See? Now you don’t even have to read this.  You can just click on the links and get the hell out of here. 

I have been walking around like a space cadet today.  I’m blaming allergies, since I didn’t even drink last night.  Consequently, despite the fact that I have stared at this computer screen for far too long already, my repertoire for the day is limited.  Very limited.   Ergo, I present to you some bullet points:

• None of my news will be as exciting as a certain someone else’s news today.  Woo!  Props to Stefanie for telling me to check out that blog today since she knows I don’t keep on top of my reading. 
• It is cold and blustery and windy today.  Because of this, I decided not to wash my hair, which I haven’t done since Wednesday.  Why bother?  I thought to myself.  It will look crappy regardless.  Um…I should have bothered after all.  I think it’s safe to say that it looks crappier unwashed than it would have if I hadn’t washed it. 
• I’ve recently learned that two of my real life friends have blogs of their very own.  Woo!  You should read them and be friends with them, too.  Internets, meet the lovely and delightful JustCallMeNora and the handsome and awesome MediaHerd. 
• I keep interviewing candidates who I want to set up on dates.  Perhaps I should start a recruiting/matchmaking business….hmm. 
• I am sleepy.
• My nephew (Rob’s brother’s son, that is) is graduating from college this weekend.  His entire family, including me and Rob, will be attending.  I’m sure you can guess how I feel about this.  I have a feeling I can also guess how my nephew feels about this, too.  Is it just me, or does it seem like it would be less stressful to just have your immediate family along?
• Lastly, but definitely not leastly, I found someone who can and will fix my blog for a reasonable price.  This means that - as early as next week - my comments will be back!  As will my blogroll!  And all sorts of other goodies.  (Um, like categorized posts…woooo!)(fine, that’s not that exciting.)  I might even get fancy and change the design a bit.  White white whine?  Nah.

With that, I think I will put myself out of my misery.  By that, I mean I will stop trying to be interesting and witty and will instead go downstairs and buy myself a trusty diet coke - my third one of the day.   Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

Okay, I have no idea where the day has gone or how it has gotten to be damn near 2:00 p.m., but I have a million things to do (and damn near no desire to do them, but that’s beside the point).  And I forgot I have a client meeting at 3.  And therapy at 4.  Am tempted to skip therapy.  I hate cancelling stuff.  Hate it.  But…at times like these, I think it might be necessary.  There!  Decision made!

All of this whining is really just my way of saying “Hi, no time to write anything fun”, which is a shame because I’ve been in the process of writing about how I’ve been fighting this prevalent sadness lately.  First I thought it was sadness over the fact that I’m still not friends with my friend anymore (if that makes any sense…remember all that drama, how I haven’t heard from one of my supposed best friends since before Christmas?).  Today, though, I realize I feel like everything is in flux right now.  Friendships are changing, people are having kids and our time is getting more limited, I miss my friends who live out of town, I miss my sister, I hate that I’m so far away from my favorite little bitties, blah blah blah, and if I write any more I will end up spending more time on this today than I have to spend, so I will stop.  For now. 

Instead, I will ask you to tell me how much you love my new hair.  Because I know you do, since I do.  I take back everything I said in yesterday’s haiku about maybe changing hairdressers.  God bless Francesca, even though her chairs are pretty damn uncomfortable.  if you live in Philly, you really should go to her.  I promise it will be fantastic.   PS, I am apparently practicing my Mona Lisa smile in this photo.  

And also, check out the rest of my new flickr photos to see all three of my new pairs of shoes, please.  And my first mitered square.  Oh, and another thing - if you haven’t joined Goodreads yet, you totally should.  It’s my newest obsession.

PS, this might keep you interested while you await my next post.  I know I found it intriguing!

Toodleoo, my pretties. 

Recommendation

Chicken salad from
Costco is sure delicious!
You should try it, yo.

Down With Archuleta

How is he still the
Front runner?  He annoys the
Ever-living crap

Out of me with his
Half-closed eyes and his stupid
Song arrangements.  Puke.

Thoughts Before My Expensive Hair Cut & Color Appointment Tonight

Which would you prefer:
To love your haircut but not
Love the price - or the

Experience?  Or
To take the risk of going
Someplace cheaper to

See if it’s more fun
Or enjoyable?  I could
Not decide in time.

Babes in the Wood

Pictures are up from
My adventure Saturday.
Here’s my favorite.

This was going to be an at-least-partially-illustrated post today, but I left my camera on the kitchen countertop this morning and therefore cannot add the pictures from it, but I’ll put them up on flickr later. 

I took Chester on a hike on Saturday.  Where we went, there are multiple trails.  We ended up on one that is just for hikers and people on horseback (some also allow bikers).  What I didn’t realize is that the hikers-and-horses-only trails aren’t quite as obvious as the others.  Or, maybe they are, and I am just a moron.  The result of this is that Chester and I ended up lost.  LOST!   I surprised myself by staying calm whilst traipsing through the woods.  I even climbed up some things.  Not trees.  More like…ledges?  Or something?  I kept thinking of Bear on Man vs. Wild and wondering if instead of working to find my way back to civilization I should try to build myself a shelter or maybe find some nice bugs to eat, and I also had visions of the news story that would show up in the Inquirer if I didn’t make it out there (”Idiot Hiker Dies In Woods 50 Feet Away from Trail”).  At one point, I spied the trail from across a small river/stream.  I stood on the bank, debating crossing, and realized that my situation wasn’t quite desperate enough to get wet yet.  Chester and I emerged from the woods an hour or so later to find ourselves on the lawn of a gorgeous home. 

I reached into my marsupial-pouch-like pocket of my sweatshirt, only to find that my cell phone had fallen out of it sometime in my hour or so of being lost in the woods.  Poor little pink cellphone!  And poor little me: without a phone, I could not call Rob to come save my ass.  Then again, since Rob and I had one car, and I had driven that one car to the start of my hiking adventure, I suppose there wasn’t much he could do anyway.

As luck would have it, the first people I inquired about my whereabouts were the landscapers, who didn’t speak English.  To get back at them, Chester took a giant crap on the lawn.  We then toodled down to the busier street at the end of the private drive and flagged down a driver, who told us how to get back to where I’d parked the car.  All told, our adventure lasted a couple hours (plus the 1/2-hour when we weren’t lost).  We came home, I picked three ticks out of Chester’s fur (ew), a horseback rider found my phone and called Rob’s phone to get it back to me, and all was well with the world.  What can I say?  I’m a survivor, yo. 

In other weekend news, I went to a new yarn shop to purchase materials for my next super-secret baby blanket project.  They didn’t have as many colors as I wanted, and they were about to close, so I bought some random ones that I didn’t like as much at the last minute, and now I totally regret it.  Argh!  I will be shocked if the store will take them back, but I’m going to try.

Also, have you heard this rumor that all dogs’ feet smell like popcorn?  I cannot wait to go home and see if this is true, which will bring me up to a whole new level of Weird.  Awesome.

Speaking of popcorn (sort of.  Well, speaking of food…) I made two delicious meals in the last few days.  One was this recipe for Cantonese Char Siu (which I totally want to write as Char Sui, but apparently that’s incorrect), which Christine sent to me a little while ago and which pretty damn delicious, but to me, maybe a little sweet (Rob loved it, but said he’d prefer me to use pork tenderloin instead of pork shoulder from now on.  I tend to agree.). 

The other was this one for Turkish Lamb Pita Burgers, which were totally divine.  I didn’t make the yogurt sauce because Rob hates yogurt and wouldn’t have eaten it, and we ate our burgers on regular buns.  Mmm mmm good!  Really, I can’t rave enough.  Don’t be alarmed by the number of ingredients - it looks really labor-intensive but it actually wasn’t much trouble - even the bit about toasting and grinding the coriander and cumin.  (I just dumped the pepper out of our pepper mill and used that.  Am hoping that all pepper won’t taste like those other spices from now on, though.) 

Lastly, rumor has it that my niece and nephew have started smiling!  I’m dying to see (and share) photographic evidence of this. 

Happy Tuesday, everyone!