Category: Daily Life

Yesterday I picked up and mailed the copies of my last edition of the club newsletter I’ve been working on for almost two years. I’m FREE!!!!!

Back when I was self-employed, it wasn’t too difficult for me to carve out 8-12 hours now and then to edit, lay out and design a 12- to 24-page newsletter. Now that I have a “real job” again, I find I’m not willing to part with that much of my precious free time. Heck, I almost never HAVE that much free time.

I hope to celebrate my new-found freedom by getting back in touch with some of the friends I haven’t seen lately. If I’m lucky, that means more book clubs and game nights. Tonight: dinner with the Regular Girls.

I just bought the new edition of the game Celebrity Taboo, which was always a big favorite in my game-playing circle when the last edition was out. Taboo and Celebrity Taboo are sort of a 20,000 Pyramid-style game where you have a list of words you can’t say in giving clues to your partner so they can guess the name of an object or celebrity.

The fun thing about Celebrity Taboo is that anyone who pays attention to celebrity gossip is liable to know the latest news about someone that will easily trump the forbidden words list. For example, I’ll bet the “Britney Spears” category just got a whole lot easier in the clue-giving department thanks to last weekend’s events. Of course, it can also be frustrating if you end up paired with someone who wouldn’t know the name of the celebrity in question if you produced a photograph and a full bio.

I’m still working on reading “Jonathan Strange” and my friend just loaned me the new Jasper Fforde book. I’ve deliberately kept my schedule pretty open this weekend, so I plan to read, read and read some more. That is, when I’m not driving the Insight around and watching the gas mileage readout. Man, what a cool car!

I bought the 2001 Honda Insight! I went and drove it yesterday evening and found it delightful in every way. I don’t know if I got ripped off or not, but I’m always happy if the dealer at least pretends I’m getting a good deal.

I did a test drive for a reasonable distance down some city streets and then up and back down the highway a couple of miles. Once I got used to the tiny shift pattern, I thought the car had a decent amount of pep (it’s a 5-speed, so obviously I have some control over that), and it did nothing to hinder my speedin’ ways.

Our negotiating position was completely atrocious because the dealer knew (and we knew) that this was the only Insight for sale in the area. Before I saw it, I’d objected to the color (silver), but it’s really quite attractive. It’s definitely an eye-catching little car. Best of all, the average gas mileage the car has had over its lifetime so far shows up as 55.6 mpg. I read dozens of reviews of the car and so far I agree on one thing: watching the current gas mileage readout is addictive.

Now I need to rid myself of the Dentmobile. That will probably mean having someone remove the dent and figure out how to get the “Check Engine” light to shut off. I’m not expecting to get much money for it, but any little bit will help. I’ll be paying off a good 3/4 of the Honda loan right away, but I don’t want to dilly-dally on paying off the rest.

I really think I’m going to like this car. Unlike the past several cars I’ve had, this one is “me.” I’m looking forward to driving it again this morning. Maybe I should go in early…

I didn’t get a chance to go to the movies this weekend after all. “Sky Captain” will have to wait for sometime this week or perhaps next weekend.

Instead, I raced from one social event to another. On Friday, I stopped by Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy a wedding present and I ended up getting my sister a random collection of things for her birthday that all fell into the category of “things I saw that I thought it would be cool to have.” This included a very squishy pillow (I must admit, I bought one for myself, too), a pet hair remover brush, and some silicone pot holders. The last time I ate at my sister’s she burned herself and blamed the potholders I’d woven for her from cotton loops. Average Jane Industries does not warrant said potholders for use against high temperatures, so I thought it would be best to supply a substitute.

Even though I didn’t make it to the movies, I did buy a book: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark. I…can’t…stop…reading…it. It’s 782 pages long and I’m on page 478 and I would like nothing better than to take the day off from work today so I could finish it. Sadly, I have way too much work to do for that to be an option. If you like stories about magic and magicians and can appreciate a book written in the style of a novel of the 1800s, this is a book for you. I’m already trying to decide who should get to borrow it first when I’m finished…

Nothing of particular interest happened at the wedding or the two birthday parties I attended this weekend (except that my brother-and-law and I both bought my sister the same kind of squishy pillow). That’s all for now. Enjoy your Monday!

We’ve finally come to a fairly reasonable agreement with my insurance company regarding my flood-ruined car. I’ve decided that I’m going to take the money, sell or trade in the Probe (a.k.a. “The Dentmobile”) and buy myself a vehicle that gets good gas mileage. This has led me to research the various hybrid cars that have been slowly seeping onto the market over the past few years. There might be a few tradeoffs in comfort and styling, but the appeal of 50-60 mpg (not to mention two more years of Federal tax incentives) speaks to my inner miser.

I’ve ruled out the Toyota Prius for the simple reason that it’s impossible to get one. I’ve always been a big Toyota fan, but I’m not willing to pay a premium to get one just because the demand has outstripped the supply.

That leaves the two Honda hybrids: the Insight and the hybrid Civic. (Apparently Honda is coming out with a hybrid Accord soon, too, but by then I’ll probably have made my purchase.)

The Insight is a two-seater, but that’s not really a disincentive as far as I’m concerned. The zillions of consumer reviews I’ve read online pretty much agree on two things about the Insight: the stereo sucks and the tires suck. The other complaints seem to be a little more subjective, so I’ll withhold my judgment until I’ve had the chance to drive one (which should take place around 6 p.m. tomorrow).

I’m not ruling out the hybrid Civic, though. It’s a normal Civic in every respect except for the hybrid engine. That means it isn’t especially light or otherwise engineered to take full advantage of the gas/electric combination, so its gas mileage isn’t as knockout impressive as what the Insight achieves (average 48 mpg vs. Insight’s 56 mpg). Still, that’s better than 99% of the vehicles on the road, so I’d like to check it out.

I’ll keep you posted as I make my car shopping rounds.

I’d started writing a blog entry about how terrible my hair looks right now and how I need to start exercising, but it was so incredibly boring that I couldn’t even bring myself to read over it to proof it.

Therefore, I’m taking today off from Average Jane. I’ve been doing tons of writing at work this week and I’m all tapped out for ideas. This weekend includes a wedding, two birthday parties for my sister, and, I hope, a viewing of “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.” Let’s hope that gives me something interesting to say by Monday.

Have a good weekend!

Wow, remind me not to talk about my cats again. I know that pet stories range into Jean Teasdale territory, but I didn’t think they were THAT uninteresting. Ahem.

Well, on to another subject then: the new band. As I’ve mentioned, it’s been about seven years since I last sang in a band, and probably twelve years since I was in a cover band. If you watch bands on TV these days, you’ll notice that the latest thing is nearly-invisible, in-ear monitors. Gone are the days of the wedge monitors, feeding back from the front of the stage.

For our first mini-gig, I wore dorky-looking regular headphones onstage. By next week I’ll have a pair of the cool Shure E Series ‘phones (the cheap ones, of course, which can be had even cheaper on eBay). With my hair covering them, they’ll probably be nearly invisible.

I already love playing with headphone monitors. I have my own voice cranked up in my personal headphone mix, which allows me to sing even challenging songs without straining. The volume never creeps up (much) or gets overwhelming. Since all of the instruments (guitar, bass, electronic drums, vocals) are run directly into the mixing board, the only sounds anyone can hear in the room without the headphones are quiet string noise, stick hits on the drum pads and singing.

After today’s practice, we should have close to 20 songs learned well enough to perform them. Twenty more and we’ll have enough for a real gig. I’m working frantically to learn all of the lyrics; I believe memorization must be a “use it or lose it” skill!

Well, I’d better fire up iTunes and listen to the songs I’ll need for tonight. Have a lovely Thursday!

Wow, what a busy Monday I had! It’s funny how deadlines just launch themselves out of the underbrush and bite you on the butt sometimes. I got to work just after 8:30 a.m., didn’t go to lunch, and still couldn’t make it back out the door until after 6:15 p.m. (and I didn’t even take my usual afternoon Starbucks break).

I’ve been trying really hard to pare down my extracurricular activities now that my job is kicking into high gear. I’ve removed myself from two club newsletter committees and more or less resigned from one club’s board of directors. Of course, I’ve countered by joining a band that practices three times a week, so it’s all pretty much a wash.

I don’t know what I think I would do if I really managed to free up my schedule. Work for my dad more? He certainly has enough work to keep me endlessly busy. Read? I’m already making it through a couple of books a week on average. Keep up with housework? Ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Watch TV? Maybe, but I’m reluctant to jump back into that time-sucker and, besides, I have a TiVo that lets me watch whenever it’s convenient anyway.

My conclusion is that having more time is like having more money: you always think of a way to spend it.

Hi, my name is Average Jane, and I’m addicted to my blog’s “Vistors and Referrers” statistics. (Hi, Jane!)

This is why I know that “Average Jane” in German is “Durchschnittliches Jane” (actually, re-translating it shows that it means “On the Average Jane,” which I guess works, too). While checking my stats, I discovered that someone had Googled my blog entry on triops and then translated it into German. When I clicked through, I got to see the whole page and comments translated. Let’s hope it made some sort of sense in German, since heaven knows my stuff makes little enough sense in the original English.

Another blog I work on was recently featured by a Japanese blog. I used Altavista’s Babel Fish translator to try to figure out what the blogger and commenters were saying about it, but it was nearly as incomprehensible in the Japanese-to-English translation as it was when I found it. Just trying to puzzle it out made my brain hurt, so I had to give up.

As I’ve mentioned before, I get a lot of traffic from people searching for information about the new “Average Jane” TV show. I also get a lot of hits on my mentions of our betta fish. Even a pre-Easter post about araucana chicken eggs still gets a search hit now and then. That’s the nice thing about random blog topics: you never know when you’ll be one of the first people online to mention something obscure.

I appreciate all the comments I’ve received from first-timers in the last couple of weeks. Welcome – and keep ’em coming! Gotta keep those stats up…

In typical Wednesday fashion, I have little to say and almost no time in which to say it. I’m living to regret having the day off on Monday as work piles up at my job, my dad’s office and on my desk at home.

Once again, I invite you to explore my selection of links to the right. I try to add to it whenever a new visitor or other entertaining blogger or site catches my eye.

Back tomorrow with at least 75% more substance – it’s my guarantee to you!

Despite my little outburst at the end of yesterday’s post, I really try not to get myself worked up about things beyond my control. I allowed myself one initial rant in response to the surprise and to express my deep aversion to wasting money, then mostly got over it. Still, conflict is more interesting than calm, so I’ll always play it up for entertainment value! I’m not especially confident that the dent will be fixed soon, but I’m sure I can weather the shame (and ignore the whistling sound caused by the change in aerodynamics) for a little while.

Yesterday began without any concrete plans and ended up being a full day of activity after a slow morning. I met my sister and my niece at a children’s museum and we had lunch and spent the afternoon looking at and playing with the exhibits. After that, my husband and I went to a birthday party/barbecue and hung out with two other couples all evening. It was low-key but very pleasant.

I woke up this morning and realized that I needed to leap out of bed and get the trash bins from the party out of the back yard and to the curb as quickly as possible. I guess it didn’t need to be that quickly – they’re picking them up right now. I spent my first waking minutes slogging through the dew-soaked yard, picking up trash from fallen trash cans and gathering garbage from inside the house to add to it. I’m also in the process of laundering the beer-drenched blanket that we’d wrapped around the kegs. I suppose there’s no better way to get back into work mode than to wake up and start working!

This week should be typically busy, but I’m not quite sure of the specifics yet. If any great stories arise, you’ll be the first to know!