Santa came!

Holidays over, moving over, house in a livable state, yep it's time to buckle down and get back to the business of being me. Spent my long lazy Sunday furiously plucking out my resolutions for the New Year and my plans for getting there which left me in a feverish state of excitement over the great year I'm going to have. I might also mention that this cost me a full night's sleep.

Yeah, it was good...

Why is it that everything seems just a bit brighter and more plausible at about 36 hours into an all nighter? So there's not a lot to tell. Had a great Christmas as evidenced by the carnage to the right. Santa was too sweet and gave me a real Buxton Christmas complete with the telescope assembled and waiting just like Santa left it. Having a little trouble dissuading Blaine from the lure of a snowblower.

Us

It takes one person a good hour to do the drive and sidewalk, but I know that we're going to need a lawnmower a lot more, so I'm trying to restrain him, but another big snow may render me powerless. Finished the basement closet drywall and am now the proud owner of fully approved finished basement.

Oh the joys of home ownership!

Here's a tip, DO NOT try to use an orbital sander on plaster, we're still waiting for the dust to settle.Made the good will tour of the neighborhood and caught a few people at home, who all seemed very nice and friendly. We even had a bunch of little girls yesterday who rang our doorbell because they wanted to take Crowley for walk.

Looking East from the front yard

That being an insanely bad idea (visions of lawyers and fingerless little girls dancing in my head), I offered to let them play with Grendel, who promptly let loose a torrent of pee (I'm assuming in fright)all over me as the little girls squealed and Blaine laughed. So much for friendly neighborness, we'll just be the crazy people with the whizzing cat.

Looking West

Speaking of pets, had to find a companion for Artie after she took to screaming at the flocks of birds flying by the window like, "Hey, I'm here! Where ya' goin'?!?". The first finch died, and I dutifully carried it's cold little corpse back to Petsmart to request one with a little more spunk. So this one's still kicking and seems to be faring well.

Looking South, straight out of our front door

Artie knows she's 3 times Christabel's size but she doesn't bully her around, she just doesn't let her sleep in the cushy nest, even though it's plenty big for her big butt and the little baby. I can't believe how much cages cost, so after my success with the desk (at lower right) I've resolved to build a cage of some kind.

Christabel and Artie

And mine will be easy to clean and perfectly proportioned to hold a folded up piece of newspaper without any special cutting necessary. And maybe a nest for Christabel too :)So here's to the New Year and all of the good fortune that comes with it! Hope you have a good one too:)

Tadaaaa!

]]> http://www.michellebuxton.com/weblog/archive/# <p>Am currently in the throes of feverish nesting having finally found myself in the long envied position of actually having a nest. Every morning I awaken to my brain buzzing with the multitude of plans, schemes and diagrams for bright, shiny tchotchkes gleaned from years of reading Martha Stewart. If only I'd SAVED every last stinking copy, then I could remember all of the things that I said that I would do....some day.</p><p>For now I struggle to focus on what I desperately need to do rather than what they did on today's episode of Suprise by Design. The basement closet that needs to be drywalled is first, obviously because the building inspector gave me 30 days. But second is to build myself a desk. That's right, it's Michelle vs. Black and Decker. We'll just see who ends up with all of their fingers. Tomorrow Blaine's agreed to help me load roughly 100 pounds of MDF on top of the Rodeo. It's so nice having a boy scout in the house, you never know when you'll need a good knot.</p> Michelle Buxton T04:43:17Z Am currently in the throes of feverish nesting having finally found myself in the long envied position of actually having a nest. Every morning I awaken to my brain buzzing with the multitude of plans, schemes and diagrams for bright, shiny tchotchkes gleaned from years of reading Martha Stewart. If only I'd SAVED every last stinking copy, then I could remember all of the things that I said that I would do....some day.

For now I struggle to focus on what I desperately need to do rather than what they did on today's episode of Suprise by Design. The basement closet that needs to be drywalled is first, obviously because the building inspector gave me 30 days. But second is to build myself a desk. That's right, it's Michelle vs. Black and Decker. We'll just see who ends up with all of their fingers. Tomorrow Blaine's agreed to help me load roughly 100 pounds of MDF on top of the Rodeo. It's so nice having a boy scout in the house, you never know when you'll need a good knot.

If I can't see you, you can't see me?

The Oregon family noted the fawn ignored them other than small eye movements indicating an awarenessof their presence. As the fawn appeared in no way alarmed or frightened, they decided to leave it undisturbed to see what would happen next. About four and a half hours after first discovering the fawn and taking its photograph, mama deer returned, claimed her offspring, and they disappeared into the woods.

Could it be any cuter :)

So we're still waiting to resolve that little issue, but besides that, things are rolling along. They still had a few things left to do, like finish out the bath in the basement, repair a faulty wall outlet and reroute a gas line which is dangerously located behind a door in their do it yourself basement redo. I just hope that we don't find any other suprises. The radon test came back at 2.9 which is below the 4 which would require mitigation, but I'm still thinking that is a little high for a 9 month old house. Plan to look into permanent monitoring devices and do it yourself mitigation since that will be Blaine's lair and he will no doubt spend many a weekend holed up playing with his toys. Let me know if you have any experience with this. We don't have basements where I grew up, too close to sea level, so sump pits and dehumidifiers and radon are all new to me.

We went to the movies last night and saw Elf which was even funnier than it looked in the previews but we didn't want to go home afterwards. So we made a run through the Starbucks drive through and armed with Gingerbread and Eggnog lattes we took a late night drive to prowl our new neighborhood, driving very slowly past the naughty neighbors like we could glean some clue as to why they choose to stand in the way of us and our new house?!? Somehow even their house looked angry, if a house can look angry, or maybe we were seeing what we wanted to see. But the neighborhood is tiny and oh, so peaceful sitting out there in the dark quiet prairie. We hated to leave, but I know we'll be back.

The Kitchen

Having a dispute with the neighbor after only living there for nine months kind of worries me. The agent said that they also called the listing agent to ask that a porch light be turned off. Are we not allowed to use our porch lights at night? It's pitch black out there at night, which is nice, but not if people are being grumpy about it. It also absolutely silent. There is no peripheral noise of traffic or anything. It's actually a pretty nice. We've never lived anywhere that we couldour windows. Our apartment in Baltimore was the worst. I had to turn up the TV full blast to hear it over the noise of the traffic when the air wasn't working, which was pretty often. The thing that worries me is Crowley's barking. I'm sure that it is only a matter of time before we hear about that.

To be passsive is to hide your intentions, feelings or desires. It's motivated by both a desire for approval and a fear of confrontation. You feel like you're being the nice guy by letting everyone else have their way, but the problem is that you're being dishonest and manipulative, both to yourself and to the person that you're dealing with and in the end, it hurts more than it helps. This is where I am now. I spend more time than I care to admit feeling angry, resentful and petty. I know that when that moment comes and I choose to sublimate my desires, I'm afraid. And it never occurred to me that it hurt anyone else besides myself.

To be aggressive is to do the exact opposite. You totally ignore the other person's feelings, ideas, concerns. The only logical conclusion to a coversation when you're being aggressive is that you're right or that you win. The problem is obvious, the other person is left feeling hurt and insulted while you're left with a bad decision. Because it is a bad decision when only one person is allowed to participate in the decision making process if it effects more than that one person. Although I never really thought of myself as being aggressive, now I see that this is my obnoxious side, which I know I can be. I've used aggression when I knew that I had to make my voice heard, unfortunately I tend to drown out everyone else, leaving both hurt feelings and bad decisions. I usually picture aggressive people as really insecure. Like they have something to prove, even at your expense, but I'm not sure I'm right about that one or how it fits in with all of this. One thing I'm definitely not good at is being on the receiving end of aggression. I don't know how to defend myself without committing the same crime.

To be assertive is to achieve that happy harmony where everyone is heard and participates. It is direct and honest communication. It is two people, equally engaged in giving and taking and even though one may get their way, they both feel like winners. This one, I know nothing about. But I plan to try. It's funny how you really have to get a good picture in your head of where you'd like to be before you can start out in that direction. Making this small distinction has shed light on several relationships where I just couldn't get a grip . I knew that they were troubling, but I couldn't put my finger on why and if you don't know why, you can't fix it. Just so glad for a bright new idea, they come along so rarely.

My Blue Heaven

Okay, maybe need to back off the caffeine, but we didn't get the first house we made an offer on. The agent said that it was overpriced and even my untrained sensibilities can see that they'll never get what they're asking. And now with all of the evil vibes I'm sending, I hope they don't see what we were willing to pay. MOOHOOHAHAHA!

This hotel room is starting to smell and the cat is getting tired of being stepped on, by me, the dog, Blaine, it's no fun being short. I can't concentrate on work, so I flip the twelve channels that we get three or four hundred times a day waiting for our situation to improve.

So that's where I am now, kind fluey, kinda grumpy, but there you go. I haven't been writing because I've been so distracted. Being this way means that I only write when I'm bored and really have nothing to talk about anyway. Must work on that one.

It's been an exciting couple of weeks, I can't believe we've been here that long. Escaping Connecticut, and it did feel like escaping because of all of the undone housework I left behind, went rather painlessly. Blaine, the master packer, managed to get all of our stuff into the pannier on the roof, leaving Crowley the whole back seat. Grendel and Artie did all right despite having their compartments right next to each other. I can only imagine what torture it was for Grendel to have to listen to the chirping just inches away and not be able to do anything about it. It was so nice having them to snuggle in the hotel though, now I get celebrities that carry their animals everywhere. It was a good trip over all, much better than the last drive we made.

Okay, I wasted that 30 minutes and still no call, it's now officially 10am. Damn!

So until the music industry decides to stop eating itself alive and start promoting a greater variety of artists, music lovers must find other avenues for satisfying their appetites. I found a few today that I think are pretty cool

MetaCritic provides a compendium of all of the professional reviews available for a record along with an average score. It's a really good spot to go and see in one place what the critics thinks.

All Music Guide is great for trying to find artists that are similar to ones that you already like. They offer a related artist section that includes lists of Similar Artists, Roots and Influences, Formal Connections, Performed Songs By, Appears On, Songs Appear On and Worked With. This is exactly the kind of information that you need, I can't believe that Amazon hasn't added something like this. They also have what they call Music Maps which attempt to outline the progression of a genre. It's pretty incomplete but would be a great idea if anyone could really put some time into it. Pictures always help.

Acclaimed Music lists the top singles and albums by year. They do this by compiling the top lists of critics, artists, and music industry. So it's the final say on what everyone else said :) Read the Q & A for more info on the guy behind the site, it's pretty interesting.

But how did it all start? Where does the story date back to? J.H.Mcmasters states that the story was prevalent in the German technical universities in the 1930's, starting with the students of the aerodynamicist Ludwig Prandtl at Göttingen. The story he tells is that a noted Swiss aerodynamicist, whom he does not name, was talking to a biologist at dinner. The biologist asked about the flight of bees and the Swiss gentleman did a back-of-the-napkin calculation of the kind I described. Assume a rigid, smooth wing and so on. Of course, he found that there was insufficient lift and went away to find out the correct answer. In the meantime the biologist put the word around, presumably to show that nature was greater than engineering, and the media picked it up. The truth, as now, wasn't newsworthy so a correction has never been publicised. The man on the Clapham omnibus, therefore, continues to tell me that science is a load of crock because it once proved that bumble bees cannot fly.

Had a great night last night. Blaine's coworkers gave him an incredible send off at a local Cajun restaurant called Black Eyed Sallies. It was good food, good music and good company topped off by Blaine's friend Rusty who really outdid his self. He presented him with this huge Omaha Survival Kit, FULL of all kinds of toys and jokes and candy. Honestly, I don't know if there's anything left to get him for Christmas :) He got Kiss bobble-heads, a real flying batman, a cool hat, CowTales for the trip, little plastic barnyard animals, a stuffed bull and a little tractor to familiarize ourselves with the landscape :), and the piece de la resistance...the new Alice Cooper doll...Oh...my...goodness :) I think Blaine could have wet his self from all of the excitement. I got away with a talking Mr. Wonderful, to help train Blaine, ("Let me cook dinner tonight" :) They're a really fun group and they just outdid themselves. It was so creative. Blaine and I both were overwhelmed by their kindness and generosity. I know he'll be sad to leave all of his buddies. Especially his partner in crime, Rusty. He has the same wicked sense of humor and love of loud music. He's so lucky to have had someone so nice to endure the long hours and frustrating work with. He'll be sorely missed.

I recently watched the Recruit (again), which has some interesting DVD extras about "The Farm" and the process of CIA recruitment. I don't know how these people do it. It seems like they sacrifice so much. The movie iterates the point that they toil on for years and years without recognition. We undoubtably hear about their screw-ups but never hear about their successes. No medal, no thanks of a grateful nation, I can't imagine giving so much for so little in return. I would really like to know how they do it. I hope she writes a book, or something. But I doubt it.

Besides that, things have been slow around here, waiting, waiting and more waiting. Right now, I'm looking for the boxes to arrive, that's right, I haven't even started packing. But I have started repairing some of the damage done by the animals and some that I just blamed on them. Bleach stains on the carpet are what I'm trying to get rid of now. Today is also a baking day. In an effort to make good use of what's left in the cupboard's (more baking chocolate than any Weight Watcher has a right to have), I'm making brownies for Blaine to take on his last day. WHICH IS TOMORROW!! He's so excited. It's like getting out of school and then he has next week to decompress, I'm so happy for him.

If you have any ideas about the carpet, let me know.

...a passion flower. That one goes back to my childhood. It bears an egglike fruit that turns yellow when ripe and is edible..real seedy though. We used to have "Maypop" battles with the green ones before they ripened. They grew all along the country dirt roads that I frequented going to meet to the school bus.

A pic of Nanny's passion flower in watercolor

Pam has them growing on her property and she put one in a pot for me. This year it has flourished and gave me lots of beautiful blooms and 1 maypop. Then the Monarch butterflies laid eggs on the vine and it became infested with orange and black catapillers. They devoured all the leaves and flowerbuds that were on the vine and even ate the green off my lonely little maypop. As much as I have always loved butterflies, I got really angry at that one I observed depositing it's eggs. I observed it very closely and sure enough, each time it lit on the vine it deposited one tiny little yellow egg. These of course grow into the catrapillers with verocious appetites.

I am evil because this is so funny.