Monthly Archive for February, 2009

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Wednesday’s Post about the Five Star Friday’s Intrepid Tuesday List

Published on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 in Blog Business and Featured Elsewhere. 3 Comments Tags: , , .

Five Star Friday

Have you heard of Five Star Friday?

According to the Five Star Friday site:

“Five Star Friday hosts a bi-weekly collection of links to superior weblog entries from all genres that have been submitted by the people, for the people.”

Conveniently enough, Five Star Friday posts show up on Friday, and Intrepid Tuesday posts are published on Tuesdays.

Well, one of my posts made the cut for Intrepid Tuesday! Yay!

Yes, I realize that telling you about Five Star Friday’s Intrepid Tuesday posting on a Wednesday might be a little mind-boggling. :)

Click this link to see which one of my favorite writing pieces is posted!

I love this site, because there is always an interesting variety of new blogs to read. So, regardless of what day it is, or what day you think it is, go check it out!

Lost Observations: This Place is Death

Published on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 in TV Shows and TV: Lost - The Show. 2 Comments Tags: .

Well, it’s that time again!  Lost is on tonight, and of course, I can’t wait to see what they throw at us this time!

For some reason, our DiVO chopped off the last minute and a half of last week’s episode, This Place is Death.  Oddly enough, I handled that misfortune with an ease that surprised even me.  I love my hubby dearly, but he never understands the dire nature of such things, but this time, when he said, “You probably didn’t miss much,” I agreed with him.  He thought it was a trick, but for some reason, I was fine with it.

I waited until the next day and watched the last 2 minutes on abc.com.  I didn’t really miss anything that I hadn’t already guessed.  (The DiVO had cut off just as Desmond meets up with Ben, et al, and they head into the church…and I just knew that Eloise Hawking was going to be in there, thus implying that she is Daniel Faraday’s mother.)

So, without any further ado, let’s get to my thoughts and observations of the last episode.  I don’t think there’s any need for a spoiler alert, because it’s been a week!  The next one is tonight!  If you aren’t caught up by now, that’s not my fault.  ;)

  • Now, it’s interesting that Ms. Hawking is Daniel’s mother, and I’m curious who his father is.  How they can “get started” without all the O6 there is beyond me.
  • We now know that Danielle Rousseau and her team crash onto the island on November 15, 1988.  I don’t know if there’s anything significant about that date, but it does make me wonder how the numbers are playing into all this?  4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42…and 108.  Is that the time between something – and what?…flashes, crashes, or something else?  Does it represent minutes?  hours?  days?  weeks?  months?  years?  Something else entirely?  There has to be a connection somehow…and I can’t wait to find out what it is.
  • We get to see Smokey again!  And, s/he’s just as vicious before.  If you remember from a previous season, Danielle makes reference to Montand losing an arm…well, now we know how.  And, we get to see the temple!
  • We also get to see Robert try to kill Danielle with a gun that has no firing pin…just like she told Sayid in a previous season.  (Those writers may be pesky, but at least they can keep the storyline straight!)
  • I must say the most shocking thing about this episode was what happened to Charlotte.  I’d asked in the last post what would happen to her, and I guess we got our answer.  But, what is death, especially on Lost?  And, how sad is it that she spent her childhood being told that her memories of the island weren’t real?  What a mind-trip would that be?  Who is her father?  How scary would it be to realize that you’ve seen Daniel Faraday before?  And, how convenient (for the writers…*cough*) is it that Daniel has a spotty memory at best?  Is Charlotte’s death the reason we see Daniel Faraday crying in the chair, with his caretaker looking on, in the last season?  I have a feeling we’re going to see “Crazy Man” Daniel Faraday travel to a future time in the past (ha!  Think about that!) and try to warn a small redheaded child about the dangers of coming back to the island.  But, sadly, we know it doesn’t work.  If anything, it prompts her to try even harder to find this mysterious place.  *sigh*
  • Who was Charlotte referring to when she told Jin “don’t bring her back here!”?  Was that a memory she was reliving from her childhood?  Was it a warning about Sun?  Was it a warning about Ji Yeon?
  • And, how manipulative and creepy of Ben to use Jin’s wedding ring for exactly the opposite of what Jin wanted it to be!  That ring was supposed to convince Sun to stay away, and Ben uses it to convince her to come.  Tricky, tricky.  And, how did Ben really get it back from John?  Was he there when John died (as Bentham), and what part did he play?  And, I still don’t know why Sun blames Ben for Jin’s “death.”
  • Also, John gets all bent out of shape about the O6 leaving in the first place, and he tells Jin that they should have never left.  Well, had Sun stayed, her pregnancy would have killed her, right?  Is he forgetting that part?

So, I have a feeling that Ms. Hawking will be explaining more about the island and how to get back, and I can’t wait to see what we learn tonight!  And, hopefully our DiVO behaves this time…  :)

That kicking and screaming you heard was me

Published on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 in Blog Business. 8 Comments Tags: , , .

Just file this along with the other things in the “Never say never, dude.” File.

Yes…I joined Twitter.  I really don’t want this to take over my life.  In fact, I’m going to use this as a reminder to prove my husband wrong to take control of my online life and not spend so much time there.

We’ll see how this goes.

If you’ve been reading for any time at all, you know that I’ve said I would never join Twitter.  Ha!  Did you hear the foreshadowing music playing when I said that, too?  I tried to ignore it.

Why did I join?  Well, I have had a wonderful writing opportunity fall in my lap, and nearly everyone else there has a twitter account.  I don’t want to be out of the loop.  So, before I write up my official bio for that opportunity, I wanted to have this twitter thing under control.

Ugh.
Resistance is futile.
My husband has threatened to put me in the home if the online world takes over my real life.

Which, I suppose would be okay as long as the facility has a good WiFi connection.

;)

On Twitter, I’m casualperfect and I’m listed under my thecasualperfectionist @gmail. com account.

If you’re on Twitter, find me.  If you’re on Twitter and have any advice as to what to do from here, please leave me a comment.  Now that I’m here, I want to make the best of it.

What are the odds?

Published on Monday, February 16, 2009 in Home Improvement. 4 Comments Tags: .

When we moved into this house almost eight years ago, we purchased two chairs for the table in our kitchen.  My father-in-law had refinished a beautiful walnut table for us, and we wanted nice chairs to go with it.

The chairs we found are wrought iron and wood and look like bistro chairs.  We fell in love with them the moment we saw them.  At that point, we only needed two chairs, so we didn’t buy any extra.  Plus, we have eight chairs at the dining room table, so if we ever need an extra, we could grab one of those.

Fast forward five years, and we add another person to our family.  We don’t need an extra chair for her, yet, because it will be a while before she can even sit in a chair.  Not to mention, we’ll do a high-chair for a while.  Plus, what are the odds that we’d be able to find a chair to match the ones we bought five years ago?  There is no sense in worrying about it yet.

Fast forward another year.  Claire has her own high-chair.  This will last us a while…no need to panic over finding a matching chair.  Not to mention, when we’re done with this chair, we’ll go to a booster seat, and we wouldn’t want to put that on one of the nice chairs anyway.  We have a folding chair that will work perfectly for that purpose.  Plus, what are the odds that the big outlet store would still have that style?  There is no sense in worrying about it yet.

Fast forward another year.  Claire no longer wants to sit in her booster seat, so she’s been using a chair that we’ve pulled from the dining room.  The perfectionist in me is starting to twitch, because not only is there one chair missing from that table, there is now a mismatched set in the kitchen.  But, it’s not the end of the world, so I’m trying really hard to not worry about it.

So, yesterday, we’re out and about, and on a whim, we decided to stop at the furniture store to see what our options are for kitchen chairs.  I’ve resolved myself to the fact that if we can’t find a matching chair, as long as it’s similar, I’ll be okay with it.  I mean, it was almost eight years ago that we bought the first two…what are the odds that they still have them?

My husband suggests that we look at getting two additional chairs so that if we ever need the fourth chair to go with the table, we’ll have at least two that match.  (The table is designed for four people, but it has two leaves on either side.  We flip one leaf down, jut the flat side up against the wall and just use three chairs.)

I think this sounds like a great plan.  I mean, what are the odds of finding the exact chairs this time, let alone if we ever decide we want that fourth chair to go with the table?  He’s right.  It’s best to complete the set now.  In my head, if one chair has a mate, and the other two chairs match each other, I’ll be happy.  And, as long as the two pairs are similar, they don’t have to be exact.

So, we finally find the right section in the huge store, and we cast our gaze across a sea of kitchen and dinette chairs.  The possibilities are endless, but none of them are wrought iron and wood.  We decide not to panic until we’ve looked through the whole section.  We start off in one direction, planning to work our way through the maze.  As we turn the corner, we can’t believe our eyes.

Our chairs!
The exact chairs!

And, they have been discontinued, so they are on clearance!

So, we bought two on the spot.

Click to enlarge.
I’m standing on the fourth one to take the photo…

And they’re a perfect match. What are the odds?

And they’re a perfect match. What are the odds?

In case you missed it: Why do you make your bed?

Published on Sunday, February 15, 2009 in Featured Elsewhere and Re-run. 1 Comment Tags: , .

Here is the full-version of my latest writing piece at Mile High Mamas, the parenting blog for The Denver Post!

Why do you make your bed?
February 6, 2009

Guest blogger Momma writes at The Casual Perfectionist, and just like the name indicates, she is an admitted perfectionist, but she’s trying to be casual about it. She and her husband have a 3-year-old girl named Claire. Momma is a firm believer in the fact that if you haven’t laughed today, you weren’t really paying attention.

I am probably the most casual perfectionist you’ll ever meet. I love it when things are just-so. I love knowing what to expect, and having a plan, and I need all my picture frames to be straight…not necessarily dusted every day, but straight. Again, I’m a perfectionist, but I’m trying to be casual about it.

But, there are some aspects of my life that don’t fit into that “perfectionist” stereotype.

For example, I don’t make my bed every day.

There, I admitted it out loud.

What can I say? My perfectionism is a psychosis wrapped in an enigma, dipped in a mystery and then deep-fat-fried in a vat of contradiction. Once it’s cooled, I like it sprinkled with powdered-sugar.

Growing up, I had the top bunk, and my mom may or may not have told me that spiders would get in my bed if I didn’t make it. So, it’s no wonder that I made my bed every single day, usually within moments of getting up.

In college, I made my bed every day, because my bed doubled as the couch in my dorm room.

After I graduated, I moved out on my own, and realized that spiders weren’t going to get into my bed (or could get in whether I had it made or not), and my couch was the couch in the room, so I became a slacker in the bed-making department.

Now, if you’ve ever visited our home, you think I make my bed. It’s always made when we have company. Even if someone shows up unannounced, I find time to run in and make it quickly before anyone is the wiser.

Not making your bed is embarrassing. Maybe I fit the perfectionist stereotype a little more than I thought? But still…if we don’t have guests coming over, at night, the bed will look exactly like it did when I stumbled out of it that morning.

Well, can’t my husband make the bed? Sure! But, he gets up before I do, so the responsibility really is mine and mine alone.

Claire has a big girl bed, and although it’s difficult to make, she loves doing it. All without prompting, she makes her bed every morning.

The other day, she came in to wake us up and told me that she’d made her bed.

“Great! That’s awesome! You’re really good at making your bed!” I said to her, genuinely excited.

“Thank you, Momma! You’re really good at NOT making your bed!” she said, matter-of-factly and with just as much enthusiasm.

She thought she was giving me a compliment, but instead, she’d caught me!

Needless to say, I’ve made my bed every day since.

A Cheezy Valentine, Indeed!

Published on Saturday, February 14, 2009 in Claire, Fun, Lovey Dovey, Milestones, Photos and Valentine's Day. 4 Comments Tags: , .

(Click photos to enlarge.)

Here is the Valentine I made for my hubby this year.

The front is in binary.

The front is in binary.

And, here is what it all means:

The back has the translation.

The back has the translation.

From all of us here at
The Casual Perfectionist

Happy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

And I’m hand-writing his Valentine in binary.

Published on Friday, February 13, 2009 in Random Thoughts. 16 Comments Tags: , , .

If you’ve spent any time at all online or around computers or with computer people, you’ve heard of binary.  Without getting too technical, it’s the little ones and zeros that make computers tick…so to speak.

My husband is a computer-guy, through and through.  He loves talking in a monotone robotic voice saying, “One or zero.  One or Zero.  One or Zero,” whenever he feels as though he’s not getting a definitive answer from me.

Sometimes I comply and offer a binary answer.  Sometimes I prefer to give the answer hand-written in cursive with a colored ink pen on delicate stationery, neatly folded and slipped inside a matching envelope and spritzed with my favorite perfume.

Those are the answers that really bring out the robot voice.  ;)

The other day, I saw an online comic that incorporated binary into part of the drawing, and it made me laugh.  I thought the artist was just making a point that the ones and zeros of the computer code would be funny there.  I saw it as artistic license.  How clever!

I showed the comic to my hubby, and his first response was to ask if I’d translated the binary.

“You can do that?” I asked.

He laughed and opened up a new tab in the browser.  With a few keystrokes he translated that part of the comic.

I don’t know which was funnier, the comic or the fact that my hubby translated the binary…and it made sense!  Either way, I had a greater appreciation for the comic…and my hubby!  They were even funnier than I’d first thought!  ;)

For those of you not fluent in binary, click here for a cool translator.

And, it’s a good thing my hubby knows where this translator is, because I have a feeling that the next time he asks me for a binary answer, he’s going to get this:

01010111011010000111100100101100001000000111100101100101
01110011001011100010000000100000010010010010000001110111
01101111011101010110110001100100001000000110110001101111
01110110011001010010000001110100011011110010000001100111
01101111001000000110111101110101011101000010000001110100
01101111001000000110010001101001011011100110111001100101
01110010001000000111010001101111011011100110100101100111
01101000011101000010111000100000001000000101010001101000
01100001011011100110101101110011001000000110011001101111
01110010001000000110000101110011011010110110100101101110
0110011100101110

;)

Feel free to leave me a message in the comment section…in binary.  I’m up for the challenge! Are you?  I’ll warn you…it’s much easier than it looks and quite addictive once you get started. :)

Edited to add:  I wasn’t kidding about the Valentine!  Check it out… ;)

Not really Funny-Ha-Ha

Published on Thursday, February 12, 2009 in Featured Elsewhere and Mile High Mamas. 4 Comments Tags: .

“So, is it funny?” my friend asked me as we were changing out of our shoes at the gymnastics place.

“Well,” I said, wondering how to answer.  “It’s not really funny-ha-ha, more like funny-ha-ha-heartwrenching.”  I just didn’t know how else to explain it.

Parts of it were funny, but with a 500-word limit, those ended up on the cutting room floor.

And, today, you can judge for yourself.  Because my submission for the “He’s Just Not That Into You” contest is posted online at The Denver Post’s parenting blog, Mile High Mamas, I’ve decided to share my story here as well.  One of these days, maybe I’ll post the original version…the one I wrote before I pared it down to the contest-rules-size.  Or, maybe that will just be another chapter in my book.  ;)

Anyway, without further ado, here it is!

Luckily for me, all my forays into the dating world happened before the advent of social networks, instant communication and GPS tracking devices.

I had just graduated from college and was in a serious relationship. He wasn’t finished with college yet, and we lived in neighboring cities. He would stay with me, and vice versa, but because of his class schedule, I did most of the driving up to see him.

Imagine my surprise when one of my girlfriends told me that she and some of her friends had seen him and asked him about my plans for the weekend, and he told them that he didn’t know. Why should he?

They said, “Well, she’s your girlfriend. Is she coming up this weekend or not?”

And, that’s when he told them that I wasn’t his girlfriend. He wasn’t my boyfriend. We weren’t in a relationship, and he defined what we had as “purely coincidental.”

I was devastated. Why would he say these lies, let alone say them out loud in front of some of my closest friends!? What was he thinking?

That weekend, I confronted him. He lied. I told him calmly that his lying had just sealed the deal. We were done.

Then he backpedaled, admitting everything and begged me to forgive him.

I was too hurt, and it was too late. We broke up, and I took all of my things out of his house.

He called me every day to apologize. So, I did what many do. I fell for him all over again.

This time, I could tell that things weren’t going as smoothly as they should. But, that made me try even harder. Things got better for a while, but then they started to fade again.

That winter, I fell down the stairs at his house, severely injuring my thumb. Having to ask if he’d drive me to the ER (rather than have him offer) should have been the first clue. Hearing him say, “No, it’s cold and I’m tired,” said it loud and clear.

The relationship was over. It was cold, and he was tired. Of me. Of pretending to be happy. Of the whole thing.

He told me we were done, and I knew that we were.

I burst into tears. It was hard to tell which hurt more: my thumb or my heart.

Once again, I packed up my things and left. I drove myself to the ER so that my injured thumb could be examined and tended to, and then to a friend’s house to nurse my wounded heart. I cried on her shoulder, literally, and my new life started that day.

I kept thinking about how much time I’d wasted on a struggling relationship, only to be dumped so harshly the second time around. But, what they say is true. Hindsight is 20/20. Time is never wasted if you learn from the experiences. Looking back, all of this had to happen to lay the foundation for what I have now.

Here is the original link to my story and the two other winning entries.

So, what about you?  Do you have any Funny-Ha-Ha or Funny-Ha-Ha-Heartbreaking stories to share?  Comment below or feel free to leave a link back to your own stories!  It will be nice to be reminded that I’m not alone…  :)

Lost Observations: The Little Prince

Published on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 in TV Shows and TV: Lost - The Show. 2 Comments Tags: .

So, tonight is the big night!  More of Lost will grace our presence, boggle our minds and maybe make our noses bleed.  I’m anticipating more answers!  And more questions!  And I can’t wait to try out my time-travel theory for one more episode.  It’s held up so far!  I’m pretty happy about that.

If you’re not into Lost, I got nuthin’ for ya.  Grab your torches and head back to camp.

Wait.
Wrong show.

:)

If you are into Lost, I decided to wait to post my observations of The Little Prince, because I didn’t want anyone to be spoiled.

Well, you’ve had a week…I’m off the hook!

So, let me start out with the biggest reveal in the episode:  Jin is alive!  And he is rescued by a younger and pregnant version of Danielle Rousseau!

Wait…What?!

As soon as I saw the French-labeled items on the beach, I knew we were going to see Danielle and her team.  And, as soon as I saw a body floating in the water, I thought it might be Jin.  But, I’m not sure that I’m happy he’s alive.  That sounds more gruesome than it is…I mean, part of me thinks that surviving an explosion of that magnitude and then being somehow within the parameter is a bit far-fetched…but then so is time-traveling and all the other stuff that’s been happening on this wonky island.

So, for now, I’ll be happy that Jin is alive and just go with the flow (no pun intended).  And, from what I’ve gathered so far, I am assuming that Jin has been flashing through time, this whole time as well, right along with the other Unstuck People.  That’s the only explanation that makes sense…well, as much sense as surviving when the freighter blew up, being lost at sea and then being rescued by a French research team in 1988 makes.  ;)

Another thing I thought was interesting with this episode is we get to see that it was Kate’s idea to pretend to be Aaron’s mother.  I’d always wondered about that.  And, I still stand by my original thoughts that pulling off something like that is also far-fetched…but again, we’ve all become experts at suspending our disbelief.

I think it’s great how manipulative Ben is/was in getting Kate to think that someone was out for Aaron.  Personally, I think Kate knows that Jack is Aaron’s uncle, and that’s why she looked at him the way she did in the car outside of Claire’s mom’s hotel room, but it will be interesting to see more details on that.

I think it’s interesting that Daniel says the nosebleeds are directly related to how long one has been exposed to the island.  So, by using those calculations, Charlotte has had the most exposure, followed by Miles, and then Juliet.  (We know that Juliet has been on the island, what, 3-years?  So, the other two have had more exposure, and since we know they just arrived, that exposure has to be from the past.)  Charlotte doesn’t appear to be getting any worse (since collapsing and regaining consciousness), does she?  Or is her life in grave danger?  Who knows what happens with more exposure?  And, it will be interesting to see the circumstances that led to Charlotte and Miles being on the island in the past.

I thought it was neat that Sawyer saw Kate and Claire in the jungle.  And, I know that the light they saw was the light Desmond turned on in the hatch when John was pounding on it (originally)…but what was it really?

I thought John’s comment to Sawyer about needing that pain to get where he is today was interesting, too.

I don’t understand why Sun is mad at Ben for Jin’s “death.”  I’m not sure why she doesn’t place more blame on Widmore.  And, can we assume that Locke (as J. Bentham) visited Sun like he did the rest of the O6?  And, if Jin eventually catches up to the rest of the group, wouldn’t John know that?  And, why wouldn’t he tell Sun?

I just thought of something!  What if that is why Sun is mad at Ben?  What if John told her that Ben is the one who turned the Frozen Donkey Wheel, thus trapping Jin and the others on the island?  Hmmm…interesting!  And, if that isn’t the reason, I’m excited to see what is…

Needless to say, I can’t wait to see what happens tonight!

…Thus proving she can; she just doesn’t want to. Sometimes.

Published on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 in Claire, Milestones and Parenting 101. 6 Comments Tags: , , .

So, a couple Saturdays ago, Claire and I were having a lazy morning.  Daddy had gone skiing, and we were lounging around the house.  Claire came out to where I was sitting at the kitchen table, and when I looked up at her, I was stunned.

She was wearing real clothes.
She had changed out of her pajamas, and put on real clothes.
And, they matched! But, that’s not the amazing part…

I was still in my robe.
I hadn’t even told her to get dressed.
She hadn’t asked me for help.
She’d just decided that it was time to get dressed and did so…like a normal human being.

What?
When did this happen?

All of a sudden, she doesn’t need me to tell her to get dressed?  She’s skilled enough to put on articles of clothing by herself…and most of the time she insists on doing it herself, but I’ve almost always had to pester her get the ball rolling.

This is the same girl who will melt into a puddle on the floor when told nicely to put on her shoes and socks before we leave?

“I can’t, Momma!  You have to help me, Momma!  I can’t!”

No, I don’t ask.  I tell.  But, I tell her politely.  And, she almost always drags her feet. I used to give her choices and ask and blah blah blah, but I’ve resorted to telling her what needs to happen.  I have found that me telling her they really go on her ears and then trying to put them on her ears will invoke her overwhelming urge to show me how they really go.

She always has to be right.  I have no idea where she gets this trait.  *ahem*

She grabs them out of my hands and starts putting them on her feet.  “See, Momma?  They go on my feet!  Not my ears!”

I try not to laugh too hard as she’s showing me the proper way to put on her socks.

…all by herself.

Silly me!  What what was I thinking!?

*cough*

;)

Well, now the secret is out.  She can and will get dressed by herself, all without prompting.  I guess some days just call for a little more drama than others.  :)