Quote Unquote

Tell The Truth And Run
- Yugoslavian Proverb


I'm on my nightly kick to figure out what I want to do with my life. I gathered up some of my old notebooks to see what I had written in previous moments of angst and found a page of good quotes. The previous one seems apt tonight. What I think of people with bad attitudes:

Moral Indignation Is Just Jealousy With A Halo
- H.G. Wells


And of course,

Blessed Are The Cracked, For They Let In The Light

Gross Food

There are some foods that are so gross, greasy, wierd, etc, that you just can't resist them. Velveeta isn't one of them. That is just not a food product. On the other hand, you have corn dogs, spam, and fried mozerella sticks. Mmmmm.

Spam Facts

I'm a big fan of candy. When traveling across the country, my diet usually consists of beef jerky, cranberry juice, red licorice, and sour patch kids. Lots of links to good junk food sites at:

Junk Food Mecca

Free will VS expectations

The minute you tell me I must do something, I want to do anything but. If you told me I had to baste the perfect turkey and do the laundry, I'd run away screaming. It's a totally different story if I choose to do those things by my own free will.

I'd eventually like to be a good wife and homemaker because it sounds like a good idea. I'm not going to give up carpentry or any of my other interests to slavishly devote my life to caring for somebody else...but if the man is appreciative, praises my cooking etc, he can be sure of (almost) always coming home to a hot and scrumptious dinner and other delicious things.

I won't dress myself in nothing but saran wrap to greet him at the door if he demanded it, but if he dropped a subtle hint that that sort of thing turned him on, you can bet I'd run to the supermarket for some plastic products.

There's a difference between doing something because you want to, and doing it because it's expected of or you're told to.

Yestermorrow Build And Design School

Went to the usual Wednesday lecture at Yestermorrow school. What a neat topic! Tonight there was a fascinating guy from Martha's Vineyard giving a talk on scattered, affordable housing. At the very end he showed us some slides, including a great bunch of his company slicing a house in half to transport. Half of the house fell off the truck and went splat into the dirt. They managed to get it upright, fix it up, and now it looks normal and is being lived in.

There's a really cute intern who has the Wednesday job of getting people to buy tickets in the 50/50 raffle. Half of the money goes to their scholarship fund and the other half goes to the winning ticket. Tonight I got to pick a ticket from the bowl. I asked if I could root around for my number, but alas, Nick said no. The ticket I picked belonged to tonight's presenter. He donated his share back to Yestermorrow.

I hung around after the talk to get tips on becoming an intern. I'm gung-ho about getting the position!

Horoscope

My initials are HAM and I was born under the Chinese sign of the Boar. Look what my horoscope for this week is:

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): To the ancient Chinese, pigs were sacred because they could eat anything, and turn it into energy. The creatures were regarded as masters of transmutation. Nothing, not even garbage, was unusable to them. The Chinese aspired to be like pigs in the sense of being able to learn from and derive benefit from every experience, not just the tidy, tasteful ones. I mention this, Sagittarius, because it's an excellent time for you to imitate that paragon of holiness, the omnivorous pig.

Dating

Yesterday we splurged on our once monthly treat of eating at the Chinese buffet. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

My fortune cookie told me, "Now is the time to ask that special someone out on a date". I think they mixed my fortune with somebody else's. I've never asked anybody on a date. I think it's the man who should be doing the pursuing. It's the man's job to pursue the woman, make her feel pretty and feminine, bring her flowers, protect her from bad things, and whap anything that bothers her over the head with a big stick. As a girl, it's my job to fawn over how clever and cute he is and make him feel rugged and masculine. Pursuing him for a date goes against our ingrained biology.

I used to hate dresses with a passion. How was I supposed to hang upside down from trees while wearing one? Nowadays I find myself increasingly liking them. Last year I wore a purple flowery one for backpacking, this year it's a black cocktail-esque dress. I love the way full skirts swirl up and around my legs when I'm out contra dancing.

I find myself increasingly loving and celebrating the differences between men and women. Don't get me wrong, I love the effects the women's liberation movement has had on the world. I hate sexist pigs. But I do recognize that women and men are innately different and should recognize and celebrate that fact. We should get paid equally for equal work, but we should also realize that we're better at different things in life. No woman is ever going to beat a man's weight lifting or running record. No man is ever going to be able to nurture a child as effectively as a woman.

And I will never ask a man out on a date. I want someone who thinks I'm the most delicious, talented woman to ever walk the earth and will do anything to have me. Why make it easy by asking him out?

Pffft. Sometimes I wonder about the seriousness of fortune cookies. Could they not be the deep, metaphysical morsels of truth I make them out to be?

More about the Dog

Puppy was dumped upon Liz and Eric by my grandmother 7 months ago, and was never reclaimed. They like the dog, but it's a little too much for them. They already have a dog, a cat, and two rambunctious children to take care of. They were also taking care of my grandmother's poodle for several months, but she took that one back.

Personally, I'd never own a dog of that type. I prefer mutts with husky, German shepherd and wolf/lab in them. Something with more brains and personality.

Mom posted more about the dog yesterday over on her blog.

Free Dog

This is Puppy, Liz and Eric's dog. They would like to give it to someone who can offer it a nice place to romp freely. Contact us at Royalepain@aol.com if you or someone you know would like it.


Stats:
Purebred Golden Retriever
4 years old
Female, spayed
All shots current
Likes other dogs, cats and kids

Bad Kid

I came in for lunch and discovered mom had been busy over on her blog. This is part of the reason I don't want to have a kid until a long, long time from now. It'll probably act just like me. God Forbid!

Random Thoughts

I'm killing time until Samantha wakes up, so I can continue cleaning my room.

My aunt Liz (her mother) had a few requirements for her dream guy. She wouldn't waiver on one of them - that the man had to have a hairy chest. On the first date with her now husband, she told him what she wanted. He lifted up his shirt in the middle of the fancy restaurant and said, "How's this?" She felt him up and said "Ooooh, that'll do nicely"

Cleaning

Today I took a day off from work to clean my room. I'm consolidating my junk and making way for all of the things from my house to come in. To free up space, I brought in my sawzall and crowbar to demolish the built-in desk in the corner. Ahhhh, that made me feel better.

Liz and family should be here tomorrow or within the next 2 days.

Dialog and debate

See mom's blog for a comparison of dialog and debate.

Commentary

When I came in for breakfast and mail this morning, I had 29 new emails. Only a handful weren't comments from my blog. I should have enabled comments sooner! This is fun, like my very own soap opera. :-)

Want something else to bicker about? Let me elaborate on why I have lists for mate qualities...

I want the best male specimen I can get my paws on. Why? Well, when I eventually mate and have a kid, I want that kid to be endowed with the best genetic material it can have. I want the kid to be cute, wicked smart and talented. A lot of that relies on nurture, but having kick-ass genes in addition to wonderful parenting skills will sure give the kid a boost.

So if you look at it from that angle, I'm looking out for what's best for hummanity and the perpetuation of our species. The lists show what a true philanthropist I am.

I don't plan on having a kid for another 10 years or so. In the meantime, I intend to find a man who possesses those qualities to grow and build a life together. My current life is filled with all sorts of wonderful experiences already. Now I want somebody to share those with, work on our goals and dreams, go "Look at that!" when we see something interesting, laugh together, dream together, and get each others sarcasm and subtle humor.

Wasabi

I was looking for a sample of my wall paint color, when I found a fascinating page about wasabi. Stalking the elusive wasabi

Answering People's Comments

If you're a Christian, you should be loving, not condemning thy neighbor.

See my previous entry, sarcasm is for smart people. Subtlety is as well. Some people just don't get things unless they're walloped over the head with a clue-by-four.

If I had wanted a sex toy or any of the other things I mentioned, I would have obtained them already. The internet and Canada are wonderful things. I was being facetious.

My lists of soul mate wants and not wants was very reasonable. Are you telling me there are people who look for qualities such as

1) Looks like a rhinoceros (on a good day)
2) Can't be peeled off the couch
3) Hates kids and animals
4) sour puss, half empty attitude
5) doesn't bathe, picks nose in public
6) At least a foot shorter than I am
7) Hates learning anything, won't crack a book unless forced to at gunpoint
8) Communicates by grunting
9) Thinks romance is for sissies
10) Won't lift a finger to help


Interestingly enough, I got a great book on the side of the road today. It's called "If you like Pina Coladas ... The humor and weirdness of personal ads"

My favorite of the moment is:

SWM, 24, Wile E. Coyote type supergenius: eclectic, creative, and complete with existential angst. You: light hearted road runner type, minus the cruelty, with a smiling appreciation for all my ridiculous schemes. My heart is a giant magnet and for once you actually ate the birdseed full of ball bearings. Bzzt! Clank!

What I've been up to

I've been wicked busy the past week! I've been out having too much fun to be disiplined, sit down, and write.

Tonight Yestermorrow had a documentary film on the Rural Build project. Fascinating stuff. Pretty pictures. Scroll below to find a pic I took of their treehouse. One of the current interns is living in it at the moment. Otherwise I would have taken some inside pics...

Went to Maine, gawked at LL Bean, ate some scallops. Mmmmmmm. Saw Acadia, savored the pungent ocean air, poked around a lighthouse.

The hoard (Aunt Liz and family) will be decending shortly. They left Arizona on the 3rd and expect to be here in 4-6 days. I've been working like crazy to get everything nice and shiny and ready to go. I shudder to think how many ATV loads of my stuff has to come back and find a new home in my room. I think it's time to do some major rearranging in my 12x14 room to fit my velvet couch in there.

Made a couple of lists about my ideal soulmate. Top ten for "Must have" and "Must not".

Must Have:
1) Taller than me - preferably at least 6' +
2) Have a great smile and/or nice chest
3) Playful nature
4) A go-getter
5) Love variety
6) Like books and reading
7) Romantic and sensual
8) Great conversationalist
9) Practical talent ... I.E., mechanic, carpenter, great with people/leadership
10) Will do the dishes


Will not touch with a 10 foot pole:
1) Picky eater
2) Homophobe/sexist pig/republican (But I repeat myself...)
3) Chew with mouth open
4) Not like traveling/camping
5) Can't amuse himself, especially in bookstore
6) Rude to waiters/bad tipper
7) Hate dogs
8) More than occasional drinker/gets drunk on purpose (Buzzed is fine...sloshed is not)
9) Whiny
10) Smoker / does drugs

Installing and shimming new window in loft

Completed Window (Almost)

Heather putting on final coat of paint

Yestermorrow Treehouse