I had this really weird dream that me and my entire family were visiting Beth in New Jersey. They took me there as a surprise, but as soon as I saw Dewey, I knew where I was. The thing is, in the dream, is that they didn't tell me we'd be there several days, and I didn't bring any toiletries or changes of clothes. Beth's mom and uncle were very nice about suddenly having their home overrun. It wasn't just my immediate family; it was family that don't even exist in real life. And I remember seeing a dog fight with another dog about 20 feet suspended in air. It was a weird dream.

Now to go move stuff. Fun.

I am now voluntarily in debt for over $100,000. Wow.

We closed on the house. We cleaned the kitchen. We scrambled around to fix bank accounts. We had very good Indian food (at the place near Liz's.) I think I've inhaled too much bleach for the day, as we were using a bleach based spray for the kitchen. Tomorrow I'll try to do my closet and move in some of my clothes. It's not that the place is extremely dirty, but we just want everything to be as clean as possible, so even if it's not new, it's new to us. hehe.

Good things about yesterday:
1) Jay has been offered a free car (see below)
2) Jay found out he got a $2000/year scholarship from UK. (YAY!)

Bad things about yesterday:
1) My mom's in the hospital again, this time for peritonitis. It's fairly common among peritoneal dialysis patients with an average occurrence of once every 15 months. However, she's been on peritoneal dialysis for four years, and this is her first incident. So she beat the odds. It's treated with large doses of antibiotics. I think they caught it in time, but it can be potentially life-threatening. It's very scary.

Kickass! Jay's aunt and uncle are giving him his cousin's old car. It's a Honda that's been well taken care of. That's about all I know for now, but it's exciting. It means Jay won't have to ride the bus anymore (after I teach him how to drive, that is.)

1) We close on the house Friday! For those of you not familiar with the process of buying real estate, closing is when you go and sign everything and it's all final. That means we can move Jay in on Saturday, and start painting soon. And buying furniture. And all that jazz.

2) I just had a bite of a prime rib sandwich. Oh, my. It was good. It's all I can do not to eat the rest of it. (I already had lunch, darnit.)

3) It was nice having a long weekend. On Saturday Jay and I went up to Florence for his sister's graduation party. I met more extended family. I ate a LOT of chicken salad croissants. Grapes do not belong in chicken salad. Or broccoli salad. Grapes belong is stuff that is sweet, not savory. Just a note. However, pecans are fine in chicken salad.

4) I feel like I should have more to say, but I don't. I had a nice birthday. Thank you for the birthday wishes. :)

This strikes me as weird, for some reason.

I looked up a recipe for graham cracker pie online. This recipe came back.

hehe. It's from a cookbook put out by the Junior League of Charleston in 1974, that my mom just happens to have. There's no rhyme nor reason as to why we have that cookbook. Maybe graham cracker pie is just a WV thing.

OK. I am looking at pianos online. I found this page, and the one ad on the bottom (with corresponding picture) says:

Yamaha 5' 8" Disklavier Grand - Collectible, white finish, like new, has factory installed disk player. Signed by Barry Larkin, famous baseball player, who was it's original owner.

WHY would you care if your piano was signed by Barry Larkin??? It's not like it's a baseball.

Note:
When I'm trying to copy down (by pen and paper) something on a computer screen, it absolutely does no good to hit CTRL-C with the intention of CTRL-Ving it.

Give me your opinion on these dishes

That's what Jay and I are thinking of getting.

Erin McKeown has a new album coming out in June.

Everyone buy it. It'll be good. I heard a song from it on NPR.

I had a dream last night that I was painting the house. My sister, Nicole, and Tara were helping me. hehe. However, they were doing a crappy job, and I wouldn't let them help after I saw what they were doing. My sister was trying to paint around my brother's old Metallica pictures that were on the wall (which I assume will not be on the walls of my new house.) We were painting stripes, and I'd bought low-tack tape to put on the walls, but it was the wrong stuff. I was painting red and white stripes on the wall. Quite garish.

hehe. I feel bad that Nicole and Tara were bad painters in my dream. I don't know why.

My Grandma McClanahan gave me some quilts she had in her guest bedroom. They're really for the new house, but I like them, so I thought I'd use one, since they're perfect for this type of weather wear it's not too cold, not too warm at night. I took them one out of the nice zippered bag she put them in, and it smelled so nice and comforting. Grandma-like (which is not to say old-lady-like.. my Grandma is a hip Grandma. hehe.)

You know, I thought buying furniture would be fun and exciting. Furniture that you don't have to put together yourself. Whoo hoo!

I was wrong.

The quest started months ago. We looked at furniture stores in Lexington and surrounding areas. In Cincinnati. In WV. We figured out how much couches would cost. Coffee tables, end tables, etc. We priced things, wrote stuff down, the whole nine yards.

But now it's time for Final Decisions. We have to decide which couches we wanted. We need the coffee/end tables to match the dining room table (the dining room adjoins the living room). I need a bedroom suite, or at least a bed.

We've finally found a dining room table that matches some coffee table/end table combos we like (thanks to Value City for placing them near each other.) I think we've settled on a couch. I know what bed I want. Now we just have to figure out exactly how much we have to spend.

Now we'll just have to decide on paint. The thought makes me want to cry.

Guzzlefish. Post your album and DVD collection. It values it for you, too. Nifty.

I just had the weirdest dream.

Jay and I were closing on the house, but it was a different house. This house was way bigger, and there was a lego room, a trainset setup in the middle of the living room, and the garage was actually a full-sized wooden basketball court (and in the dream, this thrilled me for some reason.) I kept calling to talk to my family about it, and kept getting Keanu Reeves, who was my sister's husband. We kept waiting for them to move their stuff out (they had movers), and we didn't know what they were taking and what they were leaving.

It's starting to fade now. But how odd.

So in the midst of my afternoon I'm listening to Moxy Fruvous' album , I go to Jian Ghomeshi's website. As I did, this song came on.

Let me quote (sung by Jian):
"You gave me your heart and habits
Proverbially at my side
And though maybe I took advantage
You know I never really lied
I was out in the field collecting strength for my shield
And I misplaced what made me real
I can't ask you to wait around
But you know, you can't deny"

I dunno. From what I've seen online lately, he's a bit bigger than life anymore. Rated one of Canada's best dressed? Two TV shows? Even if it is just in Canada, it seems like it's a far cry from the days of tromping around North America with a small (but wonderful) band. It's like Jian's the equivalent of American cheese and *gasp* Starbucks: Overprocessed. A far cry from their true roots. Not bad, necessarily, but different in a corporate sorta way. It's like he's an image, rather than a person. Which is particularly ironic for him.

Any thoughts?

OK, it's all done now.

New web design, with new front page.

New blog design. New blog comments.

Whew. I'm tired. And hungry.

I'm testing out my new blog layout. Forgive me if this gets a bit messed up in the process.

Ben Folds rocked the bitch that is Cincinnati.

It was nice seeing Erika and Stan, the ever-present sock monkey. I would have liked to have talked to her more, but that was not to be. I did give her a free burrito coupon, however. That's real friendship. hehe. Erika, we tried to find you after Concrete Blonde, but there was NO way we could get up that far. From what I saw you all were at the very front right in front of the piano. We were off to the side, but we had a decent view on the rail. And no, when he blew a kiss to the audience during "One Angry Dwarf...", that was not his marriage proposal to you. That was to ME. Yes. hehe. I looked for you afterwards, but we didn't find you.

I have up a new design for my website (and eventually this blog.) The front page is all the old stuff, but the inner stuff is the new design. See it here. It is very girly, I admit.

And now it is time for me to go goodnight.

"I get upset or happy
I go to sleep
nothing hurts when
I go to sleep"
Ben Folds, "Narcolepsy"

Reminder to myself (and her):
Meet Erika at the souvenir stand at 9:30 tomorrow.

I have tickets to:
Ben Folds in Cincinnati this Friday.
Dar Williams at the Kentucky on June 16.
Ani Difranco on Mountain Stage on June 29.

Now to get Tori Amos/Ben Folds tickets for this summer.

To breed or not to breed To read the article you have to view a short ad by clicking on the icon in the right-hand corner of the site framework.

This is an article published on Salon.com. I found it interesting, and it mirrors exactly how I feel about not having kids. It's always nice to be validated.

I just checked out the weather for Lexington on weather.com.

Click here to see a screenshot.

That's just unreal

I'm boooooooored.

One hour and 12 minutes before I leave work for the weekend.

All of the websites that usually amuse me are boring me (the Straight Dope message board, zone.msn.com, etc.) BLEEEEEAH.

My friends Liz and Patrick are in New Zealand right now. Read about it here. It looks like such a beautiful place. I never really had the desire to visit before their adventures, but now I do. If they move there (like they're thinking), I'm gonna come visit. hehe.

And belated birthday wishes to the aforementioned Liz and Tara. I hope you both had good ones, on their respective days.

I'm so tired I want to sit down on the floor and cry. Stupid mold allergies. Garph.