Musings of the museless

source

With all my free time I have this week, I should really be doing nothing but writing (comedy, blog posts... something!), but it hasn't worked out that way. I choose to blame my spotty internet connection and the fact that I store all of my documents "in the cloud." (I'm also really nervous that I'm not going to get this all straightened out before I start working from home next week, so I've spent a lot of time biting my nails and/or on the phone with various tech support people.)

No ability to focus = random thoughts. On to the bullet points!

• I took my nephew with me to the feed store this morning so that I could make sure they sold the breed of chicks I'm hoping to get. (They do.) Charlie seemed a little afraid of the baby chicks and ducklings, but wanted to run onto the loading dock to get a better look at the heavy lifting equipment. Little boys are funny. I bought him a cap gun, because it seemed like the most irresponsible thing in the store (aside from the heavy lifting equipment). I imagine that when Abe and I have kids, payback will not be fun.
• My friend's dog had puppies. As much as I want to go sit in a box full of puppies and have them climb all over me, I think instead I'm going to send her my thoughts on dog breeding and ask her if she feels comfortable discussing the issue with me. Hopefully, she won't breed her dog again.
• We have had some interest from renters about our condo, which is kind of a relief and a stressor at the same time. I'm too young to be a landlady!
• I was almost run over by a speeding FedEx truck today while taking in the recycling bin. The driver saw me at the last minute and swerved out of the way. My father and Charlie drove up just in time to witness the almost-accident. It turned out the truck was delivering a package to my parents' house down the street. The box contained carpet tiles for Abe's and my garage, which my dad wanted to install as a surprise. What do you call almost-horrible-dramatic irony?
• Our dryer hasn't been hooked up yet, so I've been hanging everything to dry. Honestly, I can't tell a difference between clothes I've hung to dry and clothes that have been dried in a dryer. I'm beginning to wonder if my clothes dryer is a "convenience" that isn't necessarily always more convenient. I am all about skipping steps, especially when laundry is involved.
• I need to post pictures of our house. It is sort of half-finished. The outside is being painted today, which will hopefully make it look less peel-y. We still have somuchwork. I'm remembering why owing a condo sounded so appealing.

Anyhoo, hope all is well in your neck of the woods, Internets. I think it might be nap time again.

Biting the bullets

Yes, it is that time again. I have let myself get so discombobulated (love that word) through lack of blog posting that my only hope for ever moving forward is to attempt to re-combobulate myself through the use of bullet points and bad pun blog titles.

This is the current status of various aspects of my life:

• Job situation - If you are annoying even yourself with your self-absorption, chances are, you're probably beginning to alienate some of your readers. At any rate, I don't want to turn this into an unemployment blog, so after this update, I'm going to put a lid on this subject for a while. Since my last post, I took a test to see if I qualify for a teaching program, interviewed for a job, and signed up for a mandatory "transitions workshop" for the group of people who were laid off by my employer. The test went pretty well (I think). I thought the interview went badly. It reminded me of getting dressed up for a date with a guy that you're not that interested in, and then getting rejected because the guy is still hung up on his ex-girlfriend. (Oddly, that made me more interested in the job than I initially thought I was. Old habits?) I am sure the transitions workshop will be magical.
• Achilles - He is still nice. I don't know why he puts up with me. Perhaps it is because I don't complain when he heads to the video store to pick up a movie we both agreed on and instead returns with something he thinks we might like better. (I sent him this article and went upstairs to reread my Anastasia books.)
  
• Stand up - I'm performing again on July 11th. Email me if you'll be in the Austin area and would like tickets.
  
• Hurricane Alex - I am normally not a fan of hurricanes, but I am enjoying the rain and cooler weather Alex has brought to Austin. I hope this doesn't cause too much trouble in the Gulf, though. (Side note - how is it possible that we've never had a hurricane Alex before? Isn't Alex a really common name?)
• Birthdays - My niece and my sister's birthday was yesterday. In some ways, I can't believe little Ellie is already a year old. In others, I can't believe how much has happened in the past year. My nephew's fourth birthday is in two weeks. I definitely can't believe how much has happened in the past four years.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend Internets!

Spiderman Cupcakes

Dear Internets,

My nephew thinks of me as the cupcake lady. Any time I talk to him on the phone, he says something like, "You bring me Spiderman (or George, or WALL-E/EVE, or Batman) cupcakes?" Of course, he's way too cute for me to say anything but yes.

Here are some Spiderman cupcakes I made him this weekend. They're devil's food cake with cream cheese icing. (Cream cheese icing isn't the best for decorating, but I haven't yet managed to find a recipe for a buttercream icing that I can stand to eat.)


I forgot to take pictures until I was outside my sister's house.


It was 105 degrees outside (not hyperbole), so the cupcakes immediately started to melt.


My nephew, marking the cupcakes as his. He was excited and jumping up and down, so every picture I took ended up blurry. You can sort of tell that he's wearing a Spiderman t-shirt in this picture.

Charlie was a little disappointed that the designs were not made out of candy (Aunty is not that good yet), but I think he still enjoyed the cupcakes. I made a Lucha Libre mask cupcake for Achilles - I'll try to remember to upload a picture tonight.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Love,
Jane

It's a NIECE!

Dear Internets,

Sorry for the 85 posts in three days, but IT'S A GIRL! My sister is having a baby girl! This July, I'll have a niece-lette!

Yay!
Jane

P.S. Charlie got to go to the ultrasound. When he saw the baby, he said "hi baby, wake up!" SO cute.

Family Interlude

Dear Internets,

Is it really almost the weekend? I have been all kinds of out of it this week. I blame an inner ear dizziness thing and a week's worth of insomnia.

The high point of my week was seeing my nephew on Wednesday. When I stopped by my mom's house for lunch, he was standing shirtless in the living room watching WALL-E. Charlie is almost as obsessed with the movie as I am. He is also sort of in love with EVE. Whenever EVE would come on the screen, he'd scream "EEEEEVVVAAAAAAA!!!" at the top of his lungs. (My mom and I kept trying to get him to scream "STELLLLLAAAA," but we didn't have any luck.) Twas hilarious anyway.

In other family news, my sister finds out the sex of her baby this weekend. Personally, I'm hoping for cuddly. (I'll settle for adorable.) I have a little stuffed fox that comes with a baby fox for Charlie. I think it's supposed to be a mama/baby fox, but I'm going to tell Charlie it's big brother with his little brother/little sister (depending on the results of the ultrasound). It'll be an exciting couple of days.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend yourself, Internets!

Love,
Jane

Lunch Plans

Dear Internets,

My plan is to go to my parents' house at lunch and upload the photos from my dad's camera from the grape stomp.* However, my sister and her family have been staying with my parents for the week while they get new floors at their house. I'm not sure my two-year-old nephew will allow any sort of photo-uploading shenanigans to go down on his watch. In his mind, when aunts come over it is time to have screaming contests, sneak cookies, and watch Blue's Clues. It is not time to be reading the Internets!**

I will do my best not to let you down, Internets. You have my word.

Love,
Jane

*It is possible that I have exaggerated the interesting-ness of these photos a bit. Mostly, they are of feet. And cows.
**Vegas odds: Nephew 1, Jane 0.