Sunday, October 31, 2004

Saturday, at the Sausage Fest




Saturday, Dominic and I attended the Wurstfest in New Braunfels.

If you enjoy beer, sausage, and family yodeling, this festival is apparently the place to be.

Friday, October 29, 2004

Greasy Kitty Head




On Wednesday I took Mia to the vet. All by myself. This means that I endured an incessant onslaught of meows for twenty minutes one way and twenty minutes back. It also means that I drove on the freeway. All by myself. SO THERE, FREEWAY PHOBIA!

She'd been shaking her head and scratching with unusual vigor--a vigor even unusually more unusual than her constant state of unusual kitten vigor--and since the fleas seem to be in a temporary state of remission, we thought there must be something wrong with her ears. So Wednesday morning, I fastened on the kitty kitty bling bling, fetched the carrier from storage, and opened the door to it. She walked right into it without any prompting whatsoever, and I can only imagine it was because she might have thoughts like these sometimes:

"Hey, fun, it's kind of like a cardboard box. I love to go into cardboard boxes, so I should go into this box. First, it must be sniffed and then I will mark it with my pungent kitty scent by rubbing my head all over it. And then I will chew on its edges. And then I will leave because now I am bored with it!"

Or not. Possibly, cats do not in any way think about anything at all because their brains are very small, but I think it's funny to pretend that she has some amount of logic. Alien kitty logic. Or whatever.

So she went right into her carrier, and then I closed it shut and said, "AHA! I have FOOLED you, CAT!" And she said, "Meow?" And I said, "That's right, bitch, we're going to the doctor." And then she freaked out.

The vet admired Mia's jewels and confirmed our suspicions about her ears. Mia has a YEAST infection. I promised Mia that I wouldn't tell the internet about her ear yeast infection because it is an embarrassing affliction, and I knew that she knew that if it were my ear yeast infection, I wouldn't want the internet to know about it either, but what Mia forgot is that I am a HUMAN and I am not to be trusted because sometimes I don't recycle and often times I waste food and when I was in environmental club in college I so totally shot down this idea about adopting a stud bear in Colorado or somewhere just because--duh, it was environmental club, not animal club, and are you seeing a pattern here yet?

Anyway, the vet gave us an ointment we have to rub in Mia's ears twice a day for two weeks in order to destroy the embarrassing yeast in her ears. This practice has resulted in--GREASY KITTY HEAD. So now, not only is Mia a host for unsightly yeast, but she also looks like a dirty old homeless man who just can't catch a break and hasn't shaved in a year or taken a shower either. And it gets even worse--the grease from the ointment has begun to slowly spread all over her little kitty body, so that soon we will most surely have a full blown greasy kitty.

Also, why does learning how to play poker feel like punishment? Geeze, I'll be glad to have a job again. I think everyone who reads this will agree.

Update: So poker is cool, huh? Who knew?

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Who's in Charge of the Kids?

Today, I attended an orientation downtown for the substitute position to which I applied two months ago.

The most exciting thing that happened was that there were doughnuts, and I ate one.

But I had to do it secretly, in the courtyard outside the conference room and hunched over a bench with my back turned to anyone who might see, because of something that happened at the Krispy Kreme store Dominic took me to sometime last week when I wouldn't quit moaning about how I needed to eat something sweet, oh I needed something sweet so bad, so bad, oh won't you please take me to get a doughnut, please, I need one, I need one!--and so on and so forth until he said okay.

And that something that happened was that I was ribbing him in the store about something or other and he just looked at me, something close to disdain on his face, and said,

"I just can't take you seriously like that."

There was icing all over my chin.

Monday, October 25, 2004

I Could Be Blown to Smithereens!!!


"What did you say this was for?"



"In case of what!"

Danger Dominic! Danger! I found out during my flight physical Friday that my feet stand the best chance of survival in case of a catastrophe. That's great, but no one expects much very much from the rest of me...



I'll Never Take Over for Willy Wonka...

Today while attempting to bake my first cake from a box mix I learned that I will never ever be invited to a top-secret magical chocolate factory populated by Oompa-Loompas and be selected as the heir to an eccentric chocolatier.

Error #1 Dropping the hand-held blender into the cake batter while trying to remove the beaters. Result: Messy, people laugh at you.

Error #2 Baking two cakes in two identical nine inch pans, at the same time, and in the same oven but producing two cakes of a different diameter. Result: Being forced into quickly cutting the second cake to a similar size while your girfriend is in the opposite room so she won't laugh at you.

Error #3 Having your cake and eating it too when you realize that your cake unlike other cakes is lacking frosting between the seperate cake layers. Result: Your girlfriend laughs at you.

I guess things could be worse and I could have no cake and delicious Breyer's French Vanilla to go with it. I just thought it was funny how I look at all these things andd think they're so easy, but then I try and it turns out I'm like any other dude in the kitchen. Kind of lost and trying to piece together memories from childhood about how Mom did it.

Sunday, October 24, 2004

Poker Classic Disaster

Hello, Internet. How are you doing today? Did you know that I just ate two Krispy Kreme hot and fresh doughnuts? They were delicious, especially since one of them was free. Did you know that if the hot and fresh sign is on when you walk into the Krispy Kreme doughnut place beside the Wal-Mart on the street whose name I can't remember but is adjacent to Perrin-Beitel in San Antonio...did you know that they will hand you a hot and fresh doughnut for FREE? I would recommend it, Internet. It's a good deal.

This weekend a very nice man that Dominic works with invited us to his house to play poker. There were a lot of other people there, all of them very nice people who work with Dominic and most of whom will be in his nav class. It should have been good for me to finally meet some of Dominic's co-workers in a social situation. God knows, I've been fidgety enough about the act of finally befriending the people he'll be spending so much time with BUT--

I don't know how to play poker.

I don't think most normal people would feel so immediately panicked at the prospect of learning something new, something like poker, a game central to casinos where they bring you free booze as long as you're tipping, a game my brother and sister just sort of taught themselves using candy one Christmas and then taught my cousins who were, like, NINE and SEVEN at the time. I listened in on a half a game and then when I realized that the nine and seven year-olds were getting it and I wasn't I got embarrassed and left the vicinity.

See, the thing is--I'm not good at card games. In fact, I'm not good at most games in general. I have a really difficult time, first, learning all the rules (even if there aren't very many) and then, second, learning to remember all the rules. This means that if you are trying to teach me a card game you will have to explain the rules to me every single time my turn comes up to make a play. EVERY SINGLE TIME. And you will try your best to teach me, but I WON'T GET IT, and then you'll notice that my eyes look unusually bright and my cheeks look unusually red, and then you will become nervous because you will think I look like I'm about to cry and the truth is--YOU'LL BE RIGHT. I'll be crying and it will be like 3rd grade math all over again when I kept crying in class because I couldn't memorize past the seven's multiplication tables and most of the other kids were already on their TWELVE'S!

I am beginning to notice a pattern that I might as well grow accustomed to--that of being the significant other who doesn't care for sports and hates card games and wears pink a lot and doesn't understand Air Force jargon and insists upon picking up and petting any kitty cats who might be within a ten foot radius and will squeal and become suddenly elated if you have any cupcakes on hand, especially if you bought them from the grocery store and they have little plastic rings or toys pressed into their delicious iced tops. In other words, I don't have a lot in common with most of the people Dominic works with every day. I sort of expected this--don't get me wrong--but if last Friday night's Poker Classic Disaster has anything to say about my future social situation then I need to learn how to play and like Poker.

And quickly, at that.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Am I A Grown-Up?

Today while I was at work shopping for new flight-suits, boots, and other items that I'll need for my CSO training some of us noticed the price tags on our specialized equipment. When we added it all up we were all taken aback by how much Uncle Sam was willing to spend on us. Then another guy whose name I can't recall told us that the government values our training at 1.2 million dollars. One point two million. I'm still in a state of absolute shock that anyone would put that much faith or money in me. Half the time I feel like a total ass-clown, and most of that time I'm doing the stupid crap to justify the title. One point two million...That is just absolute craziness. By the way, there are 29 people in my class. If I could multiply I would tell you how much that was!

I don't know. It just makes me realize that even though I'm incredibly childish about some things(chores, video games, sour candy, and soda) I really am a Total Grown-Up. Not that there's anything wrong with that(Interjection placed for all the grown-ups out there.) That might not be true, but for now I'm at least going to have to act like it!

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

The Things Everyone Should Know



He has the curliest, cutest hair in the world, and I love to touch it even though he hates it when I do because I mess it up every time.

Once I took a picture of him that I like to call the Laughing Filipino.

He has the softest, smoothest skin, ever.

He is the most polite person I have ever met.

He will initially be so friendly to you that you will be forced to like him.

But sometimes he can be a little loud and opinionated.

And you might argue with him, but you will still probably like him.

Both of his second toes are longer than his big toes.

His favorite poet is Walt Whitman.

His favorite science fiction TV show is FarScape. Our DVR recorded more than thirty hours of it, and he systematically watched every one.

Just like he systematically works to achieve everything he wants in life.

He will make you very proud, every day.

He makes me very proud, every day.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Dubliners




You can find the first album in a series of pictures I took during my Europe backpacking trip here.

I am in the process of getting these pictures transfered to the web so that I can share them with family members and friends who didn't get to see them. Because I brought an advantix camera with me to Europe and not a digital camera, my method thus far has been to take my cartridges to a store in order to have them put on CDs. I took seven, I think, cartridges' worth of pictures during my trip so this undertaking is a little expensive. Therefore, I plan on spreading it out to give myself the illusion of alleviating the cost, so I won't have this project completed for a couple of months, at least.

Okay, enjoy!

Haircut Day!!!

Today I got a haircut...It was great. Not too much, not too little. I'm excited about the haircut because it means tomorrow, I meet my new boss. The guy who will become my mentor, my guide to aviation, the guy(or girl) that wil be instructing me as I become a Combat Systems Officer in the world's greatest air force, the guy whose butt I have to kiss for the next year. If only I knew what a combat systems officer does...Hopefully tomorrow I'll find out.

I won't even try to lie and say I'm not super excited. I feel like tomorrow is the first day of elementary school and I have some really snazzy new clothes to wear. Although I won't be sporting new Captain America Underoos and Osh Kosh B'Gosh Overalls, tomorrow is a dress-up day of a different type. I'll be wearing a full service dress uniform. If that's not snazzy, I don't know what is. (Seriously though, I don't know what's snazzy. I've probably already used the word snazzy too many times to be considered cool. Damnit!) That's not even the best part; You'll never guess what I'm getting dressed up for. "Picture Day." That's right ladies and gentleman, not only is it the first day of school, and the first day I will meet my new boss, but it's also picture day! Yea for being a grown-up in the world's greatest air force!

Monday, October 18, 2004

Fumigation Nation

Today we dosed Mia with more Frontline and then put her safely away and flea bombed the apartment.

I feel uneasy even being here, like I might wake up with a third eye tomorrow.

And, also, I just found a FLEA on the CAT.

JUST NOW!

The only situation that I find even mildy acceptable now is if that flea is the very last flea in the world that is Kate and Dominic's apartment and if that flea is now barren and destitute and lonesome for all his flea friends who died in the Fleapocalypse that took place earlier today and if that flea jumped off Mia and onto our couch only to die a terrible and horribly latent flea-death among the dust-bunnies and other unmentionables that no doubt reside in the cracks of our couch.

Parenthood is Tough...

Parenthood is tough. I know that now because I have a cat. I'm certain that everyone with children is probably saying "Owning a cat is nothing like having children." Well, that's probably true, but I wouldn't know because I don't have any kids and have only changed one diaper in my life. I've cleaned the kitty litter box a lot though...you're probably saying the two are still not anywhere close to similar. My cat as stalkerish and meowy as she might be has never trotted up to me and made a funny "I'm pushing a new poop into my diaper bitch!" face. So if you're saying I don't know what I'm talking about you're right. I just realized that today I'm no better than so many other people who have a hard day at work or whatever and don't want to deal with the crap their cats or kids are able to dish out. Which as it turns out is a lot of crap. Who knew so much poop could come out of a twelve pound cat?

I just wanted to say thanks to the people who dealt with all my crap, my poopie faces, my incessant sickness and all of that other crap without chasing me around a recently flea-bombed apartment with a spray bottle after four beers. Apparently, at this point everyone is a better parent than me. What the crap...

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Wherever it is You Call Home




We don't know where we'll live next, but if Dominic has his way it will be North Dakota. I don't know anything about North Dakota. It's not a state that was ever entered into any remote part of my list of places in which I'd like to think I might one day live. And truthfully, well--North Dakota? Seriously? Does that place even exist? Well, does it?

Because I don't know. Sometimes I still think I'm in Alabama. It doesn't seem like too much has changed. The weather's still basically the same; it's fall and I still have no use for the fall clothes they sell in department stores. I mean, seriously, what are they thinking, all those department stores, when they sell coats and sweaters and scarves and things made out of wool, of WOOL, in southern states? Who buys that stuff? In Alabama, people can sometimes wear shorts in DECEMBER. And even though I've only been in south Texas for two months, I'm betting that shorts-wearing-in-December sometimes happens here as well.

But as for this feeling I've been feeling lately--this feeling that this post is really all about--it's something like displacement, I think. Except I'm not sure because, like I said, I can't really shake away all the Alabama-ness that has assaulted me by incessant osmosis ever since I was born. Sometimes, at the onset of evening, I look out our balcony and I feel like I'm in an alien world because I'm hundreds of miles away from the place where I grew up, the place that I would leave, sometimes, for short periods of time and then always come back to. But now it's been two months. And I'm never going back.

At least not to stay. Because I should consider myself relatively rootless now. And that's a strange concept to someone who inherited roots and kept them and cultivated them and, truthfully, never really thought about them until it was all over, and they were severed, wavering, now, in the daydreams of a very recent past like giant phantasmagoric seaweed at the very bottom of a dark ocean.

But I suppose Texas really is different. I mean, this is a state where there are a lot of people who wear cowboy hats in one hundred percent serious earnestness.

And, also, you know what? I don't think I'd mind North Dakota, either. It's time for me to see the seasons change--and I mean really change, with all the blood bright leaves falling from the trees and the air getting colder every day. It's time for me to go to Gap, the Limited, Express, and buy sweaters and scarves. And coats and WOOL, WOOL!

And wear them all in fall. Posted by Hello

Friday, October 15, 2004

Life In San Antonio...

Well I guess the best way to start is by saying that I'm new to blogging and to life in San Antonio. So far, the town has been great and I don't think I could have hoped for better...Well I could have, but anyways. Kate and I have a great new apartment and we're excited to explore the city. Unfortunately, I've never had so many opportunities present themselves at once, so what do I do? Of course I sit at home and play guitar, my $20 Ms. Pac-Man game that Kate bought me at Target, and watch recorded episodes of Farscape(a sci-fi tv show). We have done a lot, but I'm sure not as much as we said we would. When we were in college at Troy State we looked forward to the day when civilization would be available to us and right now we should be living it up for all the poor saps still attending college in Alabama. We must do more while we can...We may live in Minot, North Dakota after this!

When You're a Stalking Stalker




Mia has fleas. Again. We'd already given her a dose of Frontline this month. She just licked at it and then threw up on her cat scratcher. Dominic called the vet and she suggested a bath.

A bath?

It is perversely pleasurable to give a cat a bath, particularly this one because she is a stalking stalker and annoys us with her incessant meowing and the way she is constantly underfoot. So we gave the dirty monkey a bath, and she was a very good, if annoyed, girl.

Also she smells like flowers now and not kitty spit.

Ambitious




The earrings.

They're made out of the same stuff as the ring, plus sterling silver french hooks. I'm rather pleased with the way they turned out.

In other news, I officially submitted my application to UTSA yesterday. I feel, alternately, very excited and very nervous about trying to go to grad school. But I need a master's. I really do. So this is a definitely a step foward, even if I get snagged somewhere along the way.

In other, other news, I have an orientation for the substitute position in a week or so. It will be good to have a job again.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

What the Insomnia Will Do

  • Here
  • are some pictures Dominic and I took of Canyon Lake last weekend.

    First Time For Everything

    This is the first sentence I have ever written in a blog...hooray for me...

    Prototype II: New Jade and Pearl




    I like this one even more than the first one, even though I wasted the expensive wire on a disastrous first attempt. But it turned out rather well, I think.

    This is what happens when I start making things and get excited: I actually, believe it or not, forget to eat (gasps all around) and so now it's off to make dinner. Posted by Hello

    Busy




    I made this ring with sterling silver wire, silver seed beads, freshwater pearls, and swarovski crystal. I was relatively pleased with the outcome and am now on fire to make more.

    When Brooke and I were in Prague we actually went in a Swarovski jewelry store. It seemed to be relatively pricey, but there was an abundance of beautiful, simple, and inexpensive jewelry all throughout the city. In one store, I admired a simple garnet pendant for several minutes before I decided against it--and I'm still regretting that decision. In Venice we went into another Swarovski store and it was there that I bought Dominic a pair of white gold and black crystal cuff-links. I thought they were extraordinarily tasteful and was really proud of my purchase until I got back to the States and discovered he doesn't have any shirts that accommodate cuff-links--not any civilian shirts at least.

    So, yay for jewelry making. Up next: a new jade and freshwater pearl ring...and probably earrings too. Posted by Hello

    Wednesday, October 13, 2004

    Sailing, Take Me Away




    Last Saturday, Dominic and I drove an hour out to Canyon Lake to check it out. Randolph Air Force Base (Where Dominic is stationed) has a recreational center/campground/park area out there and we've been talking about doing some camping things so we wanted to have a look around. It's relatively nice--but I'm spoiled, of course, from a childhood of veritable lake-paradise. Hopefully, we'll rent some gear and get our butts out there for a nice mini vacation one weekend. The weather here has been so wonderfully cool and temperate so it would be good to do it soon.

    Mia/Kitty/the Stalking Stalker remains well and stalker-ish. We had to take her rockin' collar off because she was scratching at it, but whenever we have company, be warned: the Kitty Kitty Bling Bling will be back. Posted by Hello

    Mia's Rockin' New Collar


    Kitty Kitty Bling Bling Posted by Hello

    Testing, 1, 2...

    Blogging, yes...