What passes for entertainment around here

I got up at a reasonable hour this morning to make monkey bread, and while it's in the oven I decided to "clean" by pressing "power" on the Roomba our friends gave us. Okay, so it doesn't get the dog hair up all that great, preferring instead to drag it around for a while and drop it off somewhere, but it does pretty good on all the other crap that makes its way to the floor.

Oh, and damn if it isn't the cutest thing you've ever seen. It just got itself stuck under the dining table, and you could almost see it all distraught about all the places that, being stuck under the table, it was never going to get to clean. Plus it chases the cats all over the house, and that's always lots of fun.

It's a lot like watching a zamboni on the ice rink--it doesn't do much, but for some reason you can't stop watching.

Anyways, my monkey bread is about to be ready.

The Story of a Half-Hour

So the new couch ate the mouse for Tyson's laptop. Either that, or he was just too lazy to really look for it. While I was at school doing my tutoring thing, he borrowed mine from my laptop.

When I got home, I rolled my eyes in consternation that my borrowed mouse had not been put back (what was I expecting, though, really?), and plugged it back in to the jury-rigged USB-port card thing that I use ever since my motherboard fried the ports in the back of the computer.

To my continued frustration, the laser light went on, but the pointer failed to move on my screen. I tried unplugging/replugging both the mouse and the port-card itself, then closing and opening the lid to get hibernate mode to trick the mouse into working, then I tried all the choice swear words that have served me in the past, but it still wouldn't work.

Then I had the great idea that this was probably the opportunity I'd been waiting for to get a new computer! Ever since the first mention of Windows Vista, I've been wanting to go Mac, 'cause, you know, screw Windows. Give me drag-and-drop image manipulation, and I can live with relearning an entire operating system.

I came down off my euphoric potential-new-computer high long enough to try restarting my computer, the only thing that has been getting these weird kinks out, lately. And, sure enough, its "working" fine again. (Those are ironic quote marks, by the way.) Too bad. I was all about to get on the other computer and start shopping for a new system.

(Do I need to mention there are extra-credit points for identifying the allusive title?)

I'm sure they say the same thing about us.

Japanese culture is weird.

If you haven't bought me anything for a while, here's a shirt I want.

Hiccups!

I have the hiccups, and I can't make them stop!

I tried holding my breath, taking big gulps of water, and even trying to drink from the opposite side of a glass.

I get them when I eat too fast, and they usually go away pretty quickly, but I've been hiccuping for 30 minutes now, and it just isn't fun anymore.

In my second semester at Tech, I had four 80-minute classes in a row with ten-minute breaks in between. I was experimenting with quitting smoking at the time, so I usually brought an apple or a sandwich to try to curb my oral fixation between classes. Because the break was so short, I always scarfed my snack as quick as I could, and I got hiccups about once a week as a result. The worst was when I got the hiccups right before my German class because there were only four other students and you could always hear me right in the middle of something--HIC!--especially when someone was reading or I was called on to do a translation.

Our neurotic cat, Clam, gets the hiccups from time to time, and they always confuse her. Her whole body jerks, then she looks around for the culprit, ears flattened, tail thumping. About the time she relaxes, she hiccups again. It is one of the funnier mind games I play with my cat.

Hooray! In the time it took to write this, my hiccups stopped! I guess getting my mind off my spasming diaphragm was all I needed.

Gak!

Okay, so I am poking my head in here really, really quickly. You should be reading this post in a high-pitched, manic voice because I have like 5 minutes of free time today.

Why, you ask? Well, let me tell you:

thejuniorshavecrucibleoutlinesduetomorrowandthefreshmenturnedtheiressaysintoday andimstillbehindongradingfromlastweekandneedtocatchupdidimentionthatmyjuniorshave morethan40assignmentssofarthisquarter? insteadofthesmarter(andmoreboring)choiceofworkingallweekendweallwenttocaliforniainsteadwhereitwascoldandtheboysgot somefishbutthatmeanttodaytherewasallkindsofstufftodo
thenigotalovelynotefromastudent-parentsayingtheyhad "moralissues"withtheessaypromptandthereforeshehad"excused"herselffromtheassignment sotherewasthatdramaandididntreallyknowwhattodoaboutitbesidesstew

whew

iwassupposedtostarttutoringforproficiencyexamstodaybuttherewasnoannouncementsandno flyersandnoplansoranything(thatonesmyfault)soanywaybut thatmeansihavetokicksomebuttbeforewednesday
soiamheretakingaquickbreakbecauseimfeelingguiltyaboutalsonotbloggingbutthereislaundry readytocomeoutofthedryerandahandouttomakeforact3ofthecrucibleandineedtomakeagrading sheetfortheoutlinesthataredueandifidontgetsomeofitdoneithinkmybrainwillexplode.

So there's that. Hope your weeks are starting out manageably because I seem to be stressed enough for everyone already.