Sunday Stuff

When I was small, my favourite toy was a plastic basket. It was red and I tied string to it and put my other toys in it and dragged it around the house. It was a red plastic basket and I still have it and it still has some string attached to it. Also, fuzzy felt. Those pictures that you stick felt on. I loved them.

I wanted to take a photo of the dinner we made last night. Provençale-style salmon on a bed of mashed potatoes with roasted red pepper strips. It looked so good. Today I wanted to make pâté but since it’s 50% butter, I’d better pass until I’ve earned more running-and-being-healthy points.

Dragging two chests of drawers and a double bed around a room is very hard work for one person. There were some unspeakable things in the area under the bed but I disposed of them. Now I’m going to chuck loads of things out. I am a hoarder and I am fed up of no having any space. I want SPACE. So I am going to throw things out. And the two boxes of books I’ll never read again? Anyone want them? Pay me postage and packing and they’re yours.

I have a hatstand. I got it when I was 16 for doing well in my GCSE exams. The joy of receiving it was marred when, on the same day that they decided to surprise me with it, I decided to surprise my parents by getting my nose pierced. The happiness of having a hatstand was outweighed by the distress of making my father cry.

And how are you?

Is it weird to plan to start collecting something one day? I’ve always planned on starting a collection of paperweights one day. Not just any old paperweights - those glass ones with flowers trapped inside them. I really like them. But they’re quite expensive and it would be a waste of money right now. But when I have some money, I am going to start collecting them.

But here’s the thing about collecting something - once word gets out that you collect something, you can forget about getting any other present ever. Once people know you collect pictures of cats, you can never, ever expect anything other than a picture of a cat for every birthday and christmas and special occasion for the rest of your LIFE.

So I will collect paperweights in secret. I will have a secret cupboard for all my paperweights and I will disguise the door as a bookcase. At night, I will go and sit amongst them and call them “my pretties” and polish them lovingly. I will never tell anyone about my collection. One day, a close friend will stumble accross the collection by accident and I will have to kill them. I will make up an elaborate story about how she came round in a distressed state and was talking about how she needed to get out of the country and how I tried to stop her but I just couldn’t. Then a small detective with a big moustache will investigate the case and find me out because they found a receipt for a lapis lazuli paperweight in my handbag. Then I will go to prison and spend my days writing to women’s magazines.

One day, another friend will visit me in prison and sneak me in a paperweight. It will be beautiful, with red and yellow flowers. I will weep as I have to smash it, to create a sharp implement. I will escape from the prison by threatening the guards with my beautiful paperweight. Then I will run away to live in Paris. Just me and my paperweights.

You’ll come and see me, won’t you? Won’t you?

Since it’s just you posting in your own thread, it’s like you’re talking to yourself and people that spend all their time talking to themselves are either autopsy people, and they have a tape recorder, or crazy people. Since I’m fairly sure you’re not completely crazy, I thought I’d jump in here and say stuff. But I got nothing to say. Oh, wait. Yes I do…

I have this workbench in the garage. It’s not much of a workbench, but it’s mine and I do stuff out there. Just last week I drilled holes in a piece of 2X4. But the problem is, it doesn’t have an electrical outlet conveniently located. Until today. I got up into the attic above the garage and tapped an electrical line into a light socket up there. I was just going to tap in and leave the light a going concern, but I decided against it. Now the light doesn’t work anymore, but it’s OK. There’s another light up in the attic. How many lights do I need in an attic I don’t really have plans to go into all that often? If I have my way, I’ll never go up there again.

But I took the light socket off the junction box and fixed up the electrical line to the ends of the other electrical line that made the light light up. With wire nuts, to be extra safe. Then I put the light socket back over the junction box, but it’s just there, it’s not hooked up at all. So I didn’t see any need to put a lightbulb back in the socket.

But the electrical line I hooked up ran across the attic and then down through the ceiling (which is just drywall) and then to my workbench. I fixed up an outlet there (with 6 plugs!) and now I can just plug in my drill if I need to drill anything without worrying about extension cords.

I did that today.

Ah, Sundays…

After all that talk about whether or not to date my exGF again, I decide not to. Many reasons. Lots of raisins, too. I love raisins.

Anyways, raisins or no raisins, I decide I’m just not gonna date for a while. Period. Then, I met this real nice girl, and we have a date tomorrow.

sigh :wink:

So, now I’m sitting here doing the crossword, marinading my chicken, and surfing the Dope, wondering if I should’ve made it a dinner date for tonight.

Nah, I’ll wait til tomorrow.

My parents are away for two weeks which is good but also bad because I’m scared of the dark and I have to go out in the dark in a bit and lock up the garage. I don’t like turning all the lights out when I go to bed either, it’s creepy.

I bought one of those dance mats that plugs into the telly and plays naff little midi songs. I love it. It’s my one concession to taking exercise. It slides about on the carpet a bit but thats ok. Turns it in EXTREME dance mat because there’s every chance I could slip over and bop my nose on the TV.

Scylla’s thread about Freeze Pops a couple of weeks ago has got me addicted. I have a huge box of them in the freezer. I like the cola ones.

Rue you’re so macho. With your talk with electricity and work benches and attics. Do you have a big saw? One that you have to operate by hand and goes RRRRR RRRRR RRRRR? Because those are cool.

I love raisins too. But did you know they loads of sugar in them? Neither did I until recently. But they do. Mondays are better than Sundays for dates, because now you have all day Sunday to get prepared. Do you need to pluck anything?

The cola freeze pops are the best, because they have the most intense flavour when you get to the bit at the end and you suck up the melted juice. That tastes like cola syrup. I used to work in a pub where you could jimmy the coke squirting thing to give you more syrup than you were supposed to get to mix with the water, and it tastes just like cola freeze pops. True story.

The dead chickens came preplucked.

I went and met with my professors and the guy I’m going to teach comp with. Then I went and bought my books, which went much better than it could have. The line wasn’t that long and I only spent 60 bucks.

Then I went to Nation’s and had a bacon cheeseburger with grilled onions and some french fries and a rootbeer.

Now I’m working on a short story I have to submit on Tuesday, and surfing the Dope. Plus playing Snood. I just succumbed to temptation and downloaded Snood last night. Big mistake.

That’s my Sunday.

A long day of solitaire. School is coming.

Back to the salt mines.

Speaking of more SPACE… I had a dream last night that I rearranged my bedroom and ended up with about 50% more free space PLUS a whole 'nother room off to one side! But I digress…

I spent (spending) my Sunday drinking, watching Nascar, watching my Orioles lose (AGAIN,) surfing, posting and watching Food Network. I don’t have to get up tomorrow. :slight_smile:

I went to the NASCAR Winston Cup race today in Darlington. It was the last Southern 500 to be held on Labor Day, a 50 some odd year tradition. Even though it was “sold out”, I managed to find 3 empty seats and sit in the middle. This is very important because otherwise I would have had to rub against 2 other sweaty people. I have a sunburn on my face except where my sunglasses were. This looks funny. Dale Jr broke a transmission but ended up finishing 25th, which is pretty good. It was hard to sit in the heat given the previous day I had. I drank 2 64oz Gatorades, 2 bottled waters and a Pepsi and still didn’t urinate for 9 hours, if that tells you anything. People were passing out and being carried away left and right. Although Jr. didn’t do that well, it was still a worthwhile experience. Good on #5, Terry Labonte, having a good showing for the “old guys”.

Ah, Sundays.

Let’s see… today, I got up at 6:30 AM. (I think the neighbors’ running water woke me up) After that, I prepared to leave my apartment for 10 days. I went to church, spent time with the kids, looked after the babies, and talked to my friends.

Then I had a quick lunch with my family before my brother and I dropped our parents off at the airport. (they’re going to visit my sister in Toronto, and take in the Maritimes on the way) Now, I’m just taking advantage of the high-speed computer. :smiley:

F_X

As it so happens, I do have a saw you have to push yourself Puddin’. Only it’s not a big saw, it’s just a little one to fit right inside your toolbox. Only in this case, it’s not your toolbox, but mine. Since it’s just little, it only goes RRR RRR RRR.

I also have a miter box that came with a saw (bonus!) and a saber saw that plugs in. The box says it’s a saber saw, but I always called them jig saws because that’s what my Dad called his and they look about the same.

I don’t use my saber (or jig) saw all that much. The tool I use most of the tools I have that need to be plugged in would be my drill. I also have a drill that you crank by hand in case I just need to make a little hole, like in the drywall, and I don’t want to hassle with the extension cord.

The hammer is also handy. So are my screwdrivers.

A tool I just used that you wouldn’t just think I would was my 5/16 nut driver. I mean really, how often do you think to yourself “You know what this job needs? A 5/16 nut driver.” Only I had to use it to check the furnace filter since the little door that holds the filter in place is screwed in with bolts with a 5/16 head. Stupid furnace filter door.

But that was Monday, which is the first of the month. You’re supposed to check your furnace filter on the first of the month. So I did. I also gave my dogs their heartworm pills on the first of the month like I’m supposed to.

Sadly, only two things of note happened yesterday which, even though it was Monday, this week became the surrogate Sunday due to the extreme Labor Dayness of the whole weekend thingy.

I helped my friend move an arcade machine into his new house’s basement. When he gets done, the entertainment den will have a pool table and 5 machines: Burger Time, Lock’n’Chase (Poor man’s Pacman! Whoohoo!), Gorf, Kickman and Space Invaders, I believe. I might very well be overlooking some. The man has a few barns and garages full of disfunctional 80’s detritus and wreckage. Some of them even still work. It’s going to be quite the happening place. Too bad he’s been unable to track down an affordable–working–Star Wars or Donkey Kong machine…of course, I’d have to just move into his place full time then.

One of my bonehead neighbors keeled over and they had to call an ambulance. I spent a happy half hour sitting on the balcony waiting to see if they had to carry him out in a couple of buckets and watching the pretty lights. Alas, it was nothing so dramatic. One of the EMT’s was pretty damn cute, too.

I have no idea what I did on the real Sunday. What is it about 3 day weekends that makes the middle day disappear so completely? I should do a log next time one rolls around. Of course, most of the entries would be like “12:07 - Annoyed cat.” Of course, I don’t even have a cat, so it’s more like “12:04 - invented pretend cat. 12:07 - Annoyed pretend cat.” sigh