PT, round 1.

so far so good with the physical therapy. the process that my therapist is performing is heating up my foot, then scraping with various pieces of hard plastic 3 times from my knee down my calf and all over my heel.. he must have told me 19 times that i was going to hate him, and it was going to be very "uncomfortable". but it really wasn't.. maybe i have a ridiculous tolerance for pain, or maybe i'll feel it more next time, but all in all it was no big deal.. the point of the scraping is to break down the scar tissue that has built up, make it bleed, and have my body reabsorb it back into my body, and force the muscles to reheal in a better alignment that will be less painful and will be less likely to hurt/be reinjured in the future..

i'm optimistic that it will work..

tonight is the season finale of lost.. woo who!! 3 hours in a row. the first hour is a repeat of last week, but it will have some new footage.. can't wait!

i wonder....

today at lunch i saw someone walking and thought, i bet he doesn't spend nearly the amount of time on his computer as i do... then my mind ran away for a few minutes about what i would/could do with my time if i wasn't on my computer every night... i think i am going to see if i an go 30 days without using my computer away from work.. it should be do-able right? i mean anything i can't accomplish/surf at work just isn't going to get done for 30 days.. seems reasonable for me.. i think i am up for the challenge.. i want to say i haven't successfully completed a 30 day challenge since my "no drinking/double french braiding my hair" challenge of march 04...

so, june 1st is this coming sunday.. mark your calendars.

adult fun.

it was very refreshing to have some adult time this weekend, preceded by some teagan time.

friday i didn't get out of work till the usual time :( so i didn't arrive in olean till close to 10. cath and i immediately started watching "there will be blood". it was a pretty decent film. "i drink your milkshake", i kept waiting for that line and pretty much had to wait till the last 10 minutes of the movie. but i still liked it..

saturday after taking the teags to the Y for a dip in the pool (photos here) i headed over to hornell to meet AL to go to the shower.

shower was good. not very eventful.. but nice to have time to chat with mostly AL..

after the shower the real fun began.. we met out at a bar and got our drinks on.. i took a lot of photos and even some video... the photos really tell the story.. so i suggest you check them out.. :)

we couldn't resist eating at the diner on the way home, so of course, i ended up throwing it all up before i could fall asleep. i hate to admit it, but it felt so good to throw that up, and i am a great puker.. i have a lot of practice... maybe i could be bulimic....

this evening i have watched a bunch of jimmy kimmel shows and went to see iron man again.. there were more people in the theater watching it with me this time than there were the 1st time around. and it was equally as good this 2nd time.

tomorrow the main thing on my agenda is to wash the bugs and bird feces off my car. :) i love free days off of work.

long weekend!

yay, a long weekend is upon us! like most weekends i will be driving out of town, i have decided to make my suitcase a permanent fixture in my room rather than packing it away under my bed after each trip.

tonight i will go to S&Js house to help cath corrupt babysit teagan. the plan is to take her for her first swim tomorrow morning. :) i wish my camera was waterproof.

after the inaugural swim i will head over a couple of towns to beautiful Hornell for a wedding shower followed by a bachelorette party. i feel like it's been a long time since i've been to a wedding shower. probably because my memories are filled with baby showers. how exciting to have some good old fashioned adult fun in store..

lucky for me i should have an hour or two to myself on sunday before my roommates return from Olean. unless i can convince them to stay till monday!

all in all, i am sure it will be a grand time. and who knows, maybe i will go see iron man again on monday. :)

next up... physical therapy.

i had a dr appt today and i'm almost out of options. :( he prescribed 2x weekly, for 3-4 weeks. that is going to get expensive. *tears*

he said that he hopes the physical therapy will break up some of the scar tissue, but if that is not working when i see him in 3 weeks he is going to order an MRI.

i've sunk a LOT of money into this problem and i almost feel like i am worse off than i was at the start.

zoom zoom!!

so friday since i didn't have to go to work till late, mike and i drove up to watertown to talk to another mazda dealer. i honesstly thought i would drive up, they would look at my car, make me an offer, and i would ponder it, adn maybe make a decision this weekend. well... obviously i was talked into ditching my car, and driving the new one off the lot.. :) they gave me 1400 more for my trade in than the 1st place wanted to, and the best part is they didn't even drive it or anything.

its so exciting to have a new car... every car i've ever driven has been used. this one is quiet, shifts nice, smells good, has pretty much everything i need in a car... i am not so impressed with the gas mileage so far. i am not sure exactly how many gallons i can put in when i fill it up, and it might just be a smaller gas tank.. but i feel like i can watch the needle move.. :( my fingers are crossed that the tank is significantly smaller. :)

in other news.. i saw Iron Man today. i knew nothing of the character/hero, nor had i ever read the comic books... i had only heard everyone and their mothers talking about it, and had seen a couple interviews with robert downey.. i was kinda blown away. it was really good... like, really good... this movie was packed with testosterone and it was great. i have always loved robert downey and he did not disapoint in this film, and he was smokin hot! it makes me need to see him in a romantic leading man role again.. i know what movies are jumping to the top of my netflix queue.

here are the pics of the car and this weekend.

holy mad busy batman!

my claim earlier this week of being up to my eyeballs in work has now escalated to completely drowning. tomorrow is the "big night". i will be going into work at 5pm and coming home when we are done. most likely well after the sun has come up. :( anything over and above 8 hours will be OT though. :)

i can sleep in tomorrow though, that has to count for something! i am hoping to go up to watertown to meet with a 2nd mazda dealer and see what kinds of options i have.

i was hoping to watch a movie before work, but i don't think tht is going to happen..

i'm sitting here unwinding and waiting for the office finale to come on and cath insists on watching Ugly Betty... it's kind of a good show there are so many people in it that i recognize. one of my favorites is "gio", freddy rodriguez. rrrrrrr...

wants are going on sale tomorrow...

this website i frequent is run by a couple of artists that make paintings of things they want to buy and then sell the paintings for the cost of the item.. so anyway, they sent an email saying that they are releasing some more paintings tomorrow that are all in the vein of their upcoming trip to Las Vegas.

i highly encourage you to check out their site.. it's a wicked cool idea, i wish i had it first.

ohhhh, the sweet smell of sewer...

i'm up to my eyeballs with work right now.. and today to further add to the stress, the bathrooms in my building were out of order.. i had to choke back puke when i caught a whiff of the men's room. so the 2 bathrooms in our building were off limits, we had to truck over to the "other" building to use their bathrooms.. let me draw a diagram of what that looked like.



the green path is my usual path to the bathroom. the red path is the one i had to take today.. i pee about 13 times a day.. so this was very troubling.. i made this pilgrimage twice. :(

i had to stop and pick up some milk on my way home from work, and in the 5 minutes i was in the store with my phone in the car, i got the call i was waiting 2 days for from "Matt". he left me a message and said he would touch base with me first thing tomorrow.. his message said they have an approval for me, but i think he said it was higher than i wanted.... shocking... i'll have to see what his offer is tomorrow..

i almost forgot this till cath reminded me at dinner... last night i'm totally sleeping, and at 1am the shelf that contains all my art supplies and canvases and hello kitty stuff came crashing down onto me in my bed and onto the floor. luckily for fatty she wasn't sleeping on my bed last night. the shelf fell down exactly where she usually lays. she would have been seriously injured if not worse... Mike heard it and came upstairs on his way to bed and help dig me out of the debris. what a crazy night.. i can't help but wonder if its the universes "not so gentle" way of nudging me back into creating some art....

today this post popped up in my feedreader.. it is precious and soooo true... i strongly urge you check it out..

baby shower weekend..

this weekend was EHs 2nd shower. yay! all the family showers are over forever!!!! (unless by some stroke of luck i get married and have a child). it was alarming how people just didn't care that EH was opening presents... very odd, that is usually the highlight of all the showers i've been to..

i was most impressed with my camera this weekend.. i turned the "red eye reduction" on in the camera itself, so for example, i was taking a picture of cath, and even with the pre-flash light it still gave red eyes.. well, then the preview image got this rectangular box over the eyes, and the camera took out the red eye before it saved it to my card. it was so cool! it doesn't seem to recognize dogs "green eye" though. that's fine with me though.... so cool!

here are the pics i took this weekend. beware baby haters, there are lots of baby pics in there.

this afternoon i took my car into mazda for an appraisal.. i gave "matt" my must haves and my monthly payment ceiling.. he said he'd call me back by the end of the day with what they could offer. he kept asking me which color i wanted. i must have told him 9 different times it doesn't matter to me.. the transmission is what matters, and air conditioning and power doors/locks. keep your fingers crossed..

so many choices....

i feel like i have so many choices about what to do about my car situation...

last night i test drove a mazda 3 and it was great! i could totally see myself loving that car.. the sticker price on the car was 18K. i told the guy that i had 6K left on my car, and wanted my payments to be in the 300-325 for 60mos range.. i have to take my car to be "assessed" on monday... and if he can work something out where my outstanding loan will be paid and my future payments are 300-325 then i would take it..

but then just for kicks i looked on CL and found 2-3 mazda 3s that are manual and either 2006 or 2007 that were between 12k-14K. so that is tempting... but i would still have my current loan and would need to unload my car to someone for 6K..

then there is the alternative, put the 2K into my car to have it fixed and cross my fingers hoping it will last 2 more years...

ugh, decisions decsions...

at 530 prompt my roommates are picking me up to go out to western NY.. it's another baby shower! SB just sent some new pics of teagan.. she looks more alive.. hopefully she'll be able to see me this weekend if i can pry her from cath's arms..

who's in the coffin?

i'm listening to this weeks LOST podcast and we will find out who was in the coffin in the season finale of LOST. i have heard much hype about this season finale, it's going to be good from what i can garner.

today after work my roommates and i have an appt with someone at mazda.. SF has been coaching me on car buying.. i am pretty excited to see what they have.

oh, LOL... i just got a message from the sales guy at mazda.. he says he's confirming our appt, etc.. and then leaves his email address! LOL LOL.. it's working..

the day has come...

my poor accord has been beat to death. :( i think it would make the most sense to get a new car. MB and i went window shopping yesterday after work. i looked at some scions, nissans, and toyotas.. the toyotas seem too expensive. i don't like the looks of any of the scions... there were a couple of nissans that i liked. the sentra was not as crappy and ugly as i remember them being.. one car that caught my eye was the "versa". i had never heard of a versa... apparently they have been in europe for quite a while... they are cute and they come in a hatchback or a sedan. they have a cool audio package available where there is bluetooth built in, and you can control it by a button on the steering wheel... and you can also control the radio by the steering wheel too. essential car needs. :) however, of all the cars on their lot they only had 2 versas that were manual. and neither of them had that upgraded audio package.

the car i am currently obsessing over is the mazda 3. it seems to be the general census that the mazda 3 is a solid car.. well, actually.. KT said it was too sporty for her. so if the stars align themselves correctly cath and i will go and look at them tomorrow after work. i emailed the dealer and she assured me they have some 5 speeds in stock. i think steering wheel audio control is standard in the mazdas. :)

yesterday i got a package in the mail i was not expecting.. it was a desert colored wedding dress! woooo who!! from my uncle mark. looooove! it needs to be washed and softened out a little, but its cool! i've never seen the sand colored ones.

today is the day...

i dropped my car off at the dealer this morning.. the technician pulled it into the expansive garage and got out and said, "Wow, that engine is LOUD.. i hope it's just because there is no oil in it.. do you hear that knocking (and he knocks on the counter top for emphasis) when you hit the gas and ease off the brake?"

then he said the words i didn't want to hear... "it might be time to get a new car if something is really mechanically wrong with the engine".

i know that they are supposed to say that cause they are a dealer.. but the car has been loud for longer than i can even remember.. i don't think it has much to do with the oil. :(

i'm bracing myself for the worst. but i did spy a sweet new accord while i was there and my heart skipped a beat!

can music make you seasick?

i am listening to "mike fm..we play everything" as i usually do when TAC is over, and at first i thought it was just Def Leppard's Hysteria that was oscillating from left to right ear but then i kind of heard it again David Gray's Babylon. it's making me sick to my stomach.. i had to take my headphones off i couldn't stand it so much. how crazy insane is that?

if they come back from commercial and i hear that asinine switching of stereo i will delete that bookmark from my favorites!! today is not a good day to piss me off!!

happy cinco de mayo.

happy mexican holiday that primarily americans celebrate!! wooot!

have yourselves some delicious guacamole!

no country for old men

so i watched this movie tonight. i feel like i'm in heaven to be able to just have the house to myself and sit here and drink a bottle of wine and turn off all the lights, light some candles. watch a movie...

but back to the movie.. has anyone seen this film? am i dumb, why don't i get it? does chigurh kill the wife? was the scene with the wheelchair brother the reason for the title of the movie? am i the only one that is oddly attracted to javier bardems character? or is it the wine?

the wine is some french wine i picked up for my trip to boston that never got drunk.. i was hoping it was light and red like some of the table wines i had while touristing around paris. i don't think i will ever be able to find wine that satisfying again.. god i have to go back to france. i highly encourage anyone and everyone to do it.

if anyone has seen the movie and knows why it is so critically acclaimed please tell me...

i'm in love...

the kind of love where i want to call in sick to work and bust into stores and restaurants and take pictures of everyone and anyone!

i took my camera outside after work and took some pics of the tree out front focusing on using the macro setting..

i can't get over how much better than my 2 shit cameras this new one is. it's insane.. i feel like i did when i got my very first digital camera all over again!

here are the pics. most of them are the front lawn tree, but they are unbelieveably better than anything i could have taken with my old camera.

pics, and myspace music..

here are a couple shots from my new camera.. nothing very interesting, but i didn't have a lot of time this morning before work.


fatty is having urinary tract problems again.. she was squatting the other day near the hearth.. but not peeing, we didn't put two and two together and realize that she was having problems again. cath switched her food to less expensive food and apparently it's just not the same as the special stuff she was getting from the vet for a cool million dollars a bag..


i've been inspired by SP to make myself some of these smoothies that consist mostly of frozen fruits, a banana, spinach and ice.. they are very delicious.. i'm getting to a point where i crave them... this one in particular i made this morning for breakfast.. it had a bunch of spinach, cherries, blueberries, a banana and 5 or so ice cubes. and prob a 1/2 cup of water. i put it in a travel mug and enjoyed it at my desk at work when i couldn't finish it this morning..

also inspired by the internets, i have been craving simon and garfunkel songs... earlier this week AC had randy west on the show and they played just about the whole simon and garfunkel greatest hits soundtrack.. thank god for inventing myspace music.. i can listen to whatever songs i want to hear, whenever at a mouse click!!

hot diggity dog!

it's arrived!! finally my camera is here! i bit the bullet after my last photo taking mis-adventure. i went with the rest of the crowd and got myself a canon elph. it's pink! and it has image stabilization, and it fits in my old camera case, i would take a photo with it, but i need to let the battery charge for like an hour and a half.