I don't remember most of the dream: except that it involved a staircase, compromising narrow steps, nothing to hold on to, my fear of heights, and serious vertigo.
Next to the tooth/teeth loss dreams, I think the staircase is my most consistent phobia dream.
D'oh. The local public radio station is running their winter pledge drive. Hence programming went to crap as the greedy NPR corporation persistently solicits support every few minutes. I mean one can only hear that phone number so many times before they start hearing it in their dreams. And worse, the ringtone they're using on the air sounds exactly like my phone, so I'm always finding myself thrown off.
In case I'm not the last to know: NASA's retiring its space shuttle fleet in 2010 and won't be launching another mission until 2020 or so. Not that it directly affects us, but this is so out-of-the-blue that I had to look it up.
Apparently, authorities declared the vessels unsafe due to the lack of an escape mechanism in case of an accident. Makes sense I guess. More sense than mandatory recall of the body armor used by troops in the Middle East... because apparently they don't perform as well as they should.
My new hoodie shrank. I guess you get what you pay for—this one is from Old Navy—but I know that's not always true. We've made more disappointing purchases from fancy boutiques.
Now I'm ten bucks poorer and stuck with a warm hoodie with three-quarter sleeves. My fleece pants still rock; I will never take that off.
I dunno how I lived without a proper stereo system for so long. Having NPR in the living room is a godsend. I no longer have to sit in the car to finish a program. And we've made a weekend habit of listening to This American Life over our late-morning cup of coffee; before that we'd just stare at the wall.
I saw Domino for no other reason than it was available on Blu-Ray. It wasn't very good. Mickey Rourke was typical Mickey Rourke. And Keira Knightley should stick with period pieces, a genre which I can't stand. Unlike his older brother Ridley, Tony is consistently hit-or-miss.
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I think Trader Joe's discontinued Tammie's corn flakes.
In accordance with the Chinese New Year tradition, I did some house-cleaning. Well... the key word is some. It wasn't as thorough as it should've been, but at least I did my week's worth of chores. Since I'm not Chinese, it's as prepared as I'm willing to get.
I was mildly disappointed with Slumdog Millionaire. It wasn't bad—in fact the narrative was pretty well-crafted to the end—but I think the film was overtaken by the buzz surrounding it.
Looking forward to The Wrestler.
"Honey, you're legs are so thin now," the Tamster observed as she worked my bad leg over, "Why do you even shave? You should let it grow out; it'll look thicker."
Now if that ain't motivation to get off my ass, I don't know what is.
I'm loving this pair of fleece pants that I bought the past weekend. I've worn 'em everyday since Sunday. Who knew that fleece was so warm and comfy? I didn't.
At twenty 'til midnight I was dredging the depths of logic for a reason to push off bringing out the garbage for pick-up. The argument that I can get my ass out of bed before the garbage men came by isn't very convincing.
Then it came to me: yesterday was a holiday, which means garbage pick-up is on the holiday schedule, which means I don't have to do this 'til tomorrow. See what we can accomplish when we take the time to think about it?
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I watched the inauguration on broadcast TV for seven hours. While some of the coverage was good, even tense, most of the time it was filler.
It just dawned on me that I've worn George's hoodie for over a week straight. Who knew that hoodies are just so awesome?
We went out shopping for a new duvet and a set of bed sheets. Needless to say, we came home with everything but.
Three pairs of pants under twenty dollars. I love the Old Navy.
I just couldn't get the pancakes right. Different blends of temperature and consistency yielded the same result: crispy outsides, uncooked middles. I suspect it's because I'm using pumpkin from a can and I suppose I could look online, but that would be too easy.
There's just something fan-boyish about Barack Obama taking an inaugural train to DC just as his hero, Abraham Lincoln, had done.
Not that there's anything wrong with paying homage, but that's like Jack Bauer going into a mission in Chuck Norris briefs. I'm sure there's a better analogy out there, but you get the picture.
Okay. I understand that it takes a certain amount of skill to land an unpowered plane into the Hudson River. But calling that pilot a hero is like calling a bus driver who runs out of gas and manages to coast to safety (or better yet, a gas station) a hero. I'm guessing the pilot would agree.
I found myself perturbed when I realized what I was looking at: a leopard print vibrator, at least a picture of one, in an adult toy catalog.
Not that I have a problem with vibrators, or catalogs of vibrators for that matter; it's just not what I'd expect to find, spread-eagle in front of me, as I pay for my car wash.
The girl on the register didn't flinch. In fact, I don't think her eyes ever left the spread.
The Mac started making a grinding noise the night before we flew out west. I took it apart when I should've been packing for fear of a failing hard drive.
The source turned out to be the power supply's fan; it may need a replacement—the second in its 9-year lifetime. I left the power supply out of its box and the mac wide-open to keep everything cool until I got this resolved. And it's been that way since.
Knowing me, it's going to be like that for a while.
The entire day was built around the 24 season premiere. I even loaded up on ibuprofen before the show for maximum comfort and minimum distraction.
We came out with some pretty solid deals at REI. Tammie got nice shirts, I got a nice-fitting pair of cords, everything well under twenty bucks.
Also, I accidentally shoplifted a small plastic container worth 65¢. I had it in my hand the entire time: while browsing, as I tried on clothes, while we checked out, and as I got in the car.
Bruce Almighty was on the tube. I didn't watch enough to recall the plot, just enough to see Steve Carell portray Evan the antagonist, who was the protagonist in Evan Almighty. I saw the films years apart and perhaps that's why I failed to make the connection.
According to the doctor I have a... uhm... he had a more technical term for it but at the moment it escapes me but in laymen's terms it's a pinched nerve. No permanent damage, just something to monitor for several weeks, and perhaps alleviate with some ibuprofen.
I took the car in for an oil change, a slow leak in the rear-right tire, and an emissions sticker.
While waiting I went cross-eyed watching Get Smart on the phone. It took half the afternoon for me to see straight again.
It's been months since I've ridden and weeks since I've ran. The new year was supposed to mark the start of base training but I'm still incapacitated; I get shocked whenever I pull with my left leg.
Going through our monthly statement, it took me a while to figure out what a check for thirty dollars was for: it was for a race back in August.
We made it a point to get enough lunch food for the five-day weekend. That's kinda funny in retrospect because, so far, we've yet to get up before noon; we've been starting with a late breakfast followed directly by dinner.
We were asleep when the bell rang. I was still getting my thoughts together when Tammie blurted out, "FedEx!"
That's right. We were expecting a delivery today, one which we couldn't get up for on the 31st. Since neither of us expected a package then, I had hoped that it was a belated birthday present. I limped down two flights of stairs with pajama pants in one hand and a bad back.
I couldn't get my pants on with my back the way it was, so I opened the door, greeted our regular mohawked FedEx guy, and signed for the parcel in my boxers. As I handed back his clipboard, I immediately recognized the box in his arms. It wasn't anything exciting like a present or a forgotten impulse purchase; it was just the spring batch of Unattached kits.
As we got ready for dinner I panicked. The day was drawing to a close and I haven't had the chance to work out, though riding or running really isn't sensible with my back the way it is.
But it's the new year; I had to do something physical. And so for the first time I picked up the dumbbells that I purchased over a year ago.
I didn't know what to do with them. I did understand that I should use a bunch of muscle groups together to avoid injury. So I mimicked the lifting motion that's involved in all-out sprinting. And then I mimicked the lifting motion involved in getting my bike up the stairs.
I also tried to do push-ups; I did six.
