About two years ago, after I had a so-so bone density test, Michael and I started to use the weight machines at the rec center. We don’t use a lot of the machines, but we try to hit the large muscle groups for the upper body (since my legs already get a fair amount of use with all the walking I do.)

As I said, we did this because I’d like to stave off osteoporosis and getting any shorter than I already am. (We met me cousin’s fiancee yesterday. Like Eric, she’s tall tall tall. I can see that unless Liz stops growing, I will remain the shortest person in the family, save only Stacie.) I didn’t realize there would be other benefits as well.

Yesterday, we put up walls, with all the requisite cutting and carrying and lifting and hammering. For a break, we emptied a mini-van of Grandmom’s belongings, and filled it with the things that Eric is taking for his apartment (queen size bed, book cases, kitchen table). Then we went back to wall building. (Today should involve setting up electrical boxes, putting up drywall, and starting on the built-in bookcases.)

Last night I took an aspirin, figuring that with all the different kinds of work we did, I’d be ridiculously sore today. However, I woke up, and have to say that I feel surprisingly good. I’m a little tired, but I’m chalking that up to the fact that I couldn’t get to sleep last night, after all the caffeine I had yesterday.

All the aches and pains I was expecting? Not here.

So next time I think that I look stupid working with the weight machines, and that it’s not doing anything, since I remain a huge wimp, I’ll consider the fact that my entire body didn’t ache today, and happily continue.

I’m sitting here thinking that the last time my house was this much of a mess, we were moving in.

Then I realize that it’s about to get worse. In addition to the work we’re doing, my cousin is coming today to bring some of Grandmom’s furniture, and take away some of my furniture that will now be his.

I *think* that the volume of furniture leaving is greater than the volumn of furniture arriving, although this will not be so until the queen size mattress and box springs migrate over to my parent’s house. So that’s something. But still, I’m in the “holy cow what on earth were we thinking we’re never going to get all this done before the middle of November” phase of the project. This is actually a long phase that I am hoping will disappear somewhat after this weekend.

Hoping.

But still, I really don’t understand how we have to much stuff that takes up so much space. I mean, how have I ended up with eight feather pillows? I only have one head. (And the feather pillows are all mine–Michael has non-feather pillows.) What made me think that I would need back issues of Scientific American back to 1997?

And of course every time we move a piece of furniture, we find a dozen or so (toy) mice. I am now certain that we have a greater volume of toy mice than we do cats. Thing is, after Kat / Mr Furry / Mr Pissy has dashed out an open door for the umpteenth time in a single day, I can’t decide which would be better to keep.

Remember the hi-bounce ball ad?

Sony made a new commercial. It’s shorter than the hi-bounce ball commercial, but just as gorgeous.

Click around–they have some photographs as well.

And trust me, it’s worth the wait.

“Without that stabilizer panel, this landing’s gonna get real interesting.”
“Define interesting.”
“Oh God, oh God we’re all gonna die?”

Dear Spammers,

DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!

Thank goodness for spam filters.

Make your own snowflake. Quite neat.

A search for Michelle and Morgantown should bring up the one I made.

I HATE COMPUTERS!

That is all.

Okay, in context this makes sense, but I find it highly amusing out of context.
(more…)

Dad: Do you remember when we lived on Clark Street…
Michelle: Yes.
Michelle: Was there more I was supposed to remember?

Having OCD is a funny thing sometimes. And I mean that both as funny strange and funny ha ha. After all, if I couldn’t laugh at myself, then things could be much worse than they are. As it is, sometimes I even find it useful. I mean, I can organize the heck out of anything when I set my mind to it.

Most of the time I don’t even really notice that there’s anything different.

Of course, I’m not sure I’d know what it would feel like if I wasn’t different.

For me, it’s mostly little things. I don’t have obsessive hand washing, however, I do know how my hands feel dirty when I touch something my mind believes to be unclean.

But the things that really drive me nuts are 3-way light switches. Not all of them mind you, but the ones with multiple switches. I cannot stand it when the switches go in different directions. It bugs the crap out of me. I will walk across a darkened room or up an unlit stairwell so that the switches will be in the same direction. (That’s a fun one. I usually run up the stairs, because I imagine things in the dark corners of the basement. Things that come out when the lights are out. [This is why I don’t watch horror movies. My imagination doesn’t need the help.])

Meanwhile, the whole thing kinda defeats the purpose of having 3-way switches in the first place.

I wonder, sometimes, what is it like to go through a day and not be worried about things like that? Not to be bothered by mismatched light switches or floor tiles that are different colors. (That’s a fun one too. Because there is something “wrong” with the mismatched tiles, I can’t step on two different colored tiles at the same time.)

What is the point of this mutation I have? Why did it develop? What has allowed it to survive? What is it’s evolutionary significance? It must have some adaptive use. I mean, how else has is survived? Because I know for damned sure that just as living with OCD can at times be hard, I’m sure that living with me must often be harder still.

Don’t get me wrong though. Most days I don’t even think about the things I do. They don’t bother me, they just are. And when I do think about it, I usually laugh it off. Because there is something hilariously stupid about acting against my own self-interest.

But sometimes I do wonder, “why me?” And today was one of those days.

Why? Because Michael just repaired the 3-way switch in the kitchen. So that’s one more for me to worry about.

On the bright side, think of all the extra exercise I’ll get, walking back and forth across yet another room, to put the switches in the correct direction!

Almost forgot, there is an electronics recycling place in Morgantown now, PC Renewal.

Micahel took our old broken TV there, and some other miscellaneous electronics, and it cost just a couple bucks. So if you’d like to be environmentally conscious as you get rid of your old electronics, there’s now a place to do it.

This made me laugh. Out loud.

Armageddon Flowchart

(via Making Light)

This year Mountaineer Week is Nov 3rd through Nov 12. The Craft show will be the 3d, 4th, and 5th(?).

Hey! I knew this one!

golem

•noun (in Jewish legend) a clay figure brought to life by magic.
• an automaton or robot.
— origin late 19th cent.: from Yiddish goylem, from Hebrew golem ‘shapeless mass’.