Addict

Well, that didn't take long. Ever since I wrote that last post, at least once a day I thought, "Oh, I've got to blog that." Then I remembered that I wasn't blogging, so that I could find myself or something. What the heck was I thinking? I was keeping myself from something I enjoy, in the name of what? The Greater Good... pffft. I love my little blog. I love writing little snippets of my life.

To sum up:
I was startled by the biggest freakin' cat I've ever seen. "Dang, that tail is HUGE", I thought as I watched the "cat" jump onto the fence. Oh, um. It's a racooooon. At least I didn't scream like a little girl like I did when we had a possum getting into the cat food. Time to start taking the food in at night.

I have been drinking decaf coffee lately. A lot of it. I make a 1/3 pot in the morning and drink a thermos full all day with soy milk. This morning, I put the coffee in the filter, put the pot on the maker and turned it on. Had to get the cats out of the basement before I left, turned my back and heard a PING! Then a CRACK! I thought, "That sounds like glass breaking." Indeed. That's what happens when you DON'T PUT WATER IN THE COFFEE MAKER. The pot is cracked. And more tragically, I did not get my coffee this morning. Now, I realize that decaf still has a bit of caffeine in it, but what I didn't realize is that that has turned me into a stone-cold addict. All morning I thought about how I could/when I could/how soon can I get to Caribou Coffee and get a fix. I got it around 10 and sucked that baby down like nobody's business. I suppose the pot cracking is a good thing, as I am usually too lazy to replace broken things right away... things that I don't technically NEED. And I also am too cheap to pay $4 for a Mocha from Caribou every day. Dang, that Mocha was good. (Oh, and BTW, Caribou gets props for a clear menu that indicates which drinks are frozen/cold. Starbucks assumes you know. I ordered a Frappacino on a day it was -7 because I wanted something "warm". Wondered why the barrista looked at me strange. I get this frozen drink, and everyone I'm with is like "Why did you get a frozen drink?" and I had to admit ignorance of knowing what a Frappacino was. It was delicious, but I had to drink it fully bundled up.)

I've knitted some things too, but since I posted them on Ravelry already, which totally fulfills a knitter's/crocheter's dreams and plans, btw, I may or may not get around to putting them here. If you haven't joined the Ravelry community already, you can ask for an invite here. They don't deny anyone, but it takes time to get in, because Hoo Baby, is this site popular. If you enjoy the minutia of knitting, this one's for you. And I got in the Beta site early enough to get the name Yarnsmith, which TOTALLY rocks, as I haven't been able to get it for several other online things.

Which reminds me, how do you all handle the abundance of UserNames and Passwords you need to know in this world? Do you let your computer save the info, so you just click OK, and don't have to remember? What happens if you computer crashes? Do you write them down and tape them to your monitor? I have officially exceeded the limit of UserNames and Passwords I can remember. I started to write them down, but there are several I can't remember, can't remember the password to get into the email system that has the password for the site I can't remember.

I am working my way through The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. Highly recommend it, EXCEPT, it is turning me into a crazy person. Chapter 2 says it will seem that way as you identify blocks to creativity and have to deal with them, and as you try to stop being afraid of success. Not afraid of failure, but of success. I had a crazy-person moment last night as I tried to reconcile new ideas into the old regime of my mind. That Old Regime will not go quietly, as it is quite SAFE and COMFORTABLE, and lulls me back to sleep with it's talk of "you know you can't, so why even try? That dream is too big... you know you won't do it."

I'm totally and utterly afraid of Photoshop, so I've been toying with various Photoshop like programs to edit photos. It's definitely a learning curve... this working with layers thing. I was able to do this yesterday with Paint.NET. I mostly did this particular thing because I wanted to see if I could. It was pretty fiddly, but I think Photoshop is too. Big thanks to Brian who talked me down from the ledge when I messed up. He thought of the least confusing way to fix it, and told me about layers in a way I could NEARLY understand. Which is closer than the I NOT UNDERSTAND AND I IS FRUSTRATES ME which I had going on before.


















Oh, yeah, one more thing. Sorry in advance for the profanity, but this thing made me snort. Loudly.