Since I got such a good response when I posted, here's another picture of Lucy. She's suffered from eye boogers (mainly in her right eye) since she was a kitten. The vet never really offered anything as a cure-all. When it gets dry and crusty, it either falls or I wipe it off, but it's no fun for her.

Anyone have any ideas?

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Long time, I know. Below is Lucy, asleep and pretty inconvenient in her choice of location. There's not been a lot going on with me lately, just working concerts and pushing out creative pieces. I still really enjoy my job, but I do wish I had more friends in the area. I count a couple coworkers as friends, but it's hard to hang out with them as much as I'd like.

Yes, still hard to make friends in your 30s. But I'm still positive and enjoying myself. That's what matters most, right?

Here, a cat:

Woo sight! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

So I'll keep this short.

Friday:

Bad - my battery in my car was dead.
Good - met my new neighbor who jumped me.
Bad - needed a new battery. It cost $117.
Good - HR forgot to apply my hourly pay to my new salary pay and cut me a check so no taxes were taken out.
Good - turned in my spare change and made $51.

When the goods outweigh the bads, you know you're on point.
~~~~~~

Today I did a surprising amount of shopping.

Got some GAK (you all remember that stuff? It's making a comeback apparently) for my nephew from my sister as a stocking stuffer.

Then I went and bought some new tennis shoes (New Balance) as a Christmas present from my folks that I can wear now.

Got a couple nice short-sleeved, collared shirts for next week.

Got some wood planks from Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon to try to whittle on.

Got some travel-sized stuff for the weekend, bought said neighbor a little bouquet as a thank you for jumping my car yesterday, and two $15 iTunes giftcards for my sister and her husband for Christmas. 99c cards to put them in, all done!

Oh yeah, I'm heading to New Orleans tomorrow at nine from the Nashville Airport. We're staying in the French Quarter at a hotel called Chateau LeMoyne.

Anyone have any recommendations for things I MUST do while I'm there? Sunday is a free day, and Tuesday after 5 is open until the flights out on Wednesday. I'm presenting at 11a CST on Monday so give me good, confident vibes.

Went to my parents' home last weekend. Got up there around 7 and we went out to eat. Unfortunately, my mom's food was cold and my dad's Caesar salad was more of a soup considering all the dressing that was on it. Thankfully, they were taken care of - my parents aren't big complainers, so I told the waitress about Mom's dish, and she did the same for my Dad. My salad was great, though, so I don't know who prepared their dishes.

Anyway, this isn't about #firstworldproblems at restaurants, this is about THE WEEKEND.

It was a really nice time. My sister and her family are on spring break from school so the niece, nephew, she and my brother-in-law were out of the state. It's never happened before that I remember, except when I live din Iowa - that it was just my parents and me. I had fun. Got to help them cook and mucked about outside.

The big news is that Dad and I managed to build something this weekend. From scratch. It turned out so well that Mom decided she wanted one, but the base is some random TV stand that a neighbor of theirs was going to throw away and Dad saved it, so good luck finding another base, Mom.

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The shelves facing out are all the herbs I have. They're sage, thyme, basil, rosemary and a couple others, except for the top one. That's where I have three kinds of onions - white, red and yellow that I'll pull out as needed and replace with new bulbs as I use them.

The planters closer to the wall contain my vegetables since they'll grow taller than my herbs: pepper plants, tomato plants...and that's about it. I have some sweet peppers and some bell peppers and some jalapeno peppers in there, too. The tomato plants in the bottom planter will be trained to go up the side of The Complex (patent pending all rights reserved), while one tomato plant is in the top planter will come down the side of The Complex.

I had the green planters since last year, but bought all four of the brown ones for this express purpose in mind once Dad mentioned it to me. I knocked out the bottom holes in all the planters so there is a trickle-down effect when watered (think The Human Centipede but not as filthy) so they'll drain properly.

It took me about an hour and a half to get everything planted and covered in a mix of potting soil and normal soil, as well as mulched to help keep moisture in. That area gets direct sunlight between 6-8 hours a day, so I think I should be good. It was movable with the soil and plants in it, but I wouldn't want to lug it across town - or even to an awaiting car - so I doubt anyone will be stealing it (who would want it? Seriously?) and the wind shouldn't be an issue.

But, since it's getting chilly at night all of a sudden, I took to covering it with an old fitted sheet I use for painting. Seemed to work fine, ready to head home for lunch soon and check on them. These plants are my pets. Given the amount of time and money I have invested, I need this to work.

There's also talk of a community garden, but the ground hasn't been tilled yet so if The Complex does get run over by too much growth, I can always split the plants up and move some to the garden for everyone else to enjoy.

What do you all think of it? I considered painting the 2x4s, but they're pre-treated lumber so the paint would have done more harm than good since the pores are all sealed up anyway. I can see this thing lasting several years, even if I have to replace the planters in a couple years.

It's been a while since I posted. It isn't because I hate LJ or anything (obviously, with the name change, I just gave them $15) but it has just been the lack of interesting things. Work and life are going as usual. Not a bad thing, at all, but a very boring thing.

As of today, I have ventured away from the life of Sprint packages, but not service.

Many many months ago, I came across Republic Wireless and the idea made me happy. Oh so very, very happy. Phone service for $20/month? Are you kidding me? But I was too late to get into the first beta. That's what I get for being wishy washy and talking to too many people about it, looking for their opinion when I should have just trusted myself.

Even though I missed out, I still kept the thought in my head. The thought that phone service shouldn't be so much. Shouldn't cripple people. I, obviously, am not crippled by my phone service, but why not save money? Why not try and save more than you spend within a month if you can? If you can control it, what's stopping you?

With those questions in mind, I went over to Woot! and I just so happened to come across a pre-paid phone deal. A phone that goes for $40 and a $20 pre paid card, all for $20. That's a pretty good deal if you ask me. Since I am no longer stuck in a contract and could port my number, I figured I'd try it.

After waiting a day to port my number (PlatinumTel, which is the pre paid service uses Sprint towers so I don't know why it took so long) my phone is now operational and all that good stuff. I am honestly curious to see how long the $20 card lasts. I was pay $79.88/month for what I had (450 any time minutes, free nights and weekends, free cell to cell, unlimited text and web) which does sounds like a lot now that it's written out, but I don't really see myself missing the internet alerts.

Luckily, I can still use my old phone on wifi for free, so I don't see it hampering me all that much. This is how I invent adventures for myself, and since it will definitely not cost me more than $20, I figured it was worth a shot.

Christmas card time, folks. Leave your address if you want a card from me. I half-promise to send it to you before the holiday....and at all. But I'll do my best. Stuff is screened etc. etc. I have this set of cards from 4 years ago, so I'd really rather use them than toss them. They are holiday-themed.

Go.

Homemade potato soup

Bag of cubed hashbrowns (32 oz).
1 onion
3 TB garlic
1/2 large block of velvetta cheese
1 package cream cheese
6 cups chicken broth

Saute onion and garlic in pot until fragrant
add thawed cubed hashbrowns, mix.
add chicken broth.
use hand mixer to blend ingredients.
cut velvetta cheese into slices, then quarter.
do the same to cream cheese.
reduce heat to simmer, add cheeses and stir.
continue to stir until all melded.
salt & pepper to taste.

SO MUCH POTATO SOUP.

So I ordered a rug runner from Home Depot on Saturday. The guy said they would have it shipped to my workplace when it came in. I got a call a few minutes ago saying it was in the store. I pulled a completely insufferable #whitewhine out of my ass and the guy said whoever did put the order in, labeled it wrong. Obviously to appease me, he said they'd put it on a truck and deliver it to me tomorrow.

Well, I kind of hated myself and realized what a jerk I was, so I called the store back and tried to find the guy I had been rude to. After 3 people, none was the right guy, but I apologized anyway and asked if I could just come pick it up and save the hassle. The guy said sure, it'd be in the store until the morning when it was put on a truck. He said I needed my receipt - which is at my apartment - and it's pretty gross outside. Would I be a huge dick if I just let them deliver it to me?

An entry that doesn't include horror movies or family talk? Yep, this would be that one.

I had a pretty good conversation with a friend of mine - via AIM, because that's how the cool kids do it while playing Bejeweled Blitz - and she managed to make me realize that I've never taken a vacation by myself. I gave it some serious thought recently, just to double-check my gut-reaction answer and it's still the truth. Every vacation I've ever been on has been with someone else, or a group of someone-elses. Family trips, trips with friends...trips with other people, on other people's schedules.

A friend of mine on here is going to Key West. I continued reading the post, wondering if she was going with her roommate or a friend or her husband but...nope, she's going by herself. For a week. I'm incredibly impressed with her right now. I have other friends (most notably the one mentioned in the first paragraph) who travel alone all the time and seem to love it (she keeps doing it so...). I couldn't honestly tell you the last time I'd even thought about just going somewhere by myself before that AIM conversation. I've always seen vacations as something to do with people, stress and all.

But...maybe they aren't. I think I need to start small, though. Maybe head down to Nashville for a weekend of no communication with anyone I know, just visit the city, go to the Frist, go to a nice restaurant and eat alone, do some research on other things that are there that I've never done before. Heck, maybe even take in a Preds (hockey) game. Tis the season, after all.

Let's say you had $500, but you could only spend it on yourself, by yourself, where would you go? What would you do?

Here is a list of proposed themes for the 2011 Horror Challenge

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As you can see, I still have lots of holes to fill, and obviously this is just suggested, not mandatory. I went through my Netflix Instant Watch queue and my memory of what I have at home to add to the list. Unfortunately, with the video store closed, Id actually have to pay to rent anything this year from a brick and mortar store. Don't let that color your suggestions though, I want your help.

So...get to suggesting!

So yesterday afternoon, there was a shooting across the street.

I get home from work to find some random cars in my parking lot and one car blocking my mailbox. My firstworldproblems alarm goes off because someone's having a party and 1) their friends don't know how to park while 2) I wasn't invited. So I gather my mail and ask my next door neighbor who's grilling out what was going on. Jovially, I might add, in case it was she and her fiance that were having the party (hence the grilling).

She gestures across our sidewalk to the building facing ours and I see a police officer there. In a state of surprise, I just let myself into my apartment and start making dinner. A knock on my door brings me face to face with a detective. A flash of his badge and I tell him where I was between 3:30 and 4. I was at work, so that was pretty easy to answer. He took my name and number and went on his way.

Turns out a woman was shot with a shotgun in an apartment across the street and one of my neighbors - who was bringing her grandson out to play - heard it and saw the people who quickly fled the scene. The woman survived the shooting - which honestly surprised me. These apartments don't offer much room to maneuver, especially from a shotgun, but she was taken to the hospital.

This is the first time in almost 6 years that something like this has gotten this close. Do I plan on moving? No. For one, I'm pretty sure I couldn't afford to move to somewhere else while still maintaining what little saving I am doing, and secondly, it still seems so far away, so out of character for this part of town. I'm pretty sure that if it had happened to someone in my building, I'd be moving, no doubt about it. But this side of the street - at least these 8 apartments where four face four - has always felt like a safe haven. We all get along, we watch out for one another, we're even planning a group-wide yard sale for sometime in late spring or early summer.

Everyone's shocked, but I don't think anyone else is moving either. It's strange, honestly, that while we realize and process what happened, even a 10 yards away still feels further away than it should.

There hasn't been a murder in Bowling Green since 2008 or 2009 (I think), until last month when three teenagers killed a man. Then a woman died a few weeks ago. I sincerely hope no one in town is going to start pulling that End is Nigh stuff.