Tarantulas and Toys

I am really itchin' to blog today, but I literally have NOTHING to talk about. So I told Clint and Trinity to "pick a topic, ANY topic," and I swore that I would write at least a paragraph about it. So let's start with Trinity's topic: Tarantulas.

Okay, so what can I say about tarantulas? Well, for starters, I don't find them to be at all scary. I've mentioned this in a previous blog, but I'm just not equipped with whatever gene it is that makes people screech like a girl whenever they see a spider (that's not really fair, because often times the person shrieking actually IS a girl). I've just never been afraid of spiders, even as a child. If I find one in my house, I catch it and let it go. Especially spiders that are predators; they play such a monumental role in keeping down pests in the yard. The only exception to my "no kill" policy are mama black widows, because I can't have a bunch of little baby widows (wow is that an oxymoron) running around the house. But even then I tell the spider "sorry" before having Clint take care of it (I can't squish 'em myself because I'm a sissy lala). I don't think the apology really comforts the spider as it's life is being squashed into obliteration, but it somehow makes me feel better.

Regarding tarantulas specifically, I find them to be an interesting combination of creepy and cute. When I was in San Vicente, Mexico two summers ago, we found one in the desert and I actually held it. They are SO tame. The one that I held actually started crawling up my arm toward my shoulder, and I had to keep poking and prodding it in the right direction. It never came even close to getting agitated. You can tell a tarantula is losing patience when it does the following things: 1. Shakes its fur off, 2. Rears up and bears its fangs, and 3. (only if #1 and #2 don't work) Bites.

Okay, I think I covered Trin's topic enough, so on to Clint's topic: Men and their Toys. Every married female out there knows that men never really quite outgrow "toys," and they will always have that childhood desire to tinker with something. Last week Clint purchased a 1969 Volkswagon Beetle. Now this might be a reasonable purchase if we didn't already own X amount of vehicles (to divulge the exact number would officially place us into hillbilly status), but considering the cars we already own, it's quite a rolling-eyeball-inducing purchase. I have decided to be okay with it though, because in exchange for the Bug, Clint is going to landscape our front yard. But to get him to do this in a timely manner, I had to bribe him with a tattoo (he gets the tattoo to celebrate the yard being finished). Yeah, I can't keep up with all of the deal-making and bribes either. It does sound like Clint's making out like bandit while I'm stuck with another piece of crap car, but at least my crappy cars will be parked in a nice yard. Plus, I have to admit, I'm actually getting into the restoration of this car. So far Clint has bought a new headliner, tint for the windows, new front windshield, and a new electronic ignition. That's more than he has done for any of his other so-called car projects, so I think this one might be the real deal.

I like this kamikaze blogging. If I were more tech-savvy, I'd start a "Topic Tuesday" page (similar to "Wordless Wednesdays") in which all participating bloggers would be given a unique topic, and they would be challenged to write at least a paragraph on their blogs about it. Then of course they would have to post links to their entries, which would bring in mass-amounts of bloggers seeking to gain more of an audience, and I would get rich with all of the hits (okay, I might have crossed into the line of "fantasy" here, but don't burst my bubble). No one take this idea, 'cuz as soon as I get smarter, I'm doing it.

My Foofy Mongrel & Other Stuff

I know I already posted today, but I feel like after that last boring, housecleaning-type entry, I need a nice regular one.

Today was a gorgeous day! It was sunny and somewhere in the low 80's. This morning I jumped into my swimsuit and sunbathed for about 45 minutes while the kids played in "Club Trinity and Elijah," which is actually an ugly, bushy tree with a bunch of weird junk tucked in the branches. After sunbathing and lunch, I took the kids skating. It was fun except for the fact that I did more skating than my lazy, technology-saturated children. They kept taking long breaks, and I had to keep warning them that if they didn't spend more time skating, we'd leave. It was a bluff though, because I really wanted the exercise, plus I wanted to practice backward skating more.

After skating, I went to this little hole-in-the-wall fashion shop to look for shorts. I have NO shorts for summer. It's really hard to find decent ones, because everything for the last few seasons has been either too long, or too hoochy-mama. Nothing in between. As luck would have it, I wound up buying three pairs that fit perfectly. The lady in the store helped me a LOT. I've sort of become a regular there, so now when I walk in, she asks me exactly what I am looking for and actually picks out items for me to try on. Nine times out of ten, I end up purchasing whatever she picks out. It's kind of cool; I feel like I have my own personal shopper every time I walk into her store. And the prices are amazingly reasonable.

After shopping, Clint and I went to Starbucks. We took our goodies home and enjoyed them in front of the pond. Now that the weather is warmer, the fish have come out of hibernation, and I just love watching them. Often they get so close to the surface that you can literally just pluck them out of the water. Hopefully the neighborhood cats and birds don't figure out that nifty little trick anytime soon.

Later in the evening, I took Moses for a walk, and then played with my blog. Clint shaved Moses recently to get him ready for summer, and he looks SO funny. He is shaved down to almost his skin, with the exception of his head, feet, and tip of his tail, so now he looks like an enormous poodle. Despite his foofy mongrel-looking appearance, I'm so glad we decided to shave him. He has been acting so much more spry since losing all of that heavy fur (which filled up an entire large trash bag).

Time for me to go...I'm going to try to talk Clint into putting highlights into my hair before he leaves for work. Either that or make me chocolate-chip pancakes. Whichever one he's most willing to do. I'm sort of leaning toward the pancakes.

Update: Clint's making me pancakes! But I'm pretty sure there are some strings attached. ;-)

FizzyJo

I made a few changes to my blog. =) Because I love my sis so much, I changed my blog over to something easier on the eyes...the white text against the black background was giving her a headache. Normally I would just think she's crazy (quit wearing just one contact, you nutball!), but another girl who used to be in my kids' playgroup reported having the same issue. Unfortunately I'm having a really hard time finding a template that I like, since I naturally gravitate toward darker colors and edgier themes (neither of which bothers my eyes). I went through probably over a hundred different options, and finally settled on this one as a temporary fix. This theme is very similar to my Dribbles template, and I do like the way it's laid out. But over summer I plan to look for one that I feel more in love with.

I also switched to a custom domain, although it will take a couple of days for my blog to transition to the new address. Making the switch was extremely easy, but coming up with a name was nearly impossible. Every single name that I tried was already registered. Everything from "mysquishy" (long story) to "caboodle" was taken. I even tried nonsense words, such as "quiggles" and "boodle," and they were gone. I have determined that the web has scooped up every word in the English language when it comes to .com domains.

Ultimately I called my sister, and she picked out my new custom domain name: "fizzyjo.com." She chose this one because she said that my personality reminds her of fizzy, bubbly soda. I love it because it's simple, it incorporates my nickname, and it's easy to spell. Thanks Sho for the domain name!

Restaurant Hopping

I really really need to get to bed!

Okay, that being said, I have to blog for a minute or two and try to get tired. So here was my day:

Went to work (okay, I'm already yawning), and after work we had our last department meeting for the year. The meeting (which really wasn't a meeting since we accomplished nothing useful) was scheduled at Oggi's, which is this really upbeat pizzeria and brewery. I had a really good time--I love being able to visit with my fellow colleagues in a social, fun environment outside of the pressures of work. After nearly two hours, I had to leave because I had made plans with Shan and my mom to meet them for dinner as a sort of late Mother's Day get-together. Of course we were meeting all the way on the opposite side of town, so it was going to be another half hour drive. When I went to leave, I discovered that I had locked my keys in my car. You would think that in today's society of modern cars with fancy remotes, locking your keys in your car would be an impossibility, but where there's a will there's a way. Somehow I am perpetually able to magically find a way around the idiot-proof systems in our society...it's a gift. :) When I discovered my keys still in my car (not in the ignition, mind you, but laying in plain sight on my passenger seat), I went to call Triple A, but Laurie immediately said she would give me a ride to the Olive Garden since I was already running late. I couldn't believe it! Bless that woman's heart--that was so out of her way!

Once at Olive Garden, I had an amazing time with my mom and my sis. We haven't had a dinner with just us girls in...well shoot, I can't think of a time in the last decade where it was just us three. We shared a bottle of wine and got a little silly in our conversations--at one point we spent a good amount of time discussing toilet seat liners in loud, adamant voices that I'm sure didn't go well with the customers around us. We stayed at the Olive Garden for about two-and-a-half hours, and could have easily stayed longer if we didn't all have lives going on the next day. Shannon drove me home since I didn't have my car, which was great because we had extra time to chat on the drive home. When I got home, my car was back. Clint and his mom had picked it up while I was at my multitude of dinners.

All in all I had a GREAT day today, but I'm sure I'm going to pay the price for it tomorrow.

Oh, and just a quick little piece of irony: I found out later that Triple A was in the same shopping center as Oggi's, so I literally could have walked right in and had them break into my car. But I guess that would require me to be a competent person who is actually aware of her surroundings. *sigh*

Bonding with Blogs

Today was a good day! After work I attended my BTSA Collequium, and yeah, I have no idea what that word means either, but I am officially done clearing my credential! If someone had told me it would take two years to be able to breathe this sigh of relief, it would have probably spooked me from the teaching profession. Thank God for ignorance to pull me through. But now it's all over, and I can just sit back and enjoy the last few weeks of the school year.

On top of that, two of my students took first and second place in the spelling bee today! I might attempt to write more about it on my Dribbles blog, but I can't promise anything. It sucks because I'm always bursting at the seams with classroom stories, but I don't quite have a bond yet with my other blog, so I keep neglecting it. I know that sounds weird ("bonding" with a blog?), but I actually feel an attachment with my bubbles blog. She--he--it--has become like a loyal girlfriend who I can ramble endlessly to and she will always nod along with interest and never get bored (although she rolls her eyes a lot and sometimes tells me "okay, shut up now"). Dribbles is more like an acquaintance who I'm still trying to get to know.

Off topic (although did I really have a topic?), but according to my stat counter, my entry from way-back-when titled "Shaking Bed Syndrome" has more hits from Google key word searches than any other entry I've ever written. In fact, over 40% of my random Google visitors were guided to my site by that entry, using key word searches such as "shaking mattress?" and "my mattress is vibrating at night." I just find this so fascinating, because I really thought I was a little on the insane side for having such a disfunctional relationship with my mattress, but it turns out that there are lots of other people out there who have experienced similiar issues. It's nice to know there are other crazies out there (and P.S. We did replace our mattress shortly after I posted that entry. The shaking is now down to about twice a month).

I just spilled iced tea all over my couch. You know you are at an ultimate low in laziness when you're contemplating buying a new couch rather than getting up to clean the mess.

A Weekend with Cigars and Gondolas

Friday night me and Clint went to the cigar dinner. I had intended to take several pictures (I especially wanted to get our entire group sitting around the table--there was eight of us total), but once we were there, I completely forgot about my camera. By the end of the evening, I wound up with only about four pictures. This was my first time attending a cigar dinner, and although I wouldn't describe it as "crazy fun," it was really pleasant. The dinner was at a country club, and the atmosphere was very similar to that of a wedding reception. For the first hour, the guys went outside to smoke a cigar, and me and Angie sat at our table and chatted over a glass of wine. We must have talked for about an hour straight, which is pretty rare for us. It was sort of refreshing. Later our group reconvened for dinner (I'm only using the word "convened" because we just had that word during our school's spelling bee yesterday, and it sounds so sophisticated). Dinner consisted of prime rib and chicken marcello. After dinner, there was a raffle for door prizes, and Clint won a large pewter/cedar ash tray. I don't imagine I'll ever display it in my house, but it is very pretty. Later we all went outside and socialized for the rest of the evening. We wound up getting home from the dinner after midnight.

On Saturday evening, we celebrated my father-in-law's birthday by having an Italian-themed birthday dinner. Teri (my mother in law) assigned us all characters, and we were all supposed to role play that character. In theory it was a cute idea, but I don't do a good job playing "pretend" as an adult. It makes me feel silly. Maybe that's the reason I could never be in plays as a child. I must have the crummiest imagination. At any rate, Clint was "Leonardo," a mob boss, Elijah was an explorer named Marco, Trinity was Sofia, an Italian pop-star, I was an actress named Maria, Teri was Rosa, an Italian mama/cook, and Carey was Alfonso, a hairdresser. That second pic I posted is me with "Alfy" (as we called him). He had the most colorful, funny personality all night. Oh yeah, I forgot about Lucas...he was a gondola driver (is that what they're called?). We played two games that night: the first one was a paper gondola race (I got a little competitive with that one), and the second one was this game where you had to try to figure out the meaning of Italian phrases. It was a really fun evening, despite my reluctance to get into my character.

"I love you so much honey...hey, will you try this poisoned nacho for me?"

It is way too late for me to be blogging! I can't seem to wind down. Plus I just got out of the shower so my hair is dripping wet, and I can never seem to sleep well with wet hair. My shower, by the way, was really crummy. We were completely out of shampoo (but of course I wasn't aware of that fact until I went to use it), so I ended up having to fill the empty bottle up with water and just dump it on my head. Then I tried to lather my hair as hard as possible to get some suds to form, but all I got was a teeny-tiny bit of foam, so I'm pretty sure my hair is going to be dirty tomorrow. Nothing like going to sleep with wet, dirty hair. At least it's conditioned. =)

Tonight was supposed to be our Small Group, but two of our couples cancelled, so it was just us and Matt and Alana. Since it was only the four of us, we decided to play games instead of doing our normal Bible study. The first game we played was Taboo. The funniest part of Taboo was simply watching the guys interact. They gave each other the worst clues, yet somehow could still pull through with some decent guesses. Like Clint, who had a card that said "meteor," and he starts talking about Chicken Little and the sky falling. What the hell does Chicken Little have to do with a meteor?! And then later, Matt, who was still stuck on Clint's previous Chicken Little rant, went through all of this effort to get Clint to guess "Chicken Little," when his card actually said "Stuart Little." But Clint was so confused that he started guessing raccoons and flying squirrels. I don't know why, but that one still sends me in fits of giggles. Another funny part of the game was when Alana was trying to get me to guess some famous female athlete's name (shoot, I still don't remember her name--Mia something or another?), and she said her last name was the name of pig meat, so I said "sausage." I think it was actually Mia Ham. Hold on, now I have to go Google it....

Okay, I'm back. Yep, her name is actually "Mia Hamm" and she's a famous soccer player. I guess I can see how "Mia Sausage" would make Alana laugh so hard. Anyway, the girls wound up winning Taboo, no thanks to me--I am pretty lousy at giving out the clues. Luckily Alana rocks at that game.

After Taboo, we played "True Colors," which really had me cracking up. One question asked something to the effect of, "If you were an emperor and you had to have one player taste all of your food first to make sure it wasn't poisoned, which player would you choose?" The votes (and there's eight of them total) are supposed to be anonymous, but when all eight cards were flipped, four of them were for me, and four of them were for Clint. Apparently Matt and Alana, neither one of them wanting to "off" their own spouse, split their votes between me and Clint. Clint and I, on the other hand, used both of our votes on each other. When I saw the cards I was cracking up so hard. That completely backfired on me. I immediately screeched at Clint, "How could you off your own wife?!" which of course he exclaimed back, "Wait--you did the same to me!" It was so funny. Now that's love right there--when we agree on everything, including the decision to inflict poisonous food on each other.

Last week was insane, hence my neglected blog. Unfortunately I have one more week of mayhem and then I should return to a somewhat more normal routine. Last week I had to go through a last-minute panic to clear my credential, plus I was on-call to period sub, so I lost nearly all of my preps. Then over the weekend we had the Cigar dinner on Friday night (I'll try to post a pic soon), Elijah's music performance Saturday morning, Carey's Italian birthday party Saturday night, and my dad's birthday celebration on Sunday. I was (and still am) so exhausted after this weekend that I was almost eager to return back to work, although now I'm falling behind on grading, and somehow still need to get progress reports out.

Okay, I'm going to attempt to go to sleep now. Good luck me.