Today was the last ceramics class ever.  Well, for Gretchen and me, at least.  I think there might be some people in our class taking the higher level class next fall.  We glazed all of our stuff so that we can pick up the finished pieces next weekend.  We also did some "Raku" firing.  It was cool.

Here's how it works--you start by glazing the piece in one of the special lower heat glazes.  Then you get the piece really hot in the kiln.  Then it's pulled out and plunged into a trash can of combustible materials (we used newspaper at first, then some stolen straw) and covered.  The heated clay ignites the straw and that gets the glaze hot enough to flux. 

It's a team effort:

I used the cool copper glaze that gets all crazy and iridescent when you fire it.  I had some traumas at first.  The first time my piece went into the kiln, another piece exploded and mine took the brunt of the shrapnel--it chipped off some significant chunks off one side.  Something exploded the second time too, but it didn't hurt anybody else's stuff.

However, that did mean that my piece waited until we moved on from newspaper (wasn't "reducing" enough) to stolen straw (which Art Boy stole from his worksite nearby, so not ENTIRELY stolen), so the glaze came out WAY cooler.  As Art Boy said, "This one looks nuclear."

The people from the second (more advanced) class came during our time this week, and we were allowed to stay into their time, just so everybody could get everything finished.  There was even food.  All in all I was there for about four hours, waiting for my raku pot to be finished and cool enough for me to take it with me.  I was on my way to my car when Art Boy saw me, "Hey are you leaving already?"  I nodded and waved, and he looked at me like I took his puppy.

And then I came home to a power outage.  Stupid wind.

It's been a Jen-tastic sort of week.  I already told you about our chocolatey Tuesday (the flourless cake was kind of flavorless, everything else was amazing), but that was just the first Jen day of the week.  On Thursday night, Jen took me with her to an Arbonne party, where we all got makeovers.  I don't think I would ever actually buy makeup at a party like that--I don't wear it often enough to justify spending that kind of money, I can get what I need at Walgreens--but it's the cleansers and bath stuff that really tempt me.  That's my weakness--spa stuff.

On Friday, Jen, Bob & I had a No-Co kind of evening.  We made plans to go to the St. Ferdinand fish fry a few weeks ago when Jen mentioned going to a fish fry during lent.  I convinced her that the wait would be ridiculous and that I would take her to St. Ferdinand's once lent was over.  There was no line at all when we got there.  I guess people are still in their post-lent no-more-fish-please stage.  Bob was very impressed with the beer on tap.  He's planning to bring his friends to the next one, in three weeks, to enjoy the 32oz beers.

Then we followed it up with a round of glow-in-the-dark mini golf at the Mills.  I was doing really well at the beginning--winning even--and then it just all went to crap.  I got a 5 and a 6 on the back 9.  Shameful.

How do you wrap up a No-Co night?  Fritz's of course.  Where we were served by the least attentive cashier of all time.  She wouldn't last a night at Ted Drewes.

And that's not even the end of it.  Jen & I are going to Jamestown Mall for dinner, shopping and a $1 movie.  We're going to see "Stick It."  You would be surprised how many times the phrase, "It's not called gym-nice-tics" came up in our conversation last night.

Time to Pimp Disney:  If you're thinking about going to Disney World soon, they've got a really good package right now.  You have to book by June 4th and go between 8/13 & 9/30.
 

Jen's been holding out on me.  I was looking online on CitySearch for another place Gretchen and I could try for one of our monthly breakfasts (tomorrow is First Watch), when I was distracted by a link for "The Top 5 Chocolate Desserts."  Number three on the list is Bailey's Chocolate Bar--so I go to the page to read a description...  The whole menu is basically nothing but chocolate:  soup, salad--all with chocolate.  If you know me, you know I've just glimpsed nirvana, yeah?

So Jen's all, "Oh yeah, I've been there a bunch of times."  Jen = The Devil.  How do you keep something like that to yourself?  So the two of us headed down to Lafayette Square.  Where, after a few strategic u-turns, we started with their signature martini--chocolate vodka, Bailey's irish cream, dark chocolate and steamed milk--basically the BEST hot chocolate ever.  Then we split a plate that had flourless cake, a carmelized banana, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, assorted truffles, and a little shot glass of mead with a chocolate stirrer in it.  They tried to get us to not notice they'd skipped out on the chocolate mousse by adding in an extra truffle, but we totally noticed--they made it up to us with free ice cream (chocolate, natch).  The weirdest thing was by far the "spicy truffle."  I don't know what they put in it, but it's a unique experience to eat a piece of chocolate that burns your tongue.  Hot wing caliber tongue-burning.

Despite this being their "aphrodesiac plate,"  Jen and I had no urge to make out with each other afterwards.  I'm sure Bob was disappointed.  It was good though, and the bar itself is really pretty.  I recommend it.

I was talking to my friend Troy online last night.  Since I'd asked him for boy-advice, I told him about Art Boy's girlfriend, and inquired after the girl at his gym he'd asked me for advice about--turns out that rather than being nice, she was actually "whorish."  Troy said I should date him instead.  So we made a date for Friday.  The fact that he lives in Connecticut may be a problem.  :)

Okay, new blog feature.  When a post has received comments, I'll one of these tiny disco balls next to the read comments link:  and the "Read Comments" link will take you right to those comments.   Also, the 5 most recent comments are over in the sidebar, link goes to all the comments for that post.
 

Saturday was Earth Day.  I did not know.  Jon Stewart filled me in today.
 

Gretchen sent me an email full of REALLY corny jokes.  My favorite: 
 

The rest were all pretty terrible.

My two favorite jokes (not from the email):
 

	What is E.T. short for? [Because he's  got little legs.] highlight to read
Two fish are in a tank.  One fish says to the other, "Do you know how to drive this thing?"

What's your favorite joke?  Keep it reasonably clean, don't upset my sensitive father.
 

Read Comments  Leave Comments  4/24/06

Saturday was the next to last day of ceramics, our last chance to make something new so it can be ready to glaze in the last class.  Plus it is exactly two months until Gretchen's little Slug is due.  It's so crazy to think that one of my friends is about to have a baby.

So I spent almost all of class working on a new pot, and just as class was finishing, one of the handles snapped off.  Just totally fell apart.  Art Boy managed to salvage it for me before class ended.  I'm still not entirely sure it won't just crumble in the kiln.  Everybody cross your fingers.  But I definitely have three wheel-thrown pots to glaze next week.

Jen thinks we should all take belly-dancing next.

Guess what?  I'm a technological marvel.  I made a widget.  Widgets are tiny little computer programs that perform a small specific function without using many computer resources.  So I made one that plays lines from The Princess Bride.  It's in the download section of the Princess Bride part of my site.

I watched Mansfield Park today.  Just another Jane Austen period movie.  It was so-so.  I wish somebody would send ME fireworks & doves as a present.  Although I would hope he doesn't follow it up by sleeping with the sister of my best guy friend (on whom I harbor a secret crush), you know?  That part of it kind of takes the charm off the fireworks.
 

Yesterday I bought my first MP3 from iTunes ever.  I've downloaded songs from iTunes before, but only the free ones.  And those are usually pretty crappy, but occasionally you get a good one.

I'd heard it in the background of an episode of Grey's Anatomy and it just really stuck in my head.  I listened to it about 20 times right after I downloaded it.
 

It's "no bosses" week at work.  I'm getting so much accomplished!  It's amazing how much you can get done when all the people who interrupt your momentum are out of the office.  I'm just tearing through all those little projects that usually get shunted to the side for bigger matters.

Nobody came through for Reel Big Fish.  Lame.
 

Went to the movies with Mom after church on Sunday.  We saw "The Wild"--the new Disney movie about the zoo animals.  (Okay, listen.  Antz came out first, but Bug's Life was better, so I had to give it a shot, alright?)  Eddie Izzard was very funny as the koala, but everything else was crap.  The chameleons were kinda funny.

As for Monday night?  I can't tell you what happened on Monday.  The parties involved have sworn to disavow all knowledge of the activities of that particular evening.  But it was fun.

Lane got married on Gilmore Girls tonight.  When Dave comes back from the OC, he's gonna be PISSED.

Anybody want to go to a free Reel Big Fish concert tomorrow?  8pm at UMSL.
 

Read CommentsLeave Comments  4/18/06

Tink's back!  The new cord totally did the trick.  So I changed my LiveJournal icon to Tinker Bell in celebration.  Yeah, it's not much of a celebration, but it was just a cord.

Goodbye to:

Hello to:

So, movies.  Saw "Take the Lead" with Jen on Wednesday.  That's the Antonio Banderas ballroom dancing movie.  It was cute.  Then ending is kind of, "Oh.  Is it over?  I, um, I don't understand.  Is there going to be more?"  I was a little shocked to see Rufio show up as a high school student.  I mean, he was in Hook 15 years ago--Jen was also shocked to find out that he's about 30 now since he's still playing a kid.

1991

2006

Then on Friday I saw "Thank You For Smoking" with Gretchen and Eileen.  I thought it was really funny, Gretchen and Eileen didn't seem to really care for it.

We met up beforehand at the Mills for dinner.  And where do three nice little Catholic girls go for dinner on Good Friday?  Tony Roma's of course.  There is actually much more seafood on their menu than I expected.  Did that keep all of us from ordering the cheapest and most basic seafood on the menu?  No.  Also found out from Eileen that her brother Matt is in the middle of writing his first novel.  That's so awesome.  And that he used to work at Spin Magazine.  If he met Chuck Klosterman, that would shoot him way up my list of cool people.

Finally, finally, FINALLY did my taxes today.  The Ostrowskis were nice enough to let me use their Turbo Tax, so I'm getting about $350 back all together. (Did I hear somebody say "spa day"?  I think I did.)

Had Easter with the Carpenter relatives today.  During the little kid egg hunt, I was lifting McKenna up so she could get some eggs that were up high, and then we staged it again for the camera.  Just like reality TV.  Later we put some Peeps in the microwave in attempt to get them to fight.  It didn't quite work out how we expected.  They just sort of swelled up and joined together, and right as the microwave was stopping, they started to catch fire.  So 58 seconds seems about the right length for a Peep battle.

Speaking of Peeps, a monster made of peeps and a funny Harry Potter sketch from Makani:

That's Lord Voldemort on the left (note the "hello my name is Voldypoo" nametag), and Rodolphus & Bellatrix Lestrange on the right.

Two more blogs in the sidebar: Grey Matter, which is where the Grey's Anatomy Writers talk about the show, and andother Grey's Anatomy character blog--this one is Joe the Bartender.  The two character blogs are grouped underneath the writer blog in the sidebar.
 

Did you know you can see the arch from Overland?  You can.  I was coming over a rise on Page, just west of Dielman and I was like, "Holy cow, the arch!"  I wonder what the furthest away point is where you can see enough of the arch to know it's the arch.

So I watched that new show, Teachers, on NBC, and now I'm annoyed with it, because of the following dialogue:
 

No, dumbass, smarter than *me*.  In this sentence, you are the subject, and I am the object, which means "me" is the appropriate term.  He's the fricking English teacher!

Finally, finally, finally got caught up with my inventory tracking at work.  I was about a month behind.  I also had two doughnuts and a brownie.  So I didn't have dinner, because that was enough extra calories for today.
 

Read CommentsLeave Comments  4/11/06

Tink is not better.  She is on crutches.  I've managed to restore power at least temporarily, so here we go.  The guy who was bringing me the new adapter didn't show at work today.  I swear he said Monday!  I even schlepped my laptop to work today to try out the new adapter, and left Gary a check in an envelope with his name on it when I went to lunch--just in case--and nothing.  Had to take poor crippled Tinker Bell back home with me.  I don't think I'm going to take it in tomorrow, it's too much work, especially when I seem to have stumbled on an arrangement that works for the time being.

So, here's all the stuff I've been storing up to talk about since Friday.

I finally went out and bought a bunch of lightbulbs to replace all the burnouts in my condo.  How many burnouts?  Let's just say my condo is now 320 watts brighter.  It was so nice and shiny afterwards, that I felt compelled to clean the kitchen--it's gorgeous.

I got my glazed stuff back in ceramics.  It did not come out like I expected.  They're still mostly pretty good, but not what I thought.  Oh, and this:
 

EWW!!  He's outdoorsy!  Gross!  Gretchen was right.  Totally incompatible.  He's not even cute anymore.  The girlfriend thing doesn't even enter into it.  Urgh.  Yuck.  Besides, as Karen told me, "Kim, if there's one thing that you and I know, it's that 'girlfriend' is a temporary thing."

Ooooooh.  Ouch.  But we made plans for her to come out and visit this summer, go see a show at the Muny, so overall a positive exchange.

The Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis is doing Julius Caesar this summer.  Who wants to go with?

Got my "Easter Basket" a week early--Season 1 of The Office & Grey's Anatomy.  I'm holding off on Grey's Anatomy for Jen (and Krissy if she gets her booty in gear), but the commentaries on The Office are good.  This is my favorite line:
 

Just one quick little bitch.  What is the deal with the little claws on DVD cases lately?  It's not all of them, but both of my Easter DVDs have it.  It's just two more steps between me and my DVD, and I don't need them.  I always tear them off.  I hate them.

Greg Behrendt is writing a new book, tentatively titled, "It's Just a F#%*ing Date!" and he's doing surveys to be included at his website.  Anybody want to be in a book?

Today was the Cardinal's home opener at new Busch Stadium.  Three people at my office took off today AND tomorrow for the game.  That's over 10% of our workforce.  Awesome.
 

Read CommentsLeave Comments  4/10/06

I feel like I should post something, since I will be without access to the internets all weekend. Crazy. But Tink gets her new adapter (and hopefully new life) on Monday, so that's exciting. (Please let it work, PLEEEEZ!!!) Dell's having their quarterly sale, but I just can't spend that kind of money right now, especially as I haven't done my taxes yet and don't know whether I owe or not (maybe the gov't will give me enough money to buy Tink's--hopefully unnecessary--replacement?).

Work has been BUSY! I've been working on back to back projects for a couple months now I think. And the end of the queue is nowhere in sight.

My Friday tuna sub tradition (for Lent) has become so routine that when I told the woman at Subway that I wanted my sub plain, but toasted she said, "Yeah, I remember."

I totally have nothing to say.
 

Well, maybe not dead.  Let's call it "suspended animation". 

Oh, puns! 

At any rate, my laptop is currently out of service.  The power issue seems to have come to a head, as I am unable to get Tink to acknowledge the fact that she is plugged in.  So she just ran out of battery power and shut down.  Our Tech Support guy at work, Gary, is bringing me a replacement adapter (for $20), but not until Monday.  Hopefully that will be the fix. 

I haven't decided whether to just say "no updates until then", but because I'm typing this one directly into the HTML--and it SUCKS--I can definitively say that THIS will not be how I update this week.  If I update, I'll do it at LiveJournal (which you can access by clicking the "read comments" link).  Where I usually only put the first paragraph and a link, during this time, I'll put the whole thing there & move it back when Tink is better.  Sound good?  Good, because it's the only option. 
 

Read CommentsLeave Comments  4/5/06

Super crazy weather on Sunday.  Around 4:30 the sirens went off, and I only had power long enough to catch on the weather that they were calling it a tornado warning, which means go hide for a while where there are no windows.  So I threw a thick blanket over the television, just in case, and went to hide out in the bathroom with candles.

It was SUPER BORING, and got old very fast.  So I was sitting in the bathroom and decided it could do with a cleaning.  I braved the storm to run out to the kitchen and grab the Clorox wipes.  I also decided that I could probably safely get my tiny speakers so i could listen to my iPod while I weathered the storm.  Here I am, no power, sounds of the apocalypse outside, and I'm just running from room to room, gathering completely unnecessary supplies.

After scrubbing down the toilet and the sink, I decided that I also needed a facial, so I did the exfoliating cleanser, then a clay mask, which I let dry while I cleaned the shower.  Then I ran back to my room to get a book, which I read by candlelight while sitting on the toilet lid.

With all the candles burning it was getting steamy in there.  So I ran to the kitchen to get some fridge water, but to no avail.  I finally decided to just leave the bathroom door open, figuring that if anything were truly going to hit the fan, I'd have at least enough notice to pull the door shut.

I just kept thinking, "The power will come back, I'll check the radio to be sure it's done."  But the power didn't come back, so I'm sitting there bored out of my mind, when I hear birds chirping outside.  Since I figured it's a pretty safe bet that the birds don't sing in a tornado, I abandoned the bathroom--and it was sunny!!!

Sadly, I had to live like the Amish for several more hours, as we remained in the dark, but across the street & down the street had power.  I called Katie and Jen and greeted them with, "I don't have any power, entertain me!"  Katie was also without power and refused my offer to play board games by candlelight--she just didn't think Scene-It would be as fun if you couldn't watch any of the video clues.  What a weird-y.  Jen eventually gave up on me--"Just come over.  We'll hang out."  So we did.  Bob even retired to his room to watch Ultimate Fighting so we girls could watch Grey's Anatomy.

When I was driving back home, I passed the Ameren truck less than a block from my condo.  I wanted to stop and get out and hug 'em.  (But I didn't, because that's crazy.) Power finally came back at 10:45.  I'd just settled down with candles on my nightstand to read some more when everything kicked back on.

See, Bob--not "Fucking Huge".  So there.  And no, I will never let that go.
 

So, the other day I get home from grocery shopping, and I go to pull into the not-a-spot in front of the building so I can unload my trunk before I park, since I'll need to make a few trips.  Normally when I do this, I even back in, to make it as quick & easy as possible to get the perishables inside and in the fridge.  And that way I won't be in anybody else's spot if they should come home while I'm unloading.

Today, there were about 5 teenagers with skateboards, dressed in their I'm-so-misunderstood goth-kid apparel, sitting behind a parked car across the way, in front of the facing building.  So I thought, "Oh, I won't back in, since I don't want them to freak out when the car starts coming toward them."  Aren't I thoughtful?

So I get out of my car and pop the trunk, and as I'm walking back to start unloading my car one of the boys says, "Hey.  You know that's not a parking spot." And I say, "I'm just unloading my groceries." And he says, "Well, it's not a spot." So I said, "Well, I do this all the time, and nobody seems to mind."

I was so ticked off.  What the hell does it matter to him and his little skater punk posse where I park?  I'm also ticked at myself for offering an explanation.  It's none of his business what I do.

Here is a list of better responses:
 

Put your witty/scathing banter suggestions in the comments, okay?

But instead I just finished unloading my groceries, moved my car to my spot, went inside to change, then walked to Curves, so I could use my anger in a more productive manner.  Then I used my key tag to buy a bottle of water at the Mobil on the walk back.

$2.49/gal is unacceptable.  Gas prices are getting up there again.

Also, Jen told me that she cannot see any of the things I'm describing in the Kenny Kaizen picture.  So I made it easier.  Kenny is green, his hat is red, his water wings are orange, his easter basket is blue, his dog is brown and his soccer ball has spots.  He is made of masking tape and is standing on white paper, hence the lack of contrast.

If anybody still can't see it, come over, and I will 'splain it to yo' dumb ass.

I think Art Boy might have a girlfriend.  He was telling a story in class today and mentioned that "WE had to take [the dog]".  He hadn't been really talking about another person at that point in the story, and the not mentioning who the other part of "WE" is seems like reference to a wife or girlfriend to me.  Katie says she's holding out hope for me, that it's a roommate or friend or something.  Gretchen says there's no future, because he got up at 7am on a Saturday.  Although she thought there was something, because there was actual physical contact this week.

This week we started working on the wheel in ceramics.  Art Boy was holding onto my hands to help me center my clay.  Gretchen thought this meant something, but I'm pretty sure he did that with at least two other people in the class.  Oh, by the way, I SUCK at the wheel.  Gretchen is freaking awesome at it.  I'm so impressed with her.  I tried three separate times and kept screwing it up.  But I am determined, I am going to make something on the wheel that doesn't look completely crappy.  I can get it centered and opened pretty well, but when I start to pull, I make the sides too thin and the lip too thick and the lip makes the sides collapse, so it gets all wobbly and I get sad.  He said he can help me with that.  (The wobbly, not the sad.)  Jen says I need help "outside of class."  Always plotting, that one.

But I finished glazing all the stuff I've made so far, so I'll get that stuff back next week.

More SNL love for STL:
 

Went to Trivia Night with the Sherrons (the older & younger sets) and Katie.  We came as close to winning as you possibly can and not actually win.  We tied for first (83 points, woo-hoo!), but lost the tie-breaker.  We underestimated ourselves and our estimate of our final score was only 70.  Damn our lack of self-confidence!

Daylight Savings Time should never start on April 2.  Because if someone tells you about it, you're all skeptical: "Is it really, or are they just screwing with me for April Fools Day?"  Because it would be a pretty good prank, you'd show up early for everything, and be all pissed off that people were an hour late to meet you.

Because it was crazy and annoying (intentionally), I didn't keep the April 1 post here.  If you want to see it, it's here.
 

Read CommentsLeave Comments  4/2/06