I found this neat skin on http://blogskins.com but had to modify it to enable comments and show current and archived posts. I need to fix something with the archives b/c when you click a current post, the archive box goes blank. It was fun (which further proves to me I'm in the right profession) but I really need to get stuff done before it's time for me to dress up and greet the trick or treaters

Labels: Blog Update, Nerdy

As I was finishing up heating up my eggroll today, one of the mail room gals popped in to get a drink from our mega drink machine. I had walked out when she walked in. I remembered I had forgotten napkins (see #100) so, I went back. As I rounded the corner, she was leaving and making an exasperated teeth sucking sound. I discovered the drink machine was beeping; her water got stuck so that you couldn't push the flap in to retrieve it. She came back with a ruler and was able to knock it over and fish it out. "I hate this thing!" She told me. "I take it this isn't the first time this has happened to you," I asked.

"NO!!!"

This got me thinking that we all must have things like this that are part of our Karma (for lack of a better term). For example, when it comes to picking a table for a meal at a restaurant or similar establishment, I will, without fail, end up picking the rickety table. The mail room gal has problems with the drink machine but I never do. She probably never picks the rickety table when she goes out to eat.

What things happen to you without fail? I imagine this also applies to good things since I know of folks that always get good parking or always get really good seats for concerts.

Labels: Interactive, Work MI

today
my brow is furrowed
my eyes are tired
my spirit weary from
other people who
want
me
to
think
for
them.


I am weary. Weary is a very fitting word. Today's the kind of day where I wish a hot bubble bath was already drawn for me by the time I got home. I'm in need of being spoiled horribly.

Spoiled horribly?
Spoiled wonderfully.

Labels: Poetry?, Rant

For once I'm glad I live in MI
http://motorcitybuffy.ieasysite.com/

Labels: BtVS, Nerdy, Whedonish

1-50
51-74

75. I will never buy a plaid skirt because I went to Catholic school for 11 years.
76. I would like to take ballroom dancing lessons.
77. My favorite comic strip is Bloom County.
78. I'd like to try horse back riding someday.
79. I dislike the version of New Order's 'True Faith' that cuts out 'to the childhood I
lost replaced by fear' from the chorus.
80. My favorite phrase to use when I'm driving and another driver does something stupid or annoying is 'are you kidding me?'.
81. I was not allowed to eat sugary cereal in my house when I was growing up.
82. As a result of 81, I never tried Corn Pops until I was maybe 21.
83. But I did try Trix, Fruit Loops and Apple Jacks at sleep overs.
84. I had an experience once where I was in that waking up stage and I couldn't move or
speak and I felt like there was a presence sitting on my bed.
85. I thought it might have been a ghost but did some research on the symptoms. It might have been sleep paralysis.
86. I really like KFC biscuits.
87. I ordered a drink at a restaurant on my 21st birthday and did not get carded.
88. My favorite ice cream flavor is Ben and Jerry's Apple Crumble.
89. I was sad when it was discontinued because I ate it very infrequently.
90. If I eat a fast food meal, I have to eat all of my fries first.
91. Loud noises scare me quite easily.
92. I witnessed a purse snatching when I was on a bus in Miami. An older lady was getting off the bus when some guy ran by and snatched her purse. The bus driver and some of the passengers jumped off the bus and chased the guy and got the purse back to the lady.
93. I have not seen any of the Godfather movies, though I would like to.
94. There is something about Ben Stiller that just pisses me off. I want to punch him or something.
95. I am a hopeless romantic. I guess that goes along with #57.
96. I gravitate toward buying shirts / blouses / sweaters with horizontal stripes on them.
97. I have a 'thing' about minatures. They fascinate me.
98. So I would like a dollhouse someday so that I could decorate it with minature bits o' life.
99. I always sneeze three times in a row.
100. I have a tendency to forget to grab napkins at movie theatres, cafeterias, fast food places, etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yup..you won't get those 2 -3 minutes of your life back!

Labels: About Glitzy, Memes

(1-50)

51. I am over that now.
52. I think the chore I hate the most is cleaning the bathroom.
53. I also hate filing.
54. I was born with straight-ish to wavy hair. It became curly sometime during puberty.
55. I love playing pinball and would love to own the Addams Family pinball machine that
came out when the movies were in theatres.
56. The first pinball machine I played on was a KISS pinball machine.
57. I'm a sap. I cry very easily when watching emotional scenes in movies or t.v. shows.
58. My right kidney has two ureters.
59. I found this out when I was hosptalized for a kidney stone at 21.
60. The doctor was amazed. I was way to exhausted to care.
61. The word 'ostrich' will appear in my head sometimes for no apparent reason. I don't
know what this means.
62. I love being babied when I'm sick.
63. I absolutely did not listen to any Spanish language music by choice until I heard a song called 'Vuela Vuela' by a pop boy band called Magneto.
64. The first Spanish language album..err..cd..I bought was Marc Antony's 'Todo A Su Tiempo' back in the mid 90s.
66. I was disappointed when U2 remixed 'The Sweetest Thing'. I prefer the original.
67. I'm a fidgeter.
68. I also have that habit of shaking my leg when I'm sitting. Drives my guy nuts in movies.
69. I tend to check out guys' forearms. I dig sexy, well muscled forearms on a guy.
70. I never thought of putting melted cheese on my omelettes until I started dating my guy.
71. My favorite tree is the Golden Tababua (sp?) Isn't it pretty?

72. I had one in my backyard when I was little.
73. Hurricane David knocked it down, though.
74. I prefer pink or orange roses to red.

Labels: About Glitzy, Memes

Inspired by the blonde librarian's 100 Things About Me and Tess's 100 Useless Tidbits About Me

*** Blogger keeps eating the full 100 so I am posting these 50 at a time****

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. My first spoken word was 'okay'. There was a mortgage commercial from a local FL company at the time where the spokesman ended the commercial saying "Okay? Okay!" The tv was always on and the commericial was played A LOT so I think this why this was the word of choice.
2. I don't remember not knowing how to read and am pretty sure I could a bit by age 3.
3. My sister named me.
4. When I was 6, I had a crush on Archie Andrews. Yes, the comic book character.
5. I am not allergic to anything.
6. My first trip to Disney World was during Grad Night. Sad for a FL native, huh?
7. I have never ridden Space Mountain
8. I have had a problem eating food samples or doughnut holes offered in grocery stores ever since I saw a little kid take a food sample, lick it and put it back. Yup, the parents allowed it.
9. I went to my first concert at age 13. It was Genesis's 'Invisible Touch' tour.
10. My original career plan was to be a recording engineer since I was a music nut.
11. Then it changed to 'something in the dramatic arts' on the business side.
12. Then it changed to 'something in the movie theatre business'.
13. Number 12 was EXTREMELY short lived.
14. Then it changed to 'something in computers' where it stayed 'til I narrowed it down to
programming.
15. I really like computer programming.
16. I enjoy acting onstage and am pretty good at it.
17. The first movie I saw in a theatre was (I think) 'E.T. The Extraterrestrial'.
18. I am terrified of bugs that sting (bees, wasps, etc.).
19. I know how to run a 35mm film projector and was in charge of a projection booth for about a year.
20. The first movie I put together (yes, the reels have to be spliced together) was 'My Girl 2'.
21. I was 8 when I tried coffee for the first time. I hated it then.
22. I didn't learn how to ride a bike until I was 9.
23. All of my middle school and high school crushes were artistically inclined.
24. I only drink soy milk.
25. My favorite TV shows are the 'X Files' and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'
26. Oh, and 'Angel' :)
27. I am sad that 'Wonderfalls' was cancelled.
28. I collect tourbooks and vinyl records.
29. I would love to start collecting Swarovski crystal figurines.
30. I know how to twirl a baton.
31. I just can't do any fancy moves with one.
32. I used to write in a journal almost every day between the ages of 15 and 22.
33. I can type about 55 words a minute with 90% accuracy.
34. I first tried my two favorite foods when I was 18.
35. Those two faves are sushi and tiramisu.
36. I talk in my sleep sometimes.
37. And I snore pretty badly as well, so I've been told.
38. I have never broken a bone...umm...let me knock on my wooden desk now.
39. I have read almost all of the books Stephen King has written.
40. I don't know how to play a musical instrument.
41. But I've always wanted to learn to play the bass guitar or the violin.
42. I can't wiggle my ears and am envious of those who can.
43. I got my first pair of glasses at age 10.
44. I was very excited about getting them because I thought they'd make me look smarter
(how cliche, huh?)
45. I think graphology is a neat subject.
46. I believe the doorways of the world have little devices planted in them that make you forget what you wanted on the other side of the doorway as soon as you walk through them.
47. I can recite the 'Our Father' and 'Hail Mary' in French.
48. I've never been further west than TX.
49. I need to travel more.
50. When I was little, I desperately wanted blue eyes.

Labels: About Glitzy, Memes

CD for the day - Michael Penn's 'March'.

Labels: Music

The first time I tried donating blood was when I was a senior in high school. I was turned down because I was anemic. For some odd reason, my mind equated that with 'you can't donate blood ever'. It wasn't until I was at University talking about donating blood with a friend that I realized that you could take iron supplements the week before so that it's safe to donate.

Yes. I am a bit slow sometimes.

I had an appointment last Friday afternoon. There I was...heading to my car with my stuff so that I wouldn't have to take it with me to the work cafeteria which was set up as the donation area when I realized that...I hadn't taken any iron supplements at all during the week.

Crap on a crap cracker!

I figured I'd just get turned down and when my little drop of blood didn't even attempt to sink, I sighed. So, the nurse did the test that performs the red blood cell count and I was prepared to hear that I couldn't donate that day. This did not happen. My red blood cell count was a little above normal. Too much iron also causes your little blood drop not to sink in the solution. I was and am so proud of myself and my efforts to eat healthy.

Since I don't have Vampire Slayer kick ass skills, I figure that donating blood is the closest I'll ever come to helping save a life. I was filled with such a sense of good until I could see my blood flowing out of me into this tube that was connected to the bag I couldn't see.

Mind you, I have no problems with needles. I just go through a momentary panic that overshadows that sense of good every time I see / feel my blood flowing out of me when I donate. It lasts for maybe a minute usually. This time, however, I was the last donator and the nurse kept hovering over me and agitating the bag while telling me to keep giving the little gauze roll squeezes so that I would finish faster. I think I made the mistake of mentioning that I was slow bleeder.

So fifteen to twenty minutes later of deep breaths and making small talk with the nurse, I was a pint lighter, slightly less frazzled and the world was a better place.

Err..or something like that.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
CDs for the day:
Simple Minds 'Once Upon a Time' - I've had 'Sanctify Yourself' in my head
for the past week and I heard it on the radio yesterday and so I got my cd out
of my car and I am the QUEEN of the run on sentence today.
Deee-lite 'The Very Best of Deee-lite'
Ricky Martin 'La Historia'
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Labels: Music, Type A+

To jog your memories, this was what I was presented with last week. Click on it. It's a little bit bigger if you do so.



This is my revision. See. Isn't that better ?

Labels: CNfH, Work MI

My Neopets are dying.

I realized today that it's been over a month..maybe over two months since I've logged into Neopets. Poor pets. I should do something about that soon.

It's been a crazy type of fall what with moving into a new place and trying to do a little bit of decorating organazing at a time. I'm hoping we're done by Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. My Friday was quiet and spent watching episodes of Farscape season 3 on dvd. Saturday day was spent finishing up organizing my kitchen and walking the kitty cats. I have such funny cats. Yes, this is where I sound like a parent talking about 'that cute thing' their toddler / baby does. Skip this part if you are already rolling your eyes. Yes, my cats are funny. Pumpkin is very adventerous on her leash. As soon as the door opens she rushes out at almost full Pumpkin speed. (She's a bit slow at everything so it takes her a while to rev up) She pretty much walks me all over the complex, attacks moving leaves, gets me all tangled up in other peoples lawn furntiure until she gets tired. Then I pick her up and take her back to our doorstop so she can lie down and chill. Pooky is much friskier and speedier than Pumpkin in his own controlled environment. Outside is too new. Too much sensory overload. He has not ventured further than the walkway outside our back door.

Saturday evening was fun. I saw Margaret Cho live at the Michigan Theatre. I rediscovered her this summer when the Sundance channel played her last two recorded performances during July. The first half of her performance was pretty political which was what I had expected. (Especially since the title of this tour is the 'State of Emergency' tour). The other half covered such topics as being voted worst dressed for the Grammy's (quite notable that she mentioned she beat out Parliament Funkadelic. I loves me some George Clinton....who happened to be wearing the same Aladdin sheets I owned back in 1993 when I saw him at Lollapolooza and was a bit obsessed with that movie), being scared by Bjork and doing an awesome impersonation of her and the correct way to introduce your old gay and new gay to each other. That particular topic did bring back memories I wasn't sure I wanted.

¡Epa!

Cd for the moment is Ricky Martin's 'La Historia.'

Labels: Comedy, Events, Kitty Kids, Music, Video Games

Pumpkin assesses the washer situation

Labels: Kitty Kids, Photos, Pumpkin

If you live in Ann Arbor or near enough to Ann Arbor, do yourself a favor and go to Bellanina Day Spa. I treated myself to a truly glorious enzyme facial today. It was, for the most part soothing.

For those of you who have not treated yourself to spa treatment, you're given a terry or velour wrap to wear when you're having a treatment like a facial or a massage. Since I was only having one service, I didn't get the whole spa robe and spa slippers to wear while my clothes and shoes hung out in a locker. I changed into my wrap and crawled under the covers into a heated bed / table of sorts. New agey type music was softly playing and that was mixed in with the sound of a little fountain that was in the room. The lighting was very warm and welcoming.

My esthetician was a very pretty, tiny woman by the name of Lauren. She actually did my skin consultation about two weeks ago so it wasn't like I was going into the whole experience not knowing the person who was going to treat me like I did for my first facial. She had a very gentle touch and explained what was going to go on. First she cleansed my face and then put a lavender scented warm towel on it. Sooooo...relaxing and wonderfully scented. Actually, most of the products she put on my face smelled wonderful. My favorite was a citrus scented skin polisher. The only product that didn't really have a noticeably pleasing or otherwise scent were the masques that went over the glycolic peel that she put on my face.

Glycolic peel. Wow. It wasn't that strong of a solution and it actually smelled like Red Hots. However....it was quite sting-y for the first 15 to 20 seconds. Lauren actually used a little hand held fan (I'm guessing b/c my eyes were closed for all of this) to soothe my face. She told me that nothing within the solution could actually harm or burn my skin. The product had cinnamon extract in it which is what causes the blood to rush up to the skin. Tres interesant.

This part of the facial was a bit odd. After the masques were put on over the peel, they started to harden. I first felt the effect around my right nostril. It was as if my nostril was trying to close then open. Then it felt very odd - almost as if the skin around my nostril was growing and stretching upwards toward the sky. Then the rest of my skin started tingling and it felt like my face was shriveling inward.

While this was happening, I got an arm and hand massage and got hot towels wrapped around my footsies. :0)

My skin feels so wonderful now.

I truly have the potential to become a spa junkie. My first spa was the Spa at Ballantyne Resort in Charlotte, NC. I was the MOH for a very dear friend of mine and got her a spa package as my bridal shower gift to her. (Of course, I figured she needed company, so I went too. ) We both decided that spa treatments were THE best things ever.

The next spa I went to was Essentials Spa in Melbourne, FL. I had gotten my guy's mom a certificate for Mother's Day that year. I figured after the complete bliss of Ballantyne, EVERY female should go to spa, especially moms. Mom's work very hard so they need extra pampering. She loved it. Raved about it. Figured I had to check that one out for myself!

My dream spa trip would be the Spa at the Hotel Hershey. Pampering and chocolate put together sounds like heaven on earth to me! I'll have to dream about that for now, though. Check out how the overnight spa package prices change according to season. Yipes!

Labels: Ann Arbor, Spas

So, this morning as I was driving to work I realized that I did not bring anything with me for breakfast. The norm for the past couple of weeks has been a light yogurt smoothie and .5 to .75 cup of Trader Joe's Granola & the 3 Berries. There's a 24 hr Walgreen's on the way so I stopped in the check out their smoothie selection. Talk about A LOT of sugar in some of the regular smoothies (46 grams of sugar in one! Crap!) I purchased a Snapple A Day and went on my merry way.

I opened it a little after I got into work. I was near the bottom of the bottle when I decided to take another drink and instead of cool, smooth liquid smoothie I felt chunky, sludgey smoothie on my tongue. Ugh! Blech! I almost spewed it out like the guy does in the FedEx Kinko's commericial but did not. I did get some on my blouse which luckily did not stain. Horrible way to start your day.

Labels: Bad Day, Food

Another Painful Monday.

I have been trying to find an example of a poor flowchart to post but have not found anything that matches the monstrosity before my weary eyes. I figured shinking it all down so you can clearly so that there is no top level design or any sort of mimickry of control structures (if then else, while loops, decisions, etc) going on.

So much for efficient coding on my part. I'm going to have to create my own b/c this is just sad. Even SADDER that it was approved by my boss.

I have to talk with my cube neighbor designer of all things evil later on today to make heads and or tails of the above nightmare. I am not looking forward to that at all. However, on a semi-related topic, I am changing his description from demented Fraggle to this:

To my knowledge he doesn't have a high sweet singing voice, but the pictorial resemblance is uncanny.


News on my end:

• Got my first ever washer and dryer delivered this weekend. Pumpkin was fascinated by the spinning. I'll have to post a picture of her mongoose impresonation.
• The kitchen is 99% arranged and I'm happier with this one than with the previous one .
• Saw 'Shaun of the Dead' on Saturday. Hillarious. Definitely one to own.
• On Sunday we awoke to no electricity. My guy wondered out loud if the electrical company decided to cut off the power in this apartment instead of our old one. We decided to go out for a Bob Evan's breakfast and found that the whole complex was affected. Phew...errr..I guess.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CDs for the day -
Abba (still) - It's actually pretty good music for coding. Good tempo, keeps your feet tapping,
and puts me in a good mood. I guess I'm just one for bubble-gum pop since I love
the Monkees, the Archies and that wonderful 'Red Rubber Ball' song.

Last Action Hero Soundtrack - Megadeath's 'Angry Again' and Anthrax's 'Poison My Eyes' being
my faves that get stuck on repeat quite often

Automatic for the People by R.E.M
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
""I ask in all honesty. What would life be? Without a song or a dance what are we?" " -from 'Thank You for the Music' by Abba

Labels: CNfH, Lists, Music, Work MI

I saw Dr. Maya Angelou at the Eastern Michigan University Convocation center with Tess on Thursday. I didn't know what to expect but I certainly wasn't expecting to laugh as much as I did. It was a truly memorable evening full of poetry, song, humour and personal anecdotes. My favourite one was about her time touring with "Porgie and Bess" as a dancer and her time in Yugoslavia (I believe). What a supermely talented woman.

The evening started off with a group of students from EMU's Poetry Society. There were, I believe, five poets - three women and two men. Two started off repeating the phrase "still rising" and another joined in stating "still I rise" The chanting was the background for the body of the poem. What was unfortunate was that I don't believe any of the five had any sort of dramatic background or if they even had a chance to perform that poem in rehearsal at the convocation center; I could not understand a word of the poem due to lack of ennunciation and soft spoken words. Though, the last female who performed her piece did speak a lot more distinctly and loudly than the others.

Dr. Angelou did encourage the students in attendance to ask the local librarians to introduce them to different poets. She said not to be surprised if they were caught off guard and looked at you like this [insert deer in headlights look here] for the first two minutes. The reason for this look is because librarians study their work as seriously as surgeons but do not often get called upon to use their skills. However, once the initial shock wore off, she assured that they would be most delighted to help.

Among the many thoughts the evening inspired, I want to state the following one here in my little corner of cyberspace - I do not read enough poetry. I need to remedy that. Dr. Angelou performed (recited?) Langston Hughes' "Harlem Sweeties" which reminded me of one of my many English Literature classes that studied him. It was delicious to hear his words rolling off of her tongue. Here is a page that has that that poem along with some other Langston Hughes poems.

Labels: Events