Hot Hot Hot

Yeah, so 101 degrees yesterday, 102 degrees today. I hate to be a whiner, but I'm gonna whine about this. It sucks. Thank god for the AC. I don't know how people in places where it's regularly hot deal. I suppose they hide inside like I have been.

A touch of Pink...

So I put in the latest Pick CD today and remembered how much I like what she's up to lately. I bought the CD solely because of "Dear Mr.President", which I heard a clip of on Air America Radio. These are the lyrics.... The girl's got some balls. And she got the Indigo Girls in on it too.

"Dear Mr. President"
(feat. Indigo Girls)

Dear Mr. President
Come take a walk with me
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep
What do you feel when you look in the mirror
Are you proud

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye
How do you walk with your head held high
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why

Dear Mr. President
Were you a lonely boy
Are you a lonely boy
Are you a lonely boy
How can you say
No child is left behind
We're not dumb and we're not blind
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell

What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye
How do you walk with your head held high
Can you even look me in the eye

Let me tell you bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
You don't know nothing bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
Oh

How do you sleep at night
How do you walk with your head held high
Dear Mr. President
You'd never take a walk with me
Would you

If you listen to pop radio or whatever it's called you've probably heard "Stupid Girls", but if you haven't, I like it too:

Stupid girl, stupid girls, stupid girls
Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back
Porno paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girl

Go to Fred Segal, you'll find them there
Laughing loud so all the little people stare
Looking for a daddy to pay for the champagne
(Drop a name)
What happened to the dream of a girl president
She's dancing in the video next to 50 Cent
They travel in packs of two and three
With their itsy bitsy doggies and their teeny-weeny tees
Where, oh where, have the smart people gone?
Oh where, oh where could they be?

Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back
Porno paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girl
Maybe if I act like that, flipping my blonde hair back
Push up my bra like that, I don't wanna be a stupid girl

(Break it down now)
Disease's growing, it's epidemic
I'm scared that there ain't a cure
The world believes it and I'm going crazy
I cannot take any more
I'm so glad that I'll never fit in
That will never be me
Outcasts and girls with ambition
That's what I wanna see
Disasters all around
World despaired
Their only concern
Will it f*** up my hair

Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back
Porno paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girl
Maybe if I act like that, flipping my blonde hair back
Push up my bra like that, I don't wanna be a stupid girl

[Interlude]
Oh my god you guys, I totally had more than 300 calories today
That was so not sexy, no
Oh! good one, can I borrow that?
No
[Vomits]
I WILL BE SKINNY!

(Do ya thing, do ya thing, do ya thing)
(I like this, like this, like this)
Pretty will you f*** me girl, silly as a lucky girl
Pull my hair and suck it girl, stupid girl!
Pretty would u fuck me girl, silly as a lucky girl
Pull my hair and suck it girl, stupid girl!

Maybe if I act like that, flipping my blonde hair back
Push up my bra like that, stupid girl!

Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back
Porno paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girl
Maybe if I act like that, flipping my blonde hair back
Push up my bra like that, I don't wanna be a stupid girl

Maybe if I act like that, flipping my blonde hair back
Push up my bra like that, stupid girl!

I guess I like my pop with a message or two :)

Well, unless it's JT. No message required there.

Wow... Has it really been two months?

I guess it has. I've been super busy working and working on the house and yard and stuff. So the latest developments:

Last Sunday I was working and came home to this :


Matthew decided to take down the shed, but not quite in this way. Fortunately he wasn't in it when it came down.

Happier backyard news, we have a robin's nest in one of the huge lilacs:


It's only about 6 feet up in the lilac but the Rottweiler next door keeps the cats out of our yard so hopefully the chicks will be safe. I'm looking forward to seeing them hatch.

As far as cute boy of the week (or two month-period), I'm not feeling inspired but here he is:

Brent van Zant (he's some kind of model or something)



I'm still waiting impatiently for any of the Justin Timberlake movies to come out. Perhaps around my birthday; that'd be appropriate.

Oh yeah, for all you Bush-haters... I know I've posted this image before, but here it is again:


I created a site on cafe press (www.cafepress.com/liarsticker)

You can get stickers and tshirts and the like there. We have ordered tshirts and stickers and they're good. Also some of the tshirts are American Appparel so made in the USA and sweatshop-free (and cute).

That's all I have for the moment. I gotta get some sleep :)

Checking in again...

So our vacuum cleaner died last week. No surprise really -- I think I've had it since my early 20s -- but inconvenient since we have so much pet hair everywhere. Matthew's way way way into the Consumer Reports so he picked out what we would get and we went to Costco and got one. Got home put it together, and I started vacuuming and was completely appalled about how excited I was about how well it worked. (Oh, BTW, we got a Eureka Boss Smartvac.) I just went around the house sucking up pet hair and being amazed at how great it was. Such is my boring life these days.

I also went to our neighborhood association meeting on Tuesday and found out lots of exciting stuff about Kenton (our neighborhood here). The PDC (Portland Development Commission) was presenting what they envision for the neighborhood (link here) and I think we picked a great place to buy a house. And, for you locals, we're getting the third Cup and Saucer in Portland. (It's a great place for breakfast -- they have amazing scones and the only home fries I've ever liked and eggs with jalapenos and cream cheese...) Yum! They're apparently the first tenant in the first redeveloped storefronts in "Downtown Kenton".

I guess that's enough for now. Oh, and I'm watching some pseudo-news program and Tom Cruise is undoubtedly certifiably insane.

Primroses -- Happy Spring!

So a bit of sad news, at least it makes me sad. I had nine little terra cotta pots with primroses in them on the front porch in this sort of built-in grid structure and it was maybe a little extra-cute but I love them in the springtime. A few days ago three of them disappeared and I was talking to one of my neighbors and she had had three pots of pansies disappear from her porch. Today I noticed the other six primroses were gone... I mean, who steals potted plants from your front stoop? It significantly decreases my faith in humanity.

To the point

I mentioned in an email I had a new truck ornament I was going to post on here. No explanation needed.


Well, maybe a bit of explanation. When we went to see the White Stripes last summer there was a truck near our tent with this sticker on it, and I should've asked where it came from but didn't. I looked and looked for it on the net but couldn't find it in sticker form. I eventually found it as an image and printed it out and laminated it. I'm thinking I should make it into a sticker though... And Lindsey wants to make it into a tshirt. Surprisingly I've only had positive reactions so far, even out in the burbs. I'm expecting to get the finger at some point but it hasn't happened yet.

Myspace

Oh yeah, so part of why I've been not blogging is my fascination with myspace. My page is here : http://www.myspace.com/pdxtimmis

I'm so inconsistent

So yeah, I'm apparently having a hard time getting to the basement now. Work is really picking up so I'm busy with that. Not really an excuse, but whatever. Who really reads this anymore? It's more an exercise in self-indulgence. Lots of stuff has gone one lately but I'm tired and not so into it so I'll just do a cute boy. Johnny Knoxville. Need I say more?

One more thing

I just read Amy's blog and she mentioned V-day, so I realized I should mention we watched The Aristocrats (not planned, it came from Netflix) and it's hilarious but unbelievably filthy. Not all that romantic (kinda anti-romantic actually) but I made all finger food so I think it counteracted the filth. (Artichokes, cheese fondue, chocolate fondue)

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr.........

Okay, so I haven't been so good with the blog lately. It seems like I've been so busy but I'm not sure what I've been doing really. Working and being sick I suppose.

So I don't have a lot to report. It's cold and getting colder and clients are calling me worried their plants are going to die. I don't think it's going to be all that bad. Of course, it was 20 degrees when I woke up this morning.

One of my friends (Hi Melissa!) got me into myspace.com so now I have yet another reason to hang out in the basement and type. As if this and friendster and the internet in general weren't enough. I'll post a link to the myspace thing when I get it together. It's still in its infancy at this point.

Oh, and my boy Jeremy Bloom apparently didn't do so well at the Olympics unfortunately. Maybe the NFL draft will go better? (Any excuse for a photo :) Especially a wet one. I guess it's an ad for something. Who cares really?)

Half paying attention....

So I figured I'd check in but Invasion (link here) is on so you only have half my attention at best. I think I originally started watching because of Eddie Cibrian: but now I'm fully addicted. It's much more sci-fi than what I usually watch but I'm sooooo hooked. Check out the link; one of the characters has a fake blog on the official site that's kind of fun.

Other than all that, my good story of late is house o' death related as usual. Sunday was some sort of Asian New Year's celebration we all had to go to drum up business from that segment of the population. There were several hundred people there and we (the house o' death employees) were the the only non-Vietnamese save two. They sat us down directly in front of some very large speakers so we spent three hours having speeches and songs in Vietnamese blasted at us at a volume that would make your ears bleed. The high point was the food was pretty good and all vegetarian so I didn't have to worry about what I was eating.

The other news (again, for those of you elsewhere) is that the rain has stopped and we're actually getting some sun. It kinda hurts your eyes, but I'm not complaining. And business is looking better finally. And no more house o' death as of the end of the month. Yay!

Put a TV in the basement and look what a good blogger am I!

Okay, so I moved our extra TV to the basement (where the computer is) and now I'm getting better about email and blogging because I can watch the news or whatever while I do stuff on the puter. Brilliant!

So I went to work at the house of death today and there was this random story cut out of a local paper about this. It's a kitten born with just one eye and no nose. Completely bizarre.


More about it here... It's actually kind of sad.

So we watched the jackass on the TV for the State of the Union after Matthew got home. Frightening. Then I heard today that Cindy Sheehan got arrested and yanked out of the House of Representatives for wearing a shirt protesting the war. (Story here.) A woman who was the wife of a Republican congressman was also removed for wearing a shirt that said "Support the Troops". (Clearly an anti-Bush message since he doesn't support them with anything other than lip service.) Someone needs to give King George a reality check.

Now I feel a little better

So after my last post I checked on Amy and Daniel's blogs (they inspired me to start mine) and they last posted in November and October respectively. So I'm not the worst blogger ever :)

And... my boy JT has a couple movies in the works. One is Alpha Dog (coming out Feb 24) and the other is Edison (coming out sometime later?). They've both been talked about forever so I'm excited to see if he can act. Of course, if he can't, that won't stop me from seeing the films.

Speaking of movies, I've seen Capote, Walk the Line, and Brokeback Mountain in the last month and they're all good. I think Phillip Seymour Hoffman should undoubtedly win the best actor Oscar but I liked Brokeback Mountain better overall so that's my vote for best picture. I think I'm gonna go with Reese for best actress. I thought she was amazing and I kept forgetting it was her as I watched the movie. We also finally saw March of the Penguins and it was almost unbearably cute but I loved it.

Good god, does anyone still check in?

I know I've been the most horrible blogger ever.... I've been busy with a variety of things and beaten down by the winter blahs. For those of you not in Portland, I think it has rained on 39 of the last 42 days. Absolutely miserable.

Matthew is in Nebraska; his grandfather died this week and he flew back Saturday and will be back tomorrow. It's so weird to not have him around -- the house seems very empty somehow. I'll be happy to pick him up tomorrow night.

I finally got my new street trees Saturday, and they're much bigger than I had hoped for. Quick summary... The trees we had were not only ugly but also not functioning as street trees should; i.e. shading the street and catching and/or filtering rainwater. Here they are....


And the new trees:


I know they're kinda hard to see in the photo but they're about 12' tall Katsura trees. No one knows what they are, so here's a link about the trees. The reason they're my favorite tree is because in autumn just as the leaves are falling they smell like burnt sugar or cotton candy.

Okay, I know the cute boys are the draw for a good portion of you and I have a good one this time. It's Jeremy Bloom. He's an Olympic mogul skier slash college football player slash model.... His website is here.... And here's why you should be interested :)



That's about what I have for now. Looking forward to seeing what the jackass has to say in his State of the Union speech tomorrow, which I'm taping cuz I have to go get Matthew at 7 pm. (I just assume everything I do is being monitored at this point so I'm not scared anymore :))