Finders keepers

I found this cute reversible hat while walking Lucas in Duke Forest last weekend. It was a bit off-trail and no one was around. At first I walked right by it but then decided to check it out. I think I like it! It has now been washed and is ready for wearing.

I love Tommy Gavin

Ever since I started watching "Rescue Me" on FX I've been drawn to Denis Leary. As far as my "type" goes, he only has height on his side. Nevertheless, I just love Tommy Gavin. Maybe it is his youthful appearance. I mean really - how many 54 year olds truly have a full head of blonde hair?

I'm pretty sure I've never met an adult who truly has "blonde" hair that doesn't need an extra dose of blonde dye to keep it on the lighter side. (There's clearly a significant amount of denial floating around the heads of "blondes" these days).

When I brought up my attraction to Leary to a co-worker, her response was, "yes, he is disgusting." That was not my offered attitude or opinion and still isn't no matter what anyone else thinks. There's just something about his personality that makes me love him - or at least want to befriend him.

I'm sure I'll never meet Leary, so I'll remain an admirer and I'll still think he's hot in a very whacked out way.

Reading that the series finale of "Rescue Me" is scheduled to air the week of September 11th is a bit disappointing, because even those of us who STINK at math can figure that the time table adds up to less than 10 episodes for the final season. Hello? Angel season 5 cut-off anyone? Let's hope that's not what is in the works.

Forever cichlid

My first endeavors as fish-owner were horrifically unsuccessful. I'd begun to think that any fish that landed in an aquarium of mine was automatically sentenced to death.

If you read the post "No longer empty", you'll remember my orange cichlid, who remains nameless (perhaps the only reason he's still breathing).

I realized Monday night that I hadn't cleaned his tank much less changed his water since March. On Tuesday night I set aside the task with the promise to vacuum the gravel, clean the tank and decorations and change the water.

All successfully done, I still half expected to find poor orange cichlid belly up the next morning. Nope.

Screw all those damn goldfish I had to flush. This feisty little cichlid - who will forever remain nameless - has an iron soul!

Country Dog Gentlemen

After my previous puzzle missing piece tragedy, I felt the need to immediately redeem myself. I finished the puzzle below in almost one sitting, and I really like it. Those Van Gogh puzzles can be a bitch and a half (but I'll still do more of them), so it was nice to take this departure into a more clean cut graphic piece.

The puzzle is Roy De Forest's "Country Dog Gentleman" and the puzzle brand is Pomegranate Artpiece Puzzle.

I will definitely look for more puzzles made by Pomegranate because this one is very high quality. The pieces are made of sturdy cardboard and there is no mistaking which piece goes where (with some cheapster puzzles it's hard to tell due to poorly cut pieces). All pieces have a nice matte, yet brightly colored finish. It really is a beautiful puzzle.

Very frustrated puzzler

Here's my latest "finished" puzzle. It was a really hard one, which is why the two missing pieces are so effing frustrating!

I have no idea what could've happened to them. Did Rusty eat them off the floor? Did they fall into the trash? Were they never in the box? BOO! I really wanted to frame this one.

I might try to figure out a creative way to fill in the two small spaces, but right now I'm too darn mad.

The puzzler

I recently became obsessed with puzzles. I believe it started when I was home for Easter and decided to break open a puzzle I gave Abby for Christmas. The one I completed Monday night is pictured below and I've already started on my next one - another Van Gogh print.

I really want this puzzle - a replication of the cover from the February 8, 2010 issue of The New Yorker. It's perfect for a dog lover like me!

Keep life delicious

Lean Cuisine began a promotion on January 1, 2011 which offered dedicated customers the ability to earn a "red carpet" lunch bag. I eat one of those lean cuisines almost every day so I knew I could earn one quickly and I did. I ordered my chosen bag, pictured below, on January 28th and was pleasantly surprised to receive it in the mail on February 19th.



I've continued to enter codes on their web site because they promise to launch a new "loyalty program" after the end of the lunch bag promo. If you're a Lean Cuisiner, start collecting those codes!

Wishing you happy holidays - without piggy pudding

In case of fire

There are signs similar to this one posted in my workplace. I find the message slightly insulting. I mean really? Without the elevator what other options does one have? A swan dive out of the 2nd story window?

Time to fix your ride

As if it would've taken a lot for this eyesore to grab my attention, the car pictured was swerving all over highway 54 last night. Nice graffiti job - seriously?! I know you can't really see it in the pic, but this car was covered in haphazard zig-zags of spraypaint - in the brightest, most obnoxious colors.

Original paint job appeared to be in purple - barf - and the other paint designs were largely in pink, lavender and aqua. CLASSY!

Full Moon Friday

It was a typical Friday night - me and a couple of dogs - two of us away from home. Zoe and I spend a lot of nights at our home away from home (Kerry's) with Emma.

Maybe it's the lycans on the brain due to the Vampire Diaries' most recent expansion into werewolf lore, but I was drawn to last night's full moon. My camera isn't the most sophisticated, but I thought a couple of these shots were kinda cool.

The first two have a bit of an ivy halo, while the third has some freaky phantom moon going on above. I have no idea what that spot really is.





I really liked this last one. Looks almost like a contained explosion.

Electric yellow in the house

Or in the tank I should say. I picked up an electric yellow cichlid on Sunday to take the place of my fallen convict cichlid. I thought the fact that the yellow fish is larger would curb the orange cichlid's aggression. Alas I think I was mistaken.

As you can see in the third photo the poor thing has already set up residence in the previous tank inhabitant's favorite hiding place - up by the heater. I hope the aggression abates - I will be really sad to find another violated fish in my tank!

I was quite disturbed to learn that convict and red zebra cichlids (the orange fish) are extremely incompatible. I sure wish that Petco guy had told me that in the first place. I guess I'll be more faithful to my local dedicated fish store to avoid such uneducated sales.

Bully

I found my little blue convict cichlid on the bottom of the tank Friday morning. He had been nibbled on. An eye was missing.

I knew it was coming - the orange cichlid has been chasing him around the tank for months. I noticed Thursday night that the little convict was almost completely devoid of fins - most likely due to nipping from the orange bully.

I squinted and lifted the little guy for his flushing funeral.

I'm planning a trip to the local high-end tropical fish store this weekend to purchase a tank mate for orange bully. If I can't find one that is at least as large as the bully I'll leave said bully alone in the tank.

This wasn't my first experience with pet cannibalism. I had two pet gerbils (Chester & Clyde) as a child and I found one of them missing an entire head at one point. Quite disturbing.

I'm willing to speculate that I am affected more than the average aquarist by the loss of a fish. Maybe it's silly, but I always feel the tinge of failure when I lose a tank buddy. Farewell little blue fish.

Laughing Cow trivia

I adore The Laughing Cow cheese wedges and Babybel cheeses, so when I saw The Laughing Cow Gourmet Cheese Bites on sale at my local Kroger I picked up a couple of packages.

These are basically just tiny individually-wrapped "bites" of TLC wedges. Each pack contains 25 bites; 5 bites per serving. They're great when you just want a little taste of yum. But it wasn't until this evening that I realized the wrappers are lined with little snippets of trivia - so clever.

Here are the bits of knowledge I opened up with my cheese tonight (as well as the two wrappers I plucked from the trash from last night's cheese snack):

♥ You will never see a right-handed polar bear; they are all lefties.

♥ New York City's Empire State Building has 400 windows.

♥ Beer making requires 1/10 of the 7 million tons of rice grown in the U.S. each year.

♥ It takes just 1 ostrich egg to make 11.5 omelets.

♥ The only mammal that can fly is the bat.

♥ The penny is the only U.S. coin bearing a right-facing profile.

♥ New Zealand women were the first in the world to be allowed to vote.

Did anyone already know any or all of these little facts?

Tank update

The cichlids are doing well, although I think the convict cichlid (the blue one with stripes) would appreciate a body guard. Mr. Orange is pretty aggressive, but I've learned how to assure they both get enough food. It involves a great deal of thought and timing.

I've thus had more luck caring for cichlids than goldfish - geez those goldfish can be a pain. So I'm back in the aquarium game. No more goldfish, that's for sure.

And I'm glad I didn't give up the idea of having a fish tank due to my goldfish funeral marathon; because watching those little cichlids flit all over the tank is more entertaining than one could imagine. I've thought of adding another but I don't want to push my luck. For now I'll nurture the two cichlids I have as best I can!

Self-proclaimed squirrel

I found out yesterday that our annual company "mystery trip" requires a passport. While I was certain that mine expires next April, I dug it out of my fire-proof box just to check. What I found made me laugh my ass off.

Behold the old-school over-21 North Carolina driver's license. Pardon my ignorance if it is/was common practice across states, but the red background indicates a 21-year-old and over adolescent.


Why I still have this license - in a fire-proof box no less - is beyond me. It honestly looks like something any kid could create in his/her basement with a low-scale laminating machine. Perhaps that is why the NC license changed so drastically soon after.

No longer empty

My 12-gallon aquarium has been empty for more than 18 months, so I began regularly checking the water again about 6 weeks ago in preparation for adding some fish. Over the previous weeks I replaced the heater, made several water changes and did some research on which fish would most likely adapt to my tank's water conditions.

I went to Petco yesterday in search of some cichlids. The "fish man" was quite protective of his swimmers for sale. Once I told him my tank had been empty for a while he became very concerned. He wanted me to bring in a water sample to be sure my tank was habitable. My first thought was, "Dude. You don't know me. I don't do anything half-way."

After I explained to him that I have all of my own water-testing equipment, he relaxed enough to be willing to sell me some fish. When I told him I brought a brown paper bag to bring the fish home in (fish don't like to be able to see anything during transport from one tank to the next), he completely dropped his guard.

Below are photos of my new friends. Fish are so hard to photograph - at least for an amateur like me - so please pardon the blurriness. The first photo is of both of the new tank mates. The one at the top right is a Lake Malawi cichlid called a "convict." It's such a fitting name as they have faint stripes on their bodies. The orange one appears to be another variety of Lake Malawi cichlid whose proper name is Cynotilapia afra.



The convict has spent most of his time hiding under the plastic bridge in the tank. The guy at Petco said he won't grow as big as the other one and that he'll be less aggressive. I'd have to agree since the orange guy hasn't stopped flitting all over the tank yet.



Here's the shy one laying low by the big piece of driftwood in the center of the tank.



I'm not supposed to use the tank light for at least 24 hours to reduce stress and I'm sticking to that, but I must say it's hard because aquarium fish have a way of mesmerizing me. I could watch them for hours. It's good to have some little guys in the tank again!

Aromatherapy fix

Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day lavender scented hand soap is like heaven in a bottle.

I'd seen it several times but never smelled or used it until last weekend at my friend Kile's house. Wow. I wanted to attach my nose to the bottle.

But it's really not just the scent. My hands tend to crack and bleed from dryness, and not just in the winter. In fact, more than one doctor has recommended medication in an effort to reduce my obsessive cleansing - especially after seeing my deeply cracked and chapped hands. I'm plenty medicated, but I'm not willing to take a pill to curb hand washing.

Anyway, back to the soap. It is cruelty- free, biodegradable, and scented with naturally occurring essential oils. It cleanses thoroughly without drying and in case I didn't emphasize it enough earlier, it smells like heaven.

I bought a bottle last night at Harris Teeter for $3.75 for 12.5 ounces. It's also available at World Market, but those stores seem to be dropping like flies these days.

There are definitely cheaper and most likely equally effective hand soaps on the market, but do those soaps smell like heaven? I recommend indulging in some Mrs. Meyer's soap every now and again.

So you think you want naturally curly hair

I inherited naturally curly hair from my father. Now, when I say naturally curly, I should clarify that when left to its own devices my hair is larger than Buckwheat. Evidence can be seen at this post. I do in fact have a photo of the most embarrassing example of said afro somewhere but I can't find it just now. It was posted on my office door - in full color - for over two years before we moved to different digs.

My mother's hair is slightly wavy but of course my brother got all of mom's genes, and he practically shaves his head. So unfair.

Throughout my entire life I've listened to people telling me, "you should wear your hair curly! You're so lucky!" Ummmm. NO. I'd like to remind those people who don't live in Arizona or some other desert climate that having naturally curly hair SUCKS.

For instance, one night last summer I was completely jealous of my niece, who has beautiful light brown STRAIGHT hair. We were at an outdoor restaurant at Holden Beach, where I had to wear a hat to tame my unruly locks. She was 7. She would've looked much more adorable in my hat at her age, but I'm the one with hair that tends toward dreadlocks.

Actually, I spent my entire spring break at the age of 22 with a hat on my head in Jamaica for the same reason. My fashion statement likely did NOT catch on: cocktail dress with baseball cap and ponytail bun.

People always want what they don't have, but I'd seriously be willing to bet a year's salary that anyone with my hair would strongly wish they didn't have it.

I remember one ridiculous instance in particular (as no one believes the extreme curliness of my hair). When I went to Iceland in 2004 I was too cheap to purchase a power converter, so I was unable to completely straighten my hair (I have since been quite successful with only a hair dryer and a round brush, but at the time my hair was MUCH longer).

So when I arrived at dinner on our first night, several of my colleagues asked me if I'd gotten a perm. The smart-ass in me couldn't resist the following response, "Yes, I touched down here in Reykjavik a few hours ago and getting a perm was my first order of business."

Those with straight hair should cherish it - at least you CAN perm it. Getting kinky hair chemically straightened is far more difficult - yes, I've tried and failed. What I wouldn't give for a wash-n-go frizz-free do!

St. Patrick's Day: It's once a year and it always falls on the same date in March

Yesterday wasn't the first time that I was miffed by the inability of others to remember that St. Patrick's Day falls on March 17th EVERY YEAR. It's kinda like Christmas - that day never falls on any other than December 25th. C'mon people.

But lo and behold I heard my dear friend responding to a colleague yesterday, "No, I didn't realize it was St. Patrick's Day today." Good thing, because it wasn't.

No, I'm not Irish, but seriously - how does one not know that St. Patrick's Day is always on March 17th?

I admit to almost never remembering to wear green on the actual day - despite the fact that more than 70% of my clothes are green (I have green eyes so green clothes suit me best) - I definitely have never forgotten that St. Patrick's Day falls every year on the 17th of March.

As my supervisor pointed out, it was the IDES of MARCH (yesterday March 15th), as in "et tu, Bruté?" Although I'm pretty sure Caesar never enjoyed St. Patrick's Day.

I'll be actively thinking of ways to promote St. Patrick's Day - and the awareness of the holiday's actual date - in my spare time.