fyi – new theme, new blogware.

no more blogger.com for me – I liked them, but there was too much traffic, and therefore too much downtime, for me. this new stuff is wordpress – thanks to Steve for upping his server account and for installing wordpress and importing posts from blogger.

ps. comments are now on. =)
pps. was able to import the counter. here’s hoping it works!

this weekend Dave and I are traveling to PA in the new Honda. I’m looking foward to it – both to the trip and to seeing my family. pictures shall follow.

I’ve been working on the wedding website – it’s a trip. I found some really obnoxious photos of David and myself and used them all over the site. I figured that if people go (to find out where we’re registered and to look up maps and hotel info), they’ll appreciate the chuckle. we’ll see. those of you who read this blog should let me know.

I have nails! and boy, is it hard to type. =) I never realized how much I relied on my fingertips until I couldn’t use them anymore.

I’ve been a nail-biter my entire life. I guess it’s a better nervous habit than smoking or drinking would be, but it certainly has been the thorn in my side. I just can’t quit! I have all these good intentions, but before I know it, I’ve got my hands in my mouth again. it’s completely unconsciously at this point that I chew my hands.

Daisy suggested that I get acrylic tips put on (fake nail tips for all of you boys out there). she said that the changes in the length of my nails would at least help me *realize* that I had my hands in my mouth.

so, last night, Bethany and I went to this place called “Pretty Nails” (original, huh?) that was right near our apartment to get my tips and a pedicure for Beth (I hate the idea of someone touching my feet – I probably will never get a pedicure). it looked classy enough, so we didn’t have to worry about them giving us diseases (which is a real danger – trust me, I work with cosmetologists and manicurists for a living. I helped write the sanitation courses we offer…) all of the folks in there were Asian, and spoke little English with a heavy accent. it was relaxing – they knew what they were doing, and didn’t jabber on at us. I’m sure, though, that they were talking about us (as they were mostly men) while they worked. they laughed a lot. =)

so now, I have nails. I like them – they’re really fun. I just have to “get used to” them. but good news – I can type and play the piano almost as easily as I could before. makeup this morning was a different story. =)

it was a good Sunday, too.

a positive note about Saturday’s concert, before I forget – I really enjoyed the Chorale. I thought that they sang marvelously, and the soloists were excellent. I was glad to hear the Chorale sing again, and it felt like coming home seeing the few friends who still sing. this is the last year we’ll know people at Taylor – this senior class were freshman as we graduated.

Sunday – mother’s day. my mom is really far away, so all I could do was call her. and I did that when she was in bed that night because we kept missing each other throughout the day. I guess that’s better than years past, though… when we were little, we’d pool our allowance and buy mom mother’s day gifts like waffle irons (because WE wanted waffles) and other kitchen appliances. =)

my pastor and his wife invited me to lunch with his mother and her husband and another friend whose parents live far away. it was a lot of fun – I enjoy being with Tom and Daisy in a small group.

David came after lunch and spent the afternoon with me. we ran out to the park near my apartment and tossed a softball back and forth for a while, but I wasn’t feeling too hot (either cramps or side effects from the first day of the patch) so we stopped and took a slow walk then went home and I laid down.

the patch: I started birth control. it’s about time. we’re getting married in 2 months, so I need to get my body used to this stuff. the side effects are supposed to range from nausea, abdominal pain or cramps to things like blood clots and stroke (very rarely, obviously. and what drug doesn’t have some debilitating side effect listed in the drug facts?). looks like I’m getting the common side effects – nausea (just a little) and abdominal pain. but today’s only the second day, and I’m already feeling better than I did yesterday. Dave gets a kick out of the fact that I started birth control yesterday – on mother’s day. =)

anyway, Dave and I went to church that evening and sang a duet. I love singing with him. Daisy, my pastor’s wife, says it’s like we were made to sing together. =) we both have blendy voices and sound pretty great together, I think. honestly, though, I’d almost rather just listen to him than sing myself… and that’s saying something. I’ll sing just about any time – it’s one of my favorite things to do. But David has a truly BEAUTIFUL voice, and I don’t want to distract anyone (including myself) from listening to it.

we got home from church and watched “Much Ado About Nothing”, a silly little Shakespeare comedy that never would have been a story at all had the people, just once, communicated. =) I didn’t feel well then, either, so I went pretty much straight from the couch to the bathroom to brush my teeth to bed. Dave camped out on the couch and left this morning as I left for work.

I like those days where I get to see him in the morning, or late at night just before I go to sleep. I’m gonna like being married, I think. =)

it was a good Saturday. I had lots of things (too many in such a short amount of time) to do, so it flew by (as always). Dave was with me basically all weekend. I could really get used to that – guess it’s a good thing we’re getting married after all. =)

went to a concert at Taylor on Saturday night, after a busy day of running errands – grocery shopping, cleaning the kitchen, starting the paperwork for our new apartment in Gas City (what an awful town name to lay claim to!), etc. the concert was… long. generally, I very much enjoy concerts, but I’m discovering that I don’t really enjoy “Philharmonic” concerts. the Indianapolis Philharmonic Orchestra can’t tune their violins, so every piece is torture. I don’t care how good you are technically; if you can’t tune, go back to high school. the Marion Philharmonic Orchestra stays in tune pretty decently, but they program horribly and are very pompous for the size of their organization.

this concert we went to was disorganized, to put it politely. the program order was bad to start off with, but they switched it up without telling the audience. so… while some of us know the difference between Mozart and Bernstein within the first couple of bars, quite a few people had no idea they weren’t listening to the Mozart as the concert opened. then, and here’s the kicker, they didn’t tell the soloist for a piano concerto that they were changing the program order, so they had to call for her from the stage. she was a sophomore in college who’d won the annual concerto competition. I’d have been a wreck had it been me, but she had *remarkable* composure considering the situation in which she was placed.

so. the program order was written as this:

1. a Mozart symphony
2. Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms (a remarkable piece)
3. intermission
4. a Beethoven piano concerto
5. Faure’s Requiem (7 movements)

they played:

1. the Bernstein
2. the Beethoven (after screeching from the stage for the soloist)
3. intermission
4. the Mozart
5. the Faure

they should have played:

1. the Beethoven – because it was a cute, shortish good opening piece for a symphony concert – something you’d expect to hear at a symphony, and it would have settled folks into the concert nicely. and also, the soloist was a talented, pretty college girl, which gets the attention of about half the audience from the get-go. =)
2. the Faure – because it’s slow, LONG, and very static. how to explain… it’s like watching the water on a lake shore, on a nice calm day. there’s movement, but it’s very much an ebb and flow and doesn’t change much in volume or pitch. Faure composes like impressionists paint – blurry and atmospheric. this piece makes a HORRIBLE concert closer because it lulls you into a semiconscious listening state and will NEVER get your orchestra any kind of ovation, let alone a standing one.
3. intermission – to give the audience time to get re-invigorated for the exciting remainder of the concert. it’s too bad they couldn’t throw the intermission between movements of the Faure. =)
4. the Mozart – in much the same way as the Beethoven would make a good concert opening, this would have been a good start to the second half.
5. the Bernstein – this was such an exciting piece! there was so much rhythmic diversity and crazy hard intervals that you couldn’t *help* sitting up straighter. it’s pefect for a closer because people are energized by the 20th century rhythm and harmony and energy of this piece.

Marion Phil, you need to hire me to approve your concerts from now on. because I’m not going to another one as badly organized as this one unless you twist my arm, you twits. you should have asked Al Harrison what to do before you let him go to his son’s graduation.

… rocks. =) it’s leagues ahead of anything I’ve owned. I feel powerful – like I could compute ANYwhere!

I got bored yesterday, and started looking through my blog’s stats. people searched for things and found me! this is new – until now, people have just linked from other people’s blogs or my emails to get to this page. here are some of the funnier things they typed into the search engines:

• flu “didn’t make it to the bathroom”
• feeling “outsider”
• Sabbath afternoon fun kids
• american gigolo blog

not quite sure what brought my blog up for the last one. =)

so, tonight is Dave-n-me night. tomorrow is a bridal shower for a girlfriend who’s about to graduate from Taylor. then there’s a meeting with the apartment lady to (hopefully) sign some papers and get us an apartment for next year. then there’s going out with David after he cooks me dinner.

I found nasty cat hair in my lunch! I hate cats.

there are two links in my sidebar over there -> that I want you to take the time to look at. it’s important.

take back the web

so, some of you know that I’m a big fan of firefox, and of safe (and standards-compliant!) browsing in general, but I wanted to point out to the rest of you that I have a link on the right. and in the last sentence. I want you to go there, download firefox, use it, and make my job easier.

my job is web design. I spend more than half of my “design” time kludging my way around internet explorer. microsoft REFUSES to follow the rules and process simple code correctly, so I waste hours and hours coming up with ridiculous work-arounds.

here’s how you using firefox will make my life easier: the more people that turn from the crap that is internet explorer, the more likely 1) they will actually start paying attention to standards, or 2) (even better) firefox will become the standard internet browser.

but I digress. here’s something that matters a whole heckuva lot more in the grand scheme of things…

one

I read about this in a magazine, then came across it again and took time to think about it. I’ve decided that it’s important for you to go to this website and watch the video.

it’s been a long time. =) Beth and I had this thing about watching Buffy and Angel together. we’re close to the only people we know who like either; but more than that, it was just a way for us to spend some time together. we’d play some cribbage, make some dinner, then watch an episode or two of Angel.

for a while, the new boyfriend was taking up all her free time. =) he was new and exciting. but now that she’s used to having James and has assigned him his own night of the week, we can watch Angel again! in fact, we’ve already started. we’re on the last season of the series… we have just enough time (at the rate we’re going) to finish this season before I get married and move away. me moving doesn’t mean the joss whedon fun has to end – we still need to finish the last season of Buffy. =) hopefully we’ll spend enough time together after I get married that we can do at least that. then there’s always Alias… and the puzzle that Pusa (the cat) won’t let me put together…

who doesn’t like that phrase when it relates to their particular situation? =)

my friend Mike (who hasn’t posted in his blog since Thanksgiving) went to Las Vegas with friend Elayne for a business trip last week. they took my laptop so they could do a short power point presentation on our company and what we could do for the folks attending the convention. this laptop had been given to me by friend Steve. for free. =) it was old, kinda clunky, slow, and the usb ports and battery didn’t work. I loved it, though – it represented freedom, choice of computing location, and had been VERY handy to have around.

well. friends Mike and Elayne took a cab from the airport to their hotel, the first day they were in Vegas, and Mike left his bag (which contained, among other things that were really important to him, my laptop) in the cab. needless to say, that bag never reappeared.

turns out that he can claim that bag and everything in it with his homeowner’s insurance (this homeowner’s insurance must be a wonderful thing – I’m gonna have to look into it when we buy a house). he said he’s gonna get money for the laptop. so, he’s replacing it with that money by buying me a much, much better one on ebay – one that is a lot faster, with more storage, a usb port that works, and a battery that holds a charge. =)

Steve, thanks for giving me that laptop. I’m sorry it got lost. but… rest in the knowledge that you gave me (by the transitive property, right Dave?) an even better one. =) and Mike, thanks for taking care of me.