Creaky Yellow Armadillow Unicycles

*First of all, let me say that I'd never thought I'd be trying the first sushi restaurant in DeKalb, much less the second. Even more unlikely was the notion that there would be one sushi place open singly, much less having two sushi places that were open at the same time. But now there are, and I have tried them both. Haru of Japan is a bit fancier than Fushi Yami, and the prices are a bit steeper. I sorta hate to say it, but it's a really nice looking place on the inside. The presentation of the sushi was lovely (taking into account my limited exposure to such things), and the variety was somewhat daunting to my inexperienced eyes. We had the Chef's choice, which consisted of 8 different sushis and some spicy tuna rolls. I had thought the spicy tuna was going to be actual tuna, but I think it may have been tuna roe. I'm not sure. The first one I had had a bit too strong of a 'fishy' taste and aroma for what I tend to like. But, I figured I'd try another one before making up my mind. I hit that one up with a touch of wasabi, and it was all right. the texture was OK, and I had no problem with the seaweed, but there was still a bit of that fishiness lurking there. I usually do well with rolls, but I think I may avoid this particular one in the future. Now, as far as the sushi went, the only problem we had was that we weren't quite sure what it was that made up our sushi sampler. There was one that the Boss tried and didn't really care for. She thought it was eel, I thought it was octopus. Either way, she didn't care for the texture. The rest of the pieces were quite tasty, even though we had no idea what they were. It may have been better that way. Anyway, Haru is a nice place, but a little outside of what we want to pay unless we're going out for some special reason. Most likely, if one or both of us has an interest in sushi, we'll probably head over to Fushi Yami.

*I can only think that my brain is still trying to relearn all it's connections without all the additional artificial chemicals. The ability to finish a crossword puzzle is eluding me at the moment. Organizational puzzles seem to be flying over my head as well. I haven't even tried anything of a highly deductive nature out of fear that I may actually start a fire inside my skull. I'm betting that would sting something fierce.

*The song stuck in my head right now? 'Drink Whiskey and Shut Up' by Brian Setzer.

*He brought in a psychic?? Really? Never saw that coming. Guess that's why I'm not a psychic...

*Dropped off the auction items at TAILS Thursday. Of course, the person I had been in touch with wasn't there. Plus, with all the construction going on at the new building, the place looked like a war zone. Still managed to get in and get things dropped off, and also brought along some other dog-related items that we don't use anymore. Also managed to leave without adding another member to the pack. The only thing I have left to iron out is how they intend to put the items up at the actual auction. Last year, the economy was crap and it's only gotten worse. That was the reason I donated 4 items this year, two of which were on the small side. That way, hopefully, those who can't afford to bid on the larger, more expensive items could still be able to bid on something neat. At least that was my intent. I'm still waiting to hear back from my contact person as to how they intend on handling the items.

*I've been carrying the chess game with me every day to work. I've analyzed at least a dozen moves trying to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each play. And, after all that work, I still have no idea what to do.

*After a particularly exhilarating peanut butter sandwich, I have come to the conclusion that I may just be psychic after all. Right now.....I'm sensing .....that one of you out there.....is a man....no....a woman....no....I'm sensing that there is either a man or a woman out there right now.....now I'm getting.....a word...no a letter...I'm sensing that someone out there who is either a man or a woman has had an encounter with...someone or something...that involves...the letter 'e'....this is a very strong vision....coming to me quite clearly....definitely the letter 'e'....it was something that was spoken to them...maybe read by them....but definitely the letter 'e'....and wait....there's a color now.....a peaceful, tranquil color....blue...no...white....yes...the spirits say a man or a woman and the letter 'e'....can't tell from across the void if it's a long 'e' or a short 'e', but the energy is definitely that of a vowel...and something white....or whitish.....wait.....I can almost feel the spirit energy around me now....I am sensing that there is someone out there who has known someone who is alive....no....not alive...that's it....the energy is coming to me....so loving....so peaceful...reaching out to you...so beautiful....I can sense such positive feelings.......no....wait....don't leave us....I can sense....I can sense.....they're gone...the spirit energy is gone....

That was an amazing brush with the other side. You should feel blessed to be surrounded by such incredible energies. One hundred dollars, please.

*Trying a new material for tiki creating. Not sure what I think of it. Does ok with push carving, to some degree, but doesn't have a lot of structure when it come to doing low angle corners. It's also OK to work with files, but generates a lot of light, fine dust, which I'm sure I shouldn't be breathing. Haven't tried using the Dremel on it, mostly because I haven't wanted to get the air cleaner running. Having just rediscovered a bag of rhinestoney type things left over from my craft fair days, I'm interested in seeing how this stuff takes ink. If it does so to any decent degree, I could be using it to do my homage to Coco Joe's.

*While slurping my way through a second cup of coffee the other morning, I found my ass firmly wedged into the couch and my thumb attached to the channel button on the remote. I ended up stopping to watch a movie that I had seen the previews for, thought was somewhat interesting, had made a mental note to rent when it came out on DVD, and then promptly forgot about. I didn't have much else better to do on a cold Thursday morning, so I sat, slurped, and watched. '30 Days of Night' is a vampire move. Not sparkly, angst riddled, dreamy eyed vampires, but the hissing, growling, chew your neck out kind of vampires. The movie had decent potential from where I sat embedded in the couch. In the end, it was just OK. They had all the ideas in place to do something fresh in the vampire mythos, but they ended up letting it slip away in favor of ridiculous amounts of spraying blood and computer generated snow. The vampires themselves were appropriately creepy, violent, animalistic, and mysterious, but the unique points they had in the plot got underplayed to the point of being forgettable. A bit disappointing overall. Not less than I would expect for cable TV at 10 in the morning, but I'm glad I didn't actually pay money to see it.

*The desk is once again slowly disappearing under a creeping mound of paperwork and filing. I really should do something about that.

*My latest guilty TV pleasure? 'Archer'.

*I have a date with a couple of tubes of Superglue that I keep putting off. It's really no fun being reminded just how close you came to completely destroying something irreplaceable just because you were being lazy.

*Why, oh, why must the powers that be seek to ruin all that is good about being a kid?? There is NO reason whatsoever that Froot Loops should contain any added fiber. Or any actual nutritional value, for that matter. None. As in not one single reason. Froot Loops are meant to be eaten straight out of the box until your head starts swimming from the sugar rush and your parents throw you outside because they're sick of you riding your Big Wheel around the house at top speed while chasing the dog and screaming like a maniac.

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Wet Cork Turkey Lifting Prongs

*Another snow event came and went without living up to the hype surrounding it. I can think that it was a good thing in this case, since it was really wet, heavy snow. 6+" of that stuff would have been a killer. 2-3" was just a bit annoying.

*The first flea market of the season was not too bad. Getting up at 6AM sucked, but the show wasn't too bad. No HeroScape stuff, though. No Weeble tree house either. Did find a nice picture of Bettie. And after looking through the whole show and finding no tiki items, I went to my fallback option and did find some nice postcards. And I bought a jeweler's loupe. And a couple of matchbooks. Like I said, nothing stellar, but not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning. Except for the people there who had yet to discover the wonders of soap and deodorant.

*The Boss wanted to try duck for a change, so we had duck for lunch on Monday. I wasn't struck by any great or outstanding flavor difference between it and other bird-type-meats, but it was quite juicy (fatty?). All in all, I don't think I'd refuse it should it be offered again.

*Much as I thought would happen, the time available to me to get things done for the TAILS event has all but evaporated. Stumpy just aint gonna make it to the auction block this year. My second choice replacement is a no-go, as is my third choice replacement. I'm hanging my hopes on a fourth round choice that is something I just started today. If that doesn't work, at least I have 3 good and varied pieces for the auction. The Osage orange one I'm not really wanting to give up, but I know that there are a few more pieces of that wood out in the garage that I can use. OK, now the fourth choice replacement has gone by the wayside in favor of a fifth choice replacement. That one is definitely going, and rounds out the quartet of items I'm donating this year. All four have all been cleaned up, signed, and will be delivered Thursday after lunch. The part that's going to annoy me is when I actually hand the stuff over and they ask me what it's worth. I have no idea what to say. There is not a single piece of the stock material that cost me one red cent, so I can't calculate value based on that. You never get paid for the time you spent working on things like that, plus I never keep track of that anyway. That leaves me with market value. Market value. Right. How does one calculate the market value of tiki carvings in central DeKalb county that are done by an amateur on scrap materials? Your guess is as good as mine. I think they're worth whatever the winning bid on each one is. Which is something I really need to remember to write down this year. But, in order to get to write it off on my taxes, I have to declare some arbitrary, but still reasonable, monetary value for them. It's highly likely that I could still be contemplating this on the drive over to TAILS.

*After many, many recommendations by a wide range of people, we finally gave in and rented 'The Hangover'. And, for something that is basically just an updated and expanded version of 'Bachelor Party', it was pretty darn amusing. The part that was the best was watching the Boss have to admit that it was indeed funny after being fairly reluctant to watch it.

*Usually, when I see something that I wouldn't mind having for my collection, but end up not buying, I hardly ever get a second shot at that item. This weekend I got to break that trend. After the flea market, since it was on the way, I wanted to stop at American Science and Surplus to see if I just might be able to find the skeleton that I've been wanting to buy. No luck on the skeleton, but I did find a Moai touch lamp that I had passed on buying at Spencer Gifts ages ago. I grabbed it without thinking twice. I know 'touch lamp' isn't the right name for it, but I can't remember what is. It's one of those lamps that looks like it has lightning in it and when you touch it with your hand, it changes the way the lightning moves around inside-whatever that's called. Anyway, this one is in the shape of a Moai, It's green when it's turned on, but it's blue when it's off, so it looks cool either way. Me likey.

*The first song to get fired through the new stereo was "Breakaway" by Big Pig. The main thing I find myself having to remember is that while the stereo is new, the speakers are not. Therefore excessive volume is still something to be avoided.

*Every now and again I see a movie that is something quite different from what you find in most American movies. Something that was made just to tell a neat story in an interesting way and not just to appeal to the lowest common denominator and make millions and millions of dollars. This time, that movie was 'Absurdistan'. There was something very appealing in how differently the story was told, and with such an economy of dialogue. It was one of the most charming, almost dreamlike foreign films I've seen in a long time. Yes, it's basically a love story. Yes, it has subtitles. Rent it anyway. And if you're having a hard time convincing someone to watch it with you, remind them that it also has gunplay, nudity, and attempted phone sex in it.

*The only thing that I can think of to explain my rather disjointed state of mind lately is the notion that I am coming out from under the influence of the meds. Maybe my brain is going through a period of reprogramming while it adjusts to the different level of chemicals present. Or maybe it's a tumor.

*I rarely encounter someone that makes me feel like a totally inert lump of goo. More rarely do I encounter someone who makes me feel like a totally inert lump of goo and that is hot beyond belief. I does happen though, and has again. So, now there's one more to go up on the Wall of Inspiration.

*I was recently asked by the Boss if I had any ideas what I was going to do as far as the garden goes this year. I hadn't really thought about it until that very moment. I just don't know. If I can keep my artistic momentum going, there won't be a whole lot of leftover time for gardening. If I can at least the get the rest of the perennials in, then things should take care of themselves for the most part. In the back, Gracie and Stella have established a running pattern right along the fence where I usually plant my morning glories, so I'm not sure what to do about that. The main thing that does need to get done in back is to get that area under the one maple tree reestablished with grass. Doesn't matter if I use sod or seed, the beasts will need to be excluded from that area until it takes off. I should also reroute their ramp so it exits under the deck in the gravel instead of into the mud pit in the yard. But for the moment, there is still snow on the ground, so I'm not going to worry about it a whole lot.

*A recumbent bike and a human skeleton. What's so wrong with that? What am I supposed to say I want-gift cards??

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Pebbled Sectional Tea Dividers

*The dog bled quite a bit. The inside of my car, the landing, the upstairs carpet, the couch-all were bedecked with spots of dog blood. Took the three mooks to get their nails trimmed yesterday, and one of the groomers cut one of the nails one of Gracie's back toes waaaaaay to short. So, there was dog blood everywhere. Put direct pressure on it-we got it to stop. Put styptic powder on it-we got it to stop. The minute she went outside and ran around in the snow, it was bye-bye clot, and the whole bloody process started all over again. Even took her to the vet to see if there was anything they could do, and their suggestion was to put a Ziploc bag over her foot before she goes outside. What? A Ziploc bag?? I was thinking maybe some cautery or something like that, but, no, they dove into the big bag of veterinary medicine and came up with a Ziploc bag. I was not amused. Not to mention that all of this caused me to have to deal with a highly cranky Boss. I was so not happy. I was going try wrapping her nail in some Parafilm and see how that worked. The MIL went out and got her some disposable booties, which could also work, if we can get them on her. I had considered some nail polish or Super Glue, but I don't want to poison the dog or seal in some infective agent. In the end, it all became a moot point, as after a full night of sleeping, the nail has sealed itself up. So far. On the flip side, now the yard is all muddy, so we've switched from one dog with a single bleeding toe to three dogs with a total of twelve dirty feet. The Boss has also decided that while the other two are destined to continue to have their nails done elsewhere, she will now be taking care of Gracie's nails herself.

*I am still not sure what possessed me to climb up on an ice and snow covered roof Thursday. In spite of that monstrous display of stupidity, I made it back down without a rapid, unexpected assist from gravity.

*All hail the return of Bluegirl!

*Having a new Fire Mountain catalog means I should probably put the credit card where I can't easily get to it. Even though I have yet to inventory what I have left over from my craft fair days, I've already got quite a list going of components I want to try to integrate into my tiki carvings.

*I don't know if it's a good thing or not that I looked at the desk calendar yesterday. I saw a note there that said it was time for me to switch projects in order to have both reworked in time for the TAILS event next month. I wouldn't have minded so much if I hadn't spent the past few days basically doing nothing on either piece. Now I feel like I'm under the gun, even though the time not spent working on either pieces is completely my fault. I could just leave Stumpy in the state he's in and concentrate all my efforts on the other piece. Not quite sure what I want to do, but whichever way I go, my time is going to run out real soon. And in the meantime, that Osage orange log is getting drier and harder to work with. Even with really sharp chisels push carving is just about impossible, at least without making my hand go numb. So, the material may end up telling me when the piece is done instead of my artistic vision. Anyway, no matter how you slice it, I got 7 days left to pull this off.

*It does have an input for my IPod. It also has a remote control. I have no idea why it needs a remote control, but I was assured by the installer guy that it was a good thing.

*Turns out the SIL will be joining us on Saturday morning. Good thing the Boss and I tend to wander separately while we're at these things. Should help me keep my comments civil. And, even though I shouldn't, I'm already compiling a list of things I want to find at the flea market. Tiki stuff, of course is at the top of the list. It would be mice to find a few more HeroScape sets, but beyond that, I can't think of anything in particular that I'm looking for as far as games go. Pin-up art is something I'm hoping to find. Bettie Page pin-up art would be even better. A Keebler tree house cookie jar would be nice. And if I ever see that coffin lid mirror again, I will definitely be buying that.

*While it may be considered rude to torment someone while they're on the phone, it can also be quite amusing. It should be noted that in this situation that the term 'torment' has a highly variable and interpretive definition.

*Another foot of snow on the way next week?? Damn groundhog...

*Best new slogan of the week: "Sex first, then guacamole."

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