nothing rhymes with orange

Guess who's back? (Back again. Shady's back. Tell a friend.)

Orange kitty. We hadn't seen her since the beginning of August, so I figured she had gone home or someone else had taken her in, but I guess not. Or maybe she did go home but is visiting again. She hasn't been starving this whole time, but she was glad to have the food I gave her. It's going to be on the chilly side tonight, so I put a box on its side lined with a towel on our back porch, so she has some shelter from the wind and something soft to cuddle in.

Not much has been happening around here. Well, there was a point over the weekend when Jason and I were not exactly speaking to each other. You may have seen my play-by-play on Twitter. It's not worth rehashing, really, but I will quote Ashley: "Let’s stop pretending we don’t fight, get frustrated, or cry." Ladies, sometimes it's best to just let him be mad and sulky for a while. Not to worry, though: we're completely back on speaking terms.

What else? We got iPod Nanos Sunday night. Jason got green, and I got orange. It's my first iPod ever. I haven't managed to get any music on it yet because I have to re-rip all of my CDs so that the files are in the best format. I had an mp3 player early in this decade that could hold 15 songs, maybe 20 if I got lucky. My iPod has 16 gigabytes! It will easily hold all of the music I own.

To prove that I don't always monopolize our entertainment choices, we're going to see Carlos Mencia perform at the Tachi Palace casino on Thursday night.

Maybe I should take my iPod with me.

Pink is my favorite crayon

The Pink concert was everything I hoped it would be, and more. Costumes! Trapezes! Potshots at Michael Vick! Covers of Queen, Led Zeppelin, Gnarls Barkley, and the Divinyls! Not to mention that she has an amazing voice. Seriously, I get chills (and tears in my eyes) listening to some of her slower songs. We were up in the rafters of the Staples Center--the second to last row--but I didn't care. Pink is totally my new best friend and you should all go see her perform and follow her on Twitter.

The picture on the left is her entrance--she came flying up through a trap door in the stage. The picture on the right is one of my favorites of the whole night. Click the pictures to see them bigger.
The stage. And I love it that she plays guitar.
I alternated between taking videos and pictures. Here's the most embarrassing one--you can hear me belting my little heart out and apologizing for it, knowing that I was going to post the video online for the world to see.


There are more videos here (without me singing--I managed to keep quiet for the rest).

After the show we headed across the street to the Emmy Awards red carpet at the Nokia Theatre and to fetch Jason a midnight steak dinner at Rock'n Fish, which had all of Pink's albums on shuffle in the background and a delightfully strong rum drink called Navy Grog.

Only in California, you guys. I could get used to this.

PS - Bonus points to whoever can guess the artist and song name for the lyrics in my title.

I'ma let you finish, but...

You need to go here. Because Kanye has some thoughts for all of you.

See also: Kanye West Will Let You Finish

Want to know what I'm doing tomorrow?

Going to see her in LA:

P!nk - New Music - More Music Videos

Awww yeeeeah!

The Broken Bed

Those of you who use Twitter might recall my tweet from last week about breaking our new bed. A couple of weeks ago we were (ahem) in bed when we heard the distinctive sound of wood cracking. I knew right away what it was. Sure enough, we had caused one of the support beams to bend in the middle and it had started to split. We slept on it like that for two weeks because we were too lazy busy to get around to buying the supplies to fix it.

I worried every single night that I would make a wrong move that would finish off those beams and send us plunging down onto the floor. It has happened before, and I'm still near my fattest weight ever, so I was paranoid.

By the time Friday rolled around, I couldn't let it go any longer, so I sent Jason off to get some wood and a saw. We cut our wood into some cross beams and supportive feet and then the construction work began. First we tried to drill screws through the beams into the feet, but the drill bit just stripped the screws because it wasn't the right size. Strike one.

I suggested nailing the feet on, instead. Jason went out again, bringing back nails thicker than I have ever seen in my life. An excellent idea, the nailing was, except that the nails got stuck and wouldn't penetrate the foot pieces, and all of my pounding and whacking with the hammer just bent them at crazy angles sticking out of the beams. Strike two.

Then Jason finally realized that he did have the right drill bit after all, so we screwed the feet on as planned.

We haven't heard a creak out of that bed since.

Here it is before (with one support beam laid across, and you can totally see how the one flimsy beam in the middle is bowed) and after:


I'm putting this project firmly in the "win" column.

keep the world safe from... WEIRDOS

"World Wide Web? Is there a way to put this on just the American part?"

Bah-luuuduh!

I had to go down the street to the Naval hospital today to get some blood drawn because I have all kinds of things wrong with me am special (or so my mother tells me).

I am happy to report that, unlike the last time I had blood drawn, way back in Massachusetts, I did not pass out and nearly fall out of the chair, and then be forced to sit in a reclining chair/bed all by myself in a little room for an hour while they made sure I wasn't going to do it again.

Way to go, me!

I was also very mature and didn't do this, either.

I think I'm going to need some more baubles.

Longtime readers will recall that Jason got a new TV a few Christmases ago, and that he swore he wouldn't want a bigger one. Well, I should have also made him swear that he wouldn't want a fancier one. You know him--always itching to have the future of technology in his hot little hands.

Behold the Samsung 6 Series 1080p LED HDTV:

If it were up to me, I'd probably still be using my dorm room TV. I obviously have an underdeveloped appreciation for the future of technology (although even I get a little hot in the pants for this entertainment center with a built-in lift).

Not to worry, though, I got something new as well. There was a part two to my birthday presents! Jason took me out to get a jewelry armoire, which I have been wanting forever. We found the perfect one at Pier 1 Imports.

So now while he's making googly-eyes at his TV, I can do the same to my baubles:

I think I'm going to need some more baubles.

It made me feel very posh.

This week I have been working on hanging pictures and unpacking my treasures (meaning: annoyingly unnecessary collectibles that I love but that the cats are determined to break).
Yes, we moved into base housing at the end of June and I am still getting organized. As such, I'm not ready to bless you with a new Cribs episode just yet. Instead, I'm going to give you a photo tour of my first place in Norfolk, Virginia. I moved there in the summer of 2004. It was a third floor, two bedroom, two bath with its own full-sized washer and dryer. Even though I had to have a roommate to afford it, I loved it. After a year of living there, I was informed that it was being turned into condos and that I could either buy my unit for a few hundred thousand dollars or get the hell out. I was heartbroken, but Jason and I decided that I should move in with him. And so, in October 2005, my days of single living came to an end--but I still miss my sweet bachelorette pad.

Front door, entryway and dining room:




Kitchen:


The appliances were stainless steel and it had a built-in wine cooler. I'm not a wine drinker, so I kept bottles of soda water in there. It made me feel very posh.

Living room:




Do you see Plant? See also: my tiny, pathetic dorm room television. I still have it because it is the only way I can play my VHS tapes. I never used the fireplace, but I loved having it there.

My room, the master suite:


That bed was so tiny--it was my dad's when he was a child, and I got the bedding in elementary school. The bed slats weren't strong enough to hold the weight of two people, so the one time Jason stayed over, they bent enough to send us and the mattress tumbling down onto the floor! Score: parents 1, Heidi 0. They didn't need to worry, though--Jason is the only man who ever made it into my tower. He didn't judge me for having a collapsing, pink flower-bedecked child bed covered with ruffled pillows and stuffed animals, so I knew it was true love.

And finally, the view from my little balcony: The downtown Norfolk skyline! The Harrison Opera House is on the right, and the dome-shaped thing on the left is the Scope Arena (but if I'm being honest, I totally think it looks like a boob).

I couldn't have asked for a better apartment in which to start my adult life.