A joke only Beth and I will get (ok, maybe Jay, too)

Q. How many clarinetists does it take to change a lightbulb?

A. Just one, but he'll go through an entire box before finding a bulb he likes

So we have a contract on the house. We made an offer last night, and they made a counter-offer. We took it, and today sometime I should be signing a contract. Now we have to have it inspected, get everything finished at the bank, and get ready to move in (at the end of May.)

WHOO HOO!!!!!!! I want people to come visit once it's set up. We'll have two spare bedrooms. It's such a nice house. I like. YAY! I'm very excited.

Introducing a new friend blog.
Scott, at palendrome.blogspot.com (yes, I pointed out to him that he misspelled "palendrome".)

I've known Scott for about 13 years. We went to junior high together, and were friends in high school and beyond. His mom was my gifted teacher in 6th grade. Scott moved to Lexington a few years ago, and has a baby, Nate, and a wife, Michele.

Oh, when we looked at houses yesterday, she showed us one, but she forwarned us that there was a recent murder in it. Here's a link. It was crappy, but regardless, I can't imagine living in a house where someone was violently killed. Everytime you went into that room, you'd think about it. It'd make me sad.

Jay and I looked at houses with our Realtor today.

Here's one we liked.

Here's another one we liked.

Here's yet another we liked. Not as much as the other two, though.

I think I heard Blur's "Coffee and TV" at Bob Evans, made into Muzak.

That's the saddest thing ever, since I heard James "Laid" in Muzak when I worked at Wendy's many years ago.

I beat Aimee at Scrabble for the first time in my life. I scored something like 276.

I credit my excessive playing of the game Word Mojo.

I was going to go home to WV today to see my mom, but I started getting sick. :( I think it's a bad idea to go to a hospital and infect people with poor immune systems in the first place..

My throat hurts. Ow.

Bleah. This has been a crappy week. Until today, my mom was throwing up constantly, and they didn't know why. She was absolutely miserable. Today they figured out it was paralytic ileum (part of her colon is temporarily paralyzed), and everything was stopped and backing up. It's terribly gross. Anyhow, they have that fixed for now, and she'll have a tube down her throat and an all liquid diet for the next three or four days. The irony: before, she was nauseous and not hungry at all. Now she's hungry, but she can't eat. I'll go back there this weekend.

So it wasn't my mom's electrolytes; she had another stroke. This time her left side was affected (last time it was her right side.) Once again, there's no permanent damage, but she's going to have to go through another long course of rehab and physical therapy. She had worked SO hard after the last stroke getting everything better. It makes me so sad that she'll have to do that again. I know she's angry, but I would be too. Bleah.

My mom's in the hospital again. She's had a stomach flu, and it's thrown her electrolytes outta whack (which can be very bad, untreated.) Dad had taken her to the hospital yesterday, and they discharged her. She was in severe pain last night and extremely weak, so he called 911 to transport her to the hospital at about 5:30am. Her nephrologist called my sister at home and said she wasn't supposed to be discharged yesterday in the first place. So anyhow, after hours in the ER again this morning, they're moving her to CAMC Memorial (she was at CAMC General, but they didn't have any open beds.) She had this happen about a year and a half ago, and a few days in the hospital on IV drips of calcium and potassium and the like leveled her out. I pray it's that simple this time.

Dream #1: It's Christmas, but I have to work. My co-worker Josh is sick with a cold, and we have to go from store to store looking for one that's open to find him medicine. I try to get home in time, but they've already eaten. They had spaghetti and meatballs (not that far from reality; the year before last we had spaghetti and this really good polish sausage for Christmas, after we all decided we were sick of ham.) I don't remember much more of this dream.

Dream #2: I'm sitting around at college somewhere, and I realize that Alanis Morisette is beside me. For some reason, this doesn't surprise me, because I know she goes to my college. I start talking to her like I know her; I figure I'm entitled, because in my dream I knew that someone had introduced us during the 5.5 Weeks Tour with Tori Amos. She keeps trying to ditch me, but I keep asking her questions and acting like we're best friends. The Avril Lavigne song "Complicated" comes on, and I tell her I really don't think it's a bad song, it's some decent pop music (I think that during my waking life, as well. It might be simple, but at least it's better than Britney.). She seems to feel the same way, and is bopping her head along as we watch some video for it involving Kathy Baker. Eventually Aimee shows up, and I introduce her to Alanis. There are lots of awkward silences as Alanis tries to find a way to leave. After we all go to a grocery store, Alanis just kinda walks off and stands against a wall drinking beer from a bottle. This really pisses me off, and I leave in a huff. That's all I remember, but it was all weird.

Trying to research your family geneaology is a pain when you barely know anything about the last few generations, must less their predecessors.

Every few months I get in a "Who came before me?" kinda mode, and I make an attempt to research my family. I don't get very far, but I have put together a tiny bit here and there. Mostly, it's broad generalizations.

The names "Logan" and "McClanahan" (as McClanahan is actually a mutation of McClennan somewhere doewn the line) are closely related, which I found interesting. (cite). I might be kin to Liz's Patrick way back when.

I think it ties you to humanity to think about your ancestors. We all have them. Before there was me, there were my parents, my grandparents, my great-grandparents, and so on. There's no chance you don't have a heritage and ancestors. Love them or hate them, you have a family. There are thousands of stories behind any one life; each and every person that came before us has helped shape the world we live in. I guess my curiosity is how I came to be where I am today. My paternal grandmother's father's family (Rose) were German. My maternal grandmother's father's family (Humphreys) were of Welsh descent. My great-grandmother Mooney was originally a Bentley, which is an English name. Mooney is an Irish name that stemmed from "O'Mooney", which was originally something along the lines of "O'Maonaigh" (I'll have to have Liz teach me how to say that sometime. Jay might know how, he knew a bit of Gaelic at some point.) I think my paternal grandfather's mother was at least part Italian, and there's rumor somewhere along the line about American Indian.

I guess the origins of your names doesn't necessarily give you your true origins. Names are transient, especially back in the days when Ellis Island would mangle names to suit their needs. Back before we kept meticulous records, how hard would it be to move from one place to another and assume a whole new identity? There was no way of proving/disproving paternity, either. Still, it'd be nice to know where we think we came from, if nothing else.

So anyhow, it's March, time for the wearing o' the green, Erin go Braugh, that kinda thing. I'll have to re-read How to be Irish (Even If You Already Are). I'm also working on learning to play the tin whistle, too. I'll be Irish before you know it! (and German, Welsh, English, and Italian!)

Wow. Lexington ranks pretty high on this ranking of cities by quality of living:
http://across.co.nz/qualityofliving.htm

My newest obsession:
Carbon Leaf.

You must go to this page. Download "Seven Brides for Seven Sinners". Then go to this page and download "Shine" and "Torn to Tattered", at the very least (to save the mp3s, right click and "save target as" or "save link as" in your browser.)

New music. Yay!

oh, and might I note what a wonderful boyfriend I have?

Not only did he get me (us) the Great Big Sea tickets for Valentine's Day, he also stood with me in the wildly clapping crowd (he's not a fan of crowds), and physically moved a couple of times to try to keep the obnoxious drunk Canadians from bumping into me. He's so nice and good. I'm very fortuante to have him.

I love him so.

ok, enough sap from me.

Excuse me, while I'm a Frügeek for a second.

I just saw MURRAY FOSTER!!!

*sigh of happy contentment*

Mr. Foster, of Moxy Früvous infamy, is indeed Great Big Sea's touring bassist at the moment. Not only did I get the overwhelming delight of seeing Great Big Sea, I got treated to the coolest bassist in North America.

Might I reiterate I'm a geek?

It was one of the best shows I've been to in awhile. Carbon Leaf opened, and they were absolutely excellent. I will buy some of their stuff very very soon. Last time I saw GBS, the Push Stars opened, and I fell in love with them. GBS just can't have a bad opening act. Anyhow, we were up near the front for the entire show, and except for the extremely obnoxious drunk Canadians beside us, it was wonderful. I danced and jumped up and down and clapped in time so hard that my palms are red and sore and I'm lacking feeling in them slightly. Part of me really wanted to wait to see if the band came out afterwards, so I could see if I could ask Murray what the future of Früvous is. But I was hot, tired, sweaty, and deaf, so we just left. Shawn and Bianca were there too. I hope they had a good show.

So, to summarize:
MURRAY FOSTER!!!!!!!!
Carbon Leaf rules!!
I ‹heart› Great Big Sea 4-ever.
Oh, and I'm an overwhelming geek that feels very Irish today.