Patrick's Saturday Six

1. What is the last thing you either camped out or got up unusually early to be able to buy? That's easy; I was in line last night at midnight for the latest Harry Potter. I'm a die-hard fan!

2. If you had to give up one of the following for a full year, which would be the easiest to do without? Which would be the most difficult to give up?
a) Your personal vehicle
b) Your Telephone (both cellular and land line)
c) The Internet
d) Meat (all of it: Beef, Poultry, Pork and Seafood)
e) Television

Television would be the easiest thing for me to give up; I grew up without television (and without a car, for that matter; I didn't learn to drive until I was 30, but that's another story). The most difficult thing for me to give up in Dallas would be my car, as public transportation here is very poor, and many of the things that I do are not within walking distance. Giving up my phone(s) would be a close second in difficulty, though.

3. How many items (include all bottles, boxes and containers) are in your medicine cabinet? Which is the last one you used? There are 46 items in my medicine cabinet, but none of them is medicine; there are bath oils and powders, colognes, lotions, etc. Having raised 4 children and now having a 2-year-old grandson who comes over regularly, I keep medicines in less accessible places. The last item I used was a bottle of Banana Republic Classic cologne, which I spritzed on this morning after getting dressed.

4. What is the first source you go tofor news of any kind when you wake up? How much do you trust that particular source? I turn on my computer and look at the front page of the NYTimes online, to which I subscribe. The front page is always one of my morning e-mails. I then go in and read any stories that interest me, and yes, I trust the NY Times, to the chagrin of most of my conservative, Republican Dallas friends.

5. Take the Quiz: What do the letters of your name stand for?

Judi: Judicial/Unforgettable/Dignified/Insane - hmmmmmmm...OK, dunno how "judicial" I am, but there are people who'd say I'm unforgettable, I think, but NEVER dignified...that's just not me...ditzy maybe, sometimes ;p and insane, yep, I'd agree

As for emmapeel: Exquisite/Modern/Meek/Adventurous/Perfect/Exciting/Exquisite/Loud

Sheesh, exquisite???? Um, that's an adjective I'd reserve for Audrey Hepburn; nope, I'm not exquisite (even though it's listed twice!!) - I'm also not meek...I'm definitely adventurous (hey! I've ridden a camel, gone on cattle drives more than once, and gone whitewater rafting for a week...and done plenty of other adventurous things that AOL might not sanction my listing)...Perfect - HA! 'fraid not...Exciting...yep, there are people who'll testify to this, hehehe...Exquisite (see earlier comment)...Loud - nope, I'm not loud. So much for the acronym generator.

6. What is your favorite color and why? If you have a journal or journals, is this color the primary one on those journals? If not, why not?

Blue is my favorite color, in part because I love most of it's variations...I find it soothing. But I also love drab colors; browns, greys and earthtones, and the primary color on my blog is a sort of grey/brown. I didn't use blue because I think it's overrused.

muggle central

Mike and Jon went to Walmart at midnight and bought a copy, and Jon (not realizing I was in line at B&N for a copy of my own at the same time they were at Walmart), generously told Mike to tell me I can have his copy in two days, and can even keep it if I replace it with a paperback for him. At 9:20 this morning Brenden called to tell me he and Kath bought a copy at Fry's for $13.00 and that Fry's still had a couple hundred copies left...this in addition to the copy that Kath had pre-ordered at B&N several months ago, but that she discovered, online, had been shipped to their old California address. So as I spoke with them this morning, Kath was waiting for it to be a decent hour in California so she could call Brenden's grandma and ask her to go over to their old house and pick up the copy she ordered. Dunno why, but it makes me happy to know we're a family of Harry Potter fans.

HP and the Half-Blood Prince

I just got back from Barnes & Noble, where I got in line at midnight to pick up my copy of the latest Harry Potter. Now I'm back home, and to accompany my read, I've got a ham sandwich, and a bottle of Ace's hard pear cider, and a slice of dark chocolate pound cake...and I have to say, this is the best Friday night date I've had in a LONG time...

moving forward

My bedroom door hasn't latched properly the entire 20 years I've been in this house, except for the occasional day that the humidity was so high it swelled the door into alignment. 99% of the time, when I shut that door, the latch hit the strikeplate just a little low, so if the door was lifted a bit, it would latch. Accordingly, for the past 20 years, when I've gone into or out of my bedroom I've usually pulled up a bit on the door to get it to latch, and it's been an incredible pain in the butt to always have to remember to do that. When I haven't remembered, I've come home to find the cats asleep on the chaise (they're not allowed in there), or the door's suddenly opened, on its own, at inopportune moments, etc. But no more!

Friday night I went to Home Depot and spent $1.19 on a whole stack of plastic shims, and this morning I trimmed one and screwed it into place, behind the bottom hinge...voila! After 20 years, the door now latches, perfectly and effortlessly, as it should! I'm still amazed...such an easy, inexpensive fix! I think there may be a lot of things in my life that are like that, where just a small amount of concentrated effort will reap a big reward. Now to figure out what they are...

Saturday Six

1. How many mirrors are there in your home? If you could go for the rest of your life without ever looking in a mirror (but still know that you hadn't missed a button or that your hair was disarrayed, etc.) would you? There are 14 hanging mirrors in my home (including medicine cabinet mirrors, mirrors on the back of closet doors, etc.). No, I wouldn’t be willing to go the rest of my life without looking in a mirror, because I don’t trust anyone else to tell me what works and what doesn’t. The significant others in my life, be they former spouse, lover, or children, tend to say "You look fine", but I can look in a mirror and tell at a glance that I want different shoes with an outfit, or to wear a longer/shorter skirt, etc., and that’s important to me.

2. What online abbreviation annoys you the most and why? LOL! LOL, because it’s overused. ;p

3. What do you hate the most in this world? Prejudice.

4. You decide to go to your next high school reunion. What do you anticipate would be the thing most people said about you behind your back? "She looks great!" (dunno if they'd actually say this, but I'm not paranoid; I don't imagine them saying anything bad).

5. You learn that because of some galactic mixup in fate itself, you must restart your life tomorrow in a new place. You will emerge as a person with a unique past and won't seem out of the ordinary to those in the new place. You will retain the experiences and memories of your past, but the people you are closest to will believe that you are dead and gone and you would be prohibited from contacting them. Where would you go and why? I’d go somewhere near water, and it would probably be south, although I also love the northeast. I grew up in Minnesota, on the Mississippi, and although there are many things I like about Texas, I’ve always felt landlocked here in Dallas.

6. What are you most passionate about in this moment of your life and why? Oh wow...that’s hard for me because I’m trying to figure out so many things about what to do next in my life right now. At the risk of sounding like the AndieMacDowell character in Sex, Lies & Videotape worrying about the world’s garbage and other things she couldn’t control, I’d have to say that the thing most likely to get a rise out of me these days is Our Esteemed Leader and His Minions blathering on and on about the necessity of increasing the ranks of the volunteer army with Yours, Mine and Ours but not Theirs, and sending young soldiers off to places we have no business being...now, if the Bush girls suddenly join the army and are shipped off to Faluja, I may be somewhat assuaged...

The Andromeda Strain

I've been reading other people's blogs, and a couple of days ago I came across a comment on a British blog asking if Starbucks has proliferated across Europe like it has in the US. The writer went on to equate Starbucks with the Andromeda Strain, and said it's meant the end of good coffee in America; he further likened it to McDonald's, "except that McDonald's is cheaper". It was a funny, but in many ways pertinent rant, and as I sat with my ex at our local Starbuck's this morning, I thought about it.

It was pouring rain outside, so there were just a few fellow caffeine addicts who'd braved this morning's weather. I got my usual Starbucks drink: a grande, non-fat, extra-dry, "for-here" cappucinno; my ex got a hot green tea. We then sat down in a couple of overstuffed chairs and briefly discussed various and sundry matters; everything from the London bombings to our twin sons' dentist appointments. Most of the people around us appeared to be engaged in similar casual conversations, and I noticed that most of the people who came in alone, even if they ended up reading the paper or gazing at the screens of their laptops once they got their drinks, initially engaged in a bit of banter with the staff as they ordered their drinks.

Watching all this, it occurred to me that a large part of why I like Starbuck's is because it provides a neutral, comfortable place to meet and talk a bit with others at any time of day. We live in a world where the morning news reminds us that one can be blown to bits simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and where many people seem to feel increasingly frightened and isolated. So to be able to go to a place where one is assured a sense of connection, however brief, whether with friends or with strangers, is a good thing... regardless of the quality (or lack thereof) of the coffee.

schadenfreude

This morning I had a piece of furniture delivered from Crate and Barrel. A little background info here for those who don't know: I had an electrical fire at my house a couple of years ago. No one was hurt, which is of course the most important thing, but...I can say from experience that the best thing is not to have a fire. The level of disruption created by a fire is horrendous, and in this instance, to add to that, an unscrupulous contractor made off with a third of my insurance settlement...suffice it to say, it's been a long, hard haul, putting my house back together, room by room.

So this morning I was up bright and early to be ready for the delivery guys, and I'd pulled back the rugs, moved furniture, etc., to facilitate delivery of an "entertainment center" (sort of a horizontal armoire for tv & video equipment) for my gameroom. The first delivery man came into my house, took one look at the doorway of the gameroom, and, grinning broadly, engaged in a bit of schadenfreude

I groaned inwardly and bit my tongue; he and his partner brought the piece of furniture in, on its side, and the first guy again seemed to take an apparent delight in telling me there was "No way" it would fit through the door and into the gameroom. He added, "This is a floor sample, right?" I said, "Yes, that's right." That means I got it for a great price; less than 50% of the regular price, but floor samples aren't returnable, even if it they literally don't fit in your house. He reminded me of this, and looked so pleased with himself that I wanted to kick him. "Well, where do you want it instead of the gameroom?" he asked, still smiling broadly. I told him to leave it right outside the gameroom.

After he left I went online and re-read the "How to Measure" section on the C&B website and found where I'd gone wrong: the guidelines said that the diagonal measurement must be less than A OR B; it should have read the diagonal measurement must be less than A AND ALSO less than B. Disgruntled, I turned my attention to the entertainment center and started thinking, hey, wait a minute, this thing wasn't carved out of a solid block of wood...I got a screwdriver and a square bit and began disassembling the base of the entertainment center...I was grateful to discover it was screwed but not glued...15 minutes later, voila! The entertainment center was a good 8" shorter than it had been, but to my dismay it still wouldn't fit through the doorway.

I went to Home Depot and got a small dolly of my own to faciliate matters, and then I got Mike and Chris, who are 19, to help me with it. After re-measuring and re-calculating, I also got a pry bar from my tool kit and removed a narrow strip of molding from one side of the doorway. We then wedged the entertainment center, on its side on my dolly, into the hall outside the gameroom, as far as it would go. Mike and I were inside the gameroom, trying to turn the piece into the doorframe, and Chris was on the hall side, pushing. He kept saying, "Mom, this isn't going to work", but the more he said it, the more determined I became..."Just SHOVE IT, HARD!" I finally shouted at him, and he did, and then...woo hoo! Suddenly it was free of the door and inside the gameroom!

We then re-attached the base, and before we set it upright, I took an indelible pen and wrote instructions on the bottom about how it was necessary to remove the base and the piece of doorway molding to get the piece into the room.

I felt like calling Crate and Barrel and asking someone to tell the delivery guy that we got it in -

There should be a word for the reverse of schadenfreude, but if there is, I don't know it; nevertheless, I feel it: the boys and I took joyful pleasure in overcoming the negativity of that delivery guy.

Happy Independence Day! (taking malicious satisfaction in the misfortune of others): he said, "That's not tall enough (referring to the doorway); it's not gonna fit." I said, "Excuse me, but that doorway is 81" high by 32" wide, and the piece of furniture is 58" wide by 70" high by 27" deep, so how is the doorway not tall enough?" He said cheerfully, "It won't be tall enough once I put it on the dolly!" I bit. I said, "How tall's the dolly?" "It's 3 or 4 inches high," he said.