Bits and Pieces Casserole

How do you get rid of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and beef tenderloin leftovers all in one go?

Print off a recipe and then barely follow its instructions by tossing in what you think will work (potatoes, mushrooms, onions, and whatever cream of soup we had on hand) and cooking it all in one glop.

It was actually edible and quite good, to tell you the truth, and every bit of it went down into our stomachs last night.

Today is Beef Stroganoff Day because A) there's still beef hanging round B)I didn't have sour cream yesterday or I would have made it then. I don't care if Dad doesn't want it; that's what we're eating. Leftovers must go.

So, off I go. Stroganoff fun awaits.

Ta,
Bec

Good Morning: Post-Party Analysis

The party went well; after running ourselves off our feet to finish everything, the beans didn't soften up properly and so we were left with hard little useless things that were barely edible.

That was the only thing that went wrong, save for a lot of people not showing up. We had about 25, I would say. One of Dad's brothers along with his wife and one of his kids, Dad's mother (hypochondriac, remember?) Mom's one brother but not the older one, and her sister. Then add in a great aunt, a few older friends, Sara's friends in a trio...and that was about it.

We had a good time. No one showed up that wasn't invited, which was a good thing. There was almost the potential to have more uninvited people show up than invited ones.

I fell asleep around 6 last night, woke up and went to bed at 9:30. I woke up again at 6:30 this morning. After about 11 or 12 hours of sleep, I still feel tired but it's better. Today's Memorial Day and I'm not going to be run off my feet again for a while.

I'm going to go find some leftovers to eat (we did make too much food) so...

Ta,
Bec

300th POST!

Since I didn't throw a blogger party for number 200, I figure I can have one for number 300 instead.

So, party ON! Little confetti being thrown, a lot of balloons, and those stupid party favors that you blow on and make horrific noises with...

Spirit, our little Sheltie who apparently can't stand any door being closed in her face, is currently shoving doors open with her face. It's one of her favorite pastimes, but when Mom is in the bathtub and she keeps pushing the door open and letting all the cold air out it isn't nearly as funny. She's shoving open the bedroom door, no matter how many times I tell her that walking in while someone's sleeping is rude (especially when you have the loudest footsteps in the whole family, and that includes Dad, who's about 12 times bigger than her.)

I stopped her with the bathroom door but the bedroom door is lighter, so she'll shove it open anyway even if I fully close it. I gave up.

Working on my almost-publishable kid's story "Tin Grandma," and I hit a bit of a snag the other day but today feels like a day to work out the knots I created.

The sun is shining, the grass is greenering, Spritey's mad that I won't play along with her silly game of "Shut the Door, Small Doggie Opens Again," and Whisper is collapsed at my feet.

It's been a lovely morning thus far. Muse made a big announcement this morning: the new album title. And it IS:


THE RESISTANCE


Also there's a track called "United States of Eurasia". Muse posted Matt holding the score last week, and some terribly astute people read the title upside down. Kirk (best friend of the Muse guys and often videographer laughing behind the camera) gave us the confirmation of the title this morning.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! September cannot come fast enough...not only because of the new Muse CD coming out, but also because Kent State still has openings for their Library and Information Science program for fall and I'm attempting to apply. We'll see if I get in fast enough to set up everything.

Big party in two days for mine and Sara's graduation, and the real work starts today with cake making and massive buying of food. My fridge from college has been employed thawing a bunch of little tenderloin packages all at once. We'll see if they thaw. Tomorrow, Mom and I will make enough food to feed an army and then some.

So, 300 posts. Hopefully 400 will come a little faster than this one did.

Ta,
Bec

Dual Doctors and Dracula

I have two, count 'em, two doctor's visits today. Bocoun first, for the right hand, elbow, and shoulder. Taylor second for the left hand, wrist, and generally a waste of time because my hand on THAT side is fine and dandy.

I'm coming home with lots and lots of medication! Yay!

I am currently in the middle of some sort of Dracula poem that dragged me out of bed this morning. It kept nagging me to get up and write it down, and the call of the "write me" got me up before I could even see straight this morning.

Gotta go feed the dog and write more if I can,

Ta,
Bec

Post-Doctors: Bocoun has signed moi up for an MRI (apparently clicking in a shoulder joint is bad. Who knew?) and Taylor is probably hoping never to see me again as that would be a bad thing for me. I am doing well in my wrist recovery enough that I don't need to see him again.

Then Mom, Dad, and me ate like kings/Vikings/pigs/Romans on a binge. I had octopus; it was okay (Mom dared me to eat it; far be it from ME not to rise to the challenge.)

Then we came home. My shoulder's killing me; I'm going to take a shower and try and ease this thing.

Ta,
Bec

This is It

I'm wearing my great-grandma's wedding ring today, I'm dressed in a sunny yellow dress that totally doesn't reflect the tempestuous look of the weather outside, and I'm probably going to trip at some point today.

Also, I am a nervous wreck.

EEEEEEEEEEEE

Okay.

There.

I feel better.

Please don't let it rain. Please don't let me trip. Please let this day go off without a hitch.

Gotta pack up my computer, so ta,

Bec

LA, LA LA, LA LA LA....

i'm done.

I'm Done.

I'M DONE!

I GRADUATE TOMORROW!

HA HA HA!

(does happy, psychotic dance of superb joy out of sight of normal people)

Despite almost accidents with papers yesterday (thought I'd turned in a final version, had turned in a draft and had promptly lost the final version someplace. Then I had to rewrite it a week after it was supposed to be due. Ha!)

This would be the second day this week I typed ten pages of stuff for a class. Third day just typing. I almost never want to type again.

Almost.

My wrists are both killing me. Thirty pages in a week is apparently too much for them. I'm putting the kibosh on typing heavily for the next couple of days.

Not much else to say, you lot. Talk to you after the graduation, probably.

Ta,
Bec

Friday

I saw Trek last night. There really isn't any way to describe it-it was a GOOD movie. I had a little trouble with young Spock and a love interest of his, but beyond that there were nice explosions every five minutes and Bones whined through the whole of his first scene that Kirk and him were going to die (yay) and Kirk got hit about a dozen times and young Spock was STILL battling his emotion issues and...

Well. It was totally my kind of movie. Explosions, a car chase, spaceships, fistfights, danger, destruction, and really mad Romulans from, well...I can't say, actually. Wouldn't want to spoil all the fun for those who are still going to watch it.

Live long and prosper! \V/

Ta,
Bec

Poems Snarking Me Out of Nowhere

So, I was writing the beginnings of a poem on the way back from class today. By writing, I mean I was writing stuff down with a book held up in front of me for paper support WHILE I walked. I had to get the idea down or risk losing it altogether.

So, I go to dinner with the idea written down on a piece of paper. I'm hoping that while I'm eating I can clean it up, stare at it, and jot something down.

But instead of actually FINISHING the one I was working on, a second poem comes up behind me and makes me flip my paper over in a frenzy. Food forgotten, ignoring my aching fingers, I write like hell for five minutes. It literally makes me out of breath with the swiftness of how it comes down.

Getting back to the dorm room, that poem is the one that gets typed up and futzed with, instead of the first one (which still isn't finished).

So here it is, the poem that was meant to be 79 in the book but elbowed its way into spot number 78. It's terribly dark. I was kind of in this mood today but sometimes I surprise even myself with how angry I am.

Uncovering
You've always been
adept with the masks.

Cleverly concealing those parts
of you deemed unacceptable
by the censors

You have kept your silence
and hidden behind the wall
while others were stoned

in your defense
you were merely protecting yourself

In theirs
you were a bloody coward

But the day of reckoning is here
lines are drawn; sides are called.

Will you stand against the might
of a thousand armies

and watch more of your compatriots fall?
Curse you
and all of your affectations

Now break your mask
take what’s coming to you
stand at the edge of the battle

and face the enemy
yourself.

Like it? Hate it? Let me know!

Ta,
Bec

Didn't Get Much Done Today

Having come all the way through "Singin' In the Rain" for what could be the millionth time, and having watched "Court Jester" for what WAS the millionth time, I probably won't watch another movie for a couple of weeks again.

No solving on the Muse front. We're on strike and up to page 100.

I have watched all but one of my 1950's movie collection tonight (leaving out Kelly's other movie from the same year as "Rain," which was "American in Paris.")

My fingers hurt and my presentation is getting nowhere, so I'm going to bed.

Ta,
Bec

Still Nothing...But I Got These!

Muse have said nothing on whatever they did. It's slowly driving us mad-one girl posted a pic of herself lying on a floor with a BIG piece of paper beneath her, covered in code and with a big fat "BASTARDS!" written in the middle.

Actually, I found the photo again. Hee hee. Thanks to bloodymaryiii over at Muse Messageboard for her lighthearted take on this most dire of situations.



I got some things done today. More to do tomorrow. My fingers have been sore and I'm trying to reduce the amount of stress I put on them lately because I need them for papers so badly.

But I made this, and it requires explanation. Muse had a music video called "Knights of Cydonia," which I highly recommend, but it stated it was made in the Socialist Republic of Romanistan.

Go forward two years later and Dom mentioned using llama's toenails to make the next album.

This is nothing new; Muse have used drums on the side of a pool, human bones, Matt's fly, telephones ringing, an AOL message saying you've got post, and a rainy street. They will use anything to get the sound they need and llama's toenails are just another way of doing it.

But it started a massive llama furor and NOW Romanistan has become Llaministan. I got in on the fun and produced us a flag:



It was all in fun (line on the bottom says Muse Rule The World. Which they do.)

And I picked up this cute little avatar, but since it won't work on my messageboard account over there, I decided I would put it here.



AWWWW.

My fingers are killing me, so I will sign off by saying that I have gotten around that particular problem but I used it almost too long today. I'm cutting my sticky lidocaine patches down into little strips and sticking them to the back of my hand. It quells the pain in ten minutes and for about 4 hours, and it does it a hell of a lot faster than the ibuprofen did (which takes 2 hours to work). If I can move my fingers, I can type, and if I can type I can finish my work.

Ta,
Bec

ARGH!

Nothing yet, although the Pleiades have come into play thanks to Matt and his conspiracy theories. We're down to the bottom of page 64 in the race-no slash that-slow jog to sort out what THE HELL Muse threw at us. If it's even a code.

I don't think anyone's going to solve this thing.

Nothing else going on in my life that I need to report-I pulled my back tape off this morning and it felt like someone had ripped parts of my spine out. Not fun.

Ta,
Bec

Oh, Goodness Me

First off, I have tape on my back to correct my posture, courtesy of the physical therapist. She hates my slouchiness. It pulls when I try to sit wrongly, thus supposedly stopping me from doing so.

Second, I really want some popcorn.

Third, Muse are a bunch of...I can't say it. I just can't say it. Suffice it to say, they are torturing me and everyone else with their cryptic, freaky little clues.

(I am building up to a rant, so if you don't want to hear it, get out of the way)

So, Muse put up this picture on their Twitter yesterday.



It was a terribly confusing mess of stuff, and in the last day or so, it has been more analyzed than the Mona Lisa. Everything from chicken worship (cock equals chicken and minster equals church, so apparently Dom (it's apparently HIS finger there) is either worshipping chickens or sacrificing them to ancient warrior gods) to supposing that it might be giving the date and time of the end of the world (again).

This came out about half a day later (same picture, analyzed to death by a cleverer fan than I):




No one has gotten an answer everyone's happy with, especially after this was added about five minutes after the first one was:




Now, this one has Dom's hand (apparently because it's too masculine to be Matt's but too small to be Chris's, on top of the fact that it has that geeky calculator watch and Dom has one of those) playing a chord (with the LEFT hand, because Dom is a lefty) strangely called the MU chord (something to do with Greek lettering, I believe). Odd? I think not. Muse's official web address ends with .mu. That was definitely a clue for us.

So I have spent half a day plugging in bits of the code from the first picture with .mu, in the hopes that I would find whatever they want us to have a look at. Nobody's found it yet.

But then Matt posts a picture of himself online this morning, at the Apple computer they're working with to create this bugger of an album, and it kicks up a tizzy AGAIN. Is the cup important? Is the screen important? What's on the screen? ARE THEY DONE YET?




I have decided Muse are probably done with the album. They are sitting back, drinking some form of alcohol, patting themselves on the back for a job well done, and laughing uncontrollably at the thought of Dom doing terrible things to chickens that would make a PETA member go into a seizure. That and the fact that hundreds of their fans have spent the last almost two days working on this stuff and have no definitive answer.

I wish we could get a straight, easy clue. Someone was bemoaning the fact that she wasn't a Jonas Brothers fan and that certainly THEY don't tease their fans with cryptic clues like this. And certainly they don't get into serious discussion about chicken worship...

Ah, sometimes it's hard being a fan of these guys, waiting. Waiting. Doing some waiting. And then waiting some more while everyone else tries to sort out the clues (and I try to help-too damned complex for me).

Will let you know if anyone cracks it for sure, or if Muse give the answer to us nice and straight.

Ta,
Bec