I just want to say....

it's called a blinker, you use it to tell other drivers when you're intending to turn because they can't read your mind. Try using it sometime.

In other news, I picked up an old movie at the library the other day and as a reward for doing the 2nd round edits for the first 100 pages of my book, I got to watch it this afternoon. This movie had some of my favorite people in it, Hedy Lamarr, who's got to be the most beautiful woman ever filmed, Judy Garland, who's my absolute favorite singer in ANY musical at ANY time - I love that woman's voice. Then we had Lana Turner and Jimmy Stewart, who played a good guy who went sorta rogue. Jimmy Stewart, when he's not being someone like Longfellow Deeds or George Bailey is incredibly sexy. I kid you not. MUCH sexier than any man on screen today, including Gerard Butler. The only guy who may possibly be sexier is Clark Gable. I've got San Francisco starring Mr. Gable on order at the library, so I'll give you my final and most professional comparison of the two after I've seen it. They're both romancing Lana Turner (lucky lucky girl) in each movie, so it'll be a pretty fair comparison. The end of the movie I watched today always makes me sad (I've seen it a couple times before) because Lana Turner's character ends up much like Judy Garland did in real life. I look at young Judy during the movie and wonder if she had any idea she'd end so sadly. One of the quotes in the movie was that the Ziegfeld Follies aren't to credit or to blame with whatever happens to you, it just accelerates what would have happened anyway. Poor Judy didn't have a chance.

fun times

Today was the 2010 kick off party for the Special Olympics. It was a really fun time and my first event acting in my recently acquired position of Volunteer Chair. I'm just basically the person who lets everyone on our mailing list know about upcoming events. I've even got business cards - so it actually looks like I'm somebody important. The lady I talked to at Kmart yesterday didn't show up, which was a little disappointing, but there were over 100 people there, so I would call the day successful. The 2009 yearbooks were passed out. I cringe at things like that because I'm horribly unphotogenic and I knew there was going to be at least one pic of me in the book. Turned out there were 3 and they actually looked pretty good. If anyone doubts my claims of being lazy though, all you have to do is look at the yearbook to see that I'm telling the truth. Remember, this is a yearbook celebrating people participating in different sporting events throughout the year. In two out of the three pictures of me in the book, I'm sitting down.

exercise

Angel #2 and I oh so nobly went to the gym today. We did our little orientation session with the trainer, then headed for the machines. I broke a sweat, people. What kind of sadist invented those elliptical machines anyway? We also inspected the pool and got a list of the different classes they offer. We're going to try a few out and see what happens.

I did so good today. As a rule, I don't strike up conversations with random strangers beyond the 'can you believe the price of milk?' sort of thing. Today there was a woman at Kmart who was shopping with her obviously mentally handicapped daughter. Tomorrow we're having a big Special Olympics event and I wanted to invite the woman and her family to it. Of course, this is rather risky - everyone knows someone who LOOKS mentally handicapped but isn't, and it would be rather awkward to invite someone to the picnic then have them give you this look like, why are you inviting ME to a Special Olympics event? But, I figured I was pretty safe with this woman. She seemed only mildly interested, but told me that there was another woman in the store who had a little girl with Down Syndrome who'd come up to her earlier asking about local programs. Woman #1 must have run into woman #2 a little later and told her about me, because this woman came up to me later with her adorable little girl and started asking me questions. I invited her and her family to the picnic tomorrow and it sounds like she'll be coming. How cool is that? And it was all because I finally got brave enough to strike up a conversation.

we're now complete

You may have noticed that we were missing something in our goat herd, but worry no more! Thanks to the West Hawaii Humane Society the family is complete - we've now got a billy goat. According to hubby, we can now get more baby goats from our own little herd. Oh happy day[/sarcasm] He wants to name the billy goat Billy, of all things. I told him that was the lamest name for a billy goat in the entire world, and since Angel #2 named her goat Billy Baaa'b, it just wouldn't work. I suggested naming it Robert, but I don't think they're going to listen to reason. I've decided that my goats name is Ruby. I dunno, she just looks like a Ruby to me.

It was a busy/good day at work today. The income had been coming in pretty slowly lately. But the last couple days, today especially, it was like people were fighting to get in the door to pay their bills. So, near the end of the day, I was going to the bank to make a deposit and I'd mentioned to the boss man that I was jonsin' for some Starbucks, so I was going to go there before heading back. That must have sounded good to him too, and he offered to buy Starbucks for everyone in the shop. Yay Tony! But an vente iced cinnamon dolcee latte has a whole lot of sugar and caffeine and I had it rather late in the day, so now it's quarter to ten and I'm all hopped up. I may not get to sleep until tomorrow morning at this rate, which isn't a good thing, since tomorrow morning I'm meeting some writer friends for, what else? Coffee!

I got an e-mail yesterday from a cousin of my mom's. I think the last time I saw her was over 11 years ago at my grandpa's funeral. She's heard that I was a writer and is going to read my books (she also thought it was cool that I used her grandmas - my great-grandma's - name as a pen name). I'm really happy that I write rather mild, sweet romances and not the hot stuff, since this particular cousin happens to be a nun. When I was little I absolutely adored this woman, probably because she was usually the instigator of the annual family reunion water balloon fight. For a while, I even wanted to be a nun, just like here. Since I was a little Lutheran girl at the time, that would have been quite an accomplishment. I obviously got over the desire to join a convent.

Baby steps

Our insurance company has this great deal to try to get people in shape. Apparently, healthy people don't get sick as often as unhealthy people and insurance companies LOVE people who don't use their services. So, for $100, I can get a years membership in any local gym. So, not being able to pass up a good deal, I signed myself and Angel #2 up. I've belonged now for about 2 weeks and hubby drops this bombshell on me. He says joining isn't enough, you have to GO there and exercise and sweat and stuff if you want to get in shape. Just goes to show, you've got to read the fine print, if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Today I finally went there and got myself and the angel signed up for an orientation session with a trainer. We go on Saturday afternoon. I'd better see some pretty good results, we've got a party to go to at the beach on Sunday and I want to look good in my swimsuit.

goat pics!

Here's a visual to go with JeanieC's song This is Elvis and Clementine, the juvenile delinquents of the goat world, traipsing on the roof. Yeah, they're pain in the butt, but look at how gosh darn cute they are:

This little guy is either Pickle or Billy Baaab. They both look the same to me, but the girls can tell them apart.

Today, we finally got rain. It was so nice to hear it pattering on the roof (MUCH nicer than hearing the goats). I checked back and the last time we got rain was Dec 20 - I know this because that's when we had a downpour, high winds and trees falling down. We haven't had nary a drop since then and things were getting pretty dry around here. Our grass is all dead and our driveway was a literal dustbowl. So, it was nice to get a little rain again. I'm sure, come summer when the rainy season starts and we get a shower almost every afternoon, I'll be sick of rain, but I sure appreciated it today.

Up on the housetop

Around 6:30 this morning, I was in the shower when I heard a horrific racket up on the roof. Elvis and Clementine had gone exploring. Do you have any idea how much noise little goat hooves make on a tin roof? Our house is perched on the side of a hill and we have a rock wall that is almost even with the roof in the back, making it easy for the little monsters to get up there and traipse around. We're going to be blocking that obviously - hopefully before we have a goat come through one of the skylights.

I'm trying to put curtains up in our living room. I moved the furniture around a couple weeks ago and now the afternoon sun shines right on my favorite chair, making it really warm. About a week and a half ago, I bought curtains and a curtain rod. Today I took the rod out of the package and piled the hardware on the windowsill along with the screw gun. Hopefully, within the next month, the rod will actually get screwed to the wall, then it'll only be a matter of weeks before I string the curtains onto the rod. Of course, by then, the days will have gotten longer and the sun won't be shining on me in the afternoons anymore, but I'll be all set for next winter.