This is my Christmas present to my grandparents. This kitchen island came with the house, and my grandmother's been wanting it tiled ever since she found out it wasn't a true butcher block surface.

With the right tools, tiling is really very easy. The hardest part was figuring out which pieces needed to be cut to make everything fit. Fortunately, my brother-in-law's best friend owns a tile cutter. (how's that for bizarre relations?) I took the tiles up to my sister's house over the weekend and he cut them for me. Everything fits perfectly! I have to wait 24 hours before I can add the grout, and then I'll be done.

She had asked other relatives to do it, and they all hemmed and hawwed and found excuses not to. She finally complained to me, and, well, you see the results above.
Sometimes, the best gift you can give someone is your time. I have plenty of that to give away.

It's only taken me a month to post my photos of the pumpkins I've carved over the years. Looking at them now, I can't help but think they're pretty pathetic, but at least they're up, finally.
And to all those people who have walked into me the past few weeks, and to those two automatic doors who refused to acknowledge my presence and open, I'd like to point out that I DO exist, dammit.

To prove it, I uploaded the most recent picture of me I have. It was taken in, um, er, June.

"This is a handy guide that should be as common as a driver's license in the
wallet of every husband, boyfriend, or significant other!"

DANGEROUS: What's for dinner?
SAFER: Can I help you with dinner?
SAFEST: Where would you like to go for dinner?
ULTRASAFE: Here, have some chocolate.

DANGEROUS: Are you wearing that?
SAFER: Gee, you look good in brown.
SAFEST: WOW! Look at you!
ULTRASAFE: Here, have some chocolate.

DANGEROUS: What are you so worked up about?
SAFER: Could we be overreacting?
SAFEST: Here's fifty dollars.
ULTRASAFE: Here, have some chocolate.

DANGEROUS: Should you be eating that?
SAFER: You know, there are a lot of apples left.
SAFEST: Can I get you a glass of wine with that?
ULTRASAFE: Here, have some chocolate.

DANGEROUS: What did you do all day?
SAFER: I hope you didn't overdo it today.
SAFEST: I've always loved you in that robe!
ULTRASAFE: Here, have some more chocolate.

Cocoa & Chocolate

Chocolate can now be used to cure coughs.

My mom always said that Dairy Queen or chocolate cures all ills. I suspect she's right.

I hit 1000 miles on my car's odometer today. At this rate, I will hit 10,000 miles in . . . . 4 years?

I worked all weekend trying to solve a broadcast problem with Roscoe's show. Stressed myself to bits and finally gave up and stuck the show back in, bad video and all. This morning I explained to Jan my problem, still unable to give it a name. We decided to call Dan, but would watch it first, as it was about to air when I brought the subject up.

THE PROBLEM WAS GONE. It aired perfectly.

I think that the equipment gremlins are messing with me big time. If I find them, they are going to be some very unhappy creatures.

My to do list is getting out of control.

Work Related:
*Get the Udvar-Hazy show onto a disc that will play on the broadcast decks without being horribly mangled. (I have no idea what's going wrong, and I refuse to let it air in that condition. It airs just fine on every other DVD player!)
*This may mean redoing all the wiring and connections on the editing system. I need to trace the source of whatever problem we have. And of course, everybody who built the system in the first place is too 'busy' to help me randomly guess at what's wrong.
*Edit the Herndon holiday lighting event that just took place.
*Finish (or start) the downtown Herndon promotional commercial. It's got an early December headline.
*Begin creating a Year in Review for HCTV
*May possibly have to edit the taping of the Towne Square Singers in December.
*Think about a 15 year anniversary series for the station. Shouldn't we celebrate? At the very least it will give me something to air. Look! Old shows! Here, watch these a while! *runs away*

Home Related:
*Finish Karen's Christmas present.
*Finish Cathy's Christmas present.
*Finish Unit 5 of the interior design course. This specifically involves:
*Designing a formal dining room based on information the school gave me. I get to do it from scratch with an unlimited budget. Wohoo!
*Designing a living room based on our living room. I have to design it based on Mom's budget, color choices, and furniture.
*Help Grammy tile her kitchen island. (it seems no one else will help her do it! I plan to tell her "Merry Christmas!" and pay for the tiles, grout, and adhesive.)
*Our basement refinishing project. We've gotten to painting the floor, which is nearly done. Next is walls. Putting them up, that is. It's also another room to design, and Mom keeps changing her mind!
*Grammy also wants me to help her revamp her office. On next to no budget. Yet another design project. Should be interesting.
*Christmas shopping. Oh, joy.
*Possibly start on Unit 6 of the interior design course. I had hoped to have it done by the end of the year. Since work keeps interfering with stuff I do at home, This doesn't seem likely. Perhaps the week after Christmas.
*Call the periodontist to set up an appointment. I don't want to go. I've got the dreadful feeling that this will be another embarrassing episode of me ending up on the floor. Can't people leave my mouth ALONE? Here! Pick on my leg a while!
*Stop procrastinating with the blog and get back to work.

I love this commercial.

Is it because of the bouncy music? The guy bouncing his head to the bouncy music? Or the incredibly smooth special effects?

Yes.

Finished the bedroom design! I redesigned the paper that I was supposed to fill out and send it. There just wasn't enough room to write, and they wanted you to paste pictures and flip back and forth and all this other stuff . . . I combined text and photos together in a Word document, and it looks rather nice, in my opinion. So long as I don't print it out. Apparently the yellow ink has dried out, so I get some VERY interesting colors. Dad let me borrow his printer, but he constantly messes with his color settings and it came out looking very strange. I'll figure out something. I still have to do the color chart for the room. I think. Frankly, my way makes a lot more sense and I'd prefer to send THAT in, but it's not a good idea to confuse teachers with something different. I'll have plenty of time to figure out a plan, as I have a lot more to do with the other two rooms. I thought the dining room would be easy, as I got carte blanche to do what I wanted, according to the assignment. It's hard to find dining sets that have everything I need! Perhaps I have too many pieces of furniture in here. I did find a set I think will work, but the prices aren't listed on the web site, which means I'll have to go to the showroom.

As a distraction, on my real-life interior design project, we began painting the basement floor. We picked out a deep tan color, but due to the tinting limitations of the Kilz, it came out flesh toned. It doesn't matter. It looks SO much better than what was there. Mom and Dad even came home with Dad's christmas present - a mitre saw. Now he can cut wood studs for the walls. *nods gleefully* Merry Christmas! Get to work!

in an attempt to ignore the fact that I'm feeling incredibly rotten (watch it be the flu) I decided to finish up the assignment for Unit 5. Of course, I can't find it. I've found everything else but the sheet of paper that tells me what I'm supposed to mail in. *grumble mutter hiss* Now I'll probably have to wait til Monday to call the school. In the meantime I'm filling out the paperwork I've found. Oh, fun part! Telling what colors I've chosen, describing the furniture, the floor and the window treatments. For three bedrooms! Funny thing, Unit 5's learning texts have practically NOTHING to do with this assignment.


**EDIT: 4 hours later . . . **

HAHA! I found it. Now to get to work on designing the rooms. I have one room pretty much designed already. Two to go . . .

I received this email this afternoon regarding an order I placed:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure
it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money
can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Thursday, November 11th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as 'Customer of the Year'. We're all
exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Check them out. It's worth ordering from them just for their emails!

It's the strangest thing. I'm beginning to feel a bit of the 'Christmas Spirit' this year. I haven't had that in several years. The last three or four years, I haven't even bothered to put up my christmas tree or decorate in any way. This year, though, I admit that I've been thinking about putting the tree up (I actually have a spot for it now.) Maybe some window decorations. I've already started my shopping, and plan again this year to make some of my gifts. Last year the big thing was the dollhouse for Rachel and Shelby, this year, I'm doing two miniature scenes for two of my aunts. I'm not sure about the third aunt, I don't know her as well. When I think of her, I think of candles, books, jewelry, perfume, and coffee. I may have to cheat a bit with the gift card stuff. Maybe I'll create a card to send out, too. I've been considering doing that for a while - make my own e-cards to send. It could be interesting!

Movie Review: The Incredibles

I got so sick and tired of being at work, that I skipped out a bit early and went to the movies. (besides, I was uh, celebrating the final creation of the air copy of the Udvar Hazy show.)

I love seeing how Pixar progresses with their technology. The human characters have come a LOOONNNGGG way from Andy and his family in Toy Story. It's incredible (harhar) to see how they move so fluently, the detail in their facial expressions, their hands, their hair. Hardly anything looked out of place or distracting. Even the scenery was incredibly detailed. Ripples in the water, dust in the cave, flying glass, leaves on trees. It was hard to take your eyes off the screen, everything just looked so real and yet, not real. The movie could have been done with regular animation, but it just wouldn't have been as good. I enjoyed it thoroughly, as I have ALL Pixar films.

I can't wait for their contract with Disney to end.

I find I have a morbid fascination with Arafat's health. I keep checking the news to see what they're saying.

Frankly, it's starting to sound like a Monty Python sketch.

He's not dead! Yes he is! No he's not! Well, he will be soon! But I'm getting better! No you're not! I don't plan on going yet! But we've got your funeral arranged and everything! Well get somebody else to go!

There's not much worse than a slow death.

Here kitty kitty kitty!

I appear to have finished the show. It took me a while to figure out how to drop it to tape, and I still need to work on that a bit to get it right. We sat down and watched it. I forgot to include two title graphics, and it seems a bit rushed between each segment, and I still need to play with the audio a little bit, although they both claimed it was fine. It's exactly 30 minutes long, otherwise I would have spaced it out better. If I could just take out ONE small item, somewhere, anywhere, I'll be able to space it out properly. I'll dig through it tomorrow and give it a final polish.

The panic and frustration I felt when I first realized I had to redo it is gone. I've felt blissfully calm this past week, and am thankful for it. I limited myself to only doing major editing over the weekend, and little bits here and there in the evenings. At work I buried myself in updating the library database, going through each and every tape we own, entering information, and marking off the video as finished. I have a HUGE pile of tapes and DVDS to show for my work, all with nice numbered red dots on them. I think I accomplished more this past week than I did all last winter.

I enjoy work like that. It requires your attention, keeps you busy for hours, is repetitive and not difficult. I enjoy it more when there's nothing to interrupt you from it. Of course, there's no Internet connection in the basement, but I'm so busy I don't notice. I'm afraid that I've gotten used to not being around people, although, strangely enough, I've had quite a few visitors these past few weeks. The cemetery manager comes down to say hello almost daily, the lawyer's assistant often peeks in to say hi. The men from DPW wander in once in a while, taking a break from attempting to fix the flooded copier room. Even a few police officers came by the other day, one was showing a new recruit around town. Jan comes down to discuss business, and Roscoe stopped by several times concerning the show. It's unusual to have so much traffic down there!

I'd like to draw your attention to a special organization's project. Operation Christmas Child is a project that my mom's family has participated in for the past several years, and this year, I finally got involved as well. I didn't work at a haunted house to raise money for Children's Hospital, nor did I donate to them this year, so I thought I should at least do SOMETHING special for someone who needs it. It's a simple, inexpensive project that will most likely be FAR more appreciated than the stuff you buy for your relatives each year at Christmas.

You start with a shoebox. You'll find you'll need a big one, towards the end. You buy simple, inexpensive things to put in the box, geared towards children, boy, or girl, and age levels as described on Samaritan Purse's web site. We generally go through the Dollar Store or Big Lots for things. Just remember, these children have next to nothing, so be sensible about what you buy. Your spoiled kid may turn his nose up at a package of #2 pencils in his Christmas stocking, but these children will be delighted.

Here's what I put in my box, for a girl aged 10 - 14 years old.

A book of fairy tales (with pictures every other page)
a bookmark
a flashlight (with batteries)
yellow pencils
several different color pens
bars of soap
a tube of toothpaste
a toothbrush
a pack of combs
a box of crayons
a bracelet
a notebook to write in (it matched the bracelet!)
batteries (extras for the flashlight)
a washcloth

I also intend to add some Lifesavers candy and a pencil sharpener. This filled the shoebox, with VERY careful packing, and I was rather upset when at first I couldn't get the notebook to fit. It was such a sweet notebook! However, filling the box with everything else forced the sides out a bit, and the notebook JUST fit in the top.

Mom says her 'signature' item in every box is a Pez dispenser. I've decided mine will be a book. Do you remember those little square books? About a dollar each, the Illustrated Classics, with a drawing on every other page? I had a whole collection of those. If I can't find them again, I'll see if I can buy them and include one every year. Although I did like the book I bought. It was only $2.00, and had a lot of stories, Snow White, Jack and the Beanstalk, etc . . .

Of course, this means I'll have to go buy more shoes. For the boxes, you see . . .

Amazon.com: Health & Personal Care: Philips HeartStart Home Automated External Defibrillator (AED)

They have GOT to be joking.

Sunday afternoon Mom begins chattering to me about gargoyles. Now, for my mom to have ANYTHING to say about gargoyles other than 'ick' is pretty unusual. She begins telling me about their use by early churches as a way of thumbing their nose at evil. I laughed and told her yes, but mainly they were used as downspouts. She looked suprised, for some reason this wasn't included wherever she read or heard about them. I started to explain the difference between gargoyles and grotesques. It didn't daunt her any.

She then proceeds to go on and tell me similar things about Halloween, about how it's actually a Christian holiday and the pagans stole it and gave it a bad reputation. I stared at her. I thought about all the weird pamphlets I've seen condemning Halloween. I considered the way the Christmas holiday came about, and started to argue that the same thing probably happened with this holiday, too - the church adapted celebrations to attract converts. She wasn't interested in the theology discussion, though. She was just happily passing on that it was perfectly fine for us to be celebrating Halloween.

I looked up the idea online, and came across this site and a few more. (go ahead, google 'halloween as a christian holiday.') Of course, I also come across similar sites condemning the day.

My mind kept going with these thoughts. Is it any wonder that so many people fall from faith? There's so much conflicting information that people don't know what to do. And, like any religion, everybody is incredibly adamant that THEIR belief is the 'right' way.

So, who's right? How do you decide? Or do you just back off and avoid the issue and be accused of becoming a heathen? Frankly, I'd rather be considered a heathen than blindly believe what one or two people tell me.

As for my opinions of Halloween . . .

Today it's a very successful money-making event. I mean, c'mon, now, look at the pumpkin growers. These people are probably making a small fortune growing and selling pumpkins for 39 cents a pound and more, just for people to carve up, display for one night, and then throw away. And I don't even need to mention the money spent on costumes and candy.

We have plenty of opportunities to celebrate life throughout the year. What's so wrong with recognizing death, darkness or fear? They're also a part of our lives. We shouldn't deny that they exist. Perhaps there was once a lot more symbolism in Halloween traditions, but today, the only symbol is the dollar sign.

So go on, dress up and go for the candy. Have some fun. I really don't think devil worshipping includes a spiderman outfit and a kit-kat bar.

Intuitor Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics

One good aspect of having the editing stuff at home is that I don't have to worry about it at work and can concentrate on other things.

I walked in the side door at work this morning, and saw "WET PAINT" signs around the stairwell. The walls were bright and fresh. I cheered and immediately headed downstairs, anxious to see where they had painted. Alas, it was just in the hallway. The walls in the basement are a sorry mess, but a good coat of paint will fix it. I've been after Ray for years now to paint the basement!

Speaking of years, I've now been at the station for five years. Happy anniversary to me! I spent it in the so-close-to-being-painted-but-wasn't basement, working on the inventory. Among the boxes, I found one tape labeled "Fishtank." Since we had a show labeled "ThinkTank" (about the National Zoo) I assumed it might be an aquarium show.

It wasn't. It was a fishtank. With fish. And bubbles. And popular classical music. And apparently it ran for nearly two hours.

I'm going to ask if I can air it.