Sing-along Thursday: They remind you you ghetto...

I'm feeling Lost! by Coldplay featuring Jay-Z.

When I say "feeling," I mean I'm moved.

When I say I'm moved, it means I'm feelin' it.

You know what I'm sayin'?

$25 Whole Foods giftcard give-away

Not by me! I haven't got $25 to be throwing away at you people!? I don't really remember any of you feeding me anyhow.

Anyway, the contest is over at the Pink Green Chick's blog. Go look!

This one's got crickets, carbs & a tired pop culture reference. Don't miss out!

Among the list of things I can say I've accomplished today are two things I'm more than sure will come back to haunt me... I drank a Sprite and I ate microwave popcorn. Only bad things can come from that combo. I don't even particularly like those things.

Maybe if we sit and wait real still for a second the badness won't notice me and just fly right on by.

*crickets*
*tiny bubble sounds from the Sprite can*
*my jaw cracking*

Oh hell, who am I kidding? The combo of empty carbs plus sugar is going to turn me into a zombie for the better part of the next 3 hours. That's 3 hours, btw, that I'm still at work. And since my covert plan to build a wall and hang a door on my cube is pretty slow going (I'm building 2 bricks at a time so no one'll notice), I've no where to hide. Maybe if I fidget around and push papers from one side of my desk to another it'll help me look busy.

I'm a touch frustrated because I've been assigned to do projects for which I have few skills. Like writing and designing advertisements for magazines. I know nothing about that and yet I get to do 6 of them. Looks like I better get my hands on some magazines to see what exactly an advertisement in a magazine looks like. Sigh.

Remember how my folks are coming to visit this week? And how I want the house to be all tidy for their visit? I'd like to amend my statement. I'd like to say that I'm not so much concerned about the place being untidy for their visit. It's that I want it to be tidy and organized so it is no longer an issue with me. There's no reason why I can't have things exactly how I want them so that's REALLY what I've been working on oh these many weeks. Quite frankly I'm tired of talking about it so I'm not going to say anything else until I can do my Open House post with all the pics and whatnot same like Sassy Britches did.

Ah, Sassy Britches. Remember her? She's off being all "grown up" and "professional" and getting work things done. Sheesh. What a goodie-two-shoes.

In conclusion, I can't confirm nor deny the statement that I may or may not have left the house today with two different sandals on. If such a thing did occur, I probably went back to the house to change. And I may or may not have found a squished pill bug shell on the footbed of one of said sandals. To recap: can't confirm nor deny a sandal mishap. Bug yes or bug no. Stay the course. Thousand points of light. Good night ladies and gentlemen! Thank you very much! You rock!

Monday meme: a haunting, some goats, & a word I made up

Me and Microsoft Word are having a bit of a tiff today... where I'd rather be working and getting things done, he (you know he's a he) would rather spin his proverbial wheels, freeze, and laugh and laugh while I try to coerce him into giving me a selection of acorn clip art from which to choose. He couldn't even successfully send an error report. What a putz.

So while I wait for him to calm down or take a pill or reboot or whatever it is he does, I went and stole this meme from Stephanie of Stephanie Says. It's part 2 and I can't really remember if I did part 1 but I'm not going to worry about it. I might've even already done part 2 but I haven't the patience to go looking.

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished, anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?

The far eastside of Indy. There's a large property and a large brick house that's just got lawn around it. It's got a long driveway back to the house. I'll take that one please. I could start the yard from scratch, plant umpteen million trees, fence the whole thing in and turn it into the House on the Hill (sans hill) people think is haunted:

• a crazy owner-lady who talks to herself & wears less than adequate foundation garments whilst tottering about in her yard
• a mysterious semi-tractor/trailer that shows up randomly in the dead of night, driven by a mysterious looking long-haired man that's either Native-American, Indian, Tibetan or Peruvian but you're not sure which.
  
• a loud, snarling pit bull in the yard and other animal sounds you can't quite identify drifting from the house and the garage.
  
• there are windows in the house whose curtains are NEVER open.
  
• at night, there's only one small light on the moves from window to window.
  
• the house is bricks with pillars but all the wood-work is painted grey & purple.
  
• the entire property is fenced and you've no idea how you'd get to the front door, even if you had to.
  
• Neither the scary owner-lady nor the Peruvian man know or speak to any of the neighbours.
  

Doesn't that sound like fun?!?

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? That's easy. I'd go to the LBC to hang out with my sister, Hoot.

What language do you want to learn?
Amdo Tibetan. You'd think I would've picked it up by now but no. Husband's English is 1000 times better than it was 5 years ago, while I've managed to forget most of the Tibetan I ever knew. A revival's in the works, though.

What is your favorite color?
Right now it seems to be purple. Typically I like blue and green. Blue for wearing and green for decorations.

What is your favorite piece of clothing in your wardrobe?
I wouldn't call what's hangingin my closet a wardrobe. It's more like a melange of utilitarian pieces. My favourite thing is a brown, almost knee-length sweater I got last winter. But since it's summer and that's been put away, I'll say it's my heather grey utility dress/jammie. It's not pretty nor flattering but it covers bits no one wants to see whilst keeping me cool. It's a home-only item, though, since it's immodest in length and breadth.

What is your dream job?
If I knew, I might be doing it. I like my current job. It's challenging, I have relative independence, people seem to like me there, it's rather secure, and I'm not tethered to a telephone. If I could make a living at it, I might like to run a non-prof, humane animal shelter for small critters and live stock like goats and sheep and chickens.

What is your favorite magazine?
I don't have a favourite magazine. I don't read magazines.

If you had £100 now, what would you spend it on?
I used a currency converter to figure out that that's USD $162.19. I'd probably pay some bills and reserve a little bit for Etsying. O, and I'd get one of those micrograter things. I totally want one of those.

Describe your personal style.
emohippiehemian*

What are you going to do after this?
Get back to work and hope Word is done having his pity party and is ready to get back to business.

What are your favorite films?
Fight Club, A Room with a View, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Poppins. I'm sure there are more but I can't remember them right now.

What's your favorite fruit?
Strawberries.

What inspires you?
Usually turns of phrase or quotes. It's most often a small bit of a bigger story or quote or song that gets into my head and gets me going. New projects with a lot of potential also inspire me. The potential to change things for the better always feels good, too.

Do you collect anything?
Not really. Stickers, sort of but I like to have them so I can use them. I guess lately I've gathered a pretty nice collection of scarves and headwraps. I found one on clearance the other day that's got little pom-poms on it!

Your favorite animal?
Rabbits.

What are you currently reading?
I'm not. I'm flipping through American Wholefoods Cuisine, though. For about the millionth time. It's a wonderful resource.

Go to your book shelf, take down the first book with a red spine you see, turn to page 26 and type out the first line: (I don't have a book with a red spine so I picked the closest I could find...a book with hot pink text on the spine.)

"Muscles, tendons, and ligaments unaccustomed to vigorous and extensive physical activity are prone to injury, so prepare your athletes to withstand the exertion of performing gymnastics."

By what criteria do you judge a person?
Judge? I'm not supposed to judge!
But I suppose I tend to judge folks by their speech and grammar, as well as how open-minded they are.

What skill would you like to acquire immediately?
Creating webby things like websites and buttons and badges.

Go on, steal away if you're stuck and need a meme to get your bloggy-mind going...


*("emohippiehemian" is a trademark of TMC @ Return to Rural, All Rights Reserved)

Six Word Saturday: Frenzied edition

Folks visiting next week: Cleaning frenzy!

Friday Fragments: tart edition

Friday Fragments!

Go check out more fragmentation over at Mrs. 4444's place. She hosts this fragmentalicious meme each week. I'm lame and couldn't get the button to work this time. Duh.

• I'm big on juice these days. Apple, orange, grape, lemonade, you name it. Yum!
• I'm going tonight to a retirement party for a lady I worked with over a year and a half ago. She asked for me specifically. I find this odd. But I'm going because I feel an obligation and plus my friend S. agreed to buy me a Shirley Temple. Remember those? I'm so excited for greasy bar food and a Shirley Temple. Plus we're hitting the big fancy Target on the southside afterwards so hopefully I'll finally be able to get my rain checked fans.
  
• It's going to be warm this weekend and I have a ton of housework I need to do but for tonight, after I get home from this bar hoopla, I'll be doing NOTHING. I'm giving myself permission to do NOTHING but sip juice, watch tv, and sleep for 12 hours.
  
• Did you go say hello to J-A over at SLC Crunk yet? Thanks to those who have. If you haven't, please do. He's my Dharma brother and we've never been this far apart in nearly 10 years so the move is a big change. Thank heavens for the interwebz for keeping family close!
  
• I saw a chipmunk in a tree in my yard this week. This is only remarkable because I've NEVER seen a chipmunk in my yard. Ever. I know they're out there and it was neat to finally see one.
  
• On a negative note, the carpenter bees my landlord ignored have now eaten holes through the back eaves of the house. I told him about them and he said he didn't know what to do about them and he didn't want to poison them so now I'm curious about what he'll do to fix the eaves. I wonder if there's some stain or something on the wood that'll make it taste yucky to them.
• Going to put the final coat of Concord Grape on the door this weekend. I have enough paint that I might also do the back door. I've considered painting all the wood trim Concord Grape but that would require me to 1.) buy or borrow a ladder, 2.) buy more paint (it's expensive!), 3.) get on a ladder. People die from falling off ladders, you know. And I've a track record of falling down for no reason whatsoever. Hmmm.
  

Linky love: Introducing J-A, Button, & a crunk-ass adventure

Check it out, ya'll. My brothah from anothah mothah J-A & his honey of a wife Button (because she's cute as a button... get it?!) just relocated from the mean streets of Indy out to Zion Salt Lake City and are dealing with a bit of culture shock. J-A (aka "this guy") started a blog to chronicle the adventure. He's a newbie so play nice until he learned the ropes, ok?

Go on over to SLC Crunk and say hi. Tell him TMC sent you, and remind him that he's got NO EXCUSE to not be reading MY blog now.

Sing-along Thursday: I'm forgiving what I've done...

I don't generally have regrets but every once in a while I feel like I need to remind myself that where I'm at now is a direct result of my past decisions. If I don't like where I am, I'm the only one who can pick myself up and do better.

Please enjoy Linkin Park performing "What I've Done"

Not here. Over there...

You can find me posting over at Show My Face today.

*Can't remember where I found this graphic. If I could remember I'd totally give credit where credit is due.

I vow: media fasting edition

Check this out... my friend LazyBuddhist over at Stumbling Along the Path came up with the great idea of vowing to avoid the sh*tstorm that is Palin coverage. My sentiments match LB's when it comes to this frightful woman but I know that I'm wasting energy and only causing trouble for myself when I indulge in Palin-bashing.

Without further yammering, here's my vow:

I, TMC, vow to avoid any and all coverage of Sarah Palin. I shall refrain from participating in discussions about her, and in particular giving into my urge to rant about her. My hatred of her only diminishes me. The energy that would be expended in Palin bashing can be much better channeled into something positive and worthwhile.

Signed,

TMC @ Return to Rural

p.s. if I knew how to make one of those neato "signatures," I'd add it here. Maybe I could work on figuring that out while I'm not watching the news.

Happy Birthday to Gyalwa Rinpoche

Happy Birthday to His Holiness the Dalai Lama,

He who is Chenrezig, the source of all good, infinitely loving and kind,

We pray for your good health and long life,

so that we may learn what it means to be a Bodhisattva

from your blessed example.

Please remain with us until all sentient beings have been liberated from Samsara,

the prison of our own minds, ignorant and selfish,

Please remain with us until we all are free.

May all sentient beings who hear your Precious Name, see your Precious Face, touch your Precious Form, be immediately liberated, their eyes uncovered, and see the World As It Is,

and let them be reborn in your Paradise.

Gyalwa Rinpoche, Your Holiness, Our Kundun, He with the merit to know the Angels by Name,

please remain with us until Samsara ends,

until the Land of Snow sees peace, and the respect for Gaia returns to the hearts of all creatures.

Om Mani Padme Hum

Om Main Padme Hum

Om Main Padme Hum

Six Word Saturday: More than six edition

Shortish work week means long weekend!

♣

Long weekend means time to rest.

♦

"Rest": code for tv & sleep

♠

Might disable all neighbours' lawn mowers

Friday Fragments: Three Day Weekend edition

I'm not the only one who thinks in fragments, you know. Mrs. 4444 compiles a whole list of fragmented folks over at her place. Click the green button!

• The landlord (it's a misnomer, really... I've been friends with him and his wife for years now) came by the other day so I could point out the couple outside lights that I need replaced... I asked if he'd put up security lights (the sensor kind) if I bought them and he said sure. Score! He also mentioned that he might have an A/C unit we could use... because the house is pretty old the only place a window A/C could fit will be the kitchen. Not ideal, but definitely better than nothing.
• A friend has been over at the house this week doing a lot of landscape work... weed wacking and tree trimming and whatnot. The place is looking nice and cleaned up in anticipation of my folks coming to visit. I'm thankful he likes the work and does such a good job.
• I'm going to say this loud and proud: I LIKE my silver hair. Even all tangled up among the brown and blonde strands. It is what it is.
• Seems I'll be eating left over tapas all weekend. How many different dishes can I create from 5 pounds of roasted spicy potatoes, crispy fried artichoke bits and garlic toast?
• Where would one go on the interwebz to order a new vacuum filter? Amazon, probably huh?
• I have a HUGE crush on Mike Holmes. I scour the cable listings to see when Holmes on Homes will be on. His motto is "Make ir Right." So simple yet it says volumes about his character.
• Adding to my klepto resume, I've begun stealing plants. Not whole plants (yet), just cuttings. Don't judge me! Also, if I give you the gift of a plant, don't ask where I got it, ok?

Sing-along Thursday: Try to Keep Up edition

I'll bet you thought I was going to be all nostalgic and choose a Michael Jackson song for this week's Sing-along, huh? Technically you could probably actually sing along with one of his but I refuse to participate in that cult.

Here's Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra doing Battery.

Let's Play a Game

Let's play a game... it's called

Name!

That!

Ailment! (yaaaaaaaaaaayy!!)

Since earlier this week I've had a strange tender and painful spot on the backside of my left hand. It's about 2 inches by 1 inch, just behind my pointer finger knuckle. It hurt like a bruise but there was no mark.

I've had no trauma or strain that I can remember. No one hit me and I didn't punch anyone. First it was just tender and painful when touched but yesterday a bruise and an indentation popped up and it feels more like a bump than a strain. It feels like a bump but there's no external swelling.

So, what's the ailment?

A. I have cancer and I'm totally going to die but no one will do a documentary on my brave struggle a la Farrah Fawcett because I'm not famous.

B. I've been sleep walking to my local Fight Club meeting unbeknowst to me (this might also explain the other random mystery bruises elsewhere).

C. It's nothing, just one of those things.

What thinks you?

Sing-along WEDNESDAY (oh yeah... let's mix it up)

One of these talented and showy ladies is my MA! Just listen to them sing and put on a fine show.

I'm one proud girl.