Comments (14)

By kilax, November 9, 2018 10:21 am

Our local “lite” radio station switched over to holiday music yesterday! (Click through from email/RSS to take a poll on Christmas music!)

 Loading ...

Then this happened!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Comments (12)

By kilax, November 8, 2018 6:08 am

• My goodness, the story telling in Little Fires Everywhere was so good. I’d consider owning a copy of it, to cherish again. (That, along with Station Eleven, my other favorite read from the  year!). I really want to know more about what happens to the characters! We need a part II!

• I moved from that to a guidebook of San Francisco to somewhat prepare for our trip! Well, I also tried reading a novel called Ghosted but ditched it. The author spent way too much time describing the landscape, which drove me bonkers. And it was moving slow. That’s something I liked about Little Fires Everywhere – Ng didn’t go on and on about unnecessary details. It was super detailed, but with a purpose.
• Ha, on my Monday commute, another train rider was gushing to me when she saw my reusable plastic bag. She even got hers out to show me and told me about all the times she uses it. Love it!
• What is it with iTunes taking three attempts to get my playlists to sync? And it often rewriting them or missing songs? Grr.
• An update on our intruders – there’s been four of them so far and we’ve had them all relocated.
• Here’s some cute cuddling kitty pics!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 202

Comments (10)

By kilax, November 5, 2018 11:21 am

Can every weekend have an extra hour please? But without setting off our amount of daylight? Someone please figure that out. Kthxbai.

FRIDAY!

Gah, Apollo has been such a little turd lately! On Friday during a conference call (of course), I heard him pawing at the floor in the foyer and thought he was getting ready to poo there (he’s done that a few times). I stood up from my desk (still on my call) to try to see what was going on, and didn’t see anything, so I ignored it.

I forgot about it until later, when Starbuck started pawing at that area. “Why is she interested in that area too? Did he actually poop there?!” I thought.

No.

There was a slight paint peel on the drywall, and he was scratching at it, making it bigger, and getting paint all over the floor, which is what Starbuck was playing with. He also put those scratch marks in the wall, because, why not?

Sigh. He must be bored. I need to play with them more. LESS SLEEPING MORE PLAYING, YOU TWO!

I missed another exciting animal happening outside the house, after work – there was a fox in our yard! Steven said the fox walked down the driveway and went in to the backyard, left, and then came back.

Here he is:

A little closer:

I missed it because I was taking a nap after work. That Friday 3:50 am wake-up time makes me feel so crappy by midday. UGH.

But! I felt better after my nap and woke up to a text from Bobbi asking if we wanted to meet her and John for dinner! Sure! What a fun surprise date!

Sweet Tart Martini from The Shanty

SATURDAY!

I have a slight cold, so I got as much sleep as I could, taught Fitness Boxing, ran errands, then cleaned the house while Steven dealt with the leaves in the yard. You can see from the fox photo above that we have a lot of them. It was supposed to rain all day Sunday (it did), so we figured Saturday was the day to deal with them.

SPOILER – it was so windy Saturday night that the yard looked even worse than it did Saturday before Steven cleared all the leaves. Oh, nature.

Saturday afternoon/evening included a short nap, Walmart pickup, El Famous Burrito, and Argo. Exciting stuff!

SUNDAY!

I was pumped to watch the NYC Marathon at Bobbi’s Sunday morning! Edited to add: I regret not making an effort to watch last year’s race. We don’t have a cable package, so I can’t watch these things at home, and wish I could have seen Shalane win (I’ve tried to find footage of the event to buy, and haven’t). I totally messed up the eastern time conversion though, thinking I needed to get to her place at 10 am, not 8 am. Dafuq. Let’s blame that on my cold – I do that conversion ALL. THE. TIME. at work and don’t mess it up. Luckily I only missed a little bit of the race.

I could NOT believe Mary Keittany’s surge and the paces she threw down in the second half of the race. HOLY COW. Just WOW. I was ecstatic that Shalane was third (running faster than last year when she WON!), and that so many American women placed in the top ten!

I also enjoyed seeing my kitten’s mother, Athena! I brought a blanket over and it probably smelled like the kittens, ha. Hopefully it didn’t make her feel PTSD.

I ran an errand after watching the race, had lunch with Steven, and fell asleep during The Post. Then I got a bunch of crap done on my computer, took an epsom salt bath and read more of Little Fires Everywhere (whoa, just whoa), helped Steven make lasagna and zoned out during some bad movie.

It’s a glamorous life, but someone’s got to live it. Ha ha ha. But really, it was nice to have a free, somewhat lazy, weekend. I am aiming for longer naps (>an hour) next time though!

Comments (16)

By kilax, November 3, 2018 12:53 pm

View down our driveway – we’re taking care of leaves today!

Crazy busy October is over and most of the things I’m looking forward to this month involve being lazy:

• Spending time with friends
• Watching the New York City Marathon with Bobbi
• Seeing Bohemian Rhapsody
• Going to San Francisco and visiting Mica and Harrison!
• Publishing the new blog layout
• Having more free time
• NAPS
• Listening to Christmas music… and maybe putting up Christmas decorations? (I’m undecided about decorating since we’ll be away on actual Christmas)

What’s on your list?

Comments (22)

By kilax, November 1, 2018 6:23 am

• I finished Vox! I became less anxious after the main character’s wrist counter (that tracks her speech and zaps her if she says over 100 words for the day) came off so she could work on an anti-Wernicke’s aphasia serum for the president’s brother. (BUT SPOILER, the government’s intentions are more sinister!) The entire book was suspenseful and made me feel on edge while reading it. But I obviously liked it because I finished it!

• Now I’m reading Little Fires Everywhere, which Amy recommended to me. It’s appropriate I’m starting it today, as I’m traveling to Cleveland, where the book is set!
• This morning was my first time using TSA Pre✓. It went much quicker than regular security, even though they still had me take my jacket and shoes off. It was so nice to leave my laptop in my bag though. <— welcome to the 2010s, Kim, I know. Ha.
• Today is an exciting day – it’s the day I start listening to Christmas music! Woo hoo! (But… I didn’t have time to load it on my phone this morning, so that will wait until tomorrow, sad face.)
• Speaking of Christmas, I bought a few gifts last week!
• Do people still share business cards at meetings? I always have to make sure I have some when I travel for work, or meet someone new. I haven’t received new business cards at work in YEARS. I don’t really use them – I use digital contacts. (Click through to take a poll)

 Loading ...

• My sleep has been such SH!T lately. Gawd. I’ve realized this month that waking up at 3:50 am on Fridays is killing me when I have a weekend full of plans. And about half of each week, the cats wake me up in the middle of the night, or, yay, even better, thirty minutes before my alarm. I’m looking forward to the extra hour gained on Sunday. I won’t get to sleep in (see: cats) but I can take a nap!

Who, us?! We NEVER try to climb the back of the headboard during the night. NEVER.

• I’m having my blog redesigned and love the look so far. I can’t wait to show you guys. Thanks to Shelley for recommending the designer!
• I have a few more “randoms” to share, but maybe I can stretch those in to a full post, ha!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 201

Comments (16)

By kilax, October 31, 2018 7:21 am

Like everyone else, I am SO ready to quit receiving sleazy campaign ads. Gah. I’ve taken them straight from the mailbox to the shredder.

Did anyone else get a creepy letter from The Voter Participation Center shaming them in to voting? Part of the letter says:

Who you vote for is private, but whether or not you vote is public record.

We’re sending this to you and your neighbors to share who does and does not vote in an effort to promote election participation. While we have hidden the name and street number of your neighbors to protect their identity, these are their true voting records.

Then it showed a chart of my name and address, and my neighbors’ names and addresses with identifying info blocked out, and whether we’ve voted in the last four general elections.

The letter also promised to review whether I voted or not, and that they may call me to ask about my voting experience and why I did not vote, if I chose not to.

Voting is important. People should vote. But trying to shame me in to doing so by comparing me to my neighbors? Eff off.

And don’t call me.

Sigh.

Anyway.

We voted early, by mail-in ballot. We’d go next Tuesday, but we have important plans that night – we’re seeing Bohemian Rhapsody!

Apollo voted to amend the constitution to include more fish for all cats

Comments (16)

By kilax, October 30, 2018 8:49 pm

Our month of all the house guests is over! Sadness!

My snister Christina, her husband Will, and their son William, visited from Kansas City Thursday night through Monday afternoon <— how awesome they could stay for so long!

We didn’t have any big plans! We just wanted to spend time together. And eat. And get our nails done (Christina + me). And do a project or two (Steven + Will). And go to the petting zoo.

And that’s what we did! (Minus the petting zoo because the weather was crap the day we wanted to go, wah.)

There was lots of playing! Jen had brought over some toys that William loved. Thank you, Jen!

William likes the Porg! Until it makes noise, ha.

Having William visit pointed out how NOT toddler-friendly my house is! Lots of steps (the first floor has two levels) and lots of things at arm’s reach. We made it work, though! And no one was upset about it (except me feeling bad for making watching a toddler more difficult!).

There was playing with kitties! Khali mostly hid, Starbuck would hang but didn’t get too close to William, and Apollo was super chill with William.

Khali and Will are basically besties now.

A new hiding position – took us a while to find her there!

Being brave on the stairs

We ate!

Of course we went to El Famous. Um, twice. Which I’ll explain later. We made chili, dumpling soup, and got pizza (twice)! Oh yeah, and we got Taco Bell. Ha. FOOD, FOOD, FOOD!

We went trick-or-treating at the businesses in downtown Grayslake, the town where I teach and where Steven’s business is. It was fun to see all the costumes! And fun to run in to a few friends.

William as Alfalfa

We got our nails done! Christina got “CIA = Color Is Awesome” and I got “Toying with Trouble.” I’m jealous of her blue nails.

Steven and Will installed a camera in one of our attics to watch for critters. They also sealed a gap (with metal and wood) where the heating duct goes between our two big attics, to keep critters from going between the two spaces.

While Steven and Will were working in the attic on Saturday afternoon, Christina and I were inside hanging with William and we heard our driveway sensor go off. I wasn’t expecting a delivery so I looked at the camera to see who it was and saw a familiar red van and !!!BIG SURPRISE!!! my dad was walking out of it!

Mom and Dad knew Christina and family were visiting this weekend and decided to come out and surprise us! They’d been planning it all week and none of us had ANY idea! Mom was even saying thing on group texts like “Oh! I forgot this was your special weekend together.” Tricksters!

Me, Mom, and Christina

It was such a great surprise! We were having fun, and had even more with Mom and Dad there!

So we obviously had to go back to El Famous so Mom and Dad could enjoy it. They were even joking about stopping there on the way to our house. Ha!

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out, watching some shows/movies, playing 5 Second Rule (yeah, I am a bit obsessed), and doing a bit of shopping (I scored a great deal on a new comforter aww yeah). Oh, yes, and eating, eating, eating! Mom brought delicious apple crisp!

Mom and Dad brought this fake cat. It was funny to see how the cats reacted!

Christina and I were still talking today about what a great surprise that was from Mom and Dad. It’s not often we all get to hang out, without something else going on to distract us. And it’s fun for me to get to host everyone… in our small cozy house, ha! (Our dream is to someday have a garage/workshop with a guest suite above it!)

And of course, we love having family and friends meet our babies!

Mom and Dad were able to stay until Monday afternoon too (yay!), and left when we took Christina, Will, and William back to the airport. Then, sadly, it was back to reality. Four days off with family was such a nice break (even though I accidentally checked work email once on the weekend and was dealing with some stupid issue at the end of the day yesterday, sigh).

Oh! And in case you were wondering from the pictures, yes, Christina is pregnant! She is having a boy in January! Yay, another nephew! That will probably be the next time I see her – when I get to meet him!

Comments (18)

By kilax, October 25, 2018 6:18 am

• Yesterday when I was leaving work and getting in the elevator, two people walked out with cake. After the doors closed, I said to the guy in the elevator with me “Ooo, cake! Someone must be having a retirement party.” Then he said something about the party, and “You don’t need that cake.” Then he paused and said, “and neither do I.” UM WTF kind of response is that to my stupid small talk? GFY, telling me I don’t need cake. Jeebus.
• I’ve said it before, but I’d love one day where everything I pick up, set down, or reach for doesn’t fall to the ground. And when I can walk through my house without any loop or strap on me getting caught on things. So aggravating.
• I finished Give Me Your Hand and am reading Vox. Give Me Your Hand is a mystery/thriller about Kit, a post doc vying for a prestigious research position, when an old classmate with a secret that scarred Kit shows up out of the blue and competes (kind of) against her for the spot! I mostly enjoyed it, except for the research on animals parts. Vox is a dystopian novel where women only get to say 100 words a day and are electrocuted when they go over. This one makes me feel awfully anxious reading it… but I want to see what happens.

• Shitterfly had a “free” bag offer recently so I ordered one to keep in my backpack (because a favorite similar bag of mine has a hole, sadness). I love having these lightweight bags handy. And I love having my cats’ faces on it!

• I had a light meeting week to start the week (woo hoo!) then had FOUR invites for meetings at 9:00 am on Wednesday. Sigh. And the one I went to ran 1.5 hours long (until 11:30).
• Another calendar complaint – when someone acts like it’s difficult to coordinate with my schedule, but they never bothered to check my public calendar and try making an appointment when I am shown as free. It’s not hard, folks.
• Aww, Khali loves her siblings, but especially Apollo! Apollo has been such a sh*t lately. He’s gone poo on the floor twice. And he wakes up in the middle of the night (not all nights, thankfully) to play. Sigh. I hope it’s growing pains!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 200

Comments (17)

By kilax, October 24, 2018 6:33 am

Yes, I know the title ruins it, ha. 

I kept seeing “let’s get this bread” references all over Instagram (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and had to look up what it means BECAUSE I AM OLD.

Basically, bread = dough = money, so the phrase can mean “let’s get this money,” like “let’s work hard and make money.” But a secondary meaning is more like a battle cry to succeed. And a third meaning literally means to get bread. Ha. Ha ha. So (poll below)…

 Loading ...

When I said goodbye to Steven this morning, I did say “go get that bread.”* Ha ha ha. And I may or may not have jokingly used it on Instagram this morning… I think it’s fun.

I also want to start using “thanks for coming to my TED talk” but I unfortunately haven’t said/shared anything profound/useful. Ever.

*We did not win the Mega Millions so we do have to go get the bread today. Ha. I enjoyed fantasizing about building our garage/workshop/guest house for a bit yesterday.

Comments (20)

By kilax, October 22, 2018 6:40 am

We had a fun weekend with Anne and Terry! It was so nice of them to make the long trek (almost seven hours) from Columbus to see us! Okay, really to go to El Famous. Then spend some time with us, since we happen to live nearby.

(They actually came out here to spread some of their dog Heidi’s ashes at her favorite preserve from when they all lived here, but it’s light-hearted to joke about them coming just to eat at El Famous, right?)

FRIDAY!

We met at El Famous on Friday night, hence all the jokes about them driving so far just to eat there. We offered to let them spend the night since we ate around 8:00 pm, and it seemed cruel to make them drive back over night. Ha ha ha, we so funny.

We went back to the house, and stayed up late chatting! (Note: late for me is anytime after 10:00 pm… but this “late” was past midnight!)

SATURDAY!

Anne brought us a delicious and beautiful sourdough loaf that she made! We had some of that with breakfast, along with hashbrowns, vegan sausage, and eggs. Totally NOT things that bother your stomach when you take a fitness boxing class after eating them muah ha ha.

While Anne and I were at Fitness Boxing, Steven and Terry went to Milwaukee to get donuts from, you guessed it, Holey Moley, and to get coffee from Hawthorne Coffee Roasters. Even though I had Holey Moley donuts two weekends ago, and um, donuts last weekend, I was STILL excited to have a donut when I got home from boxing. I was thinking about it while I was teaching.

We stopped and got Starbucks on the way home, and remembered to take a photo. Phew!

THEN WE GOT HOME AND THE BOYS WERE STILL IN MILWAUKEE WITH OUR DONUTS.

Ha ha ha. We were glad they were having fun together. Just also excited to eat our donuts!!!

I made our fettucine alfredo recipe for lunch (and messed it up, again, sigh – I suck in the kitchen) and we had donuts as dessert.

Then we decided to do a fire, and take some cutesy not-posed-at-all photos, and watch Tales of Halloween (very gory), and drink a little wine to get in the mood for the haunted house.

When Anne and Terry visited last February, we went to an escape room that is run by the guy who does the Dungeon of Doom in our town. I suggested to Anne and Terry that they come back in October for the Dungeon of Doom, and when Anne visited in August, I suggested it again.

Of course, all week, when people asked what we were doing with our guests this weekend, I kept saying “They want to go to the Dungeon of Doom! I don’t know why, it looks so scary!!!” Anne, Terry, and Steven reminded me it was MY idea. Oops. Ha ha ha.

Just looking at the website freaked me out! I was worried it would scare me so much I’d have nightmares, or pee my pants (while there). Ha. Ha ha. Eek.

I invited Jen and Troy, thinking the more people we had, the less scary it would be.

The Dungeon of Doom opened at 6:00 and I read there could be long lines so we got there around 5:15… and were the second group in line… and it was cold and really windy while we waited outside. Oops, sorry guys.

Steven, Terry, Anne, me, Jen, & Troy

Then we got inside and realized it was cash only. I didn’t buy tickets online since we were planning to get there early. I happened to have cash (anniversary money from my parents, thanks!) but everyone else didn’t and I felt bad they had to use the ATM. Anyway, the more you know, if you go.

They had “characters” walking around spooking you while you paid and stood in line to start. They’d sneak up on you and get right in your face!

There was quite a bit of that at the start – people in your face, breathing right down your neck. It was annoying, especially when they did it for so long (one guy did it for what felt like a minute to me!).

But after that, we were in the maze that is the haunted house, and it was harder for the characters to do that because there was less open space, AND, they had advised us not to get separated, so we were holding hands in a big chain, and I think it made it harder for the characters to get between us, muah ha ha. So, more people DID make it less scary!

And it really was one big maze. We almost always knew where to go (Steven lead the way), but had NO idea where we were in the thing! We went through many themed areas – a circus, a derelict old house, a hospital, a butcher shop, you get the idea. It was really dark in there – we could hardly see at times, so the scary props weren’t too frightening, yay! I wasn’t scared by the characters (I just laughed at them!), but the air compressors and loud air horns/etc freaked me out, especially when they blew right on me.

Our favorite parts were the sensory type experiences – going through a tunnel that feels like it’s turning on itself, slanted floors, moving walls, soft floors, leaning over to get under big padding or walking through it, etc. There was even a “buried alive” experience!

I was impressed by the actors playing the different characters. They’d jump all over around the props in the rooms, and climb on rails on the walls (so you’d approach a hallway and there’d be one of the characters elevated on the wall, facing you, eek!). They seemed very energetic. We all wondered if they were able to stay that way all night (did they get breaks?), and if they lost their voices from their scripts (whether it was talking or screaming or screeching or whatever).

It was well done! Kind of steep pricing at $35 a person for “peak” weekend (it’s normally $30), but we were in there over an hour and all enjoyed it, and the adrenaline rush. And I never felt that scared! I just laughed and tried to be curious and enjoy it! They have a cheaper “blackout” event in November where you go through the whole thing with NO lights at all, and they give you one glow stick per group. Ha, no thanks!

So, regarding the blog title – I never peed my pants out of fear! Ha! Woo hoo! Success!

We got pizza and hung at our place after and played a little of Five Second Rule. And spent some time laughing at Steven’s pose in the group picture from the Dungeon of Doom. Ha ha ha.

It was a fun day and night with lots of laughs and joking around. And our two groups of friends (only the ladies had met previously) seemed to get along well!

SUNDAY!

We had pancakes and eggs Sunday morning, and hung out and chatted a bit before Anne and Terry took off, a bit after 10:00.

Then Steven and I were lazy AF the rest of the day. We took a nap, watched three movies (Pacific Rim Uprising, Ocean’s 8, and 7 Days in Entebbe), and did a few chores. It felt good to be so freaking lazy. I can’t remember the last time we sat around all day like that!

RANDOM CAT PICS!

Apollo and Starbuck hung out with us most of the weekend, and Khali even came out from under the bed a few times!