I don’t have much to report other than that. I spread grout, came home, made dinner, ate it, watched some Angel, worked on my article, and went to bed. Oh, at some point I looked at the Ikea website. It was scary how quickly I could spend money there.

So, instead of writing anything of substance, if you can call what I normally write substance, I am going to spend my time watching belly dancing videos on Youtube.

Not that this is a belly dancing video, but this video is for Pancake Land. It’s an inside joke.

Good times. Well, I’m going to go grout some more damned tiles now. More soon. ~SC

So what had happened was, in the movie, KW’s voice actor was Lauren Ambrose. I could not place her, so I looked her up on IMDB and figured out that she was the chick on Six Feet Under. I never really watched the show, but I saw an episode here and there and know who she is. Anyway, on the front page of IMDB there was a picture of this guy who looked really familiar. Turns out he is Jeremy Renner the main character in The Hurt Locker. I recognized him from an episode of Angel where he played Angel’s protege. While looking this guy up I noticed that he was rumored to be playing Hawkeye in the Avengers movie. The mention of an Avengers movie makes me giggle like a schoolgirl, so I had to look it up. I then noticed that Chris Hemsworth is slated to play Thor. So, I look him up. Hemsworth played George Kirk, James T. Kirk’s dad, in the most recent Star Trek. He is playing Thor in the film of the same title. At this point I noticed it. A needless 80’s remake of epic proportions. Red Dawn. The brilliant film from 1984 where the Swayze and the ma-Sheen fend off an invading Soviet Army. Apparently Thor is going to fend off the commies this time as he assumes Patrick Swayze’s role of Jed. First the Karate Kid, now Red Dawn. The next thing you know, they’ll make an Aquaman movie with Lou Diamond Phillips and Ving Rhames. Oh, wait, they did. Strangely enough, they cast the guy who played Green Arrow on Smallville to play Aquaman in the movie. Weird.

What have we learned from this little experience? The innernet movie database is a scary place to go wandering around. There is no telling what you’ll find.

Well, it’s Monday again. After a beautiful weekend, it’s supposed to be rainy all day today. So much for riding my trike to work. I have no idea what Le Duke has in store for me today. I’m sure it will involve using back muscles in ways they were never intended to be used. We might be going to pick up a really really heavy piece of furniture from some of his friends. He loaned it to them so long ago that he could not remember what it looked like, even though he eats dinner over at their house all the time. We tried to get it on Friday, but we did not have the proper wheels to get it from the house to the van. I don’t even want to think about lifting it into the van. The thing weighs a ton.

Well, I need to go get ready for whatever lies ahead of me. More soon. ~SC

I will probably end up painting the cabinet doors in the kitchen again. I can’t remember if I told you or not, but I painted them with chalkboard paint. It was a brilliant move. The plan was to paint the cabinet doors and use really expensive bistro markers on them so there would be no chalk dust. Brilliant. Come to find out, the markers only wash off within the first 30 seconds that it is on the cabinet. Great. So, I am repainting the cabinet doors today and we are going back to plain old dusty chalk.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I will also be helping my brother cut plexi-glass for his car at some point. I need to locate a tool in Lippincottonia so that he can cut it without shattering it to pieces.

I feel like there is something really important that I am forgetting to do. (Cut scene to old woman in the rain being attacked by wild dogs.) Well, I’m sure I’ll think of it at the last minute and then get to rush around and do it before it is too late.

Maybe I’ll go pick up some fresh donuts for Pancake Land. That will be a nice surprise for her when she wakes up.

Pick up saw for Prince Jazzbo.

Pick up donuts for Pancake Land.

Hang art.

Paint cabinet doors.

Eat.

Go to bed.

Well, I think that I have my day sort of mapped out. I’m sure there will be surprise things that pop up in there at some point. Well, I’d better get started. More soon. ~SC

On February 8, 2010 nine boxes of pottery were packed and shipped to Philadelphia, PA. On Wednesday the 10th of February the shipments were canceled and scheduled to be returned to Mudpuppy. On February 19, 2010 eight of the nine packages arrived safely back at Mudpuppy headquarters in Lippincottonia. One lone package did not make it back. Apparently it was delayed in Memphis and would arrive shortly. So they said. The following Monday, the lone package, which we shall call Box 9, was tracked and was found to be on its way back to Philadelphia. “That’s strange.” I thought. On the following day, despite my best attempts at keeping the package from being delivered, a Teamster named Mike signed for the package at the convention center. The package was delivered. After many phone calls and transfers between departments, Box 9 was located in the convention center and held in the Teamsters office in order for our shipping company to pick it up after the call tag was issued. Yesterday, after almost a month on the road, Box 9 made its way home to Lippincottonia, where I gladly signed for it. There was no hope for the contents of the box. You can only pack pottery so well. Rarely, but it happens, a piece will be break in transit from Point A to Point B. We have never packed anything to go from Point A to Point B, then back to A, then back to B, and finally back to A again. I mean, the box has been gone a month and countless numbers of handlers have no doubt chunked it onto sorting tables and into planes and delivery trucks. So, yesterday, I open the box to take count of the number of broken pieces in order to file a claim with our shipper. Much to my surprise, nothing was broken. This can only be attributed to our superior Soviet packing skills. Fear us.

Today, I have no plans. Yet. I need to return Nami’s anti-bark collar and with that money buy something that is actually helpful, a cordless drill. We still have a ton of art to hang up. I also need to clean house a little in the event that Nanny and Papa swing by to see the new house. I also need to do a little more research for next week’s article.

Le Duke and I are slowly solidifying a plan to go to the ever dangerous Ikea to pick up some things for La Duchess and my new house. I need to now when for certain in order to save up as much coin as I can for the shopping binge that will occur as soon as I set foot in the store.

Teacher Sis just called from the floor of the a local Anime Convention. The only she could say was “Oh my f**king God!”. I tried to warn her.

Anyway, I have already received worried phone calls concerning the whereabouts of today’s post, so I’d better get it posted ere the world ends. More soon. ~SC

Anyway, this week’s article is up on the City Wire. You can see it here. If that doesn’t interest you, perhaps this will. You’re so weird.

Today is Friday, which means that we have survived another week of work. I’ve been trying to wrap up this ridiculous tile job. There are a handful of tiles that still need to be laid and about half of the grout work is done. It’s easy work, but it is time-consuming back-breaking easy work. I love the way that slate tile looks when it is finished on the floor, but I will never lay it again. If I ever choose (and by I, I mean Pancake Land) to put slate tile in our house, I am hiring professionals to do it. The size and shapes of the tile is inconsistent which makes laying the tile very difficult. The whole point of square floor tiles is that you want it as perfectly grid-like as possible. The only way to get it perfect in this case would have been to trim every tile. No thank you. I think that the added cost of hiring someone to solve that riddle for me is worth it. Or I can always find a ceramic tile that looks like slate. Usually, the problems with laying ceramic tile can only be attributed to human error. And no, I will not be making the tile either. There are plenty of companies out there that pay children 5¢ a day to press a button on a machine that stamps out dry clay into perfectly uniform and perfectly flat tiles and I want to keep those kids fed. Just doing my part.

This weekend Nanny and Papa are coming into town for a visit. This just means that it is futile for me to even attempt making a list of things that I want to get done. You know, stuff like “clean off my desk”. I love my grandparents. Because of them, I get a really great excuse to take the weekend off. Ah, a weekend of playing cards and eating at buffets. Some people bring bad weather with them, but my grandparents bring vacation with them. It’s awesome.

Well, I’ve got to get ready for more tile jobbing. Five O’Clock, here I come. Gimme a break. You know you are workin’ for the weekend, too. More soon. ~SC

I got to bed late last night. I got up late this morning. I am running behind today. I am going to have to cut this short, since I just realized that I still need to fine tune my article before I send it to my editor and then go to work. Awesome. Here’s a giant dog butthole to make things right in the world.

That is one giant butthole.

More soon. ~SC

My supply of plain shirts is dwindling and my supply of printed shirts is abundant, so instead of buying more plain ones right away, I’m going to wear the printed ones until I destroy them. This way diminishing my shirt population and allowing myself to buy me more plain shirts. I could not do this with a clear conscience knowing that I have a whole stack of shirts that are sitting there collecting dust, while I go out and spend money on shirts just because of a personal preference. That’s just silly.

I am telling you all of this because I don’t you to get it into your head that I am back into wearing t-shirts with stuff printed on them. Please, do not buy me any more shirts.

The other idea I have been piecing together in my head concerns the word “gay”. Like many people today, I have grown accustomed to referring to everything as gay. I drop a piece of ice on the floor and it’s gay. I lock the keys in the truck and it’s gay. Someone buys someone else flowers and it’s gay. The mail man does pick up the package off of the front porch and it’s gay. You get the idea. To some, using the word gay for things like this is offensive. And it should be to anyone who cares about the English language. Gay originally meant lighthearted and carefree. If I were to describe the act of me dropping a piece of ice on the floor as lighthearted and carefree, you would shake you head at me for improperly using the English language. Alas, we all know that people are not saying gay and meaning lighthearted and carefree, we are not total idiots. We are using it in negative way.

So, I have decided to try and break myself of the habit of saying things are gay. Not because I think it is offensive to homosexuals, but because I am improperly using the word. Instead, I have decided to use the word “queer” instead. If I drop a piece of ice, it’s queer. If the mailman does not pick up the packages, it’s queer. If I lock the keys in the truck, it’s queer. Queer, for those of you out there who think it only is word used negatively to describe people who are homosexual, means strange or odd. I like that. Typically the things that we call gay, are not gay at all, they’re queer. My ridiculous obsession with my t-shirt selection, not gay, queer.

Yes, this is what I do in my spare time.

I also make lists of thing that I need to work on. Then I make lists of lists of things to work on. Then once I have about thirty or more lists, I usually make some kind of codex or classification system in order to keep things on the lists in order in my head, thereby negating the list in the first place. It’s queer, I know.

Do you know what is not queer, me having to go to work. It terrifyingly not strange at all. So, with that, I’m off. More soon. ~SC

That painting is special to me for many reasons and none of those reasons are because of the subject matter’s crimes against women and children. I think those things are terrible, but nonetheless I like this painting. For one thing, it was a gift from Babbylon Tim, who painted it. Second, the subject matter is, of course, Soviet and you know how much I love all things Soviet. Finally, the part that really makes me love the painting is part of the story of Andre. The Russians believed that they were incapable of producing a serial killer because serial killers are a Western disease and they were far too superior a race to fall prey to a Western disease like that. The police actually caught him at one point and then let him go and he went out and killed a bunch more people. Awesome. Sometimes, people thinking as collective is such a terrible idea.

Anywho, last night Pancake Land finished painting her new fake deer head that she got in the mail last week. She wanted to paint the eyes white like the rest of it, but I suggested that perhaps it was a bad idea. I informed her of my unnatural fear of sculptures of people in white marble where there is no eye definition, just blank eye ball. It gives me the itches. Here check it out:

Super creepy eyes.

See what I mean? Anyway, I say to her that leaving the eyes painted black with the cute little fake reflected light spots will make it less creepy. Wrong. It just makes the newly named Lord Chester Buttingworth the Third look really pissed off. Up close you can see the reflections in his eyes and he looks calm and peaceful, but once you step back about four feet the glimmer in his eyes vanishes and all that is left is cold blackness. He looks like he is filled with disdain. For you.  You are the one that let him get painted white. It is scary ass.

Well, enough about how creepy my house is. I have to go to work. Have a wonderful day. More soon. ~SC

I had to get that out of my head. I’ve been meaning to say that for a few days now.

Anyways, um, Happy March! Only a few more weeks until Spring. Then I can’t start planting seeds that will, hopefully, grow into plants that will, hopefully, be covered in food. We have these cute little flower beds all around the house. If the neighbors think that I’m planting tulips, they’re crazy. Those spots are for tomatoes, and okra, and peppers, and maybe an eggplant. I think I can plant onions and maybe shallots as well. Shallots are probably a sound investment since they are bloody expensive. I am still waiting to hear back from a local nursery concerning the Crocus Sativus bulbs that I am hunting. I should call them today. Growing my own saffron is another sound investment.

I am excited. I cannot wait for the warmer weather. There is so much that needs to be done in the yard. Moving in the Winter was probably pretty smart. That way we can focus on getting the interior fixed up and as soon as it warms up I get booted to the great outdoors to do yard work. As strange as it sounds, I miss mowing grass. There is something very Zen about walking behind a lawn mower. Very calming. Anyways, I’m excited.

This month is full of exciting things. The Vernal Equinox, the one year Anniversary of this here website, and my golden Birthday. Look out, April, you’ve got some big shoes to fill. Yeah, I know, you’ll fill them with rain.

The good news is that we knocked that big wholesale order out this weekend and I will drop it off at the shipping company later today. Now we can get back to unpacking boxes and hanging paintings. Next stop, my garage office.

Anywho, I’m getting around slowly today, so I need to go get ready for work. More soon. ~SC

Last night I cooked dinner for White Chocolate and Garfield Bob. I made a turkey breast tenderloin with risotto and green beans. Prince Jazzbo came by to bring me a presnent, which I’ll talk about in a minute, and all five of us sat around with full bellies and took turns playing NES games. There was German Food involved and at some point Pancake Land, in the words of Steve Martin, “got small”. Much laughing and impromptu explanations occurred in the wake of this. Overall, it was a good time. I did manage to stay up way past my bedtime, which allowed me to “sleep in” until almost 8am this morning. Look out now!

So, my darling brother brought me a presnent, sort of. It’s the sort of gift that you eventually pay someone back for. Not with cold revenge, but with the amount of money for which they spent on the gift. Which, since I was going to buy it anyway, is fine by me. He saved me the trip to the store and the week that it was going to take me to get to the store with money. Anyway, he brought me, the much longed after, cable adapter that allows me to plug my lappie into the television. Now they will combine their awesome distracting powers and I will be defenseless against their infinite shininess. They’ll be like Voltron the Babysitter. I can’t get into trouble if I am sitting cross-legged on the floor, mouth agape, staring, unblinking, at the shiny moving pictures. It’s like magic.

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now. Between Taco Planet and JoJo, I have a pretty good collection of movies on my hard drive that I never can find the time to watch. Well, that’s not totally true. The trick is that Pancake Land always has the television on and I stare at it instead of the movies on my lappie. Now that I can hook the two together, we get can watch some of the movies that I have. Huzzah!

Well, I think that I am going to go hook this bad boy up and work on packaging some pacifier clips. We are getting pretty close to having this thing done and that is so nice. Anyway, I’m outta here. More soon. ~SC