I like a little humor with my weather. Be safe all you, my friends, traveling in Chicagoland today!

weather report for today from Chicago Sun-Times

I come from a family of packrats. Both sides, unfortunately– my mom and my dad were both packrats. I have aunts, uncles, cousins… we’re all packrats. At least I recognize this and can fight against it, but I still, often, lose the fight.
Tonight I found myself looking for something I’m sure I would have packed away somewhere. Something that, when I’m fighting the packrat, I would look at and say, “I’ll never need this,” but then, the packrat says, “Hey, you never know!”¹ So then when times like tonight come along, I have to wonder: who won? The packrat? Or the other guy?
What I needed tonight was an insignificant piece of metal. One that I would have kept around for a while, and I’m sure if I look a while longer, I’ll find it.  But I probably did get rid of it at some point, thinking, “I’ll never need this… if I do want to remove a PCI card, I’ll be replacing it with another one,” or, “I’ve got loads of old computers sitting around here doing nothing; If I need one, I’ll just take it from the stock.”  As I spent 30 minutes or so digging for that little piece of metal to block the hole in the back of my G4, I of course didn’t find one. I did, however, find some other things…

• 1 Memory Card Reader that I’ve been missing for 5 years. I thought it got lost in the move. I thought maybe I’d left it at my last job. Nope– right there in a box, waiting for me to find it tonight.
• 1 voice recorder (iRock VM150- apparently the company is offline, but I found a review here) that I’ve been missing for approx 5 years. I remember taking it to San Francisco where I recorded the sound of the cable cars and their bells as well as to a Flaming Lips concert- New Years 2003 in Chicago. Unfortunately that audio wasn’t still on there, but seems I did use the MP3 player function for 1 song: This one, which was a major player on our San Francisco 2003 soundtrack.
• 1 Graduation card. Signed, sealed, addressed to a friend who was a year behind me in school. High School. So apparently I’ve had that sitting around for… yes, 10.5 years now. How did that ever get into a box here in my house halfway across the country?? It’s even in a new box, so I apparently transferred it there at some point.
• 1 credit card from a bank I’ve never heard of. The bank likely does not exist anymore and the expiration date on the card was… 1999. It had a credit limit of $500, which wouldn’t get me very far these days. So apparently I have heard of the bank enough to apply and receive a credit card from them. When I was a freshman in college.

There’s loads of other great stuff in there, I’m sure, but for now I must rest. It is a school-night, after all.

¹ “You never know!” is a phrase which I will always attribute to my dad. Fortunately it goes through my head every time I try to ‘find a place’ for something I don’t really need, so I think of him often

Each time I begin to get into a habit of posting, I end up falling off track after a month or so. It wasn’t so long ago that our girls’ night into the city to see Wicked! was so far off into the future that it wasn’t really even on my radar. Now it’s already 2 months past.

So to recap: Like many movies, I wanted to read the book before seeing the musical. The book was good– I enjoy knowing the full background to stories. But in this case, I think I enjoyed the musical even more. It’s been quite a while since I’d seen a musical- I forgot how much I love them! The sets were wonderful- I did snap a couple of pictures before the show started. It was funny as several of us who had read the book remembered things differently- the changes between the book and the musical. We knew the differences were there, but couldn’t always agree as to what the differences were, exactly. Becky remembered someone being red, I thought another character was blue, and none of us could recall exactly how the shoes were depicted in the book. Not surprisingly, being limited in length and a musical to boot, the ending of the theatrical version was more preferable than that in the book, but then I’ve always been a fan of fantasy.

Also since then… a new car and the first of the long end-of-year holidays! Less than a month now until we’re off to Aberdeen for Christmas!

:: A SodaSnap Postcard For You!, originally uploaded by katatak.

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Holy crap. Look what showed up in the mail from Gramma today. I’m speechless… It’s so… so… that it just might be awesome!

That’s right. It’s a dog purse.

Dinosaur Jr, originally uploaded by katatak.

At the Stone Pony

Or, maybe not so much.

I got an email from MoveOn.org today that was pretty funny– it was about a not-so-great comment made by McCain’s team today. Right up there with Al Gore inventing the Internet. Actually, I’m not sure what Al Gore really said, but it will forever be remembered this way.
So I wonder if McCain will be remembered for this?

The actual quote (I think?) is in this short article at Politico. OK, OK, I see what was intended here was not ‘he created the Blackberry.’

What’s interesting is the actual intent: that somehow the Telecommunications in the US over the past 15 years is something to marvel at. Umm.. maybe they need to take a look at South Korea, Japan, or even Europe and their mobile communications before they start raving about ours.

Premier innovation indeed.

Just got the call- I am excused and don’t need to report for jury selection on Monday. I’m curious about the case now, so will be paying attention to what happens with it. Selection was for State of New Jersey vs. George Jenewicz, what I now know (because I can look it up) is a new trial after the State Supreme Court overturned a conviction from 2002. The alleged murder happened in 1998. I wasn’t the only person in the room wondering about the 10 years that have passed… some voiced their question out loud. I did hear 2 women behind me talking, one telling the other that there is no death penalty in NJ, so she didn’t need to worry about that. I guess that’s a new thing because in the information I’ve seen since, capital punishment was an option at the time of the original trial. So apparently this man was originally convicted, but the conviction was (in January this year) overturned due to trial errors.

From the charges as the judge read them and the inferrences from the questionnaire, this sounded like a case that could have been on CSI or Bones (what with the dismemberment part and all).

For anyone interested, here’s some articles on the case. Would be interesting to be part of the process, but glad I don’t have to listen to stories or look at pictures of this crime scene.

Article on January Supreme Court Overturn
An article linked from the first
Another article linked from the first
Some NJ Court opinions (search page) on or referring to the Jenewicz trials

I got my first summons for jury duty about a month ago and had to report today. Coincidentally, just before receiving the summons I was part of a conversation about the jury rooms in several nearby counties. After seeing the one I get to sit in… I’m a bit jealous of those in other counties. I heard that Somerset’s recently renovated jury room is in an old church. There’s a TV in one corner, plenty of reading material, coffee/refreshments, and comfy chairs. My memory of this may be a bit skewed as I think of what would be really nice for a jury room.. that was not present in ours.

I was in a white walled room with several square pillars and one big round one. The chairs were at least comfortable, but similar to those in airports. Four vending machines were available (do they let you go out for lunch?? I don’t know, no one explained that). And I didn’t have time to eat breakfast. Swell.

Once we sat around for an hour and a half, the judge came in to talk to us. Finally it started getting interesting. I figured if nothing else there would be a ‘Welcome, this is how the day is going to work’ message within the first 20-30 minutes, but no.

Today we all were there for jury selection for a specific trial (rather than the 1 day or 1 trial verbage). We listened to the charges, then filled out a (long) questionnaire. The involved parties, attorneys and who-not, will use those questionnaires to excuse some people. Those who are excused will get a phone call telling them so. Everyone else has to go back on Monday when they will call us in to question us in person about our views, backgrounds, experiences.

From the information we were given, I can’t see any reason I’d be excused based on my questionnaire. We’ll see if I get a call. If not, then Monday they narrow down to 16 (12 + 4 alternates) to serve for the estimated 2.5 week trial.

Of course I can’t discuss the case itself, but the charges sounded like the synopsis for an evening drama.

Be vewy, vewy quiet. I’m hunting mullets, originally uploaded by katatak.

Blurred to protect the innocent. But that’s 1″ up top & a party ALL the way down the back.

Well, not really, but I like cool stuff and Apple joined the music recommendation party with a fun little favor. A while back they started recommending songs in the music store that somehow ‘went’ with other songs that you had in your shopping cart. Now with Genius playlists, they recommend straight out of your own library. THANK YOU! I used to enjoy spending lots of time working out the perfect mix tape or CD, but just haven’t found the time for it in recent years. I always mean to and lament my shoddy playlists that I scrounge together quickly.
I tested this out last night using Regina Spektor’s “Us” as my initial song. It served up a great list with Beck, Arcade Fire, The Flaming Lips, Joshua Radin, Damien Rice, Modest Mouse, Band of Horses…
I suppose I’ll have to test it out when I’m in a different mood and see how well it does for that one. But for now I’m pleased.

For my second playlist (that I’m sure wouldn’t be terribly different from the first), I decided to try Feist’s “1234″ since it was one featured in one of Apple’s own commercials. I ended up with this:

Genius is unavailable for this song

I think maybe the Genius cloud was down because it gave me the same error for several tries at songs. I just thought it was pretty funny that the first one I saw was for one of Apple’s own.

Of course they also give recommendations from the store of tracks that will ‘complete’ your library (I’m sure it would never really be complete), but as I rarely listen to music radio (Last.fm if I have some time that I’m not at work as they block ‘Dating and Relationships’ sites there), this may bring some new music and artists to me that I wouldn’t otherwise discover.

It’ll be pretty awesome when I pull a Genius list and it starts recommending Chemtail… first in my list, then in the store sidebar…

A little name-calling here and there… what do you do? Kids will be kids. This week’s edition has really started to grate on me, though.
Lipstick comments color presidential campaign
McCain is now calling Obama sexist because he used a lipstick comment to illustrate what he sees as merely a coverup of a real problem. Is that really more sexist than choosing a female running mate simply because it will give you the opportunity to make sexist claims? No one would care about makeup comments if Palin weren’t part of the race, but now concessions must be made because a woman is in the room.
I guess we just have to hope the majority of voters will look away from the comments taken out of context and focus on the real subject matter. At least there’s less than 2 months more to endure.
Now come inside, recess is over.

Linen shrinks.
A Lot.
Alotalotalot.
I loved those pants. They fit so nicely. And were so breezy.

Now they are crops.
So glad I had them tailored. They went down to my toes.
Apparently because they were going to shrink to the right length.
Stupid me.
Now I have crops.

Damnit.
Curse.
F.

Monday.

Urban Nature, originally uploaded by katatak.

I never knew they came in so many colors!

Brooklyn Bridge, originally uploaded by katatak.

A slightly more famous bridge.

Just saw The Ant Bully (recorded from Cartoon Network, I think?).. this was my favorite moment and made me LOL!

“Oh please, not again!” I whispered, thus beginning this weekend’s adventures. The ‘not again’ refers to this.

I was so intent on getting past that episode that I never finished that story.

The scratching we heard 15 minutes later did result in said bird returning to the laundry room either that night or sometime the next day. In the morning we checked the bread pan and found it empty and didn’t hear anything, so we went on to work. Upon returning home it seemed the thing hurt itself getting out of our bread pan trap (or in the following freaking-out it did). We tried opening the patio door, closing all other doors in the house and just letting it come out on its own, but it never did– then it got to dusk so it wouldn’t have the light to lead it out anymore. We tried capture methods as finally worked the night before, but it apparently remembered this and was scared out of its mind. We left it alone in the room with the light off in an attempt to calm it down, but it continued to flap around, running into ceiling, walls, door, anything it could. The poor thing was really going to hurt itself, so we decided we had to get it out ourselves. We employed similar broom and bird net techniques from the previous night’s exercises and managed to catch it and get it out, noting as we did so that it was bleeding. It flew across the street and landed in the grass and just sat there.

Upon returning to our laundry room (at this point it’s pretty sparse as we’d removed everything we could so it wouldn’t have to be cleaned again), we noticed the spots on the door. Then looking further, on the walls, the ceiling, the washer and dryer… everywhere. Not just bird poop (that was there, too, but was to be expected), but blood. It had bludgeoned itself trying to find a way out. This is unbelievably sad to me, but I really don’t know what else we could have done.

At some point either that day or the next, the chimney was fixed, so we had no more birds. It took a long time to clean all the walls and the door- even now a year later you can see where we had to scrub the paint to get the blood off.

So a recap:

2006
June 21 I hear something
June 26 Bird #1- dead
July 2 Bird #2-alive
July 3 call to Association re:birds
July 10 call to Landlord (prob should have done this sooner) and Bird #3- alive
July 11 Bird #4-alive, but bludgeoned

Which brings us to this morning and my opening quote. As I opened the laundry room door to get a new trash bag for the kitchen, I heard a little scratching sound and saw a laundry drying rack that’s folded up next to the furnace shift just a tad. Close door.

Mornings are good– close all doors in hallway, open patio door and screen (where it’s nice and sunny out today, thank God!), create nice directional on where to go.
Open door to laundry room about halfway, go sit on couch to see what happens.

Bird (same type as before) comes out from dark, narrow space next to furnace and onto pipe along front edge of furnace, presumably so I can get a look at him. He hops up and flies out of laundry room, through living room and directly out of patio door and back into the wild world of New Jersey.

2008
June 28 Brid #5- alive; call to Association, call to Landlord

I hope the list doesn’t get any longer

Lincoln Tunnel, originally uploaded by katatak.

Not a bridge, but a new-to-me trip into the city.

swoosh, originally uploaded by katatak.

Glowy necklaces last all night!

Multimedia message, originally uploaded by katatak.

GWB, originally uploaded by katatak.

GWB

Good fortune?, originally uploaded by katatak.

“Bonding Together” Let’s create the world’s most admired business in our markets.

Sounds nice

Today’s Installation, originally uploaded by katatak.

After a year & a half (Ken & Les were with us when we bought it), we decided to put up this Ikea shelf in our kitchen. And after a trip back to Ikea to exchange it for one that had all the right pieces (we don’t have much luck with this), we finally did put it up. Sooo wishing we’d done this earlier! By hanging some pots & pans and using the shelf above, we’ve been able to clear cabinet and counter space enough to bring several appliances into the kitchen where they belong (I swear I’ll use the Kitchenaid more if I don’t have to lug it from the back closet out to the kitchen every time!)

Just off to the left is now officially the coffee/tea/snackies station, so there’s even hooks on the shelf up there to hang each of our favorite  mugs (my Pooh one is in the dishwasher).

I read lots of books when I was little and had quite a collection of Dr.Seuss. But one book I didn’t have (and until last week didn’t know the story of) was Horton Hears a Who. It’s a great story– loved the moral to it (and so as not to spoil it for others like me who don’t know the story, I won’t elaborate).There were so many funny parts, but like many, my favorite was the character Katie. J tells me that she wasn’t in the original story (it was one of his favorites that he made his mom read many times), so she was apparently added in for… comic relief? Worked for me.

It also reminded me of this shirt at Threadless:

After many months it has now passed: the Probe is gone. As J pointed out, a lot of the things I was willing to put up with, someone purchasing a car wouldn’t be– the falling ceiling fabric, the broken seatbelt (just manual now instead of automatic), the hatch that wouldn’t stay up, the crackly speakers, etc., etc. (unfortunately I could go on for a while here). The final catch was the exhaust: after having the exhaust from the muffler back replaced, they said I had a crack in the exhaust manifold. I’m not so sure that it was there before I took the car in, as they hadn’t mentioned it before, but either way, they said I could be getting CO into the cab of the car. I didn’t get a second opinion. I didn’t get a CO test (although maybe putting a detector in there would have done the trick). It just put us over the nickel-and-diming edge and got me to get rid of it.

I donated to Habitat for Humanity (not that they’ll get much for it, I’m afraid), and the nice guy who picked it up in the pouring rain Friday afternoon said that it was really nice for a donation. (?) Yeah– apparently most of the cars he picks up as donations may look ok on the outside, but their motors are completely shot and they don’t even run. So mine may not be so pretty, but at least it runs! If they have a mechanic donating time to fix it up, I doubt the materials would cost too much to fix it. So maybe it will be OK. I told the guy that it was my first car; I’d gotten it in college. He said it will go to a good home.

I hope so.

Even if it is sold for scrap with the money going to Habitat: that’s still a great home.

Non-Alcoholic Martinis at a Martini Bar… essentially an awesome strawberry milkshake. Sweet.

Anna, Adam, Becky, Kristi, Agnes, & J.

Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.

Ben Hecht

If you’re not good enough friends for a woman to tell you she’s pregnant, then you’re not good enough friends that you can ask without offending her.

me

Failure is not the only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others.

Jules Renard (1864 - 1910) via Quotes of the Day

Lifehacker

Remember The Milk

Jott (awesome!)

Tumblr

Hoping this will be a better solution to my thought processes resulting in a more-frequently updated online presence. We’ll see.

Merry Christmas from Metropolis, originally uploaded by katatak.

Almost time…, originally uploaded by katatak.

Time to fill the manger

Field Trip, originally uploaded by katatak.

A little icy this morning, originally uploaded by katatak.

And the ensuing tangent.

A colleague found in his desk a chart of salts and their respective solubilities for controlling humidities. It was dated 4/8/58, but one of the fortunate things about science is that, while it may be built upon and further revealed, the basic numbers won’t change. So this nearly 50-year old document can still be helpful to us in our jobs today (you’d be surprised the number of times we need those humidity chambers).

Upon hearing this, another coworker commented the quote at the top of this post. Which prompted me to bring up the chemistry videos that we watched in high school, but that I also heard from a next-door classroom in college. I couldn’t remember the name of the video series, but did remember the host, Roald Hoffman.

Thanks to the Internets, it was a quick run to Wikipedia to learn a little about Roald, himself (a Nobel Prize Winning Chemist) and one more click to the theme song that reminds me of 5th-hour Chem I with Mr. Berry.

The World of Chemistry on Wikipedia

I was pretty excited when I saw an episode of “The Office” where it was mentioned that they could go to Cooper’s for lunch because I actually knew where that was. It is the only place in Scranton proper that I have been to. It’s a seafood place that was quite delicious, but also has an interesting collection of things on the walls to look at. My favorites offered directions to the restrooms. Apparently they’re Star Trek fans.

Apple Picking, originally uploaded by katatak.

My first time apple picking.

This hit close to home.
Home Economics from the Indexed blog

This was written last month as I flew out to Reno for the USBC Open…

In trying to keep the glass half full (per my purposefully-worn T today), I allowed a smile when I realized I had reached a triplicate.
I was listening to 35000 feet at about 35000 feet (Ok, probably 38000 ft) while watching somewhere around 35000 happy little penguin feet dance on the in-flight movie. How fun! (And now I’ve just reminded myself of all the lotto commercials that say “Fun for some… ” and have the guy dancing around with the turkey. Well, this is my kind of fun. Welcome to my world.)

The nagging empty portion of my glass is the effort it’s taken to get here. Although it was beautiful weather out east yesterday, a weather delay kept me so long in Philadelphia that I missed my connection in Houston. I ended up spending waaay too much money on a hotel (weather related delay, so no free room from the airline), but then woke up often throughout the night as I do when I am worried about missing an alarm (I never actually have missed one). All that time in the airport yesterday, then back and forth to the hotel, and once I get to Reno has put a lot of stress on my shoulders. I keep thinking maybe I’d like to get a nice rolling carry on (J and I both should) but only ever see the reason when we’re in the middle of the pain associated with not having said bags.

The Latest from The Maggios:
Work:
J’s job has finally changed to the field position that has been talked about for over a year.
I got a promotion (no big change in duties).
Both of us came out of our annual performance reviews with ‘Above Target’ ratings (Did you expect anything less?)

Play:
Chemtrail has another show in NYC coming up in May, this time at Club Midway.
I’m in Reno this weekend for the USBC Open with the regular group. Hopefully after this week’s performance in NJ, something awesome will come of it.
We’re finally getting on with the planning for our honeymoon/anniversary vacation (it’ll be our anniversary before we get there at this rate).

What an amazingly awesome day!

• Superiors showing confidence in you at work
• Multiple people offering to help you network to get where you would be well suited and happy :)
• Bowling awesomely! (205, 186, 247 for a 638– yeah, baby!)
• People from other leagues congratulating you on your great game
• Threadless T’s have arrived in the mail
• Getting ready for a trip when you haven’t been on one in quite a while.

:) While I currently may not be working my dream job, not many companies have multiple peoples who are interested in your happiness with your job… and that’s one reason why I REALLY like my company.

Let’s just start with a note on how much I love the NBC show Heroes. The thing is, I know there’s so much going on there that I’m not necessarily catching– nothing integral to the plot, but ‘easter eggs’. This week I will hang my head as I admit, I did not notice the license on Hiro’s father’s (played by George Takei, aka Sulu) car was NCC1701. Clearly the geek was not strong with me that night.
What I did notice was Claire’s dialogue when she and Zach were heading out to visit her biological mother (aka the aquarium in Lubbock, which apparently doesn’t really exist). She notes that in order to not get caught they have to “be perfect.” Perhaps it wasn’t intended as I can’t find any references to it online, but the Bennet family lives in Odessa, TX, which is also the town on which the book and movie “Friday Night Lights” is based. At least in the movie version (again, searching online so far has not resulted in any references), one of the main themes is of the players becoming “perfect.” I particularly remember a scene in which Christian Kane’s character (I probably remember this due to his role on Angel) asks, “..you perfect yet?” I don’t even recall what the response is to his question, but he replies “You will be.” The final quote from the coach on being perfect (from Wikipedia):

Coach Gary Gaines: (halftime speech) Being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It’s not about winning. It’s about you and your relationship with yourself, your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn’t let them down because you told them the truth. And that truth is you did everything you could. There wasn’t one more thing you could’ve done. Can you live in that moment as best you can, with clear eyes, and love in your heart, with joy in your heart? If you can do that gentleman - you’re perfect!

Since I haven’t read the book, I can’t confirm if Being Perfect is a local mantra or just something they came up with for sales, but I wondered if it would have been something Claire would have heard, being a part of the sports at the high school there. If anything, perhaps a nod in the direction of the town that has been in the spotlight more than once.

Unbelievable. Really. Seriously. This is getting a bit old.
So much has gone on in the last month that needs to be mentioned… Girls’ Weekend in Tennessee, wedding dress shopping and making in Chicago, the guy in the airport wearing house slippers, 4th of July, my concern that I haven’t seen the rooster in a few weeks (after.. was it 4? sightings in a couple of weeks!). But all this must wait as I sit here in the dark, listening for the little rustle I so long to hear…

When we got home from the Chicago trip, I set forth immediately to battle the large bags of dirty laundry we brought home with us (souvenirs, you know). I picked up a basket of the last of the laundry that I’d left in the dryer the week before and as I walked out of the laundry room, I saw in my periphery vision a sock that I’d dropped. Thank goodness I hadn’t stepped on it because when I turned to pick it up I realized it was not a sock, but a dead bird. (insert pause for that nasty-asty shudder that I know you’re all sharing with me… all you blog readers, you). It was dark grey/blackish.. I’m not even sure what kind. After I scared J half to death with the non-words that came out of my mouth (just the ‘blechy’ kind)
and collected myself, we discussed our options, finally ending with dishwashing rubber gloves, lots of paper towels, a trash bag, and Resolve for the carpet. OK. Done. Ick. I did make the connection that in the few days I was in the house between Tennessee and Chicago– the day before I left for Chicago, I believe– I did hear some scratching around in (I thought) the furnace, but when I banged around on it I didn’t hear anything. So I just figured it was the neighbors (we hear them all the time– no big deal) and went to bed, then left for Chicago at about 5 am. [1]

But wait! That’s not all! If you keep reading now, I’ll give you TWO bird stories for the low-low RSS reader space of just ONE article! How about that!

The dead bird incident was on June 26. The following weekend I was in and out of the utility room all day doing laundry and whatnot. Sunday morning I got up at about 9am and gathered up all the towels and bathrobes around the house and took them in to wash a load and dumped my sides [2] and started screaming when something started flapping around my head… well, at least in the headspace. These are about 8′ ceilings and I’m 5′7″ so you do the math. You can imagine it– you’ve seen this comic before: where character1 surprises character2 so character2 screams. Then character1 screams in return from being shocked/scared by character2’s screams. This continues for several frames until all the screaming is gotten out of each others systems. It was quite similar with me and the bird. I got out of there and shut the door and J came staggering out of the bedroom (dumpping his sides, too, methinks) towards me as I tried to tell him “I’mOK…I’mOK…I’mOK… I’mOK… bird… alive… alivethistime… bird…. ohmyGod… ohmyGod… sunuvabitch… sunuva… [breathe...breathe...]” Big hugs… OK. I’m OK. (I continued convincing myself of this for a few minutes while the hilarity continued.
Our innovative minds finally came up with trash bags as our best options for capturing the creature that was now hanging out on one of the pipes in the utility room. Just before going in there to try to capture it, but after the ‘OK, are you ready?’ ‘Yeah, you?’ ‘OK?’ ‘OK. OK?’…we decided to check for animal control information and give them a call, but got what we expected on a Sunday morning. A recording telling us to call 911 if it was an emergency. So we found the non-emergency police number where the nice dispatch lady suggested maybe opening a window, but as the room is on an inside wall of the building, the only way out was through the pipes or through the door.
After another round of the aforementioned ‘OK?OK…’ J reached in and turned off the light in the utility room.
“That actually calmed it down a lot,” said he.
“Will it go towards the light? Are they like bugs like that? I think I’ll open the patio door all the way now,” said I.
“OK?” (you know the rest)
As he stooped and stepped in there, the bird started flying around, came out of there and directly outside. Thank goodness for 9am daylight!

The utility room got an extensive cleaning after that, anything that the bird touched or might have flapped on got washed and/or disinfected. All the clothes that were in there (we have a tendency to leave the ironing for weeks at a time), the basket of clean sheets and mattress pad that hadn’t been folded, the skirts that were laying across the sheets, everything on the shelves, the pipes themselves. Ick. I think we got it all done in a matter of hours, though, so that felt good. Well, the laundry kept going all day, but that’s always the case.
The next morning (Jul 3, now) we called the condo association office and left a message (including phone number) with a brief account of the story and our suspicion that the screen or guard or whatever that usually keeps critters out of the chimneys may have a hole in it and request that it be fixed. If there were any problems (why do we assume logic?– such as if there’s a problem with the request at all) or if they had any questions, to call us. We never heard back. (Again with the logic… we figured that meant it was being taken care of).
For the next 5 days or so every time I needed to go into that room, I would always shake the door, flip on the light but just peek in there… I should have extended that for another couple of days.

Tonight, as you can imagine, hilarity ensues when I was at home by myself and decided to grab that last load of laundry that I’d left in the dryer. I pulled the lot out into a basket, folded a pair of my trousers, and placed them on a hanger, and was just grabbing the other pair to be hung up when that familiar flapping came again. This time I was able to hold the screams to a few mild yells as I gotheheckout and even hit the light on my way out. 6:35pm. Raymond’s on. 2 hours til dusk. I shut off the TV, and made several calls (first to J and to Agnes to rant and try to regain/gather my sanity and composure. I left messages for both). I opened the patio doors all the way, then made attempt #1 to try to see where it was and what not. I went in with a laundry basket for protection (from feathers?!? I don’t know… yeah, sure, from feathers… I’m aware of how silly this all is). Flapping started, I bolted. Made several more calls, to the landlord, Mom & Dad, Agnes again. OK.. I’m a lifetime Girl Scout… I can do this. I like nature… just not IN my house. The next few tries included my old winter waterproof shell (not the first time it would have been ’shat’ on), the mesh from a sweater drying rack over my head/face, and winter gloves. I got hot. And I think someone outside saw me with my somewhat-apiarist-looking costume. Several of these attempts came about, to no avail. I finally re-found the bird, now crouched in the far back corner behind the furnace. All extra protective layers were dropped as I finally figured that if it wasn’t before, it now is definitely more scared than I am. If not hurt. After several attempts with brooms and my new handy-dandy-homemade butterfly bird net (made from aforementioned sweater drying mesh, a wire hanger, and a Swiffer handle) didn’t work, I just had to wait it out until J came home. By this time it was about 9pm anyway. He called and I suggested he just keep practicing until the band was ready to stop as the little light that was left would be gone by the time he got home anyway. So I sit. And blog.

[And now it is late. I'll finish quickly and edit later. Gotta get to bed.]
The capture tonight went as follows: J with the broom handle coming from the top, me almost getting it into the net, which it then jumped over, then continued into the corner under the shelves (another hard-to-get-at place). It managed to fly at us several times. It got up on top of the shelf. On top of the pipe. The net almost came in handy, but failed us at the last moment when it got flimsy and the bird got out the bottom. (At this point we’ve closed the door so it has to stay in this room. It’s dark outside and even with no lights on inside, we’d just lose it in the dark and not know where it was if it got to the rest of the house). It finally went up into the corner where the sleeping bags are (great.. another thing to wash) where J was able to carefully capture it in his work-gloved hand.
Sadly, this is not the end.
As we began the clean-up process AGAIN, I heard the scratching. It had been about 15 minutes, probably. We now have taped a bread-pan under the pipe on the furnace and another sweater-mesh all the way around the open area on the water-heater pipe. Both should still be able to get air up and through them, but hopefully will contain anything that makes it back down through the pipe. We don’t think this is the same bird as the one last week, but we figure it’s pretty likely that if it was a bird in the pipe again, it is probably the same one from tonight. Maybe they’re a type that mate for life or at least the whole season. Maybe the nest is in the pipe. Either way, This is getting old.

[1] Just as I am writing this, I realize that it may not have been IN the furnace/pipe, but actually might have been in the room. While it would have been nice to have it survive, I don’t think that its flying around my head at past midnight could have resulted in anything good.

[2] I am referring in particular to comment #4 on this post as I had the same reaction the first time I read the post. In fact, I recall laughing out loud. At work. “I find the first trashcan and dump my sides in it.” Totally thought he meant heave, retch, throw up, get sick, gag, vomit, barf, upchuck, ralph, hurl, purge, barf, spew, regurgitate. Hawesome.
Incidentally, if I haven’t mentioned it recently, I highly recommend Wil’s blog to anyone.. well, anyone who knows and is friends with me, because he’s a kind of person I find to be very fun and cool. That is, I would find.. if I actually knew him. And I think I might have commented on his site once or twice. Maybe not. I’ve been reading his blog for… about 2.5-3 years now. I’ve heard that now it’s one of the most popular blogs on the Internets. I knew I should have commented back in the day… now everybody reads it. *sigh*. Just another one of the millions.

Weebls Stuff - It’s the Fancy Dance Finalists!:
For anyone that I so excitedly shared a fancy dancing link previously, here are the finalists and winners! (The winners are noted at the end below all the videos.) Several of the ones I showed off are on there including the ’smiles that go on for miles’, and the mash-up of the Muppet Theme.
FYI- I dare say the rest of the site is quite funny and I frequent it for some laughs, but caution that it is [adult swim] funny and notsomuch for the youngins.

After a previous entry regarding wildlife in NJ and mentioning a bear running loose in NJ backyards, I came across this photo (also taken in NJ). We seem to have quite the bear population here. But it seems the best defense is a good offense so we all should be adopting cats from our local shelters.

In other related news, I’ve spotted that rooster twice since the previous entry. I was on the way to work and saw it one day, then saw it on the way home another. I stopped (there is a parking lot for the state park there) and tried to capture it on my cameraphone, but it ran into the woods. (?!) Yes, the woods. This, apparently, is a rooster gone wild. Since I’ve now seen this thing 3 times in 2 weeks, I’ve decided he will be my reminder to blog. If I haven’t made an entry in a while, at least I’ll have a rooster to talk about. And you’ll get a fun little icon to indicate this.

Finally, a couple of friends got married last weekend and a few of us from work were honored to be invited to attend the day. It was a lovely ceremony (Mass, as it was a Catholic wedding), cocktail hour, and reception. Other than the lavish reception, the other notable tidbit is that all of the day’s activities were in Polish. As J pointed out towards the end of the evening: it’s like we weren’t even in the US anymore. Granted we can’t say for the reception hall, if there would be anything like that in Poland, but the point was that if we walked out of that building and were in the middle of Europe, it really wouldn’t have been too much of a shock.

No, my friends, not about fish. The other bass. The musical one.

J’s gone and joined a band out here, which we both are pretty excited about. I know how much his music means to him and he was getting into such a great place there in Chicago before we high-tailed it out here. I guess the ‘T‘ in both of us told us to come to New Jersey and still tells us it was the right choice, while other parts of our personalities would love to see what would become of his continued work in music.
While this band, Chemtrail, is quite different from his past bands in style, it still has a wonderful (in my opinion) sound that.. well, it’s hard to describe, but for me, it makes my heart feel very light and warm… so there ya go. A rare ‘feeling’ moment you’ll hear out of me (see ‘T’ above for explanation). So far he’s just been to the tryout and initial practice, but has another practice tomorrow night and will be heading down on average a couple of times a week. Please visit Chemtrail’s MySpace page for a sampling of their music.

iTunes is currently playing Face Me by Chemtrail

I couldn’t stand having an entire column in the nifty yearsheet I added go without a link (even if it has been nearly 2 months since my last insubstantial post) and thought I might just have to put some other filler in the space… until I drove home from work last night.
Being in the most densely populated state in the Union, you wouldn’t think it would be much for the wildlife, but I’ve found that’s not the case. Several weeks ago there were news stories of a black bear wandering people’s backyards (sadly, the bear didn’t make it through the end of the ordeal). And J and I are always commenting on how we see loads more deer here than we ever did in Illinois (and the various reasons for this- yes, we know). I was pretty excited to find out that there are indeed groundhogs that pop up around here (and they will charge if you get too close!). Getting closer to the point, we have also seen wild turkeys and a few pheasants (those were pretty cool). But yesterday topped all when on my way home from work, in the middle of a small section of state park that I drive through every day (twice a day, really), there was a rooster. Red comb, black, white, and brown feathers… everything but the roost.
Today just complemented yesterday’s vision as on the way home a tractor pulling 2 flatbeds piled high with hay bales pulled out 2 cars in front of me. Being in New Jersey, the car in front of me had passed that thing so quickly that I couldn’t get my camera phone up and ready quick enough to get a shot, but then, anyone who has lived in Illinois (or any other midwestern state) knows what the back of a hay wagon looks like. Ah, well.
I leave you with a charging groundhog:

I never have been a big fan of the way my hands look. They’re a nice combination of my father’s & mother’s, with dad’s wide thumbs & fingernails & mom’s crinkly skin. It’s the latter that has always been a bit odd. I know mom has the same type of skin that shows every crease like a map of an elaborate tube system, but if hers is the London Underground (somewhat nicely laid out and organized) mine is New York (there’s how many lines??). My friends’ hands always seemed so smooth & perfect, even in the arid winters in Illinois. No matter how much lotion or oils I applied, I would just grease up those subway lines, but never smooth them out.
On a flight tonight, just before dusk settled in, I noticed the lighting and what interesting patterns I could see on my hands. The shadows created in the gullies, the highlights of the tendons and veins, and the way those lines change directions around knuckles reminded me of pink elephant skin. My hands have always been useful, but this was the first time I ever thought of them as beautiful.

On our recent trip to Tampa, J entertained my desire to go out and see the manatees who congregate at the nearby power plant during the cool winter months. It was quite an overcast and slightly drizzly day, which didn’t make for nice viewing: the reflections off the water made it near impossible to spot them and I still don’t have even a basic set of filters (polarizing being my most desired one and the one that would have been useful in this situation) for my digital camera.
There is a nice setup for viewing, both platforms up above a certain bay area, and a dock that goes out into a channel where they often congregate. There is also a visitor information center, but we didn’t stop in there.
I’m not sure where it popped into my head from, but I started to wonder about the origin of the name ‘manatees’ and its possible relationship with the word ‘humanity’. Manatees are always noted as such calm, peaceful creatures who are, unfortunately, usually told apart by the scars inflicted upon them by the propellers of motor boats. Most likely there is no actual connection between the words, but it could be construed from the calm, peaceful nature that is the ideal of humanity. Oddly enough we stray so often from this ideal, we cause deep scarring to each other for generations.

I checked out this quiz from protesting southerner & here’s my results:

You Belong in Paris

Stylish and a little sassy, you were meant for Paris.
The art, the fashion, the wine, the men!
Whether you’re enjoying the cafe life or a beautiful park…
You’ll love living in the most chic place on earth.

Previously, while in Tampa Airport, I noted a list of things I’d been intending to blog, but had, thus far, let slip by. So in an effort to catch up on that, today we have NANO.
Usually when I see one of those pop-up windows or an ad online that says “Win [insert that month's most desirable gadget, or, in this case, the past several years' most desirable gadget: any form of iPod] Now!” I don’t pay much attention. I suppose usually they say something about getting one free, which usually means not free. So I don’t remember if it was the lure of an iPod that brought me in– I really think it was just a request to fill out a survey. I’d been researching continuing-ed programs, Online offerings from universities for Masters’ programs, and the like. I had the time and was interested in the subject, so was happy to fill out a survey on Continuing Adult Education. I think at the end of it there was some sort of ‘thank you’ and an ‘enter your email here to be entered in a drawing..”
So, I was lucky when a month or so later (now around Christmas) while doing my regular skim-through my junkmail folder, I caught something that mentioned continuing ed and glanced at it: Follow Up: SURVEY PRIZE…
I was pretty skeptical, but did respond. They only wanted a shipping address. Nothing shady like account numbers or anything to pay for shipping. So I gave them my work address to see what would happen.
The rest of the email went something like this:

Congratulations! Out of 13,000 people who recently responded to an online survey about Adult Continuing Education, yours was one of 5 randomly drawn to receive an iPod Nano!

It took a few weeks, being over the holidays, the office responsible was closed, but I eventually received my brand-new, straight from Amazon, 2GB iPod Nano (white– they didn’t ask and I didn’t really care–hey, it’s free!). Besides, it goes very nicely with my iBook, on which I currently write (and my gi, in which I currently sit, waiting for class).

So now you all can say you know someone who actually won one of those internet raffles(because no one who I know of reads my blog who doesn’t know me). Actually, I don’t know even if anyone reads it who does know me because no one comments.. so comment y’all! I’ll be filling in more of these 3-month late topics soon, so come back for more.

I still have to blog the rest of the topics on my previous list, but this was so cool I had to get it up now. Also, at this rate, I’ll only be posting about 10 per year and will take several months to get through the list. Perhaps more often now, with a blog editor. We’ll see.

Several folks at work were talking about this little tool online to create your own South Park character. J’s is way better than mine; I’ll have to get him to re-create it for me to post up here. I took the idea from another guy, but imported mine into Photoshop and created a background for it. I may do more with it, but for now, I’m happy with my coo! Click the image above to create your own South Park character!

So I check on a few blogs daily and read whatever is updated (some daily, some every few months (ahem!)), but should offer the same in turn. But how to compete with something like this??
Black Friday Tale by protesting southerner

I guess Jersey is full of tales, so I’ll just have to be more adamant (sp?) about posting them. Mostly they’ll just be tales of aggrivation like this one:
On the way to work (which is when about half the aggrivations happen– the other half are on the way home, with a pinch while at work), there was an SUV in front of us. A Lexus, but does that really matter? Well, maybe to the mindset. Anywho, an SUV is supposed to be rugged, blah blah, outdoors, blah blah, but luxury in this case. So the driver rides right down the middle of the road (with double-lines, thank you) to avoid filled in potholes. What?? Yeah, the road’s a little bumpy, but it’s paved and the holes are filled in. Now, I could let this go with a roll of the eyes, but instead had to keep the eyes focused to make sure there wasn’t an accident ahead from the cars that were coming the other way (no, this wasn’t when no one else was coming).
And to top it all off, yes, she did have her cell phone out and was messing with it when we finally got up to a light and were turning left while she went straight. (Using a mobile phone without a hands-free kit is illegal in NJ.)

So there’s my happy story of the day. Hope you enjoyed!

So for a year I’d been here claiming that it wouldn’t officially be home until I ran into someone I knew out at a store– and to make it even more specific, it had to be someone who would recognize and speak with me if I came up and said hi.
Well, it finally happened. While out shopping a few weeks ago (I’ll have to ask Agnes– I think it was the 23rd), J and I ran into our friend, Agnes, who was out with her visiting mom and brother. So it’s official now: Jersey is home.

I was lead to this from WWDN:IE and was quite pleased with my results:

Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not - for my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life greets it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us, and binds us. Luminescent beings are we, not this crude matter! You must feel the Force around you, everywhere.

My mind often works quite tangentally, so I feel the need to explain how I get from one point to another (seemingly different) point in a matter of seconds. This one isn’t too far from the origins, though…
On the way to work this morning, J and I came to a turn that often has problems (thankfully not in the direction we’re going).
So I thought about how a roundabout could fix this problem, then about a specific very small roundabout in Aberdeen that really was more of an intersection with a painted dot in the middle… then to the sad part that is my actual reason for writing today.
By thinking about it, I realize that all the roundabouts in the UK must work in the clockwise direction, seeing one drives on the left side of the road. But when I imagine any intersection there in Aberdeen and picture being in a vehicle going round the roundabout, my brain insists on it being in an anti-clockwise direction. When I think of someone missing their ‘exit’ or waiting for someone who is following them and their going round it several times, it’s in the same anti-clockwise direction.
I’m sure this doesn’t sound tragic to anyone else out there, but it is a bit to me as it’s a concrete piece of my memory that is being altered by time. I’m very protective of my memories and the conscious knowledge that some of them are inaccurate (well, if only mirrored, but still…) that leads me to believe there are probably others that I don’t realize I’m remembering incorrectly, which bothers me.
Ah, well. I suppose I should go worry about something worth worrying (or at least praying) about…