If we all work together, we can beat this reality thing!

mzhartz @ 2008-08-18T09:21:00

2008-08-18T14:26:19Z

I just ran over my big toe with a handtruck. Ow.

mzhartz @ 2008-08-18T09:04:00

2008-08-18T14:10:07Z

Testing out Ping.fm

New Blog Post

2008-05-31T16:17:06Z

If you're reading this, you're at the wrong blog. I posted a new blog this morning at blog.hartzdesign.com.

This blog is moving.

2008-05-30T17:53:50Z

I finally did what I threatened to do, I moved this blog.

You can see the new one at blog.hartzdesign.com.

I need to remember to title these things...

2008-05-29T12:02:32Z

There's so much running around in my brain right now, it's hard to focus on just one thing.

So, we start with the whole purpose of this blog. I did dream last night. I dreamed a lot. But with all the other stuff, it's hard to remember an exact sequence. I know it involved jewelry and a certain celebrity.

Which isn't too surprising. Yesterday Brian went on a jewelry making frenzy. He made me a new ID bracelet, which means I can stop wearing that necklace, yay! And he made Charla's order. Hopefully tonight I can take pictures of the new stuff and finally get it put on the website.

Speaking of websites, I'm working on redesigning mine. I might even get it done today. Since I'm working as a graphic designer full time, I really don't promote my freelance design any more. (Which is kind of a relief, actually.) So I'm switching it into a more personal site. I'll also be switching over my blog from here on LiveJournal over to blogger with my own address: blog.hartzdesign.com. Don't look at it until tomorrow though, I'm still designing it. And I'll need to figure out how to do a redirect, if I can. But I looked at it from all angles, I don't think I have many readers, so it's more beneficial for me to switch to something that has the features where I can promote it. Not that there's really a lot on here to promote, but it would be nice to have everything in one place. I looked at my new site thinking, when I give out my website address to people at networking events, such as Startup Weekend, what do I want them to see? I decided I wanted them to know more about me than Baugh Enterprises, I wanted more contact information and more links to social sites. And well, my blog.

Now I'm rambling. And really I haven't even got started, so I should stop early. Told you I had a lot in my head today.

mzhartz @ 2008-05-28T07:47:00

2008-05-28T12:06:57Z

Yesterday was a pretty good day. It was a good self confidence day. I tried out a new combination from my closet that I think looked pretty good and slimming. I had an excellent hair day. And I paired it all with a pair of Jellies! I haven't worn jellies since I was six!

I started the Weird Newz back up again yesterday. Hopefully now that JR is settled in NC, he can get all the other programs back up and running too. I sent JD a new song for Jazz 101 (which never really left) that I'm really excited about. It makes me look forward to Sunday night.

So Garougal sent me a couple stories, I added one of my own, and recorded it using Cyber Power Audio Editor that I got from Giveaway of the Day. It took me a little bit to get the hang of the new software. I found one button I've decided never to touch again, because it took over an hour to apply the effect. Then I came up with the idea to put some pictures to it and upload it to You Tube. With Windows Movie Maker, that was a lot harder than I thought. I'd move a picture to correspond with the audio, and then the audio would move so they'd no longer sync.

Then it took about 10 minutes to save the file, a while (lost track of time at this point) to upload it to You Tube, then longer for You Tube to make it live. Then I watched it to find that nothing was in sync. So I took a look at the video again, and it looks like the stuff I changed later affected the earlier stuff. So then I decided to try another movie maker that I thought I had got a free trial of, but instead said "review copy" all over my video.

So I decided to start over. I knew what pictures I wanted and what order I wanted them in. I listened to the audio and jotted down the times I wanted each picture. Then I just stuck them in at the times I wrote down, even if they appeared not to sync up at first. Luckily when I hit play, it worked! Then I went through the whole upload and save process again.

It'll turn out better next time. I stuttered a lot during this one. I need to get back in the habit of recording again so I get some practice. I wish there was some kind of course I could take that would help me with the whole radio voice thing. Maybe I'll check out some podcast tips. But I really got to get the prep time down if I want to keep putting them on You Tube, otherwise it'll take too long and I won't keep up with it.

I messed with that thing until nearly 1 am last night. So it's not surprising that my dreams were full of uploading and linking to videos on YouTube. 7 am came way too early this morning. I best be off, so I can hit Starbucks.

Oh, and if you want to see the final product, go to www.freezeframeradio.com and click on Weird Newz after 11 am EDT. It airs on FFR at 11.

Dreaming of the Weekend's Events

2008-05-26T14:35:51Z

I finally remembered my dream, and it is no surprise that it involves a dance performance.

There was 3 schools competing in a dance contest. And there were 3 songs we each had to dance to. We had to plan out the choreography and the costumes. Our last song sounded Hawaiian, so we decided to wear grass skirts and seashell necklaces.

We did our first song, then had a break. We went over to a grocery store to look for something to eat. They had these big tubes of ice cream that were like bulk candy dispensers. There were also ingredients and little wooden spoons to sample the ice cream. There was no corn in any of them! I sampled a few and decided on one, but the store was taking down the ice cream for the day, so I didn't get to get any.

Then we went back and did our second song, which went really well. When we were getting ready to do the third song, I thought it might be a good idea to give beads and shells to the audience at the end of the song. The rest of our group agreed. I was scooping the beads and shells out of this tub, but I kept getting scoops of mostly seed beads, which I knew wouldn't work. I was also having a hard time getting it to scoop, because I was using a kitchen glass, and there was a broken glass in the tub that I had to work around or get cut. I finally get a good enough scoop and run out to the stage.

As I was running out, I heard the announcer stalling to try to give me time to get up there. But she couldn't stall long enough, and they had started dancing before I got up there. I ran behind the stage and joined my group, to find that the song had changed! One of the girls was wearing a different necklace, and everyone was just kind of trying to dance along to the music that they hadn't practiced to. I got up front and tried to lead us through based on what the other groups were doing. And we didn't use the beads. We were so disappointed and mad that we didn't practice the right song.

Then we all got on stage and bowed, and the teacher from each school was there to congratulate their team as they walked off the stage. I was the last one off the stage, and my teacher was Madeline. She gave me 3 hugs and said I did a great job and that I'd do really well in the future. But then she started critiquing the last dance, and kept ignoring me when I told her that of course I didn't do it right, it wasn't practiced.

Then this black guy came up to me and tried to get me to go play harmonica with his band at a local club. I told him I'd check into it, but I was pretty tired and worm out. He said that was just an excuse, and it kind of was, because I didn't know this guy and didn't want to go.

Then we all started getting cleaned up. For some reason, I used a sink in the girls locker room that one of the other schools had been assigned to. But everyone in there was really nice and they didn't mind. There was a door at the back of the locker room that led into the boy's locker room. One of the girls was going to open it, but I advised her not to, because she was likely to open it to a boy going poop.

Then we drove off to go somewhere again. When we were leaving, it looked like a couple cars had their window smashed in. When we got back, those cars had been moved or fixed, but there was a huge row of cars that had their side window smashed in. We parked over along the side of the building so we couldn't be seen from the road so hopefully we wouldn't get our window broken.

We went inside, and told Ray, my stepdad, about the cars. He said he'd take care of them. But instead he was punishing the dog for something. He wanted me to hand him this plastic coated metal yardstick so he could beat the dog with it. Instead I got Chelsea to hand it to him. In return, I gave her some jewelry that could be very valuable.

Back "Home"

2008-05-24T14:49:52Z

It's not surprising that I didn't remember my dreams last night, since I wasn't sleeping in my own bed. Sometimes I do, and I am at my Mom's house so it's a familiar place, but there is just too much in my head first thing in the morning to remember a dream as well.

We went to Penn's dance classic last night to see Elizabeth perform. She did so well, I'm so proud of her! She did best on the tap dancing stuff. I do wish I could be around more for her. I think I'd be able to help her in ways that her parent's can't. She's celebrating that she's passing all her classes, even with D's. Her parents punish her for it, but do nothing to help. I remember trying to study in this household, and it was near impossible. I wish I could take her out of it for a couple nights a week, and teach her some good study habits. But that's kind of heard to do from 200 miles away. I also wonder if she has problems with hyperactivity and if that's affecting her grades as well, but I know her parents would never check that out. But I don't know what I can do without going against their wishes. She's got talent, and plenty of energy, and she could go far if the way were clear. I'm doing what I can to help her out.

At any rate, on to cleaning out Grandma's house today. I'm not looking forward to it, but it's just the right thing to do to help out.

Dating Dreams

2008-05-22T11:59:17Z

I used to have a boyfriend that I wasn't supposed to be dating. We were eventually found out, and we broke up. I haven't seen or heard from him in years. That's got to be what last night's dream was based on, though.

I was over at a friend's house (perhaps Jessica's), and there I met a guy that I liked and who liked me. I don't know if we were actually dating, or just thinking about it, but for some reason I knew Ray would disapprove of me dating him. He had a booth at farmer's market and sold tomatoes and concert tickets, and he also did a weekly radio show live from farmer's market.

I was at Jessica's listening to the radio, when he came on to his show from farmer's market and professed his love for me, and interviewed my mom! I was appalled.

Then the next weekend, I was at my mom's house. We had all gotten up early and had breakfast (including tomatoes from that guy's booth), killed some time, and then went to farmer's market to get tickets for a show. I was trying as hard as I could not to act suspiciously. We paid for the tickets with eggs. And then this guy broadcast to the radio and to farmer's market about this girl he loved and made a big scene about it, all while Ray was sitting right there. I was mortified. But Ray didn't pick up on it that he was talking about me. At that point, I decided that I didn't like that guy anymore, and I was going to try to fix him up with Jessica, because she would love that stuff.

Then I went over to Showplace, which in real life is a huge movie theater with 16 or so screens, stadium seating, etc. In my dream, they had kept the theaters and built a huge multilevel mall over it. I entered on the top floor, and was heading down the escalator towards a gourmet chocolate shop, when I woke up.

Yesterday was the rather stressful day at work that I was expecting, but with skipping lunch and staying until 6, I got a lot of the stressful stuff done. I think Loyce also realized that I needed help, and she helped me out a little. That improved my mood too.

So when I came home, I still drank a bottle of wine. I'm glad I did, I felt better. And I didn't have stressful dreams (well, not as stressful), and I'm quite chipper this morning. Brian also woke up before me this morning, and just made me coffee! Signs that today is going to be a good day.

Childhood Dreams

2008-05-21T12:10:29Z

I had a restless sleep last night, mainly because of my dreams.

The first one was a normal dream and not too bad. I dreamed about cleaning out grandma's house. I was working on one room while my mom and Ray were working on another. When I got mine done, they were no where close to getting theirs done. I made me mad, because I didn't want to stay any longer. I decided to go to the store, but the street was too busy, I was having a hard time getting across. There was this annoying guy who was standing in front of a bus so the bus couldn't move, which was blocking my way. Then the guy let the bus go and crossed to my side of the street, and I saw that it was my cousin Bryan. We walked back to the house together, and all of us talked about what to do next.

After that, I had work dreams. I dreamed of designing a business card, and of all the stuff that I have to get done today. I'll be stressed enough about that at work that I don't want to dream about it too.

Yesterday, I was thinking about memory and dreams. Particularly because I had a dream the night before, and remembered it when I got up, but lost it before I could write it down. And then I debated chicken/egg style: did I start dreaming so much because I became interested in dreams, or did I become interested in dreams because I dreamed so much.

I think it's because I dreamed so much. I still remember a dream from when I was 5 or 6 years old.

It took place at Grandma Stroup's (everything comes full circle, doesn't it?). I was half human half cat, and playing in the living room. The lazyboy came alive and started chasing me with scissors and a comb. I ran up the stairs thinking it couldn't follow, but it caught me when I had almost reached the top.

I blacked out, and woke up with my mom's boyfriend (or could've been ex-boyfriend at the time), Rob, and a female friend of his. She had done my hair Shirley Temple style, and I hated it. But I told them I liked it. Then we went bowling outside with Rob and another friend.

I think it's interesting that I remember this particular dream, and why I remember it. First, I hated Rob. I didn't realize it at the time, but looking back I know he did drugs, and had anger management issues. I remember one time when my mom wasn't around, he took me to his friend's house who lived in a trailer, and they all passed these "scissors" around. Now I realize that those scissors were. Also, we moved in with him for a while, and when we left, we left fast. I don't know the story why, but I'm guessing if I knew, it would substantiate why I didn't like Rob. And well, he was my mom's first boyfriend after my parents got divorced, but i was still pretty young and didn't really understand what that meant.

I also had long hair at the time, and didn't want to cut it, and didn't want it to look like Shirley Temple's, obviously. So, this was a pretty bad dream for me at the time, and it stuck with me for a while. In school, the teacher gave us a project to draw our worst dream, and then shut it up in these paper doors, which would lock it away forever. Sure it did, it locked it away in my mind forever.

Living In A Brothel

2008-05-19T12:08:19Z

Last night's dream was actually kind of fun.

My sister was a senior, and applying to college. She got accepted into a sorority that was actually a brothel. She didn't have to work in the brothel or anything, they just wanted to help a young girl out. She would live basically rent and expense free.

Since I helped her get in, I got to live there until she moved in that fall (I didn't have to provide any services, either). It was a really nice place, with a huge beautiful yard with trees (although it did have a small parking lot), and a swimming pool. It was kind of a Frank Lloyd Wright style house. Pretty upscale. No one knew that it was really a brothel, and often the customers would have to figure out puzzles to be able to find there way there, get in, or figure out who their appointment was with. While living there, I would have fun with taking a shower and then walking the grounds naked to dry off. From the street, if people were looking, they might be able to tell that there was a naked person walking around.

One night, me and a friend decided to hit the town. We parked at the Vid (which of course was totally different in my dream), and went in for a couple minutes just to justify parking there. Then we walked around town bar-hopping. We stopped at a restaurant too.

We were sitting on the curb just talking not too far away from the Vid, when the owner came out and told use we'd have to pay $33 for cover. We were appalled that it was so much, but knew that we couldn't argue it too much since our car was parked there. He told us that it was a fundraiser to spiff up the building, and once we knew that, we had no problem paying it.

Yesterday after posting, I didn't do too much. Did some personal work on the computer, played a little FFXII and went grocery shopping. I hit up Save-A-Lot and Marsh to see if I could get any better deals than Kroger, but it doesn't look like it. I like the way Marsh is laid out better, it makes more sense to me than the way Kroger is laid out, but Marsh doesn't have as many generic or store brand alternatives.

Today at work, it'll be just me and Larry. I hope that the phones are quiet.

Entering My Husband in a Beauty Contest

2008-05-18T16:04:14Z

It's been a couple days since I last posted, but I have been busy!

Friday night we went to WonderBash at the WonderLab children's science museum. I'd never been to Wonderlab before for a few reasons: They're open during the day while I'm at work. I really don't have anyone to go with. Brian wouldn't want to deal with the kids. And I really would prefer to go on a day where there is a minimal amount of kids, I want to be able to play too! WonderBash was on a Friday night, adults only, and had beer and wine. Perfect! I'm so glad we went, we had so much fun! Brian had a couple glasses of porter from Upland, and I had a few glasses of Triaminette from Oliver. We did everything there, and I even climbed the grapevine. (Making my injured leg hurt in the process.) We stayed for nearly the entire time it was open. I hope they do this sort of thing again, we would go.

Saturday morning, I had tai chi club as usual. Then a few of us headed off to Farmer's Market to do a demonstration for the YMCA for the health fair. It was fun, and we all followed each other very well. I'm sure we looked so cool. ;) Then we went to Esan Thai for lunch. I had so much fun hanging out and doing tai chi with them! But, did I mention that injured leg?

Speaking of the injured leg, I don't think I explained what happened. I mentioned that I was sore and stiff the morning after duckpin bowling. Really, my one leg was sore during it. I figured I just wasn't used to that bowling kind of stance and using that leg like that, so it hurt. The next morning, I thought the same thing. When it still hurt and I was still limping at the end of the day, and the next day, I realized I must've pulled a muscle in my upper thigh, glute area. It hurt all week, and finally the pain went away on Friday. That is, until I climbed the grape vine and did a bunch of tai chi. But today it feels okay again. If I'm careful, it'll probably be back to normal soon.

At any rate, on to last night's dream:

There was a beauty contest set for tomorrow. I wanted to enter, but was afraid I wouldn't have enough time. But somehow, I convinced Brian to cross dress and enter.

There was a lot of stuff to do to prepare, and I was afraid I wouldn't have him ready in time. The biggest thing was to get him a dress. It had to be made by this certain seamstress, and it had to be black and red. So I designed the dress and got it to the seamstress, and she said it would be no problem to get it done in time.

And she did get the dress done, and it was beautiful, and he looked beautiful in it. It had this sheer cape thing on it which they added. But, it was white, not black and red. There were other contestants' dresses that they didn't make black and red either, but there wasn't time to change it.

Then I realized that Brian didn't have any pantyhose, and the contest was going to start any minute. The head seamstress gave me her keys and said I could borrow her husband's car. I went to the parking lot, and there were a few cars in the two rows, then a bunch of cars inside a frosted glass garage. I hit the button on the key fob, and something honked in a parking spot. But it was just a seat. So I thought that maybe he took the seat out when he gets home for some reason. I pick up the seat and take it into the garage and find what it goes to: an exercise machine.

I'm frustrated, and decide that the car has to be outside. I went back outside, and pressed a button that said "dogs." This black SUV in the front row suddenly appears to fill up with barking dogs. I went up to the SUV to find that the dogs are just holograms. I pressed the button again to turn the dogs off and unlock the car.

I got in and started speeding towards town. The road was busy, and there were a bunch of tunnels coming up. I picked one that no one seemed to be using (there are a few), and it's completely dark. I switched the headlights on, and found that it's completely sealed off halfway through. The seal is curved so I could drive up on it and turn around. There was a heavyset guy with a beard there that said the tunnel was closed and I would have to try another.

It must've ended there, because I can't remember any more. One of the episodes of Tripping the Rift we saw a few days ago had a beauty contest in it where none of the contestants were really eligible to win. That's got to be where I got the beauty contest and signing Brian up for it from.

80's Fashion Contest Dream

2008-05-16T12:05:57Z

Last night I stayed up too late. I just wasn't tired. I usually try to head to bed at 10:30, but instead, I started watching an episode of CSI:NY after 11. It was the one where a high school guidance counselor was killed. I think that explains parts of my dream.

First, Brian and I were going to a show at a local venue. They had a list of what band was on when. We drove there, and there were a bunch of guys hanging around our car, so we were hesitant to leave it. We thought we got there at 11, so when the band we thought we were going to see wasn't on, we checked the clock and it was really 2am. So we saw that band instead.

Except really, it was a live porno. But we thought it didn't last long enough. The next act was also a porno that encouraged audience participation. I got grouped up with Elizabeth, and there was a dog there, but we really didn't do anything. (I know people who would love to be in that situation, except they would've done something.)

Afterwards, we were in a high school gym, and it was all girls. We were having some sort of 80's fashion show competition. There were benches that we sat on while we waited for our turn. There were two lanes marked on the basketball court, and 2 girls at a time would walk down and back. When it was my turn, I tripped and had a hard time staying on my stiletto heels. I was mad, because I thought my outfit was good and I could've had a chance at winning if I hadn't tripped.

The teacher that was judging had a cubicle in a large room near the gym. There were also stairs right outside the office to go into an upper portion of the gym. The teacher kept wandering off, and we had to keep going to find him.

Yep, I mention porno, but nothing to exciting really happens in this one. Sorry to disappoint. I also keep forgetting to indent the dreams. I think it helps with readability.

Yesterday, I also worked on a Blogger theme. I really need to get them to give me my old account back so I can switch over. I already like Blogger better, it is so much more customizable.

Dreaming a Horror Movie

2008-05-15T12:16:27Z

I try to put the adult content filters on for times I have dreams like this, and give people plenty of warning. And for anyone who thinks they're getting some good stuff, sorry, the adult content in this dream is more gross than anything.

Last night I had a horror movie dream. Not a nightmare, more like I was living out a horror movie, but I was the one that survived in the end.

First, I was looking for a friend's house, who lived next door and across the street from a cemetery. The cemetery had a symbol instead of a name, and she told me to look for the symbol. It would be on the cemetery and on her pillow (and that was supposed to help me find it).

Then, I knew it was a horror movie. I saw the next two scenes, but I wasn't in them. When the ghost came in everything went black and white. The ghost was very "Grunge" and "The Ring" style. It was a little girl with long dark dirty wet hair, and she floated about 3 feet off the ground. Her arms were backwards, her elbows faced forward, but the palms of her hands still faced back. When she killed her victim, she waved her hands in a purposeful motion around their heads, and they just dropped dead.

I don't remember both scenes, I just know there were two. In the second scene, the ghost killed a young teenage girl in a school locker room, in front of the big mirror that the girls do their makeup in, but the showers were on and the mirror was steamed up.

Then in my scene, there was this big redneck guy who I think kidnapped me and was going to rape me. I was afraid, but I knew the ghost was going to come and kill him eventually. The redneck guy told me how he was into BDSM and how he was going to have fun with me. Again, I thought the ghost would come in at any moment and kill him. The redneck guy had me trapped on a couch under an old blanket, and he came under the blanket with me. His underwear looked like they used to be white with some sort of imprint or pattern on them, but they were now a beige color and the printing had worn off. They didn't have that flap thing that men's underwear has, instead he had worn a hole through them and his balls and penis were sticking out of the hole. They were very frightenly red, especially against the contrast of his dirty worn out underwear. I was worried that the ghost wasn't going to kill him before he attacked me.

And like any cheesy movie, I was woken up at that point by my husband coming back to bed (from the bathroom I assume). I hugged him so tight, I'm surprised he went back to sleep. It was so nice to feel secure laying with him.

I did have another, tame dream after that. I don't remember much of it, but it involved going on a trip and shopping without having to pay for anything.

I haven't watched any horror movies, or even read any horror books in a long time. I'm guessing the graveyard part was from seeing the countdown to The Graveyard Book on Neil Gaiman's website. We did watch Secrets of the Dead last night about the Minoans and how their civilization was likely wiped out, but I don't think that had much affect on this dream. It was so cookie cutter horror story, it's something I'd expect to dream after watching that type of movie.

Well, I typically post these blogs in the morning before work, and typically I'm finishing it up 15 minutes ago, so I'm cutting the after-talk short and finishing up the tags and such once I get to work.

Bill Clinton and the Simpsons

2008-05-14T12:12:44Z

I'm not doing so well at remembering my dreams lately. The past couple days, I didn't dream at all. I do remember bits and pieces of last night's:
We moved into a house across the street from George & Miranda. There were only 2 houses on the street. We lived on the edge of a canyon or volcano or something similar. Mattie and her boyfriend also lived in the house that we moved into The person who was Mattie's boyfriend kept changing, at one point it was Bill Clinton. The house only had one bedroom with 2 double beds. The first night we stayed there, Mattie and her boyfriend had broken up, so we had the bedroom to ourselves. We had the nicer bed anyway, and Mattie's was pink. Bill Clinton had left a note on the bed, and we were laughing at it.

There was also something about going on a drive with the Simpsons, but I really don't remember that part.

I actually didn't really read or watch anything about politics yesterday, other than Webguy going to vote, and a more brief than normal mention on The News Hour. If anything, I had less exposure to the democratic race than usual lately. And, I haven't watched the Simpsons in a long time.

Last night, I did clean the kitchen, make spaghetti for supper, and watch some of Tripping the Rift. It was the first time we'd seen it. It was okay, entertaining but a bit cliche and shallow.

In other news, I'm thinking of switching back to Blogger. I left Blogger for MySpace. I thought MySpace would get me more readers, but I noticed that it didn't make much difference. So I decided I wanted to switch back to a blogging service. I knew a few people on LiveJournal, and LiveJournal has OpenID, so I thought it would be better. And, I used my username at Blogger a long time ago, and I haven't been able to log back into that account. But now that I know more about blogging and seo, I'm finding that LiveJournal is lacking a lot of key features. So I emailed Google hoping they'll let me back into that old account.

Duckpin Bowling

2008-05-11T16:53:42Z

Last night, I had a dream about going duckpin bowling. I don't remember anything else about it though.

But, it's obvious why I dreamed about it. Last night I went to Elizabeth's bachelorette party. We started out at the Trojan Horse, then went duckpin bowling in Indy.

Trojan Horse was good. I had a chicken pasta salad that was wonderful. I'd definitely get it again. Our waiter was good, although it took the kitchen longer than we expected to get us our food. That's happened to me there before too. Which is strange, because all their food is pretty grill-and-go.

Then we converged at Elizabeth's to consolidate cars. Megan and I drove, but of course, my car decided on a Starbucks run.

We all sucked at duckpin bowling, which made it a blast. In duckpin bowling, you get 3 rolls instead of 2, the balls are smaller and don't have any holes, and the pins are smaller. The lanes were very old, and didn't always function correctly. The pins were on strings, which made it hard for pins to hit other pins. Often, the front pin would be set back up after we knocked it down, which caused us to get a score of 11 on some frames. And every once in a while, one of the side pins would randomly fall down from the top. One time it did it as I was rolling, which made me trip over my own feet and about collapse into giggles. I played against Megan, Mattie, and Ashlie, who were fun to play with. Except for the cost ($30 an hour, I don't think the equipment was worth that), we all agreed we'd do it again. Though I am a bit sore and stiff this morning.

The Rolling Stones in Grandma's Kitchen

2008-05-08T12:03:26Z

The type of dream I had last night is the type that's fun to tell. So many of my dreams defy reality, that I think they're too out there for people to understand. But once you bring popular people or places into it, it gets their attention.

It starts out in my Grandma Stroup's living room (yep, Grandma's house again). We were all gathered for something. Grandma and grandpa weren't there, but in my dream, Uncle Kevin was. We were planning for something, a wedding perhaps.

I go into the kitchen, and Brenda (Kevin's ex-wife) has made at least 3 different cakes using some cookbooks I brought over. In the hutch by the table, taped to the back board, were pictures of rockers, including all members of the Rolling Stones. Somebody asked why they were there, and somebody else said it was pictures from the newspaper of rockers she didn't like.

Then the Rolling Stones show up and demand to know why we don't like them. They get in a fistfight with me, taking me on one by one, as I travel through the kitchen. I end up knocking each one of them out, arcade style. In some cases, there was even a counter between us, in another I had to work around the refrigerator.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Rolling Stones and have no desire to punch them out. Other than possibly hearing a song by them yesterday, which is probably true for just about any day, I didn't have any extra exposure to their music. Weird.

Yesterday seems kind of lost to me now. Work was good, I started using a personal assistant named Sandy, and she helped me get organized and I got so much done. I was using Remember the Milk, but it didn't help me as much as Sandy has. I'm even giving my calendar to Sandy, so Google Calendar may get redundant. We'll see how that goes.

Good Evening, and Stressful Dreams

2008-05-07T12:07:48Z

I had more stressful dreams about work last night, including some more repetitive tasks. I don't really remember the details of the dream, though. It's not surprising that I'm dreaming about work. I've been working a lot lately, and it has been busy and stressful.

I had a nice night last night though. When I got home, I took some more pictures for Liquid Braino Creations.

Then Christie and George came home while I was still taking pictures. So when I was done, I hung out with them for a bit.

Then I had a good tai chi class. I've decided not to walk to tai chi while we're doing push hands. The class is pretty taxing, and I don't want to be tired when I get there.

But when I got home, Christie and I went for a little walk. It was nice to walk around at night and just talk. It wasn't too long of a walk, but it was good.

But for some reason I ended up staying up past midnight last night. I just couldn't get sleepy enough to sleep. And then I woke up before my alarm went off this morning. I wonder if that means that the pollen count has dropped. I'm still having some problems though, I've been warm. I'm usually always cold. Last night at tai chi, Cathy was surprised how warm I was. I've also been warm lately when Brian's been cold. Maybe it's just the weather warming up, but it's not usual for me.

I feel okay right now. We'll see how the rest of the day goes.

CSS Fixed Width Layout in Internet Explorer - HELP!

2008-05-06T12:09:11Z

I finally got a shell of a website up at www.LiquidBrainoCreations.com. It looks pretty darn good in Firefox (or at least I hope it does, it at least looks the way I wanted it to). But it's having problems in Explorer.

The minor problem is that the body, the middle doesn't line up with the top and bottom in Explorer, but it does in Firefox. But I'm afraid if I adjust it, it will line up in Explorer but not in Firefox. The body is really the background image, a stripe, centered and repeated vertically:

I'm really not too worried about this, though. Yes, I'd like it to work right in all browsers, but we're talking a one pixel shift that I can live with if I have to.

The thing that troubles me is the header image. Again, in Firefox it looks great. But in IE, when you scroll down and scroll back up, part of the header image disappears. That just won't do.

I'm still a novice, I don't build lots of websites. The CSS is basic, you can find it at http://www.liquidbrainocreations.com/style.css.

Please, can anyone help?

Dreaming of Reoccuring Places

2008-05-06T11:59:11Z

The thing I remember most about my dreams last night is trying to convert a PNG file to a JPG. Over and over again. I woke up at one point to go to the bathroom and thought, "I don't want to dream about that anymore." But I did. Those are nerve-wracking and unfulfilling dreams. Luckily, there was a little more.

I was at work. I was looking at something on the internet, Charla gave me a magazine, and I had someone in my office who was trying to show me how to do something. Loyce came in and asked that I not look at the magazine during work, and I showed her that another magazine was work related.

The guy that was trying to show me how to do something was on my computer, but through my computer we went to a different dimension, where things were unreal enough that the dream gets fuzzy. I remember something about big fluffy clouds, and rain and mud and grayness, and about either putting or taking something from the clouds.

And then, I think as part of the same dream, I was at my Grandma Stroup's house. There were cats and kittens and I was feeding one of them, At this point, the dream gets too fuzzy to remember,

It's not too surprising that I keep dreaming of my Grandma Stroup's house, since she passed away a few months ago. I wonder if I'm looking for something. Is there something there that I'm trying to reclaim? Of course, I miss my grandma, but it's not her I'm dreaming about, it's just the house. And it's not like the house is going to some stranger. My uncle David, who's lived with Grandma and Grandpa since they moved in that house 20+ years ago, still lives there and is likely going to keep the house. So I can still go see it any time I want. I went with my mom a few weeks ago to clean out the house, and I'll have to look back on this handy blog, but I think that's about the time the dreams started. I wonder if I missed something, something that I think I should be taking with me. I'll just have to stay tuned to the next episode to figure it out.

At any rate, yesterday was a fairly good day. I didn't get everything done at work that I needed to, but at least I made progress. The rude guy showed up and wasn't rude.

Then after work, Christie, George, and I went to Oliver Winery, just north of Bloomington, IN. (I'm trying to get better at identifying places.) It was nice to go out there with someone and hang out for a bit. And the flowers are blooming, so it's beautiful.

And I did a bit more work on Liquid Braino Creations' website. In fact, I need some help on it from someone who is more knowledgeable than I am, so I think I'll give it it's own post.

Weddings and Babies

2008-05-05T12:15:25Z

Last night I had a weird dream (go figure):
It kept switching back and forth between Jessica and Miranda (two of my best friends, so it makes sense). Jessica/Miranda was in the hospital, having a baby. The baby was born, and I visited several times a day, to visit and to help take care of the baby.

She was also getting married that weekend, and I was worried they wouldn't let her leave the hospital for her wedding. I was a bridesmaid, but not the maid of honor, so I was getting ready on my own before I went to help her get ready. I was staying at my grandparent's old house, and took a quick shower and tossed the dress on. Then, without doing makeup or hair or anything, I ran to the hospital to help her get ready.

When I got to the hospital, she confirmed that they were going to let her go. But she wasn't doing anything to get ready. When we left for the chapel, she didn't even have her dress on.

The wedding was being held in a room at a hotel and convention center. There was a podium at the end, and chairs on either side to form an aisle. But the chairs were facing the walls, not the front, back, or towards the aisle. The groom, his men, and his guests were on one side, and the bride, bridesmaids, and guests were on the other side. Everyone stayed seated wherever they wanted until it was their turn. There were 3 rows of seats, and I was a couple chairs down from Jessica/Miranda. She still didn't have her dress on, and was in a black dress with a jacket over it instead. I was trying to do my makeup during the ceremony, but I didn't get any of it done and kept missing stuff.

They started out the ceremony by calling everyone up who was married, and then telling people to sit down if they were married less than a year, less than 5 years, etc. I missed the chance for Brian and I to go up. Then the ceremony started, and the maid of honor walked down the aisle. Then the pastor looked at the bride and groom, and she asked the groom, "What color should we chose?" Then the pastor said that they were surprising us by doing their wedding in the style of an old popular gangster, who got married on a small rowing boat. So we all cramped into this little area that was about the size of the boat, and they were married.

Then we started partying in that room and in the lobby area. We were supposed to go to another place for the reception, but we never made it there. Brian wasn't with me, and that made me sad, so I went into the bathroom and cried. I was also still concerned about whether she could return the dress since she never wore it. And I took care of the baby a little bit.

Last weekend was pretty laid back, and that's good. Friday night, we went out to the Crazy Horse for supper. I got to have my shot of Cabo Wabo tequila, and I sipped it instead of shooting it. It was really good.

Saturday, I was going to go to Tai Chi Club, but when I went to put my contacts in, my right eye hurt really bad. I looked at it, and it had a large red area on the outside corner. So I decided to stay home and wear my glasses all day. I can't see well in sunlight without sunglasses, and I can't wear sunglasses and my glasses at the same time. I worked on the Liquid Braino Creations website and got a lot done. Unfortunately, I also deleted my placeholder index file in the process, so the site's down right now. Hopefully tonight I can get it up and running after I get home from Oliver Winery with Christie.

Sunday was a lazy day, with a little bit of cleaning. Sunday evening, we all got together and had a huge cookout in the parking lot by the dog park. It was great to have all the neighbors together.

But now it's Monday, back to the grind...

Dreaming of Bad Waitresses and Cool Festivals

2008-05-03T13:31:36Z

Last night I had a dream of a bad waitress and a cool town festival:

First, I was at the Trojan Horse finishing up a meal. I went to pay and I gave the waitress my club card and marked which spots she needed to punch. She came back with my credit card all charged, but nothing done to my club card. I showed it to her, and she said those spots needed punched. I asked her to punch them for me, and she told me to do it myself. I told her I didn't have the punch, and she told me where it was, under the podium where the hostess stands. I lost it (apparently the rest of the service during the meal had been bad too), threw the pencil I was holding, and yelled at her. Another waitress came by, grabbed my club card, punched it and handed it back to me, and she acted like the other waitress was being unreasonable. I asked the bad waitress her name, it was Tina, and said that I was never coming back as long as she was there.

The problem with avoiding Tina was that she worked the special occasions. So any time someone I knew booked a dinner party there, like Elizabeth's bridal shower that was coming up, there was a chance I'd have to deal with her. In fact, as I was leaving, Elizabeth was waiting to go up to the room they kept for special occasions, for a monthly tea party meeting. She invited me to join her, but I saw that Tina was going to be serving, and I told her the story and left.

When I left, Tina was following me and I kept having to avoid her. Luckily, there was this huge festival in town, and people were everywhere. The town was filled with shops selling trinkets and souvenirs. I ducked into a shop and looked around. A guy pointed at a small pewter sculpture in a case and said the one guy looked like Gambit, the leader of his clan. It was a wizard that looked like Saruman from Lord of the Rings. Then, a float went by on the street, and Gambit was there on the loadspeaker talking to all his followers. I thought it was cool, and watched it go by.

A float went by with a bunch of sad Santas. Another float went by with a couple more not so great Santas. I stayed out on the street, watching the festivities. There was music everywhere. Slaughter's "Days Gone By" was playing, and now I can't get it out of my head!

Yesterday at work was as busy and hectic as it has been this past week. But I felt like I still got some stuff done today, which is good. There's still a lot that I'm behind on, but hopefully I can make progress.

I got the labels printed for the tags for Liquid Braino Creations jewelry. They're tiny labels and tags (so they interfere as little as possible with the peice), and I couldn't get them to feed right through my printer. So I tried them on my printer at work, and finally got some good quality labels.

We also got our stimulus check deposited yesterday! So with Brian getting unemployment, we should be able to visit my grandparents in Florida.

I called my grandma last night. Well, first I tried calling my grandpa since he's still at the rehab place since his hip surgery, but I think I got the wrong number. So I called Grandma (and forgot to get Grandpa's number, doh!). She sounds like she's doing well. She's in good spirits. I wonder if she's kind of liking having the house to herself. She visits Grandpa every afternoon, and they go feed the ducks. He can't get around in the walker unless someone else is with him, and they won't let him go with the walker with Grandma. But he gets around in a wheelchair. Unfortunately, all the guys they know who could build a ramp for them have gone back up north. But he really wants to come home. I'll be excited to go see them. I miss them so much. If I could, I'd move down there to be with them and go to doctor's appointments with them. I think Grandma is kind of lost and the doctors aren't helping her understand.

Today, I plan to get some more work done on the Liquid Braino Creations website. I was going to go to tai chi club, but when I put my contacts in, my right eye hurt a lot. It's kind of swollen and there's a red spot. I don't know if there was something on the contact and I scratched it, or if it was like that before. I'm guessing it's due to allergies, since the pollen count has been so high and it has been affecting me.

So, on with the day.

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream (Or To Just Sleep Some More)

2008-05-02T12:07:49Z

I think I'm finally waking up. I fell asleep at 7:30 last night, and didn't wake up until my alarm went off at 7 this morning. I'm still groggy, but I think some coffee will help with that.

Yesterday was a busy day. It was non-stop until 5, I didn't even get time to break for lunch. And the pollen is still messing with me, so I think that's wearing me out too. After work, I came home, ate supper, and fell asleep.

So of course with all that sleeping, I'd have at least one dream:

A group of us were on a scavenger hunt to find local artwork, sculptures, and architecture. We were at my Grandma Stroup's house deciphering the latest clue. The clue involved one of those cross-your-eyes-to-see-it 3-d pictures, and I was the only one that could get it to work. The picture was multi-dimensional with it's content, so every time I looked at it, I saw more clues.

There was more to the dream, including leaving to go looking at what we thought the solution was, but that's all I can remember.

Stressful Days, Reconnecting with High School Friends at Night

2008-05-01T12:18:36Z

No wonder I didn't want to get out of bed yesterday, it had one of the highest pollen counts so far this year, and today is going to be worse. I wonder if my mood swings are connected to my allergies. I've got a pollen count on my Google homepage now, so I'm going to keep track a little more.

I had a bad day yesterday. The morning wasn't so bad, and I got a lot done. But by noon I was feeling terrible. (I wonder if I can take both Claritin and Zyrtec?) And then a customer came in who won't leave me alone. Only Tuesday did he finally decide what he wants, and now he expects it to be done overnight. Literally. So my productive day was shot to hell when he came back, which means I got less stuff done, and I don't like the way this guy treats me. He called me "baby." Very few people are allowed to call me "baby," (and he's certainly not one of them, So the plan yesterday was to finish up everything else I had to do, and then work on his thing in the morning. Now I'm behind and he's demanding it by 2 today. At which time he's also bringing someone else in to look at shirts. I really don't want to go to work today.

Then after working late, when I came home and checked the mail, Brian had an envelope from "Indiana Payments" with a Florida address. When I opened the letter, I thought it was a scam. When it had a debit card on the inside and asked you to call with your SSN, I really thought it was a scam. After some searching online, I found out that it's for his unemployment. We were both mad about it, because there was no identifying information in the envelope for what the card was for, and that's probably the worst way for him to get his money. He needs cash, and I handle the bills, so a check or direct deposit would've been best. So to get the money in our bank account, he had to call and have it transferred from the card. He'll have to do that every week. Then I had a hard time getting him to sign the card, since he doesn't want to use it, but I told him that it's easier for someone to steal and use an unsigned card. He signed it, but continued to argue that the card wasn't going to leave the house. I didn't feel like arguing (and pointing out that it he doesn't have to leave the house for someone to steal it), I was fed up with my day, so I grabbed my purse and left. I drove around for a while, and when I came back, he apologized. I pretty much just laid on the couch for the rest of the night (which at that point was mostly over anyway).

So after all that, I expected to have more stressful dreams. Luckily, my dream was quite pleasant.

I was taking a class at Ivy Tech, just to further my education. I made friends with the guy sitting next to me, who thought I was interesting because of the range of subject matter I had on me. I had a book about spiritual gemstones, and some other intriguing items (that I can't remember). Brent, an old friend from high school, was in the class. When class was almost over, I went over to talk to him, and he was glad to see me. (I'm not sure if that would be the case now. Not that I did anything to him, but since high school, he's seemed uninterested in carrying on a conversation with me.) He gave me a business card; he was doing something freelance and looking for work. It was great to talk to him again,

Then after class, I saw Blaine, another friend from high school. (Who I do talk to occasionally.) He told me that Jessica (another friend from high school who I DO stay in contact with and is still one of my best friends) was having an anniversary of her 1st Birthday party (just to make it more interesting). I couldn't come, but I did give her a call. I was really disappointed to miss the party and miss seeing her, but she sounded like she was having a good time.

Then Brian and I drove home. We had some sort of screen in the car window. We drove through a bank parking lot, and there was a gang hanging around there. As we were trying to avoid them, the screen almost fell out of the window, just as we were passing a couple girls from my class. They waived and smiled as we readjusted the screen. Then we continued on our way, avoiding tons of gangs and police. We got back out to the main road, and saw one of the girls again. She smiled, acted friendly, and told me she was going to sue me because the screen came out when we were passing her. I told her to go ahead, since she had no case.

It was Memorial day weekend and I took the Friday off thinking we would drive down to Florida to visit my grandparents. But we realized that the drive would take too long and as soon as we got down there, we'd have to turn around and drive back. So we decided to reschedule and take a plane in a couple weeks.

And at this point, I should be walking out the door for work.

Another Camping Dream

2008-04-30T12:06:33Z

So sleepy..zz..z... --Huh? Oh yeah, gotta get up, blog, work, etc. I've got some coffee brewing in the coffee press.

Last night I dreamed that we went on vacation with my mom and stepdad, but my little sister, Elizabeth, didn't come along. Brian and I forgot all of our camping stuff at home, so we were going to share a tent with my mom and stepdad and use the stuff they had for Elizabeth. Their tent was the same size as our tent in real life - a two room tent, but not big enough that I'd want to share it with my parents. But that's all we had, so we went with it. The campground was wooded, and we set up at the southwest corner of the middle oval next to a bunch of brand new wood picnic tables. We set things up, and they also let us borrow a radio. The radio was programmable and did something else, and I was playing around with it trying to get it to work, when I reset all the radio stations.

There was more to this dream, but this is all I can remember at the moment. Perhaps if I went back to sleep...

No, I know I can't do that. I think I'm tired from a busy day yesterday and from raging histamine.

Miranda's sick, and her car's in the shop, so I let her borrow my car yesterday. We also had a postal seminar that Baugh exhibited at, so I had to be there at 8. The seminar was boring. We rushed to set up, and we got a couple people in the morning. Then we sat around until they had a half-hour break at 10:30. Then we had the rush for about half an hour, sat around for another hour and a half until the session was over, and got a couple more people before packing it up. I knew it wasn't going to be as busy, so I wore some old heels I had. That was a mistake, they made my feet and legs hurt. Joe and Larry said it was good, and I was probably looking at it a bit different compared to the super-busy IU fair we had last week.

After work and getting my car back, Brian and I went over to Hobby Lobby and Staples for some supplies for Liquid Braino Creations (pictures now up at www.liquidbrainocreations.com, but no real website yet). Then I went to tai chi. It was a great push hands session, and I learned a lot. We were missing half the class, and I got to work one on one with Madeline. But now today, I am sore from the waist down. I don't think I'm going to be going up and down the stairs at work a lot today.