Something Squirrelly this Way Comes

Your Eyes Should Be Brown

Your eyes reflect: Depth and wisdom What's hidden behind your eyes: A tender heart

A friend of mine sent me this link the other day. It's a 3 min 45 second cartoon on YouTube. I laughed and laughed and laughed and coughed from laughing so hard. I even cried from laughing so hard. And I was at work at the time. People thought I was having some sort of fit.

Please, enjoy, Charlie Goes to Candy Mountain.

I'm sitting in my recliner, reading a book, minding my own business. Not harming anyone or anything when I happen to glance underneath my dining room table. The ensuing shriek and leaping pulse had me out of the chair and heading for a can of bug killer in 0.02 seconds flat. The book ended up on the floor, halfway across the room and the cause of my anxiety was frozen in place under the table. A cave cricket. I hadn't see any since last year when I sent up a hue and cry to the rental office and they sprayed like they had never sprayed before. Apparently the spraying didn't hold or, more likely, didn't work and that the real reason the stealth crickets stopped appearing in my apt was that it was no longer cave cricket season.

Half a can of Raid(tm) later, the cricket is shriveled up and dead behind a speaker. After my breathing and heart rates settle back down I text Rach and Joely. I figured they'd understand and would offer comforting words. Yeah right. Joely never responds (big meanie) and Rach replies with, "Maybe he spread the word 2 all his little friends not 2 f^ck with you. Or theyre pissed and staging an uprising. Either one."

Isn't she just the sweetnest, nicest cupcake you ever talked to?? Christ. Putting the idea of a cricket uprising in MY head. I've got a rampant enough imagination without her adding to it. About an hour later, I'm sitting on my couch pretending to read (I'm really just scanning the floor in case other cricket scouts appear) when my own devious conscious decides to remind me of a movie. Which one? Why The Secret of Nimh (TSON) of course! Except my brain insiduously decides to recast the mice and rats as cave crickets. *shudder* Not what I need to be pondering upon at 10.30 at night. For those of the uninformed, TSON is about rats & mice that had been part of a human lab experiment. They came out of it being smart. Human smart (heck they were smarter than some humans I know). Can you just imagine? Cave crickets with human intelligence??? Ugh! At least they don't have hands (or paws) so they should have problems with say power tools but they could operate a keyboard no problem.

So I was up til about 1. I finished my book, found a couple of flashlights (it's still dark when I get up and there's no way I was going to chance stepping on - or near - a cricket before I reached a light switch) and finally managed to turn off the light and go to sleep.

No signs of crickets Tuesday morning. Apt. people had sprayed my house during the day so I thought I might find some random bug corpses when I get home. I didn't well, except for the cave cricket still shriveled and curled up behind my speaker. I putter around, watch the news, cook dinner, read some, clean some and then decide to make an early night of it and turn in at 9.30 or so. The AC kicks on and I find myself covered up in a blanket. My environmentalist (and frugal) heart can't take that so when the AC kicks off, I grab my flashlight and prepare to go turn it up (err turn the temp at which it kicks on up - from 78 to 80 or so). I flick on the flashlight, shine it in front of me and what do I see??? A cave cricket!

It's in the middle of the floor, neatly blocking my path to the light switch and AC controls. The big jerk. For those of you thinking that the cave cricket is only the size of a half dollar and there's a foot or more on either side of it, what's the problem? Umm HELLO! The size of a Half Dollar! ONLY a foot or so on either side of it! Seems obvious to me that there were issues. The fact that it can jump several feet in a second or two is also an issue my busy little brain is feverishly calculating. I pick up a wayward sock and throw it at it. Actually I throw it short, in the hopes that it would jump Back. It doesn't. Thankfully it goes sideways and not towards me. I keep the little bugger dead center in my flashlight spotlight and siddle by it, always keeping it in front me. Then I'm stuck. In order to get to the light switch I have to let it out of my sight for a couple seconds.

I get as close as possible, and lunge for the switch and back. It's gone! I don't see it anywhere. I arm myself with my can of Raid(tm) and head for the AC controls. I adjust the thermostat in between quick surveys of the entire area. Still no sign of cricket boy. I check behind the speaker to make sure that the cricket I killed last night hadn't resurrected itself. It hadn't. I look underneath my recliner, as best I can without actually getting down on my hands and knees (Way too close to the cricket's territory that way!). No sign. I spray the raid underneath it anyway. I check all the darker areas, move pillows that were on the floor. Nothing. The newest invader was nowhere to be seen.

I keep up my vigil for awhile before giving up. Okay okay okay so it was more than awhile it was nearly midnight. What do you want from me?? Did you not pay attention when I said it's big as a half dollar and can jump several feet??? Geez people! Pay attention and stop mocking me! I didn't see it this morning either. Hopefully it went back to where it came from and reported in that this was not the place to invade. That the occupant was way too wary and Raid(tm) savvy and that they should find a new place to take over.

I didn't make it into work yesterday. The storm front and other issues put me in too much pain to venture outside. It's how I spent the weekend, actually. Heating pads, ice packs, pain killers, lots of tea and horizontal as much as possible. I realize that using a heating pad and an ice pack might seem conflicting but the heating pad was for my lower back and the ice pack was for my head & neck. Different pains require different treatment.

Anyway, I'm okay enough to come into work (ie not nauseous from pain) so I head to the spot where I catch my apt shuttle. On my way to the stop, I must first cross a river of water that soak my shoes instantly. It's actually just the sidewalk but it's pouring rain and the ground is saturated, so all the water courses down the paved areas. I get through the stream and to the shuttle stop at 6.02. Shuttle usually gets there between 6.03 and 6.07, usually about 6.04. I wait. Another guy shows up. We wait. It's still pouring and the wind is blowing. So it's not just my feet that are soaked anymore, despite my rain coat and umbrella. It's also warm & muggy so all the wet on my shirt isn't rain, it's sweat. That's the funny thing about gortex wind breakers, they keep the wet out and the wet in.

The rain stops and I'm still standing there at 6.20, well past the time that shuttle should have been there. I've called the "hot line" twice and the recorded message told me the same thing, "Shuttles are running on regularly scheduled times". So I start to think maybe he was early, because of the rain. Anyway, at 6.25 we both give up and go back home. Well, he may have gone to his car to drive in but I was already late and figured I'd wait until the 6.40 shuttle. I called a supervisor and told him my issues and he was okay with the situation. There'd been massive flooding here the day before. Seriously, if yall haven't seen the pictures you should! There are cars that have been flipped over, thrown into a ravine, on their sides, with several inches of mud inside them. It's pretty nifty stuff (and no, I haven't checked on my car so I may be telling a different tale tomorrow).

Anyway, I'm back out at the stop at 6.35. No way am I even going to chance being late (shuttle usually comes by at 6.43). There's someone else already there and as I get to the stop, I see two more people heading out. That's reassuring to me because if the shuttle doesn't show, at least one of them should know what bus to take to get to a metro stop and I could just tag along. A lady gets to the stop and tells uw that that there was a note on her building saying no shuttle service today due to mechanical difficulties. I said, "that's odd there wasn't a note on my building and the hotline says that they're running on time." Then two more people come running to the stop, just as I spy a shuttle bus pulling out of the parking lot down the street (it's where the stop before mine is). One of the people gets to the stop and says that the two regular shuttles have both been flooded and are in the shop, that this shuttle is a replacement.

I get on the shuttle and have to stand. That's a first for me, though not unsual even when we have our normal sized bus. This baby was half the size. Thankfully not too many more folks pile on at the next stops (guess they had gotten notice of the shuttles not running or had given up on waiting). So the driver stops and I nearly wrench my shoulder out of it's socket and twist my ankle because I slide into the person standing behind me, who had slid into the person behind her. THEN the guy tells us, "better hold on with both hands as this bus isn't designed to carry people who are standing." Well no shit, sherlock. Thanks for telling this AFTER we bounce around like ping pong balls. We get on the highway and the driver takes the regular side instead of HOV - which is normal when we aren't flooded up to our eyeballs and more people are driving this way because of flooded roads and metro stations. Oy!

Needless to say there is a LOT of stopping and starting. Which translates into those of us who are standing into sliding back and forth and side to side. I get to work at 7.25 - nearly an hour late - and soaking wet. It's after 8.30 now and I'm still wringing wet. Perhaps I'll be dry by the time I leave for the day. I'm also shivering because the AC is on. I'm chilled on days when my clothing isn't wet. Guess this just means more hot tea & coffee for me. Perhaps some leisurely running up and down of the stairs is in order. I'd head to the restroom to use the hand dryers but we don't have those!

Ah well, c'est la vie. :) I guess I had better get some work done.

So I watched the NHL Draft on Saturday night (I know, I know, I'm too hip and cool for yall, I'm okay with that). I was reminded of the fun I had at the NHL Draft in Raleigh back in 2004. So I plan to attend the 2007 draft in Columbus. What say we all meet there? Of the hockey nuts that read this, I'm the furtherst away. I think. Hmm maybe Renee & Scott.

What I don't get is why the heck Alexander Ovechkin was there? Why did the craptials let him up on stage? let alone announce their first draft pick?? Seriously. Rookie of the year? No way! That should've been Cam Ward! Hello! How far did the craptials make it in the playoffs? Hmm? I rest my case.

Anyway, we had lots and lots of rain and thunderstorms this weekend. Lots of flooding around here. Massive traffic issues this morning that even made the national morning news talk shows. I even lost power for a bit. We're supposed to have storms all this week too. Woohoo!!

Last night we had some really groovy storms blow through. Lots and lots of lightning and thunder for a couple hours. I lost power multiple times but only for a total of 20 minutes. Some folks near the MCI Center (err make that the Verizon Center) in Chinatown (that's in DC around the Gallery Place/Chinatown metro stop) lost power for hours. A substation had to be shut down before more serious damage occurred there. All those poor folks without AC in the summer time. Not a pleasant thought.

At least it was a good excuse for me to stop mocking the pitifully lame goings on at the 2006 NHL Awards. Lindy Ruff getting coach of the year??? WTF?? He's a whiney nitwit who can't take responsibility for his team, staff or himself! Gah! I used to adore the Sabres but not anymore. As long as that f'tard is there, I'm rooting Against them! Grow up Lindy! Thankfully Martin Brodeur didn't get goalie of the year. Yet another whiner. Sure he's an amazing goalie but he acts like he's precious and fragile. Fussing to the refs any time a skate crosses the crease. Hello! You're a hockey player! Suck it up!!

But I digress. The storms last night were excellent and we're supposed to have them today, tomorrow, Sunday AND Monday!! WooooHoooooo!!

That the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup on Monday night????

WooooHooooo!!! Way to go Canes!!!

This past weekend, as I mentioned last week, my folks were in town. We played tourist (well, I played tourist - they actually were tourists) and visited the monuments and toured the museums. We even stopped at the National Zoo which isn't close to The Mall. Thankfully, there's the metro.

It was hot on Saturday and just got hotter and muggier as the weekend went on. My brother was very thoughtful and loaned us a fanny pack that holds two bottles of water. I brought my own 34oz bottle of water. Yet every day, we ran out and had to buy fresh bottles. Icey cold and delicious bottles of water. Mmmmm.

We even managed to get tickets to go up into the Washington Monument on Monday. Ticket office opens at 8.30 and we got there at 7.30, there was already a line. We were still able to pick a time (12.30). We walked from the Wash. Mon. down to the World War II Memorial, Korean War Mem., Lincoln Mon. and Vietnam Mem. We still had a couple hours before our slotted time for the elevator ride to the (almost) top of the Wash. Mon. So we decided to head back to the Natural History Museum and check out the dinosaurs and mammals. When we had stopped there on Saturday it was packed with people and moving was difficult. Monday it was still crowded but you could turn around without hitting someone.

Here are a couple of maps to give yall a better idea of the places we stopped at (not in order, sorry). Too bad I can't add the heat & humidity so that yall could really get a feel for our weekend. ;)

US Botanical Gardens
National Museum of the American Indian
Air and Space Museum
National Gallery of Art (West and East buildings)
Natural History Museum
National Museum of American History
Old Post Office Pavilion
Washington Monument
National World War II Memorial
Korean War Memorial
Lincoln Monument
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
National Zoo

We also stopped in Old Town Alexandria and walked around on the waterfront some on Sunday afternoon. It's mostly shops and restaurants, some art galleries and antique stores down there. It's a nice area though. Some cobblestone streets, brick sidewalks, old buildings.

WE WON!! WE WON!! WE WON!!! WE WON!! WE WON!! WE WON!!

CAROLINA HURRICANES WIN THE STANLEY CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!

WAY TO GO CANES!! I KNEW YALL COULD DO IT!!!

WAAAHHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!


Special thanks to Joely, Rach and TC for watching the game and doing all the cursing for me. Perhaps it was a ninja good luck chant. Either way, it worked! Now I must go to NHL.com and order some stuff :)

So my folks will be here today. Sometime. Which means not only will they be subjected to my not cleaned up apartment (it's not dirty, just cluttered) but also my yelling during the hockey game (Game 6) tomorrow night.

I'm sure it'll be an eye opening experience for them. I just hope my throat stops hurting by 8pm Saturday. Else my hollering form won't be as good as usual. Although, that might be a good thing.

LET'S GO HURRICANES! LET'S GO!!!

Stupid Oilers won in overtime last night. Grrrrrrrrrrrr


Doug Weight & Aaron Ward - Get well soon yall!!! We need you on Saturday!!!!!!!

C'MON CANES!!!!!! LET'S CLEAN UP THAT OIL SPILL!!!!!

LET'S GO HURRICANES!! LET'S GO HURRICANES!! LET'S GO HURRICANES!!

So yeah, should be obvious what I'm doing tonight :)

YEAH CANES!! WAY TO GO!!!!

The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Edmonton Oilers last night 2-1 in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Canes now lead the series 3-1. Game 5 is back home in Raleigh (Sweet!!) this Wednesday night.

LET'S GO HURRICANES!!!!!

Back on Feb. 7 I posted an entry about the Live Green, Go Yellow campaign. If you went to the link you could sign up to get a free t-shirt. I did and then forgot about it until last week. My brother called and told me that got his shirt in the mail. First he had to remind me about signing up though.

Friday my shirt came in the mail. Which was a double surprise. 1) I figured they had forgoten to send the shirts out and 2) I ususally don't receive items sent via the mail. Either the mail "loses" them or someone takes them. I don't know which. I just know that I don't get packages in the mail.

Game 4 is tonight. LET'S GO HURRICANES!!!

I spent most of Saturday horizontal. Just didn't feel that great. Slept a lot and when I was awake, I wanted to be asleep. I told myself I was just storing energy for that night. See, Saturday night was Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. I knew things weren't going to go well even before it was announced who the refs were. Game was on NBC. Their commentators are crap and the sound isn't as groovy as on OLN.

The lousy, biased, referee Mcough (pronounced Magoo) was there. He's the jerk who was calling everything in favor of the devils. He hasn't changed his tune. All but one of his calls last night was for the Oilers. How he missed Aaron Ward getting crosschecked in front of our goal when he (blind ref) was standing right there, watching the whole thing, is beyond me. Thankfully Aaron was okay after he rested a bit. He was in obvious pain. Hell he was basically on his knees from the time he was clobbered until the next whistle blew. The whole time Magoo was right there, watching.

The Canes lost 1-2 but thankfully still lead the series 2-1. Next game is Monday night, again on the crap station and in Edmonton.

Also, my darling fishie, Sir Alfred Gluttony, died early during the second period. He wasn't quite a year old.

Yeah. So I wanted to get to work early to decorate a coworker's cube. Her birthday is on Sunday and she has Monday off. I left my house at 5.20, stopped at CVS where I encountered a Turtle. He was very slow - in movement and brain power. Hello! Just because you're already at work doesn't mean you can take it easy now! Some of us are in a hurry! I got streamers and that's it. They didn't have balloons. Rather Turtle didn't know where the balloons were and I didn't see them when I canvassed the store. He offered to check the aisles and I quickly said "NO! err no thanks, that's okay. The streamers will do." Then I walk to the counter and wait. And wait some more. Finally Turtle appears, "Oh are you ready to check out?" No dumbass. I'm just standing at the checkout counter waiting for the sun to rise. "Yes, I am. Thanks." See I can be polite when thinking that the person I'm dealing with is an idiot.

He picks up my animal crackers (I bought lunch too) and said, "Oh these look good." Scans them. Sets them down. Fiddles around opening the plastic bag. Picks up crackers, "Man these really look good." Puts them in bag. Scans my soda and Dinty Moore Beef Stew and puts them in the bag. Fiddles with the bag and finally manages to unhook it from the metal bars and puts it on the counter. He scans my streamers (one blue and one that says Happy Birthday) sets them back on the counter and then goes to try and open a new bag. "No! That's okay. Just put it all in one bag." He does. I have my money out handing it to him but he's busy trying to find what the total is. Hello! It's $9.87! Here's a $20.00. Give me my change. Yeah it took him awhile to figure out how to make 13 cents. He first got a quarter out. I was darn close to telling him give me the 10 and keep the change. As it is I grabbed the money before he handed it to me and fled.

Then I get to the metro and they're doing work. Have to take the escalator that was slow. Walking up the stairs would have been faster but there were people standing on the stairs having a pow wow. I settled for running up the escalator because the metro should've been pulling in. Nope. They were having troubles. So I had to wait. Instead of catching the 5:45 I had to catch the 6:00. I read the paper while waiting and then began the crossword puzzle.

I get to my stop and dash up both escalators only to see my bus pulling away. Gah! So I go back down, into the underground and go to Starbucks. I have a 12 minute wait before the next bus shows. I get my espresso frap and croissant head back up. Only to find out the busses are running late.

I get to my office (outside) at 6.30. The time I normally do when I take my apt. shuttle and the metro. I get to my cube at 6.40 because I wasn't fast enough off the bus and to the elevators. I had to wait on the 3 toed sloths. I should've just gotten off the elevator and taken the next one. But I couldn't as I was stuck in the back.

So yeah. I leave my house 40 minutes early to get to my cube 5 minutes later than normal. And my coworker is already here. No idea when I'll be able to decorate her cube.

Happy Friday Everyone!! Thank Dog there's a hockey game tomorrow night!!!!!

Alright!!! WAY TO GO CANES!!!!! No Cardiac attack tonight!!!!!

Canes win Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals 5-0. Woooo Hoooo!!!!!! Special thanks to Joelykins for inspiring today's title. HUGE THANKS to the Canes!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Cam Ward is only the second rookie goalie in 50 YEARS to get a shut out in the Stanley Cup Finals! Other guy? Patrick Roy. Hell of a company to keep, Cam!! Side note. Patrick is one of the reasons that the Avs are my number 2 team.

Game 3 is on Saturday in Edmonton. Unfortunately it's going to be shown on NBC. I despise the NBC commentators.

LET'S GO HURRICANES!!!

As some of yall know, I had Monday off from work and spent the day with my friend d. We had plans to go to a food show in Baltimore. However, a last minute change in a dental appointment crimped our plans a bit. D's appointment for a root canal was at 1.00, she was asked to keep two hours free for it. The food show was open from 11-5 and it's a 30 minute drive from d's place to Baltimore and the dentist is about 40 mins away from Baltimore.

So we get to the food show at 11.30 (d had some stuff she had to do at her business before we could leave) and left at 12.15. Giving us 45 minutes to explore the place. Which, as it turns out, was enough time to glance at over half the booths and sample stuff from four or five, as well as talk to those vendors. Sadly there wasn't a knife, pot, pan or any other kitchen accessory to be found. Only food and drinks. We both thought there'd have been some kitchen apparatti* there.

I ride back with d (she offered to let me stay and hang out at the show and/or the Inner Harbor but I didn't want to make her feel like she had to come back and get me after getting her root canalled) and loitered at a coffee shop in the same shopping center as her dentist. I had some crappy coffee and read my book (Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong) for 1.5 hours. Thankfully it was a great book (I finished it Monday night before the Canes' game) and the time went quickly.

Then we went in search of lunch. First two places we tried were either closed or only serving salads. We ended up at a place called Eggsations (or something like that) and both ended up getting burgers. Then we picked up her oldest boy from school (was 5 pm) and headed home. I stayed til about 5.45 or so and then went home. I wanted to be sure I had plenty of time to get home before the puck dropped.

I got home just after 7. It's typically a 50 minute drive to/from her place. There was just lots and lots of traffic. There was also lots and lots of people only taking the speed limit into advisement, not as a hard and fast rule. :)

All in all it was a good day. Admittedly the best part was coming from behind and winning Game 1 but don't tell d I said that!

* I know that the plural of apparatus is apparatus or apparatuses but I like the sound of apparatti so deal with it.

YEEEESSSSS!!!!!!!! WAY TO GO CANES!!!!!!!!!

Final score was 5-4. Canes beat the Oilers after trailing 3-0. Wow. Kick ass hockey!

Man! What a game!!! Glen Wesley was Amazing!! Three huge saves at the expense of his own body! Doubled over in pain and he still blocked a shot! AND he came back and played. Man! He's awesome.

And Cam Ward! Yall know I love this guy. He continues to make saves that should be impossible. I don't have the words. Congrats on the upcoming wedding, boyo! Many happy years with your wife to be and as a Hurricane! :)

I hope Edmonton's goalie, Dwayne Roloson, is okay. I hate that he was injured. I love the hard hits but not when someone gets hurt that badly. He's out for the rest of the series. That's not how I want to win the Cup. Thankfully it was an Oilers player that hit Ladd into the goalie. Completely accidental.

Get well soon Rollie!

That's right folks! Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals starts tonight on OLN!! Canes vs. Oilers. The two teams haven't met all season so it should be a good game. Preferably with the Canes winning :)


LET'S GO HURRICANES!!! ELIMINATE THAT OIL SPILL!!!

WAY TO GO HURRICANES

YES!!!! Last night's game was Fantastic!!! Just killer hockey the entire night AND we won :) Perhaps Joely is my good luck charm? I was texting him all night, giving him updates. Granted I was doing that with Rach and TC as well but Joely was the only one who responded throughout. Granted he was loitering at the airport and didn't have access to a tv to see the game. TC was rocking at a Pearl Jam concert. The Gods only know what Rach was doing.

Alright folks, tonight is do or die night for the Canes! So join me in cheering on the best team in the best sport!

LET'S GO HURRICANES!!

If I knew how to do it, I'd have Blur's Song 2 playing right now. For those who don't know, that's the song that plays every time the Canes score at home. WOOO HOOO!

And just because I've been singing Cam Ward's praises for months now, I feel I should also give a shout out to Martin Gerber who is also an amazing goalie for the Canes! They're both spectacular and I have no idea how Peter decides who starts on any given night.

Cam Ward is on the far left and Martin Gerber is next to him. Cam is #30 and Martin is #29. Which is mildly amusing as Cam is 22 and Martin is 31.

So, as the pictures reveal, not only are they amazing goalies but they're easy on the eyes as well. What's a girl to do? ;)