just a stargazer

Go Tigers!!!!! Beat KU!

Last Christmas, I made my husband watch “A Christmas Story” with me. While we were watching the film, a brilliant idea came to me. I would create a “leg lamp” costume for halloween!

This spring, we were pouring some concrete for a deck and I noticed that I could fit around the cardboard cylindrical stuff that we held the concrete in place. We had enough extra in exactly the size of a lampshade!

We painted a our bedroom in our new house a nice color of lampshade light yellow. So I painted the cardboard cylinder.

A couple years ago, I had crocheted a black poncho with fringe on the ends. I stapled the fringe of my poncho to my lampshade, slipped on some black fishnet stockings, candy apple red heels (borrowed from my mom), wriggled into the lampshade, pinned up the poncho, fashioned a flashlight around my neck using a lanyard, and prepared to leave for the party. I also had my husband make a box labeled “FRAGILE” (pronounced fra-gee-lay, “it must be Italian”) to wear.

The costume was a huge hit at the party. The “lamp and the box” won first prize! It was a lot of fun.

I am not a big video game player. If given the choice to play or not to play, I usually choose the latter. But who can resist a round of Guitar Hero, especially if you’re actually a guitar player?!

As it turns out, I am really bad at Guitar Hero. I am a Guitar Zero. Now, I have improved with practice and tutorials, but I am really bad considering that I do actually have the ability to play a real guitar decently. My friends can all ace some songs in the game on hard and quite a few on medium. I’m lucky to even get though a song on medium, and sometimes I can’t make it through on easy! They laugh at me. I don’t understand why the talent doesn’t translate. I’ll never be a guitar hero at the game, but I bet I can play a real guitar better than most.

If you haven’t heard, we sold our house and have to be out by the end of the month!! We are working on moving into the new house we bought, but it is not yet habitable so we continue to work, only more quickly.

I don’t understand Facebook. Really the only reason I signed up was to try to find people who wanted to participate in a schizophrenia study, but I quickly realized that my plan would not work. Now my friends, who are mostly the same ones who read my blog, though a few are second cousins who share my surname, keep emailing to request status as a Facebook friend. Then I have to confirm that they really are my friend. I just don’t get it. I don’t know how I feel about a public group forum associated with your name and birthdate and where you went to school where anyone could look you up. If I happen to not confirm you as a friend, it’s just because my profile is lame and you won’t be missing anything if you can’t see it.

There really is a facebook group with a name similar to the title of this post. It didn’t say much, but I wonder if they’d accept people born in the 80s?

I am having a hard time deciding about how short I want to cut my hair. I could continue growing it long and just get the split ends trimmed off, or I could cut it off to chin length. I know it would look really cute short. I’ve liked it that way before, but I know that once it’s cut I am not growing it long again. It looks really pretty long and maybe I should enjoy it for some more time.

I need your votes. Cute short hair? Or pretty long hair?

My husband read about this thing called “hypermiling,” and we’ve found that a few changes in the way we drive make a big difference in our miles per gallon. We jumped from averaging about 28 MPG to over 36! Hopefully someday we’ll even hit 40. We used to have to fill up every 300 miles or so… now we get 400 miles on a tank!

I think the thing that makes the biggest difference is driving slowly on the highways. We try to go about 50 MPH. A general rule for hypermiling is to stay at or below the speed limit as you theoretically run into fewer stoplights, which leads me to my next point, that you should anticipate stoplights. If the light ahead is red, don’t speed up to it, just coast and hopefully it will turn green before you have to stop. Yeah, you might bother the person behind you, but you’ll be getting better gas mileage!

The secret to better gas mileage: no speeding on the highways, try to maintain constant speed, and don’t push the gas pedal more than absolutely necessary! Good luck!

I can’t recall many times where I’ve stopped a car to pick up something on the side of the road. I remember my dad stopping to snatch some foamy mats that he put down in our basement so I could practice tumbling when I was little. I used to be able to do back flips down there. Now I think I can touch the ceiling without even jumping.

The other night, we were driving down a very annoying street we call “Sin Haven” on our way home. Something caught my husbands’ eye so he turned around to check it out. I was like “why do you want to go down this street again?” Turns out there was a toilet in someone’s front yard with a sign that said “FREE there’s nothing wrong with it.” It seemed well maintained and clean so we took it apart, dumped the water onto their front yard and loaded it into our car. We took the sign too. It was a strange moment; picking up a toilet on the side of the road at 11:30 at night is not a common occurrance.

Why did we need a toilet? Well, almost any toilet is probably better than the one at our new place. I don’t think the previous owner cleaned it at all in the 20 years he lived there. It is really disgusting. Our “new” toilet can’t get in there soon enough! I can’t wait until it’s installed. Yay free toilet!

The hardcover version of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” or Nala, my guinea pig?

The comment section is open for your votes.

Saturday is the National Senior Spelling Bee, senior in this case meaning someone 50 or older. If I was 50, I don’t think I’d be ready to be known as “a senior.” And unless I work really hard for the next 25 years, I won’t be winning any spelling competitions ever. But maybe my father-in-law will. This year, after previously sending 3 of his children to the national bee, he is a contestant in the senior spelling bee. I’m looking forward to hearing about what happens, and I hope he does well. The seniors get three missed words before they are ejected from the competition, unlike the children who must get every word right unless they are in the final 2. I wouldn’t stand a chance with words like dghaisa or fangoriously, whatever those are. I’ll stick to S-C-H-I-Z-O-P-H-R-E-N-I-A research.

I thought it might be nice to set fire to my new back yard (which is all weeds), but that’s illegal so it’s not gonna happen. Instead, I want to have a Pimps & Hoes (and Rakes) party. I can get a “pimp” to serve flavored water cocktails to the party guests. Be sure to bring your hoe. And your rake. And your pimp cane if you’ve got one.

I spent two hours yesterday just bagging up yard waste on the north side of the house. And there’s still so much more! I don’t know what to do with it all!! Is there another way to get rid of yard waste? The city charges by the bag.

Buy my house in Hazelwood. We finally got it up on the market last week. It’s a pretty awesome house. Today we bought our “new” house! It needs a lot of work, but I think it’s going to be awesome too eventually. If you can’t buy the other house, but you want to help clean or paint the new house, let me know. Help is welcome! We will be doing a lot of cleaning in the next few weeks. If you want any old school Kool Vent awnings that need to be painted and bent back into shape, we’ve got two of them.

Current Mood: Alarmed

I looked in the mirror just now and saw one very shiny silver strand of hair.

And it’s supposed to be my golden birthday this year.

Current Mood: Confused

I had never heard of capybaras until this past summer when I met a woman moving into my apartment building. She had just spent a year in South America studying these things called kappaberras, which I late found out was spelled capabaras. They are like 100-pound guinea pigs that swim. They’re really cute too. I hope to see one someday. I want to pet one, but I don’t know if they’re dangerous. They probably aren’t as soft and loveable as my Nala.
Am I the only one who has never heard of capybaras? How could these cute exotics have been kept from me for so long?

One TV channel is really all you need.

We watch one TV show. It’s on one channel. We can get news, House, and even American Idol.

In Kirksville it was the same thing. I had one channel, and it allowed me to watch the Towers come down. I will never forget that.

I don’t understand these satellites and digital cables. You can get hundreds of channels. I’d never watch more than a few. Besides, YouTube is a really good alternative for entertainment, and it’s free as long as you buy an Internet service.

The cable company cut our free cable. It was bound to happen sooner or later. We didn’t want cable enough to actually pay for it, and The Company is raking it in through their Internet charges to us anyway. At least we don’t pay by the minute. Remember those days?

Current Mood: Esctatic

All the offices are having push-up contests. It’s a craze that’s sweeping the nation. Good thing I’ve been practicing up for about a year now. I’ll win it easy, and everyone will be impressed by my mad push-up skills. I think I’m up to 33 now…

Ok, so there is no push-up contest craze (extra points if you know what that’s from — Mike, no fair commenting). But my church is having a talent show!!! I was so excited when I found out… jumping up and down, even. And I’ve been practicing for some time now. I might even have a shot at winning with my original song, “Lost.” I can’t wait! Let me know if you want the details on the talent show so you can come cheer and jump up and down for me.

It’s nice to have a talent, but who knows how many push-ups the competition can do?

Why don’t sheep shrink when it rains? My sheepdog does. Baa.

Current Mood: Confused

I like using the blog as a question forum. I post my questions. You answer them.

I have some mylar balloons that I want to fill with helium for a party. They were used once for a party last year. Can I go to a store (like Dierberg’s florists) and have them fill it for me? What other stores have helium? How much does a little dose of helium cost these days?

Seriously, does anybody know?

How can one make money on real estate these days with closing costs, loans, agent fees?

When we sell the house, we have to buy a new one.

I wish I knew someone with an “in”, someone who could make it right for me.

What if the house doesn’t sell?

Will I ever take another vacation?