Almost Eno time…

Eno08Prediction

Originally uploaded by Rae Z

Today is the last day of June, which means that Eno is right around the corner.

This weekend was toasty, up in the mid 90s, and steamy until the rains came through late Sunday. I figured it was a warm up and checked The Weather Channel today for the bad news. Granted, it’s Monday and things change daily…but that looks like the coolest forecast I have ever seen for the Eno. The only downside is the rain.

But I’ve already got my base-burn on, so hopefully I won’t show up next Monday with lobster-red skin.

 

Race Time!

I haven’t told you how I did on Saturday yet, because I had a fun filled weekend between friends in from out-of-town, the race itself and the show. So here we go….

 

I live with a killer

A mouse killer dwells here. I can’t tell you which of my four heathens is responsible, but the clues point to one suspect - the chubby one.

You wouldn’t think that a twenty pound cat with a head the size of a vidallia onion would be capable of capturing a fleet footed mouse, but she has done it once already. She toyed with her victim until a scream startled her into releasing her prey. Watch her now slowly pad around our home and stare at you with the most innocent eyes. But I swear - she kills.

Last night, the Bald One and I were seduced away to our friends’ home with the lure of pulled pork for dinner and a slip’n’slide to play upon. The slide appeared to be hilarious and resulted in a bruise or two while the kiddie pool decorated in monkeys was quite comfortable to sit in. After the sun went down and the bugs came out, we all ventured in for conversation and shredded pig. The conversation wound down as the hour grew late and we returned home.

As I ventured off to our room, I saw what appeared to be a destroyed tampon. Being the only female in the house and knowing that I’ve taken out the garbage in the past month, I wasn’t sure how that was possible. Without looking closer, I knew what it had to be. Ducking into the bathroom, ostensibly to hang the swimsuits and remove my contacts, I begged for the Bald One to remove the carcass before I would open the door. He did, then fed them despite someone already having a light snack. All ate heartily and we went off to bed.

But I slept a little uneasily, knowing one of our domesticated animals was a murderer.

 

To prove my further geekness

Part of the iMac shopping trip netted the Bald One a new Classic iPod, which freed the Nano up for my enjoyment. I did buy one small thing for myself on that trip - the Nike+ sensor toy. I also bought new tennis shoes recently to go with my efforts to de-flab my butt get in shape and attempt to not die the Komen Race. By pure dumb luck, the shoes that I liked and fit the best? Nike+ shoes. Which means my shoes have the nifty hidey-hole for the silly sensor. Score!

 

No more cheese biscuits

My heart is filled with sadness. This morning I ate the last of the cheese biscuits from brunch this past weekend. It was quite delicious and fabulous and I enjoyed every crummy morsel as I drove to my monthly back-crunching. This was washed down with coffee and then I was told I was perfectly timed with my visit. Being straightened out made everything a nice start to my day.

 

T13: How to disappoint a Mother

Mother’s day is coming…and with that, the guilt of how to properly thank the woman who brought you into this world and could quite possibly take you out of it.
How to Disappoint a Mother

1. Move Out The number one thing I have ever done to make my mother sad was leave home. They count the days until you walk out the door, but they never seem to realize that it actually means that you leave.
2. Live in another state/country To add insult to injury, if you’ve decided to be a functioning member of society by not living at home and setting up your own household - choose another state to do it in. It means that both parties will end up “wasting” vacation time visiting family…but it also saves you from the last minute drop-ins
3. Don’t have children* Not a guaranteed way to totally destroy your mother, but many seem to believe that the best way to get even with you for the hell you put them through as a child is to have one of your own. If you decide against that, then they automatically lose the right to laugh at you when your children pull a trick you did so many times.
4. “Waste” your education Often nowadays, parents help their darling offspring get a further education. Be it becoming a doctor or getting your contractors license, if you decide after a year or a day that this is no longer the career for you, it is a guaranteed arrow in to their heart.
5. Be employed in a shaky profession My parents are rational adults. My mother was so happy when I looked at a career in chemical engineering. Then, I switched to drama the same year my brother started performance jazz. Neither screams stability.
6. Be unemployed Even if no fault of your own, one of the fastest ways to disappoint is to not be gainfully employed. As I’ve been told, it is very scary to have one of your children (or their spouses) unemployed. It’s almst worse than #5.
7. Have debt Especially now, the idea that you owe money or don’t pay off your credit cards every month is a cringe worthy offense. How do you know something catastrophic isn’t going to happen and you will need your reserve?
8. Don’t Call Please.
9. Don’t Write The art of letter writing is gone, but you still need to send cards for the major holidays. If you don’t, that’s horrible.
10. Don’t listen to their advice They’ve got years of life experience and don’t want you to make the same mistakes. So by not listening you’re rejecting them completely! Evil child.
11. Buy her the wrong thing If you don’t know her size, go with jewelry. Or flowers.
12. give gift cards This just means that you have no imagination
13. forget Don’t forget your mother.

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Showing off!

iris

Originally uploaded by Rae Z

Just wanted to point out an example of how fabulous my husband is. Shown here is some of the mulch work he has done around the yard. We have this cypress mulch all over the house - attached gardens. The floating islands in the front are 2/3rds covered.

The Bald One rocks.

 

Darnit, I want my deck

Today is the absolute perfect day to have a deck.

There are twenty gazillion things I should be doing right now, ranging from scrubbing six weeks of life off the interior of the house to mowing the weeds. What I really want is to have some kind of cushy recliner set out on my non-existent deck and enjoy the cool breezes as I doze in the sun. It’s been that kind of week.

Our show opened on Thursday, which was quite excellent. I felt loved and admired as one of the actresses proceeded to say how fantastic I was. I made bonus points with her daughter as well by recommending that she check out the Maine State sumer theater camp. Just the fact that I knew about such a thing apparently was awesome. And, for the first time ever, the Bald One was in attendance. That made my night.

This show’s tech wasn’t a particularly hard one, but the week before of running and notes and discussion every night and will we/won’t we get the set elements in time was a little taxing. Add to that opening on the first of a month when bills are due and being in that odd limbo at work of being on the cusp of being busy but not being busy yet and you have one whacked out little Rae.

The yippy-skippy news is our federal “economic stimulous” package arrived. I should throw it at a bill and make it go away, but at current, I have a plan where we actually are managing to pay things down in a reasonable fashion. Combine that with the couple that gets us to go downtown and have a beer with them so often moving out to the boonies and we have an instant extra money supply. So the majority of the funding went into a savings account.

The not so yippy-skippy news is that the Bald One’s employer officially filed Chapter 11 yesterday. Blaming the sagging home market and the lack of retail confidence and you’ve got a failing home-goods store. Oddly, they’re not closing any stores in this area - despite our bets that one of them really should be. The Bald One does have his resume all shined up and has already applied for another position with a prescription home delivery company. Normal hours and theoretically better pay? If he’s happy, I’m all for it.

But now, I’ve delayed long enough. The house isn’t getting cleaner with me playing online. The bills are paid though, the one odd charge is gone and the breakfast has long been finished. Time to get cracking on life.

Even though the breeze is blowing and the birds are singing. Damn reality.

 

Primary crazy

votestoat

Originally uploaded by Rae Z

If you live in the USA and don’t live under a rock, you probably know that North Carolina, along with Indiana, is going to be having a primary election on Tuesday. Due to the potential insanity of the event, NC began one-stop voting a few weeks back where new voters could go to a special location, register and vote all in one spot.

Courtesy of NPR, Obama for America, the Clintons and the Democratic party I know this fact all to well. Too bad these polling locations all operate during hours I’m not anywhere close to my district (working hours + some evening hours I’m at the theater). I’m not even in the right county during these hours.

The big deal for the May 6th primary is the presidential ballot. By this time four years ago, we already had a ballot of John^2 and our voting was a bit of a joke. I figured, like many, that our state again wouldn’t bloody matter. I’ve done no research, unless you count the discussions with my parents where I’ve found out that Obama hates guns (Dad) and just has no experience (Mom). Course, if we’re going with sweeping generalizations, Hillary isn’t much better as the media is portraying her as a tired, shrieking harridan.

I also haven’t put much effort into the other major issues on the ballot - our primaries for Governor, the US Senate seat currently held by Liddy Dole, and a slew of House seats, various upper level state government seats. I really should do some research on these.

But trust me, by Tuesday, I might have an opinion

 

2008 – The Year of the Frog

For those of you who’ve met me, I have a thing for frogs. It’s not always the most obvious thing, but it’s something that seeps in to your consciousness after knowing me for a while. There are a few small magnets that I painted in my cube – a gift from my college roommates to keep me entertained before they came back to school. You walk downstairs into our main living area and the fireplace has an octagon of shelves centered on the side wall. The octagon is covered in all kinds of little frogs, from dime-store finds to one of Swarovski crystal. Our bedroom has a large stuffed beanie baby frog name Phoebe that was a gift for my twenty-first birthday and named after the local bar. And I can’t forget to mention Kermit and a good dozen of his fellow stuffed partners in crime hanging out in the spare bedroom.

The most obvious sign I have a thing for frogs is probably the bright green one on my left wrist. He’s been with me now for more than eight years, and I still get people asking me what bar I went to last night. He’s a tattoo; there to hide surgery scars and acting as a talisman against further damage. Just looking at it makes me smile, and thanks to a silly exercise my college senior year, he also relaxes me.

When the Bald One and I first visited the NC Zoological Park, I spent a good chunk of time staring into the little box of the poison arrow tree frogs. I always do. He bought me a pair of frog earrings to go with my obsession. Frogs of all sorts amaze me. I play with the ones that regularly show up in our yard…even going as far as to make sure dishes of water are available or leaving the lid off the jug I keep out there to water my hanging plants. So imagine my surprise at reading the Mini Page this week when it covered the Year of the Frog movement.

Then there was the ad from Clorax saying they are the first major brand supporter of the Year of the Frog. I’ve ripped the ad out and hung it in my cube, facing the hallway where everyone walks by. Courtesy of Amphibian Ark, I’ll also have the “official” Year of the Frog logo right next to it.

I’m also going to call my zoo. And see what else I can do locally to help out. If you’ve never thought about frogs as something other than slimy creatures in your garden…think about the bugs. Frogs help control the bug population in your backyard…and don’t you want to be able to have your cookout fly-free?

What can you do to help?