New Toy

So, I'm finally able to blog again, after having no power for 5 days. We stayed at Matt's mom's house, which was fine, except for the fact that there are 18 different items in her bathroom with flowers on them. That means 18 different flower patterns. It's a busy, flowery bathroom.
Autumn and Raquel were the first to lay eyes on my new car, but don't be jealous-here's a pic for the distance-challenged.
I forgot, in the first posting, to draw your attention to my neighbor across the street in this pic. He comes out to his porch several times a day. He often mows or rakes, taking a LOT of breaks. I wonder if there's anything wrong with his heart. We've only said "Hi" or "Good morning" and he said hi to Maggie once. His wife works.
The tree on the left side lost half its branches last Wednesday night. Usually, Neighbor's porch doesn't get that much sunlight.
My Creepy Neighbors, Gollum and his wife and creepy kids, live in the house on the right. He really does look like Gollum, yet the 2 little girls call him "Dad". He isn't as bug-eyed as the real Gollum, but is surely wrinkled. The wife wears a fanny pack every day, with her skirt/dress and her hair up in a bun. Matt observed him cleaning out his electric lawnmower while it was still plugged in. Somehow, Gollum didn't lose fingers.
I know, it's not the dark blue I lust after, but those are apparently impossible to find. I like this color; my hair was this color a few times. The moonroof is going in this week. It's zippy, has radio controls on the steering wheel, and the dog is banned from riding in it. Oh, and at night, the dash lights are red and purply-blue! So cool!

Fun With Crabs

I realized I haven't posted an actual diary entry in a while, so here you go, folks.
As for the list of things I want to do this summer, well, I still don't have a car. Don't ask about anything else.
April 29th, Wednesday

Dear Bonnie, The name of my family's cherished marmalade tabby who died this winter!
Today I was holding my hermit crab right after I gave him a bath, and he grabbed ahold of me and pinched! I was in major pain, but after about 30 seconds, he let go and fell into the sink.
PAIN!!!!
Today I really let off at CT today in lunch. She said she had wanted to talk, but she didn't, so I said, "That's why I never talk to you. You say you want to talk but you never do, so I talk to Lexi because she is more interesting than you and that's why you think she's trying to take me and AD away!"
She didn't say anything.
Bye!
Allison
"Al" to my friends.
I will admit that I used both a period and an exclamation point in my last quote. I will also admit that somehow I spelled "pinched" without an "n".
To bathe a hermit crab, you merely hold them in the sink while letting the faucet run lightly over your palm. Do not turn it on full force. Do not blast your crustacean with cold water, as he will grab onto your palm flesh for security. I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but that really hurt.
And, was CT a man? How many stupid boyfriends have you had who said, "I want to talk" but then don't say anything worthwhile?
Was it only in Pennsylvania that friends could "take" you away from other friends? Was I merely a pawn? Lexi WAS more interesting, mainly because she wasn't a scary freak. She had a cool house with a deck on every floor. I'm a sucker for decks. Her mom was a good cook. We made dollhouses together. She had carpet in her room, which I always wanted. And she had a goofy sense of humor, which she hasn't lost. Yay for Alexis!
Now that I'm "grownup", I prefer a nice rug on hardwood floors.
Oh, and it's been one official year since we bought this:

I am St. Patrick.

So, you know how St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland? Well, I've done just that in my garden. For some reason, my sweet little cucumber plants have produced monstrous cukes that would put Ron Jeremy to shame.


No, that is not a cute little fairy's foot, that's my size 7. Yes, those are $1.oo flip flops from Target.




Here is another pic of my fierce garden:
You can see the tomatoes to my right are thinking about taking over. Behind me is the bed frame I found in the trash. The lablab violet vine and morning glory (thanks, Monty!) have formed a fine windblock. In the lower righthand corner is what this little guy turned into:


And the siamese twin cukes? Here's what a month of heat and sun and water will do. Notice that there obviously was a stronger twin. Notice my cute dog wondering why the hell I'm taking art student photos of cucumbers.


And for my final photo, my Green Envy zinnias which bloomed yesterday!

Update

Sometimes when I do this, it feels like I'm feeding my hungry sparrows and blackbirds in the yard. Eat, eat, my friends! Leave comments! Let me know you've been here! Just don't poop on my basil.
So, as of last post, I have:
1. attended the wedding of Matt's friends. They had been at our weddng last year, and I was determined to earn back the price of their dinner/drink then. So, Matt had 2 plates of food, and I had 4 gin and tonics and a beer and a lot of fried okra.
Then, we went to a bar. Then, we went to another bar, where I ran into my old boyfriend Rob, who informed me that Gorilla freakin' Biscuits is playing in Chicago next month! Holy crap! I introduced Rob to Matt. Their bands had played together years ago. It's all good.
When we came home, our scary/weird lady across the street was standing in the gangway between her house and her neighbor's house. Matt yelled, "I see you in the bushes!" and she came into the light and said, "I was just making sure you got in okay!"
Readers, it was 2 freakin' 30 in the morning. What was she doing?!

2. Slept late the next day, but endured barely a hangover. Thank you, okra.

3. Watched the Boston Fourth of July on TV. The fireworks being set off by the poor people in the projects a few blocks away were much better than St. Louis' official ones. Can you buy fireworks with food stamps?

4. Discovered a new plant growing/blooming in the fence. It resembles a sort of mallow. It closes in the heat of the day. Its leaves look like scented geranium leaves, yet are not pleasantly scented. The flower has 5 petals. It's rare for me to NOT be able to identify a plant.

5. Ate one of the giant cucumbers from the garden.

6. Slept a lot, yet woke up feeling like I had been run over. This was not the day after the wedding.

7. Sold a lot at Tower Grove Farmer's Market.

8. Bought cute Airwalk sandals at Payless, inspired by my sister-in-law. They are red and perky and kinda hippie-ish.

9. Somehow hurt my thumb. It aches constantly.

10. Spent inordinate amounts of time on cars.com, consumerreports.org and edmunds.com researching a new car. I rode in Jenna's Mazda3 wagon today and am in love. You can get a cassette player in it! Folks, you know that's a priority for me!

11. Matt found my missing Babaloo CDs, so all is well in my samba world.

Procrastination

Thanks to Poppymom for giving me a reason to NOT sew anything for the next 20 minutes....I do so love surveys! Glad you had a wild evening involving meat!
I hereby decree that if you read this, you must also answer this:

The idea is that you answer each question, using 3 or less song titles/artists/etc. Answers like "...everything by the Smiths" is not okay, even for me. *sigh* This is ripped from some chick named bookhart.

NAME UP TO THREE:
Song(s) That I Loathe To The Core Of My Being:
1. Butterfly by....Crazy Town?
2. What's Your Name? by Skynyrd
3. Candyshop by some rapper guy

Musical Artists That I Loathe To The Core Of My Being:
1. Britney Spears
2. P. Diddy Why does he always look sulky?
3. Korn

Rolling Stones Songs I Love:
1. Ruby Tuesday (surprisingly hard to karaoke)
2. Mother's Little Helper
3. Angie

Beatles Songs I Love:
1. Norwegian Wood
2. The song about sharing an umbrella at a bus stop
3. Here Comes The Sun

Who Songs I Love:
1. Teenage Wasteland (good for driving, esp. the YEEAAHHHH part)
2. Baba O'Reilly ( heard it sampled as I was laying on the floor at a rave in 1997)
3. um....drawing a blank here

Reggae Songs I Love:
1. Could You Be Loved?-Bob Marley
2. The Bob M. song about sharing my single bed with the roof right over our head
3. dang, I am really blank this morning..

Country Songs I Love:
1. These Old Bones-Dolly Parton ( I think that's the name)
2. Walk The Line-Johnny Cash (played at my wedding after the vows)
3. Tennesee Stud-by a bunch of guys

Movie Soundtracks I Love:
1. Valley Girl
2. Pretty In Pink
3. Suburbia

Musical Soundtracks I Love:
1. The Sound of Music
2. South Pacific
3. Man of La Mancha

Cover Songs I Love;
1. Stairway to Heaven-Dolly Parton
2. Paint It Black-Seven Shot Screamers
3. It's My Life-Gwen Stefani

Contemporary Top-40 Artists I Secretly Love:
1. Since You Been Gone-Kelly Clarkson
2. Gold Digger-Kanye West
3. Can You Take Me Higher=Creed (it's a secret! ssh!)

Songs That Bring Me To Tears:
1. The Star Spangled Banner
2. What A Wonderful World
3. Once, I cried to Pictures Of You by The Cure

Songs That Make Me Shake My Ass:
1. Hey Ya!-Outkast
2. Superfreak-Rick James
3. Whip it-Devo

Classical Composers I Love:
1. Aaron Copland (not exactly classical, but you know)
2. Tchaikovsky
3. Wagner (even though he was an anti-Semite)

Rap/Hip-Hop Songs I Love:
1. She's Crafty-Beastie Boys
2. Walk This Way-Run DMC and Aerosmith
3. Gangster's Paradise by?

70's Disco Songs I Love:
1. Hot Stuff-Donna Summer
2. Stayin' Alive-Bee Gees

70's Supergroup Songs I Love:
1. Come Sail Away-Styx
2. Another One Bites The Dust-Queen
3. Suite Judy Blue Eyes-Crosby, Stills and Nash

Metal Songs I Love:
Old metal or nu metal? Metal core or grind metal?
1. Run To The Hills-Ronnie James Dio
2. White Buffalo-Ted Nugent
3. Here I Go Again-Whitesnake

New Wave Songs I Love:
I can't say "all of them?"
1. Images of Heaven-Peter somebody
2. the New Order song originally done by Joy Division before Ian died
3. Love Will Tear Us Apart-Joy Division

Soul/R&B Songs I Love:
1. Stop! In The Name Of Love-Supremes
2. Sam Cook-I can't think of the song title
3. My Girl-Four Tops/Seasons

Power Ballads I Love:
1. Every Rose Has Its Thorn-Poison
2. November Rain-Guns n Roses
3. Eyes Without A Face-Billy Idol (pant pant pant)

Pre-1950s Songs I Love:
1. Let's Have Another Cup Of Coffee-Glenn Miller
2. Skyliner-Artie Shaw
3. Jumpin' Jive-Marian Hutton sings to Glenn Miller

Punk Songs I Love:
1. Hong Kong Garden-Siouxsie and the Banshees
2.TV Party-Black Flag
3. Loser-Descendents

Singer/Songwriter Songs I Love;
Hmm...I'm not too knowledgeable,but here goes:
1. Anticipation-Carly Simon
2. You're So Vain-Carly? or Carole King?
3. I Think It's Time that we move in together/and raise a family on our own/just you and me-probably also by Carly

MTV Videos I Love:
1. Take On Me-A-ha
2. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun-Cyndi Lauper

None Of The Above Songs I Love:
1. World Music Artists:
a. Babaloo
b. Joao and Astrud Gilberto
2. Hardcore Bands:
a. Fugazi
b. 7 Seconds
c. Gorilla Biscuits

Whew. Now I must fill my stereo with CDs and sew.
As a disclaimer, I've been listening heavily to Stiff Little Fingers and Joy Division lately, and not so much to the radio, so there.
And I happen to LOVE "Horse With No Name"! Matt says it's about heroin, get it? HORSE?