Bad Habits

So that was another long break. The only defense I have is that I’ve been writting obsessively. It’s just that I haven’t been sharing it. It has felt like a Spring of 4/5ths measures. Almost there but not quite there. The unpacking, the thank-you notes from the party, my attention at work, the housework all seem to be almost done but nothing completed. Writing three pages every day as I have done now for just a couple of days shy of two months but never publishing anything seems that way too. It’s like reading the news but never commenting on it. To me it just feels incomplete.

So on to it. What is the State of the Lee? For starters I’m pretty happy. Even the guilt over the about the things I just wrote about isn’t too bad. I will feel better when those things are done but I will find something else to procrastnate and feel guilty about when I do. That’s they way it is. And before you (or I for that matter) start moralizing that I should work to change those habits of my own I offer this defence: I recognize that it is my addiction to guilt that leads me here but step I’m choosing to work on first is releasing myself from being crippled by it. I’m getting more done by throwing a little bit of “whatever” at the guilt and moving on. Guilt, sugar, bacon, horrible grammer: things that I know are bad for me but am willing to find away to find a way to coexist with.

Home Alone with Julie and Julia

I was home sick today again. I was thinking about pushing myself out the door this morning when it started raining and I said no, I’m staying home. My food focus continued on my day second day of home commitment. Even feeling under the weather I managed to clean the fridge and make some braised chicken. I watched Julie and Julia which made me want to go out and by some butter. I think I may have to pick up “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. I’ve been having some fun with the kitchen portion of our wedding registry. I’ve had Food network on all afternoon. I don’t know if we’re eating healthier around here but we sure are eating better.

Trying to Get Caught Up

I have a feeling I’m going to complain in this post. I’m going to have to start off by saying that I recognize that I really don’t have the right to complain right now. Things are hard out there and frankly I’ve got it pretty good. I have a good job that I like. I’m marrying an amazing woman. I have a fulling home life. I’m remembering how much I love to cook and have been doing it almost every night which is a real change for me.

However.

Yes. However.

However, changes at work have cut into the hours I used to have available to do certian things and I’m having some growing pains adjusting. That and my work load is up a bit thanks to our usual Spring changes. So I’m running a little behind at work. I still haven’t done much to get packed and moved out of my apartment. I’m supposed to be doing that right now but instead I’m sitting at the Sugar Cafe having breakfast. (Their streak remains unbroken. Good food abyssal service) This lack of packing is starting to freak me out and I need to have a good couple of days working on it. I want to be done with this apartment. I want my stuff all in one place, and I want it to be the place that I live. I don’t live here anymore. This isn’t my neighborhood anymore. I watch the 3 go by and think: “That isn’t my bus anymore”.

And the wedding/engagement party. We just chose dates and places last week but already I’m freaking out preparations. Last night we went to Macy’s just to check it out for registering and were underwhelmed. I think we may have settled on Crate and Barrel this morning. It’s all making me feel like I’m running behind all the time. I don’t like that feeling. I want to move past it. I want to get caught up at work, move my stuff and feel like this wedding stuff is going in the right direction. Right now is a good time in my life. I don’t want to feel like I’m freaking out.

Oscar and the Lazy Sunday

Had one of those nice lazy Sunday around the house yesterday. Actually got up early to do my 750. The day did include both mid-morning and afternoon naps so that negated somewhat the getting up early thing.

The deck still isn’t done but the railing work is all that needs to be finished. It’s half-way done and looks very nice. So it wasn’t brunch on the deck with mimosas. Deck or no deck we went ahead with the big breakfast and mimosas. I bought some thick bacon and covered slices with pepper and Cajun spices. Made the eggs with that, pepper-jack, mushrooms and peppers. It was a feast to be sure. We may have a little too much to drink so early in the day though as the rest of the day was not all that productive. Kelly did the dishes and I finished one of three reports for work that I’m late on. That was the extent of what got done after breakfast. I guess living through the ordeal of that Oscar production could count too.

We were late starting turning it on. I hope I missed the well deserved tribute to Karl Malden and that there wasn’t some overblown John Hughes montage. Kelly liked the dance sequence but I thought that maybe letting someone thank the most important people in his life while reaching the high point of his carreer might have been a better use of time than trying to tell all the Best Picture stories through Break Dance. And what’s with the different set of rules depending on how famous you are. The best actors already had all this time dedicated to how cool they are (worst idea in Oscar history). Maybe Jeff Bridges might have moved it along a bit. And are these really secret until opened? Babbs seemed pretty sure a woman was going to win for Best Director. All in all a good reminder of why I stopped watching the Oscars for a decade.

750 Words

Screen shot of todays journal stats

750 words is a site that I first read about on Lifehacker on March the 1st. I signed up right away but didn’t get an invite until today. By that time I had already started my journal for the day on the train this morning. My journal of choice right now is MacJournal. Until the iPhone app gets released (any day now), when I want to write on my phone I just type a note into SimpleNote and copy it over when I get home. Today I did that but I also copied those 400 words into my 750 words site. Then I finished my 750 words to get my little checkmark for the day.

I prefer an actual program to a web app for writing but there are a couple of things that I like about this site. First off I like the fact that it cajoles me into writing 750 words. 750 words is the equivalent  of 3 handwritten pages. I have long subscribed to the belief that “3 a day keeps the shrink away”. I like to keep track of my writing streaks. I know that some of my longest streaks went as long as they did because I didn’t want to break the streak. So if a public points system helps me keep up on my daily writing then I’m all for it.

I tried to use the mobile site on my phone. It seems to work but when I went back to a desktop browser my changes weren’t there. That may have been my fault for only writing for a couple of minutes and then trying to change browsers. I think for mobile writing I’m going to stay with the SimpleNote transfer method. I’m also going to continue to copy my entries into MacJournal. I’m confident that I’m going to stay with that for the long term. But in the meantime I’ll give this a whirl. I’m not sure how I feel about this funky stats page with it’s Regressive Imagery Dictionary but I am a little curious as to how close it gets to reality in the long run. Anyway I think this qualifies as a recommendation.

Cat on a Cold Wet Roof – a set on Flickr

Here’s the pictures from last night’s Lucy on the roof debacle.

Cat on a Cold Wet Roof – a set on Flickr.

Cat on a Cold Wet Roof

Lucy got herself stuck on the roof and would not come down for a couple of hours. This despite much coaxing and frankly a fair amount of building in order to get her to make her way down.

It started with Kelly hearing Lucy meow through the door. This alarmed Kelly because Lucy rarely meows and when she does it is this tiny little noise. Lucy was on the corner of the house right above the door. This was the spot she would keep coming to even as we built easier escape routes elsewhere. Toward the end of the debacle I realized why when I watched her come very close to jumping on to the little palm tree there. I’m not sure how that would have worked. It is close to the roof and solid, but it is also completely bare and very straight up and down.

Anyway we tried building something for her to jump onto. We brought out a coffee table and stacked one of those carpeted cat towers on top of it. We got pretty high and she could have made the jump but she was having none of it. We built several of those kind of things though we did have to bring them in when the rains came. And the hail. Kelly’s headache was still with her and the weather had her worrying pretty strenuously about the Lucy. When it started to hail I was pretty worried too.

Then I got the idea of leaning one of the boards that are for the building of the deck up against the side of the house and making a ramp out of it. It was pretty steep but I think that Lucy could have made it fine. However she disagreed. Later I figured out that if we laid it right next to the house and made the end point the electrical box that was 5 feet off the ground it would be protected on one side and not be as steep. I just wish that I had thought of it sooner. Before I thought of it we tried to run the board from the roof to the hillside. I ended up wrenching my arm and Kelly nicked her hand trying to pull that maneuver. I did take pictures although that became a rough point after I asked Kelly to hold the camera and smacked my hand into it hard when she tried to hand it back to me. That hurt.

Anyway we would go back and forth from watching some TV to trying to coax her to one of the escape routes with food and toys. Finally Kelly’s head had had enough and she went to lie down. After a few minutes I said said to heck with this and resolved to trying until I was successful.

So I brought out the toy on a pole with a bungie string and started moving it from the top of the plank down. I opened, and crinkled, and poured and just about ate a package of Friskies Party Mix (Wild West Crunch Flavor). I called and whistled and begged and pleaded.

Not wanting to bring out the end table that we had put back in the bedroom while Kelly was napping, I built a tower out of the garbage can, a plant stand and one of those carpeted kitty things. The only problem with this was the plant stand was so unstable that I had to stand there hugging the cat thing the whole time. I stayed there like that longer than I wish to say.

In the meantime Lucy was getting pretty hungry. She was responding to the Party Mix and had twice put her front paws on the board. She wasn’t happy with the stability but hunger was beginning to get the best of her. While I was checking out revisiting the plank to the side of the hill idea I caught her doing it again while I wasn’t in line of sight. When she saw me she turned around. This gave me the idea of turning out the porch light and leaning heavily on the snack idea. And that’s what finally worked. She walked down the board and as soon as she got close enough I grabbed her and ran inside. We are considering letting her back out around Thanksgiving.

Anyway I snuck back outside and got the Party Mix and Lucy went to town on it. Then she ate all her regular food. I put her in a blanket because she was pretty darn cold and wet and then we went to wake up Kelly. Kelly got up and we repeated the whole food and blanket and heater business. Everyone went to bed warm and cozy after all. And I learned a new facet of joys of being a pet owner.

Deck Destruction

Deck Destruction – a set on Flickr.

Here are a few pictures of the aftermath of the tearing down of our deck. The cats were not amused.

Bye-Bye Deck

Bye-Bye Deck

...and those damn wagon wheels

So today I’m sitting at my desk doing some writing and saying good-bye to our deck. I hardly knew you. As I type this that last bit has been added to the pile in the back yard. The cats are not going to be happy. As for me I’m looking forward to the new deck and just hoping that nobody turns those wagon wheels into a “Harry Met Sally” coffee table.

View From My Seat

For no good reason I’m starting a new blog. I think it’s like when you go to the store and buy a brand new notebook to kick start your writing even though you have plenty of fresh pages in a perfectly good journal that you once loved. Then again maybe I’ve spent most of my life analyzing myself into near paralysis and it can just be okay to start a new blog whenever I feel like it. Sometimes you just have to wipe away the old and make way for the new.

I am beginning a new journey in my life right now. I’ve all but abandoned my apartment in the city. I have, in fact, given notice. I did that in the hope that that would kick me in the but about packing up and closing it down. After four years in the center of the city I’m ready to retreat a little. Kelly has a wonderful little bungalow in the Sharp Park district of Pacifica. I spent most of my free time at my desk looking out toward the ocean trying to write a little. Trying to organize my pictures and come to some sort of identity as a photographer. Too often I end up playing Mafia Wars and reading too much crap on Digg. But that is the nature of the internet.

Right now what I have in my view is the deck that nearly collapsed under me that is supposed to be replaced this week. Kelly and I are already planning on spending much of the Summer on it. San Pedro Park in the Linda Mar district is in my view as well as it is the chosen site for our wedding. And at long last we actually have a date. September 25 of the this year we will be married. Work is in my sights as well as I’ve been picking up the pace and trying to do more in less time. And that apartment I desperately want to get out of is in my view.