Kelly and Alyssa who took the shackles of law school off for the night and came out to play (Man, I remember those days.) I hit a point in the evening, about the time my whole body got tired where I felt like I had to leave. To my credit I stayed to help with dishes. My contribution was finding more and more dishes to put in the sink for Amanda to wash. Then I left.

I did laundry (which badly needed to be done) and poked around on the internet. I found this story which makes me really sad and also hoping that the restaurant is still open on May 1st when my "month of not eating out" is complete. Or maybe I should tell Kelly that instead of paying me back for Green Mill, she should buy that for dinner next week. (Hmm, I think I just did tell Kelly that.) The no-eating-out rule only applies if I spend the money. Although I guess that is my money so it wouldnt' really work.

Since today is April 15th and it's almost midnight, it's really half the month. All I want is the iPod voice girl to say "half way point". I'll just have to do with this voice instead.

I'll try for two in a row tomorrow

Today was a long and challenging day. I got some bad news at the end which I'll have to deal with tomorrow.

I'm not sure but I think I got my student loan straightened out. The stupid loan place that does the billing never sent my e-bills or a paper bill but had no problems getting in touch with me when there was a late fee. Seriously. You can't not send the bill and then try to charge a late fee. As always, the University of Minnesota One Stop Center continued with their stellar customer service. (No seriously, they are really good. It's the people billing for their loan that made the mistake.)

I went home and ran. I meant to do that in the morning but it didn't work out. I had some sleeping issues and was up in the middle of the night. In the middle of my run I saw one of the POs I used to work with so I ran about a mile with him. He's fast. Lizzie: not so much. But it does give me something to work up to.

I'm trying to wear myself out before work tomorrow so I'll be in a great state of mine when I have to make my phone calls. I'm hoping to run again, either outside again or at the Y. I always start with the best of intentions...

Meanwhile, I did find some great things on the web today:
The real problem with identity theft. I knew there'd be a white guy behind it somewhere.

Food's really expensive. Best argument for being a vegan ever. Two things at this point. 1. Firefox does not know the word "vegan" and thinks it's misspelled. Firefox also does not know it's own name and thinks that's misspelled as well. 2. I don't think I'll become a vegan any time soon. Especially not after the salmon I had for dinner.

Just another way white environmentalist keep the black man down. For shame. I'd like to point out that in many old, mostly white neighborhoods, lead poising is a real danger because the houses of the old rich white people were painted with lead paint for years. They're not using this stuff in those places. Seriously. "The idea that sludge... can turn into something harmless, even if swallowed"... Wow.

One more for the road

As a single woman in Minneapolis, I can tell you that this statistic if flatly untrue. What a load.

Great look at food use and diet around the world. Please note all the alcohol in the first picture and the poignancy of the final picture.

Stuff even I know not to wear. Safe for work as long as you don't laugh out loud at any of the pictures.

About my dreams

I've had three most unusual dreams lately. Just so long as they're not telling me that green aliens are going to come down and posses my body, you can interpret to your heart's content.

Dream 1: Basically I was pregnant. Ok, stop. It wasn't a sex dream. You think I'd put that here? But I was pregnant and I was fine with the whole thing, on an even keel. Some people were more excited than me but I felt like it wasn't really any of their business. The dad was around too but I didn't recognize him. Anyways, I was surprised by how ok I was with being pregnant in my dream. If that was a really pregnancy I'd be totally freaking out.

Dream 2: I was taking care of a little boy. He was not my little boy but he did like me better than his mom who was mostly clueless but not mean or abusive. The little boy had an alergic reaction to something, I think his lip started to swell up. At first I didn't call for help (I don't know why not). After a minute or two I tried to call for help but I couldn't make any of the phones work. Eventually I was able to call the ambulance and they took him. And when he was feeling better he came and sat in my lap and not his mom's (which is how I know he liked me better).

Dream 3: This one was last night by the way. The dream started with my having the kid. The next time I saw the kid, it was like toddler size. I thought "wow, that's a big new born, it can walk and everything". And I was nursing in the dream. (I cant believe I'm sharing this.) That seemed to be an important part of the dream. And there was another lady in the dream who was trying to help me take care of this kid. Although, she was not the mom and the little boy still liked me better. I kept getting really tired from nursing all the time. Every time I laid down to rest in my dream, I'd realize all the stuff I couldn't say or think about other parents since I now was one and that made me really panicky, but at least I liked the kid.

Common threads on all these dreams: Most importantly, the kids were normal sizes and shapes. Even the kid who was older than a newborn was the right size for a one or two year old. Every once in a while I have these dreams where the kids are shaped like barbie dolls and I loose them between cushions or it's just a head and the feet are supposed to grow out of the neck. Those are the worst.

A weekend of sloth

What have I done recently?
Friday: I woke up and Ed came by to do one last thing to the kitchen. There had been an imperfection in one of the cabinet doors and he replaced it. Then I went to an all day training at the Minnesota Department of Health and my main thought was "I can't believe I'm driving in this crap". It was a moderately helpful training.
After that I worked an overnight full of girl scouts. It was my first time meeting anyone who earned the Gold Award from Girl Scouts. Congratulations! I think that's really cool. I have a really good friend who is an Eagle Scout. I remember going to the ceremony where he was formally given the award. You know the party your parents threw when you graduated high school? That was about what this was like. The overnight was moderately fun. The thing about working those is I come home and I'm wide awake and I stay up all night. Then I sleep half of Saturday.

Saturday: True to my prediction, I woke up late. I watched television in the morning, napped in the afternoon and did grocery shopping in the evening. Target now has some of my money and the co-op has an even more ridiculous amount of my money. The thing is, frozen fruit was on sale, and I always buy way more than I need when it's on sale. I do eat a lot of that fruit though. Yum.

Sunday: At least today I got some exercise. I had planned to see Amanda (who sadly realized she had an assignment due tomorrow and not the monday after this) and make breakfast. Instead, I walked around Lake Nokomis. I love how walking like that burns 800 calories. Wow. Also, thank you to everyone who supported the purchase of my Nike+ system, I love it. I know I need to start running again, especially if I'm going to run a race in May. Amanda runs fast as hell and I don't want to embarass myself.
After the walk, I made my lunch for the week (Tofu Scramble and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes). I haven't tried the tofu yet, but I know the potatoes are awesome. The nice thing about the whole "no eating out" deal is that I plan my meals out much better than I ever have before.
Then I talked with my family and cleaned my kitchen. Now I'm sitting here thinking about either playing bridge online or reading a book in bed. Not sure which I'm going to do yet.

I'm glad you're feeling better

I'm having a really late night tonight. Thanks to my recent browser adventures I'm without a permanent tab button and am required to post the fun things I read now or loose them. Hey, something for at least one of you to see tomorrow.

Really good article about race and assumed culture with links to some hilarious blogs as well.

This is for Amanda. It reminds me of her talking about her work for some reason. No, I don't have a friend who works on a trampoline. That's your mom.

Why photos should also be approved by the editor. Woops. Safe for work.

I posted a link to an older couple carrying a sign that didn't surprise me but is notable for someone in that generation. This is a similar link and is mildly unsafe for work. Enjoy.

Firefox 3 first impressions

I decided now would be as good a time as any to upgrade to Firefox 3 (beta 5). Here's my thoughts. By the way, point 1 in the positive side pretty much outweighs the entire rest of the list.

Things I love:

• Don't know a URL, or only know part of it? No problem, type what you know in the address bar. Firefox will do the work for you. Awesome. Start typing a url or title of a web page. Firefox will find it and auto complete


• My news reader still works. I had a prolonged moment of panic and regret when I thought I was going to be sans reader until an update. Never fear, WizzRSS made a beta reader to go along with the firefox beta.


• Not sure if this is cute or annoying, but when I went to about:config for the first time, it asked me if I knew what I was doing and if I promised to be good.

Things that I'm not wild about (yet)

• The "new tab" button is upside down. (Not the whole button, just the graphic.) No, seriously.


• The amazing number of extensions that don't work with the beta release. Notably missed are Greasemonkey, McAfee Site Advisor and I'm sure I'll start missing AdBlock in short order too. That one will change with time though. Those extensions are too good and wildly popular to not work for long.


• For some reason, Firefox imported a really old list of my bookmarks. Luckily I just saved them all and exported them to a file before the upgrade so I had the new ones.


• Not loving the new "organize bookmark" interface because it won't let me move folders around all the different ways I want to move them.


• The weird "back button" that's not the same shape or size as the "forward" button or any of the rest of the buttons. I know I have OCD but come on. Were people having so much trouble finding the button before that we had to make it a different size and shape from all the other buttons?


• Spell checker on beta 3 doesn't know the word "Firefox". No, seriously. It suggests "firebox" and "fire-fox". It doesn't know it's own name anymore. How sad.


• No color in the default theme. Or did they only do this in the mac version?

I hope you feel better and other small succsses in my life

Yesterday, I went to the gym after work. Very late after work, like 8:30pm. And did a few machines. The elliptical seemed much harder than usual for some reason. I honestly think something was wrong with it (and not that I'm out of shape).

Then this morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn (to two different alarm clocks) and went back to the Y for more exercise. Why did I pull myself out of bed so early? Because I thought I wouldn't be able to get to the gym tonight. I was almost right. But then I got this call from Amanda who is apparently sicker than a dog. Amanda requested broth, jello and 7up. I requested to not get infected with whatever crap she got from the nursing home so I dropped off the food and left quite quickly. I hope you're feeling better! It's no fun to be sick.

With my newly free evening (Kelly, I hope the taco salad was good, I'm sorry I missed it) I was able to cook some food that I badly needed to get eaten. And keep my apartment mildly clean. I know, that is exciting.

For tomorrow, I know I have three appointments and after work there's the restorative justice council and the all-staff overnight at the aquarium which is catered this year by Bucca di Beppo (how can I say no to that?) I'm feeling like the wise thing to do would be to run in the morning. But every time I say I'm going to run, I don't. So I'm keeping quiet and we'll see.

In the mean time, I've found a boatload of good reading for you:
Time lists their top 100 design accomplishments for the year. I thought the websites would be cooler than they are. One has sound too but I forget which one.

Did they really think about it before they wrote this headline? I'm really offended but it's also very safe for work.

Since my apartment will need a coat of paint, I've resigned myself to thinking I won't get to keep the red curtains. I've found some possible replacements. The magnets look really cool to me although that's something that has the potential to drive me up a wall after about five minutes. Is there a way to test those before buying them?

Alcohol+duh= oh dear. Safe for work.

I'm linking to the digg page on this story. I haven't read the whole thing but the blurb on digg sounds like it was taken off the Weekend News from Saturday Night Live. Pure art.

I'd like to thank iTunes for...

I'd like to thank iTunes for the ability to quickly answer these questions. Those features where you can arrange songs by title, artist, or album are great for people like me with OCD who need the option to have the data neatly arranged in 50 different ways.

Now, from the Monday Music Mambo:

1. What is your favorite band or artist whose name starts with the letter C? If my music collection is any indication, apparently I like Collective Soul. I wasn't really expecting that answer, but I have three of their albums (that I legally paid for and everything). Honorable mention goes to Crash Test Dummies, Counting Crows and Carol King.
2. What is your favorite song that starts with the letter C? The winner is "Crazy Love" originally recorded by Van Morrison, although the Van Morrison and Ray Charles, or the Jackson Browne and Marc Cohn versions are great too. Honorable mention goes to "Colors" by Amos Lee, "Clampdown" by Indigo Girls, and "Careless Love" by Madeleine Peryoux.
3. What is your favorite album that starts with the letter C? Again, Careless Love by Madeleine Peryoux and the self titled album by Corinne Bailey Rae with tracks including "Put Your Records On", and "Trouble Sleeping". Honorable Mention to "Come away with me" by Norah Jones, "Can't Take Me Home" by Pink, "Coco" by Colbie Caillat and "Call Me Irresponsible" by Michael Buble.

Fun with photo editing

Last time I was in Cincinnati, my friend Jenny taught me how to use some of the effects on iPhoto to edit pictures. I've been playing around with it ever since. Today I walked around Lake Nokomis and took pictures. On the way back I had a truly awesome iced mocha from Sister Sludge. Here's some of the pictures from the trip (original first and edits below).

A great use of your web browsing time

16 great lessons we should always teach kids. Great positive article. I think lessons 10, 11, and 12 are very important. I remember telling a bunch of social work students that their thoughts and expectations create their reality. About two people understood what I was saying.

Really nice statement of support. The thing about this picture isn't that it's a straight couple, it's more the age of the couple that is notable to me.

Best use of those no-stamp-needed envelopes that come with junk mail. Too bad I don't have any bricks. Maybe they'd like some of my old clothes instead. Or some chili from my freezer.

Hidden features in software and DVDs that you didn't know about. The LOTR thing in OS X is hilarious. I love that the people who designed my computer are at least as geeky as I am.

Decluttering tips that I may or may not follow. I think part of my issue is that I get stuff in the mail and I don't file it right away. I file it like once a week.

More proof that your thoughts create your reality. I haven't read this article yet, because my thought that it is too long and has no pictures is creating the reality that I feel like I won't be able to get through it yet. Enjoy.