armlessbear.com

Successful Housewarming Party

Thank you to everyone who attended our housewarming party. We had a great time having you all over and showif off our house.

Thanks to my parents and K’s parents for their help in cleaing the house last weekend and this weekend.

New Theme and Fixed Functionality

Those of you who read this site by actually browsing to the address will notice a new theme, and possibly some new functionality.

I’ve finally found time to fix some things that haven’t been quite right about the site, like the story listings under each category, and the search function (the search index is rebuilding now). Hmm. Now that categories are working properly, I might have to add that “America, weep for” category I’ve been wanting to file things under lately.

Those of you reading via RSS or Atom, please be aware there’s also a feed for site comments.

Yellow House No More

Yesterday I received a call from Luke telling me that the house that was yellow at 11:30 am was now mostly gray at 4pm.

When we arrived home around 6pm the house was mostly finished in the front and sides. It certainly is gray.

The yellow made the house stand out on the street and now it just looks gray.
The bright yellow front door with the green screen door make it look weird. We either need to paint the door or get a new door completely. I can’t quite decide.

We’re debating between 2 different colors for house trim, but it won’t get done for at least a week or two. So in the m

Happy Birthday, Adam!

Today is Adam’s third birthday! Technically at this time I was in early labor and not yet in the screaming horrendous pain that came later.
The weird thing is I remember lots of really unpleasant pain, but it doesn’t actually seem like it went on for 2-3 hours. I just remember pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, epidural, slightly less pain, nice hospital person actually connecting epidural, sweet pain relief, C-Section and according to the little slip of paper I found the other day — birth at 19:34 EDT.
OK, so enough about me. I’m just feeling sorry for myself that my little tiny baby is such a big boy now.

Read this and feel lucky

A guy’s obituary in the Denver Post.
I thought I had some bad luck this year, but damm if that isn’t the worst luck I’ve ever heard of in my entire life.

Language Nerd

I was Googling the difference between Shall and Will — I have to re-write some legal documentation here at work and was trying to use the correct word. Wikipedia was actually quite helpful, but I found this link and I want this calendar for next year.
I shall have it!
It will be mine!

Also, if G.B. Shaw actually refers to George Bernard Shaw, then he should have been flogged to death for this comment.
There are many days when I have to fight the urge to say I’ve been TASKED.

Party Preparation

In less than a week we’re having our House-Warming party.
We still don’t have our new siding. (yep, still in the driveway…damp and covered with leaves).
This means we can’t even think about putting up any of our pictures and the more I unpack and re-arrange, the more pictures I find that I want to find homes for.
Grr.
I’m REALLY getting annoyed with MadCityRoofing. An update on some kind of ETA would be nice. Seriously.
And, our furnace is broken. MGE came out last week and slapped a huge DO NOT USE sign on the furnace after we smelled gas venting outside behind the house. (um.. yikes)

Where's my damn siding?

A little over a week ago we came home to find several boxes of granite-colored vinyl siding in our driveway.
Yippeeeeeee! Siding!
Soon, we thought, the dented yellow aluminum (aluminium) siding would be gone and we could finally finish our interior decorating projects.
Really, I guess I know the answer to my own question.
My damn siding is in my driveway in 8 or 9 boxes. Eight or 9 boxes BLOCKING a direct path to back out cleanly from my driveway.
We’re supposed to have our house-warming party next weekend and I was REALLY hoping that the siding would be done and the pictures would be up and I would, for one brief moment, have a clean and organized house. Alas, I do not think it was meant to be.

No Comments Make Kirsti Sad :(

So here I am thinking NO ONE EVER READS my blog anymore. No comments. Why doesn’t anyone comment? Where’s the love?

But just tonight RyanK tells me something about a moderation queue on the blog because he left a comment for me re: his birthday party. I looked and saw no comments by Ryan, but I was dying to find out what he wrote and to what section of armlessbear limbo they had gotten to.
So I finally discover by poking around and trying to leave a comment while not logged in that I do indeed have a moderation queue that NO ONE EVER (ahem, Mike) told me about. No e-mails saying “hey, you have comments in moderation”

Over the Rainbow?

My shades of gray view from my office window has been replaced by full color and I can actually see green in the trees on the far side of Lake Mendota. The lake is calm, the sky is blue and the clouds are white and fluffy.
I haven’t had such a pleasant view of the outdoors since I was working at the PTO and had a view of the grassy area behind PK5. Of course, this view isn’t “enhanced” as my previous view. We had a military guy who would exercise vigorously on his lunch break. In tiny, loose shorts. While doing pushups and the sort of leg stretching where you hold your ankle behind your back (while standing, of course. Right outside my window. At least he wore briefs.

A Greener Shade of Gray

If it’s possible, somehow it is even grayer today. Lake Mendota greenish gray and wavy. The horizon is a rainbow of grays blending from lake to land/trees to sky.

I much preferred my first week of work when the lake was calm, the sky was blue and the occassional sailboat drifted in and out of view.

The only life-form I’ve seen on the lake in the last 2 days has been one lone duck. It wasn’t even trying to swim, it just seemed to be bobbing along in the wet. Poor ducky.

And, on the bright side, its September 12th. I do have a funny 9/11/01 related story though and on this gray, rainy day I’ll relate it to you as best I can remember.

This Weeks Weather Conditions: #8a8a8a

This evening’s weather will be: #5d5d5d

3 more days of this and my mood will be: #000000

I would rather see some of this:

Autumn in Madison

I thought about posting a picture of a tropical beach, but its September in Wisconsin. No point in looking at scenes I’m not likely to see without a 7 day vacation to the Caribbean.

The Universe Is Trying to Tell Me Something

There are 3 functioning elevator banks at work. I have seen them all go up and down.
So why am I always being directed to the one with the padded walls?

Have I gone insane and no-one has bothered to tell me, or is this some sort of harbinger of insanity to come?

I would have thought that after this summer I had paid my karmic debt to society.
Of course on occassion I still put my foot in it. I am, on occassion, prone to making wild assumptions and snarky observations. Do you really think I could have been friends with Eric and Derek and Ryan for sooooo many years without having some of my own built-in snark as well as keen appreciation for their unique perspectives on the human condition?

Something to remember

When biking to work, it is important to remember to bring breakfast.

I am starving and thirsty and have no money for the vending machines and forgot to bring a lunch.

Holy Sh*&T, I biked to work

Well, I realized my bus was going to come before I was ready to leave the house.
I didn’t want to drive because parking on the square is EXPENSIVE.
No way was I going to hike nearly 3 miles to work and make it in time, so I thought I’d bike.
2.7 tiny miles, right? Only a few light slopes on Broom and Gilman street, right?

Well, yah.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see I’m out of shape, but wow.. that took a lot longer than I had expected.

And I got a cramp in one of my hamstrings.
And I want a gel seat cover.
And I want to not have my feet slip on the pedals.
And I don’t like showing up to work all red in the face.