I don't have much time this afternoon, but I thought I would take a moment and plug my friend Andrew's new blog.

Andrew and I have been friends for a few years now. He is an extremely talented musician (fiddler) who plays with local Seattle folk-rock band Handful of Luvin' (also definitely worth checking out, especially this time of year - fantastic summer music!).

Andrew has just recently begun blogging. He writes "Music Musings", which, as the name implies, centers around intelligent, researched, well written and well thought out reviews of bands and albums, old and new.

An excerpt from "The Inconvenient Truths of Ben Gibbard - Death Cab for Cuties "Narrow Stairs"

"From Bixby Canyon Bridge (with Gibbard opening the album with his personal reflections on Jack Kerouac and his stay at Big Sur, CA); the album almost moves like a dark stream of consciousness in the style of a Kerouac beat poem as Gibbard recalls and expounds on topics such as loss of innocence and disillusionment (No Sunlight, Your New Twin Sized Bed, The Ice is Getting Thinner); the inevitability of death and how we cope with it(Cath..., Grapevine Fires, You Can Do Better Than Me), and other topics ranging from love and obsession(I will Possess Your Heart, Long Division, Pity & Fear), to feelings of inadequacy (Talking Bird.) Gibbard tackles a wide array of issues and delivers to his audience a clear thoughtful, yet always somber voice."

Andrew's love and vast knowledge of music is apparent in his reviews, and makes them very enjoyable to read. He doesn't seem to post very often, but each review is worth waiting for.

So check him out. ^_^

I was reflecting on my car today. My car, a little 2001 Suzuki Esteem, does not have power windows. I'm very glad of this. Why? Because I can roll up my window ten times faster than the power motor can roll it up when I spy an incoming bee headed straight for me, intent on destruction and pain. I demonstrated this just a half hour ago. It's amazing what adrenaline can do.

I live in mortal terror of bees getting into my car. Not for any good, logical reason - I'm not allergic to them, and it's not like being stung is that big of a deal, but I am reduced to a quivering bundle of nerves when I happen to spot one a football field away, much less one that's sharing a ten foot radius with me. And God FORBID one get into my car.

Which reminds me...

Last summer I was driving my buddy Pat home. We were going through the downtown area of the small city that we live in. It's a lovely little area, good to visit on a weekend and peer through the windows of the quaint little shops and even more appealing because adjacent to the shopping area is a quiet bay waterfront park. Fortunately the speed limit is 15mph, and you're often going slower through the area because of the abundance of pedestrians choosing to cross the street wherever they happen to decide they want to instead of using the crosswalks.

As Pat and I crawled along through town, I felt something bump my leg - wearing shorts made the feeling that much more acute. I instantly got a very bad feeling and reflexively reached down without taking my eyes off the road and swatted at my leg, biting my lip. Pat gave me a quizzical look, but I was too focused on what was going on around my unprotected bare flesh to pay him any mind.

About two seconds later I happened to glance down and nearly choked. Sitting calmly as you please on my seat right between my legs was the biggest freaking bee I had ever seen. I shrieked something along the lines of, "OH MY GOD OH SHIT THERE'S A BEE!" Pat instantly came to attention, and responded intelligently with, "where is it? Oh FUCK, that's a big bee!"

Yes, thank you. I am definitely aware of this.

I'm still not sure how I managed to slowly pull into a mostly empty parking lot and park my car without hitting anyone or anything, but I did. After the car was motionless I sat still as a statue, whimpering and staring down that the biggest bee ever. I didn't know what to do, and I was convinced that if I moved, the bee was rouse itself and attack me with a vengeance for swatting at it.

Pat was my hero that day. "Don't. Move. A. Muscle." He spoke slowly and carefully, apparently afraid I would bolt like a startled deer right into oncoming traffic. He fumbled around for a moment and came up with a CD case, and slammed it down, trapping and probably killing the bee. He moved as though he was going to lift his hand up.

"WAIT!" I screamed. "I'M GETTING OUT!" I flung my door open and squirmed my way out of the car around Pat's hand and arm. "Okay," I said breathlessly. "Get rid of it." Pat raised the CD case and deftly flipped the now dead bee out of the car.

And from then on that be was referred to as the Anti Christ Bee. Epic tales would be told of the battle. I have no idea how far they've spread, but if you've heard tales of The Epic Battle with the Anti Christ Bee, now you know the real story. ^_^

I apologize if I've told this story before - I don't recall ever blogging about it before, but you never know, my memory isn't all that wonderful. ^_^

• I learned that when trying to grow plants in rainy Washington, one should always make sure that one's pots have some method of draining. Because as soon as you think it's safe, June willl turn into Juneuary and it will rain for two weeks. Thanks for the rocks suggestion, Anne - and I SUDDENLY realized that you have a blog, and feel very stupid for just now realizing it!!!
• I learned that my friend Anne has a blog!
• I learned that when one has to be at work by nine in the morning, one should not stay up until 3AM playing World of Warcraft. Even if you really really really want to finish running Maraudon. I promise you're going to regret it the next day. Even if you did get that really pretty mace you wanted.*
• I learned from SleepyJane that on average twelve newborns will be given to the wrong parents every day!
• I learned that I should pay closer attention to the phone numbers I dial while at work. It might be amusing to accidentally dial your friend when you're trying to call a client, but it probably shouldn't happen more than once.*
• I learned about BlogHer! How I've been blogging since '05 and didn't know about this I'll never figure out, but I think it's pretty cool. I also think going to the conference would be really neat - not that I would do anything except hide in a corner the whole time.

Life is a learning experience. It's still early, I'll probably have more to add to the list by the end of the day.

*Okay I lied, I don't really regret it. I'll be posting about it over at Power Word: Totem later.

**I need to especially take note of this having just completed my second misdial.

So, remember when I mentioned a planted a bunch of seeds?

I had high hopes of eventually having flowers whose beauty would rival that of all those lovely stock photos I hijacked, but it seems I've already failed.

It's been raining non stop in good ol' WA. For days. And something I neglected to notice when I was filling all those pots up with dirt was that about half of them have no way of draining. I'm pretty sure that the seeds in about half of my pots have drowned in the little mini lakes instantly formed during the first day.

Good job, self. Good job.

So, erm... learning experience, right?

I never thought I'd do it.

But I did.


























I bought Guitar Hero III.


I had played it a few times at various friends' houses, after work yesterday I finally broke down and decided to go get my own copy. I brought it home, stuck the batteries into my gleaming new guitar - I mean the controller - and proceeded to blast my way through the game rocking out to Foghat's 'Slow Ride', Rolling Stone's 'Paint it Black', Tenacious D's 'The Metal', and many other rock songs, new and old. After a few shaky moments I quickly got the hang of the game again, skillfully mastering each song, then forced the game into submission to become a ROCK LEGEND.


And by "skillfully mastering each song" I mean I did okay in the beginning, and by the end I was barely scraping by. Slayer's 'Raining Blood' nearly destroyed me.

And by "forced the game into submission" I mean I managed to beat it. On easy.

And by "rock legend" I mean that after I fumbled my way through the last song the game flashed a congratulatory "you're a rock legend" message at me. I know it what it was really saying: "Wow... you suck a LOT, so here's a conciliatory 'you beat the game' message... don't even TRY this on medium."


The game is way more fun that I had ever guessed it would be. Guitar Hero III was the first of the series I played. I was borderline scornful of the first game, ignoring the great reviews it got, and I completely ignored the release of the second game. I figured it wouldn't be something I would enjoy (give my penchant for RPGs and third person action), and I'm very glad that I gave the it a try.

It's simplistic enough at first - Push the color coded buttons and flick the clicker thingie (enjoying my technical terms?) on the guitar shaped controller. Playing it on easy is great for beginners, and it has a very gradual difficulty increase as you progress through the seven tiers of songs. It also has a fantastic track list.

When you bump the difficulty level up to medium, it becomes a whole new challenge, and I haven't even pretended to try on hard or expert yet. Once you get the hang of it though (I'm still working on that part) it's much more rewarding.

Bottom line? I love this game. I take back every mean thing I ever said about this series.

....but I'm posting again!

I decided this last weekend that I wanted to grow things. Nothing useful things and/or edible things like vegetables or jack-o-lantern pumpkins, but flowers. Since I rent one side of a duplex I didn't exactly have the freedom to dig around in the tiny yard, but I did get some pots from my parents and I picked up a few more at Home Depot. Along with bags of dirt. And can I just say how weird it feels to buy dirt? Yeah. Weird.

I now have 17 (I think) pots along my trellis fence and around my patio filled with MiracleGro dirt and little tiny flower seeds. And the exciting part is, I have absolutely no recollection of which seeds I put in which pots! It'll be interesting to see if anything actually grows - I manage to kill all houseplants that come through my door, and I've speculated that my touch is poison to vegetation. Plus I think the last time I actually put a seed in the dirt was when I was around 12. Yep, master gardener, right here.

Here's some of the stuff I planted (because I like looking at pictures of flowers ^_^):

Asters. Because I saw them and said to myself, "I actually know what these are!".

Last night for some reason I fell asleep as soon as I got home at 6:10PM and didn't wake up again for more than five minutes until 7:45 this morning. I must have needed the sleep, but it still felt absolutely bizarre to waste an entire evening sleeping. I didn't even go to the gym or clean up my living room like I had planned, just got home, sat down on the sofa to play with my kitty for a few minutes before I headed out again, and BAM. Consciousness lost.

As unproductive as this was, it did result in an extremely vivid, extremely odd dream in which I found myself on a quest to find two large (and very tacky) pendants, a blue one and an orange one. I had been sent on this quest by Liam Neeson. I don't really remember too much detail now, but I discovered when I got the two pendants that if I held the blue one over my right eye I could see what Liam Neeson was seeing, and if I held the orange one over my left eye I could see what some other random person was seeing. Sneaky Neeson decided to betray me and take the pendants for himself (although why he wanted them I'm not too sure, they didn't seem to have much practical purpose), and I was forced to hide in an alley in some sci-fi city that literally had a carpet of garbage. My brilliant idea was to burrow under the garbage and wait for Neeson to go away. I was found, Neeson tried to take the pendants, and we ended up in an epic hand-to-hand battle. Which I won, naturally.

I realize that I'm probably the only one who cares about this, but it still cracks me up. ^_^

In other news, this is the second day my home computer has been in the shop - I'm really hoping I get it back this afternoon. >_<

Driving to the beach on a sunny day with all your windows open and Dire Straits blaring from the speakers is perfection.

In my little part of Western Washington, the weather has been a little... off... for spring. The temperature has rarely risen above 50 degrees, and if we happen to get a day of partial sun, by evening it'll be raining and we won't see the sun again for the next five days. Oh, and it snowed in April. Unusual? Yes.

Still, even with all that in mind, I didn't really think that this Severe Weather Alert on Weather.com was necessary:

"AFTER A COOL AND CLOUDY SPRING IN WESTERN WASHINGTON...A DRAMATIC SHIFT TO HOT AND SUNNY WEATHER WILL GET UNDERWAY TODAY. WIDESPREAD RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED ON FRIDAY.

TEMPERATURES WILL BEGIN TO CLIMB TODAY...AS A MASSIVE AREA OF HIGH PRESSURE IN THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE BUILDS OVER THE REGION. WEAK NORTHERLY ONSHORE FLOW WILL KEEP TEMPERATURES FROM GETTING REALLY HOT. STILL...HIGH TEMPERATURES ACROSS MUCH OF WESTERN WASHINGTON WILL BE IN THE 70S AND LOWER 80S."

blah blah blah...

"AFTER SUCH COOL WEATHER THIS SPRING... PEOPLE SHOULD REFRESH THEMSELVES ON BASIC HOT WEATHER TIPS. WHEN THE WEATHER WARMS UP...BE SURE TO SLOW DOWN...DRINK PLENTY OF WATER...WEAR LIGHTWEIGHT AND LIGHT COLORED CLOTHING...AND BE SURE TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM SUNBURN BY WEARING SUNSCREEN AND A HAT. BY SATURDAY...THE HUMIDITY WILL RISE A BIT AND MAKE THE AIR FEEL MUGGY. THE ELDERLY AND THE VERY YOUNG ARE THE MOST LIKELY GROUPS TO EXPERIENCE ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS FROM THE HEAT."

Okay, guys. I know it's been a while since we've had a nice day. But it hasn't been that long.

This is the first severe weather alert I've ever seen warning people about temperatures rising all the way to possibly the low 80s.

Good lord.

I wish I had thought to take a photo of this.

I'm in my car driving home from work, and I turn onto a street... right behind this little white pickup truck.

Now, I am no more prejucided against trucks than I am against any other vehicle. I am more than happy to share the road with them. Under normal circumstances, that is.

I saw, in the bed of this little white truck, a pile of huge pieces of wood that reached nearly to the roof of the cab. Sections of logs, might be a better way to put it. Were they secured? At all? Of course not! Were they stacked in a way that might make you think they were a bit stable? Pffft! One big, haphazard pile. And my very very favorite part were the two enormous chainsaws just stuck blade down in the middle of the pile.

I felt very safe. Yep. Very safe indeed.

Like I said, I wish I had a picture. This is what camera phones are for.

Having worked in a real estate office for almost seven years, I've seen a lot of houses go on the market. Out of all the houses that my office has listed, there has been maybe three or four that I've walked into to photograph them, and said to myself, if I had the money I would buy this house in a SECOND. I see a lot of houses that I could live in and be happy with, but only those very few that have really "spoken" to me.

The houses I've fallen in love with aren't the high end multi million dollar homes with stunning views and hundreds of feet of waterfront. They aren't even the $500k homes with a view or tons of acreage. They're in the $200k range, and some have new appliances, fresh paint, etc, but mostly they're just really, really neat.

The house I went and photographed today was one of those houses that inspired love at first sight. The exterior and location were great. Close to town, but set back in the woods on a little over two and a half acres. Surrounded on three sides with trees but with a huge, beautifully landscaped front yard. Neighbors that were close, but screened off by the trees. Charming front porch. Then I went inside and saw the gorgeous older softwood floors, the open floor plan, the wood ceilings, and the huge master bedroom.

I've re-created my WoW blog - all future WoW geek posts will be made at Power Word: Totem. I didn't want to flood my normal blog with gamer stuff. ^_^ I'm still putting it together, but it's there.

I watched three movies this weekend. Empire Records (always good for a laugh), In The Name of the King (although now that I think about it, I didn't actually watch that movie... it was so bad I fell asleep during the first twenty minutes), and The Orphanage.

The Orphanage was produced by Guillermo Del Toro, reason enough for me to be excited to see the film. I had seen previews for it but it had been so long since I had seen one I had completely forgotten what it was about, so when I picked it up at the video store I quickly scanned the back before heading home.

My sister was briefly admitted to the hospital this week (breathing trouble, love the allergy season), and after that particular scare had been more or less laid to rest, my mom has some news she had to share with me.

"So the ER doctor who saw Caroline," she said in a tone of barely restrained excitement during a phone call. "You're never going to guess who he looks like."

I immediately start thinking about celebrities. "Who?" I asked curiously.

"I never would have figured it out. I was sitting there trying to think of who he looked like FOR AGES, and Caroline figured it out right away! He looks JUST LIKE Andrew! But cuter! And he's a doctor!"

That was so totally not what I was expecting to hear that it made me laugh. I was with Andrew for about a year before things fell apart, and my family knew him pretty well. My mom continued to tell me how much the two resembled each other, except Dr had shorter hair and was "cuter" (yes, that was definitely repeated several times).

"It's like Andrew has a clone!" my mom said at one point. "Wouldn't that be weird if you dated him?"

This was clearly out of the realm of possibilities - I mean, I don't think I'll be going to the ER any time soon (knock on wood!) and I can't think of any other way I would meet an ER doc - but it was certainly amusing to think about. Yes, it would be weird. And there would be a lot of potential for mistakes.

"OH! OOOH ANDREW! Err... I mean..."

"How was band practice? I mean.... work?"

Ehh... you get the picture. ^_^

And speaking of pictures, my mom managed to find one of Dr. Andrew Clone, and she emailed it to me. And she's right - he looks JUST LIKE my ex!

(Warning: Geek Post)

I found out about The Running of Da Bulls from a WoW blog that I enjoy very much, Big Red Kitty.

"A running of the bulls! That’s our idea. 10,000 level one Taurens barreling… somewhere. And facing terrible… things. Culminating in a fabulous ending… somewhere else."

This sounds like a fantastic idea to me! 10,000 Taurens running across Azeroth? Yes please! I'm in! Even more so, since BRK recently lost a friend, the Running will be dedicated to her memory. And I think that's a wonderful thing. What better tribute?

If your interested in participating and adding to the vast (hopefully) numbers, the details can be found here, including a route map and basic ground rules.

Or, a brief synopsis:

"Saturday, May 3rd, 2008! 7pm EDT (11pm GMT) on Cenarian Circle server. Not server time, look closely. 7pm Eastern Daylight Time. Make adjustments for your time zone as required."

And now I'm pleased to announce that Harpy*, my baby troll shaman, dinged 30 yesterday! YAY!

I've learned a few things playing my shammy:

1. The addon TotemTimers is AMAZING. However, when first getting used to this addon and the new totem interface that it gives you, it might not be such a good idea to move your totems out of their accustomed places in the action bars right away. Because you might find yourself fleeing from three or four mobs, and you might want to lay down an Earthbind Totem so you can go Ghost Wolf and get the hell out of there, and you might not be able to find it in time. Resulting, ultimately, in death. Not that I would know from experience, or anything. >_>

2. Enhancement shamans are AWESOME. When I first started the shammy I wasn't entirely sure I was going to enjoy playing one period, but not only am I enjoying the shaman, I haven't felt the urge to change specs once. Harpy is officially off her probationary period, and can look forward to seeing Outlands.

3. Shaman class quests are VERY ANNOYING. I realize that Ghost Wolf increases our movement speed by 40%, but I don't think that means that we should have to run all over hell and creation for our totems. >_< 4. Anhks are expensive, and make me glad that Guild Leader friend is giving me a weekly allowance and running me through lots of instances while I level. O_O

That's it for now. I have some fun screen shots to post, but I think I'll wait for a while. I don't want to overload the blog with WoW. ^_^

BUT! BUT! Running of Da Bulls! Do it!!! ^_^

*Armory is still showing her at 28 for some reason, but I'm definitely 30. Windfury Weapon FTW!