Heh! I dont know but your reminded me:

One year during graduate school in northern Florida I had to find roomate very quickly. That was the only time I searched in the local newspaper. I found one, she sounded nice, the house was by a lake, what else could I ask for? Moved in.

A week later, over late night snacks, she tells me that she believes in the stars, well okay lots of people do, but she also wants to do a PhD in astrology. I thought she was kidding but no, really, she said, she was looking in programs in California and she showed me some brochures. Not really universities, as you might expect, not really teaching, also.

A week after that she suggested we go listen to this local band she really really liked. By that time I had gained her trust and she was taking me around following that band, so technically, not only she, but also I was a groupie too! Although sitting at the back of the bar by myself does not really constitute groupism, but, you know.

Six months later I had to move out. Why? Well, the band moved to Atlanta. And of course so did she. I should also add that the band hated her. I don't know, I liked her.

On 5/22, I have surgery on my Big Nut.

I want to change my fashion image to include vests, so that I can wear a shirt and tie and still keep a casual overall look.

Neilsen paid me $20 to watch a crappy new game show and then tell them why it was crappy.

I got fed up with broken down washing machines and driers here, so now I carry a permanent marker to warn others.

My bedroom (not the nice one I just painted) is a pit at the moment, needs major cleaning because I have a friend visiting next week and she's elderly, so I'll give her my high, firm bed and I'll sleep on the inflatable bed.

But I've got no motiviation whatsoever to do it, except that it is a dump right now and I know I'll feel better when it's done. But where to start?

There's a ramble about what I did this morning a few posts down.

Oh, and I was sad to see this in the news (Logan is the town where George lived and where I also now have many friends, including Buck and Patty who are featured in the story).

The centre of that little town has been killed by two things - a giant WalMart half a mile outside the town (which probably took away 80% of Buck and Patty's trade when it opened) and the internet, which has affected a lot of the small businesses.

The woman who runs the needlecraft store told me that WalMart doesn't affect her much because it can't stock as many lines as she does, but if people can order things over the internet and don't have to drive several miles into town, especially on those hilly roads in winter months, then they'll take the UPS man coming to their door over a trip to town nine times out of ten.

The Logan Washboard Festival is coming up soon, so if there are bunnies in Central/Southern Ohio, or WV or KY, head over to Logan in mid-June. My friend Laura, who works at the Washboard Factory, is organising the festival this year.

What's a starvation diet? No food at all, or calorie restriction?

iconomy, I'm restricting calories. I'm not really starving, it just feels like it. I'm basically following the no junk, no starchy carbs thing. Just for a little while, in preparation for the upcoming trip.

I had no idea Walmart was in England. I'm living in a cave.

How many calories a day? This is a subject close to my heart ;)

Do you use fitday.com?

I've been watching reruns of The Biggest Loser on the Style network every night at 7 and 8 - I'm addicted to it now.

I had no idea Walmart was in England. I'm living in a cave.

The WalMart in the article I posted is in Ohio. WalMart own Asda, which is one of the biggest UK supermarket chains. A few of the bigger Asda stores are branded as WalMart (the one near my sister is a WalMart) but they are nowhere near as huge as the big American ones.

When I first started sending out resumes, I was timid and tentative in my claims in the cover letter.

But, after getting no responses, I find my desperation increasingly elaborate.

By the time I'm done with today's set, I'll be claiming to cure cancer for the lucky bastards who hire me, and congratulating myself for defeating time-travelling Hitler in the battle for the Radioactive Tyrannosaurus's Brain.

essexjan, I can't believe I missed that you were speaking of Ohio. Need more coffee.

kklangston, desperate times call for desperate measures. Embellish! : )

My calorie intake probably falls between 900 to 1200. For instance, yesterday I had a cup of oatmeal, a banana, an orange, eggbeaters with onions and peppers. I love the Birdseye frozen onions and peppers stirfry mix. I always have onions and peppers on hand to mix in with egg whites or Eggbeaters. They're yummy. I also had two small pieces of cheese thin crust pizza at the neighbor's house last night. I wouldn't have eaten this on the "starvation diet" (more like skinless chicken, veg, and beans) but I was a guest, so I went with it. That's not a lot of food, but most days I try to keep it around 1200 calories. Basically I'm eating three light meals, with a couple pieces of fruit in between. It's not entirely realistic. If I had any sense I would be more reasonable. There's something about a trip where I have to wear a swimsuit that gets me super-motivated. The trip is in mid-June, so not too much time left, and I'm panicking. I'll feel better and more like myself with 10 to 15 pounds gone.

I don't use Fitday. It's a great site, but I can't seem to log in everyday. I have the attention span of a gnat. I like Spark People. They have a feature where you journal food, calories, and exercise. It's not as thorough as Fitday, but I like it for some reason. I can't manage to sign on to it daily either.

Carmina, I loved your story. I met a Chris Issak groupie. She was interesting to say the least. Mischief, good luck with your surgery. I hope it's nothing serious.

Iconomy, are you dieting at the moment? What kind of plan are you following?

Check out this mirror. I love it. I could make it. I pretty much gave up the Coke, but I could find cans and mooch from friends.

Apologies for totally screwing up klangklangston's name.

Here are some poems about housework. Must clean something.

I went to my mandarin class today and found out that the (Chinese) girl I already thought was pretty cool because she's going to spend some time in Argentina later this summer to study tango is even cooler because she works in marketing at EMI.

Which kinda made me wonder what my life would be like if I hadn't chosen the conventional path of studying business in school (well, economics, but close enough, although to be very stereotypically Chinese, I could have grown up to be a doctor because, of course, most Chinese parents want their kids to grow up to be doctors). Anyway, I think I'm pretty risk-averse and, well, boring and uncool sometimes and wish I were less so.

Plus, my room is a mess too. I have clean, folded laundry that I haven't bothered to put away in drawers for the last, um, 3 weeks and my dresser is a mixed up pile of assorted books, mail, magazines and jewelry. One of the books is a cookbook - which reminds me that I have to plan the menu for Mother's Day dinner tomorrow.

And I really need to wash my hair. I think I'll go do that now.

An old friend in Memphis is seeing her oldest son commissioned a Marine officer today. He graduated from University of Memphis May 5, and she just went to his graduation last Saturday. He's been in the Marine reserves for the last 4 years as an enlisted man, and she sent me pictures she took last night, of him wearing his corporal's dress blues for the last time. He's not due to go to Officer's School until October 25, but his reserve unit is deploying to Iraq in August, and heading out to training in California in a week or so. He's really torn now about his commissioning, because he really wants to go with his unit, and even feels that if he isn't deployed with his squad, guys he knows will be in greater danger, for not having him there as a non-comm. It's really tearing him up, and the prospect of seeing him go, sooner or later is tearing her up. They've mostly gotten through the last year by avoiding talking about these days, although they knew the times were coming. And now, here they are. Duty and pride, counterbalanced by fear and uncertianty. He's a great kid, who will be, by act of Congress, a gentleman and an officer in 4 hours. He's earned it, putting himself entirely through college, without loans, and graduating with honors.

So while it's just another Saturday at my house, it's a day never to be forgotten in Memphis, and my thoughts are with them.

Tonight, I'll grill some flounder fillets I bought at the fish house today, and put them with some new lettuce and basil from the pot garden. The larder is stuffed, since I went to the grocery store too, this morning, to the point that cooking for the next few days is a careful enterprise of not knocking stuff off the loaded pantry shelves. The first of this year's Vidalia onions came in, and so I'll make sweet onion fritters to go with the fish, too. Chocolate pudding with crushed Oreos for dessert (one of brother's favorites).

I'm always dieting! I mean, I always watch what I eat, because I have a horrible metabolism. I rarely eat over 1000 calories a day.

I have too many loads of laundry to do. I try to do the easy loads first, like jeans, and save the hard loads, like socks, for last because it takes me forever to sort and fold all those little things. Sometimes I'll just leave the clean socks in the basket so we end up digging through it every morning to find a pair. By the time the basket is nearly empty, I might get around to folding as the chore doesn't seem so huge anymore. But then, it's time to wash more socks again.

I'm very glad its warm out ... more days wearing sandals = less socks to wash.

My roommate's sleeping so I can't get to the camera, it's in his room. Which is annoying as I have kitchen and shoes to photograph for y'all, and I want him to get a pic of my sabres t-shirt reconstruction, as I'm particularly happy with it (and getting tons of compliments)

I went to buy cat food at the crappy bodega near my house, they were out of our usual kind so I got the same brand but a different flavor... hopefully little miss spoiled won't freak out. [1] Annoyed the grocery a block away went out of business, and anxiously waiting for something new to open. It wasn't for lack of business, they closed all of their stores, the city one near me was carrying the chain for a couple years.

Very broke. A coworker is picking me up a carton of smokes over the weekend (he goes to the rez), and I have train fare for the week. If I go watch the game tonight I'll be nursing a single beer the whole way through. I realized, though, that on my biweekly schedule I get three checks in June, when I normally budget for just two, so I can spend my next check catching up on my cell and gas bill, and use the check from the first for rent.

And that is my saturday ramble.

[1]My guilt over using Dad's has dissipated since my grandmother said, at random "you should feed your cat Dad's." I asked why, and it turns out it's made in the town she grew up in, I have second cousins who work there, and some of the corn they use comes from her youngest brother's farm (that was, many years ago, her parent's farm). Which doesn't shock me, as Meadville, PA is a small town, and about half of it are related to me in some way.

I just finished my last classroom-based class in my MFA program this week. I feel relieved but also sad -- it's been a huge and wonderful part of my life for the past two years. Now all I have to do is produce a book-length manuscript of poetry in a couple of months -- yikes!

My partner's asleep in the bedroom -- I wish I could join him, but I'm too caffeinated.

It's sunny but way too cold and windy.

I just got a brand spakin' new external usb 500GB external drive and I'm avoiding cleaning the apartment by cleaning up my laptop's internal drive. So far I've freed up about 20GB, and I'm already drooling in anticipation of filling it up with more useless internet crap. Woo-hoo, free space, it's so liberating!

Ramble? Me?

I'm on the porch. Pips is taking a nap. 5 row houses down a couple is grilling beef on their porch and the smell is making my mouth water. If it weren't for the 50 foot alley separating me, I'd grab a six pack of beer and walk across the roofs and say 'hey neighbor,smells good, want a brew?'

I also have developed a theory that Dick Van Dyke is still on televison for the sole reason that septugenarians and up can look at the screen and say 'I know that guy!'

The Hi-Fi at this exact moment is playing the Rainmakers 'Downstream,' in case you were wondering. I'm also wearing my Jersey City/Jesus Christ ball cap, my Deadwood Mets shirt, my screwheads and some cutoffs, just to make the scene more vivid.

The tracks behind my house have a steady traffic of Amtrak and frieght trains. One Amtrak train always blows it's horn as it's passes. According to my landlady's son it's because the conductor lives in the neighborhood. Last night Hugh Janus came over and drank some beers with me. It's always nice to have two drunkson the porch instead of one.

Ran out this morning to pick out something for my mother-in-law. She's my hubby's stepmom, sort of, since she's never married his dad but they've been together for 17 years. She's a saint for all she's put through with my father-in-law and taking care of him and all. So I got her one of those "Journey" pendant necklaces (wish it could have been real diamonds). She'll like it.

My 10 year old bought me a huge geranium with his own money at school, so I planted that and two new plants in the garden. Then I was looking at the new bare space next to our new shed. I took a large, old branch we'd cut down from a tree, stuck it in the ground, and transplanted sprouts of morning glory vines from the front garden. If they take, they'll twine up the branch and add color and interest to that area.

Hung out in a chair in the yard, reading and listening to my iPod shuffle. First a squirrel came within two feet of me, then a battered old stray tomcat did the same about an hour later. He must be blind, because he'd never come that close to anyone. Then I watched two little stray kittens playing near a gap in the skirting of my neighbor's house. So cute, but wild as heck. Mom won't let anyone come near her. I suspect she's the mother of the kitten we have that I found last summer.

Think I got a little sunburn, and maybe I'll go take a relaxing bath.