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I stayed at work until after 6:30 last night and I had the house to myself when I got home, so I decided it was time for a lazy evening.  First on the agenda:  surfing my blogroll.  I read and commented on blog posts until I started having trouble focusing my eyes.  Whatever did I do for entertainment before the Internets?

After that, I made myself a mini bag of Orville Redenbacher microwave kettle corn for dinner.  I meant to have a beer with it, but once I planted myself on the couch, I was too unmotivated to get back up.  Yes folks, I was too slothlike to drink beer.  Homer Simpson would be ashamed of me.

While I ate my dinner, I fended off the cats and started making my way through the TiVo’s offerings from the past several days.  I watched the last 15 minutes of the latest Lewis Black HBO special (I saw the rest the night before but started to fall asleep before it was over) and tried to watch "Margaret Cho’s Revolution," but got sidetracked by the laptop.  I kept getting e-mail and obsessively checking Evite to see who might have RSVPed for this weekend’s party.

By then it was getting close to my bedtime, but I didn’t want to pass up the chance to watch "The Daily Show."  When that was over, I didn’t feel very tired anymore, so it was on to the season premiere of "Deadwood."  Oh, how I’d missed it! 

By the time "Deadwood" wrapped up, my stomach was growling so I had some saltines with some of those little pre-cut, cracker-sized squares of sharp cheddar, and went straight to bed as soon I ran out of cheese.

I won’t have nearly so much leisure time tonight because it’s my evening to work at my dad’s office (after I put in 8+ hours at my real job).  I keep hoping my dad might retire someday, but as he’s 75 now and still keeping his business going, I’m not going to hold my breath.

So there’s my immediate past and future.  How’re things going for you?

I finally made myself sit down this weekend and get a couple more songs written.  This was one of those weekends where each day kind of got away from me, so I ended up doing all my work in the evenings.  Fortunately, morning and evening are my peak creative times anyway, so it worked out okay.

The first song I wrote ended up being about a breakup.  The guitar portion of the song is a little bit Dokken-like, but I didn’t want the vocals to be too pop-metal.  I recorded it last night and it sounds rough and angry – just as I hoped it would.  I’ll definitely work on the song with my vocal instructor this week.  I wandered away from correct positioning while I was doing the recording and burned myself out so that I couldn’t manage the next song.

The second song, which is still in the lyrics tweaking stage, is based on an apocalyptic dream I sometimes have when I’m really stressed out.  There’s nothing like writing songs for a heavy metal band to give you the chance the plumb the dark side of your psyche.  I especially enjoy it because most people I know probably wouldn’t expect me to have a dark side of my psyche.  I can tell this song is going to be a challenge to sing because it’s pretty high.  I’m always afraid I’m going to write something for myself that I can’t actually pull off, but I’m sure I’ll be able to make it work when I’m not so tired.

I also re-recorded the vocals for the song I wrote a few weeks ago.  I’ve been working on it with the help of my vocal coach, and the tracks sounded considerably better this time around.  My husband just sent me an MP3 of it with his drum tracks, but I haven’t been able to listen to it yet.  He describes his drum approach for it as a cross between Disturbed and Tool and he has a lot of production ideas that sound pretty cool.  Can you tell we’re having a lot of fun with this?

Other than that, my weekend activities (in no particular order):  hanging out with my sister, my aunt and her cousin and having a fabulous vegetarian lunch; catching a Found Magazine tour show; watching an exciting thunderstorm with two-inch hail; shopping for t-shirts (it’s a sickness, I know) at an actual mall; taking a consumer survey at the mall for the movie My Super Ex-Girlfriend, which actually looks pretty good; and sleeping way too much.

How was your weekend?

I cannot tell you how glad I am that it’s Friday.  This week has worn me out.

I see my neighbors across the street are having a garage sale.  I’m glad it’s this weekend instead of next weekend when we’re having our big backyard party.  The last thing we need is a battle for parking spots on our curb-less street.

This weekend I’m ready to sit down and write lyrics for at least two more songs.  I’ve figured out what the melody lines should be, so it shouldn’t be too hard to decide how many syllables will fit into each line and go from there.

Other than that, my only plan had been to continue my yard work, but with my hamstrings so sore and stiff, I’ll probably put it off a bit longer.  I may have to make an appointment with my chiropractor and get her to do that therapy that involves electrodes attached to either side of the muscle.  It feels kind of creepy, but it always helps when I’ve injured a muscle.

Other than that, I hope to sleep as much as possible, eat some lovely meals and perhaps open the bottle of Gnarly Head Zinfandel I bought this week.  I think I deserve a treat!

When I did all my yard work on Sunday, I wasn’t surprised that it left me with stiff hamstrings.  The problem is, four days have passed and the entire back of my left thigh is still sore and stiff.  I do enough yoga that I can ordinarily bend forward and put my palms on the floor.  Right now, I can barely get my fingertips past my knees.

Since one side is particularly bad, I’m trying ice.  I find that my huge, round, Pampered Chef Chillzanne platter makes a great ice pack for large muscle groups.  I’ve sat on the couch with it against my upper back many a time.  Once the gel inside thaws out, I just wash it and put it back in the freezer for the next time I overwork a lat muscle or want to serve a chilled hors d’oeuvre.

I didn’t get to the laundry over the weekend, so this morning I was down to my last pair of dark socks and one of them had a hole in the heel.  Of the many ways in which I am thrifty (or cheap, as my husband would say), sock retention probably tops the list.  I have socks in my drawer that I am certain walked my high school halls in the 1980s, and I still wear them despite their tissue-thinness in spots.

All my dark socks are of more recent vintage – probably 6 years old or less – so my natural impulse was to sew up the hole in the heel.  I think darning eggs must have gone the way of the buggy whip, so I had to use a Silly Putty egg as a substitute.  It was a little small, but it did the trick.

I know that socks and underwear are fairly inexpensive commodities, but it always seems wasteful to me to chuck them if there’s potential wear left in them.  When it comes to clothing, I’d rather splurge on cool t-shirts instead.

My Moustache May mention on Monday (alliterative, no?) made me realize that I hadn’t blogged about my own husband’s new facial hair.  At some point in May, I noticed he looked a little unshaven.  I asked if he was growing a mustache and he said, "Yeah, and a soul patch, too!"

He’s been growing his hair longer for a while and I guess he had one too many drive-thru attendants call him "ma’am," so he decided that a mustache would help butch things up.  Not that it should be necessary since he’s 6’3" and broad-shouldered, but I what’re you gonna do?

He’s made pretty good progress with the facial hair – to the extent that my new favorite teasing nickname for him is "The Dread Pirate Roberts."  He actually looks pretty cool, I must admit. 

I think it must be kind of fun to be able to grow your own face topiary.  The guitarist in my last band had his head shaved, but his facial hair was different almost every time we practiced.  He’d have muttonchops one month, a fu manchu mustache the next and be clean-shaven the time after that.  My frequent haircolor changes were nothing in comparison to that kind of variety.

What do you think of mustaches and beards?  Like ’em?  Hate ’em?  Which Moustache May guy did you vote for?

I finally bought the marigolds I’d decided on back in May and spent Sunday afternoon digging up my front flower beds and planting them.  I got a large marigold variety – they almost look like zinnias – in orange, yellow and a buttercream yellow.  In the two containers I keep in the front of the house I planted red gerbera daisies.

I also restocked my herb garden as only the lime thyme from last year survived the winter.  I planted rosemary, a different thyme variety, a beautiful purple-leaved basil, oregano, parsley, garlic chives and cilantro.

It’s all part of my plan to get the yard tidied up for our annual backyard party, which will be held the weekend after next.  I still have quite a bit of yard work to do before I’m really ready, but at least I’m finished with the front yard now.

As for the herb garden, I’m hoping it helps me further my goal of cooking at home more often.  I’ve had about all the restaurant food a person can stand lately.  Tonight:  something on the grill.

* * *

Speaking of growing things, here’s a group of guys who all grew moustaches for a Moustache May competition.  There are some pretty good ones.  Voting is open until Friday, June 9th, so choose your favorite.

I’ve been sleeping rather poorly this week, which is unusual for me.  Thanks to my spotty morning sleep I’ve been remembering a lot of dreams, including one of a type I haven’t had in a while.

When I used to let my tabby cat go outside, I had a lot of dreams that featured her – probably because I worried about her when she was out.  In most of the dreams, we were traveling together.  I’d be walking down the road or through an airport and she’d be trotting along beside me.  I remember one particular dream where I went into a cafe and she jumped up onto the counter and climbed into the pie safe.  Very odd.

My dream about her this week involved some kind of fair or festival.  I was walking through the crowd when I noticed my cat nearby.  I picked her up, tucked her into my shirt and carried her quite a distance to the house where we were staying (as if she’d really stand for something like that!).

When I woke up, I had the same impulse to seek her out and make sure she was okay as I had back when she was a semi-outdoor cat.

Let’s hope I manage to sleep in on Saturday morning.

So tired…oh, so tired.  I stayed up past midnight to watch the VH1 Rock Honors show (which was AWESOME!), but I’m a little dragged out this morning. 

Still, it was a great show.  It started off with an impressive Queen tribute by the Foo Fighters, followed by a superb performance by Queen with Paul Rogers as frontman and both Taylor Hawkins and Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters joining in on drums.  Man, that must have been loud!

Godsmack played a Judas Priest medley way too fast and their singer was flat on every line of "Victim of Changes" but otherwise okay.  Judas Priest sounded great – better than in their most recent concert DVD.  They always make me want to go out and purchase copious quantities of studded leather apparel.

The All-American Rejects, of whom I must admit I’d never heard until now, did a nice job with their Def Leppard tribute.  Def Leppard was okay musicially but Joe Elliot’s voice sounded fried. (His hair, on the other hand, wasn’t fried at all, unlike every time I’ve seen him over the past several years.  They must have put him in the path of a good stylist before the show.)

The apparently last-minute-replacement "Supergroup" of Rob Zombie, Scott Ian, Slash, Gilbey Clark and Tommy Lee (joined by Ace Frehley) actually sounded better playing Kiss than Kiss themselves did. 

Jillian Barberie, the host of the pre-show, is my new hero for unhesitatingly mentioning her age (39) during her interview with the All-American Rejects, who are probably young enough to be her kids. 

Anyway, I need to get cleaned up and off to work.  I had weird dreams all morning long and some of them included work I need to do today, which is a hint that I can use all the head start I can get.

Four-day weekend or not, it’s still a typical, rushed Wednesday for me.  In lieu of a narrative today, here are some links to other cool stuff:

• Here’s a fascinating story about a blogger who tracked down the identity thieves who’d charged thousands of dollars to his credit cards.
• I must have this flooring installed in our guest room when we finally get around to remodeling it.
• I’ve always thought it would be fascinating to make a living trying to anticipate cultural and consumer trends.  This company does just that – and blogs about it, too.
• Have a baby?  Enjoy cryptozoology?  Hipster Baby T’s has the perfect onesies for you!

Random enough for you?  I thought so!  Have a great day.