The First Decade Of Jodi

Wrapping up NaBloPoMo 2007 with a timeline* of the first decade of my life. I've had fun posting every day this month, even though many days it was just to post something. But, I did it and that's what matters.

Year 1: I obviously don't remember, but according to my family, we lived in a "shack" in Northern Virginia. I really wanted to see it later on, but there is a road where it once stood. My Mom strung popcorn for our Christmas tree and mice ate at it. We did have indoor plumbing (I asked).

Year 2: Again, I'm not remembering too much of this time, but I know we moved to the "beach house." The one with huge staircase I tumbled down resulting in my first (and so far, only) ambulance ride, but no injuries.

Year 3: I became a big sister. I don't really remember my sister too much as a baby. There will be stories later though.

Year 4: Because of an autumn birthday, I started kindergarten. I walked to the primary school, which was very close to my house. Sometimes, my Mom substitute taught in my class. I got in trouble at nap time for giggling and it took the entire school year for me to learn how to skip.

Year 5: I had a cool blue coin purse shaped like a fish. The mouth of the fish is where it opened. I tried to sleep away from home for the first time (literally, right down the street), but had to call my Mom to take me home around 10 pm. My parents got divorced.

Year 6: My best friend, Vickie, and I had a crush on the same boy. This went on for a while until he moved away. I'm not really sure how he felt about either of us. I participated in my town's Bicentennial parade.

Year 7: I was a cheerleader for the local equivalent of Little League for football. We had HUGE white pom-poms and thought we were hot stuff. Practice was often held in my back yard. Go Eagles!

Year 8: Moved up from primary school to secondary school, which meant that I got to ride a school bus. I also got paddled in front of my entire class for laughing when someone else got paddled.

Year 9: I caught the chicken pox from my sister on Halloween (she broke out the next day). It made me cancel a sleep-over. The good thing was that my friend Carol, who lived down the street, caught them the same night, so we got to play together while staying home "sick" from school.

Year 10: My Mom got remarried and we moved to a big city. I had my own room for the first time since being a big sister. I also got to experience the first of several times of being "the new girl" at school. I learned to never get a home perm the night before starting a new school ever again.

*Timeline idea from page 51 of:
No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog.

A BALD Monkey?

We went to a 25th anniversary screening of E.T. tonight by 'The Academy'. The only big screen I'd ever seen it on was one at a drive-in back in '83 with my sister and grandmother. It holds up pretty well and the new print we watched looked great. I'd wager that 99% of the audience at least got a little misty by the end of the film, aside from those who were sniffling quite loudly. A Q&A followed and included several crew members as well as Dee Wallace and Henry Thomas, little Elliot all grown up.

I was a bit astonished that someone coming to the gorgeous theater we were in, complete with giant Oscar® statues at the front of the room, would bring a baby with them. A noisy baby. Security eventually kicked them out, thank goodness. Oh, and there of course was the couple of cell phones that went off during the movie. I guess it's now just part of the moving-going experience. Ugh.

Phone Home

Total cop-out, poorly written moblog as I won't be home by midnight. Rules are just to post though, right? Sorry if I don't pique your interest.

The Devil's In The Details

I really enjoy the show Reaper. Sure, it's silly and often predictable, but whatever. I like it, shut up. Ray Wise great as Satan. I'm also quite fond of the lead, Bret Harrison. I got a kick out of him back when he was on Grounded For Life. Now he's all grown up and quite funny.

The show kind of makes me home sick in a way. Yes, because I'm a spawn of the Devil. No, seriously, Bret Harrison looks a lot like my youngest brother. Or vice versa. I don't have a good current photo, but here's a not-so-good one from a couple of years ago.

Hopefully, the similarities end there and K isn't having to spend his free time capturing souls who have escaped from Hell.

*Update: Swiped a more recent photo of my brother from MySpace:

Sniffly

No, I don't have a cold. Just a little weepy. I'm okay though. I just saw a fantastic film, that I knew I wanted to see immediately upon seeing the trailer a few weeks ago. LACMA did a preview screening tonight.

Seeing as I just got home and I need to eat, do laundry, take out the garbage, watch Heroes, and post this by midnight, I'll share more later.

P.S. RIP Peanut.

Bitey

I screamed and nearly bit E tonight as we drove by the actual Hollywood Tower building on Franklin Avenue. I swear, I'm traumatized for life.

Crap Fair

Geez. The Tired Girl Collective's first real 'craft fair' experience could not be summed up as successful. Granted, I'm not too sure many of the vendors who participated in the Handmade For The Holidays show did gangbusters business. It was pretty pathetic. Several sellers didn't even show up today. We were optimistic that today would be much better than Black Friday. It was worse. Worse. Between the three of us, we did not even make the cost of the table back in sales. Eep. I don't think we were completely a wrong fit for the event, which though fairly well organized, suffered from timing, lack of promotion, and location.

All was not completely lost. The lovely Nina, who professes to really dislike crafts, stopped by to say hello anyway, along with her mom. I also got to meet a certain Ambitious Hamster's dad! That was a fun surprise. I also did have a couple of completely insane-for-hamsters customers.

I guess one of the benefits of not selling out of merchandise, as I'd hoped to, is that I already have prizes to send to my two contest winners: Nanette and Nicole! Not that it did anything to boost comments. In fact, I got fewer than on some other posts. Maybe I should not try to bribe folks!

What Now?

Reading: Roasting In Hell's Kitchen by Gordon Ramsay. It was a blast to see him in person this past week. It was a little disappointing to not have him yell at me. I'd probably cry though, so it's for the best.

Listening: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon. This is a great album and I can't stop listening to it. We saw them live a couple of weeks ago and they were fantastic. I was really happy they had a horn section on stage.

Watching: Pushing Daisies, one of the newer shows I like and will miss when all of the current episodes have aired. It's wonderfully quirky.

Selling: Hamster balls and Hamster Haiku with the Tired Girl Collective at the Handmade for the Holidays Craft Fair.

Dreading: Work tomorrow. Ugh. I'd rather be at the craft fair (see above).

Dreaming Of: Sleep. I will be fulfilling this very, very soon.

Moblog From Disneyland

Went on the Tower of Terror ride @ California Adventure. I hate rides like that and got talked into it. I bit Eric on the arm. After punching him in the same arm "about 12 times." (That's his count).

Just Plain, No Whipped Cream Please

Even though I can hardly believe it's Thanksgiving tomorrow, I'm suddenly craving pumpkin pie really badly. Hopefully, there will not be a repeat last year's incident though. We shall see what happens.

I Love My Hamster, But...

...I thought I was going to commit rodentcide in the wee hours of the morning. Now, Ami's prime workout time usually begins between 1 and 3 am. No big deal. He runs in his wheel, which is actually pretty quiet, and does this running back and forth and over and under circuit training between the two habitats that are connected as his luxurious home. Fine.

Well, this morning, sometime between 1 and 2 am, I was awakened by this noxious gnawing and crunching sound. I'm not an especially light sleeper, so this was LOUD. I realized that Ami was trying to chew through his thick plastic wheel on the outside of one end of his condo. I hop out of bed, using my cell phone as a light and try to reason with the little dude.

Snuggled back under my covers, drifting off, he started up once again. I yelled at him, "AMI! STOP!" The two dogs who were curled up on the bed with me confirmed how crazy this sounded with looks of disbelief before they went back to dreamland. I got up, turned on a light, and opened up the container containing All Things To Amaze And Delight Your Hamster. I grabbed a tiny cob of corn, yogurt covered blueberries, sunflower seeds, and two wooden chew toys. I tossed them in the house. He sniffed each item, looked back at me, and went to the lower level of that section, ignoring the treasures I'd bestowed upon him. Lights off and back to bed I went and sure enough, the little brat started with the chewing again. Ugh.

In the end, the hamster lived and I slept...at least a little. He's so darn cute and it's in his nature to try and escape from captivity, as all good hamsters do. You all know I'd never hurt him! At least on purpose. Let's hope he's forgotten about that time I dropped him.

"This pumpkin is shit."

***Don't forget! You still have just about 24 hours to enter the contest by leaving a comment! On that post. Good luck!

The Strike Affects All Of Us

I am in support of the Writer's Guild and what they are trying to accomplish. No, I'm not a writer or even in The Industry. But, as the WGA strikes, we are all affected, in some way or another. I have some very good friends who are actors, another who is an Emmy winning editor of a very popular television show, and one who works post-production on a drama. They are feeling the pain of their livelihoods being completely shutdown.

But, let's talk about ME and how this whole thing impacts my life, or specifically how it had a direct effect on things this very night. About a month ago, I got word from fellow SoCal Duranie (shut up!) that we could get free tickets to an outdoor mini-concert Duran Duran was to do in Hollywood. I secured my two tickets and found a friend who was excited to go along. This free event was in conjunction with the band's appearance on a late night talk show and they were going to perform five or six songs on the stage behind the building on Hollywood Boulevard.

Of course, due to the strike, the program is in reruns and so...no free Duran Duran show. So, as you can clearly see, we can all potentially suffer and should get involved to get this industry moving again.

Granted, I haven't even bought the new Duran Duran album and probably didn't deserve a free show after all. Part of the reason is that I didn't really like the first song I heard. I blame Justin Timberlake.

You Got To Leave Me Now

Feeling melancholy about seeing Nickel Creek for possibly the last time ever. More later.

Fragged

My computer has been defragging for HOURS. If I can even get into it before the end of the day, I'll do a real post.

Cheap Trick

In the spirit of holiday giving, needing a post for NaBloPoMo, and wanting more comments, SnarkyDork Blog is having a contest! Yay! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post by next Wednesday, November 21st by 11:59 pm. You do not have to have an account or enter any verification codes. You can even log in anonymously, but then it'd be hard to get your prize to you. So, no excuses for not leaving a little note here. And hey, you may just get something in return.

So, what do you get? Well, two lucky, randomly picked visitors will get a one-of-kind handmade hamster ball, complete with an optional Santa hat if you want, and a signed copy of my book, Hamster Haiku. The hamster ball can make a cute ornament and both things can make great holiday gifts if you aren't so into adorable little fluffy rodents yourself.

Comment away and good luck to you all!

Bore, Bored, Boring

I'm completely bored with the look of this blog, not to mention the content, but that's another topic all to itself. I've played around a bit with templates that made it even bleaker, so I switched back to what you see. I'm not talented enough to do something completely awesome and custom on my own, and I'm too cheap to pay someone to do that. If anyone has any good, easy, and free tips, I'll gladly accept.

Instead of updating my blog, I really should be making hamsters for an upcoming craft fair. No, not Felt Club. I didn't get accepted into that one. However, I will *sort of* be a part of Felt Club this coming Sunday. At the event, there will be the "all-new" Maker Square, a scaled down version of the Maker Faire that we participated in this past Spring. E was invited to participate with all of his exhibits, including our Dorkbake oven, so I'll be there to help out. So, if you are stopping by to see the crafts, come say hi.

Speaking of crafts...it's time to makes some hamsters.

*I obviously changed the look of this place after posting the above.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

When I lived in places that actually had significant weather, I like watching the Weather Channel. It fascinated me. Especially when we lived on the coast of Texas and had hurricanes threaten us, I'd check in frequently for the latest status. Keep in mind, this was pre-internet.

Now, whenever there is the least bit of earth trembling, I log in to this site to see where the earthquake was located and its magnitude. Some kind of sick fascination? Maybe. More likely, I just like to be informed.

Naturally, I love a Firefox addon called eQuake Alert that I recently discovered. Every time the earth shakes somewhere in the world, your browser shakes and the magnitude and location show up in the bottom of the window. Besides the major activity in Chile today, there's been quite a bit of 2.5-3.0 shaking in Central California. Good to know.

Blow Out That Cherry Bomb

So, we're winding down on the birthdays around here. We had a good time celebrating E's transition to the next decade this past weekend, in spite of me getting sick toward the end. We hit an artsy street fair in Burbank and chowed on some Hawaiian food Saturday afternoon. Then we went on the Neon Cruise, which was fabulous. At some point, I'll be posting photos, but I haven't downloaded them yet.

On Sunday, we got a later start than hoped, but enjoyed running around the Rose Bowl Flea Market for a couple of hours. E had a conversation with someone he had met 22 years ago and also picked up an old game from his childhood. I found a $3 pink dress for Cosette to wear when I get around to doing some photos for her 15th birthday, which is today.

After that, we ran a couple of errands then headed home to get gussied up for the Magic Castle. The night there was a lot fun as we celebrated with 10 of our friends. I'd heard the food has vastly improved since we'd eaten there before and it's true. Now, I've never eaten a fancy gourmet meal like Jenn and Nanette have, but I do appreciate a good filet mignon from time to time, which is what I ate. It was one of the most tender steaks I've ever eaten. We also had really good performers, so the evening ended with great entertainment following the fantastic meal.

Unfortunately, I'm still under the weather and will be heading back to bed now. I hope you, my loyal three readers, are all better than I feel.

Blah

Well, I didn't listen to a certain ambitious hamster and put my mantra in positive terms and I got sick. Boo. A nasty head cold that I'm hoping will pass with fluids, vitamins, and rest. We'll see how that goes. Hopefully, loud music will help too since I have a concert (seated, thankfully) tonight.

In the meantime, in an effort to not fail NaBloPoMo, I'm blathering on about nothing in particular. I had a couple of post ideas, but instead I'm just being boring and annoying myself. I'd better sign off.

Here's to feeling better tomorrow.

Sign Of Rain

We may actually get a drizzle today (they are calling it a "storm" on news reports, but only .02 inches are predicted). That won't put a damper on E's birthday festivities though, dammit. I'm hoping this cold that I'm starting to develop won't either. Ugh. Bad, bad timing.

So, I'm interrupting this blog post-which honestly was going nowhere fast-to chant today's mantra over and over:

I will not get sick. I will not get sick. I will not get sick. I will not get sick. I will not get sick. I will not get sick. I will not get sick. I will not get sick.