Glen speaks: airborne fecal matter - yet another great band name.

Having tourette's, even for a moment, is much more interesting than worrying!

Sometimes I wish my mother hadn't raised me so well, that it was easy for me to be all callous when I am hurt. Instead I try to do the right thing, not just for me but for all involved. But it takes so damn much energy!

VW sent me a nice letter yesterday telling me that my lease was about to expire and did I want to pick out a new VW? Which would be great except that in the summer of 2000 I spent far too much time getting a loan to pay off the car, then wrangling with VW about the payout amount, threatening legal action (good thing Mr. Dow-tay!, father of Liz, is a lawyer) and finally getting the fucking title from them. Imagine my great thrill when I saw this letter. I called this morning, evidently my account was never closed, hence the letter. Smooth, VW, real smooth.

I'm getting all perverted right on time today, instead of super early like yesterday. Good thing because the balance among us jokers at the office was just all off.

I guess I'm speechless today. Trying to wrap up a bunch of work stuff before the weekend and make lines for the team I coach and 2 teams I'm on. I think we got it all worked out though. And it's Friday. Woo hoo! The girls 7 am practice tomorrow is cancelled so I get to sleep in a whole extra 2 hours. Thankyoujesus.

Kevin found me the best t-shirt. Somehow I don't think it qualfies as business casual.

liz is extra-dirty, extra-early today. -glen

Glen recommends an automatic mouthwash to go with the aforementioned product.

I just dreamed up the best product for people who provide oral sex to women -- a chin-shaped towlette.

There's a massive QA effort going on here now and the office is full of people. For some reason, the addition of 2 extra people to the room I sit in has given one of my founding officemates (as in she was here before we were, not as in she founded the company) license to be super extra loud. It's now so fucking loud in here that even Gorrilaz 19-2000 at high volume isn't enough to drown out the ruckus. Good thing I don't have any work to do. Oh wait. I have a shitload and can't concentrate at all.

I could ask to move, sure, but there are no places left and with years of fighting carpal tunnel and finally winning, I am loathe to do anything to jealordize a situation that leaves me relatively pain-free at the end of the day.

I read Nicholas Sparks' books (yup, I like mindless fiction most of the time. All those years of thinking hard in college wore out my brain. The first 2 years after college I read nothing but every piece of lesbian fiction I could find) and am always irritated at the way he leaves one sentence as it's own paragraph throughout the book as if it's super important.

Then I realized I do it too.

What consistently strikes me as funny (funny interesting, not funny ha-ha) is that despite having this blog and with it, parts of my life laid bare, the truth is that I'm quite private and there are many many things I'll never share here. Maybe that seems obvious, maybe it's a surprise to you, but it's still the truth. Reading this blog means that you see what I've shown you and gives you license to infer whatever you choose from that, but it doesn't mean you know me, or any other writer/artist beyond what you see here.

I think in the end, Andrea is the only one who sees me, guts and all.

That's not my dog
When it comes to getting her nails trimmed, Rainie is Satan. This sweet dog who's generally quite mild-mannered turns into a raging beast who usually requires 3 people to hold her down while 1 brave soul does the trimming. She doesn't try to bite or anything, just to thrash around until you stop. Most of the time, we bite the bullet and pay the vet to do this but at $20 a pop for more than one dog (Rainie is not the only dog in our lives with this issue. They're all a far cry from Alice, who would give me her paw even if I missed and nicked her, she never complained) we decided to try it ourselves. Last night, we dug out the clippers and tried something new. Andrea squeezed Rainie up against the edge of the couch and leaned on her, putting herself between Rainie's line of vision and the evil clippers. After a mere 2 seconds of struggle, Roo gave up and I did the most complete nail trim I've ever done on her.

Emboldened, I went on to trim some of Gus' nails too but unlike Roo, he doesn't just wiggle, he bares his teeth so I was wary and only got a few. Zeus will remain a lost cause in this department forever but if we only have to pay for 1 instead of 3, it's a victory.

The best moment of last night's trip to REI was putting these swanky new insoles inside my shoes and feeling less heel pain that very instant. It was with great joy and happy feet that I waltzed to the register to check out. On the way the worst moment of last night's trip to REI happened. I tried on a very suave looking ski/snowboard helmet. I liked the way it fit and know that if we do go skiing/snowboarding this year I will of course wear a helmet. After the concussion, I'm not fucking around. Anyway. I'm standing there wearing this very sporty helmet when Andrea comes by and starts laughing. Later she tells me how I reminded her of this retarded kid at her church who used to wear a helmet all the time.

Sometimes a girl just can't win.

High Drama on Ebay
So... a month ago I bought a portable DVD player on ebay in anticipation of our trip to Chiner. When it came, I was shocked to see that it didn't have a screen (what's the point??) and contacted the seller, who assured me that it was as described. I didn't look too closely at it and re-sold it using the same listing. It turns out that it's actually not nearly in the condition it was described in, and now I'm stuck giving the guy I sold it to a refund. Naturally, I contacted the guy I bought it from who has decided to ignore me. I've filed a case with ebay's dispute resolution and the guy claims it's 'as described.' Horseshit.

So now I'm out $360.90 and not sure where else to go with this. I've asked him one more time for a refund but don't really expect an answer. Anyone got any idea how to handle this?.

BTW, the guy is ABCDeals on ebay. I would not recommend buying from him.

I think I've decided not to go to Ohio for Thanksgiving. It will just cost too much between a dogsitter (almost $100/day) and tickets, which are twice as costly as usual. I can't imagine Andrea would mind not going. I feel bad that my parents will be alone on the holiday again but hey the planes run out here too.

Happy Birthday Gus!
I pretty much missed it but 9/26 marked Gus' 1 year anniversary of being part of our family. When we first met him, he was a bone-thin boy, covered in fleas with most of his teeth worn down from a lifetime of flea itching. He was supposed to be a foster dog but he knew different sinece that first moment when those wise old eyes gazed up at me from inside the kennel at the shelter. Had we not taken him, he would have been euthanized there. Since then, he's filled out and re-invented himself as a basset. He's healthy and happy and makes me laugh as much as the bassets do.

Here's to many more years as Gus' mom.

Last night my brother had not one but 2 goals, one in each hockey game. He has mastered the art of being in the right place at the right time for the tip in. Woo! During our second game, Gerald was on fire, en feugo, hot! Stopped all but 2 of the 41 shots they took on us (we had 17, with the other Dow-tay!s goal our lone score) with many an extra suave move. I got to play D again since Laura the star center has returned, everything felt a lot better. We could actually win a game some day!

Another fun part about yesterday's wedding was realizing that we were near Amy's fine home and driving by to see if she was awake. Her lights were off so we shouted "GOOD NITE AMYFRITZ!!" then sped towards home. Amy, thinking it was a dream, heard us. I'm stoked that I now know parts of SF well enough to say "hmm, this church is not far from Amy's house" and then know enough to get us there, then home via a different route than the way we came in. Looks like I've expanded my knowledge of SF beyond just Lee's Deli, Rincon Center, 1 Market (like Rincon, but $2 cheaper for just about everything and only 1 block away!) and the Caltrain station. Woo!

Sarah and Gregory's wedding yesterday was absolutely lovely. The most low-key, perfect reflection of who they are and how they are in the world. It was the easiest wedding to be part of, certainly the first time I'd really felt part of the ceremony. Gregory cried through most of it and Kim arrived just in time to see them kiss at the end. The reception was also low-key and lovely and despite me making jokes about wanting to bring a kielbasa in my purse to the vegetarian resurant, the food was delicious. Gregory's dad was released from the hospital in time to make it to the ceremony but unfortunately, took a turn for the worse during the reception and they had to call paramedics. Sarah stood with us, trying not to cry as her new father-in-law was carried out on a stretcher. I'm glad he was there for the ceremony, I'm sure it meant a great deal to all of them.