iTunes and Lists

I might have said this before, but I have this thing where I MUST get through all my iTunes music at least once every year.  Usually, it takes most of the year, but I'm actually almost through it all already.  All 10 days of it.  And I've been adding a lot of new stuff lately.  A lot of kids' music, some hard rock (thanks to Octane), and some classical and soundtrack.  I recently got Holst's The Planets again since I wasn't sure where my original copy was.  

Lists are fun!  I saw an article about a large asteroid discovered two weeks ago that is passing the earth soon.  And that made me think, what if it or some other natural disaster were headed for us and we had two weeks to evacuate.  What would come with us and what would I leave behind?  How much of this stuff that I've accumulated is irreplaceable or valuable or important?  And how much is a space-filler or junk?  I've definitely gotten better at letting go of things recently.  But there's still a lot of stuff that doesn't fall into any significant category (valuable, sentimental, necessity/useful).  I have kitchen appliances that I haven't used, books I haven't read, books I have read but won't read again, and shoes I don't wear.  But I can't get rid of them because I might need them or want them someday.  Hmm.

Thirsty...neeeed......waterrrr.r.r..r..r..r...r...r....

Let's see.  What's new?  Not much really.  I got the issue from the last post taken care of with just a little yelling.  Progress indeed.  My garden is planted.  It's the best garden I've had yet.  I hope the tomatoes and peppers grow well.  I also have a flower section and an herb section.  I've developed a bit of a tan from all the garden work and going for walks.  The Goober is crawling all over.  Ho hum, la dee dah.  I'm going to watch Jerry Maguire now.  I've never seen it before.

Oh Ho Ho

I am so incredibly angry right now.  We did what we were supposed to do and there is no way I'm going to let you penalize us because of your incompetence.  Is there an emoticon for punching a wall?

Ugh... make it end.

I'm so fed up with the health insurance company.  I love the fact that I have insurance, but I'm incredibly angry that the company's incompetence is keeping me from using it.  If this continues much longer, I'm going to go there in person and demand some kind of compensation for this idiocy.  Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!  Definitely my top pet peeve is stupidity.  You have no idea what all I've been through with them.  They have great coverage but apparently everyone who works there is STUPID and incompetent.  And my rant is over.  Time to go clean the basement.

March... MARCH!

Top 10 for March:

10. It's still snowing and still freezing.  Really?!?!
09. Dodging potholes has become the official sport of SE Michigan.
08. I found some books on CD from the library that are lectures on different topics.  I've been listening to them in the car.  It's nice to stimulate my intellect again.
07. I've spent much of March cleaning out and organizing the house.
06. Ahh.  It's nice to warm your feet in the sun.  And it's nice to see the sun.
05. I've been thinking about what to plant in my garden.  Any suggestions?
04. Watching House has been my favorite new pastime.  I'm currently on season 6. 
03. Hubs is enjoying the new job.
02. Baby girl is working on crawling.  She's not there yet, but she's making progress.

And the number one item for March is.....

01. New PHONE!  My old phone broke a couple years ago.  It was still usable but barely.  Now, for the same price we were paying before, I officially have a new smartphone.  And unlimited texting.  So text away, friends!

Better to be silent and thought a fool...

I'm a bit of a hot-head (among other things), and so I find it prudent to avoid certain topics of conversation by using the half-smile and slight-nod technique.  These topics tend to be sensitive even among the most level-headed people.  One of those topics is politics.  There are other topics, and generally, they are topics in which people are very passionate and very inflexible.  It simply does no good to talk about it.  I can think of another topic off the top of my head, but I'm going to keep that one under my hat.  ;-)

So what's new?  I'm learning Mandarin Chinese.  I never thought I'd take that one on, but it's kind of fun.

Citrus

I was cutting a clementine for the Goober this evening and the thing squirted straight up into my eye.  And Goober ate the whole thing!

The internet is both evil and my only hope.

We are coming to the end of day 3 of my computer-cleansing quest.  Yes, somehow the computer contracted a malady, and it is indeed a stubborn malady.  I started with a Norton virus scan.  Nothing was found.  I then went to a Microsoft virus scan.  Nothing.  And then I began an eight step process of scans, scans, and more scans.  Some malware was found, but so far the problem has not been fixed.  And the problem?  Invisible ads are playing in the background and the computer keeps randomly restarting.  The second issue has made it particularly difficult to get any of the aforementioned scans done, but I'm now on step 6 of an 8 step malware removal plan.  Apparently, starting the computer in safe mode makes it significantly less likely to randomly restart.  As I'm coming to the end of my eight step journey, I'm beginning to lose hope that the issue will ever be resolved.  Where do I turn next if I've employed ten different types of scans and have not found the root of the problem?  I'm open to suggestions and offers of assistance.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

After being pregnant and having a baby, I realized even more than before how that little fetus inside is a unique life and that abortion is unfortunate.  But I also found out how complicated and scary a pregnancy can be, and I understand how an abortion could be a medical necessity in certain circumstances.  So if the following is true, I am really irate at the state of Michigan right now.  "This new law forbids private insurance companies from covering abortions unless a woman buys additional and preemptive coverage, even in the case of...medically necessary dilation and curettage (D & C) procedures for planned pregnancies that went wrong."  Now, I didn't read the actual law, so I'm just going on what this article says, but it seems trustworthy.  Of course, there is room for interpretation in the phrase "went wrong".  If they mean that the child has a disability, I think that abortion is not necessary.  But if they mean that the mother's life is in danger and they won't cover it, it's horrible.  I don't think that the mother's life is worth less than the baby's, or that it makes sense to let both of them die instead of saving one of them (the mother, in this case).  Ugh.

Baby girl is adorable, by the way.  I can't imagine my life without her.  She screams and babbles and gurgles and waves and smiles and laughs.  She's simply the best.

And I'm such a dork.  I spun around in the rocking chair and my foot hit one of two cups sitting on the floor, knocking it over.  It happened to be the empty one and not the full one that I knocked over, and I said, "wow, that was fortuitous".  And I couldn't come up with the word "lucky" until I looked in the thesaurus.

Merry eve of Christmas Eve!  I hope everyone has a happy and relaxing holiday week spent with family and friends.

On a side note, I can't believe I'm going to be one of those idiots rushing around tomorrow trying to get my shopping done before the stores close at 6.

Jingle Bells

I was finally able to submit the healthcare application.  I had tried to submit it a gazillion times, but it ended up that I had to delete the previous application and start from scratch.  Blue Cross is complete crap.  You want me to pay how much so you can cover nothing until I shell out how many thousands?  Bah humbug.  I'll definitely need to look at this a little more.

Christmas is less than a week away.  And I have a cold.  Lovely.  The tree is up, most of the presents are wrapped, I've been watching Christmas movies, and I've been listening to Christmas music.  I wanted to make more Christmas baked goods, but I don't want to contaminate them with my cold.  Claritin is useless.

Christmas Season

I usually like to begin Christmas shopping early, and I prefer to be done by now.  This year, I got most of my shopping done without even realizing it.  Strangely, I've come up with a ton of gift ideas for my dad and relatively few ideas for my mom.  It's normally incredibly difficult to figure out something for my dad.  And I haven't even added coffee to the list yet!

In years past, I began listening to Christmas music about the time I started collecting Christmas presents (September).  This year, though, I've barely listened to any Christmas music.  Am I finally tired of it?  Did I overdo it last year?  Maybe, maybe.  I guess I just need to start listening to it and see how I feel about it.

As if anyone cares.  But I don't care because it's my ridiculous blog and I'll write about stupid stuff if I want to!

I feel like I was punched in the jaw.

Three fillings down, two to go.

The unattainable aspiration exacerbated her exasperation.

It turns out that exacerbate and exasperate are incredibly close in pronunciation and somewhat related in meaning.  I was thinking that I was "exasperated" but I wasn't sure if it was a word.  I knew "exacerbate" was a word and that "aspirate" and thought that maybe I was just getting the word wrong, mixing the two words up, etc.  BUT thanks to dictionary.com, I now know that I was correct in thinking that I was exasperated.  Oh, the things I find interesting, eh?

Speaking of Canada, How I met Your Mother is a good show.  We just discovered it.

I need a nap... or the ability to make decisions.  I'll take either.

Doctor Who?

Sometime earlier this year, I was introduced to Doctor Who.  I didn't really like it at first, but then it grew on me.  And then right as I'm getting especially attached to the characters, they have to go and change the Doctor.  I know the deal about the different incarnations of the Doctor, but I don't like it.  I'm having a difficult time adjusting to this new Doctor.

The Hubs does not believe in halloween.  I was never into it, but now I've found all this fun stuff that goes along with halloween and I won't be able to do it.  Oh well.  Since halloween is not a part of our household, baby girl will be a penguin for non-halloween.  And she will be cute.

I think I just overdosed on chocolate.  I didn't think it was possible.

Mindless Drivel

Baby girl is napping while the place across the street does some obnoxious construction.  Miley Cyrus has shown up on my newsfeed a few times yesterday and today, and so I decided to investigate by watching the music video.  My first thought, "Wow, she looks just like Justin Bieber."  So I started to google "Miley Cyrus looks like" and before I could even finish the sentence, the first thing that popped up was "Miley Cyrus looks like Justin Bieber".  So for whatever reason, I felt the need to talk about that now.  And the baby is awake.